handmade by jennifer: August 2006

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Thursday, August 31, 2006

of all the....

I found a Warning Label Generator on someone's blog. I decided to enter my blog name: JELOCA.

THIS is my warning label:

"ACHTUNG!

jeloca may actually be a spider-human hybrid

From Go-Quiz.com

ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 4:44 pm 1 comments

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Finally- a FO I can post!

This is the Harlequin baby blanket that I knit for the MKG's charity drive this coming year. I believe that the blankets will be raffled, and the knitters will have our names put in a hat, and the person whose name is drawn gets to pick where the raffle money goes...to which charity.

The yarn is Tessin by Muench. I'm not too keen on the colors, but love this yarn and the way it works up in garter. It's so nice and floppy and a child will love it...I want to buy some of this yarn to make something for my future children! I'm so glad I chose to ask for a yarn pack. This yarn is a great example of something I would have seen on the net or in person and NEVER would have picked up to buy...to garish and the colors are just not me. Yet I love the final fabric it creates and am eager to work with it again...in the right project.

It doesn't seem that big when you're knitting it...squares of garter knit as one piece with no seaming in the end. But when I laid it down on the bed to photograph...it's huge!

Thanks to V. for sending the link re: the good wife article:
http://www.snopes.com/language/document/goodwife.asp
What a relief!

So the wedding is Sunday and I still am not freaking out. I'm frantically trying to get the house clean for our guests Thursday night, and trying to remember to pack everything for our honeymoon, and to get my brother moved in, and stuff like that...but not about the wedding.

I have had 2 dreams so far about stuff going wrong at the wedding, so I think my subconscious is a little more worried than I am. :/

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:31 pm 2 comments

oh my god no no no never never no no

I can't believe this was ever spewed into the female consciousness. How much do you want to bet that a man wrote it?

Article from Housekeeping Monthly, May 11 1955. Click on it to make it big enough to read.

What timing. I made the mistake of reading it out loud to my dad and Yannick. To say they were amused is an understatement.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 1:10 pm 3 comments

Friday, August 25, 2006

again with the no posting?

I know I'm slacking off. I'm running around trying to get the house cleaned up for the cake & coffee we're hosting after the rehearsal next week, Y keeps going up north then coming back then going and driving me nuts, there were car issues to deal with and I'm just generally exhausted.

I can't believe I'm getting married next weekend!

I don't have photos of the car, but I got a '98 Malibu. It's in great condition, no body work to be done but minor (tres minor) rust spots. Didn't know until AFTER we bought it, took it for a car wash and filled up the tank that the gas tank was rotted and started oozing gas right away. In 30 hours I lost 3/4 of a tank of gas! Luckily the dealership honored that we didn't know about the problem before purchase, and they replaced the tank (the actual tank, not the gas) for me free of charge. So now the car is great and I'm loving riding around in it. I'm loving having cupholders(!!!) and that it has a tape player and not just CD because the audio book section at the library is 90% on tape and I can now get a zillion more books to listen to. Yes, I did just say that I prefer my '98 to my '87 because I now have cupholders and a tape player. LOL. But I will miss my Celebrity big time, she was my first car and I love her!

I'm rushing to finish the Harlequin blanket before next week. I'm 1/4 of the way through the last group of 3 blocks, then just one block after that and crocheting the border.

Since I have no images of the car to post, nor of the knitting, I'll put up one of me as a kid. Enjoy!

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 4:12 pm 1 comments

Monday, August 21, 2006

what a bad blogger i am

I know, I know. I haven't posted in about a week. I don't really have an excuse, except the following excuses:

1- Monday through Thursday general: I've been knitting some stuff for hire, and couldn't blog about it, nor post photos of it. Let's call it Torch.
2- Tuesday specific: went to the hall where the wedding will be and finalized stuff with them. Stayed there late, had a late dinner after, then crashed.
3- Wednesday specific: didn't work as I had a last dress fitting at 11:30am, then went to the jeweler about my ring and some jewelry, then to the place that is doing the flowers and decor.
4- Thursday night: way too darn tired to even knit, much less think or talk or type about knitting.
5- Friday night: don't even remember what I did Friday. Oh yeah, went with Yannick to see the minister who is marrying us. Finalized some stuff for our ceremony, which we wrote ourselves. (Not the vows. The entire ceremony).
6- Saturday: went for my hair appointment at 8:30am until 12:30pm. 4 hours to do the color for the wedding. Then went for a manicure, just 'cus. Then Yannick came home and made dinner, then went back to work at my mom's, so I stayed home, watched some TV and crashed again. Worked on the Harlequin Baby Blanket at the hair dresser. Too lazy to take or post a photo.
7- Sunday: Got up lazily while Yannick went to quote on a job, and watched about 3/4 of the movie Garden State while knitting the Harlequin. I had to stop because Yannick picked me up for a late lunch, as we had to go over what stuff to do before the wedding and before the honeymoon. Had a late dinner too, then watched Scary Movie 4 before passing out on the couch during the special features and having to drag my butt upstairs to bed.
8- Monday: didn't go to work as I bought myself a new car! Yes, I got a new car. I love it, but will blog about it later because a) I'm tired. b) I haven't eaten supper yet. c) I need something to blog about tomorrow. :)

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:52 pm 0 comments

Monday, August 14, 2006

old port and alligator

Yesterday Yannick and I went to the Old Port of Montreal for the afternoon. We had such a fun time going around and visiting the exhibitions. We went through the Science Center but while there was some cool stuff to see, it was mostly geared towards kids. I remember the Toronto Science Center being cooler. We went to the Imax and saw Deep Sea 3D which was AMAZING. It was a 40 minute, 3D view into the underwater lifeforms deep in the oceans. When we left there we ran into an old friend from my B'Nai Brith/USY days who now is married, pregnant and lives in the West Island.

From there we went to the promenades and walked around, and watched one of the street performers put on a 30 minute show involving many jokes, a unicycle, juggling, fire, tape and children. Very original and very funny. He performs a few times a night so if you are in the area and see a crowd forming, please go watch, he's well worth the time. After the show we went to do the Shed 16 Labyrinth (which bugs me because a Labyrinth has only 1 way in and 1 way out...whereas the Shed 16 attraction is a maze) and were determined to beat the average time for getting in and out of the maze, which is suggested as 60-90 minutes. Once inside, you have to go around and find different rooms with clues to the final code, and along the way you have to deal with the maze itself, weird floors to walk on, some walls that are all like seatbelts hanging down, some corridors that are all sandbags to navigate, and many forks in the path that you have to climb through a jungle-gym of elastic ropes before you can pass. Do NOT do this if you have a bad back or knees, as you will never get through. The guy at the end couldn't believe that we did it in 30 minutes, but I have to say, Yannick has a really good sense of direction.

We were going to go to Ma's, a Caribbean restaurant on Sherbrooke O, but when we got there it was 8:30pm and it had closed at 8pm. So we started walking down the street looking for a new place to try, and found La Louisianne. We'd never been there, but anywhere that has Sweet Potato Fries is a place I'd try! Oh my it is now one of my favorite places to eat! We sat on the terrasse and enjoyed some amazing Cajun food. We shared an appetizer of alligator- I ATE ALLIGATOR. And LOVED it!!! Did you ever eat calamari, and enjoy the flavor (with garlic and spices and stuff) but swallow it right away because the texture is really chewy? Well, picture the same kind of taste, but with a texture like chicken. In fact, if I didn't know it was alligator, I would have sworn it was seasoned chicken. Delicious, I'd go back for that in a second. I made my meal of appetizers, and had the Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Mayo (oh my god good), Red Bean Soup (good, but I don't need it again), and Grilled Vegetable Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette (self-explanitory, and delicious). Yannick had the Crawfish Ettouffe, and he adored it. I can't wait to go back and try the crab cakes, they looked delicious too.

After dinner we watched the rest of the Jerry Springer Opera. Wow. Um. Weird.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 2:12 pm 1 comments

Sunday, August 13, 2006

baby shower, jerry springer- the musical and bon cop, bad cop

Yesterday afternoon Yannick and I attended a surprise baby shower for his cousin Rene and Vivianne. It's always fun when we get together with them, because most summers they hold an "epluchette" (my apologies to the French language for mangling the spelling of that word). I didn't know what it was until the first one I went to. Basically you gather all your family and friends, camp out on someone's property with tables and lawn chairs and drinks, get a few barbecues going, and boil up as many corn-on-the-cobs as you can buy. Yesterday we were around 100 people, so if you figure about 2-to-4 cobs per person...that's a LOT of corn! Once the corn is going, the other barbecues fire up some hotdogs and hamburgers, plus there were salads and veggies and chips and stuff. At the last one there was music, this time there wasn't.

It was held out in Les Cedres and one of Vivianne's relative's homes. It was a gorgeous property, with beautiful landscaping and bordering really lush corn fields. The entire area around there was gorgeous.

On the way down I couldn't help noticing the sky, and since I'd brought our camera with, I snapped a few photos. They don't even do it justice, the sky really was breathtaking yesterday.

This last one makes me feel like you can crop out the land and put the words "The Simpsons" up in the clouds. ;)

We got there around 4pm, and left around 7:30pm when they were opening presents. There was a huge pile of gifts because everyone there had chipped in and the money collected was used to purchase tons of stuff for the parents-to-be. I had brought with the pink sweater and booties that I'd knit for them, but since no one else walked in with an individual gift, I left it in the car. I'll bring it to them once Élodie is born.

I didn't ask his family's permission to post photos of them online, so I won't. But I did take a cool one of Yannick with two of his nephews, and since you can't really make them out I think it will be ok if I post it here.

He took turns taking each kid by the hands and swinging them around in circles. The younger two he did at the same time, and I love how this photo catches them completely in the air.

When we got home we went to the cinema-Montreal website to see if there were any movies playing that we wanted to see. We decided to go to Bon Cop, Bad Cop. While waiting until it was time to leave, we watched a bit of TV. There was something starting on Bravo that I hadn't heard of, so I set it to tape but we watched the opening 20 minutes- a musical theater version of The Jerry Springer Show. WTF??? Who thought this would be a good idea? It was really funny, but the strangest musical I have ever seen!

Bon Cop, Bad Cop was a great, great, great, GREAT movie. Definately one I want to own. It is about 40% in French, but don't let that deter anyone from going because there are subtitles, and it doesn't go too fast. I preferred listening to the French dialogue rather than reading the subtitles, because not everything translates smoothly and it was much funnier in French. What a hysterical movie! It's supposed to be a cop thriller, but there were so many truisms and so much humor injected that really there is hardly a minute that goes by when you're not laughing at something.

To sum up the premise, a killer is on the loose, and when a body is found half in Ontario and half in Quebec (don't ask!) a cop from each province is assigned to work together. The scenes in Montreal take place mostly in French (with much swearing) and the ones in Toronto are in English. Patrick Huard and Colm Feore are brilliant together, and I really hope this becomes a series, much like the Lethal Weapon series. The serial killer's motives are a bit unrealistic, but it doesn't matter because the movie is so much fun.

And let me just say how much I love seeing Montreal onscreen when it is actually protraying MONTREAL! Too often our fair city is used to represent places all over the world- it is so refreshing to recognize an area and- lo and behold- it is actually supposed to be THAT AREA. There is a scene that takes place at Spurs, a country-western bar near my work. I love watching the movie and going "hey, I know that place!" Other scenes took place on Mount Royal, on our highways, at the Old Port and more.

And for a Canadian movie on a Saturday night- the place was PACKED. It started at 9:50pm, we got there at 9:45pm and barely found seats. People were coming in all through the previews and had to split up. Most of the audience was French but I really hope this movie finds a foothold with English audiences too, because it really was great.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 12:31 pm 2 comments

Saturday, August 12, 2006

The Amazing Lace Challenge # 6 - Unlikely Model

Rules for The Amazing Lace challenge # 6 - the final challenge:

Your challenge — your final challenge — is to post a photo of your lace being proudly worn or displayed by the strangest, funniest, or most unlikely model you can find. Maybe it is human; maybe it isn’t. It just needs to be clever and unexpected.

So tell me honestly- is there a more unlikely model to display a lace wip than....

....dun dun dun....

...Optimus Prime?

Optimus Freaking Prime, people. This is TOTALLY unlikely. Just think what would happen if the Decepticons ever got a hold of this photo- he'd never live it down!

They'd be sitting around in their evil lair...discussing their plans for world domination (probably with Stewie)...and all of a sudden one of them, (I'm thinking Ratbat, trying to get some evil cred) would perk his head up and call out "Hey Megatron, guess what I saw online today?" And Megatron would be all "What?" And Ratbat would be all "Get this- Idiot Prime was on some chick's website, and- you're never going to believe this- he was holding up a piece of LACE." Heads would swivel, guns would accidentally go off, and a few villains would transform by mistake in their shock. Then much laughing and ridiculing would ensue.

It would be like "Robots in Disguise? Ha! More like Robots in Drag!!"

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:47 am 6 comments

Friday, August 11, 2006

so it appears i need a new car

Sigh.

It was too good to be true. My little clunker (read: huge-a$$ $hitbox 1987 Celebrity) is dying. Yannick and I paid peanuts for the car, obviously second-hand (possibly third- or fourth-hand). I've had her for about 4 years. She is my first car, my only car. And now I have to replace her.

Why? Well. I'll explain, but please bear in mind that I'm no car expert, and I'm relating second-hand what I was told, to the extent that I understand it.

Already the car is living in agony. She's really a candidate for "Pimp My Ride". When I got her, the front (bench) seat was only bolted on one side, there is no passenger-side side mirror, the parking brake is seized and she was covered in rust. There was also a hole in the floor at the driver's feet. We bolted the bench in place, and she was good to go (the pesky hole was covered with a piece of steel and wood). Since that time, I managed to dent the back bumper. The STEEL bumper. I also have a bashed-in driver's door and a crooked frame from the accident in January that almost killed me. This means that the driver's window doesn't open more than 3". Oh, and the front passenger door is rusted shut. And the fabric that lines the ceiling (whatever) is sagging and almost blocks the back window. There's probably more wrong with her, but I can't remember. Fact is, she runs great. Engine is good, transmission is good, brakes, even the A/C works great. Dude, the car saved my life. So it was a big bummer to find this:

See the huge jagged rip? That's not supposed to be there. And it's REALLY not supposed to be ripped 3/4 of the way through.

Apparently the engine and all that sit in a frame, and that frame is bolted or whatever to the frame of the car. On the passenger's side, both the front and back bolts (or whatever) that hold the engine block to the frame, have ripped like this. We don't know if this was caused by the accident, or just from time. Scary thing is, if Yannick hadn't glanced at my car Sunday and thought "that doesn't look right" and taken a look, I'd still be driving it, and could have had a major accident. The car still drives, but if I hit a bad pothole or something and the rips tear all the way through, the passenger side of my engine block will crash to the pavement, definately causing an accident that requires towing, and quite possibly knocking my front passenger tire off the car. In the city it could be bad. On the highway it could be fatal.

Yannick will let me drive around our neighborhood, but he won't let me take it on the highway. Since I live in the West Island and work in CSL, I need to take the highway to get to work. Which means that I've been getting driven in each morning by my dad, and Yannick's been coming to get me every night. This sucks.

Yannick's been shopping around for another used car, but we're being a little more picky this time as we are hoping to start a family soon after the wedding and need a car that will be safe to put a carseat in.

Regardless of what I find, I will definately be needing to put my little Chevy out to pasture. I'll need to drive the Chevy to the levy...so to speak.

No longer will I be able to sing along with Weezer and change the words from

Beverly Hills...that's where I want to be

Beverly Hills...rolling like a celebrity

Beverly Hills...that's where I want to be

Beverly Hills...rolling in my Celebrity

Doobie doobie. Doobie doobie.

The end of an era.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 1:56 pm 3 comments

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

beware the mutant femur

Ok, so something creepy is happening. I've had the "femur" in a bowl of water for about 2 days now. According to the packaging, after 1 hour the 1" long femur should grow to about 2". After 6 hours it should be around 3", and after 12 hours it should be roughly 5-6" long. The thickness is supposed to grow at the same ratio.

Well.

That is clearly not happening! In an attempt to keep this blog PG I'm going to post a link to the photo instead of the photo itself. If you want to see the femur in its current state, please click here. Parents, be advised that the photo is slightly risque to anyone who can make out what the thing is supposed to be. In this photo I've drawn over the outline of what the femur looks like in its original size. This photo is a little more descriptive so please don't click if there are children or others who might object in the room.

Now that you're all back from viewing the mutant in all its horror....WTF?? How come only the ends are growing? The, uh, longbone is still the exact same size!

Don't get me wrong, I have no desire for the femur to grow other than for my own amusement and the validation of whatever amount my cousins spent on it. I almost expected it not to grow at all. But only growing at the two ends? This thing is sick, man!

Deawn...where are you? I HAVE to hear your take on this!

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:14 pm 3 comments

Monday, August 07, 2006

we partied like it was 1999 (long)

Saturday was a busy day!

Yannick and I drove downtown and met my mom there to go see a jeweler friend of Yannick's family. He (Barry) is the man who custom-made my engagement ring, and we needed to meet with him to have a wedding band designed to wear with it. My mom met us there because she wanted to pick out a chain to wear with a pendant at the wedding, but she took her own car so she could leave before us as she had to drive up north to pick my sister up from camp so she could attend my bachelorette party that night, and my grandmother's unveiling the next day. We picked the band (plain, simple, no stones) and I had some earrings ordered to match a necklace I will be wearing at the wedding. The necklace is unique and it is impossible to find earrings to go with it! We did a bit of shopping at the Baie downtown since it was right at the corner, then headed to Decor Decarie so I could browse Winners for a shirt of the bachelorette, since I am currently unenamoured of my wardrobe. I bought 2 black tops and 1 brown one, and figured I'd decide later.

Yannick dropped me off at home then had to go work for a bit, so I went tanning and did a 30min workout video, then showered and did my nails so they'd be pretty for the evening (I'm such a girl!). The dinner was scheduled for 8pm at Baton Rouge and my sister was going to pick me up, so I got myself dressed and ready for around 7:30. I should have known better, as she picked me up around 8:45...apparently she needs 3 hrs to shower and do her hair (dry it, straighten it then curl it- don't ask- she's 18). We finally got there and there were 20 or so members of my family and friends snacking on hors d'oeuvres and having a jolly old time. There was an empty chair for me right in the middle...with balloons tied to it.

First they made me put on a plastic sash that said "Bride to Be" and a white veil on a hairband. Then 2 of my cousins gave me a little gift package that I had to open in front of everyone. The note said they were items to be used with Yannick or alone, and it was the "alone" part that made me nervous about opening it in public!

The first item in the package was a clear box with fake rosepetals to be sprinkled on the bed or bath. That's really sweet. Next was what appeared to be a glow-stick (like they use at raves- the kind you "crack" in half and then it glows neon colors for 8-10 hrs) in hot pink with a cord to wear it around the neck. A closer inspection revealed it was shaped like a part of the male anatomy. The femur, yeah, that's it, the femur. So Brigitte, Yannick's sister, grabs the "femur", cracks it, and hangs it around my neck. The shirt I was wearing had a very low v-neck, so people had fun all night tucking the femur into my shirt, both downwards and pointing upwards. It glowed a really, really hot pink.

The next item in the box was fun for the whole table. Remember those little foam animals that you could put in water and they would grow, and take them out and they'd shrink? Well, package #2 was a little femur, red and around 1" long. We asked the waiter for a pitcher of water, but after placing it in we read the packaging further and saw it would take 12 hrs to grow to its full 5" long. But it was entertaining anyways.

The last item was a soap-on-a-rope, shaped like- you guessed it- a femur. That one stayed in the box (although Yannick opened it on Sunday and it too is hot pink).

We had a fun dinner and after dinner the "young'uns" came back to my mom's house (the "oldies" weren't invited). My mom, ever the hostess, even in absentia, had decorated the basement with hot pink and black streamers, and had signs up proclaiming "Frisky Business". Yes, my bachelorette party had a theme name. There was wine and veggies with dip and chips and sodas all left out for us. When we got back to the house everyone started changing into clothes they'd brought...and suddenly there appears a bag of my clothes that Yannick had dropped off. We had to wear comfy pants and heels- we would be learning the art of erotic dance!

My cousin Stacey is a fitness instructor and teaches many classes, including erotic dance. For the next hour she put us through our paces as we got intimate with the wall, the floor, and each other (not like that, dirty mind!). As the bachelorette herself, I had the priviledge of doing a few solo numbers which my sister gleefully caught on camera. It was hot in the basement, but it was fun and I think everyone had a good time. At that point my mom had set out party favors for everyone, and then most of us headed out to the bars to dance for a bit.

I wanted to go to Cheers for a bit for old-time's sake, as I spent most nights there in my teens/early 20s. I couldn't believe it when I walked in and it was dead! There was a crowd of teens on the terrasse, but I don't think there were 40 people inside the bar. I found someone I knew who still works there, and it turns out that an old friend had just left so I couldn't even say hi to him. We left right away and went to Bourbon Street West. We hung out there for a bit, with creepy guys coming up and trying to hit on various members of our party. There was another bachelorette there, and at one point we got pulled up on stage and had to chug a drink. That officially marked the most alcohol I've had in the last 7 years- 3 Amaretto Sours and 1 glass of white wine (the 1st A.S. was with dinner, the wine was at the house pre-erotica, and the other 2 drinks were at Bourbon). By that point it was about 2:15am and I decided to take pity on my poor friends and myself and call it a night. I really think I've grown out of the bar scene. Maybe I'd feel differently if I were single, but it really holds no interest for me any more. I even felt awkward dancing and just couldn't "get into it". I had a really fun time, but have no real desire to do it again any time soon. I think I'd prefer a "pub" type place, like an Irish pub or something more intimate. The band was good, though.

I think I was in bed by 3:15am, and trying to fall asleep when I kept wondering what light I'd left on, as the room had a glow to it that was keeping me awake. Turns out I'd left the femur on the counter and it as still glowing pink.

Sunday it was hard getting up, but we had the unveiling for my grandmother to go to for 12:30pm. The unveiling is when family and friends gather and the tombstone or headstone is revealed for the first time. Afterwards everyone went to my aunt's house for lunch. It was a sad affair, I found it really hard because Bubbie Helen is buried next to her husband, my Zaida Jack, who was my best friend, and it's hard for me to be there and see his name engraved. I was really upset with everyone who kept coming up to me to ask if I'd had a good time the night before. They didn't even wait to get back to the house, we'd no sooner than turned around when people started asking about it. I had sunglasses on and was quiet because I'd been crying, and people were asking if I was ok, meaning was I hung over from the night before. I wish they'd left me alone.

I can't post pics of my current knitting, as Thursday I'd picked up some new yarn and a pattern from Veronik and Mona at JCA and am working on another sample for them. I'm rushing because I need to finish it by the end of the month, both for their deadlines and also mine, as I will be taking a honeymoon in September. (Attention would-be burglars- there will be people living in my house so don't get any ideas, plus my neighbor is a cop so you'd have to be really stupid). I had worked on it in the car on Saturday and at the lunch on Sunday, then realized I needed to start over with a smaller needle. I started over Sunday night and worked on it in the car on the way to work today, and realized I need to start over again, with the original needle size. RRR. So tonight I will be starting over for the 3rd and hopefully last time. At least it's a beautiful yarn...although I wish it had a bit of elasticity in it. The pressure is starting to come on as I realize I have this project, a charity baby blanket, 2 pairs of socks and a shrug to do by the end of the month. Guess what? Most of that is getting dropped. The shrug is for me, and can be put off. The socks are for Yannick and can wait indefinately. My priority right now is the JCA project and then, if there is time, to finish the baby blanket. If not I will have to give it in half finished and ask them to find someone to finish it, or ask if it can wait until the end of Sept, or maybe ask (beg) my cousin to finish it up. So no knitting photos for now. I'll have to find other photos to keep the blog interesting.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 4:26 pm 2 comments

Friday, August 04, 2006

Bowling Sock Progress!

I finished the chart section for the first of Yannick's Surprise Bowling Socks. Now the sock will be joined in the round, and a photo wouldn't be as easy to take, so I made sure to remember to take one now.

I'm so happy with how these are turning out! Besides "Plunger", my submission for the new SnB book (which I'm still waiting to hear about), these are my first attempts at intarsia. I don't understand why people are leery of this technique. All you're doing is knitting as usual! I find Fair Isle more annoying than this, it was so easy and the rows just flew by! Sure there will be ends to weave in later, but I think the results are worth it.

I'm really pleased with the red band on the pins. I was upset that I didn't have any red or orange sock yarn, and didn't want to buy a whole ball for just these little bits. Then I remembered- my Sunrise Socks! I have plenty left over...so I used that. I find the variegation reminds me of old fashioned bowling pins, and I smile every time I see them.

This is the first sock of the pair. The two needles on either side will be joined for the heel section, and the other needle is for the top of the foot. The heel will be seamed later, as will the back of the sock, to make it into a tube. (This is because you can't knit intarsia in the round).

A closeup. All 3 bowling balls are completed, but the needles were curling upwards so you can't really see the full ball. I was debating putting 3 white or charcoal dots on the balls for the holes, but was afraid they'd look too much like coconuts, so I left them as is.

Since there are those of you who like this kind of thing...this is what the back looks like. Exactly like the front but with an overlapping outline of each shape because when you switch colors you need to twist the yarns to avoid holes.

The only parts I find sloppy are the edges of the red bands where I carried the white up to use again for the rest of the pins. I didn't feel like cutting the white to reattach it 4 rows later, and have an extra 2 ends to weave in.

These are long socks! And I only did about an inch of ribbing at the top- the original pattern calls for 3.5" of ribbing!

I'm so pleased with these so far!

Oh- and to those who (very sweetly) commented on my photos with Yannick...they were taken at Centennial Hill at the corner of Lake Road and Manual, in the West Island. And THANK YOU for the compliments...but don't forget...200 photos were taken...I only saved about 35 to the computer...there are a LOT of fugly photos of me on that disk! Yannick looks great in almost all of them...but I'm very picky about what images of me are made public. Why else do you think my photo up in the corner there is from 1996?? ;]

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 7:18 pm 5 comments

Thursday, August 03, 2006

The Amazing Lace Challenge # 5 - Where's Waldo?

As posted on the Amazing Lace boards, challenge #5 is as follows:

Do you ever get to the point where you’ve knit so much lace that you start seeing lace everywhere? A sunset reminds you of the colorway of your shawl; iron scrollwork on a bridge reminds you of the lace motif on your lacy socks; your eyes can immediately spot a flash of lace a mile away?

In honor of that slightly crazed I-see-lace-everywhere mental state that’s a symptom of obsessive lace knitting, your challenge is to post one photo on your blog in which your lace is a hidden or unexpected part of the picture. This could be interpreted in any number of ways. You could go a hidden-in-plain-sight route. You could camouflage your lace. You could make your lace a tiny part of a large scene, a la the original Where’s Waldo (I’m picturing a sea of white gym socks with one pair of white lace socks…but I didn’t have the energy or the props to make an example photo). You could do something completely unrelated to these suggestions — as long as it’s clever and fun and your lace appears in the picture.

This is the most abstract of all the challenges. In spite of these examples we’re not even sure what we’re expecting. So be creative — we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

So here is my entry. It's not very good, but I am tired and the stuff I wanted to photograph just didn't work in the execution. So this is what you get.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 9:43 pm 2 comments

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

feeling hot hot hot

Ugh.

The heat and humidity yesterday was awful! 34 degrees C (if I remember correctly) and 60-70% humidity. My parents lost power at their house by 5pm, but I was lucky and still had it when I got home. There was still no rain or storms, but lots of fast winds. I had enough time to eat supper and set the VCR to tape Big Brother: All Stars and Rock Star: Supernova (I was going to watch Last Comic Standing at 9pm). I even took a photo for the next Amazing Lace challenge and was too lazy to go sit at the computer so I decided I'd upload it and post before bed. So much for my planning. At 8:40, just as I sat down with my knitting in front of the TV BAM the power goes out. And I mean OUT- everything on Sources below the 40 was out.

The winds outside were whipping everything around, there was lightning and thunder so bad that the claps never stopped. I got nervous being home alone because there was such an absence of sound from the house that all the outdoor noises sounded like they were inside- so I kept thinking someone had broken in and the door was open. Strangely enough I felt safer and less anxious each time I went to stand outside on my porch, than I did in my own home!

I called Yannick and asked him to come home so I wouldn't be frightened. We went out for a drive (insane, I know) because he wanted to catch the storm to show me how bad it was. Turns out that when I called him- while standing outside in the humidity and thunder and everything- he was running to his car in pouring rain. Sleeting, nasty pouring rain- only 10 minutes down the road but not at my house! Crazy.

We couldn't catch up to the storm because I wouldn't let him speed (lost count of the number of cops we saw at accident sites) so we turned back and went to the Wendy's/Tim Horton's on Hymus. Ran into Janna there, an old friend from high school, with her husband and her parents. I had just seen her Saturday night when we went out for dinner with Jessa and a bunch of old friends, and it was nice to catch up again. It was her 4 year wedding anniversary- congrats Janna!

When we got home at 11:30 there was still no power and by this morning...you guessed it...still no power. Hydro Quebec has no estimated up time and over 450 homes are still without power this morning. It's sad that I'm more upset about missing my TV shows and not being able to set the VCR for tonight. I'm such a TV junkie!

Oh- and I just heard on the radio that they are calling for more thunderstorms tonight. Crazy!

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 10:56 am 2 comments

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

without further ado

I finally got the photos to upload. Turns out they were HUGE and that was why Blogger was crashing with the uploads.

There were about 200 photos in all, and we received about 100. There were a few more we really liked, so maybe I'll make a personal photo gallery one day and upload them there. For now, these are my favorites from our casual shoot with our wedding photographer: