Quickie

Some of you (*cough* DAD *cough*) have mentioned how bitterly disappointed you are when I don't post. You've described how you log onto your computer in the morning, almost giddy with excitement at the prospect of reading another wacky, witty, insightful post from yours truly, only to be crushed by a wave of despair when it's the same post as yesterday, or the day before that, or EVEN, the day before THAT.

Well, I take my responsibilities very seriously, you know. Far be it from ME to rain on anyone's parade. So today, I give you.... gratuitous button shots. Don't say I never did anything for ya.

I ordered these after another irresponsible foray on Etsy, sheep and primitive crow mason jar buttons from buttonsbyrobin.

These beauties were actually a gift from my cousin Jessica. They're handmade porcelain buttons from... um.... the old country. One of the big ones, I think. (Hah! I love Chris Farley!)

And this one I picked up while visiting my Dad and stepmum Margot in Perth last week. I mostly bought it as a way to ingratiate myself to the shop owner whose display Maxime had just destroyed, heh. (Ah, 3 year-old boys... you can dress 'em up, but you can't take 'em anywhere). But that doesn't mean it isn't a nice button. AND I've got nice yarn that will compliment it nicely, too.

Happy Knitting Everyone!

More family fun (and some knitty stuff too)

Well crap. I've been prepping tonight's post for over an hour, sorting through a week's worth of pictures, trying to figure out what'll be most appealing to my hordes of adoring fans (GRIN), and now that I'm finally able to sit down with my trusty laptop, I can't seem to figure out a clever, sassy way to make it all flow together. So how 'bout we let the pictures do the talking, shall we?

This week the kids and I visited my Dad and stepmum Margot in their new (temporary) home in lovely Perth, Ontario. After about 3 years of talking about moving closer to Montreal, they finally quit dilly-dallying, sold their house in record time (so record that their new house has, um, yet to be built) and are now a mere 3 hour drive away (as opposed to 9). Yay!

We had lots of fun with Nanny and Bumpy. We did all the stuff you're supposed to do with the grandparents, we ate too much candy, watched TV in bed, and loaded up on hugs, kisses, and bilingual "I love you's". Perth being a scant 45 minute-ish drive from Ottawa, while there we visited the Canadian Museum of Nature, and even though it was a close call towards the end of the visit as to whether the Museum would be acquiring 2 stuffed children for their permanent exhibit ('cause Mommy was going to strangle them!), we had fun.

We also visited the "beach", that is a private beach with a small, cordoned-off area perfect for kids to swim in and explore and just be silly in.

And of course, we visited the local yarn store :)


Set in a charming old stone house along the Rideau canal (well, near as I can tell anyway. I ain't no geographer!), Janie H. Knits is just a perfect place to spend a lovely morning and indulge. It's quaint, they carry a lovely variety of yarn, books and knitting accoutrement, and the people are incredibly friendly. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by!

Now, I'm just going to cut to the chase and confess that while I was in there the whole notion of the "2010 for 2010" challenge went right out the friggin' window. I really didn't INTEND to buy quite so much yarn, but - DARNIT - they just had so much good stuff that I can't really find here! And as they said, it was really just a SMALL bag... *Sigh*

The first three are 2 skeins of Bijou Spun by Bijou Basin Ranch. The dark skein is a 50-50 yak/cormo blend, and the cream-coloured is a 75-25 yak/merino blend. The last is an Alpaca/Merino blend from Silent Valley Alpaca, a local-ish ranch.

As a matter of fact, I think that one deserves a close-up, don't you?

Ah, that's better.

I also bought 2 skeins (about 230 yards worth) of THE softest, lushest, most awesomest handspun EVAH. It's a blend of 10% merino and 90% bison (BISON!!!!!), and I've had a hard time NOT petting it since I took it home. Sadly, I couldn't find a website despite my mad Innernets skillz, but the label says it's from Prairie Fiber Mill, in Saskatchewan.

I capped it all off with EZ's Knitter's Almanach (my first Zimmerman book!) and some Addi circs for the border of my shawl-in-progress.

All in all, a great trip. Happy Knitting Everyone!

Feeling Lucky

Whew! Wow, sorry about the radio-silence this week. I've been on "vacation" with the kids, and it's been difficult to form complete sentences once the kids were in bed, so forget about blogging! All I wanted to do in the evenings is read, knit, or, um, stare into space, heh. All jokes aside, we've been having lots of fun. Really!

For instance, today we went bowling! Sadly, there weren't any small pins at the lane we went to, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves.


Maxime needed a little help getting the ball rolling, but as you can see, Émilie was quite keen on the game, and definitely wants to go back in the near future (I think the jelly beans that they both got as a post-game treat might have something to do with that though!)

While we were there, I took the time to take some kitschy pictures of my latest FO, Wednesday Socks from the Family Trunk Project (I love their patterns!)

Knit with String Theory Caper Sock yarn in the Garnet colourway, these socks were just a pleasure to knit. The yarn is A-MAY-ZING, the pattern is stimulating without being overly complex, and the end result is THE kick-ass-est pair of bowling socks you've ever set your eyes on! These are definitely going in the "For Keeps" pile! :)

As a matter of fact, they seem to have re-kindled my urge to knit. Project monogamy is at an end chez Dear! I'll be casting on for a couple of projects within the next few days.

The yarn on top (String Theory Caper Sock in Bees Knees - did I mention how über-awesome this yarn is???) is destined to become a Castlegar Cardigan (what can I say? I heart Laura Chau's designs!) and the cake on the bottom (Dream in Color Smooshy in Strange Harvest) will be for my next pair of socks, Jeannie Cartmel's Magic Mirror socks (which have been in my Rav queue since September 2009).

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Somethings New

Recently I was e-loitering around on Etsy (never, ever a good idea, I have a really low threshold for adorableness), thinking about summer canning projects, when I came upon a shop that sold fabric covers for mason jars. They were cute, and I remembered thinking something like that would really make jam seem more like a "for real" gift, but honestly, this was really just fabric cut in circles with twine on the side... "I can do that" I thought. I can just buy fabric, cut it into circles and tie the the whole thing up with twine! Easy!

I somehow dug out the term "fat quarter bundle" from the extensive Heretofore-completely-useless-information compartment of my brain, and was soon cruising along, checking out ridiculously cute fabric... Before I could say Boo, I had bought my first fat quarter bundle.


"Whoa!" I thought. "I've got FABRIC now! Maybe I could actually use it to SEW something!" Never mind that I haven't touched a sewing machine since my secondary 2 (roughly Grade 8) home economics class. Never mind that I never actually finished the one and only sewing project from that class. I was going to SEW! I consulted with my friend Cynthia, whose sewing makes me drool, and before I knew it, I was ordering a few "Quick and Easy" project books on Chapters (in my defense, this was BEFORE the 2010 for 2010 project!)


From left to right: Amy Butler's In Stitches: 25 simple (HAH!) and stylish sewing projects; One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Projects; and Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing: More than 40 projects and ideas for inspired stitching. I've got my eye on a few projects, but I think the first one I'm going to tackle will be the Quilted Lunch Bag, from Weekend Sewing.

Of course, it turns out that I don't actually have a whole YARD of fabric (you'd think the term QUARTERS would have tipped me off...), so I'm going to have to take a trip to the fabric store with My Enabler soon. Darn :)

Speaking of Cynthia, I just HAVE to show you the über-awesome painting she sent me this week, as a thank you for translating a pattern for her from French to English!

Isn't it THE. COOLEST???? I've been in lust with this beauty since she first painted it, and I could NOT believe it when she told me she'd give it to me for translating one dinky pattern... Thank you SOOOOOOOO MUCH, Cynthia! But it's too much!!!! I'm going to have to figure something out...

Happy Knitting Everyone! (and sewing, and painting, and crafting...)

Let's indulge

I often feel bad about the pictures I post on my blog, in that either I don't post ANY, or the ones that I do post aren't as Brooklyn Tweed-y as I'd like them to be. It bothers me so much, in fact, that when I actually HAVE pictures to share, I tend to hoard them so I can spread them out over multiple posts, so that y'all will have something to do besides read my silly ramblings.

I'm very tempted to do that tonight as well, but you know what? Let's just go with it. I've got a CRAP load of eye-candy for you today, and I'm just going to lay it ALL out there. We're going to stuff ourselves, we're going to over-indulge. Shall we?

This morning Phil and I took the kids to a local purveyor of all things garden-y(I don't really want to call it a greenhouse or nursery, this woman sells annuals and perennials and vegetables from the old barn beside her house) where you can also pick your own raspberries. It's something I don't recall ever doing as a kid myself, and it was the first time we've taken the kids. It's literally a 5 minute bike-ride away, it was a nice morning, and we just thought "Why not?"

Can I just say? I don't think there's anything better than berries right off the bush, do you? The kids certainly didn't seem to think so!

Phil seemed to agree with them too! TeeHee!

Contrary to the ginormous berries we buy at the supermarket, these babies did NOT stay on our counter for long after we got home! Nom nom nom...

After lunch I took Émilie to a movie, after which we visited my mother and took a few minutes to do a proper photo shoot for the recently completed Tiny Tea Leaves cardigan (finally!!!)

Feast your eyes...

Knit with just under 2 skeins of Dream in Color Classy in Cool Fire, this cardigan was really a breeze to knit. The only modification I made was to add a third button-hole (I'd seen similar modifications on Ravelry, and I liked the three-buttoned version better) and to add a little length for the size I was knitting. I finished it off with some vintage buttons my grandmother gave me a few months ago. All in all, very happy with this project, and Émilie likes it too :) That makes it a winner in my book!

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Where's the knitting?

I've got a confession to make: I'm kinda ticked at the fact that, even though I *think* about knitting pretty much every day, it seems like lately I don't really get to DO it that much. I think I've only managed about 10 rows on my one and only active WIP in the past week! Days are for working, evenings are for soccer, running, blogging, catching up with friends, etc., weekends are for running errands and being with family. When do I get to KNIT, darnit??? I was über-excited to have the evening to sit and veg out on Monday, but after folding 3 loads of laundry all I managed was 2 rows between talking on the phone and my kitten eating my yarn. *Sigh*


So I've got no pretty pictures of FOs to share - again - even though I've got 3 that I have yet to blog about. What I DO have are some pictures of me water-skiing! (I know... it's a bit of a strange segway, but it's my blog and I'm running with it, so there).


This summer has been the shiznits as far as boating has been concerned, mainly because we had little or no snow in Winter and little or no rain in Spring, so there's little or no water in the river (see how that works?). But after a few fairly heavy rainfalls over the past few days, Phil deemed the river to be "OK", so off we went for a boat ride.

Now, when Phil and I started dating, a BIG part of our summers was spent on the boat, water-skiing and wakeboarding. I loved the fact that, contrary to sports like, say, downhill skiing, this was something we could actually DO together, but each at our own level of proficiency (ie: breakneck speed and crazy-ass jumps for him, moderate speed and casual turns for me). But since getting pregnant with our daughter Émilie (who's turning SIX in a few weeks!), I hadn't been. Phil went occasionally while I stayed home and took care of the kids. It happens.

Well, on Sunday we both decided that that sucked ARSE, and I put on my skis and went for a ride.

Turns out water-skiing is like riding a bike: you never really forget. I was up on the first try, had a good run (for me), and didn't even get my hair wet when I let go of the rope ('cause I was tired). I had fun, re-discovered something I used to really enjoy, and most of all? I impressed the CRAP outta my kids, heh.

Happy Knitting Everyone! (if you're lucky enough to GET to knit! Grumble, grumble...)

ps: Oh! An update on the 2010 for 2010 Challenge! I put aside 75$ this Monday (Yay!). I now have about 4,47$ in my purse and 13,73$ in my bank account until my next paycheque (Boo!).

Setting the bar

Recently, while reading Ysolda's blog, I found out about a knitters' retreat that will take place in Iceland in September of this year. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything cooler than that. I mean... KNITTING IN ICELAND!!! I wanted to go. Like, a lot.

The only problem, of course, is that I don't happen to have 287,000 Icelandic Kronas (roughly 3000 Canadian dollars) lying around. Nor do I have the cool grand to fly to Iceland, for that matter. But then again, I haven't checked the pockets of my winter coat yet, heh.

All of this yearning for that which I can't afford led me to a fairly basic question: why don't I ever have any money??? I make a decent living, our mortgage is paid, we're not in debt... So why don't I have any money????

A quick look at my spending habits over the course of the past few months made it fairly obvious: the fact is that I'm a really impulsive shopper, and I buy what I want when I want it. I pay off my credit card every month, I set aside money for my RRSP, but I don't really question my daily purchases. And let me tell you: when you buy a pattern here, some yarn there virtually every week, it really adds up.

So! What to do about this? Inspired by my friend Robyn who's taken up a de-cluttering challenge (you can read about her progress here), I've decided to set up my own personal savings challenge: put aside 2010$ for 2010!

The 2010 for 2010 Challenge!

Goal: put aside 2010$ in savings by December 31st, 2010.

How? Change my spending habits! (DUH!)

I'm going to try to control my spending by separating my purchases into 2 basic categories: Things I Need and Things I Want (I know, you'd think I went to business school, right? Genius!)

Things I Need would be things like groceries, gas, kid items, and personal items of the essential variety (ladies, you know of what I speak). These will continue to be paid for as I've done to this point (although I'm definitely going to be looking at the coupons at the grocery store from now on!)

Things I Want would be things like yarn, books, social activities (restaurant, movies, etc.), wine, and personal items of the non-essential variety (like, say, getting my hair coloured). You know, the fun stuff that makes life worth living, basically. These will be paid for in CASH, and I'm only allowing myself 100$ per week. At the end of the week, whatever's left over (if there IS anything) will be put in my ME pot, to be used however the heck I feel like it.

I'm starting pretty late in the game, so I'm not going to lie, it's going to be TOUGH. But I think I can do it!

Happy Knitting Everyone! I'll be over here, quietly going through shopping withdrawal.