some other loves – books and fabric

I have a couple of photos to show you from my weekend but I just realised I don’t have a photo of my sock-in-progress. Yes, a sock! I haven’t made socks in ages but when I was in the Salvation Army thrift store the other day I found 120 grams of Berroco Comfort DK Sport, variegated in shades of red, yellow, blue, turquoise, orange and green. I am using 3.25mm dpns and am already halfway through the first sock. I’m having a lot of fun with that. And the pair will only have cost me $3.49.

Yesterday, I dropped in at Fabricland for fabric to patch my beach day quilt. I bought nine different fabrics, one metre of each, with the plan that I will cover any holes in the quilt top and also rebind the edges. My main criterion for choosing was price. I didn’t care what colour they were as long as they were bright and cheap! There are two butterfly fabrics, 3 fruity ones and 4 batiks. The butterfly ones were $5 a metre, the rest $7 a metre.

Today I was in Chapters to meet friends and after having tea I had to, of course, head over to look at all the knitting books. I usually look through lots but never buy. However on this occasion I found this: Cast on, Bind off – 54 Step by Step Methods, by Leslie Ann Bestor. Impulse buy of the day. Here are photos of the inside front and back covers so that you can see what is included.

I also have a beautiful new pair of earrings, given to me by my friend’s daughter. Do you like them?

And finally, me modelling my new apron. I love it. But wouldn’t you know it, I pulled over a jar of jam the other day by accident, it hit the floor, and even though I was practically covered from head to toe by my apron I still found blobs of jam on my T shirt, up near my left shoulder! I think that’s called Murphy’s Law.

 

 

 

 

vegan cupcakes take over the world

A friend of mine recently gave me the book, Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. A different friend’s daughter has this book and she makes the most awesome cupcakes ever, so I knew this book was good.

I leafed through the book today and chose the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe and added a Rich Chocolate Ganache Topping. I think I might make one batch of cupcakes every weekend until I have worked my way through the book (but hopefully won’t put on 50 pounds – at least I have three teenagers to help me eat them)! The batter was supposed to make 12 cupcakes but I made only 9. They came out moist and light and just wonderful in every way. Nom Nom!

 

Iced

Iced is the name of my next big project. It’s here. The yarn I’ll be using is the new Knitpicks Brava acrylic. The reviews that I’ve read of this yarn are all good. I’m a bit miffed that the bulky is not available in such a wide range of colours as the sport and worsted weights, but at least they have a beautiful shade of dark blue called Solstice Heather and that’s what I’ve ordered tonight.

The gauge for this jacket is 3 stitches to the inch, but the yarn used in the pattern is slightly heavier than the Brava so I’m hoping it works out. I ordered ten skeins, which is probably way more than necessary, but at $2.99 a skein it’s a pretty inexpensive jacket, even when you add on the shipping and taxes. I may lengthen the jacket when I make it, so having extra yarn will be important. What I love about this pattern is that it’s knitted seamlessly, top down, and it looks like the perfect coverup for my proposed trip back to the UK later this year. (Even if I go in June, I’ll need a warm layer.)

The other thing that will be winging its way to me along with the yarn is Alice Starmore’s Charts for Color Knitting. The Knitpicks newsletter was advertising it at 40% off – about $11 – and I couldn’t resist.

It took willpower NOT to order a skein of every colour in the Brava Worsted. That would be about $90 worth of yarn! Maybe one day…….

 

 

weekend update

We had a great week! The highlights were

(a) sledding/campfire up at the mountain on Wednesday

(b) snowboarding on Friday

Ds2 also went tubing (whizzing down groomed slopes on an inflatable doughnut) at a different ski resort on Saturday night with a youth group, and then had a (not) sleepover afterwards. I don’t know why they call these things sleepovers because they maybe get 4 hours sleep at the most!

I really feel like we’re embracing winter this year and I’m feeling grateful for the snow and our close proximity to more than one ski resort, at which one can ski, skate, tube, snowshoe, snowboard….we are so lucky.

I’ve been reading a couple of good books this week. The one I’ve just finished is Walking Wisdom, by Gotham Chopra. Yes, the son of Deepak. It’s an excellent book about Gotham, his childhood dog Nicholas, his current dog Cleo, his extended family, and his son Krishnu. I loved the discussions he had with his father and his insights as to how enlightened dogs are!

The other book is No Impact Man. I saw this guy’s blog once – didn’t become a regular reader – but his book is excellent. It’s all about his year in which he tried to make no trash or other environmental damage, while living in a New York City apartment with his wife and small daughter. His challenges are many! Definitely worth a read.

And this is my “I have to have something to do with my hands” knitting for now. I did go into my LYS on Thursday but they were still waiting for the yarn I wanted to come in, so I found myself looking forward to a snowboarding day without a project! However I pulled out all the elann micro cotton that I had left over from the mittens I made a while back, and the size 4 Harmony needles, and cast on 114 stitches which I decided would be enough for something useful, like a hat, or a neck warmer, or a bag. Then I just started on some Fair Isle, with no plan other than to keep myself amused.

Salad containers make good storage boxes for yarn. I have six colours which co-ordinate quite nicely and this is what I have so far…

…the next section will be pink on a background of wine. I love stranded knitting, though magic loop with these needles is not working out quite as well as I’d hoped. There’s a lot of twisting with this method and the needles are loosening from their cables. I have devised a new tightening method – I cut a small rectangle from a roll of drawer liner that I have in the kitchen so I can get a better grip on the needle tip. I’ll be keeping it in my needle bag from now on.

And finally, another class sample for those adventurous souls who’d like to try some ribbing in their first project. And now I really do have to leave you for the night because I can’t keep my eyes open any more.

 

happy new year

I have been sad to read many bloggers’ comments that they are glad to see the back of 2011 because it sucked! I am grateful to say that 2011 was a wonderful year for me. It wasn’t particularly eventful, though I certainly found plenty to talk about on this blog. No, life is good because I have learned so much about living in the present, being grateful for what I have, and getting less caught up in self-destructive thoughts. If I were to offer a prescription for good health in 2012, I would say:

• live now
• lose all resentment or regrets about the past
• stop worrying about what the future may hold
• love unconditionally
• stop judging and criticising yourself and others
• appreciate yourself, your body, and everything that you have
• let go of the need to be right all the time

I’m not saying that I have managed all this yet, at least not 100% of the time, but doing your best every day is good enough.

I’m not making New Year’s Resolutions or setting goals but, as Leo on ZenHabits blog says, we can develop new habits to make our lives even better. New habits that I would like to develop are

• to drink a green smoothie every day
• to walk every day

Really, those are the most important – I could waffle on about other things, but that’s enough to start with. I have let my fitness slide and it doesn’t fit with my intention to stay active and flexible for my whole life. I went out yesterday and delivered all my son’s newspapers just so I could get in a two hour walk. I was pretty sore later on but glad I did it.

It would be nice to take a walk with my family this afternoon but before I came down to the computer Tai Chi Man was lying down (feeling grotty with a cold) and the boys were all in bed (they were up all night)!

I have to mention how excited I am to be able to type today’s post on my new iMac. The screen is so much bigger than our old eMac, and of course everything is up to date and faster. Tai Chi Man ordered it without telling me so it was a total surprise. It’s a refurbished one purchased direct from Apple – saved us around $300 – and because the old computer is still working we were able to import all our stuff over to the new computer rather than start from scratch (like last time).

I have talked to both my mum and my sister on the phone in the last couple of days, which has been wonderful, but I am definitely feeling like it’s time to go back to the old country for a visit this year. I don’t know whether it’ll happen, but it’s three and a half years since I last saw my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. Too long, especially when one’s parents are in their late 70s.

Love Actually is a movie I’ve seen many times but I wanted to see it again, and this time I managed to get four Brit friends together at my house for drinks, snacks and movie-watching. Right up until the last day, I thought only two of them were going to show up, then we managed to pull it all together for the evening. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it.

Having heard about Canadian butter tarts, and seeing them for sale at my local bakery, I decided to Google a vegan recipe and found one on savvyvegetarian. At first I wondered how it would turn out, as the liquid mixture that you pour into the tartshells looked really runny, but they set and tasted heavenly. The recommended quantity of pastry was too much, and I had enough for 24 small tarts plus a larger tart and still have some wrapped in the fridge. To make it really decadent, I used white flour – oh my, the texture is completely different from wholewheat pastry, so smooth. I didn’t get a photo, I’m afraid. Next experiment will have to be another Canadian institution, Nanaimo bars!

Current reading material is a huge novel called Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. It is the first of a trilogy, and I haven’t figured out whether the library has the other two books yet. I hope they do, because I’m really enjoying the story and the writing style.

Well, I think I’ve waffled on enough for one day. Happy New Year to all my readers.

Nicola

 

 

 

 

knitalong

I scored at the library this week. There aren’t many knitting or crochet books that I haven’t seen as I periodically check for new publications, but this one, Knitalong, is an exception.

Knitalong, Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together, is written by Larissa and Martin Brown. A visually appealing book, as most knitting books are, it covers very well the subject of knitters working together. That could be as part of a local knitting group, an internet swap, a charity blanket square, or a group of far-flung knitters working on the same project. There are 20 projects included within the book that make for good “knitalong” knitting, including gauntlets, blankets, a shawl, hat, scarves and even a felted nest.

It took me three days to read this book, with its chapters on knitting for the State Fair, knitting cafés, Knitalongs like the Knitting Olympics, swaps and giving to people in need.

I really enjoyed it, and I’m sure you will too.

 

 

 

 

 

the long run

This is a compelling read. I saw the author, Matt Long, on the Daily Show (ds2 records it). He was talking about his comeback from a horrific accident. I placed a hold on the book at my local library and waited….for a long time. Eventually it arrived, I picked it up Saturday morning, and by Sunday morning I had finished it.

He’s a New York City firefighter who was ultra fit, running marathons and completing triathlons and even an Ironman. Then one day, during a transit strike, he was cycling to a workout to meet some friends when a bus, hired privately to get some people to their place of work, turned right, right in front of him. He smashed into the side of the bus and ended up pinned underneath. He and the bike were basically joined!

The exact details of his injuries are not for the squeamish, but the story of how he survived, healed and gradually became well enough to attempt another marathon is inspiring. His marathon time, pre-accident, was about three hours. Post-accident, more like seven hours. And he also completed a second Ironman, this time in almost 17 hours, and with minimal running training because it hurt too much.

Two thumbs up!

 

samples for class

Last night, I pulled out this sample I’d made some time ago to help me teach knitting to friends. It shows five different types of texture that you can achieve with just knits and purls.

Each section is labelled with the type of stitch and its qualities.

I decided to knit another sample to demonstrate gauge, and included a single contrast row between each section so that people can see exactly what’s happening to the yarn as they’re knitting with it.

I started with US15 needles at the bottom, changed to 10.5, then 8, then 5, so my work went from too loose to too tight.

After the kayaking, it was all my arms could take to finish this, and I ended up getting to bed much earlier than the previous night, along with my knitting mystery novel.

A word about these books – I’m on my fourth in a couple of weeks. I won’t say which authors they are, but the first two were romances, both by the same author, and the second two are murder mysteries. Rather predictable storylines, but the knitting references make it a bit more interesting. However the thing that’s been annoying me is the typos. Too many of them. Maybe I could offer my services as a proofreader……… And I just remembered, in one book a character was apparently a vegetarian but was offered a vegetable and SEAFOOD paella! Gah!

 

a discovery of witches

I think I read about this book by Deborah Harkness on someone else’s blog. It was a while ago, but I put it on hold at my local library and it arrived recently.

It took me some time to get around to starting it, but, oh boy, once I picked it up I didn’t want to put it down. Over 500 pages of good writing, making what could seem totally incredible almost believable, this novel is about Diana, a history professor and witch who has been denying her magical roots for years but suddenly finds odd things starting to happen and daemons and vampires coming out of the woodwork!

I spent most of my day reading today, and I was about 30 pages from the end of the book when I had the maddening realisation that there wasn’t enough book left to adequately finish the story. Gah! I checked the flyleaf and it’s the first in a trilogy and the next book isn’t due out until 2012. Poo! I hate waiting.

I’m in the same situation with Diana Gabaldon – she STILL hasn’t finished the story of Jamie and Claire….sigh!

 

monday again

Yes, another post with a boring title. And no photos either! I am able to say how pleased I am that both sleeve cuffs on the brown cardigan are done, and the first button band is half finished too.

We had a road trip yesterday, which helped me make progress on my knitting, because there was a total of about 9 hours of sitting in the van and over 800 km to fill. I found a book at the library - Crazy Aunt Purl’s Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split, by Laurie Perry.  

She blogs at http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/ and I just subscribed.

Anyway, I ended up reading the whole book in a day, thanks to all those hours in the passenger seat. I’m so glad my husband doesn’t mind doing the driving, especially considering the patches of snow and black ice up on the Connector between here and Hope.

We went to another Tao ceremony in Surrey, which involved  eating  a lot of very good Asian food before and after the official part, where 12 new Tao members were being initiated.

Today I took WorldTraveller and his friend V to a holistic health place run by a friend of mine. She used to homeschool her children, which is how I met her, and now she runs this place along with her mum and offers all sorts of interesting stuff including kinesiology and iridology. The two boys have been having some minor health issues and by using muscle testing she is able to “ask the body” questions that tap into the sub-conscious. They were impressed with how much she was able to tell them about their emotional and physical state and they came away with a great respect for her techniques and some supplements and Bach flower essence blends. WorldTraveller has been told to avoid wheat and soy which should help a lot with his constant sinus congestion.

Last week was such an active one in that I went for four hikes in local parks plus a Zumba class. My first ever Zumba, and what fun it was! Really challenging and sweaty, but the music carries you through. No class next Friday because it’s Easter, but after that I have three more.

Talking of Easter, we won’t be having an egg-hunting event as our senior friend will be away celebrating with her grandchildren, so the weekend will probably be just three days of doing as little as possible…..with some chocolate thrown in! I hope you have a great time, however you choose to spend it.