| Friday, April 22, 2005 |
| Catching Up All of Last Week (LONG post) |
Sunday, April 10: Julie and Rich showed up somewhere around 9am so Yannick and Rich could put on their summer tires. I didn’t care, I slept until 10:30. By the time I woke up, Debbie arrived and the three of us caught the tail-end of the extremely cheesy tween movie “Raise your Voice”. It’s kinda like Fame for the brain-dead.
Once the boys were done we went over to Jack Astor’s for lunch, and due to me finding bone fragments in my burger I got my meal comped. A few months ago Yannick and I both had burgers and we found over 11 pieces of bone altogether. It turned out that for the entire week preceding that night, customers had been finding bones in the hamburger. We both got our meals free that night, and I’d avoided the burger there since. I know it’s not the chef’s fault that occasionally some bones get into the grinder with the meat when it’s being processed. This time I figured enough time had gone by that they’d used up that shipment of meat, so I tried the burger again. One tiny piece of bone. About the size of a Tic-Tac. All I did was show it to the waitress so she could let the chef know that there were bones in the meat, but when she came back with the bills she told me they were very sorry, and that my meal was on the house. Cool! I left a very glowing message on the “Rate our Service” card they bring with the bill.
We came home after lunch, and after Debbie left we went downstairs and watched “I heart Huckabees” while I knit the ribbing of one sleeve of the Kosher sweater. Not the greatest of movies, but it’s been that kind of day it seems. We didn’t realize how long the movie would last, because by the time it was over we were late for dinner at Yannick’s sister’s house.
B and Matts had left for Cuba on Tues, but Yannick’s mom was spending the week to babysit and invited us for dinner. The food was yummy as always and then Yannick and I pitched in by getting the boys bathed and changed for bed, and tucking them all in. We sat around with his parents talking for a while, then came home. I was tired enough to sleep, but needed to first finish knitting and then felt two swatches before tomorrow’s class. I needed to know the pre and post felting gauge so I could get Nicole to help me calculate how many rows/sts to make my bag, based on how big I wanted the finished, felted bag to be.
So even though I was home early enough to get a good rest, felting came first. Yannick was a good help though, giving me 4 tennis balls and 2 squash balls to throw in the washing machine. It was my first time felting Patons’ Classic Elite wool, but it felted great! Much better than the Noro Kureyon and the Alafoss Lopi I’d felted before. Quick and smooth, and I swear not a single pill or fuzz to be found. I’m in love.
Monday, April 11: I had my knitting class in the morning. I had originally rushed to finish the Kosher sweater so I could wear it to class (God I’m such a show-off!) but then when I realized that Mia would have her felted bag ready, I decided not to bring it in. I don’t like upstaging the other women in the class and I knew she’d be really proud of her bag, so I didn’t want to horn in on her moment by then pulling out an entire sweater I’d done in one week. It turned out her bag was still drying, so I needn’t have worried.
I don’t remember if I’d mentioned it before, but Mia’s my enabler. If I see yarn I like or a project I want to try, I know that all I need to do is mention it to her and I’ll get enough encouragement that I’ll wind up leaving with that yarn or project in hand. Sure enough when I saw a funky bag done in Funky Fur Magic (yes, I’m completely immature enough to carry around a fun fur-type bag) it wasn’t long before she was in the aisles with me choosing a color. Of course I was so excited to have yet another project to work on that when I came home I started it right away.
First I had a doctor’s appointment. I’m not sure if it was the knitting or napping I’d done during my 1.5 hour wait to see the doc, but whatever it was lowered my blood pressure enough that not only do I not need to go on meds, but he doesn’t want to see me again until July! Woo hoo. Then I came home to start my bag.
Unfortunately, instead of buying the Funky Fur Magic which self-stripes, I’d bought the plain old Funky Fur, which didn’t. So what I thought would be cool stripes of bright, navy and dark blues, turned out to be a mottled mix that really seemed appropriate for someone half my age. (Hey, at least I didn’t pick the pinks or opals that I was originally attracted to!) I undid the 2 rows I’d done and put it aside to exchange and spent the rest of the afternoon working on the base of my felted bag.
I’ve come to realize that although I bought a Fiber Trends pattern for the bag (the Sheep Tote pattern), there are so many changes I’d wanted to make that it really was becoming my own bag. I think I’m going to type up the pattern once I’m done and see about submitting it somewhere. Really, I’m changing the yarn, the size of the bag, the pockets, the closure, the finishing, the edges, and adding a few things. I think I’m justified in saying that it’s truly MY pattern. Nicole had helped me this morning to calculate my gauges and now I had the beginnings of a pattern.
Tuesday, April 12: On my way to work in the morning I stopped at my LYS to exchange the Funky Fur for the Funky Fur Magic. It was a dollar more per skein, but I only needed 3 plus I found a much better colorway. It stripes gorgeously from black through charcoal and steel gray, down to a silvery white and back to black. I think it will almost look like an animal fur once it’s done. The handles will be plastic (acetate?) circles that are completely transparent. I’m going to line it once it’s done with the wildest hot pink satin I can find. It’s definitely the kind of purse that someone much younger and trendier than I would normally use, but I’ve decided that this summer I’m going to let my funk out and not care what people think. Plus I have 2 weddings this summer so it will get some use.
From the LYS I went to work, then rushed home to have a bite to eat and go down to Beaconsfield for the Montreal Knitting Guild meeting. It was a really informative week! One of the members spoke about pricing your knitting, and gave out a really useful sheet that tells you how to calculate the pricing with sections on difficulty, special finishing, etc. I’m going to use it from now on for any KFH I take on (KFH: knit for hire).
Wednesday, April 13: I’m having a hard time remembering what I did last Wednesday. I probably came home from work and knit on the Funky Fur Magic bag (FFM bag from now on) while watching House and CSI:NY (I taped The Amazing Race and Law & Order).
Thursday, April 14: Again, I’m only guessing, but I believe I came home from work and knit on the FFM bag while watching CSI and Without a Trace. Yannick still wasn’t home by the time the shows were over, so I switched rooms and curled up on the sofa in the living room, watching my tapes from the previous week, and still knitting on the FFM bag.
Friday, April 15: Yannick decided to surprise me with sushi for supper. He’d wanted to have it at the house by the time I got home from work, but our windshields were delivered and were taking up our living room (our fave spot to relax and eat, especially for a lingering meal like sushi) so he waited for me to get home and we went out to the restaurant. I had the bright idea to walk since it was only 5 or so blocks away. Well, we each decided to try something new and instead of getting tons of maki rolls we ordered off the table d’hote. First was soup (he had the miso soup, I had onion broth), then salads, then I had an appetizer of 6 little maki rolls (3 cucumber, 3 avocado) and he had 3 pieces of sushi (shrimp, tuna & salmon), then as if we didn’t have enough food already, we got a huge plate each with a chicken breast, 2 scallops, 2 jumbo shrimp and a bunch of veggies, all fried in tempura batter. Plus rice. And it even came with ice cream and tea included!
Thank god we walked home after, ‘cus I don’t think the seat belts would have closed around our huge bellies if we’d taken the car. Of course, by the time we’d walked home we’d decided to go see a movie and what movie is complete without popcorn? Definitely not a fun, fluffy movie like Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous! So not much knitting done, but lotsa eating. :]
Saturday, April 16: After work I did a quick workout tape (after all that food yesterday) and got ready to go out. We were meeting Julie, Rich, Debbie, Jackie & Kevin for dinner. It was great to be out with everyone, it had been a few weeks since we’d all gotten together. Also, it has been a while since Jackie felt well enough to go out, so it was perfect timing that she was feeling good that day.
We went to Montana’s and while the food was delicious, it arrived over an hour late to the table and then some of the meals were off, like my plate had the wrong veggies and was missing the sauce I’d paid extra for, and when they brought it back with the sauce they’d taken away the fried onions…long story short the restaurant comped everyone’s meals! Can you believe it? All 7 of us got our meals for free! We were so appreciative we made sure to order coffees and dessert each so we’d be paying something, and tipped the waitress as if we’d had the full bill. (Ok, I’d been planning on getting dessert anyways, but shh!)
After dinner Jackie was still feeling up to being out, so instead of the rest of us taking off to a smoky comedy club, we (the girls) went to midnight Bingo and the guys bowled at the lanes next door. No one won, but I think we all did ‘cus it had been almost a year since we’d gone out just the 4 girls, and I think we all had a great time. Still no knitting though.
Sunday, April 17: Yannick and I had our windshields changed in the early afternoon. It was so much fun! First I was able to gloat because Yannick’s 2000-something 300M took longer to change the windshield and wound up having rust spots that needed to be fixed, and my 1987 Celebrity sh*tbox took about 30 minutes and had almost nothing to be cleaned off. Then I got to relieve some tension by smashing a hammer at the old windshields. It takes a lot more impact then I thought! It took me 7 swings to even make a dent, although one really nice swipe left a huge spiderweb of cracks. Of course Yannick had to show off by cracking it in one swing. Men.
After that we stopped at Harvey’s for lunch then went up to Wal-Mart where Yannick convinced me to buy 5 pairs of jeans to replace my tattered, ripped and torn pairs. Ok, so the 5 pairs only cost $123, but still. That’s $123 I didn’t plan on spending…or at least could have spent on wool tomorrow. Men. At least $14 of that bill was 2 huge skeins of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton so I could finally attempt a few dish cloths/face cloths. I bought 1 sk of white to make face cloths and a face towel for the upstairs bathroom, and 1 sk of a blue/white variegated to make dish cloths for the kitchen.
I had a bad migraine by the time we got home (probably triggered by the stress of trying on about 30 pairs of jeans to find 5 that fit somewhat decently) so I took some pills and vegged on the couch for a bit, doing a kitchener bind-off on the second sleeve of the Kosher sweater. Ok, for some kitchener probably doesn’t seem restful, but I do the bind-off the way my finishing book (by Nancie M. Wiseman) shows, on 1x1 rib with the purls on the back needle and the knits on the front. Then it’s just weaving the loose end of the yarn through on a sewing needle. It’s almost rhythmic- into first stitch knitways, slip stitch off needle and go into second stitch purlways, then in the back go into the first stitch purlways, slip stitch off needle and go into second stitch knitways. Repeat. “…as if to knit, slip off, as if to purl…as if to purl, slip off, as if to knit…” It really does become kind of soothing.
Once I was feeling better we went to my parents’ house for dinner, then went bowling with my brother Mike, my cousin Jon and his new girlfriend. Ok, I’ll admit it. I KIP’d again. The guys bowled, the girlfriend watched, I knit. Yannick introduced me as his 80-year old girlfriend the knitter. I slugged him. It was still fun for us though. Well, it was fun for me ‘cus I had my knitting, but we both got to participate by watching their cards. They play a version of poker where they all ante in at the beginning of each game, and you get to take a card from the deck each time you get a strike. By the end of the game the one with the best poker hand wins the ante. After bowling we came home and I plopped right into bed. All the eating this weekend just wore me out!
Monday, April 18: I had my knitting class in the morning. I brought along the FFM bag to show Mia the colorway since she’d helped me pick the original blue one. She brought her felted bag, and although it was huge it was gorgeous! She used colors I never would have thought to use together, and the finished, felted bag looks designer. It's really stunning. I brought the Kosher sweater to get Nicole’s advice on finishing the neckline, and I brought the Perfect Felted Knitting Bag to work on in class. I know I keep changing it’s name. I think it will vary until I have to commit when I try to submit it somewhere.
After the class I came home and woke up Yannick (ahh the joys of sleeping in!) and settled in for my day of knitting on the Kosher sweater. I whipstitched the excess length of the neckline down and managed to shape it into a nice semi-arc of a doubled thickness, almost like the deliberate thicker lining you find on commercial machine-knit sweaters. I won’t know until the neckline’s done if it will be too thick or not. I’m hoping not. I then committed the cardinal sin of knitting- I started weaving in my ends before the knitting was all done. I left the ends of the bottom and ribbing loose ‘cus I don’t like how it flares and might undo it and rib with a smaller needle.
Unfortunately, the more I try it on, the more I find things I don’t like, like excess fabric in the arms and uneven seams. About 85% of my mind is made up on frogging the whole thing. By dinner time I decided to leave it until next Monday. I’ll go in to the class and try it on, and get everyone’s honest opinion on do I make do and know better for next time, or not waste the $50 on the yarn, make my pattern notes, frog it and start over? The only things keeping me from frogging right now are the fact that I a) want to wear it already, and b) don’t want to take out the knitting machine again, and I don’t think these are valid reasons to make a half-assed sweater.
Tuesday, April 19: After work I came home and did nothing but eat and knit. It was fun! I had a snack. I knit. I ate dinner. I knit. I had a treat for dessert. I knit. I love how productive the knitting became, but wish the eating wasn’t quite as productive with my stomach. Oh well- at least I finished the first Funky Fur Magic skein. My FFM bag is officially 1/3 done.
Wednesday, April 20: This was not my day. First I discover that my white cable-knit sweater that’s so old it’s almost falling apart is actually almost see-through in the gaps between the sts in places where the sweater gets pulled a bit. Like the boobs. And of course today I chose to wear a baby blue bra. And of course I only discover this fact once I get to work, which is a 30min drive from where I live. Oh, and on top of this I’m not even going home after work today, it’s the Montreal Knitting Meetup at Second Cup on Monkland, and I’ll be going straight there after work. So now I get to spend the entire day and night with my bra playing peek-a-boo through my shirt.
Then I carry a box to the back of the store, misjudge the width of the doorway to the back and hit the doorframe with the box. Which rebounds back into my lip. Which mashes in against my tooth. Which refuses to give, thus forcing my lip (the more flexible of the two opponents) to give, and split, and bleed. Anyone remember I’m wearing a white sweater? Luckily it was barely bleeding, more like a scratch, really. So in all honestly no big deal, but still something else to chalk up to “not my day”.
Luckily the end of the night went better than the beginning. I went to the meetup and had a great time! Cady, Mary and Jennifer were there from the last meetup, and Michelle too (who was the one whose name I'd forgotten). Nadine was able to stay this time, and I met Zaina (sp?) who's in town for an indefinate period of time and was also at the MKG meeting last Tues, and someone new named Jo-something. Joceyln? Joelle? Joanne? I gotta start writting the names down! The last 2 to arrive were very cool women to meet. Mona has a blog that I've followed from time to time and it's just so cool to meet another Montreal knitting blogger, and Veronik is the Montreal designer Veronik Avery, whose knitware designs you might have seen in a little magazine called Interweave Knits. Tres cool to meet them both. Even cooler when Veronik told me she reads my blog! (Hey Veronik- my offer still stands...I'll pick you up and bring you to The Wool Shop in exchange for help with my stupid machine knit disaster sweater.)
For anyone interested, there is now a website devoted to Montreal knitting, and a yahoo group for the same. This will come in handy, not only to have a central locale for all things Montreal knitting related (like blogs, stores, etc...) but also to arrange meetups as meetup.com has decided to start charging, and we as a group have decided not to start paying.
Lastly, there's today. After a long day at work I dashed home to change, throw on some nicer (read: sexier) clothes, a little makeup (read: smoky eyeshadow and red vamp lipstick) and was off to meet Debbie for drinks at Babaloo's. I'd already had supper but wanted a nibble, so I decided to try what they called a Shrimp and Avocado Martini. Oohhh so good! It's a martini glass with avocado slices, some lemon juice, and shrimps that were marinated in vodka, dill and lemon juice. It was only 6 bucks and there were 8 shrimp! Yummy!
From there we decided to swing by Cheers! to see if any of the old crowd were still there. Back in the day (am I old enough to say "back in the day"?) our group of friends hung out there every night of the week. We had our own corner, got a lot of our drinks for free, and were considered enough of "regulars" that even if there was a line and a cover charge, all we had to do was walk up to the bouncer, kiss him on the cheek and stroll on in.
Ugh. Is it just me or are bars these days populated by babies?!? Except for those clearly over the legal drinking age, everyone else just looked young. Makes me feel old, and I'm not even that old! We did run in to Yannick's best friend and some of his friends, so we spent a few minutes with them, but left as soon as we could after that. That place makes me feel dirty.
Not much knitting to report, although I did do about 30 minutes on my Pefect Bag at lunch time. I decided that my corners weren't enough of right angles for my liking, so I dropped the corner sts down right to where I'd picked them up from the base and reworked them back up. I'm pretty much rewriting my own pattern as I go.
Well, this is about as much as I can honestly expect anyone to want to read in one sitting, so I'll sign off for tonight. Hoepfully there will be no more hiccups with my server and I won't have to go another week without posting. Good night! :) |
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:08 am   |
|
| 2 Comments: |
-
After making it through your very looong post I have only to add: Nice meeting you, too!
-
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
After making it through your very looong post I have only to add: Nice meeting you, too!