I did it.

Double medallist

Well I got me two medals:



These mittens count for Mitten Moguls and Nordic colorwork combined. I haven't been called to the podium yet, but I guess I will sometime today. Yay!

The socks aren't finished yet, far from it. And I'm working tonight. But we'll see. Sometimes miracles do happen.

Ravelympics - Day 7

We have reached the halfpoint on the Olympics and I'm happy to say...





...that I'm right on track! I still need to weave in ends (and sew the picot edge on the mitten), but I'm not too worried about that. I'm keeping that task for when I don't feel like knitting.

I expect that the second sock will be easier than the first since I won't be making stupid mistakes. But I still expect a difficult week, seeing as today is my only day off before the first of seven consecutive work days. Eeep!

(Oh and congrats to Canada's new golden boy: Jon Montgomery got us the gold in skeleton! What a crazy sport!)

Ravelympics - Days 4-6

Things are still going well in the Ravelympics. Medals are won (not by me, yet!), athletes are watched and applauded and projects are knit. Fun!

Canada added a few medals to its total. Gold for Maëlle Ricker in Snowboard cross (crazy sport, but so much fun to watch!). And last night, Marianne St-Gelais got silver in short-track (500m). I was so happy for her. It was her 20th birthday too! Canada now has 6 medals. The US have 14! They have fantastic athletes. I never tire of watching Lindsey Vonn skiing and Shaun White doing... whatever magic he does with his snowboard.

As for my knitting, I'm pretty much on schedule, despite a few setbacks. In my last post, I mentionned I was ready to turn the heel... well just as I was about to start, I realised I had messed up all my increases for the gusset and had to frog quite a bit! Eeeps. I'm caught up now though, and only have a few repeats left to do for the leg + cuff.

The mittens are also coming along. I actually finished the hand part a few minutes ago. I'll try to knit the thumb tonight after work.

My goal was to finish sock #1 and mitten #1 by Saturday. I think I can do it AND sock #2 should go much quicker as I won't make the same mistake!

Ravelympics - Day 3

Are you guys counting today (Monday) as day 3 or 4 of the Ravelympics? Since cast-on was so late on Friday, I decided not to count it and I consider Saturday as day 1. Therefore, today is day 3. Not that it's important.

Things are a bit crazy at work but so much fun with all the Olympic excitement. My boss asked me to work a 6th day for the next two weeks though, so that means I'll have less time to knit. Eeek. The knitting is going well so far, so I'm still hopeful I'll be able to win my medals.

Today I mostly worked on my Olympic mittens.



I like 'em. And you can see Canada's new hero Alexandre Bilodeau skiing on my TV! ;)

Now I'll try to knit on the socks a little bit before going to bed. I'm at the heel!

Ravelympics - Days 1-2

I just finished watching the men's moguls competition and saw Quebec's own Alexandre Bilodeau win Canada's first gold medal of the 2010 Games. Even better, he won the first gold medal ever won by a Canadian on Canadian soil. It was a great race and all four Canadians/Quebecois in the finals did wonderfully.

I've been doing good with my Ravelympics knitting. I think if I can keep this speed up, I'll make it. And I worked all day yesterday, so I'm happy with my progress.



This is the beginning of my Firestarter socks. My first toe-up socks. Let me tell you, that pattern kicked my ass. I had trouble figuring out the toe and then had trouble with the instep. But I seem to be doing well now. I'm at the gusset and have good hope of getting to the heel before bed tonight.

The Potpourri mittens are also going well. I still need to knit one and a half pattern repeats before decreasing. Ideally, I'd knit one repeat before going to bed tonight, but that may not happen. We'll see.

It's a good thing I'm working evenings all week. I can stay up late!

Just in time for Ravelympics!

I finished my Rib and Cable socks!





Pattern: Rib and Cable Socks, by Nancy Bush (from IK Fall 2005 or Accessories 2009)
Yarn: 2 skeins of Regia in see-from-space blue (I just named the colour).
Needles: 2.25 mm DPNs
Notes: I did an extra pattern repeat on the leg (accidentally!).

I'm now ready for the Ravelympics! I've decided I will knit me a pair of Firestarter. Kate the enabler reminded me that knitting toe-up socks is best for the Olympics since I can make the cuff shorter if I'm running out of time. Wise woman.

Who's casting on tonight?

Food Friday

This week was weird. I was working evenings at the sports desk since all our sports guys are now in Vancouver. I thought that would give me an opportunity to cook a lot, but I never had the time. And when I did, I didn't feel like it.

I did do Meatless Monday though! I made a wonderful, delicious, Lentil Soup:



That I ate with brushetta (I had some leftovers from Super Bowl Sunday). It was good. So good, in fact, that I brought some to work that same night. And ate it again a few times during the week. Yum yum yum.

Life and Ravelympics

Ok, I need to write this Ravelympics post. I've been wanting to write it for a while but just never got around to it.

As is often the case this time of year, I'm feeling myself becoming more and more depressed with every new day I have to wake up. Bleh. I cannot wait for Spring to be here.

It doesn't help that I keep getting bad news on top of more bad news. I'm seeing a doctor tomorrow to see what kind of tests I need to do to figure out while I am still unpregnant and while I should be happy that I may finally get some answers, I'm not. I'm angry at the world for being broken and I get so freaking jealous of all the women around me who can get pregnant just by looking at their partner, I feel like I should spend the rest of my life home so I don't have to hear about it and face the fact that it may never happen for me.

We also finally figured out the source of my boyfriend's back problem: a big ass hernia. Seriously, the doctor even wrote "très grosse hernie" (very big hernia) on his test results. He'll be seeing a neurosurgeon at the beginning of March to figure out what to do next.

The one little light in that tunnel: our upcoming trip to Berlin (and possibly Coppenhaguen). Because there HAS to be some good things in my life, right?

Another good thing: The Ravelympics. I do want to write about it. Sorry about the whiny ramblings above, but sometimes you need to get things out and I really don't have anyone to talk about these things.

Ok. Ravelympics. Who's in?

I did the crazy thing of signing up for two teams and two projects. Problem is: I'm still undecided on one of them.

One thing is for sure: I'll be knitting the Potpourri mittens for Team Canada (Events: Mittens Moguls and Nordic Colorwork Combined).

I will be using this:



I had already started these mittens a while ago, but quickly realized they would be too small. I'll make them again with 2.75 mm needles and it should do the trick.

My second project will be for Team Tufty (Sock Knitters Anonymous' team) and it will be a Sock hockey project of course. I'm just not sure which pattern I want to knit. Here are my choices so far:

1. Firestarter, by Yarnissima.

I would be using this:



I've been wanting to knit with it since I got it. But I've never tried a toe-up sock before and I'm already not sure I'll have time to do both mittens and socks. Maybe I should go with a good old cuff-down sock?

2. Fall Fire socks by Lucia Tedesco.

I don't have a pic of the yarn, but you can see pictures here. I've had this yarn and pattern for a while so I think it's about time I make the socks. But again, this is a toe-up pattern...

3. Barber Pole socks, by Veronik Avery

I'd be using this:



That one is cuff-down and I'd be using yarn I've had in my stash for a long long time! Plus, I'd be knitting from one of my pattern book, which is something I really need to do. I mentionned a while ago that I didn't want to buy a new sock book until I've knit at least one pattern from each of my sock books. Well it turns out Cookie A is coming up with a new book, so I need to get going!

Though now that I think about it, I've already knit two patterns from Steppin Out (the booklet that has the Barber Pole pattern). So it's a moot point.

What are YOU planning to knit for the Ravelympics?

Food Friday

Hello world!

I usually try to write my Food Friday posts before I leave for work, but let's just say I'm not doing very well with my resolution of trying to wake up with my alarm clock. I need to work on that. Seriously. I've missed quite a few workouts this week because I couldn't get out of bed. I need to be more disciplined.

I won't be posting any food pics this week. Sorry! I'll try to do better next week. Things have been pretty hectic around here so I haven't been able to cook much (I have big news though: I'm going to Berlin soon! Yay!).

Meatless Monday

Lunch was pretty simple: Pea soup with a slice of whole what bread and some raw veggies. Yum.
For dinner, I had planned on making a vegetable curry BUT then the metro decided to stop working for FOUR freaking hours so it took me 1h30 to get home instead of 20 minutes. I was exhausted and not in the mood to cook anything so I ate a peanut butter sandwhich. Hey, it was meatless ;)

Slow Cooker

Last Sunday, I decided to try a roast in my slow cooker. It was OMGdelicious! Very simple too. I got the recipe here.

New recipes

The recipe above was a new one for me. I also tried this Butternut Squash and bacon pasta recipe. It turned out ok, but it didn't look as good as the one in the picture. Oh well.

New recipes so far this year: 7

Cookbooks

Once again, I haven't cooked anything from my cookbooks. Next week, I promise!

I also need to post a little about knitting. It is a knitting blog after all. Stay tuned for a post about the Ravelympics and hopefully a new FO before the opening ceremonies!

A finished pair of socks

I am happy to report that I finally finished something in 2010. Yes, ladies and... ladies I guess, this is my first FO of the year, at last:



Pattern: January 2010 Mystery Socks, by Debbie O'Neill
Size: M
Needles: 2.25 mm DPNs (Knit Picks Harmony, how I love thee!)
Notes: Mystery patterns are fun! I think I should have knit the small size though, they're a little big. Also, I wasn't able to photograph the pattern well (I don't (yet!) have a macro lense for my camera). Click on the pattern link to see better version. Oh and the pattern could be knit with or without beads. I wasn't sure I'd want to wear socks with beads so I made mine beadless. But the beaded one are very very beautiful (again, check out the pattern page).

Next: Finish the Nancy Bush socks before the Ravelympics!

Food Friday

I should really be getting ready for work, but I couldn't leave home before writing my Food Friday post!

This week has been a little weird. I've been sick with a bad cold and my boss asked me to work two evenings (Tue + Wed) to cover for a coworker who was in a hospital. With my schedule out of whack and my energy around zero, I just didn't feel like cooking much.

Meatless Monday

I actually cheated on Monday without even meaning too. I was really sick and stayed home from work. When lunch came, all I wanted was some chicken noodle soup and I ate some without even thinking that it was Meatless Monday! I made vegetarian pizza again for dinner.

I made up for it on Tuesday and made sure I had a vegetarian lunch.




I made salad, with mixed greens, red bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, feta cheese and lentils. It was yummy! I even made the same thing for lunch on Thursday!

Slowcooker, new recipes, cookbook

Nothing new on these fronts this week. Hopefully I'll make up for it next week!

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.

Food Friday (now with pictures!)

It's Friday! Yay! AND, I'm adding something new to my food posts: PICTURES! Now, I'm no food photographer. If you want pretty yummy pics, check out Smitten Kitchen, Coconut & Lime, Confections of a Foodie Bride or some of the other beautiful food blogs out there!

Oh and I can't promise there'll be pics every week, but I'll try! Now let's look at them resolutions!

Meatless Monday

I had a lot of ideas for lunch, but when I went to the grocery store on Sunday, I couldn't find some of the ingredients I needed. So I ended up with a frozen dinner from Le Commensal. Funny, I used to love them a few years back, but I really didn't enjoy it this time. Oh well.

Dinner was easy, I made vegetarian pizza!



The crust is flatbread that I got at the grocery store. I used mock pepperoni and veggies (I remember onions, lots of broccoli and red and yellow peppers). I froze the leftover vegetarian pepperoni, but I will most likely make another pizza next Monday. It was yummy and I love pizza.

Slowcooker

I made pork that was cooked in cider. There were lots of veggies in there, as well as apples, thyme and bay leaves.



Honestly? It wasn't that good. I mean it was ok. The pork was tender and I like all the veggies. And I always like using fruits in recipe. But it lacked some flavour. Chris suggested we add more spices next time we make it, but I don't think there will be a next time.

Trying new recipes

The pork, above, was a new recipe!

New recipes made this year: 5

Cooking from my cookbooks

Again, the pork mentionned above was from a little cookbook I have, called "Je cuisine... plats mijotés".

I ♥ socks

I love socks. I don't think that comes as a surprise to anyone who reads my blog. I always feel that I should really try and knit something else (and I do. sometimes.), but whenever I go through a little while without having knit a sock, I feel like a smoker without her nicotine.

I like the small needles and the tiny stitches. And there are so many nice sock patterns out there. My advent sock pattern calendar included only a small part of my sock queue.

When the "groups" feature was created on Ravelry, it didn't take long for me to join the Sock Knitters Anonymous group, but it took me a while to get involved in the challenges there. Last September, I joined my first Sockdown! challenge and I've been hooked ever since. I had to skip the December challenge because of Christmas knitting obligations, but other than that, I've enjoyed every month.

And this month, I'm knitting two pairs (we actually have until the end of the following month to finish, so that's two months for each challenge if you cast on at the beginning of the month). Since I'm a slow knitter, it means that those socks are all I've done this month. And they're still far from being finished. But since there hasn't been much knitting pics posted on here lately, I figured I'd share my in-progress pics:



The one on the right is the January mystery sock (Technique is texture! There was also a bead option but I didn't have them so I didn't use them). You see only one of the socks, but I'm knitting both at the same time. I'm currently waiting for the last clue (tomorrow!) to finish them. Unfortunately, I didn't choose the best yarn for it so the pattern doesn't show that much. Oh well.

The sock on the left is a Nancy Bush (designer of the month) pattern (Rib and Cable socks from IK Fall 2005). I looooove it. But I'm only knitting one sock at a time so I'm far from finished.

I had more to write (re: Ravelympics), but I gotta go to work. Toodles!

My cart for Haiti

I wanted to make this post separate from Food friday because it's important.

I don't think I need to tell anyone about the terrible tragedy that struck Haiti this week. I know that when something like that happens, I tend to feel so powerless but I do want to help.

And the one thing everyone can do to help is to donate. I've spent the past few weeks thinking about the Ravelympics and I had a few projects in mind. Of course, anytime I think "new projects" I think new yarn so I had filled my Knitpicks cart with yarn and notions and I was thinking of ordering soon.

This morning and I emptied my cart and gave the money to Doctors without borders. I'll knit from my stash for the Ravelympics. I'm not saying you all have to do the same, but since a lot of people are thinking about helping right now, I figured I'd share my idea.

If you want to donate, here are a few sites you can go to (they're Canadian, but you can find the equivalent to most of them in your country):

Doctors without borders
CECI - Centre d'études et de coopération internationale
Red Cross
UNICEF


The Yarn Harlot's Knit-Signal

Food Friday

I almost forgot about Food Friday this morning. Here's how my week went:

Meatless Monday

Lunch: I had a pear-and-brie sandwich (homemade), with veggies on the side. It was yummy.

Dinner: I made spicy rice with beans and lentils. It was delicious, very filling and I had tons of leftovers for my week's lunches.

Slowcooker

I didn't use it this week.

New recipes

The spicy rice I mentionned above was new, and it's definitely something I'll make again.

I also tried a new recipe for pork and veal meatballs and it also was a success. I halved the recipe and I still had so many meatballs I had to freeze a few.

New recipes so far this year: 4

Cooking from my cookbooks

Both of the new recipes I mentionned above were from my cookbooks. The meatballs are from Qu'est-ce qu'on mange? Vol. 3, a book from a series I've had forever. It's very traditionnal Quebec food, but I like it. The blue one (the one I've used this week) is my favourite.

The vegetarian spicy rice is from Rose Reisman Light Vegetarian Cooking (I have the French translation).

Lurkers?

So apparently, this week is National de-lurking week! I'm a big big lurker myself so I'll have to make an effort and comment more! But if you're reading this: leave a comment! Anything!

SIP

I'm trying to post more, can you tell? I'm not sure what I'm writing is all that interesting, but at least I'm trying.

The whole trying new food and new recipe thing is a lot of fun. I'm going to try to keep up with my food Friday posts because I think I'll enjoy writing them. But even though we're not Friday, I gotta tell you that I tried something brand new on Saturday: I ate kangaroo! We had a friend over and made chinese fondue. We had beef and chicken and we wanted to try something different and the grocery store had kangaroo so I figured, why not? It really tastes similar to beef, nothing special. But it was twice as expensive. I don't think I'll eat it again.

Also, speaking of food, I have a question for those of you who work outside of your home: What do you bring in your lunchbox?.

I like to eat leftovers the most, but I don't always have them. I get bored with sandwiches, but that's probably because I don't know how to make good ones, because most of the time when I don't pack my lunch, I go out and buy myself... a sandwich. :) But I need ideas! Especially vegetarian ideas for Mondays!

In knitting news, I've been knitting away on the January mystery socks. I started Clue #2 today and OMG! I never thought a textures socks (just knits and purls, really) could be so complicated! Well, not complicated per se, but the pattern is not easy to follow. There are many charts who don't have the same amount of rows. So two charts have 12 rows, one has 16 and two have 18. So when I'm done with the 12-row charts, I start row 1 again on them, but keep going on the 16-row one for two rows (and then I start that one on row 1) and on the 18-row ones. Follow me? I don't think I follow myself! But I managed to do two repeats of the 12-row charts so far and the pattern is very pretty so I'll keep going.

I also have another Sock In Progress: a Nancy Bush pattern named Rib and Cable. It's pretty and exactly the kind of socks I like to make. And they're BLUE!

Knitting in 2009 and 2010

I usually write a post about my knitting accomplishments at the end of each year. I didn't have time in December so I'll do it now.

In 2009, I knit 18 projects, mostly small ones. My favourites include the Cable net socks:



The Waves of blue baby blanket:



And my Froot Loop socks:

.

During the year, I knit 8 pairs of socks, 5 hats, 1 pair of mittens, 1 baby blanket, 1 shawl, 1 Christmas stocking and 1 neck warmer.

Still no sweater, but all in all, I'm pretty satisfied.

I've also made a few knitting resolutions for 2010.

1. I need to make a sweater. I suck at seaming and I have yet to make a sweater I was satisfied with, but I'm hopeful I'll succeed this year. We'll see.

2. As much as I love joining KALs, I need to choose my commitments carefully. KALs are fun but when I join too many of them, I get overwhelmed and that is usually when I start to lose my knitting mojo. That is why I decided to give up on the Hat Trick KAL this january. I'm already knitting two pairs of socks for another KAL, that's enough for this month. Next month will be the Knitting Olympics and I'll want to join that for sure.

3. I'm on a sort of sock yarn diet. My objective is to knit six pairs with the yarn I have now before I buy anything new. I know I can do that. I already have two pairs on the needles.

4. I'm also on a knitting book diet. I mentionned in my last post that I've been wanting some new books lately but that I hardly ever knit from the ones I own. I've made a list of some of my favourite books and I decided I'm not buying a new one until I've knit at least one pattern from each of them. Here's the list: Knitting Vintage Socks, Folk Socks, Sock Innovation and Latvian mittens as well as two booklets: Steppin' Out and Steppin' Out Two. Yes, I'm aware all but one are sock books. :) And I've already made two pairs out of Steppin' Out but I really should make more because it's a nice little booklet.

Now, here's a pic of a sock in progress I started on January 1st (yes, they're for a KAL). They're a mystery sock pattern so I have no idea what they'll look like.