Two forwards and one goalie

After having recently met my blogger friend Tara, I had the chance, yesterday, to meet another knitting friend I hadn't met before. Brigitte, who doesn't blog enough, is my friend from the Go Habs Go group on Ravelry. She's also the owner/dyer of a wonderful Etsy shop named Les TricotLores. She sells beautiful yarn, all with hockey-related names (mostly Habs players name), and all the profits go to the Montreal Canadiens Children's Foundation.

We met yesterday at the Second Cup for coffee. Much to my delight (and ok, because I had asked her to), she had brought the boys:



Now, I know I'm on a sock yarn diet. But I've never NOT cheated on a diet before. And she has a yarn named after my favourite player, so what's a girl to do.

Meet Tomas Plekanec:



Now with food diets, when I cheat, I don't eat just one piece of chocolate (which explains why I can't lose weight). I'll eat the whole candy bar and then some. Soooooo.... I also brought these boys home with me:


Brian Gionta


Jaroslav Halak

It shall be noted that on the day that I bought Habs yarn, the team managed a fantastic win, 6-0, against the Rangers. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Habs and cables

Remember last year when I blogged daily for a whole month? Yeah, it's not happening this year. Things are pretty quiet these days. Same old, same old.

But I have been knitting. I set aside my Potpourri mittens and decided to cast-on for another pair of socks (part of Sock Knitters Anonymous Sockdown again). The November challenge is to either knit a pattern that utilizes mosaic/slipped stitches or a pattern designed by Chrissy Gardiner. There's also a mystery sock pattern designed by Star Athena that utilizes mosaic stitches. I chose a Gardiner pattern and I'm hoping to finish the socks in time to give them to my mom for Christmas (they must be finished by Dec. 31 to be elligible for prizes for the SKA challenge).



The pattern is Cabled Lace socks (look at the pattern pic on Ravelry, it's much prettier than the pic I posted above). I'm using Knitpicks Stroll in Buckskin.

In non-knitting news, I had lots of fun last week at work when I got to cover a very crazy event. As you may or may not know, I mostly cover entertainment stories at work. Political, once in a while. But sports? That never happens.

Well last week was the premiere of a movie about the Montreal Canadiens' 100th anniversary. Sort of (the story is actually about a young hockey fan who's very sick in the hospital and a teenager who plays hockey, but the Habs play an important role in the story). I was sent on the red carpet to cover it and let me tell you, it was crazy!



There were hundreds of fans waiting for the actors and the Habs and they were screaming! It was fun though. I got to talk to Henri Richard (I was lucky, he didn't talk to that many reporters but I guess he took pity on the poor 5'2 girl with her camera who yelled "Mr Richard! Mr Richard!").

When the Habs players came out of the limos, the crowd went wild and it was quite difficult to talk to players. I couldn't ask Carey Price a question to save my life, I was stuck in the middle of a group of reporters who were all trying to talk to him.

I then got close to O'Byrne and got scared. That guy is a monster! I think he's 6'5 and huge. Did I mention I'm 5'2? Well I lied. I'd be 5'2 if I was wearing skates. I think even if I had tried to ask him a question, he probably wouldn't have heard me. ;) So I opted for a player more my size and went to talk to Gionta instead. Hehe. I also got to talk to Bergeron, Lapierre and now former Hab Guillaume Latendresse. Oh and Cammalleri, but just as he was about to answer my question, a PR lady came and got him (and yelled at me for going over the velvet rope and onto the red carpet. I'm short! It was the only way for me to get the guys on film!)

Anyways, it was fun, but I still prefer to talk to actors and musicians rather than athletes.

Habs socks

I still haven't decided what I'm going to make for the October Sockdown on Ravelry. I'm leaning towards a Christmas stocking, though I would need to buy some bulky yarn for that. We'll see.

In the meantime, I cast on for a new pair of socks last night, during the Habs game:



If I had started them last season, I would have called them my "Sock-u Koivu" socks, but since he's no longer in Montreal, I'm naming them "Jaroslav Spasock". My plan is to knit them during Habs game (that's a challenge because I love the yarn so much I want to keep knitting them today!). They're going to be a Christmas gift for my mom's boyfriend (who is like a father to me).

Speaking of Habs, yay for the win against Toronto last night! But I'm so sad about Markov. Apprently, he'll be gone a long time. That can't be good.

Habsolutely fantastic

Can you smell it? The beginning of hockey season is right around the corner. Tonight is the last preseason game and in a few days, October 1st, my beloved Habs will play their first real game of the season. I can't wait!

I had tickets for Thursday's game against Boston. Unfortunately, my new favourite player wasn't playing.


Brian Gionta ♥♥♥♥♥

I still enjoyed the game, even though we lost. I took a few pics but the stupid net ruined them all.


Plekanec ♥♥♥♥♥


My favourite goalie Jaroslav Halak ♥♥♥♥♥






I was seated close to Joël, Jacques and Alain from RDS.



I ♥ Youppi


Patrice Brisebois announced he was retiring and got the Jean-Béliveau trophy.

Sorry about the lack of knitting content. Expect a sock-related post soon.

Glorious markers

I've always thought I had enough stitch markers. I only ever use a few at a times anyways, so I don't need millions of them, right?

That's what I thought until I realized I just couldn't live without Brigitte's Go Habs Go stitch markers.



Seriously, how cool are they? The Go Habs Go beads even look like little puck! She sells sets of 5 stitch markers and the 5th one is custom made to honour your favourite player (TP14, guess what it means?). I love them!

BTW, Brigitte's Etsy shop is named Les TricotLores (brilliant!) and she sells Habs inspired yarn. Profit from the yarn go to the Montreal Canadiens Children's Foundation. It can't get any better than that.

Goal #3! Hat trick completed!

We have a hat trick, ladies and gentlemen! Three hats finished in January and I'd still have time for a fourth one (I think I'll stop at three though).



Pattern: Short-Row Hat by Veronik Avery.
Yarn: AmiAmi Faith
Needles: 4mm, US6

I love the hat. Love. But I'm a bit sad because I've used my last skein of AmiAmi Faith. I love that yarn and it's not available anymore (as far as I know, someone correct me if I'm wrong). I'm telling you, if anyone has some skeins of this in their stash, I would be ready to buy or trade for it. I love it that much. This is my fourth Short-Row Hat and they always look gorgeous.

I think I'm suffering from the winter blues again. It happens every winter, but it usually starts at the end of February/beginning of March. It sucks, but I'll manage.

To make me feel better, I decided to shop (of course). I hadn't ordered from Knitpick in a while (I try to buy locally when I can), but I needed some new size 7 tips for my Options set. While I was there, I got new DPNs, a book and a bit of yarn. It should be here any day now. More details (and pics) when I get it!

Two goals for me, two goals for him

Pattern: Zig Zag Beanie, by Dawn Leeseman (IK, Fall 2008)
Yarn: Some acrylic leftover... Bernat satin I think.
Needles: US 8/5 mm and US 9/5.5 mm circulars, US 9/5.5 mm DPNs
Modifications: I cast on for 90 sts instead of 80 because 80 looked too small and I didn't want to change needle size. I followed the rest of the instructions as is and improvised a bit for the decrease.

So this was HAT #2 for the Hat trick knitalong. Only one left! I'm wearing my Habs jersey on the pic because we had tickets to see the Habs play against the Capitals at the Bell Centre tonight. Once again, I was lucky to see a fantastic game. We won 5-4, the game was very exciting (Sergei Kostitsyn scored the winning goal 20 seconds before the end of the game!) and my man, Tomas Plekanec, scored 2 goals and was named first star of the game!



Now I need to choose a new pattern for hat #3!