here

Augstash2
Originally uploaded by knitter_tara.

I have arrived!

The cat was decidedly less excited to get back into her carrier this morning, and there was much bad language as I pushed her in. I made it to the airport and away we went.

Now I'm at the hotel for a couple of days, at least until my furniture arrives. The cat has taken over a spot on a chair, and we're (hopefully) making do with a metal pan full of shredded newspaper until I can get hold of a more permanent option. And I'm sitting here watching High Fidelity on MBC2, which is my favourite channel on tv here. It plays movies pretty much constantly, with subtitles, so I still get to watch the original English.

Anyway, that's all for now.

The yarn above is from La Bobineuse de Laine in Montreal, from the Montreal yarn crawl early in August. The store is an odd concept, where you pick fine threads in multiple colours, and they use these crazy machines to put them all onto the same cone. This one is 100% cotton, and was $8 a pound. I have about a pound here.

In transit

sockblockers
Originally uploaded by knitter_tara.

(The above picture doesn't have anything to do with today's post, its just easier for me to post from flickr...)

Hi all! I'm posting from an Internet cafe in Amsterdam, on a stop over on my way to Sudan. Yesterday, the boy drove me to the airport in Montreal (you don't want to hear my rant about North American rules surrounding pets) to catch my flight. After a fairly uncomfortable flight for both of us (there's not enough room for anyone in economy, and my left hand is spasming again, so I couldn't even knit), we arrived in Amsterdam for just over 24 hours before taking off again.

I took a bit of a nap, and then left the cat at the hotel to come in to town to explore. I'm not much for tourist attractions generally, but I walked by all sorts of things as I wandered. I did manage to visit Beadies and H&M. I didn't have anything in mind as far as beads go, so I managed to restrain myself, but I did buy 2 cotton tops at H&M.

Then, I went to De Afstap! They sell mostly Rowan yarns, at pretty good prices. For no particular reason, I bought 15 balls of Rowan Cotton Jeans in a pretty pink-and-yellow colour (Shade name: Madras). I also bought a single ball of the new Cocoon, which is just heavenly! Its a Merino wool/Kid mohair single that is so soft and amazing that I couldn't put it down once I'd picked it up. Not that I need wool garments for the next little while, but I'm dreaming of a collar to go inside a winter coat, its that wonderful!

Anyway, I'm tired, so I'm going to catch a train back to the airport to hang out at the hotel with the cat.

Photo info: These are a pair of antique sock blockers that I bought at an antique store in a small town in the Eastern Townships (Quebec) and a Brownie camera bought from the store beside. I'll post the town name if I remember.

socks!

socks!
Originally uploaded by knitter_tara.

I promised a picture a while ago. Since I'm busy procrastinating about preparing for the movers that will be here tomorrow, I thought I'd finally get around to that! My sockpal was saffronknits! I got this great pair of red socks that I think are in the dragon pattern, a postcard, and a sock blocker keychain! The socks are the perfect combination of colour, fibre and pattern! I love them, and have been wearing them all over the house! Thanks so much!

Too many good-byes

(ETA: I have socks! From my sock pal! But no pictures yet! Soon.)


photo credit to Leanne

photo credit to betsydoodle


Me, practicing my skills with a niddy-noddy.



JoVE with her wheel.



Leanne, Lisa and Linda!



Max



betsydoodle



New kitty!



Sarah and J and just a portion of all the great food!


photo credit to betsydoodle

Done

It took me 5 days to put actually finish this post! I took the pictures and loaded them on to the computer on day 1, resized and posted them to the blog on day 2 and then three days later I am finally adding some words.

As you may guess, these are the socks for my sock pal (I figure this is semi-safe, since she likely has never read my blog, and will receive the socks soon!) I finished them on time, and was only a day or so late getting them in the mail. Woo hoo! I really hope they fit her!

Project specs:
Pattern: Hello Yarn in Maple
Yarn: Monkey Socks by Cookie A.
Needles: 2mm metal dpns
Mods: Given the fine yarn and my tight knitting, I increased the number of stitches to 96, giving me six pattern repeats instead of 4. I did 2x2 ribbing and a short row heel (I don't actually know what is called for in the pattern, as I only wrote down the stitch pattern). I increased the decrease rate on my normal toe so it wouldn't bee too pointy.

Next up: a going away/yarn dying party and a yarn crawl!