Home and safe

Well I'm not in Mexico as planned. I actually took a plane to NYC this morning, but then I got paged at the airport only a few minutes before I was going to board for Cancun. The weather is too bad, the award show is canceled and I was sent back home. So I took a plane back (and had to run quite a bit to make sure I wouldn't miss it). Oh well. I'm just happy I'm not in the middle of a hurricane right now.

So I did not go to Mexico BUT I got great news: one of my good friends is pregnant! I'm so happy for her. And of course I want to knit something for the baby so if you have any favourite baby pattern, please do share them. She's only seven weeks along so I have plenty of time.

She lives quite far away from me (she's in New-Brunswick, I'm in Montreal). She usually only comes here a couple of times a year, on business trips. She'll be here in November and then who knows when I'll see her. I unfortunately don't have much time off from work to go there and visit (not to mention NO MONEY!). And she won't be able to come here when she's farther along in her pregnancy. And then she'll be on maternity leave for a year.

I was hoping I could finish something for November, but with all the Christmas knitting I still have to do, I don't think it'll be possible. So I'll probably end up making whatever I will be making for the new baby. I'm so excited!!!

How do you say knitting in Spanish?

Hola!

I'll start with non-knitting content: I'm going to Mexico! But those of you who are going to see me at the next knitting meetup (probably on Sunday) shouldn't expect to see a tan, as I'll only be there a couple of days. I'm leaving Wednesday at 6am (yikes!) and I'll be back on Friday. And I'm not going to spend the days on the beach, I'm going there to cover the MTV Video Music Awards Latin America. Woohoo! It should be a lot of fun. Yes, I will take pictures.

Speaking of pictures, here's one that I took at the knitting meetup last Sunday (one week ago):



You can see the lovely Mona holding the original Clapotis. Of course, I didn't only meet the creation, I also met its creator. But I didn't talk to her much because... well I just don't talk much in general.

I'm making good progress on my sister's socks. I'm not sure I'll have the second one finished before I leave on Wednesday, but I may finish it before the meetup on Sunday (which means I'll have to find a new project to bring... probably socks cause I'm predictable like that).

I should really go to bed because it's late, but before I do, I need to ask for some suggestions. I have 600m of Alpaca Peru (Luxury Collection).



I'd like to make a shawl or wrap, something like that. I think. I could probably get a few more skeins of it if I need it. Any idea for a pattern? I wouldn't mind paying for one, as long as I don't have to buy a whole book just for one pattern (can't afford it right now).

Speaking of books, I went to the bookstore with the boyfriend yesterday and I casually showed him a couple of knitting books that I liked. Hey, my birthday AND Christmas are coming up, the poor boy needs some ideas ;)

Ps/Thanks to those who helped me solve my spam problem :)

Let's call it the knitting room!

I had to spend THREE HOURS in a waiting room this morning. But the good thing is that I managed to finish half of my sister's Christmas present:



One lady there asked me what I was making and then she told me I must have a lot of patience, which was very funny considering she had been waiting as long as I had while doing nothing. I think she's the patient one ;)

I also made this scarf:



I has everything you absolutely HATE about yarn: It's sparkly, fuzzy, not soft, very fushia... I love it anyways :p

I also crocheted a red skinny scarf just because I saw some in the stores and didn't want to pay for them. I suck at crochet dammit. I'll post pics later.

In other fun knitting news, I finally managed to go to a Wednesday night meetup! Yay! And I didn't have to leave before the end. Double yay! I met a few knitters that I had never met before, which was great, and saw some of the lovely regulars, which was also great.

Lastly, in blog-related news: why the f* do I keep on getting SPAM in comments and how do I prevent this? It's very annoying. As soon as I make a post, BAM, I get two or three anonymous comments that say "Hey, that's a lovely blog you have. Now please come visit mine *adds link to a hunting blog or some other non-knitting related site* Now if it had happened only once, I would have thought it's simply a visit who likes to hunt (and to blog about it) and who also appreciates reading about knitting. But it happens all the time, with different blogs, and always a few seconds after I post. SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!!! :(

I'm still alive and well!

Finally, an update! I swear I'm not neglecting you on purpose, dear millions of readers, it's just that lately life has really gotten in the way. My job still takes a lot of my time (I'm thinking about trying to find a new one but I don't have time for it. I can't win). And I got this new boyfriend that I like to spend time with :)

But I'm still knitting. I'm mostly trying to succeed in my "Everyone gets socks for Christmas this year" mission. But it seems pretty unlikely that I will. It's all right.

So far, I finished my mom's boyfriend's socks. I also finished the Go with the flow socks that will go to my godmother.

I've been working on the Best of show socks from Socks Socks Socks for my mom:



They're taking me quite a bit of time and I'm not used to Fair Isle so there definitely are some mistakes in there, but I know my mom will be happy nonetheless.

I've also started socks with some Regia self-striping yarn for my sister while at the last knitting meet-up.

I also want to make a pair for my godfather (probably using thicker yarn). My boyfriend and my best friend Pierre will get socks or a scarf if I have time to make them. We'll see.

And I've already decided that I'm NOT knitting for Christmas next year. There are so many things that I'd like to make for myself and call me selfish but I know I appreciate the knitting items more than anyone else :)

Go with the flow

I'm on vacation!!!! Weeee!!!

I think it's the first time in my life -- ok not in my life but since I've finished school -- that I've taken a week of vacation without having anything planned. My goal this week is to sleep, watch movies, make spaghetti sauce, KNIT... and some snogging with this new boy I've been seeing.

I spent a good part of this evening finishing sock #1 of a pair of Go with the flow (from this summer's IK).



The pair is going to be a Christmas gift. I'm just not sure who's going to get it yet.

Tomorrow = knitting meetup! Yay! And since I'm on vacation, it means I won't have to leave early, woohoo! Hope I'll see some of you there :)

Socks and other things

I feel like every post I write starts with "I'm so sorry for not updating". That's because I am.

My life has been so weird lately. Lots of feelings, lots of stuff happening. Nothing dramatic but enough so that I don't have much time to myself. But I'm ok, really.

I've been working on the Go with the flow socks from this summer's IK.



They're going to be a Christmas gift, I'm just not sure who's going to get them.

I'll probably see some of you on Sunday :) Cheers!

Lesson in blogging

Today's lesson will be "How to increase traffic to your blog". You have two options:

1. Write witty and/or funny and/or intelligent posts.
2. Have your blog mentionned in a very popular blog

I knew my wit wasn't enough to bring in 91 visitors a day. Wow! Sorry it happened on a day I really had nothing to say :p

***

I ended up going to today's meetup and didn't regret it at all. Because everyone is so nice. And seeing people is healthy. Plus, I was able to see Lee-Ann for more than 30 seconds.

I took a few pics. I wanted to post them but I always feel bad posting other people's pics even if they did see me taking it. So they're aware that I plan on posting them. So yeah, I decided I wouldn't post them until I saw this:



Hmmm. Could it be? (For those not in the know, Molly-Ann got her wallet stolen while we were there). Seriously, I have no idea if that person took it (I'm still hoping Molly-Ann will find it somewhere in her bag. I have this theory that some bags have this vortex that sucks objects in and spits them out at random. I know my bags do).

***

And just in case some people are worried about me (sorry about that), I got a lot of rest this weekend and I feel much better. My mood still goes up and down and up again but right now I'm feeling ok. <3

A quick update

Hello world!

There is a reason why I wouldn't be able to stop going to the knitting meeting: everyone who goes there is so nice. Thanks to everyone who replied to my last post (Montrealers as well as everyone else of course). I meant to reply to everyone individually but I barely have time to breathe right now.

I requested a day off on Sunday, which will do me good for sure. I'm not sure yet if I'll be in Montreal, but if I am, I'll see some of you at the meeting (and for once I won't have to leave at 3!).

Silence

I finished Hubert's sock:



I'm working on #2. If I keep up at this rate, I won't be giving away many knitted gifts next Christmas.

In other news, today was knitting meetup day, which happened at the Second Cup on Monkland. My tiredness and depressiveness makes it difficult for me to attend any sort of gathering or to do anything at all, really, but the last time that happened to me I isolated myself for months and I'm trying really hard not to let that happen again. But then I realize just how boring of a person I must seem. So I'm not sure what's best, really. Do I keep on going to keep me sane or do I not go so I don't subject other people to my presence, because I do realize that I'm no fun to be around these days?

I can be such a drama queen in online journals. I think I just need to take a little break. Especially since I just admitted on my blog, which some of the Montreal knitters read, that I'm really a sociophobic fruitcake. What a winner.

All that being said, seeing Veronik's blue shawl (the one that she gave to Margaret) at the meeting, as well as Molly Anne and Anny's shawls-in-progress made me want to make one too. So I'll just add that to my list of things to make sometime. Later.

All your yarn are belong to us

Someone posted this in the Knitting Livejournal community:



I thought it was funny, even though I really shouldn't be laughing at people who make English mistakes because it's not their first language. God knows my English is far from prefect (yeah I noticed the typo, I just thought it was deliciously ironic).

And I wish you all a very useful knitting time.

***

In the knitting news:

1. I gave the baby hat to my friend. She loved it. I'm happy.

2. Clapotis is definitely being frogged. I'm not sure what I'll do with the yarn. I'm in no rush to use it right now. I will, however, go out and buy yarn to make a better Clapotis. Oh yes I will.

3. Poster boy girl is going well. I think.

4. I've been so busy lately I've had no time to blog and even to knit that much. And I feel like it's going to be the same until I can finally take some vacation mid-August.

Baby!

Next week, I'm having dinner with a friend who's going to have her first baby in August. So I made her this:



Awwww. Isn't it cute? I hope she'll like it.

***

If you want to win a shawl knitted by Veronik Avery or cool yarn AND give to a good cause at the same time, I urge you to check out the Montreal Knits blog. Details are all there. Go now!

***

And now, ladies and gentlemen, here's a little praisin':

I bought a Denise needles set a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I broke one of my cords (it was a total accident, I swear!). I had heard that you could get a replacement if you sent 1$ for postage to the company, but since I live in good ol' Canada, I figured I'd email first to ask if I need to send extra postage. Well the lady who answered my email asked me to just email her my address and tell her which cord I broke and she'd send a replacement to me. No postage to pay. Now that is good customer service. And I LOVE my Denise set. Therefore, I recommend it to everyone. Go buy it. Now.

Too hot for socks

So yesterday was Knit in public day and I met with three Ms -- Mona, Molly and Mary -- in a coffee shop. I LOVE TO KNIT WITH OTHER PEOPLE! There, I said it.

I actually got a lot of knitting done yesterday, at the meet and afterwards. I finished the socks:


(I only wore them long enough to take the picture. You can't wear wool socks when it's 30 degrees (Celsius) outside, no matter how soft and comfortable they are.

I also casted on for the Poster Boy bag from Stitch N' Bitch Nation. Except mine will be Poster Girl (or something else entirely if I can't make it work). Yay, Caro's doing Fair Isle! Of course, I'm nowhere close be making these gloves, but I'll get there... someday.

Random annoyance: I'm on a yahoo mailing list for a knit-along, and it looks like one of the members is on vacation right now. So every time someone sends a message to the list, we get an automated "I'm away on vacation" reply. Every time! Grrrr!

Look at it and weep...

...because this, my friend, is a work of art:


Feather and fan sock from Socks Socks Socks, made with love and some yummy Fleece Artist sock yarn.

Sock #2 is on the needles. The sad thing is that it's now way too hot for wool socks. But no sock in the world, no matter how pretty it is, is going to make me wish it was winter right now.

Do you KIP?

June 11 is International Knit in public day!



I'll make sure to do some public knitting on that day! If any Montrealer wants to participate, let me know and we'll meet somewhere. Hey maybe the weather will actually be warm and sunny then and we'll be able to finally meet outside!

Just one more stitch

I changed the name of my blog, because I didn't like the last one. Not sure about this one either, but it does describe me well. I can't count the number of times I went to bed wayyyy too late... "Just one more stitch", I'd say. Yeah.

I was in big need of retail therapy last night so I coupled it with sock therapy and got myself a new book:


It's Socks Socks Socks, edited by Elaine Rowley. I LOVE so many of the patterns in that book.

As you can see in the pic, I've already cast on for a pair: the feather and fan socks, inspired by a recent post in The yarn harlot's blog. I'm using the fleece artist yarn that Amanda, my not-secret pal sent me. I had never knitted with size 1 needles before. Tiny. And I realized that I must be a tight knitter, which isn't good when you're dealing with tiny little sticks like that. Oh well. You may also have noticed that my needles are aqua. I think that makes me cool or something.

Of course, while I was in Chapters yesterday, I couldn't help but look at every single book in the knitting section (is it just me or it's getting bigger every week? not that I'm complaining or anything). I had seen it numerous times before but I had never really looked at it. But last night I did. Meg Swansen's A Gathering of Lace. I LOVE IT! I WANT IT! IT'S 45$! Eeek. Ok, I want it. I'll get it. Someday. I badly want to make a shawl anyways.

Another book that I want. Except this one wasn't in the store, unfortunately. I doubt I would have resisted. Socks! If, by chance, there's a millionnaire reading this, it will be my pleasure to offer you the gift of giving by letting you buy me a few knitting books. I also accept yarn. Email me. We'll talk.

I finished the RibbonXback top from Knitty!



Analysis

1. It is not flattering. I should have made the XS.
2. You can't see it but it's sort of see-through. Ooops.
3. It should have been longer.
4. I should do more crunches.

Here's the back:



***

I still haven't decided if I'm going to join the Secret Pal 5 thing. I had so much fun in the past two SPs that I really want to do it again, but money is a bit tight... hmmmm. *ponders*

Ah well. Probably not.

***

Meeting the Montreal knitters on Sunday, weee!

Did you miss me?

Honey, I'm home!



I gotta say that it was much more work than a vacation. I worked 12+ hours every day (yes, on weekends too) and I visited Paris in the morning and on my only day off (the Sunday before I left). I got back home last night at 9:30 but it felt like middle of the night to me so I fell asleep right away. I got up at 6:30 this morning thinking it was the middle of the day of course.

I was working in Paris' Red Light district, can you believe that? The street was like this: sex shop, porn DVD store, office, peep show place, yarn store, more sex shops, french hookers...

Hmm did I mention yarn stores on my street? Yep. But unfortunately, they were always closed whenever I had some free time to actually go out. So no French yarn for me. I worked a little on the ribbon top while I was there, mostly while watching bad French TV in my hotel room at night (now i'm not saying that all French TV is bad of course, only whatever was playing between midnight and 2am. I did get to see Lost in Translation, one of my favourite movies ever, though).

Next Sunday = knitting meetup! I really can't wait. I doubt that the ribbon top will be finished, but maybe if I knit non-stop until then... ;) (Unfortunately, I have to get back to work tomorrow and Thursday so that's leaves me only a little bit of knitting time since Sunday).

Special message for Lee-Ann: I just learned the news while reading past messages from the montreal yahoo group. I'm keeping you in my thoughts and wishing you the best. I know things will be all right for you. Oh and I refuse to believe you're 38, just like I refuse to believe that any of the girls in anti-wrinkle cream ads is a day over 25.

Markers and ribbons

I finally got around to taking pics of my last Secret Pal gift:


Some yummy Lamb's pride, bamboo circular needles, beautiful stitch markers and equally beautiful earrings. There was also a notebook with cute cats on it but I forgot to add it to the picture :(

A close-up of the stitch markers:



***

Yesterday, I went to my second knitting meetup. And once again, I had lots of fun (I think I talked a little bit more this time). There were six of us, all happily knitting, talking about tattoos, piercings and the habit that old people have of talking about constipation all the time.

I had made a mistake in the fleece artist socks and frogged them. Instead of starting over, I decided to cast-on for the ribbon top from the current issue of Knitty. I am loving this project. It's going on quite fast. I think it'll come with me to Paris.

Progress:



I'm already looking forward to the next meeting!

***

So this blog is taking a two-weeks break! See ya around the 23rd!

I sock a lot

I finished the socks at the beginning of the week but I was too busy to post a pic until now. Here it goes:



Very comfy. They'll keep my feet warm in the plane on Monday.

And I began a new pair, with the Fleece Artist yarn that my Secret Pal sent.

Did I say Secret Pal? No, I mean Amanda, my not-secret-anymore Pal!

I got another great package on Thursday. Not only did I get a card which revealed her identity, I also got a bunch of cool stuff! Unfortunately, the batteries of my camera died so I don't have a pic (maybe tomorrow). I got two skeins (1 red, 1 black) of Lamb's Pride Worsted so I can make the Poster Boy bag from SNB Nation. I also got the necessary needles to make it (bamboo of course, now I'm addicted ;) ). I got a cute notebook with cats on it. AND I got some awesome stitch markers and a pair of earrings that come from Amanda's online store, Homebaked. The earrings match perfectly my favourite ring and necklace. I love everything and I'm pretty sure that I got the best Secret Pal out of all the participants. :p

I have no willpower

I know I said I wouldn't cast-on for the second sock before I had worked on some other WIPs, but... well let's just say I'm only a few inches from decreasing for the toe on sock #2.

But it's not my fault, I swear! My mom kept teasing me for wearing just one sock yesterday. But but mom! The sock WANTED to be worn!

The good thing about that is that I'll have a new pair of socks to bring with me to Paris. YES!