Clearly...

... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree :)

Sometimes (like tonight, for instance), I wonder how the heck my daughter got to be such a colossal drama queen. Then I look in the mirror and think "Oh. Right."

*Sigh* It's been a super busy week. I'd like to say that I've been working non-stop on my Ravelympics Honeybee cardigan, but I really haven't. The pattern, while beautiful, is quite fussy, and it's taking me entire evenings to complete 12 rows. So yeah, it's going to be a while...

I'm also quite busy at work, and super happy with my new position and getting to know my colleagues. I realize this might qualify me for total geek status, but I get SUCH a kick out of doing real "librarian" stuff like reference interviews and cataloging and such. And the fact that I get to casually throw around words like "randomised controlled trials" and "antenatal" (apparently, prenatal is SOoooOOO passe) and MeSH terms makes me feel like a total frickin' Ninja Librarian.

Oh, before I forget! Check out Phil's new kite!

11 x 14 feet in size, still missing a proper tail, but apparently the darling of the Festi-Vent nevertheless.

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Wood I?

As I've been knitting a fair amount of shawlettes and lace and will only continue to do so (did I mention I signed up for the 2010 Year of Lace club?), I decided I needed to invest in a shawl pin. I wear Cluaranach on a regular basis at the office, and constantly throwing it back behind my shoulder is starting to make me feel a bit Imelda Marcos-ish, heh.

There are, literally, about a zillion shawl pins out there. Really. Wire, ceramic, glass, bejeweled, be-bobbled... you name it, there's a shawl pin out there for it. For my part, I wanted something with more of an organic, natural feel. I had been stalking Wooden Treasures' Etsy shop for a while, and when I saw this pin, it was love at first sight.


The only trouble is, it's HUGE! I mean, it's beautiful, but it's ginormous! I feel like I'm trying to impale my knitting as I'm stabbing away at it to get the pin (or should I call it Mr. Pointy?) through the fabric. *Sigh*

Another item I wanted to share with you is this lovely wooden bowl. I can't even remember when or from whom I got it (I think it was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law?), but last week I was hunting around for a receptacle of some kind and I came upon this beauty.

Before I get to what I'm going to use it for, some of you may have noticed the new Miles run on the Treadmill ticker on the blog. Yes, tired of feeling inactive and as a reward for the new job (I'm not done using that rationalization/excuse by a LONG shot, heh), I bought a treadmill a few weeks ago.

It's got all the usual features, calorie-calculator and heart-rate monitor, programs and inclines and so on. It also displays the miles run, which got me to thinking... Sometimes my motivation to get on the treadmill is hard to find. Even though I know I love it. Even though I know I'm going to feel great afterward (and I always do). Even though every day, my mirror (and my pants size!) tell me that running has been the single best thing I've done for my silhouette and self-esteem. I know all this, and yet I know it's going to take away from my knitting time, and I have a hard time getting off the couch.

So I've come up with a way to tie in running on the treadmill to knitting, or rather, to yarn. For every mile I run/walk on the treadmill, I'm going to put the same amount in cash in that lovely bowl. We'll call it my Running for Rhinebeck fund :)

Happy Knitting Everyone!

International collaboration

A few weeks ago someone commented on one of my pictures on Flickr. She was a knitter from Germany who had been trying to get her hands on some yarn I happened to have in my stash, and she wondered if I would be willing to sell it to her or swap.

Sucker for surprises that I am, I opted for a swap. And earlier this week, my package or German yarny goodness arrived.


A skein of Zitron Trekking Hand Art sock yarn (I've actually had my eye on this yarn for a while, and every time I find myself in the LYS I'm tempted to buy some), and TWO skeins of Lana Grossa Milenweit 100g sock yarn. That's over 900 YARDS of sock yarn right there (I'm going to go out on a limb here and say she's not a sock-knitter, heh), well over 1350 yards when you factor in the Zitron. More than a fair trade for my three dinky balls of Katia Jamaica cotton.

But wait! There's more!

She also included this neat, handmade well... doohickey thing! I've honestly got no clue what it is (maybe a Christmas ornament?), but it's really cute!

Over the past few weeks, we've corresponded fairly regularly, and I think I can say I've got a new knitter friend out in the world. Meet my friend Beatrice, aka Lavendestarfish. She's pretty awesome.

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Competition

The Ravelympics are finally upon us, dear readers, and overachiever/supah-freak that I am, I signed up for three, yes THREE, events: the hat half pipe, the sweaterboard, and the lace luge.
We'll get to the two latter events later, but first, I give you my first (and perhaps only) finished object of the 2010 Ravelympics.

Brooke's Column of Leaves Knitted Hat pattern, knit with Madelinetosh Tosh Worsted (the old worsted) in the Cherry colourway. Cast on at 9 PM on February 12th, and wove in the ends February 14th at roughly 12:30 (ish).

Pretty good time, considering the hectic schedule around here, but sadly nowhere near fast enough to put me anywhere near the virtual podium for this event.

I also cast on Laura Chau's Honeybee Cardigan for the sweaterboard event. I'm knitting this with Malabrigo sock yarn, and the pattern isn't exactly yer mindless knit, so it'll be interesting to see if I can finish this one before the closing ceremonies on February 28th.


"But what of the lace luge?" you may be asking. Well, I suppose I could have entered this project into that even as well, as there's a hefty amount of lace in the pattern. But noooOOOOOOooo, in a moment of what I can only deem absolute lunacy, I decided to tackle one of the Japanese crochet doily patterns from the book I showed you a few posts back. I figured that the Olympics, even the Knitting Olympics, were about challenging yourself.

Yeah, clearly I haz the insanity.

Happy Knitting Everyone!

I could get used to this

You know, I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent woman. I can usually figure out what to leave as a tip, I keep up-to-date on current events, and yet, it never ceases to amaze me how much progress you can make on a project when you actually knit on it monogamously.

I finished the Rococo shawl this Friday, and as I wasn't ready to tackle either the second Conwy sock or the second oven-mitt (aka Citrus mitten), I cast on for a pair of socks. I've sort of fallen off the sock bandwagon lately, but as Phil's sock drawer is starting to be a bit depleted (3 pairs have bit the dust in the past month), I decided to suck it up and cast on for a pair of socks using the Crazy Zauberball sock yarn I picked up a few weeks ago. Just a plain, stockinette sock using a fun yarn. I'm calling them his Zaphod Beeblebrox socks. Catchy, ain't it?

So I cast these on during Émilie's skating class on Saturday morning, and I turned the heel on them last night while watching the Superbowl. 2 days, and already half a sock. Unbelievable. If you knit them, socks will come!

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Isn't it romantic?

Something just gets to me with shawlettes. They're much more feminine than scarves, and yet not as Victorian or Granny-ish as, say, shawls. They're fun to knit, usually quick, and well, they just LOOK good.

Back in December I cast on for the Cedar Leaf shawlette using some Madelinetosh Tosh Worsted I had left over from my Amelia cardigan. Of course, I ran out of yarn about two thirds of the way through the knitted on border, but it's not like I'm going to complain about having to buy more yarn, right?

Anyway, I finished it a few weeks ago and finally got around to taking some pictures of it this morning.


Hmmm... maybe I should knit a matching hat? I *think* I have enough yarn left :)

Happy Knitting Everyone!

New Beginnings

I started my new job yesterday. I don't quite know how to describe the feeling, all the thoughts that were going through my head. I could tell you how awesome it felt to be at work 17 minutes after having left the house, or how nice my co-workers were, how happy I was to learn that there are Yoga and Pilates classes offered on the premises during lunch, how psyched I was to see that I had a real office (like, with walls and a door), how confident I was that, even if this contract isn't renewed, it'll still be a great step towards having the kind of career I worked so hard for...

Honestly, the most powerful impression I had yesterday was that it was a real, grown-up job, which probably sounds silly coming from a 33 year-old, married, mother of 2 who has been working full-time for over 10 years. But that's how I felt. I finally have a job where I will use my skills, where my expertise in my field will be recognized, appreciated, counted upon and challenged. It's a great feeling.

My name is Tara. Knitter, Runner, Mother, Wife, and now? Librarian.

Happy Knitting Everyone!