Ladybugs & Yarn

I found out about the Pay it Forward exchange through Gilraen’s blog, and it was such a lovely idea I had to throw my hat into the ring. Here’s how it works, in the words of the creator of the exchange…

It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based on the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. You all know I’m already a PIF type of person. So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

So! I am therefore making the same promise to the first three people who comment and request to be a part of this exchange.

In other news… Socktoberfest! A perfect excuse to pair up those lone socks, finish those languishing WIPs, or knit that pair of socks you’ve coveted for months. There’s nothing to sign up for and no imposed deadlines–all you have to do is decide to focus on sock knitting during the month of October. If you want to set goals, go to. Mine are to finish the sekrit socks and get them mailed off, and to knit a pair of tweed socks for my father. If I get those done, then I have a lone crazy-coloured sock in self-striping wool that needs a mate, and if even that gets done, then I’ll work on the pair of barely-started Fire on the Mountain socks that were my new commuter project.

Time to put on a film and get knitting.

Pattern: What pattern?
Yarn: Fleece Artist merino in Jubilation
Needles: 2.5mm circs

Stevie wanted to help with the photo.

I knit these exclusively on the bus to and from college, save for the toe decreases on the second sock (had to take a few minutes at home to finish that up so I could get them on my feet!) I more or less used my standard sock pattern–64 stitch cast-on, 13 rows of ribbing, eye of partridge heel flap, and flat toe. I probably should have only decreased down to 10 sts on each side instead of 8, but they fit fine nonetheless. Mmm, squishy squishy FA merino.

So! On the needles now: the sekrit socks, Juliet, and a somewhat-neglected Icarus shawl. I’m doing rather well at controlling the startitis.

The leaves are turning. It always seems to happen so suddenly; you go to sleep on a warm indian-summer night and wake up to a crisp autumn morning. I love this time of year, when the leaves are red-gold, when the air has a refreshing chill in the early hours and a lovely warmth mid-afternoon.

I noticed the trees on my way to Lakeburn this afternoon. The transit buses don’t venture that far outside the city limits, but my mother’s car is here while she’s in Alberta visting her sister. I’ve only had it out twice, once being today’s drive and the other a trip to the zoo on Magnetic Hill (more on that, later).

Lakeburn, of course, is home to London-Wul. I could have just phoned them with my questions about spinning classes, but I chose to visit, instead. The studio has such a wonderful atmosphere; it feels less like a store and more like a cozy workshop. Which, I suppose, it is, since the owner does have her own lines of handspun and handpainted yarns. I took a look through Folk Style, More Sensational Knitted Socks, and a bunch of other books while I was there, and of course had to take the opportunity to squish yarns, eye up the Addi Turbo lace needles, and pet the pearly pink plastic sock DPNs. Even in the presence of all that gorgeousness, I did behave myself–almost. I found a lone skein of hand-dyed fingering-weight pure wool in a bright cherry red, and 500 yards for $8 was too good of a bargain to pass up. It’ll make a fabulous Estonian Garden scarf.

Speaking of red, I took out several yards of red corduroy from the fabric bins this evening. It’s waiting beside the sewing machine now, along with a fall jacket pattern. I think I’ll cut it out tomorrow while the cats are napping–much easier that way. They’re positively angelic where knitting is concerned, but pattern pieces pose too great a temptation for them to resist.

I spent a fantastic afternoon at the zoo on Friday. Look at this beautiful creature:

I loved all of the big cats (and the raccoons and the alpacas and the marmosets and the wolves and the otters and…), but this jaguar and her mate had me captivated. Such powerful animals, yet they roll and stretch and paw at each other like kittens in the sun.

More photos!

Oversized teddy bear.

Young stag.

A capybara, the world’s largest rodent. This one must’ve weighed about 80lbs.

Bison.

Tomar the gorgeous tiger.

Baby llama!

Aww.

Adorable raccoon.

Very curious, too. As soon as he noticed us, he decided to sit and watch us the way we watched him.

Bald eagle! Very impressive birds.

Sleepy otter. <3

Another sleepy otter, obviously protective of his toys.

Pygmy goats, looking for handouts.

Norwegian pony. A cute one, too.

Scarlet macaw, king of tropical birds.

This cockatoo was a total show-off.

Some kind of small South American tree snake.

Alpacas!

A cougar, more interested in his nap than in the humans watching him.

Itsy-bitsy marmosets. These little guys could fit in the palm of my hand.

Something tells me it would be a bad idea to turn your back on this deer.

I have loads more photos, but it’ll take some time to sort through them. Also, I think next time I go to the zoo I’ll go in the morning, as in mid-afternoon most of the animals have taken refuge from the heat.

As promised, I took some photos along Main Street. I’ll put them in another post, though, later this afternoon.

That ecstatic bliss brought on by fabulous life changes has settled down a bit now, of course, fading into a low-level buzz of contentment that hovers at the corners of my mind and occasionally makes me smile at completely random times. The courses are going so well at the moment; my average is a solid A+; we’re constantly being warned that the course is going to get much more difficult, and quickly, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. As long as I keep up the good study habits I have at the moment and don’t allow myself to procrastinate or fall behind, I’ll do well. I’m almost sure of it.

Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to the Magnetic Hill Zoo and plan to take a load of photos. I’m thinking about wandering around town after supper, too, with camera in hand, provided the weather behaves itself. It’s been gorgeous the past three days, though, so I have hope.

… I did promise knitting in the subject line, didn’t I? Yes.

I’ve been steadily knitting away on one of my own designs–a set of two pairs of pretty plum-coloured socks, one mother-sized and one daughter-sized. The pattern’s not for release here, but it’s being sent to somewhere more commercial and with a larger fanbase than this itsy blog of mine. =D I’m very excited about it. If I could knit the pairs on the bus they’d be done, but charts and buses don’t mix. I’ve been doing them, instead, in the moments I can manage at home.

As far as bus knitting goes, I’m 3/4s done a pair of socks knit with the Fleece Artist merino that the LYS’s knitting night girls gave me as a gift when I left for college. Lookie at the awesome rainbow colours:

My other commuter project is a Juliet cardigan knit in this gorgeousness. I’ve made a few simple alterations to have the pattern work with the gauge I’m knitting to, and now it’s fine for bus knitting until I get to the lace.

It’s September. Do we all know what that means? … Holiday knits! Oh, come on, I can’t be the only one to have all of my gifts planned and yarn-stashed already. Granted, it’s a small list, but I had to figure out what yarns I’d need while I still had a steady income, so the plans are all done up. All of the giftees have access to this blog, so I’ll keep the babble to a minimum–all I’ll say is that I have two pairs of socks, two hats, and a wide scarf to knit.

It’s autumn-evening chilly outside (beautiful!) so I think I’ll take a walk to the mailbox–I keep forgetting it exists and haven’t checked it in a week. Good thing it’s locked, yes?

Blueberry pancakes, anyone?

It’s been a couple of weeks now; not long, but I’m settling in quite comfortably. The courses are starting off on the right note, I love my apartment, the cats are happy, and I seem to have landed myself in a quiet part of this lovely city. I’m just a short bus ride from downtown, so I get the best of both worlds.

Based on what I’ve seen and discovered so far, there seems to be much more here that appeals to me and my interests. I’m a bit of an arts-and-culture geek at times and I’m thrilled that there’s a strong presence of both, here. I like being able to walk down Main Street and hear jazz coming from an open-air restaurant near City Hall, then turn the corner and hear maracas when I pass by the entrance of MexiCali Rosa’s. I’m thrilled that Symphony NB has six concerts at the Capitol Theatre (pic is quite large; it’s a gorgeous venue that was built as a vaudeville/opera house in the 1920s) here between October and June, and that the student price to attend is less than that of a cinema ticket. I’m amused (and pleased) that there are angora bunnies and assorted sheep wandering around that beautiful yarn shop just outside of city limits.

I like that when I step onto the curb in front of a crosswalk, the cars stop in both directions, and I like that the girl sitting beside me in class asked me about the knitting I’ve been doing during lunch breaks. I like that although the city’s seven or eight times larger than anywhere I’ve lived before, I no longer have to show my monthly pass or student ID when I board the bus because the driver remembers his regulars. And, of course, I like that there seem to be enough good things that I can ignore the few things (and people) that remind me too much of that town I’ve left behind.

Teal-coloured surgical scrubs and a lab coat just might be a better (and more comfortable!) look for me than a Tim Horton’s uniform. Actually, screw the “might be”. The word is “are”.

I’m rambling. But I’m happy. Can you tell?

I’m sprawled on the living room floor with the laptop at the moment, watching Gargoyles on DVD, waiting for my hardboiled eggs to cool. Egg salad sandwiches for lunch tomorrow, mmm.

There’s going to be lots of photospam over the next couple of weeks, as I have a whole new city to play with. There’s also going to be a shiny new look for this whole domain. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow morning, just after dawn, there’ll be a van stuffed with boxes and furniture zooming along Route 11 South, toward Elmwood. I had a promise made to me that it would all work out, and it was kept.

It’ll be 7-10 days before the internet gets hooked up in the flat, so I shall speak to you all again after Labour Day.

Here we go.

It’s been a panic-stricken few days here at Chez Kay, as things that were supposed to have been approved were not approved and financial arrangements fell through. I though I had run out of options, but my father is bound and determined to get me through this degree and moving on with my life, and I can’t even fathom how I possibly deserve all that he’s given me up to this point, let alone what he’s prepared to do this year so I can finish my education. He tells me not to worry about it and to let him handle it for a few days, because he’s going to figure it out, but of course that’s like telling the rain not to fall.

I’m far from at ease, but I’m continuing to pack and make plans (with some alterations). If things can be accomplished through sheer force of will, this will happen. At the moment, I’m trying to focus on the things that are within my scope of influence–I’m sealing and labelling my boxes, and checking my list to make sure I don’t leave anything vital behind. I’m doing a good job so far of packing things together in some form of organisation… so far.

I’m kind of excited about my kitchen & bathroom (and living room too, really), because things match now so I don’t feel like a straight-out-of-high-school student who’s cobbled together everything that they could find secondhand or pillage from the parents’ house. My first apartment had a white lacquered dining room table, a lot of milk crates as end tables, and a brown-and-orange flowered sofa that my parents bought when they were married in 1972. I didn’t care at the time, and truthfully, I wouldn’t care now if that’s what I was taking with me again, but there is something rather nice about looking at a room that’s your own and having it coordinate and have some form of decor. I’ve been slowly acquiring furniture and other household items since that first place, but most of them have been kept in storage and/or corners of the basement waiting for me, so it didn’t hit me until I started packing that hey, it all goes together.

The apartment decor was a stroke of luck–the kitchen is black & white, and all of my tools/small appliances are red/black/white (very retro), plus, the bathroom is white with gold trim and the bathroom stuff (gifts from my mother–lovely ones, too) is beige with white & gold. My bedroom furniture is a black & mahogany-coloured set I bought a few years ago; parts of it (my computer desk and bookshelves) are going in the living room with the black & mahogany end tables from my parents’ house. The sofa that I’m taking with me, pillaged from the basement here, is black and beige, so even that’ll coordinate. I might have a small streak of interior decorator in me somewhere–I love moving in and unpacking and choosing where things will go.

The cat tree is a violent green and won’t match anything. <3 But the kittens love it, and I’m going to place it near the living room window so they have a comfortable perch.

I went to the work-attire store today to find scrubs and a lab coat, and they had neither that matched the specifications of my course. There’s another store I can check, and I can also order them straight from the college if nothing else works out. I’d be perfectly content to work in scrubs the rest of my career, but it depends on where I work–hospital pharmacies allow scrubs, but most retail pharmacies don’t.

On a knitting-related note, I went to a get-together at the beach last night with the knitting night girls, as it was the LYS’s fourth birthday. There was tons of food, wine, maniacal laughter, and of course knitting. It was such a gorgeous area of the beach, too, at a cottage owned by one of the women on the outer curve of the bay, so that when you look across the water in one direction you can see the faint outline of the Gaspé coast. The other direction is open sea.

To my utter surprise… I got presents! Since I’m leaving. First, there was a lovely little spinning wheel pin. Next, there was a skein of Fleece Artist merino in gorgeous rainbow colours. Last, there was an awesome spiral-bound knitting design journal–it has pages for writing up patterns, little sketch templates to draw designs, and chart paper that’s not square, but is proportioned like knitting stitches are.

Okay, it’s about time for me to be settling in–tomorrow is the start of my last stretch of work. Five days from now, I’ll be done.

On a final note, I have my new address now if anyone wants/needs it.

Before I get to the FO… thank you, you lovely people, for the comments to my last post. The warm fuzzies were much appreciated. I do always feel a little bit guilty about not responding to things either personally or in a timely manner, but under the circumstances I feel I will be forgiven. <3 I have fifty thousand things to sort out in the next week and a half, and I should be in full-on panic mode, but I'm... not. Perhaps that, in itself, is a good sign.

So! Socks.

Pattern: Pattern? What pattern?
Yarn: Opal Rainforest 6ply in Flamingo
Needles: 3.0mm circs

And here’s the product of those long queues/wait times. Plain ol’ stockinette socks in cute self-patterning yarn, finished with enough yarn left over to knit another pair. They were worked over 56 sts with a 1×1 rib cuff, an Eye of Partridge heel flap, and a flat toe. I have them on my feet already, of course.

Excuse the recent blog silence. I’ve been running around like the proverbial headless chicken, as I have just two and a half weeks left and I’m trying to get packed and organised. I’m rubbish at packing–a few boxes will be organised, I’m sure, but the rest’ll be unlabelled chaos.

I’ve managed a bit of knitting during waiting times at banks/doctors/government offices. One of the Opal Flamingo socks is done and I’m going to cast on for the other the next time I get a few spare moments. I’m still stockpiling knitted dishcloths/washcloths for the apartment, too.

I’ve managed some reading during those waiting times, too. The last thing (or things, actually) was Star Trek’s Crucible trilogy. I loved McCoy’s book (starts just before “The City on the Edge of Forever” and follows two parallel lifetimes, both McCoy’s, one in which history was restored and one in which it wasn’t), really liked Spock’s book, and Kirk’s… well, I sort of wanted to throw it against a wall. Hard.

I’ve been a bad Kay lately, and haven’t replied to e-mails and comments yet. I’ll get to it! I promise. <3

Time to resume running around.

I’ve been doing a lot of sock-knitting this week. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been productive sock-knitting. First I had a too-tight Bordello sock, then I had a too-loose Austrian sock. I cast on for a regular 64-st stockinette sock with my usual 3mm needles, and found out that yep, my gauge has altered enough so that I’m going to have to go down a needle size to 2.75mm for a basic sock. Except that I have no 2.75mm circs, because I’ve never needed any.

The gauge changing, though, that’s a good thing. I’ve always been a tight knitter and am still leaning toward more tight than loose, but I used to have such a deathgrip on my needles that I’d get 8 sts per inch on 3.25mm needles with sport-weight yarn. And for the record, any sort of decrease is hell on wheels when you’re knitting like that. Knitting with lace-weight yarns helped, I believe, because they felt so fragile at first that I was afraid to snap the strands by tugging too hard. Anyhow! So I guess 2.75mm needles for sock-knitting are something closer to average size, and my hands & wrists don’t hurt after half an hour anymore.

Back to the sock mojo. Due to the lack of 2.75mm needles, and also due to the fact that a lovely pink ball of sport-weight Rainforest sock yarn has been sitting in plain view for weeks, I cast on for a pair of basic 56-sts stockinette socks on 3mm needles and the fit is perfect. The density of the knitted fabric pleases me, too. There’s only one less stitch and a couple less rows per inch, but sport-weight socks seem to work up so much faster, don’t they? I just turned the heel on the first of these Flamingo socks and I only started them late yesterday evening.

And while I’m on the subject, the needles I’m using–KnitPicks Classic Circs–just sing. I love them for socks. I have the Options set, which I use almost to the exclusion of any other needles, and I’ve been trying to get more Classic Circs, but the sizes I need haven’t, so far, been available when I’m able to place an order. (I’d love to be able to squeak out one last small order before I move, to get those circs and a copy of Fitted Knits.)

I might be only window-shopping as far as yarn is concerned, but I should mention that WEBS has some fabulous close-out sales on.

I’m probably breaking some law of sock-pr0n, but I’m going to use my STR Lightweight in Downpour to knit a Falling Water scarf–I downloaded the pattern somewhere online and am hoping it’ll show off the lovely subtle yarn colours well.

I’m rambling. There’s one thing I’d love to talk about (design work eee!), and one thing I need to talk about (my inability to allow pride in certain types of accomplishments) but I’m avoiding both for different reasons.

I’m also going to avoid waffling on any longer, and am going back to the Flamingos.