11.04.2015

where no sheep has gone before...

i stumbled out of bed at around four o'clock in the morning, made my way to the kitchen, filled the kettle, grabbed the nearest passing cat, and headed for the window.  it's so worth living with insomnia if it allows me to be present when Venus makes her majestic climb across the pre-dawn sky, laying the path for the later-rising Sun. the dot of light grows brighter with each day, inspiring a feeling of immense awe (once you get past the initial dread that it might be some extra-planetary object headed directly at your kitchen window). it's one of those moments that leaves you feeling insignificant against the backdrop of the cosmos and thankful for the experience.

prolonged sleep deprivation has a tendency to resemble inebriation. at least, that's the way it usually plays out in my life. having spent the past five or six days with a few hours (at most) of sleep each night, it's fair to say that i'm not all there...not that anyone had ever accused me of such a thing. i don't mean the big things,—like not being in the right state of mind to drive a car or operate heavy machinery—but i wouldn't trust myself to butter toast with a plastic knife in this condition. it would not end well. this feeling of total disorientation has only been made worse by the recent time adjustment and the corresponding shift in daylight hours.  the sun has moved to a lower position in the sky, and dusk suddenly seems to follow hard on the heels of the dawn, leaving me with the realization that the only thing worse than sleeplessness is sleeplessness when there seems to be so very much night.

we spent the middle part of the day wandering around the neighborhood, running a few quick chores and stopping for a leisurely lunch at the amazing new(ish) gourmet burger joint down the street. i even had the wholly uncharacteristic experience of going into my favorite yarn shop and walking out without buying a single thing. madness, i know, but i was in search of a pattern that seems near impossible to locate, so we returned home and i immediately set about finding a replacement pattern if i expect to get anything knitted by Christmas.  that's when things started to get crazy.

let me preface this by saying that i've been passing a lot of my time lately (re)watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. in my defense... it's not my fault.  my favorite animator challenged me to take a few weeks away from what he likes to call rape and murder television, which pretty much left me with nothing else to watch (and i wonder why i can't sleep at night). i consulted the long list of shows i hope to revisit at some point in time, and this one just jumped out at me. why, you ask? why not, i reply!  don't get me wrong.  i watched the show during its original run, but i've probably only seen about half of the episodes, as i was far too cool in those days to be a die-hard fan. no, seriously, i was. but, back to the story.

there i was, searching on Ravelry for a scarf pattern i'd encountered some months ago (i couldn't recall the name of the pattern, or the designer, or the magazine), when i came across this. it's a bat'leth. a knitted bat'leth. a knitted bat'leth scarf. my favorite animator and i were falling off the couch laughing at this point. that's when i exclaimed, "i can't believe thirty people actually knitted it". we laughed some more, he headed back into the studio to work, and i grabbed my wheel and returned to the fiber i'd started spinning earlier in the day.


i hit play on some random You-Tube-recommended podcast and spent the next ten minutes realizing how little i cared about whatever they were talking about, so it seemed as good a time as any to  watch the next episode of TNG. that's the point where things went completely bizarre.

let me just say that i am usually only kinda paying attention to whatever i may be watching when i'm at my wheel, so i was more than a bit startled when i thought i heard the words "spinning wheels" in the distinct voice of one Captain Jean-Luc Picard. what??? the spinning ground to an abrupt halt as i reached over to hit rewind, and there it was again.  "fifty spinning wheels". he was reading the cargo list of a ship that'd left Earth two hundred years prior, and the gear on board included fifty spinning wheels. what??? then Data chimes in with "spinning wheel... a device used for spinning yarn or thread which consists of a large hand or foot driven wheel". what??? so, i took a minute to compose myself and returned to my spinning and my show, my attention equally divided between the two at this point. a few minutes go by, and they beam a bunch of people up to the Enterprise, and the newcomers bring with them several chickens, a goat... and a sheep! a sheep covered in lovely, fluffy fleece... on the ####ing Enterprise! but wait, it gets crazier. a few more minutes go by, and Picard's talking to the refugees in the cargo bay, and behind him there's a couple spinning wheels. then the camera angle changes and there's another spinning wheel in the far corner and next to it, there's a great wheel (one of the really tall, old-fashioned wheels you use while standing up). WHAT???

at this point, i had to get my favorite animator to verify all of this insanity, as there was the distinct possibility that i could be hallucinating from a lack of sleep. there was also a woman among the refugees wearing an obviously hand-knit sweater. i hit pause and started studying the arrangement of cables and bobbles as my favorite animator smiled in amusement.  [i have been known to follow strangers around in order to get a closer look at their knitwear]. "you should write up a pattern for something like that", he said. "who would want to knit such a thing", i replied. "well", he said, "i know where you can find thirty people who'd get a kick out of it".

10.03.2015

when Autumn leaves start to fall...

the sudden transition from worst-of-Summer to deep-Autumn temperatures has taken a mighty toll on my being. i have been utterly and completely unmotivated to do anything this past week (other than refill my hot water bottle and climb back under the down blanket).

in all fairness, it should be noted that i generally despise Summer... and this one was a very odd Summer indeed. Spring (which is more like late-Winter in these parts) lingered well into (what should have been) the Summer months. i wore my favorite winter boots right through late June, before digging up a pair of sandals from the back of the closet. even then, it was advisable to keep a light sweater handy as evening walks tended to be a bit chilly.  then August hit and it went from winter-blanket to too-hot-to-sleep overnight.  but that didn't last for long, as we did the whole winter-blanket to too-hot oscillation several times over during the next 4 or 5 weeks.

then my mom came to town for the long (and insanely hot) Labor day weekend, and she left mid-week, taking the last of Summer in tow.  since then, it's gone from refreshing to  somewhat-chilly to (downright) cold. i am having nightmares at the prospect of heating this (suddenly too large) space during the long winter months, and my strict, year-round dress code of tank-tops has been abandoned for warm sweats and thick socks.

so you find me, perched on my favorite couch, long-panted legs tucked under a small blanket and sock-encased feet propped against the hot water bottle. anything to delay the inevitable turning on of the heat. of course, this is my favorite time of year. the air is crisp most days.  there is the occasional fragrance of a wood-burning fireplace drifting on the breeze. and, most importantly, there is wool!!!

i have literally been daydreaming about all the woolly things i want to procrastinate over make in the coming months.  i cannot wait to get my hands on these two new yarns (the creation of which will probably be the subject of my next post... once i talk myself into sorting through all the photos i took along the way).



but, first, i need to finish this project that's been in hibernation for the past two months. there's no rush.  Autumn's here and i am in my happy place.

7.25.2015

(Sábado) what the eff...

i was trying to come up with a good subject to wrap up my week of posts, when one pretty much fell into my lap.



allow me to paint you a picture...

it was a lazy Saturday afternoon here at casa gnu.  following a late lunch from the new Pho place around the corner, we retreated to the nearest cozy space (he grabbed a cat and a brush and headed for the balcony...



 and i grabbed a basket of yarn and assumed a crossed-legged position in front of my laptop).



when what should drop, quite literally, from the sky but this little guy...




so i run to grab the camera, cause that's what one does in these situations, and i start snapping away.  i was moving in to get some closer shots when this happens...



in case you missed it... it looks left, looks, right, then raises its large antennae thingies and bares its fangs.



through the lens, it looked like something from a Godzilla movie. i swear i even heard some hissing, but that might have been me shrieking with fright. at this point, my favorite animator's behind me laughing his head off while i'm screaming, "it's gonna eat my face", over and over again. trust me, you would have done the same thing.

this is when the situation went from interesting to downright frightening. being the caring coward that i am, i suggested we move it to a different location, lest a bird (or one of the cats) kill it.  the maple tree seemed like a good enough place, since it probably fell from there in the first place, so we he picked it up with a piece of paper, leaned over the railing, and deposited it on the nearest leaf.


it was a bit breezy out, so it took him a few seconds to get his bearings, then he turned and wandered off into the canopy.



after a bit of Googling, it seems to be the caterpillar of the White-Marked Tussock Moth (Orgya leucostigma).  it's a potentially destructive pest to a wide-range of trees, which is probably why our maple looks like swiss cheese.  beyond that, it is poisonous! the hairs are hollow and contain a toxin that is released on contact (similar to the noxious stinging nettle).  the effects can range from a severe rash to respiratory difficulty on par with an asthma attack.  so, i've more or less ensured the survival of a tree-destroying, poisonous pest. yep.  pretty much.

7.24.2015

(Viernes) finished objects...

i now live around the corner from my favorite yarn store—like, literally around the corner—and i haven't been in there even once since we moved more than two months ago.  shocking, i know.  i did, however, find it necessary to pop in for a visit on that snowy day when we first came to view the apartment, and i may have bought enough yarn that day to make a cardigan (for myself, but it doesn't count cause i was celebrating the pending move). i may have also popped back in a week or so later when we came to sign the lease, and i may have bought enough yarn to make another cardigan (for my mom, so it, also, doesn't count).

during the first visit, i saw a sample of this cardi-type garment on a mannequin and i instantly saw my mom wearing it (she's fashionable like that).



the (unnamed) pattern was designed by the store's owner, and she was offering it for free with the purchase of the yarn. so, of course, i had to go back to get it. [i was trying to steam out the fold lines on the back, but my piece of garbage steam iron chose that moment to self-destruct... after being used like 2 times since i bought it a year ago... but i digress].



i may have also experienced a total meltdown during the last week of pre-moving preparations, prompting me to rip open multiple boxes till i found the appropriate yarn to start this other cardi.



the pattern is Kara by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.  i was listening to marathon amounts of the The Fat Squirrel's podcast (more on that at some later time), and she made one for herself in a lovely green, which reminded me that the project was lurking somewhere in my Ravelry queue.  it's a Summer-friendly 97% cotton yarn from my stash.  the main attraction of this pattern is that simpler-than-it-looks lace and the very breezy wide collar/ribbing.



i made the sleeves shorter than the pattern suggested (check out my super-neat seaming)...



i made this for me, but i'm sending it off to my mommy... cause i love her... plus it gives me an excuse to make another one for myself.   everybody wins!

7.23.2015

(Jueves) evidence of the crime...

i had a terrible time getting to sleep last night. with the weather being 12 degrees one  day and 30 degrees the next, my poor sinuses are in a constant state of unhappiness. i finally fell asleep as the sun was threatening to rise, so i ended up sleeping in rather late today. after rolling around in a groggy daze, i tried to sit up in bed,and then it hit me. a blinding pain in the middle of my head, like someone was trying to press my brain out of my skull through the center of my eyeballs. i grabbed a pillow, jammed it over my head, and pulled the covers up over that for extra measure. the hope was that i would drift back into peaceful slumber, but what followed was an eternity of agony... or, so it felt. when i eventually gathered the wherewithal to venture outside of my cocoon of dis-ease, i tossed back the covers and stumbled toward the kitchen in search of caffeine and relief. the little grey cat (who tends to get extra-excited when i wake up) was trying desperately to get my attention by weaving in and out between my feet, and i barely acknowledged the cheerful greeting from the studio as i ambled past the door. i flipped the switch on the kettle, and staggered into the bathroom and i was just beginning to survey the impressive collection of sinus-headache treatments, when i heard a familiar click, and (about 5 seconds later) the voice from the studio. "sweetie, did the power just go out"?

you know that day when you're in that 'so not in the mood' mood and even the tiniest of problems threatens to push you right over the edge? yep. pretty much. after about five minutes of waiting for the problem to sort itself out, it ocurred to me that it may not be a building/neighborhood outage (which happens every now-and-then), so i checked the circuit box and rectified the situation with a flip of a switch. the kettle sprang back to life and i was soon walking into the living room with a tall cup of coffee in hand. i placed the cup on the table, rested the two tablets (still individually wrapped in their sealed for my protection packaging) next to it, and my tush was just about to make contact with the couch, when i heard the voice again from down the hall. "did you see what happened outside"?

i knew from the tone that "what happened" was not going to be good. there's been major renovations going on in the building—some of it across the hall, some of it two floors down—so i was prepared for unpleasantness that could be blamed on the workers. what i found was this...




the culprit even left a calling card. see it?



look closer...



yep.  pretty much.  one pot that got flooded by the recent rains was full of mud, which ended up splattered on the ground and wall...



even the little plastic caterpillar that usually lives in the pot with the tall croton ended up entangled in the oregano in the herb box...
 


i wanna say that the cat was bothered by all of this, but she was staring at a bird...



and here's the best part. he dug up my herb box and like 3 potted plants, because of this...
 


this was the point where i (finally) broke the seal on the plastic packaging and swallowed two very welcomed pills.

7.22.2015

(Miércoles) mid-week mildness...

i've finally figured out (part of) the reason why the squirrels seem to spend so much time hanging around our balcony.  our concierge likes to feed the local wildlife.  there's a small mountain of peanuts on the grass near the entrance to the building. it may seem perfectly harmless, but the squirrels keep digging holes in my flower pots to bury the empty shells. i actually had to intercede as one of the cats was about to pounce on a squirrel in the middle of hiding away his precious.  Diesel, the cat i had before these two, was in the habit of hunting stuff outdoors then bringing the carcass indoors and depositing it in my shoe as some twisted form of "sharing".  while i don't expect these two to be equally insane, i would rather avoid the risk of finding a dead squirrel in my favorite pair of sneakers.

i have, however, come to terms with the local flock of pigeons that like to hang out on the edge of the roof.  i even have a favorite.  this one...



ain't (s)he purdy???



i'm  finally gotting around to taking a few photos of my (relatively) recent finished objects.  this was a sweater i made for my favorite animator's birthday some months ago.



he has this thing about close-fitting collars, so many, many, manyyyyy sweater designs were rejected before he finally settled on the plain-Jane Flax pullover from Tin Can Knits.  the deciding factor? as he put it, "it has a wide collar, plus, i can run my fingers up and down the arm ridges like i'm playing a washboard".  yep.  pretty much.



i had two batches of yarn in a lovely heathery wool-alpaca blend, but i did not have enough of either batch for the project, so i used one strand from each dye lot, held together, for even more heathery goodness.


and i finished it off with a nifty label from RememberWynn. i'm still fighting the urge to get some custom labels from them so that i can sew my name into all my clothing, big kid style.



alpaca is notorious for blooming after the first wash, and this one did not disappoint.  looks like a veritable garden of cushiony mosses (and this is the most spot-on representation of the color).



some of the definition of the shoulder ridges was lost along the way, but as he put it, "i can still feel them when i run my fingers up and down my arm". yep.  pretty much.

7.21.2015

(Martes) stormy day...

gonna be totally honest here; i am deathly afraid of thunder.  after dodging the proverbial bullet of storm fronts over the past couple weeks, we seem to be more than making up for it in the last few days. every bolt of lighting sends me into a state of extreme panic as i hold my breath and wait, cringingly, for the inevitable sound of doom.

this is the perfect time to take refuge in one's happy place, and my happy place is lined with sheep and sheepful things.  i'm still plodding away at the yet-to-be-identified object from Sunday's post, but it is soooo hard to maintain my focus amidst the cry of fleece beckoning me to come play. in keeping with my tradition of the past three (or four) summers, i recently purchased a whole fleece (this time, from the premium fleece division of the Canadian Co-Operative Wool Growers Limited).  they don't sort their fiber by breed, but they are experts at matching what you're looking for in a fleece with what they have in stock.  i asked for a fine fleece (in terms of the coarseness of the fibers), somewhere in the range of 20-22 microns on average, with a staple length of at least 3½ inches, and this is what i got (after a light wash with a splash of baby shampoo)...



i specifically did not want a full-blood merino, as they tend to hang on to every bit of dirt and debris from every patch of open ground within a 20 mile range of their actual grazing area. at least, that's how it seems when you find yourself crying over a tub of dirty wool that refuses to even pretend to be getting cleaner. having made that mistake once, i prefer to purchase merino that has been prepped for spinning by a professional outfit. the fleece i ended up with looks (to me, at least) like a polypay or possibly a cormo (or some combination of breeds that produce a similar fleece).  whatever the breed, there is definitely a noticeable amount of merino in this sheep's background. judging from the high degree of crimpiness (it's a word), this is going to spin up into a lofty yarn with serious amounts of springiness.



 i was eager to see how it would look in a batt, so i tossed a few handfuls onto the drum carder.




speaking of which... did i mention that i got a drum carder???  well, i did!  it was a birthday present from my favorite animator.  it is the standard drum carder with the optional longer teeth.  you have to be a fiberista to understand the sheer awesomeness of having your very own drum carder.  this is practically porn to my people...



now, back to the fleece.  the problem with the finer wool breeds is the amount of extra work required in the preparation process.  while my sample produced a decent-enough product for spinning, the inherent stickiness of the fibers (i.e., the tendency to want to grab on to and interlock with each other) makes it that much harder for short cuts of fiber and VM (vegetable matter) to fall out while it is being combed by the tines of the drum carder. after two passes through the carder, it looked like this...



again, decent enough, but my brand of OCD would require me to stop and pick out every single bit of debris or every tiny matted clump while trying to spin this into yarn.  i was frustrated, to say the least, but it occurred to me that a quick flick with a the pet brush (not the brush i use for my cats, but the one i keep exclusively for fiber-related purposes) before tossing the fiber onto the drum carder might do the trick of opening up the fiber enough to allow all the unwanted bits to escape during the carding process.  i tried it out with a bit of the Shetland-BFL fleece from last summer. all i can say is, it is definitely worth the extra work.



on a random aside, i should note that the war of mutual-loathing with my squirrely neighbors marches on.  there have been many dirty looks exchanged across the divide of double-glazed windows. while neither sides wants to admit defeat, i have to express a great deal of respect for any creature that can devise such a simple, brilliant method for keeping dry on a rainy day.  i am appropriately frightened.



7.20.2015

(Lunes) there's color everywhere...

barring some cataclysmic event that leaves me as one of the few surviving women of child-bearing years, i am fairly certain than i am never having kids.  this was my mantra throughout the four-and-a-half hours spent today with two incredibly energetic little girls. don't get me wrong here. i love the heck out of those two girls, but they always manage to leave me worn out, physically and psychologically. the highlight of the afternoon had to be the younger one walking around our local used bookstore chanting "N- has a beauty mark on her boobie" [in reference to a tiny mole that was visible (if you were being incredibly nosy... which she was) near the armhole of my sleeveless dress]. i wasn't exactly banned from the bookstore, but let's just say that it's luckily that i have enough unread books to last until the shame subsides.

back at home, we introduced them to the wonderful world of watercolor painting. this was my first foray into that medium since being unceremoniously drummed out of the Wednesday Watercolor Society on account of my (rather obvious) lack of talent. i still can't paint to save my life, but the point of the exercise was (as always) to have fun, and i certainly did.



i've been making a concerted effort to add a bit of color to my life.  having rejected the prospect of a bi-national crime spree with the FBI and RCMP on my heels, i've opted to settle for color in the more literal sense of the word.  after admiring the dyed merino for some time now at my favorite online fiber retailer this side of the border...



...i finally broke down and got some.  despite the self-imposed ban on buying yarn, or anything yarn-like, i could not resist the 25% off sale.  so, there i was adding a few colors of dyed fiber to my shopping cart on Friday, and (somehow) all of this showed up at my door today...


the important thing to note here is the stupid-fast shipping time for an order that was placed at around 5 pm on a Friday. the plan is to use this assortment of so-not-me colors to blend with the more somber tones of my washed fleeces. i got 100 grams each of the aforementioned merino in indian yellow, verbena, royal, rust, jasper, lime, and anthracite....



then i tossed in 100 grams each of bamboo, eri silk, dyed Tussah silk (dune), and bleached Tussah silk...



and just for the heck of it, i got 2 of their 1 pound bags of mill ends (which, as the name suggests, are the bits and bobs fiber mills have left over at the end of a run). both bags contain superwash (i.e., washable) merino top in a variety of colors.  they were marked "sold out" on the site, but i called to ask when they planned to restock, and John made a special listing there-and-then just for me to add to my cart.  Alan (the other half of the business) described it over the phone as "one bag of bluish greys with some reddish browns, and a second bag of blue and purplish bits"... so, naturally, i had to buy both bags...



the collection of colorful things will serve as my very own painter's box for future fibery adventures. and, yes, i did make sure to store them away in moth-proof packaging (i.e., lots of little plastic bags). hey... whatever works.



oh, and there was a cat.  there's always a cat (because, apparently, i require constant supervision), and it's usually this cat (because, let's face it, the other one's just not that into me).



and, as if that was not enough color-overload to last a lifetime, i ended the day with a supper of leftover roasted chicken and this very on-topic salad...



the little leaves are oregano from my herb box...



my significant other has never quite developed an appreciation for adult beverages, so i made him a fresh batch of lemonade, and popped open a bottle of still cider (which i don't have to share).  so, while this technically qualifies as a white, it is the perfect end to an extraordinarily colorful day.