Holding up my end of the deal

Dear Nikki,

So I guess while you're on vacation, I'm kind of holding down the fort here at our blog... and a poor job I've been doing too! I also feel the need to post because I keep checking Justine's blog to see if she has posted recently so I can find out how her knitting is going these days, and it occurred to me that it may be slightly hypocritical to nag her to post when I hadn't done so in such a long time. But now... Justine: post!

Anyhow, to update our small but loyal readership, here's what Dr. Nikki did a couple of weeks ago:The ceremony was beautiful, the reception went very well, and I was thrilled to be able to be with you on this special day. So, Nikki is on her honeymoon, before getting back to work again.

From a knitting standpoint, the weekend was also important because I got to give Nikki what I have been working on for the past several months:(you didn't really think I was too busy to knit, did you?) It's an afghan/blanket with a lace leaf pattern all over it, with a lacy leaf border (which, incidentally, totally took longer to knit than I had expected!)

The week after the wedding, this is what I did. The weather was truly awful (it was cold and raining), but it was still lots of fun, and the kids who came out on the boat with us were great. I'm looking forward to doing it again next year (only, hopefully, with less rain). One of the coolest things (I thought) was that one of the people involved works for Mustang, so some of the people "attacking" us (with water guns) had black life jackets with skull-and-crossbones on them. Very cool.

Now, I'm just relaxing after my year of teaching, looking after a dog and a house, and I'm very excited this morning because it is actually sunny out! We'll be off for a walk shortly to enjoy it. Incidentally, apparently I like knitting blankets! I found a yarn that's really soft, and have started a log cabin baby blanket out of it. I wanted to make myself a log cabin blanket from this yarn, but the colours were really just too sappy (all pale, baby colours), so I caved and am making a baby blanket. That will also make it faster, which I'm sure I will appreciate later.

Anyhow, I hope you're having a fabulous time on your honeymoon! I look forward to hearing all about it when you get back.

Love,
Laura

Not Knitting Related, but...

Dear Laura,

I hope you'll forgive me for the non-knitting-related content, but I had to share.

Dr. Nikki, ten seconds old.

Dr. Nikki, two hours old.

I did it, Laura, I did it!!

Love,
Nikki

Fibre Festival!

Dear Nikki,

So, guess who's registered for the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival? That's right! Me! My aunt knew about it, and so she'll be going too. I am registered for the Moebius Knitting class. I am very excited about it. Now I can make even more mathematically pleasing knits! Woot! I think I will order my yarn and needles for it on KnitPicks though... you need two (2!) Addi Turbo 47" circular needles (or possibly one... I find the instructions ever so slightly unclear). Anyhow, I'd way rather get the KnitPicks Options that everyone is raving about as they are a much better budget option!

School is starting to wind down now. Luckily, I have made it through most of the material I was planning to cover, and we have a week to do review. It's weird, but it seems like I've covered so much more in my classes this term than I did last term. Anyhow, I'm really excited for summer! I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing yet, but it will include a trip to Japan, so that's pretty thrilling!

I hope everything is great with you now that your exam is over! Are you stressed about the wedding now?

Love,
Laura

Shoes and falls

Dear Laura,

Fabulous shoes! They look moderately comfortable, too, which is a major bonus in my life.

I don't think I've shown you my shoes yet. They are the perfect blend of cute and comfy, and since my skirt has a radius of something like one metre, no one will see them anyways.

White eyelet Skechers. They're perfect. And did I mention comfy?!

Your sunset was so pretty that I had to take a pretty picture to send to you. We went hiking on Sunday for an hour, when I just couldn't study another minute. This shot is of Tews Falls, which is in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area, about a 20 minute drive from our house. It's such a gorgeous area - a section of the Bruce Trail, actually. I love going out there.

Sadly, things just aren't that green and lush yet, and the falls are so high (41 m) that it's impossible to get them in one shot. But you get the idea!

The nephew blanket is all knitted up, and now I just need to have a little seam-a-thon to finish it. I have a few hours to spend in the car next week, so my plan is to make Brad drive so that I can seam. I decided that a second blanket was a completely crazy idea, so instead I have started a Honeymoon Cami for myself, which I estimate will be 75% complete at the end of tomorrow's final review lecture, that's right, my last class of medical school. I find the thought that I am actually done med school utterly terrifying. The licensing exam (which I write on Monday, for 8 hours) is equally terrifying, but I am so looking forward to getting it over with that I'm actually excited about it.

You can say it. All this studying has gone to my head and made me a little loopy. I am actually looking forward to the biggest, scariest exam of my life. Because then the godforsaken studying will be OVER!!!! Hooray! Almost there!

Love,
Nikki

Shoes

Dear Nikki,

I have successfully found the perfect shoes to wear for the wedding. They were relatively inexpensive, they're comfortable (I think), they're fairly dressy, they're brown, and I can definitely wear them with other things. Couldn't be better!

see shoes here
(by the way, how cool is it that this shoe store shows all their products online? I love it!)

Laura

Sunset!

No progress

Dear Nikki,

Well, I keep meaning to post, but I keep not having any progress to report. I thought of taking a picture of my tank top in progress, but then I realized that it would be picture of yarn and needles... and I only finally managed to pick up the needles on Saturday! My LYS isn't open on Sundays and it took me a while to make it there when it was open. Anyhow, I'm hoping to knit (and for real wash and dry) a few swatches soon, and then get started on it. This time, I will swatch. After my experience of ripping out most of the back of Malcolm's sweater, swatching seems like a darn good idea.

I imagine that by now you have ordered the yarn for your new blanket. If so, what did you get? If not, I think that the Crayon yarn looks fun, but might be kind of a pain to knit with. My extensive experience of knitting huge scarves out of boucle yarn has lead me to believe that fancy yarn can be annoying. But that may just be the particular brand I used. Anyhow, I think a log cabin is an awesome idea, and that the Crayon colours look very fun!

I've finally figured out what I'm finding so weird about the weather here. It's spring. And it keeps being spring. And it's cool-but-not-cold. And it has been for weeks. I am decidedly not used to that. I am used to it being winter-winter-winter-winter- a week or so of spring - and hot sunny summer-ish weather all of a sudden. I may be remembering wrong, but that's what I think happened. And so, I am waiting for it to warm up. And it's not happening! The weather hovers around 12 degrees and it just stays there. It's the weirdest thing (let's not talk about the rain).

Oh! I almost forgot (although I don't know how)! I just bought and read the Yarn Harlot's new book. It was most excellent. There are letters throughout the book by a newbie knitter who turns into an avid knitter and stasher through the book - they were my favourite part!

Anyhow, I'm off to get ready for bed. I hope all is well with you!

Laura