The Holidays

I've been a pharmacist since 1995. I've been working retail ever since I graduated except for two brief years in the late 90s when I tried hospital pharmacy. Each year I have worked Christmas. Except this year. This year my daughter was coming home for a very short time. So this year I decided to take it off. It's not something I'll likely get to do again for a very long time. But this year all necessary components lined up favorably to make it possible for me to take an entire week off. 

It's been a very different Christmas season for me. Very little stress. Very little last minute preparation. And as I go into this weekend with Kevin preparing to go on a partridge hunt I am realizing how relaxing this time has been. I am truly blessed.

I was also very lucky in the yarn department as Santa was very generous with me. 

Those gorgeous Ombres are Freia Handpaints. One is fingering weight yarn and the other is lace weight yarn. And that's some Sweet Georgia silk mohair blend on the bottom. 

And this is a very beautiful white bronze shawl pin that Amy picked up for Kevin to gift to me from Espace Tricot in Montreal. I love it. I hope everyone out there in blog land had a wonderful holiday as well. 

Colour Craving

I love mystery KALs. I just love the camaraderie of knit alongs in general, but when you add an element of mystery to the whole thing....well, it just makes me swoon...lol. Its like we are all on this wild ride together and no one knows if its going to end well or not, but we just put our faith in the designer and hope that we have chosen our yarns and colours well. This most recent KAL was no exception - with Stephen West being the designer. The pattern is called Color Craving. There are over 2000 projects of this design started on Ravelry by different knitters!! He had us pick three different colours in fingering weight yarn. Luckily for me I had just gotten back from Montreal and had done a little yarn shopping. I had the lady at Mouline pick out three yarns for me that would look good in a Colour Affection shawl. Actually I had two picked out and couldn't figure out the third. I was surprised by the third colour but she assured me that it would work. I am so glad that I listened to her. There is no way that I would have picked these three colours on my own. The yarn is by a new to me dyer named Julie Asselin. She is from Quebec and her yarns are amazing!! She has an etsy shop but I'm not sure how often she updates. Mouline had a load of her yarns. I'll be sure to buy more the next time I'm there.

See that greenish, yellowish colour? Its called cold pressed. The yarn store lady picked that one - not a colour I would have picked but I love it! Sometimes you have to take chances.

This is how it turned out! First off it is huge!! I'm talking about six feet in lengths. And the shape? Not your typical shawl thats for sure. I love it! I love how graphic it is. I love the unusual shape that gives you many options for styling. And I love those huge yarn over holes running down the center. I've seen some people on Ravelry wearing it with the narrow end threaded through some of these holes. Awesome!!

Here I am wearing the shawl, but its very hard to be both model and photographer when using an iphone.

I'm not sure what happened.

The summer has really gotten away from me. Now, I can start to make all kinds of excuses - like, we are in the middle of building a house. This is true and it has no doubt kept me busy, but I've still been crafting.

I can also say that I went on vacation. Also true, but I still crafted. And I shopped!!! Yes, I went to just about every decent yarn shop in Montreal that was close to the metro. And I went there on my own! This may not mean much to some, but it does to me - a middle aged woman from a very rural part of Canada. You get it - I'm not a big city kinda gal. Its amazing what the proper motivator would have you do. And this photo? Its only from one store.

I could also say that I've been very busy at work. I've had one pharmacy student this summer, I hired two other students and one of them got into pharmacy school and the second is studying to be a dietician. But still, I crafted. In fact I made my students hats. This one, I'm particularly fond of (the hat and the student). Its made from the yarn that I made out of the punis in the last blog post (shamefully back in July). The hat was made in a mystery KAL put off by one of my favorite designers - Lee Meridith. It was a great KAL and I fully intended to blog about how unique it was and how much fun I had, but then things got away from me. Like I said, I'm not sure what happened.

I could even make the outrageous claim that I've been busy since my step daughter was pregnant and expecting a baby. Well, look what we got!!!!

Yes, a beautiful little boy. For those who are keeping track, this is number 4! His name is Reagan and we couldn't be more delighted with him. In fact, I've been crafting for him too.

So all in all, its been a busy summer with lots of things happening in our lives. But through it all, I've been knitting, crocheting and spinning. I think that its such an integral part of who I am that no matter how busy things get, I will continue to make things. Now, will I continue to document them?? That is the question.

A New Beginning

Its the New Year already. I swear time seems to speed up the older that I get. I had every intention of posting a list of fiber resolutions of sorts, but I just couldn't get around to it. I don't know what it is, but ever since the fire, I seem to have lost my knitting ambitions. I guess its because the majority of my stash is stored in the shed (still not washed) about 5 miles from where we are currently living. And the place that we are living is so small that its really hard to organize the stash. So, there will be no fiber resolutions for me. I honestly think it will take until I'm back in the new house for me to feel the same way about knitting and my stash.

Now, that didn't stop me from acquiring new yarn...no. See this stuff? Its Veronique Avery's yarn. I bought this in Montreal!!

Amy has moved there and is taking some phycology courses from Concordia. I'm really happy for her, because she was getting pretty miserable living in a small town after being a city girl for the duration of her first degree. But, I miss my girl!!

This darling little cardigan was my New Year's Eve cast on. Its for a coworkers baby who showed up a few weeks early

It needs buttons yet, but I plan on picking some up today. The pattern is from Hannah Fettig's newly released booklet called Mabel's Closet. This little book is so sweet and the patterns are completely charming. I've also knit a little striped beret from the booklet to go with the cardigan, but haven't taken any real photos yet.

I knit the cardigan out of Quince and Company's Chickadee. Its my first time using this yarn, and I must say, I really liked it. The yarn is reasonably priced, though by the time duty was charged, I'm not sure that it was that reasonable. I did like the yarn. It was very soft and almost doughy. I also have a sweaters worth for myself. I haven't knit myself a sweater in a lightweight yarn before, so we'll see how that pans out. Seeing as I still have an aran weight sweater languishing on the needles I won't be holding m breath. Lol.

Well, happy knitting and happy New Year!

On Hiatus

I hope I've spelled hiatus right. Well, it seems that I'm on a knitting hiatus. I've come down with some sort of inflammation in my elbow. Its what I imagine tennis elbow to feel like - except I don't play tennis. And weirdly, its in my left elbow. I'm thinking its due to knitting, but I'm a little perplexed about the whole deal since I mostly use my right arm when knitting and I sort of just prop my left arm on a cushion or arm of the sofa and use it to more or less balance my knitting.

Kev and I just got back from a 5 day trip to Montreal/Sherbrooke, Quebec. My friend thinks my elbow problem may be due to shopping, as I sometimes grasp things in the crook of my arm when I'm picking things up. Entirely possible. Shopper's elbow. There you go.

So, right now, I'm on my 5th day of self imposed knitting hiatus - just to see if it helps with the pain. So far, not a lot better. I am wearing a brace and rubbing anti inflammatory cream on it. This seems to help some, but as soon as I take the brace off, it (ie pain) comes back.

This hiatus has done wonders for my knitting fantasy life - as I'm prowling Ravelry all the time now. I've bought SO.MANY knitting magazines and two new knitting books. I've also bought a lot of yarn. I believe that I'm somehow trying to 'scratch an itch' or something. I can't get my fiber fix by actually doing, so I've got to get it this way. This is entirely self defeating, of course, since I've already speculated that shopping is making it worse. Oh well, live and learn I guess. No more shopping....wait, I can online shop still. Woo hoo.

On this trip to Montreal I was thrilled to discover a new yarn shop had opened up. Its called Espace Tricot. They have only been open since July and they seem to be doing well. They are trying to stock yarn brands that the other stores in Montreal don't have. I looked them up online before going and I was so happy to see that they carried Koigu!! I bought two skeins. I have no idea what to make with this, but it was just too pretty to resist.

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Here is the rest of my haul from this store. Take notice of the Steven West book Westknits Two! I had been debating buying this book online and downloading a copy, but seeing it in the flesh, just about sent me over the edge. Like I said, my knitting fantasy life has now taken on a life of its own. I swear I want to knit every single pattern in this book. As soon as my arm is better, I'm casting on for all of them...at once. Really, I am.

I also got some Addi Lace needles, that I've been wanting to try, and some Hiya hiya DPNs, a super cute wooden button, some charms and some free Soak samples.

And finally, here is a photo of the reason for our travels. My beautiful daughter. She was performing in a recital. She was amazing. It was the first time hearing her sing classical, and (as her friend Shaun pointed out) it was also the first time I ever heard her sing as a soprano. All throughout school Amy sang alto. When she went to high school she even sang tenor with the boys. When she gets to Bishop's university, her voice coach tells her that she is actually a soprano. Crazy or what? Isn't she stunning??

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How much do I love Montreal?

Within 1 hour of being in the city, this is what our hotel room looked like. I can honestly say that I'm not a Montreal Canadiens fan. I did cheer for them for the 2 years that Michael Ryder was with them, but I didn't really like how they treated him towards the end. I vowed not to cheer for them again. But, it is so hard to resist the energy in that city. Plus Kev is a die hard fan who will likely be buried in a Montreal hockey jersey. Its kind of hard to resist that kind of passion. We had a ball at the game. I even think Amy was cheering for the Habs towards the end of the game.

We had such a great visit to this great city. I found the people to be so warm and friendly, which you don't often find in a big city - world traveller that I am. And the yarn stores. Oh. My. God. I spent way, way, way too much money. I'll show a few of my purchases. Thats just a few. It started to get embarrassing.