Muppets would be homeless...

i woke up from a dream about witches flying around a massive kitchen on broomsticks, competing in a cooking show. the 2024 season of Great British Menu—my absolute fave of all the 'Great' shows—is underway. i may have also just recovered from a two week stretch without a single sunny day by rewatching all the films in a certain magical franchise. 

speaking of potters... we were sitting down to watch the latest episode of  The Great Pottery Throw Down, when i made an... uhm... uplifting discovery. they pot in Canada! boy, do they pot in Canada. so, we watched the very first episode of  The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down. 

i was concerned that Seth Rogen's involvement in this was purely "vanity", but he actually really knows his stuff. he is also Seth Rogen... so it got interesting real fast. the contestants started working on items that reminded them of home, while the judges retreated to their backstage discussion area. this is when Seth reached back, to pull out a beautiful object that reminds him of the mountains back home. naturally, it is a bong. 

i almost died laughing.

this is the CBC. it is (largely) publicly-funded, like PBS and NPR back home in the States. because of that public funding, their programming (television and radio) is free for all to enjoy, and it (usually) falls under the heading of 'family viewing'... which is why my 'raised by Puritanical American television' mind melted. 

i could barely get the words out. i was laughing so hard. 

me: what??? you can't do this on publicly-funded tv! i don't even think you'd be allowed to do this on the major networks. definitely not during primetime. this would have to be on some kind of streaming service you're paying extra for. i am certain that if this happened on a regular family program back home...

then i paused to reflect on scenes of CDs being crushed, wine bottles emptied down drains, the near global shortage of duct tape because of a beer can... to name a few 'American overreaction moments'.  

me: yep... there would definitely have to be many rounds of Congressional hearings because of this pottery contest. Muppets would be homeless. 

then Seth proceeded to demonstrate how easily he crafts an ashtray specially designed for holding joints, and he set the contestants the challenge of making one of their own... then i just carried on laughing. 

the cosmic algorithm has shifted...

i am multiple days deep into what is turning out to be one of the greatest sub-migraines in recorded history. for now, i am trying (but mostly failing) to avoid anything that might cause me the slightest measure of additional stress... which is not as easy as it sounds. 

me: i want to bring my computer out here [pointing at my favorite sofa], but the light [pointing at the wall of windows] is doing that thing where it feels like i am being stabbed in the back of my eyeballs. 
him: just close the drapes.
me: that almost makes sense.

so, i did. then i started wondering aloud about the parts i need to replace the brake system on my loom, which resulted in us walking across the hall to the studio to give it a closer look. a few minutes later, we were back in the living room.

him: why are the drapes closed?
me: i just closed them a few minutes ago.
him: oh... are you coming to sit out here?
me: do you listen to anything i say?
him: open one side so the plants can get some light.
me: if i do that, the light will start doing that eyeball stabby thing again.
him: open it a little bit on the end by the plants.
me: what is more important to you right now... my sanity or the damn plants?
him: just open it.

then i gave him that look that said he better sleep with one eye open. speaking of which...

i know the cosmic algorithm has shifted so that it is no longer socially acceptable to complain about...well... anything. however, it should be noted that i have been feeling a bit overwhelmed of late. i have not slept through a whole night in days for starters, which would probably explain the ever-present sub-migraine. no exaggeration, i found myself sitting in the bathroom in the dark at like four o'clock one morning, surrounded by the three cats. i was trying to figure out where i went wrong in life, while they were mostly concerned that i would not be able to see my way to feed them with all the lights turned off. 

yes. i am surrounded by so much love. 

sleep deprivation aside, it continues to be (mostly) uneventful around these parts. we had a touch of rough weather earlier in the week, which resulted in all the things you can usually expect when you mix high winds with the bitter cold. one of the animator's colleagues lost power when a transformer—the electrical kind, not a robot in disguise—in front her building exploded, melting part of a car that was parked nearby. you know... usual wintery hijinks. 

we were prepared for the power to go out at some point, a not uncommon occurrence in bad weather. so, when it did a day later, we just took it in stride. 

me: what the...?
him: there it goes. power's out.

this sort of thing would probably have been met with a bit of grumbling back in the olden times, but one finds very little to complain about since the shift. so, we threw a couple blankets on the sofa and pulled out the Codenames Duet. that stuff in my jar is just a berry tea bag in water. and, yes, i am using a face mask as a snack container. we are living in crazy times!

we have been stuck at Washington DC for weeks now, which—some may say—is a metaphor for life. 

we have a system for keeping track of who did what in the game. the upside down cards are my clues that he guessed correctly, and vice versa. 

i used some of that time to check out my latest random purchase from a local business that was started by two dads with a beautiful message. 

i was not a fan of Barbie per se when i was growing up, and the dolls were only ever used as models for the tiny clothes i would make when i was learning to sew. i get the feeling that little eight-year old me would have loved this doll. looking at that hair alone makes my whole life make sense. i will definitely have to return to the world of tiny fashion in the near future. 

i also did a bit of knitting during our game. this is the start of a sleeve. 

it is part of one of the two projects i have been working on (for far too long, as i have zero enthusiasm to get them done). for him, there is the iconic cardigan that he has been wanting for years now. this is the bottom section. i have to do some math and redraw a few charts before i can continue working up to the top. good times. 

for me, there is a sweater that is being worked from the top down in a mighty bright green yarn. said yarn was the result of an important life lesson... which i will talk about some other day. 

i tend to blame coming of age when Grunge was at its peak for my decidedly melancholy approach to fashion. still, i am grudgingly coming to terms with the fact that i look fabulous in bright colors. well-played, Mother Nature. 

oh, and i am using a stitch marker on this project that was one of many i made from my frighteningly-large collection of beading supplies... which is yet another thing i need to get back to one of these days. 

'twould seem that i need fewer hobbies... or a few more lifetimes. 

Jultember in a single word...

to be perfectly honest... i briefly considered doing a post-a-day during Jultember. however, as i have been genuinely struggling to find the will to get out of bed some days, said effort was doomed to failure before it even started. so, i took the occasional photo of the random nonsense i got up to over the course of a month that began in one season and ended in another.

this year's balcony garden project has been a literal oasis. beyond being lovely to look at, living like we do in an apartment in the middle of the city, it is especially nice to occasionally harvest something just moments before it ends up on the dinner table.

the inclusion of more flowers in this year's garden meant that there were even more colorful creatures stopping by for a visit. i was (pleasantly) shocked to see a ruby-throated hummingbird zipping around one afternoon (the visit was too brief to get a photo). one almost forgets that there is (non-squirrel) wildlife in the city, and we will definitely be planting even more welcoming flowers in next Summer's garden.

i did have to rescue a visiting cicada from potential death-by-adorable-cat. i formed a human shield between the two, until the cicada eventually climbed back through the netting and  flew away... then i spent the rest of the day threatening to climb a tree to strangle a cicada (perhaps it was the same one) whose noisy antics was driving me up a wall.

the animator was most amused.

him: if you hate that noise so much, why didn't you just let the cat kill it?
me: that would be cruel. they're annoying, but they're cute.

i found myself in need of a quick pick-me-up one random afternoon, so i made some candles. this was my first time using wooden wicks. i am hooked!

the light is stronger than with the cotton wicks, but the candle burns so slowly that it feels like it will last forever. i burned this one for close to twelve hours, and the jar was still near-full. i approve.

i have been neglecting my knitting projects, partly because it was too hot to be bothered, but mostly because i just stopped caring. this top was intended to be part of my Summer wardrobe. maybe next year.

that is some of my own hand-dyed yarn. i will talk more about the genius/lunacy involved in getting this effect on a cotton-based yarn if/when i finish the top.

 

i did manage to (finally) complete another pair of socks (more about that some other day) for the animator, which i started back in April. i also finished spinning the charcoal-grey yarn that i talked about in that same post. there is enough of this to make a whole garment, so now i just have to find a pattern that is worthy of this special yarn.

it is hard to maintain consistency across such a large spin, but i am satisfied with the end result. this is begging to be turned into a comfy cardigan.

i added some new yarns to my stash. i got a sweater's quantity of each color. they knit up into such a beautiful fabric. the fiber is a cotton-acrylic blend that will make for some comfy allergy-free sweaters for me.

i usually avoid wearing browns, but this warm gold was created to be worn next to my skin. this just screams AUTUMN!!!

we consumed a ridiculous amount of iced tea earlier in the month. there was a stretch of a couple-few weeks were the temperature in the middle of the city was hovering around 40°C (104°F), with the "feels like" temperature a few degrees above that. it was... brutal.

this was a particularly hot, dry Summer, so it was a great relief when the rain finally came about halfway through the month. which brings me to the point of this pointless thing...

if i had to summarize this past Jultember in a single word, it would be "tomato".

we got a large box of veggies from his parents' garden, including about twenty-five pounds of tomatoes... because his father is that lunatic. i roasted half of them (like i did last Summer), and the rest were turned into many tomato salads. [random aside: that plate with the chip is older than both of us.]

that particular salad was served along with a heaping plate of Greek-style lemon chicken and potatoes (made by the animator). said dish was flavored with fresh oregano and thyme from our little garden. the leftovers were equally amazing the next day.

we sent a photo of the salad to his dad, who was impressed by my neat arrangement of the slices... then he immediately began amassing another box of tomatoes. you know, in case we were in danger of running out of the stuff.

meanwhile, every now and then, one of us would step out onto the balcony, and return with a handful of freshly-harvested tomatoes. there is presently a large container of fresh tomatoes occupying half a shelf in the fridge, along with three containers of garlic-roasted tomatoes, all waiting to be used up. it is at the point where we are putting tomatoes into just about everything we consume.

the veggie haul from his parents' backyard also included several heads of celery. i chopped a few stalks at a time, and stored them in the freezer for the coming soup season.

we transplanted a couple of the smaller celery plants to the balcony garden project...

and i placed the bottom of one of the chopped up heads of celery into a pot of soil, where it promptly started to grow new leaves.

then, without warning, Jultember was through... and with it went Summer.

now we are racing toward the part of the year that i love most of all. i ventured halfway across town this past weekend to get my first taste of this year's harvest of concord grapes. i actually bought three containers of the stuff, but the first one disappeared within minutes of getting them home.

but the best bit came when the animator was checking the weather forecast earlier today.

him: apparently there is a typhoon forming somewhere in Asia that is going to bring an early Fall to Canada.
me: that must be one powerful typhoon.
him: it's the butterfly effect.
me: yeh, but with like every butterfly on the planet flapping extra hard. 
him: the last three words of this article should make you smile. you ready for this?
me: go ahead.
him: "definitely sweater weather."

yep. still smiling.

best rabbit hole ever...

i am sat up in bed, watching nonsense on You Tube and eating floor-Oreos. hopefully i will do a better job of holding on to the opened pack next time around... hopefully.

it is Monday evening as i start writing this, and i am already waiting for this week to be done. last week was an especially rubbish one around here, and the weekend left me expecting that we were in for more of the same. i called my mother on Sunday, and my greeting to her was a dour, but apt one. "we are still alive. happy Mother's Day."

in that spirit of celebrating the tiny victories in life—including life itself—i present to you a tiny glimpse into the randomness that has brought some measure of joy to my corner of the Universe of late. 

we pulled a couple steaks out of the freezer and made a special meal one random day... just because.

these smashed potatoes have become his favorite dish of the moment. i boil whole potatoes (red potatoes in this case, as that is what we had on hand) in super-salty water, then smashed them lightly, and drizzled on a mixture of olive oil, melted butter, salt, black pepper, and a generous helping of crushed garlic. they go into a 425°F oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet until they are toasty around the edges, after which i turn on the broiler for the last couple-few minutes. i added a sprinkling of freshly-grated Parmesan cheese and shoved them back under the broiler for the last minute. not gonna lie... they are really tasty. he likes the leftovers served up with sour cream, so we make extra for the next day. so ridiculously good!

speaking of ridiculous... i woke up one day last week to find a new box in the entryway to our apartment, which currently serves as the 'quarantine area' for all incoming items.

me: was this here before?
him: uhm... no.
me: is this an 'unauthorized purchase'?
him: uhm... possibly.
me: what did you buy now?
him: it's a Master of the Universe. you like them. 
me: open 'er up.

after the absurdity of life of late, he can buy whatever nonsense he wants. so... welcome, Skeletor.

may you find peace among the countless other homages to a never-ending childhood that are already occupying our home. trust me... that is only a tiny fraction of the insanity in the studio. whatever makes him happy.

he hangs on to the boxes with interesting artwork, so this one was a definite keeper.

as i see it, we are all allowed our own brand of insanity. which reminds me...

i washed those two fleeces i talked about last time. this usually requires a lot of room to spread all that wool out to dry, but that would be asking for trouble in a home with three bored cats. so i divided the fiber into several batches that could be dried out of paw-reach, and washed them over the course of a week or so.

i separated out the 'best bits' from each fleece and took special care to try to wash them while maintaining the lock formations of the fiber, like this bag of cleaned BFL/NCC mule fiber. [i explained what that means in the previous post.]

i love the variation in the fiber from this one fleece. it is hard to believe that all of this came from the same sheep.

i did the same thing with the purebred BFL fleece.

this may look like a tangly mess, but i can easily separate the locks, which will help when it comes time to prep the fiber for spinning.

there is enough 'best bits' from the mule fiber for a generous sweater's worth of yarn, so i am storing all of that in a recycling bag until i decide what it will become. the BFL was a much smaller fleece, so those 'best bits' are living for now in one of the shopping bags that was sent along with my box of wool.

as for the mucky bits of both fleeces, they were washed in a less-organized fashion, using some plastic strainers and mesh baskets that i keep exclusively for use with fiber-related things.

i am going to need to open a few chakras before i can begin to tackle prepping this stuff for spinning. however, in all this madness, i welcome that challenge.

there were some impressively-long sections of the BFL fleece. i am actually considering getting one of their longer fleeces next year... should we last that long.

i am making progress on the summery top featuring my first ever batch of hand-dyed cotton-based yarn (which i spoke about two posts ago). i am taking all sorts of license in re-interpreting the designer's instructions... because i can. the top should be finished by this weekend, unless i get distracted by some other... hey, is that a butterfly???

oh, and i am still carrying those damn socks (from a few post ago) from room-to-room, although i must admit to having added not a single stitch to that project in over a week.

____________________

it is roughly twenty-four hours later and i am pleased to say that i have fallen down a rabbit hole that began with the Betty Boop classic "Minnie the Moocher", and has resulted in the past couple-few hours being spent watching segments of swing music/dancing from a truly impressive list of old movies. between the likes of the Nicholas Brothers, Cab Calloway, and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, i have hummed, snapped my fingers, and tapped my toes enough to chase away most of the gloom that i feared would cloud the next few days of my life.

best rabbit hole ever!!!

i wrapped up my evening by returning to where it started... with good music and classic animation. this time, it was the Warner Bros classic "Three Little Bops". [the only video i could find that includes the whole piece was this one from Vimeo. and, yes... the video quality sucks.]

then my favorite animator walked in.

him: are you listing to the "Three Little Bops"?
me: yep. been listening to it on repeat for the last twenty minutes or so.
him: i was listening to that just yesterday.

then i smiled. it is nice to be reminded that our insanity intersects every once in a while.

house of Absurdity...

you know you live in a house full of absurdity when your ridiculous requests go totally unquestioned.

me: uhm... sweetie, i need you to do me a tiny favor.
him: what?
me: i need you to... uhm... add some... uhm... censorship strips to... uhm...[long pause here]... a picture of naked Barbie dolls.
him: send me the picture.

and just like that, it was done.

i mentioned back at the start of the year that i was stepping wayyy outside my comfort zone by making clothes for Barbie dolls. well, that was just the beginning of the absurdity.

let me pause here to point out that i am not exactly a fan of Barbie. i do, however, love love LOVEEE making stuff. so, when one of his brother's kids started carrying around an armful of Barbies, i responded in the only way i could. i knitted and sewed a bunch of tiny clothes for Barbie dolls.

naturally, this meant that i had to purchase my own Barbie dolls. a dressmaker needs models, after all. i got a "regular size" Barbie and a "curvy" one so that i could cover the full spectrum. the smaller one was actually some sort of Scientist Barbie, which i chose because i like to torment myself every now and then with reminders of what my life used to be. and, yes... my cat is sniffing Barbie. i am sure there is a hashtag for that.

where was i? oh, yes... Barbie.

so, here is my tiny fashion show in all its glory. forget the "house" of Chanel or Givenchy or Dior. they are all amateurs. allow me to introduce you to the house of Absurdity. enjoy!

i did quite a bit of sewing for dolls back in the day, but this was my first time knitting for Barbie, so i spent some time picking out the right pattern to begin with. unfortunately, i picked out a yarn that was slightly too thin, so the overalls turned out a bit... uhm... well-fitted. it almost feels like i should be asking for another censorship strip.

i went for  thicker yarns, and both ladies now had slightly-less-well-fitted overalls.

then i made a dress that seemed more appropriate for Scientist Barbie to wear when standing up in front of a room full of university students who are pretending not to be looking at nonsense on the internet while she drones on about the parts of the brain. ask me how i know.

and i made a couple tunic-style sweaters that could be worn on their own, or with pants. if memory serves, the greenish-blue sweater was loosely based on this one, and the reddish-pink one was something i made up on the go. [random aside: that designer has a ton of Barbie-sized patterns (most of them are free) available in about eleven languages on her website and on Ravelry.]

 those pants were repurposed from some old sweats, so feel free to thank me for saving the planet.

i made the template for the pants by tracing a line around each doll onto some sub-par watercolor paper that we have been trying to get rid of for years. the pants were the perfect sizes, so i made two more, this time using stretch lace of the kind that is intended to be used as the trim on tacky dresses for weddings and sweet sixteens.

they are super-adorable with these strapless dresses...

which i made from some cheap Reebok socks that i found on sale somewhere. that one sock looks a bit smaller because i tossed it in the wash to see if it would shrink... and it did.

my absolute favorite item of all was the party dress for Curvy Barbie. in a word... stunning!

then i sorted the whole lot into two piles...

placed each pile into its own little bag...

and sent them off to the kid, who was only momentarily disappointed that is was not a tin full of chocolates. this was so much better.

naturally, i forgot to include (or even photograph) one item. the party dress for Dimensionally-Challenged Barbie. now i am going to be accused of being a reverse-sizeist.

i have enough scraps of fabric and leftover bits of yarn to make clothes for an army of Barbies, so there definitely will be more to come. and i have to add that i might have been more of a fan of this franchise if Curvy Barbie existed back in my day, because she has dimensions to which i can definitely relate.

now i feel like i need to go knit or sew some more tiny things. this will not end well.