FO! FO!

So I felted the Fuzzy Feets's's which makes the an official FO. I am in love. First, with felting. How fucking cool is it to throw your HUMONGOÏD knitting in the wash and see gorgeous normal sized somethings come out. *sigh* Wonderful!

So specs:

Pattern: Fuzzy Feet

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted

Needles: 7.0mm dpns (they felt wicked huge after getting used to 2.25mm for socks!)

Knitting time: Started on Jan 23rd and finished on Jan 31st

Anything else?

Yes my mom has now commited me to knit a bunch more so that she can have warm feet up north, at home, so that my aunt in Senegal can have warm feet and to make a camo coloured pair for my dad. Since he's never gotten anything hand knit from me, he's at the top of the list.

That's it!
'night!

Vag-blocked?

**warning...warning...annoyed single girl rant ahead...warning...warning**

I love my friends. I really do. But when I've told someone that I think some guy is kinda interesting, I don't want to have to watch her rub up on him. Oh I know...she's friendly and there were no bad intentions but...UGH!!!!!!!!

Never EVER vag-block your friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all...

I use the term vag-blocked because cockblocked seems...wrong...!

FO?

So last night I finished the Fuzzy Feets's's and all I have left to do is felt away. So I'll leave you with a pic and I'll move it to the FO column, but I'll give you all the specs later on when they've been felted.



Taaa-daaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now off to class I go...boooooooo!

Still Alive

Yes yes I'm still alive! I'm just knitting like a mad woman and I'm trying to finish things that need to be finished at a certain time in due time...wow...that made no sense while I was writting it...

Naughty me, I've cast on for yet ANOTHER project...but it's not my fault, the yarn made me do it...! I was hanging out at Ariadne last week (instead of reading for my classes hehe!) and I just couldn't resist getting some Lamb's Pride Worsted to try my hand at felting. It was just toooo damn tempting. So, while I was there (a whole...6 hours...*angelic face*), I managed to swatch for an upcoming project AND cast on for some Fuzzy Feet. I finished the first in one day and the second one is almost done. Then, all I have to do is throw it in the wash! I could enjoy this felting business... I'll post pics of the wip soon enough.

I've also been kicking some serious ass on the Swap scarf. It's so fucking gorgeous, I think I want to make myself one...shit...yet another project...oh well!

Life-wise, things are good. I'm studying a lot and planning my trip. Since I'm only leaving for 4 months (don't want to leave a year with my dad being sick), I'm going to be backpacking through northern Europe I think, even though there are a LOT of places I want to go...The problem is that I keep going through my Europe guide book and I sooo want to go to Spain and Italy, but I think that those may have to wait for a future trip...Oh! My parents have also offered to ship me off to Senegal for a couple of weeks at the begining of my travels. They love that I want to see the world, but they want me to also see where they're from, so I might take a little 3 week detour through West Africa...cool huh!?!?!

Ok, well I have no fun pics to post today, but here's a video of a new group that I LOVE (thanks AliP for introducing them to me!). I give you Flight of the Conchords.

Radio Ga Ga

For those of you who wanted to know more about the radio show, you can access it here. **Warning** It's not perfect...yet...but we're working really hard! Oh and it's in french!

More to come...soon...!

Frustrations in lace...

...Maybe it should be frustrations in a bunch of things. Just to set the scene, I'm sitting in the world most BORING class EVER!!!!! All I can say is thank buddha for wifi!

Alright...The lace thing...Well, I think I may have bitten off more than I could conceivably chew. I've had to frog the Spring Surprise Shawl. It was making me cringe. I love the way the pattern is coming out, but there's challenging one self and then, there's being a masochist. I'm not the latter so I'll quit while I can. What really got me was the whole crazy pattern on both right AND wrong sides. Like I said...It was too much for a first try. Therefore, I'll be using the yarn to do what I'd originally planned on doing lace-wise...Muir. This will be perfect, I think the color will be gorgeous (it's pretty much the same as the original) and I won't have to buy more yarn...YAY!

Speaking of more yarn, I just got a wonderful package from Lara who was participating in the Pay It Forward thing. Now...The goal in participating is to...You guessed it...Pay it Forward! So here's the deal:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Sound good? Yes? Great!!! I really like the idea of just making something for someone just for the fun of it!

Okay, I'm going back to pretending to pay attention in class...NOT!

Happy weekend!

Busy Bee

These past few days have been crazy, but crazy in a good way. First there's school. My classes are cool but they require a butt load of reading and I am *somewhat* commited to doing well at school so that's been taking up a lot of my time. There's also the fact that stripping classes have started again. Can you say pain!!!!!! It's a lot of fun, and it's still pushing me to look at myself differently which I'm kinda enjoying. Finally, there's my brand new radio show!!!!!!!!!!! Yes ladies and germs, someone was crazy enough to let me co-host on one of our local university radios. Muhahahahahahahahahha! Our first show is actually THIS AFTERNOON!!!!! And I'm super nervious, but it's good nerves :D. More on this and the link to come later on (once I don't suck as much...hehehe).

I've also been knitting some. I'm doing a scarf swap on Ravelry and I'm making a GORGEOUS scarf. This mystery pattern is kickin' my butt a little since it's not very easy to memorize. Anyhow... I'm using Cascade 220 Wool in a gorgeous shade of apple green and I have to say that I thought it'd be a little more scratchy and it's not...Yay!!! It's feeling a little stiff though...not so much that it won't be a pretty scarf, just...not really what I expected.

Well...Since I don't have any pics of knitting for you...how about a little dose of Serge :D

"My plan to make the humans worship me is working!!!!"

Fo Report

My first FO of the year!!! Woohoo!!! Sadly this puppy already has head to which it's been betrothed (my friend Flo's) so it'll be leaving me tomorrow...



Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood in IK Holidays '07
Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca
Needles: 4mm and 5mm bamboo dpns
Timline: Jan 1st - Jan 10th 2008

The good:
I love the yarn and the way it came out in the pattern. It was a simple pattern too!

The bad:
The written out part of the pattern wasn't super well written to me...there was just a bit of confusion about the moving around of stitches.

The ugly:
Nothing! Other than the fact that my mom now wants one, so does my brother and quite frankly...so do I!

On a roll

School started again and for some masochistic reason, I've taken classes with RIDICULOUS reading loads. Although I've already been reading like a freak, I've also been knitting quite a bit. The Koolhaas hat is coming along quite well, I hope to have it delivered to my friend next week. I have a progress pic, but since I'm knitting it in black, you can't see much of the pattern...regardless...



Tomorrow night is knit-night at Ariadne, I can't wait, it'll be nice to see the knitters...I haven't seen them since last year!...yes I know...not funny!

That's about it...I'll leave you with a pic that makes me laugh every time I see it...

I *heart* my cat!

Achoo!!!

It had to happen...it just had to...I caught a fakaktah-ing cold!!!!! I'm drinking loads of tea and water and soup with lots of homemade hot sauce in it and I'm spending plenty of time in bed (when I'm not in class). Blech...being sick sucks balls!

Yesterday I managed to get some good progress on the Koolhaas Hat by Jard Flood from IK Holidays 07. It's a friends Christmas gift even though she'll only get it by mid-january...you can't rush genius you know...LOL!!!!

Ok, I'm off to take a nap with the kitteh before class...

Feeling much better!

I'd like to thank you all for your sweet thoughts. It really made me feel better :-D As a treat for you guys, here's my favorite pic of the holidays...

purr...paper...purr...

Now, it is time that I talk to you guys about the better things in my life...*crickets*...No I KID!!!!!!! I made one personnal resolution for 2008: to be my own priority. I like the idea of that...it's open as all hell and allows me to induldge a little...muhahahaha!

Knitting wise, I have 3 goals for 08:

* Finish what I've started (yes, that means seaming fucking Arwen...and maybe buying yarn to finish Lift and Seperate)

*Knit sweaters (this means keeping the socks for transit knitting. I already have yarn for one sweater and ordered some yarn from the yarn pimps to make the oh so popular gathered pullover)

*Try my hand at lace (proof of my efforts can be seen below)



I've been swatching for the Spring Surprise Shawl. It's challenging but who the fuck cares...I'll take my time and I'm sure that I can finish this by next year (hihihihi!). No I'm being realistic, I think that I can do all this. Right now, I'm concentrating on finishing things that are on the needles.

So here's to wishing you all (and myself too!) a 2008 full of sexy soft yarn, love and peace of mind!!!!

Toodles!

Holiday Wrap-Up

Hello folks!

It's been a crazy holiday time in the House of K so the blog kinda took a beating...But here I am. I have to say that this may have been the oddest if not the most "meh" holidays ever. Let us start at the beginning.

Pre-Christmas...

I had a bit of the holiday blues. But whatever. I partied hard with some friends and that got rid of the blues (and replaced it with a series of hang overs). There was some Christmas knitting, a lot of Christmas baking and certainly oodles of pre-Christmas napping.

Christmas...

We always celebrate on the 24th by having a big huge food blowout. This year, we went with a tapas theme. We had oysters, home made spring rolls, all sorts of skewers, fish dumplings and then some more stuff. It was cool, I did the bulk of the cooking since my dad wasn't feeling well. My sister came home from rehab, which you can imagine, was QUITE uncomfortable. Anyhow. We ate, my nieces opened an obscene amount of gifts including a very VERY annoying singing Hannah Montana doll...

On Christmas morning, we had yet another food blowout. It was fun. The rest of the family opened gifts...I got my gift the next day (I got to pick it out). My parents got me a backpack for my trip which I'm really happy about.

Between Christmas an NYE...

This is where the shit hits the fan. On the 26th, I got an email that a friend hung himself in his basement. It was quite shocking and I was very sad. I went out with some common friends, we hung out and took care of one another. As I was coming home on the morning of the 27th, my mom called me to ask me to hurry back because she was taking my dad to the hospital. He has multiple ulcers in his stomach that all exploded. It was a hard blow. It was the consequences of his stressing out about my sister...To top it all off, on the 28th, we got a call that one of our neighbours and close family friends passed away as well. This was the coup de grâce in my house. We all started breaking down in our own ways...too much stress...In my traditional fashion, I went out and partied with my friends and just maybe tried to dance the pain away.

After a mini surgery and a few blood transfusions, my dad was out of danger and I felt a little less on edge.

NYE...

Went to a 50's beach party in a theater. I ended up being the DJ for some reason...but I got people dancing which is nice. We did about 4 countdowns for all the timezones (I was partying with travellers from all over Canada, so we celebrated for Manitoba, the Prairies, BC and Hawaii...why not...hehehe). I got home at 8 am, slept for a couple of hours until I got a phone call from one of my best friends...her dad has passed away the night before...I'm so pissed at G*d, it's not even funny.

Anyhow, tomorrow, I'm going to my neighbour's funeral in the morning and heading out to Ottawa in the afternoon for my friends dad's funeral on Saturday morning. I just don't get it...2007 had been an okay year...it just ended craptacularly! Here's to hoping that 2008 can be a little kinder to those near and dear to my heart (which includes you dear readers).