Lazy Canada Day........

Happy Canada Day!

Living in the nation's capital usually means that Canada Day is a full on marathon of celebrations. This year, however, DH and I didn't have the heart or the desire to get in on the celebrations... leaving it to the hundreds of thousands of other people who would be willing to celebrate on our behalf.

Today was the perfect day for Canada Day - sunny and hot, but not too hot (no humidity), and NO rain. A breeze to keep you cool so that you didn't need the A/C, and, of course, plenty of lazing around. So we lazed around all day, and then we lazed around a little more and then we capped it off with this most yummy dinner - barbecued ribs, jasmine rice, bacon wrapped asparagus and steamed corn. And not one iota of it cooked by me!!! If you had a husband who could cook like this, you wouldn't cook either.... And so I don't. I consider it my contribution to humanity by not cooking and contribute other ways - like by doing the dishes!

Despite the excessive lazing around, however, I managed to have a ridiculously productive day. I had 4 important telephone conversations before 11:30 a.m, I did four loads of laundry, I knit a baby bib, I read, I went to my vacationing parents' house and cleaned out their fridge, I walked the dog twice, I had a nap, I did a little shopping to prepare for my trip to New York City on Thursday, I updated my projects on Ravelry and now I'm updating my blog. And yet I still feel relaxed! Go figure!

So, I'm taking inspiration from the A.D.D. knitter and am making plans to finish up some projects that should have been finished ages ago but have not had the privelege of finished glory. This will be especially difficult for me because I am in a constant state of start-itis; and start-itis is completely responsible for my never-ending "procrastin-ism" (my definition of procrastination).

So, in pictures only, here's what needs to be done. See if you can figure out which ones are: the argosy scarf, the horseshoe pattern scarf, the mitred square baby blanket and the triangle goldielocks shawl.

Am going to NYC on Thursday for 4 days and my plan is to finish ONE of these projects by the end of my trip. I look forward to posting a finished pic next week. Cheers and Happy Canada Day!

Welcome to Parker Thomas!

Parker Thomas is the latest addition to our family's growing list of great-grandchildren - I think he's the SIXTH great-granchild in 3 years. It just won't stop - every time we turn around there's another announcement of another pregnancy. Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining. I just think it's hilarious that my cousins are obviously having tons of sex!

But hey, more sex means more babies, and more babies means cute little outfits like this. This is my standard vintage baby sweater, knit in King Cole Smooth DK on 4 mm Addi turbos. I actually don't know the name of the colour but I thought it was so cute - it's kind of like a grass green. And the hat was actually supposed to be a bonnet, but I thought a bonnet was a little TOO vintage and I decided at the last second to go with a touque style instead. This resulted in some fandangling creativity - thus the two wooden button detail on the back. But......isn't it just so cute?

For some reason, the whole thing reminds me of Cabbage Patch Dolls. No idea why.

So Parker apparently made his first trip to church last week and he was wearing his snazzy new sweater. I'm sure he picked up a girlfriend or two in between the recitation of the Psalms!! I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him yet, but I look forward to doing so in just a few weeks.

Welcome to the world, Parker! We are so excited to meet you.

ps. It's my busy time of year - marking and more marking to get through. I shan't attempt to write much before July. Stay cool, dudes! xo

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

This one is for my Mom and Dad.

Mom and Dad have the cutest love story ever - a love story that I tell my students all the time because their story is about a life time of love. My parents have known each other since they were kids - in fact, they practically grew up across the street from each other. I mean, they've known each other so long that they probably don't remember a time when they didn't know each other. Isn't that crazy?

So, apparently, the love story goes that waaaaaaaaaay back in 1967, my sneaky matchmaker Mom was desperately trying to set my Dad up with someone else until he finally told her to stop because he actually liked her. Well, talk about getting your matchmaking panties in a knot - what was a girl to do but actually fall for the cute boy with the lovely brown eyes who lived across the street? She did, all right, and I know she's not regretting it!

So, if you put it all together, even though my parents have been together since 1967, they've actually been in each other's lives for a lot longer than that. I mean, 41 years is a long time to know someone, let alone love someone, and as someone who has just been married for 6 months, I look frequently at my parents' marriage for the inspiration I need to keep my own marriage super special. Here are some things about my parents' marriage that inspire me:

1. They keep each other laughing.
2. They encourage each other to have their own interests and be the best at their own interests.
3. They encourage other. Period.
4. They put their marriage above all else - they are partners, and if you don't like it, well, that's just too bad.
5. They listen to each other.
6. They accept each other - recognizing that neither one of them is perfect and shouldn't be expected to be perfect.
7. They work together to have a good life. They have consistently demonstrated to me what teamwork is all about.
8. They know that marriage is hard work and they do what it takes to make it work.
9. They are the EPITOME of commitment. Come on, people, what part of 41 years don't you understand?
10. They kiss and hug every day. This is probably the most important one of them all.

I know I could list more, but I don't want everyone to have all of their secrets - I'd like to keep a little bit of it to myself for my own use ;-). However, what's most important, is that we are all surrounded by people like my parents who are making marriage look easy when we all know that it takes hard work.

But thank God I don't have to look too far for a great example.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for demonstrating the joy of marriage, the beauty of commitment and the tremendous tenacity and power of love.

You are my inspiration!

FO: Toni's cushion

This one is about the patience of friends.

This cushion was started over TWO years ago for my friend Toni. I started it when I had just started knitting and was naive to the ways of yarn - super chunky mohair-y yarn that's a pain to knit and is impossible to frog. But I kept with it and actually finished it a year ago.... and it still took another year to finish.

I say it again, this is definitely about the patience of friends.

And in this two year period, Toni may have mentioned this cushion to me just once; where she may have asked how it was progressing and I may have brushed it off and said, "Oh, it's fine." And then, being the super patient person that she is (in addtion to the very spiritual person that she is), she simply let go of the attachment to when she was actually going to receive it and let me finish it in my own good time..... which happened to be over two years.... but I digress.

What I didn't realize is that it's not as hard to knit something as it is to figure out: how are you going to put it together? what buttons will you use? should you use ribbon? how does seaming actually work?... and what is always, always underestimated, how much time is this actually going to take?????????????????

So, as I said before, for some things it takes about two years, but what I also realized through this is that if you're lucky to have a friend like Toni, two years is the perfect amount of time because it's appreciated no matter what.














Thank you, Toni. Your friendship warms my heart and keeps me strong in the calmest and most stressful of times. Namaste!

FO: Florida Mittens

After losing two days of school last week due to freezing rain and excessive snow fall, you can imagine how not really excited we were to cancel our March Break trip to Florida because of the 40 centimetres expected over the weekend. The snow days had given me some time to knit, but working on a baby blanket in pastel blues and greens was not going to get me through a consistent 16 hour snowfall - I needed colour! So as soon as I could, I headed over to the LYS and picked up two balls of Lang's Mille Colori (colorway 057) and set out to spend the snowstorm knitting myself some Florida mittens.

I loved knitting these mittens so much that I think I really did knit for almost 16 hours on Saturday - I didn't pay attention to the passage of time because I was in a serious zone! This pattern did not require knitting in the round and it allowed me to practise my seaming and weaving in ends - which really proved that I was pathetic at both because if you look closely you will see that the stripes don't match up. But what do I care? I've got a new pair of mittens and they match with both of my winter coats and many of my scarves. I am styling it up these days.

So, these are my Florida mittens because they are colourful like Florida and they just might melt some of the 40 cms of snow we did actually receive. Note where they are located in the picture..... but obviously there is really no melting going on. Just lots of shovelling, as you can see in the pictures below:

The picture on the left is the pathway in to our house. The snowbank to the right is actually about 12 feet high and if we get more snow this week, there will be no other place to put it. Even my secret space - up around the lantern stand you see in the back corner - is full of snow and, if you look at the picture on the right, is now a snow bank on its own.

So, Dad, when you said, "Don't put that lantern stand there, the wood will swell up with all of the snow," and I said, "We never get snow there, Dad, don't worry about it," this is where we can comfortably say that you were right and the lantern stand is probably going to be warped beyond belief by Spring. Oooooooooops.

Anyway, the snow also made it completely impossible for Titus to find a place to pee in the backyard. The poor little guy had to find a space UNDER the side burner of the BBQ, which prompted the creation of an actual play space for him. I guess you can say we really had no choice, especially if you look at how happy he is.... Yay for Titus!

At least someone is appreciating the snow!

FO: What will be known from now on as "My Standard Baby Sweater"

I've found the perfect pattern for the perfect baby sweater.

It is knit entirely in one piece, the pattern is easy to follow, it doesn't get boring to knit and it's cuter than the picture of my dog that concludes this post.

On top of this, it really only took me a few weeks of intermittent knitting to finish it up. This is very encouraging for me because, quite frankly, it is baby fever around here (not me, everyone else is pregnant, though) and this pattern just might save my butt when it comes to thinking of the perfect gift.

In addition to this, it only requires that I seam up the sleeves and weave in the ends. Of course, due to my excellent procrastination skills, it will inevitably take me a few weeks to do this very small part that would probably only take 30 minutes to complete if I actually made the effort.


I was lucky enough to find this little gem of a pattern from a stash of pattern books that my aunt saved for me when she moved my Grandmother to a senior citizen's complex. My grandmother used to be a very accomplished crafter (knitting, crocheting, sewing, ceramics, etc) and I feel so fortunate to have something that was hers to carry on her tradition of crafting. I have no idea how old the book is, but the price tag says 35 cents, so I'm betting it's older than me....! Even so, it doesn't matter how old a knitting pattern is, it still creates something classically adorable. Check the pic:

So, I have officially dubbed this"My Standard Baby Sweater" and it just may appear on a baby near you sometime soon. I used Sirdar "Snuggly" DK, shade 0347 on 4 mm needles (Addi turbo circulars). I thought the red was a good choice for either a boy or a girl, especially because I don't know the sex of the baby it has been knit for. However, I will not use this yarn again because it split constantly, and I found that very frustrating. In the end, though, it didn't even use 1.5 balls, so I will not say anything more because that now means I have 5 more balls of this stuff to knit up!

And so, it wouldn't be a post without the latest picture of MY baby and his newest toy. Honestly, have you ever seen anything cuter than this?

FO: Stashbuster Neckwarmer

It all started with this very pretty yarn by Debbie Bliss. I think it's called Maya. I loooooooooooooved the colorway and kept it in my stash for a long time because I only had one skein and wanted to do something special with it.

Then I finally realized that time was going to pass quicker than finding something "good" to knit this with and went out and found this neckwarmer pattern from here.

Very handy... verrrrrrry easy to knit. Perfect for me during exam time when I'm marking like a whirling dervish, like a woman possessed, like a cat on a hot tin roof, like a street with no name...(oops, wrong simile.... anyway...). I must admit, though, it was my first time working in the round on circular needles and let's just say that some areas will need to be cleverly camouflaged with some creative piecing. Notice also (scroll down), however, that I ran out of the Maya ( I didn't have as much as I thought - another rookie mistake) and I had to find a complementary colour that was going to provide a solid colour border as well as not look like poop on a plate.

Hence, the choice of Natural Charcoal in Paton's SWS. Quite possibly one of my favourite yarns ever. Look at my finished project here, wrapped around a candle so that it stands up and looks pretty:

But, you see, I didn't really feel like the candle was the best model, so I set my sights to finding a more appropriate model.... like something/ someone with a neck. First - I considered myself, but nixed that because it was only 7 a.m., I had been up since 5 and had not yet had a shower or put on makeup, so I was looking pretty hideous. Second - I considered going upstairs and putting it over my sleeping husband's head and snapping a picture, but nixed that... I mean, he was asleep, for God's sake, and he'd look worse than I did, not to mention the ill effects that would be brought on our (new and loving) marriage because I had the bright idea of pulling a multi-colored, handknit neckwarmer down over his head while he was sleeping. This would clearly be one of those Mars/Venus things where the woman thinks her idea is innocently fantastic and the man not only thinks she's from another planet, but threatens to put her on one with his bare hands.

So, I took a good look around the room and couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of the most perfect model ever. He never talks back, he's generally good humoured and he's cuter than my husband and I put together on our most loving day. Cue the dog wearing the neckwarmer:


What a pose! What poise! What control! What style!! He wears it and he wears it well!

And no, despite what it looks like in this picture, I'm not one of those crazy people who dresses up their dog in hats and sweaters. I have standards.... kind of..... let's just say that I won't mention Titus' winter jacket anytime soon.









And on a "new favorite books" note, you should really make every effort to read this book that my friend Jena lent me. Jena found it hilarious, I found it incredibly sad, but at the very least, it made us both think about life a little more than usual. Read it. I couldn't put it down.