Ladybugs & Yarn

I’m going to Nova Scotia for the weekend. I love the province, but I’m dreading the trip–it’s my grandmother’s 80th birthday and her sons are having a family gathering. I’ve met 95% of these particular relatives either a couple of times or never, and the panic disorder is going to have a field day at a gathering of people with whom I’m not familiar. I can’t explain anything to my parents, either, because they don’t get it; to them, these people are related to me therefore I should a) want to see them; b) be comfortable in their presence. I do want to see both of my grandmothers, neither of whom I’ve visited in over a decade, but still, given the choice, I’d stay home in a heartbeat. The rest is too much stress for me right now.

I’m panicking already (and my mom’s response to that was “You’re going to need to just get over it somehow”), so I need to shut up and move on to something else. Like flowers. I took some photos this afternoon while wandering around the garden: a daisy, a bleeding heart branch, some greenery, petunias, and an unidentified pink flower.

And an attention-seeking Samson, for good measure:

Our almost-18-year-old Cookie is, as far as we can figure, completely deaf now, which just adds to the other age-related problems he’s having. I know he’s nearing the end of his life, but I can’t bear to lose him–I wish I could tell if he was in pain, because it would make the decision that’s coming so much easier. He’s been such a good cat and he doesn’t deserve to suffer, but he still gets up in the morning and goes outside to do his morning patrol around the house, the same as he’s been doing all his life; it makes me wonder how much time he has left, and if having him put down would be depriving him of at least one more summer he could spend lying in the sun on the deck and doing what cats do best.

And when I start feeling guilty about one thing, then the rest is soon to follow… that I still owe money to a friend I haven’t seen in four years, that I wasted an entire basket of strawberries because I forgot about them and they went bad in the fridge, that I’m not done my education yet, that I spend too much on yarn, that I couldn’t get rid of the ich parasite in my aquarium and lost some of the fish to it, that my room is in dire need of cleaning, that I’d rather spend time alone than with certain people who make it known that they want to spend time with me, that I get annoyed when I find clumps of falling-out Cookie fur all over my bedsheets, that I’ve missed deadlines and let people down, that I can’t staple my mouth shut and learn to manage my weight like a normal person, and even that I feel guilty about everything. That’s right, I feel guilty about feeling guilty. Should’ve warned you all I was a screwball months ago, yeah?

I’m going to bed.

I cast on for a pair of Friday Harbour socks in LL’s Baltic Sea colourway last night, after I located the errata for the pattern. Must have at least one pair of socks on the needles–it’s one of my personal life rules. =D

I worked the graveyard shift last night to fill in for a co-worker, and once I’d managed to crawl out of bed this morning, I may have possibly gone shopping. Okay, I most definitely went shopping–I took advantage of the bargain bin at the LYS, a clearance rack at a great shoes/accessories store, and the ridiculously low closing-out prices at Fabricville. And now I’m going to spam with photos, because I’m lame like that.

Cotton Fleece in Peridot and Emperor’s Robe, delivered this morning while I was sleeping. The Peridot is for Green Gable, and I’m still choosing between two patterns for the other.

Two balls of Classic Wool in Old Rose for my grandmother’s 80th birthday gift shawl, and four balls of Shetland Chunky in Plum Crazy for a vest.

Nothing beats a $0.99 pattern sale, especially when the Vogue Anna Sui ones are usually $30. Patterns for two tops, a dress, a pair of pajamas, a jacket, and a renaissance dress that may come in handy next year when I’m closer to a Ren Faire.

An initial patch for my winter capelet, wooden buttons for my Pastaza PIW, and gorgeous pewter floral buttons.

A close-up of one flower button. No idea what I’ll do with them, yet, but at $1.80 for nine, I couldn’t pass them up.

Fabric stash! I didn’t pay more than $2.40 a metre for any of it, either. From the bottom, there’s lime green fuzziness (the furballs’ blankies are getting a bit ragged), butterfly camouflage cotton twill, red corduroy, blue floral flannel and pink camo flannel, sewing & knitting oddments printed cotton fabric, blue flowered cotton twill, and gorgeous blue watercolour-printed chiffon.

Flashy, shiny sneakers on the clearance rack for $7 (about £3.50). I wore them to work last night because management wasn’t around to tell me they weren’t regulation.

Sequined slides! With a bit of a platform, too. (At five feet tall, the only flats I wear are trainers.)

Two bags for $5 each, one tote with camo lining & trim and one messenger-style with pink stars and a kilt pin on the front.

The proceeds from this wallet plus necklace go to breast cancer research. My old wallet was falling apart, and this new one’s for a good cause.

Aaaaand t’s time for me to get to work on my grandmother’s birthday gift–I’ve only just found out that my parents are making a trip to visit her next weekend, and seeing as how I haven’t seen her in a decade I’m going along. Dad’s been telling her about my knitting, so I wanted to make her a gift.

I complained just a few entries ago about knitting with Classic Wool, but it does soften up a lot after washing–it’s just the process of knitting that’s not as pleasant as I would like. I needed something that would block well, though, and my only other choices at the predominantly sock-and/or-acrylic-blend-yarn-selling LYS were Briggs & Little or Lopi.

Anyhow! Time to swatch.

Pattern: The ever-popular Booga Bag
Yarn: 3 skeins of Noro Kureyon in colourway #164
Needles: 6.5mm circs

You’d think after 28 years of dealing with me, my family members would have stopped asking silly questions like “Why is your purse in a tree?” (I didn’t end up using the tree photo; it was amusing, but the colours weren’t as true.)

I mostly followed the simple pattern, although I chose to attach the handles closer to the top and sides than the pattern dictated. It’s taller than your average Booga, too, because I ignored the “knit x rounds” instruction. I just knit the i-cord first to the length I wanted, then started the bag and kept knitting until the yarn ran out. I was lucky enough to get three balls of Kureyon that were almost identical, so I used that to my advantage–I knit the first and third ball from the outside, and the second from the inside, so I could get some broader bands of similar colours where the colourways joined.

… I have nothing on the needles now, except a long-hibernating Hourglass sock that I must decide to finish or frog.

Pattern: House Colours Beret from Charmed Knits
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Hollyberry & Patons Classic Wool in Old Gold
Needles: 4.0 and 4.5mm circs

Taking photos of your own head isn’t easy, so the dog was only too happy (ha) to oblige.

This was a quick and satisfying project, even moreso since the yarn was stash oddments left over from other projects. I made a size large but knit to a tighter gauge than dictated (6sts/inch instead of 4.5 sts/inch) and the resulting hat fits great. I’m not keen on the Patons wool, especially compared to Wool of the Andes–even though it’s merino as opposed to Peruvian, it’s rougher, scratchier, and doesn’t knit up as nicely or easily.

There are a lot of fun patterns in the Charmed Knits book–I definitely recommend it to those who are both knitters and HP fans.

Pattern: Garter Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: BMFA’s Socks That Rock Lightweight in Socktopus
Needles: 3.0mm circs

I love these socks. I loooooove these socks. STR is glorious yarn; this was my first time knitting with the lightweight version and I’m very pleased. Although I’ve listed the pattern as being from SKS, all I really did was slap the stitch pattern on socks to fit me. The recipe I used worked out great, too. I started with 64 sts for the cuffs/legs, knit garter-stitch heels and square-ish shallow heel turns, then decreased at the insteps down to 60 sts for the feet, and finished each off with a round toe. Since I plan to wear these outside of the house, I didn’t continue the pattern down the foot–I prefer stockinette inside my shoes.

Best part? Out of the 4.5 oz skein, I used 2.5 oz for this pair. There should be enough left to knit a pair of footlets with short-row heels and toes. Fabulous.

… to waffle about other things. The Relay for Life needed an entry all to itself.

I don’t go out on Friday nights, yard sale hunting Saturday morning, or sleep in until two o’clock on Sunday afternoons, so I don’t know why having a whole weekend off work feels so wonderful, but it does. I normally work both Saturday and Sunday every week, but had to do a switch this week to make room for the Relay, and that equalled my first proper weekend in almost six months. To make it better, it’s sunny and warm and cool-breezy and perfect, and there are small purple flowers growing outside my window that I didn’t plant.

Rather than doing the sane thing and catching up on the sleep I (happily) missed last night, I went to the farmers’ market mid-morning. I don’t get to go often, and I miss it. I went straight to the sugary’s booth to get a leaf-shaped maple sugar lollipop, then set myself to wandering around and looking at things. Two wooden beaded bracelets from Mystik’s booth decided to come home with me:

I also walked across to Patchouli, a new natural-products store that opened up in a small building beside the largest grocery store in the city (smart location–very smart). The huge selection of loose teas pleased me, and they’re willing to order in almost anything, as well. I got a bag of mint green tea that smells delicious, and I’ll have to make another trip in a week or two when their chai teas come in. I adore chai in all forms, or at least all that I’ve tried so far.

Tea spam! I wish I could record smells like I can record sights and sounds, and share the scent of the minty greenness with you all.

Once I take care of a few chores I think I’m going to have to take a drive down to the beach. By seven or so it’ll be almost deserted, and I can stick my toes in the sand and walk along without dodging frisbees. I can take photos, too, if conditions are nice–crowded beach photos are no fun, but natural beach photos are pretty.

I shall now show off some fiber-related things, since you’re all a bunch of addicts. And who am I kidding, so am I.

Mmm, STR in the post. Colourways, from left, are Knitty Rocks, Mustang Sally, Rhondonite, and Fire on the Mountain. Only the last lovely skein is staying with me; the rest are heading on to new homes.

I’ve not knitted nor even seen/touched any Cascade yarns before, so I snagged a skein of Pastaza and one of 220 to see what I thought of them. The Pastaza is a 50% llama/50% wool bulky-weight singles that feels fantastic (and the colour, Colonial Blue Heather, is lovely), and the 220 (in a dark heathered bluegreen called Aporto) seems to be nice, as well. I’ll have to do some swatching, especially with the Pastaza, as I’ve been eyeing Cosmicpluto’s button-yoked pullover as a potential autumn project.

A Socktopus sock! The yarn is so delicious I could eat it. Except I won’t. I’ll just knit a second sock with it. This first one is the perfect height for me–I never wear long socks, so it doesn’t make sense to knit them for myself, either. I have monster calves and a high instep, but casting on extra for the leg and decreasing more at the instep seems to have created a great fit.

Mmm. Chore time.

Last night I walked a path lit with four thousand candles.

The Canadian Cancer Society’s local annual Relay for Life had its closing ceremonies at seven this morning, twelve hours after it started. We had a great time, and for a good cause, which is a winning combination no matter how you look at it. For more information on the Relay, you can visit their site, but basically, it’s a fundraiser in which team members take turns, from evening straight through ’til morning, walking around a circular path. The path is lit by candles (luminaries) with names on them, either in honour of cancer survivors or in memory of those who’ve passed away. I got one for a friend of the family who lived just down the road when I was very small–he wasn’t related to us, but might as well have been. I always called him Grampie.

The evening was packed full of energetic people, the relay members in their daffodil shirts, the volunteers in blue, the survivors in yellow, and a ton of townspeople who stopped by to see the opening ceremonies and the evening’s entertainment; the path was surrounded on the outside by team tents & shelters. After the opening ceremonies, the survivors took a “victory lap” around the track before the teams start, and honestly, it was shocking to see so many familiar faces. It must be a big step, for some of them, to come out in their yellow shirts and take that lap and make a public declaration that they’ve fought and won, especially since things like cancer can be intensely personal and not something some people want to announce to everyone they meet.

As the night wore on, the public left and the relay crowd thinned; all those who had to work in the morning or who couldn’t otherwise stay the night wandered off, and in the wee hours of the morning there were only a few from each team remaining. The walk took on an almost… spiritual quality, in a sense, once the fields were dark and the remaining relayers were in their tents when not walking.

Our team knit chemo caps all night in between laps, and we’re going to donate them to the oncology unit at the local hospital once we’ve put enough together.

There was a man there who’d lost his wife several years before to lung cancer. He had a beautiful hand-carved walking stick, crafted from an oak branch, with her name, date of birth, and photo wrapped around the shaft. He had a book with him, and was passing the stick from person to person, letting each one take her for a walk around the path and then sign their name in his book when the stick moved on to someone else. I think I’ll remember that for a long time.

When the sky started to lighten, the chief of the local Mik’maq band performed a sunrise ceremony to welcome the daylight. That’s not the kind of thing that erases itself from the memory easily, either. Aboriginal chanting can be stunningly beautiful.

I still haven’t slept much. I’m glad I decided to participate this year–it left an impression on me that won’t be quickly forgotten. The grand total of funds raised for the cancer society was impressive, although I keep thinking about the hard time I personally had convincing people to donate. I keep thinking I–we–could do better here, if I tried to start some kind of small campaign to collect donations. It doesn’t matter that it’s a Canadian charity and most of you live overseas–research helps us all.

Photos.

Young Highland dancers, providing entertainment early in the evening.

The sun setting behind the trees that border Coronation Park.

From another angle.

The path of lights, as I walked it.

Part of the path, taken from the side so you can see it curving around.

The earlier days of the week involved ambulances and hospital stays and countless tests, but I think I’m too exhausted to go through it all. Suffice it to say that I’m as all right as I was before the whole thing, and it was all related to the ongoing health issues I’m dealing with.

In news that doesn’t suck, I got a tattoo! I’ve been wanting one for years, but I’m a paranoid sort and therefore it took ages to both choose a design and get up the nerve to make an appoinment. I got it on my left ankle, and yes, it hurt, but much less than I’d been anticipating. It’s very small, but that’s what I wanted for the first one.

Ladybug! I adore them, and now I have one with me permanently.

It might be Friday, but I’m going to stay in and knit tonight. For one thing, I’m working at 6am tomorrow, and for another… well, I don’t need another reason to stay in and knit. =D

I have a scarf started in my Sea Silk that’s calling my name with its pretty Print o’ the Wave lace. The yarn is even more delicious knit up than in the skein, and even though it’s slow knitting (because I keep stopping to pet it), I’m thoroughly enjoying the process. I also have my Socktopus socks on the needles.

The postman was kind to me today.

Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Wisteria. I snagged it on Ebay for 50% off retail and plan to redo Rusted Root with it.

Elann Peruvian Quechua for the Turbulence pullover from Knitting Nature. It’s 50% alpaca and 50% tencel.

Mm. Time to knit.