Intelligence-Buster

I know that I know this, but sometime my brain farts.

The excitement with which I began Lucania (the most recent knit that's gobbling up time from the oft-neglected Lodestar) has now waned because I made an unintelligent yarn selection.



I really do quite like Patons SWS - I'm not sure I'd use it for a sweater that's meant to be up against skin, but the minuscule itch factor can probably be dealt with by a conditioning bath.

No, my error was in the hue-choice. Once again, my exuberance got the best of me and I bought (what I thought was) the prettiest colour of SWS at my local Michaels and trotted off home to knit up the vest.
A vest that's supposed to have cable-y detail and a bit o' bobble action.

Hrrmmm....

Here be a photo of it so far:

and closer-up

What ya think? Should I proceed with this colour, or am I working for naught? Colour choice change?

Dubiosity, Inc

Tagged by Susan at Knitter's Delight, here's another quicky meme that you may or may not choose to participate in:

"The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer."

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Bloody hell - I'm old. Alright then, let's see....
*cue Wayne and Garth doing that "dream-sequence" thing*
May 1998: I would have been on the last legs of grade 10, fully engrossed in the Marilyn-Manson-guitar-playing-world-hating-spurious-teenage-angst that was my early teens.
Fun times.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Practice violin for my stress-inducing lesson tonight.
2. Plant seeds and wait for them to die.
3. Make lunches for this work week.
4. Read through my new Lonely Planet Italy Guide.
5. Buy that cute lot of Wizard of Oz quilting fabric on eBay.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Almonds, dried pineapple, Lindt 85% cocoa dark chocolate (less a snack and more of an experience), honey dates and those thin Triscuits with baba(ganoosh) or hummus.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Pay off the debts of any and all people I care for, travel first class baby! (preferably spa-hop, with many art stops along the way), buy myself a kickass house, revive cheesy 90s slang (this would stem from my undoubted fame, brought on through instant billionaire-ity) and certainly, one must not forget my consistent dream of buying any and all yarn that my little fancy desires.

5) Places I have lived:
Oh, this is sad.
Just here man, just here (I don't count the two school-years spent in Guelph for uni. I came home most weekends, and anyway, Guelph? Wow, mind blowing).

6) Jobs I have had:
Canary Resume
at various times: chicken-egg collector, babysitter, bookstore employee, steel factory line operator, (museum) Collections Assistant, Information Officer.

7) Bloggers I am tagging who you will enjoy getting to know better:
You can tag yourselves, amigas.

I Lurve Lilacs; or, How I Try to Make WIP Photos Interesting

At work today, I couldn't resist taking some photos of the current WIP with the purty lilacs (my fave flowers, methinks).


In slightly related news: everything in my bag (including my precious yet old 4.0 megapx camera) got a good coating of a large double double. Not so great - it's functioning currently, but will smell like Horton's coffee for a while yet.

Embers

Pattern: Clementine Shawlette from IK Spring 2007
Yarn: Prism "Saki" in colourway Embers

With what was almost the exact amount of yarn I needed, this Prism yarn has definitely shot from personal obscurity into the top 10 list of my favourite yarns. I only bought the yarn because the colours were so damn pretty. I couldn't believe my good fortune when I discovered it'd be perfect for the Clementine Shawlette. Having seen plenty of other's versions on Rav, I thought I'd give it a go.

I flew through the second half of the pattern - it's one of those that indelibly marks itself into your brain. It was nice to knit from a pattern for once, instead of trying to thrash my way through unknown knitting territory.

This is yet another example of me procrasti-knitting - I have another project that I'm dying to finish. My (very moveable) deadlines seem to uh... keep moving. I want pictures with the pretty lilac trees before the sun burns them up!
*Wish me luck*

Europe

Here's that news I was hinting at earlier:

I'm going to Europe. In the autumn, but who says it's too early to dream n' drool?

I'll be blogging about it here.

Any and all input would be much appreciated.

I love planning, and I'm reveling in that as we speak (uh... type. Read? Well, right now!)

Feathery Distraction

As my current knits are not the addictive habits that they once were (being either too intricate for my current tastes, or not turning out as envisioned), I've turned to the goodies purchased on my latest jaunt outside my city.

This weekend was another Ottawa weekend. I won't burden you with yet more pictures of this very picturesque city (but if you're reaaally curious, see here), but I will show you my feathery distraction:



I recognize the very thin line I'm walking here between beautiful jewellery and fishing lure, but the peacock plumage I could not resist.

But for now, I must be off for my first violin lesson.
I love me those string instruments!

Canary Baby; or, May I Interject With Some Quilting

I do quilt too. It's been a while, but a fabulous new (to me) technique* has given me the itch. And it's not as though I've a assloada other projects of various sorts on the go. This one got the priority cause I decided it'd be a Mother's Day gift (because my Humanities degree has left me riddled with sundry bits of guilt, I feel the need to say YES! I do knowingly and with full understanding choose to celebrate this commercially-created holiday).

Here's me as a baby Canary and my ma.

*this technique is just photocopying pics, taking some cotton fabric, painting however-you-like (on the fabric and a leetle bit on the pic), and adding gel medium over top to seal the sucker in. It comes out all stiff, of course, but it's meant to be a wall-hanging, and not a functional item.

Have a super-happy weekend. I'm off on a wee jaunt, and should be back to show off an FO la semaine prochaine.
Oh yeah, and I might have some other news too.

Yarnview

If you were my project, this is what you'd see:

If you were knitting across the table from me last night, this would be your (wobbly) view:

If you were in my living room, you'd see this new wee addition to the decor:

and if you looked on my futon, you'd see this new knit (well, this part is technically crochet):