Archaeology

Dear Nikki,

So, I started writing this post just after Labour Day weekend... and I walked away from my computer to make dinner, and apparently I never got back to it! So, sorry for the long break, but here, at last, is a post!

The labour day weekend was one of relaxation and organization for me. It was nice to get some down time just before the school year started, so I definitely took advantage of that. I reorganized my kitchen (slightly - I can still find most things), and I did a bit of an archaeological dig in my yarn trunk, looking for UFOs (UnFinished Objects). And, boy, did I ever find a lot.

The reason for the dig was mainly because I want to start 2 new projects soon: Rogue for me (are you still interested in a mini-Rogue-along, Nik?) and a pair for mittens for my friend Chau, as a thank-you for all her excellent organizing-stuff-for-me-to-do-while-I-was-back-in-Ontario. Luckily, she wants blue mittens, so I'll even get to choose yarn that I love. Yay! I figure, though, that I should finish at least a couple of the projects on the needles before I move on (new term resolutions and all that).

Without further ado, I give you my UFOs:

A felted purse, I started before Christmas last year
(because knitting a sweater and gloves wasn't enough to do!)

My friend Mary's Ravenclaw Quidditch socks. They are too big.
(If Justine ever tells you not to worry about gauge, ignore her!)

Socks that I started before driving out to BC.
Something went wrong when I got to the second toe, apparently.

Remember going to Romni Wools a couple of years ago?
This is the laceweight I bought then...

Baby blanket (loosely based on MDK Moderne Blanket).

Now, this is actually my WIP.

Moebius scarf
Mathematically fascinating, but far to scratchy. Scheduled to be frogged.

Moebius basket
Also fascinating. It's done except for felting.
See the twist in the handle? That's what makes it only have one surface!

Ummm... lace shawl. I was going to knit this on my drive out to BC last summer.
See how far I got?

Ballet Camisole
Soooo close to being done! I was waiting before I bought a crochet hook for the edging before joining the shoulders. I don't know why. I will finish this soon. Really.

Baby sweater
Pictured here all in pieces, now finished with button bands and ends sewn in. Only thing missing is buttons!

Scarf
Pictured finished. This is the same yarn as the baby blanket (cause I wanted to test it out). Very soft, and the scarf was ideal airplane knitting.

So there you have it: my extensive collection of UFOs. Except a pair of socks that's not worth seeing because I've only done about 4 rows on them. They were too big as well.

One more picture for this photo-intensive post: the two of us when we met up this summer. Not too bad of a picture, considering I was holding the camera, eh?

Miss you!

Love,
Laura

p.s. You know how I told you I was trying not to watch tv for a week (except for one show that I am video-taping)? Well, it's killing me, because I think I'm pretty hooked on it, but I am finding myself with all sorts of time for other things like, oh, say, blogging, emailing, a bit of cleaning. I also found time to order some stuff from Chapters, including Bellweather, The Other Boleyn Girl, and the six-hour BBC version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD, as a treat because it's so great. I am currently re-reading Scarlet Feather while I wait for them to arrive.

p.p.s. Your Honeymoon Cami looks great! Now I'll really have to finish mine!

Fibre Fun!

Dear Laura,

Well, I'm not sure we can even chalk that one up to a little summer break, and we definitely can't pretend we've spent the past month and a half reading Harry Potter! We have been slacker bloggers, there are no two ways about it!

First things first: I loved HP7 and now need to go back and re-read the whole series so I can get all the little details. Your thoughts?


Second, on a craft-related note: did you finish your Ballet Camisole? Can I see?


And finally, some recent crafting from my end of the world. You may recall (I think I told you) that I was taking the Honeymoon Cami with me as honeymoon knitting. (This was Plan B, as Plan A to actually have it finished in time to wear it in Italy on my honeymoon - as the original designer did - proved to be a vast overestimation of my available knitting time before the wedding.) At any rate, I did finish it, right around the end of the honeymoon. And now I present:

The honeymoon cami, and a terrible photo of me. Please excuse the....general yuckiness. I thought about cropping my face out, but that's too much work. Also, please ignore the messy house in the background (hello, Mr. Iron, on the telephone stand) - it was just after we moved in.


Anyways, the details - the yarn is Dale of Norway, I think it's Svale, but the ball bands are long gone so you'll have to take my guess on that one. The colour is the off-white shade - natural or ivory or something like that.


I wildly goofed up the lacey part at the bottom, so it in no way resembles the photo on the pattern, but it looks okay nonetheless - and by the time I realized how screwed up it was, I had already finished a few inches past that and just couldn't bear to rip it out! So...it's a little unique.


I really love this top, and I think the saddest part is that I haven't worn it at all yet, except to model it for this photo. I'm just not a big tank top girl anymore, what with the penchant of my shoulders to sunburn in seconds. I'm determined to find a warm day this month (that is, before fall sets in for real, which is going to be SOON) and wear it at least once!


I do have a few other projects on the go or just finished - so there should be plenty of material for a few posts in the next little while!


Oh! And other exciting stuff - I went to the KW Knitters Fair this weekend! It was so fun! I bought some Tussah silk roving to make myself some wool-free thrummed mittens from No Sheep For You (which I LOVE - thank you!) I also got some of this, for another upcoming project. And THEN, when I got home, I called Lettuce Knit to ask them to mail me some Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton (in colour "shell") for my mittens (since I couldn't find it at the Knitters Fair) and they were pretty much the nicest people ever. It was a weekend filled with fibre excitement!


That's all the crafting news that's fit to print. How are you??


Love,
Nikki

Less than 8 hours...

... until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hits book stores! I pre-ordered my copy to pick up in-store, but Chapters has no record at all of me doing that, so I guess I will be buying it tonight at midnight, and hopefully I won't be charged twice for it! (I will be sure to complain if I am, don't worry).

I am currently quite stressed out with leaving for Japan on Sunday; there sure is a lot of work to be done before I leave! My parents gave me a few neat early birthday presents which are great though: an inflatable travel pillow, which will hopefully help me sleep on the plane; an untra-light umbrella which weighs only 138g and will also be useful in my West Coast lifestyle; and some less exciting things such as a suitcase lock and a money concealer.

Two of the big decisions, of course, when embarking on a trip such as this one are (a) what will I knit? and (b) what will I read? I will be knitting the Ballet Camisole on the airplane (it's knit on circular needles, which I feel are less likely to be taken away than straight needles, even though on Canadian flights you are nominally allowed to have either) and Ravenclaw Quidditch Socks from Charmed Knits for my friend Mary (who bought the book for me).

The answer to question (b) is still a little up in the air, but I am definitely planning to take a couple of murder mysteries that my mom is lending me.

I am actually (finally) all set to get started on the Ballet Camisole. I actually knit a swatch, in the round, washed it, and dried it, and for the first time ever, I actually got gauge! I'm hoping that means that the top will fit, but we'll see how that works out. I have actually already knit one project from Charmed Knits:

Isn't he cute (if a little blurry)? He's all packaged up now and ready for his final desination (which is a surprise for the recipient, so I will not mention it here).

Anyhow, I hope you're doing well. Are you reading anything exciting these days? I have been re-reading all the kids' books I left at my parents' house, so that's not too exciting.

Love,

Laura

Re-entry

Dear Laura,

Well. I have no excuse. I am just a bum blogging partner, that's the bottom line. :) However, it's now my turn to hold down the fort while you're on vacation, so I'll do my best!

Thanks for posting in my absence! It was such a super-fun day, and having you there as a bridesmaid made it all the better.

I had six weeks off after the end of med school, during which I got married, went on a honeymoon, and moved house. Despite all that, I found lots of time for crafting! I think I have fodder for at least a few entries on here!

First up is the surprise project that I actually worked on over a few months: the fabulous bridesmaid's handbags! I decided to make a handbag for each of my lovely bridesmaids, all from the same pattern but with different fabrics for each. These bags were my first ever from-a-pattern sewing projects, and I think they turned out pretty well!

The pattern is tiny happy's shoulder bag. I modified it to use fat quarters and be more of a handbag, an idea that I stole from someone who had left a comment on tiny happy's blog post with the pattern. Thanks tiny happy!

Hope you're having a wonderful time in Japan!

Love,

Nikki

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