Domestically Challenged

Prince Edward Island

2008-08-07T11:29:21-04:00

We have been in PEI since Sunday and have yet to see the sun. Locals are appaled at the amount of rain PEI's gotten this week, and so are we. My father had planned to bicycle everyday but has been terribly thwarted. He has resorted to cycling in the rain, but hasn't been happy about it. Needless to say, we are all getting cabin fever. I have a few FOs to show, but because there is no sunlight here, the photos aren't the greatest.

I started to make Marnie McLean's Carlsbad hat for my dad when I was in Baltimore. I was paranoid that it wouldn't fit but it seems to be working out. He's actually worn it (it's been cold enough), which I take as a good sign. According to Ravelry, I started this April 15th and finished it on August 4th (I had an end to weave in). I used Louet Gems Natural Merino on size US 1 needles.

I also got to gifted a pair of Endpaper Mitts to Hayumi, who came from Japan to visit with us in PEI. She was thrilled because armwarmers are very popular in Japan right now. It seems like all I knit is socks and armwarmers these days - maybe I should move to Japan. Ravelry tells me that I started these on May 9th and finished them on June 10th. I used Lang Yarns Jawoll Jacquard Superwash and some left-over Zitron Trekking XXL. I'm surprised that I still have some left-over.

I think that this is one of my favourite FOs to date.

I'm still trucking along on the Django socks. B revealed in the comments that I was worried that I would not have enough yarn to finish the socks. This fear was not unfounded. Luckily, I only need to knit a few more rows and I have a fabulous idea...

Socks from Hell

2008-07-30T16:19:39-04:00

Every year, I make sue at least one pair of socks. When I saw some apple green Phildar Lambswool on Ravelry, I immediately broke my yarn fast and bought it. I had to, they matched sue’s glasses (well, her old glasses). When the yarn arrived though, it wasn’t quite the colour I thought it would be based on the picture. That’s monitors for you. Anyway, it was still pretty good, so I decided to proceed in selecting the pattern. Django by Cookie A. was my first choice. I love the way the cables loop down the front and snake around the leg. In my rush to have a project with me to the 1000 knitters photoshoot/yarnharlot’s bday party, I never once considered whether the yarn was really appropriate for this pattern. I cast-on and chugged away at it for a while wondering whether the US 2 needles I was using made the cuff rather large. Seeing as I had only brought one set of needles with me, I ignored the little voice in my head and kept knitting. Later that night, I put the cuff on some waste yarn and confirmed that it was too big for a sock intended for sue. I ripped back (rip 1), switched to US 1 and cast on again. This time, I got as far as the first pattern repeat on the leg. Although the cuff was now a much more appropriate size, I no longer enjoyed the drape of the yarn. It was all too tight and it was hard to knit the cables. Then I saw the part of the instructions which read, “read the chart from right to left”. Of course, I was reading the chart from left to right.

By this time I was in NYC with sue and we had been to Soho where she picked out a lovely yellow yarn to be used for future socks. This cinched it. I ripped back the green (rip 2) and decided to proceed with the yellow. I didn’t cast on right away though, I needed a rest to diffuse my frustration. I knit Froot Loop instead.

In July, I cast on Django again with US 2s and after knitting the cuff, I remembered why I had been using US 1s with the green yarn. I ripped it back (rip 3) and cast on again with US 1s. By this point, I had the cuff pattern memorized. I made it through the cuff swiftly and through all of the pattern repeats without hazard. I was charmed by the cables and enjoyed the variegation in the yarn. This was particularly helpful when my flight from Toronto to Ottawa, post San Diego (ie. I had already been on a plane for 5 hours that day), was overbooked and they kicked me off the flight I had diligently booked a month in advance and put me on one that left at midnight. I was very thankful to still be on West Coast time and that my socks were bright and cheery. The strange thing about jet lag though is that I get great ideas like, ‘you can put the socks away and not mark where you left-off”. This idea was very helpful when I was at the airport a few days later, at some obscene hour of the morning, trying to piece together what was happening with the sock. I was convinced that I had finished the pattern repeat – why else would I think it was appropriate to stop without making any notes? - and started the heel. Four rows in, I noticed it didn’t look quite right. I ripped back to the beginning of the heel (rip 4). Unsure where I left off, I ripped back some of the leg until I knew where I was in the repeat (rip 5). This was a delicate procedure because I had an entire sock of live stitches during the point in the flight where the flight attendants usually tell me to put my knitting away so I don’t stab myself in the event that “something happens” during take off. I think the expression of determination on my face scared them off. I knit up to the heel again and made significant headway when I realized that between the pattern repeats, there are only two cables but between the last repeat and the heel, there were three. I ripped it back to the end of the last repeat (rip 6) without a second though, but when I looked at the pattern to figure out what I had done wrong, I saw that the sock in the picture looked exactly like my sock had pre-rip (smoke emerges from ears). I knit back up to the heel again and put away the socks. I didn't pick the socks up again until I was at the airport after my husbands PhD defense celebration weekend. I make significant progress in the heel before realizing that somewhere I had added a stitch and now my slipped stitches where out of alignment. Luckily, I only had to rip back four rows (rip 7). I am now poised on the brink of turning the heel. I have got to stop knitting these socks while sleep deprived and traveling. Any bets on how many total rips it will take to finish sock one?

Congratulations, Baby!

2008-07-27T21:22:40-04:00

On Thursday, my husband successfully defended his PhD thesis.

I'm so proud of you!!!

On Knitting (for once)

2008-07-22T20:48:54-04:00

I have an FO! I cast on Froot Loopwhen Mr. Slave went into a coma in Halifax and finally finished them just before I left for San Diego. Only 10 days after my mother's birthday! I would have posted pictures sooner but she reads this blog and I wanted them to be a surprise. I loved working with the Indigo Moon yarn I got in BC. It was very spring-y and really made the loops in the pattern stand out. I am very happy with how these socks look although I'm not sure that I found the pattern particularly fun. Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive though because I recommended it to a bunch of people who were only lukewarm about the pattern. I'm also probably displacing a bit of anger I have at myself towards the pattern because I needed to frog the second sock. I was almost finished knitting the pair in time for my mom's actual birthday when I found two very serious mistakes in the second sock - I forgot to make two of the loops (damn Trailer Park Boys movie). It was very obvious to me so I decided to drop those three stitches down and reknit the offending segment of loops. This is when I realized that there was another mistake. Somewhere I had failed to knit three rows after the closing the loop, meaning that one of the loops was smaller than all of the others...but I couldn't tell which one. So I ripped it back almost to the very beginning even though B insisted that I was crazy. B was also knitting Froot Loop at the time and although I was a full sock ahead of her, this penalty allowed her to pull forward and finish her socks before me. Not that it was a race or that anyone was keeping score or anything... Her socks turned out beautifully. So beautifully that I am going to post a picture of them. Seeing as I took the picture, I'm not even going to feel badly about it. She used one skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool that she picked up at a store in Halifax.

The sheen in the yarn makes the pattern really stand out. I think she was considering gifting them at Christmas but fell in love with them instantly. She will probably wear holes in them by November.

San Diego: Testing 1, 2, 3

2008-07-18T12:57:31-04:00

Costin and I flew to LA on Wednesday. We were originally going to California for a wedding but extended the trip to look for an apartment in San Diego. Then, Costin was asked to give a talk at his new research institute. It quickly became a packed agenda. We drove to San Diego from LA and with the help of the Garmin, we got off the freeway and made it to Hwy. 1 which was a much nicer route. We stopped in Huntington Beach for dinner and to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean. Living in Ontario my entire life, it blows my mind that people live like this (i.e. they aren't extras in my vacation to California, starring me).

We didn't get to San Diego until well after dark and we promptly went to sleep even though it was only 11 pm. I was out of my mind with fatigue but wasn't surprised considering that back home it was 2 am and that the night before we had been out late with my cousin who had just successfully defended his PhD thesis (Congratulations, JS!). At his post-defense party I learned a very important lesson that I will share with you: champagne flutes are the size they are for a reason (i.e. do not drink a, or mulitple, pint glass(es) full of champagne).

Thursday morning, we got up earlier and drove to La Jolla to find an apartment. I was using the mentally I've adopted from my experience apartment hunting with B. When I came to Ottawa two years ago in a panic that we would never find a place in one day, she looked me in the eye and said, "We will find a place". I don't know what kind of Jedi mind trick she used, but she was right. We saw about five places and had no trouble getting the one we wanted. Before we left to drive to La Jolla, I looked at Costin in the eye (I think this is the important part) and affirmed, "We will find a place". Again, we saw about 5 places and were trying to decide between two of them, when Costin randomly turned the car into a complex that wasn't on our list. I knew that if it wasn't on the list I had spent many nights compiling, it was probably out of our price range. Costin argued that it wouldn't hurt to look. That way we would know how what kind of difference to expect if we paid a few hundred more a month. It was a big difference. In fact, for only a few hundred more a month (including pet rent - a hilarious but ubiquitous concept in La Jolla), I could live in a completely reno'ed unit with a patio that overlooks one of the pools, a loft on top of the kitchen, cathedral ceilings, washer & dryer in the unit and new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but at one point I did a Carrie Bradshaw, "Hello, I live here". We were so in love with the apartment and it was in such a good location, we felt foolish not to take it.

A few signatures later, California became the thing I’m actually doing instead of the thing I tell people at parties to look cool. Holy shit, I’m actually moving to California!

Halifornia Celebrity Wedding

2008-07-15T08:46:32-04:00

When Mr. Slave had his near death experience, I was in Halifax. And although I was doing work, I wasn't in the Maritimes on business (I'm addicted to work-ahol). That weekend, Carrice and Toby tied the knot in what was probably the most beautiful wedding (next to mine) that I have ever been to. Congratulations to the bride and groom!

It was such a wonderful vacation. I flew to Halifax the Wednesday before the wedding to enjoy the East Coast and spend time with some old friends. This may have involved excessive food & drink...and a hot tub. B, the maid of honour, organized a tremendous bachelorette on Thursday night, complete with haunted walk through the downtown. It was hosted by a very charismatic pirate who seemed unphased by our may jokes about his booty.

Friday, the bride and groom hosted their rehearsal dinner on the Tall Ship Salva. The dinner itself was impressive but then the boat actually cast off and sailed around the Harbour for a few hours.

(Bride and Maid of Honour on the Tall Ship)

My husband didn't arrive until that evening, so after I got off the ship, I met up with him and his good friend James for some music at the Split Crow. Looking back, I don't think that I stopped partying from the moment I got there. Even on Sunday, when everything was supposed to be wrapping up, we went out for B's birthday. Happy belated Bday, Roomie B!

Congratulations again, Carrice & Toby!!!

Mr. Slave Lives

2008-07-08T08:33:12-04:00

On Saturday, I went to the shop to pick up Mr. Slave. Even though Dell technical support told me that Mr. Slave’s hard disk was fried and that I would have to order a new one for $500, Tony, the local tech, was able to get Windows up and running like it was no thang, for only $50. As if Dell wanted $500 for a harddrive - do they not know that I could pick one up at Future Shope for ~$100, not to mention how cheap they would be on College St. in Toronto. Now I just need to get myself an external harddrive to back up my data or subscribe to one of those online services. Can anyone recommend a good one?

Sunday, while I was enjoying Mr. Slave’s company, I cast on Dolly.

The pattern calls for Lamb's Pride worsted, but I only have odds and ends in olive and navy - not the best doll colours (especially for skin; alien dolls maybe?). So I decided to scale the whole thing down and use the left over yarn from my Squirrely Mitts instead. So far, so good. I’m planning on making two of them, one for each niece. I hope that they don’t mind that the dolls aren’t blonde (the nieces are blonde). There are too many blonde dolls out there, anyway.

This project probably won’t use up much yarn, which doesn’t bode well for my efforts to knit the stash before my move. I’m coming to terms with the idea that I will have to pare down the stash and only take my favourite yarns with me. This could be a good thing, though. It would rejuvenate my stash and I could get rid of all of the stuff I know I will never, ever use (not to mention all of the ugly stuff I inherited over the years). I could also be a good thing for you, because there are some things I would like to sell. I will post a list of books and maybe some yarn soon.

Cross Your Fingers

2008-07-04T13:35:19-04:00

I am the first person to admit that I don't know the first thing about how my computer works. I am confident that I can turn it on, use it to open programs to write documents/make presentations/analyze data, and to surf the web. That's it. So when I got the brilliant idea that Mr. Slave (my laptop) would run a bit faster if I stopped some of the random programs listed in the task manager window from running, I should have paused to remind myself that I don't know the first thing about how my computer works. Too late. One of the things (program/application/whatev) that I stopped from running got rid of the tool bar at the bottom of the screen. I figured that that wasn't good, so I turned the computer off hoping that everything would be restored when it rebooted. But it wouldn't reboot, would it? Instead, I got a blue screen, a blue screen that told me I had an error having something to do with an unmountable boot volume. So I shut it down again and restarted it with the same results. I tried restarting with the last known working configuration...same results. In safe mode...same results. This was especially frustrating because I had just finished writing a report for work...work that I was doing on my vacation in Halifax...work that I needed to get done in order show my boss how amazing I am. Right now Mr. Slave is with a local technician in Ottawa who I'm hoping can recover my data. In the meantime, I'm trying to be ok with the idea that I may never get any of it back and that Mr. Slave is dead. Three items in the pros column are that I now have one less thing to move to San Diego, I can get a sexy new computer in California where I suspect they are cheaper AND finally, because I was unable to work while on vacation (I'm a work-a-holic, it's what I do) I was forced to relax and be more social than I usually would have been. It also meant that I had more knitting time. I cast on these:

Of course there are many cons to losing three years of data and my main blogging/writing/communication apparatus. Please say a little prayer to the Deity of your choice that Mr. Slave will come back home safe.

The Best Thing About NYC is Sue and Me

2008-06-24T23:24:40-04:00

The most commonly googled phrase to bring up my blog, aside from the title, is "cougar bar" or "cougar bar + [insert city name]". You would be amazed by how many people google "cougar bar Ottawa" and end up reading yours truly instead. Because I've been posting about my travels, people can also get here by googling things like "cougar bar + baltimore" or "cougar bar + toronto". Now they will be able to get here by searching "cougar bar + new york city".

Thursday night, I flew into NYC, my congested sinuses overshadowed by my excitement (and a hefty dose of cold meds). It was my first trip to NYC as an adult. Sue met me at the airport and we took the bus to her apartment to dump my things before finding some dinner at the Community Food and Juice. It was the best (and only) mahi mahi I've ever had. We stayed up the rest of the night chatting at sue's apartment. Sue has a very big apartment and something about it reminded me of Toronto - it could have been the backyard. Yes, sue's Manhattan apartment has a backyard. As if.

The next day we explored Columbia's campus, which is right next to sue's apartment. It was so beautiful I made a mental note to suggest that my husband try to get a professorship there when he's done his post-doc. Then we went down to Soho to explore the shops.

Of course, we went to Purl and Purl Patchwork. I was extremely restrained in the face of such a cute store and ironically ended up buying KPPPM, a Canadian yarn. I really love KPPPM and fondly remember a time when I had only ever used it to knit socks. Purl was KPPPM nirvana. There were so many colourways I didn't even know existed. Sue picked this one for her birthday socks. I can't wait to cast on.

All of the yarn made us hungry so we got sandwiches at the deli and ate them in a concrete park before exploring Nolita and Little Italy. By 5, we were parched and headed to Grand Central Station for drinks at The Campbell Apartment with LL, D and his wife, J (a knitter). For anyone who follows Gossip Girl, LL told me that this was where they filmed the love scene between Serena and Nat.

The next day held more shopping in Greenwich village and I fulfilled a female stereotype at Shoegasm. It was such an exhilarating experience to find so many beautiful shoes in one spot. I may have cried just a little. Remembering that I was trying to reduce my belongings, I exhibited tremendous strength and only bought one pair. I immediately regretted this and bought another at Jubilee.

It was a perfect lead up to watching the S&TC movie. Sue and I had watched the entire series together, so it was only fitting that we watch the movie together and what better place to do it than in NYC?

I think that sue has always been a New Yorker, she just didn’t live there. Seeing her after living in her element for only 6 months was amazing. She was so happy and full of life. It was inspiring just being around her. She was a very gracious hostess and indulged me in much too much shopping, eating and chatting until all hours of the morning. Thank you, sue! I can't wait to come back.

I am Jack's congested sinuses

2008-06-19T08:48:50-04:00

I am sick and it's a horribly dreary day outside. I (heart) pathetic fallacy. Some how it makes me feel justified in feeling like crap. Normally being sick wouldn't be such a big deal but tonight I am flying to NYC to visit sue. Definitely bad timing. I'm hoping that the afternoon I spent sleeping yesterday made a dent in the healing process. I was hoping it would make a big enough dent for me to go to my waxing appointment last night, but I was so achy and sweaty that the last thing I should have been doing was having my tender parts epilated. I felt guilty cancelling my appointment, but luckily my roommate was home to talk some sense into me. Instead of venturing out in the rain, I pulled out my needles and whipped up this cute little house warming gift for sue from the left-over dishcloth cotten in B's stash. I love the colours.

I also spent a bit of time purging and let B pull out my stash to see if there was anything she wanted before I started purging parts of it as well. I'm thinking about significantly reducing the stash before my move to California but I'm still not sure what's going to make the final cut. B also pointed out that most of the stash is made up of left-over balls and remenants. What does one do with odds and ends? It wasn't long before B called me on having new yarn in the stash. I have told myself that I shouldn't get anymore yarn before the move but it didn't prevent me from buying some Phildar Lambswool from someone on Ravelry or from picking up a skein of Indigo Moon at Three Bags Full in Vancouver (what a darling store!). Will I be able to keep my wallet closed in NYC? Stay tuned.