Domestically Challenged

Xmas Knitting

Yesterday there was an amazing winter storm in Eastern Canada, which is currently hammering the Maritime provinces. It was forecast that Ottawa would get around 40 cm of snow (which it did) and that people should avoid traveling.

The Environment Canada definition of travel probably didn't include “walking to the grocery store to buy some desperately needed food”, but I wasn’t taking any chances. It was a great excuse to stay in my pyjamas all day, watch very, very bad TV on DVD, and knit.

Last Tuesday, B and I went to Knit Knackers where I picked up some Louet Gems 100% Merino to make Marnie MacLean’s Carlsbad Hat for my Dad for xmas. It was my first visit and I was complete enamored with the shop. It was really cozy and B told me that the first time she went, there were rabbits hopping around - the shop keeper sells angora. I also bought some Hiya-Hiya circular needles made out of surgical steel which were incredibly light and an appropriate knitting implement to use while watching too many hours of Nip/Tuck. I’m only halfway through the hat but am hoping that I finish it tonight. I can’t believe I added more xmas knitting to the list after I swore I wouldn't do any. I also knit this yesterday.

 

SO CUTE!! Inspired by the Bobbins in ButterBerries notebook on Ravelry, I knit the mochimochiland Bob pattern on US1 needles using left-over Fable baby alpaca. It is so sweet, I think I will knit a second one and give them both to my baby niece for xmas. Wait…am I adding more xmas knitting? Oh boy. Wish me luck.

It's All About Colour

At the risk of sounding like a princess, I want a manicure. I haven’t had a manicure since my wedding and, as a sporty spice, I usually only get them when I’m standing in weddings (my hands shouldn’t be photographed in their natural state), but today something inside me is whining that the world will end if I’m not sporting some bright, hoochie red nail polish. I don’t know what’s come over me – it must be the Holidays.

To distract myself from the usual inner voice’s ranting, I’ve started my first colour work project. It requires all of my attention, so I don’t have a lot of time to worry about unfinished items on the infinite “To-do”. I will admit that I was scared of colour work. The last two projects that I tried to knit with intarsia ended up being duplicate stitched instead. But the embarrassment at these botched attempts made me even keener to master colour work(can’t escape that type A). I cast on comforting myself that this time it would be different. After all, it wasn’t intarsia. I’ve only been knitting these Endpaper Mitts since Friday night, but these babies are almost done. It was surprisingly easy to knit with one colour in each hand once I got the hang of it. I wonder how insane it is to knit with three colours...

Check out this karusella’s notebook on ravelry for some colour work inspiration.

Making Christmas

This year, I had an idea for a painting that I really want to give someone for Christmas. I've had the idea for a while and thought it should be fairly simple, but since I haven't painted since high school I knew that there would be a lot of trial and error. Luckily there are some artists around to help me out. I thought it would be prudent to make a sort of "gauge swatch", which is ironic because I don't usually make these for knitting projects.

I used red for the test canvas because I originally thought that I would keep it for my apartment, but I tried out so many techniques on it that it's completely trashed. Now that I know what I'm doing though (or at least have a better idea), I think the final copy will be amazing. This project has been so fun that I've been completely obsessed with it. I'm surprised I've done any knitting at all in the past week. The only things distracting me from my studio(/bedroom) are the Endpaper Mitts that I cast on last weekend and a new project that involved butchering an old one.

Luckily I only had two Christmas knitting projects that I finished long ago. Only 20 more sleeps!!!!!!!

Dance Moves

As someone with a very strong type-A personality I am often tormented by the things that I cannot do well and by the things I cannot do at all. One of these things is a dance move. On the weekend before Halloween, I attended a costume party at a friend’s house who was fortunately enough to be born on Halloween. We turned her living room rug into a dance floor and busted out to tunes from the late 90s ("If you’ve got a $100 bill, put your hands up!"). This is when I saw my roommate, B, do a move that we named, “Throw Your Tits Up”. In short, the dancer pops her rib cage in a way that her breasts are thrust upwards and are suspended momentarily in mid-air before bouncing back to their original position. The bounce, in time with a pop in the music, is key. With a history as a dancer, I am well versed in chest isolations, but being flat-chested, I lacked the bounce required to give this move the “umph” it required. B, who is not well endowed either, didn’t think that this was what was holding me back. At the time, I blamed my padded bra and my lack of experience. The latter excuse was abolished when a new comer, who was incredibly well endowed, had no problem throwing her tits up on the first try. In frustration, I again blamed the padded bra, but when a guy who had come to the party dressed as Silent Bob could throw his tits up, I was beside myself. Then again, his tits may have been bigger than mine.

I had managed to blocked out the memory of my lack of skillz until this weekend. On Thursday night, I went out with K to meet up with some friends at Disco Bingo. It was my first time and I have to say that China Doll, the drag queen hostess, was a riot and that Shanghai makes a mean lychee martini. It’s worth tasting a second time just to make sure. The pork dumplings were also pretty freakin good. Anyway, I was bopping along to the disco beats the DJ was pumping out, popping my chest in an effort to throw my tits up, when my friend's bf looked at me incredulous and asked what I was doing. Then he did an imitation of me that involved pumping his bent arms beside his head in a horizontal abomination of the chicken dance. In my defense, I had not been using my arms, but I still wondered whether I really looked like Greg Kinnear's character dancing with his family at the end of Little Miss Sunshine. Superfreak had been playing at the time.

Saturday night I vowed to conquer the tit bounce. We drove up to Wakefield to see Mr. Something Something at the Black Sheep. Wakefield is gorgeous, by the way. As usual, the dance floor was packed and every chance I got, I practiced the move. K was confused about what I was trying to do until she saw B execute it in all of its glory while grunting "Yeah". I was completely green with envy. Why can’t my breasts do that?? I guess Morrisey was on to something when he sang, "Some girls are bigger than others".