Larocque and Roll

Excuses are for the weak May 4, 2008

I sat down to write about my April reads, and then realized it’s going to take longer than I thought, given that it’s almost 11pm, and I need to hit the hay half an hour ago. See, this week is all about travelling hither and yon [1] and while the vast majority of the packing got done this morning (yay me for being on top of that for once!) I had a few things in the laundry which need to be ironed. And guess what I haven’t done yet? Yeah. Maybe I’ll just shove it the suitcase and use the iron in the hotel room. That works for me.

I will give you a teaser though: in the first two weeks, I read four books. In the second two weeks, I read nine books (…really!) [2]. In the last week, I read one more and finished my book club book, which was a total drag.

Also of interest - I broke down and bought the Flight of the Conchords CD today, and it was totally worth it. And I met with some friends for coffee this afternoon, and three of us had knitting with us. The elderly couple at the table next to us were gobsmacked that us youngin’s was knittin’. Erin and I were working on socks, and Rosemary was working on a sweater.

Okay, must go locate blouse. And iron. And board.

[1] And I don’t know what the weather is like in either place, which made packing a bitch.
[2] Part of the reason I can’t do this tonight is that I have much to say about them, and it’s going to have to wait.

Ninjas are Awesome January 29, 2008

After finishing the skull hats for a friend and his daughter, I wanted to make a matching hat for the missus. However, it didn’t need to be the exact same, since she didn’t want to be matchy-matchy. So, I started thinking about other ways I could use the skull, and other types of skull hats.

And then it hit me.

Forget the skulls! If I want to do something different, then forget the skulls! What do the skulls represent? Pirates! What goes with pirates like peanut butter goes with chocolate? Ninjas!

Rather than waste time looking to see if there were any ninja-themed hats out there, I made up my own. The most iconic thing I could think of using in the pattern was the shuriken, the throwing star. I made up the charts, dug through my stash, and came up with enough yarn to make this:

The bonus is that if it’s too cheesy, she can just say it’s a stylized snowflake.

Not to labour the point… September 3, 2007

This Labour Day long weekend, I’ve been spending it… well, labouring. Saturday I had to work - I don’t mind working the Saturday of a long weekend because everyone’s already left town or are doing long weekend-y things, and don’t so much come to the library. Sunday I spent it doing laundry and tidying the basement, and doing dishes. On the goofing off front, I did manage to finish the book I was reading, and spend a goodly amount of time watching TV in the evenings. Today I plan on cutting the grass, doing some weeding, and perhaps hitting a matinee. And reorganizing the two bookcases I moved a few weeks back.

Last night I made rice for with my dinner. I always make extra so that I can make rice pudding for dessert. Tonight I tried a different recipe, and used shredded coconut instead of raisins. It is an addition that was most delish - thanks to my sister who made the suggestion.

In other news! My sockapalooza socks arrived last week!

My pal was Lucy, aka Pinkphish, all the way across the ocean in the UK, and I love the colour and the pattern. The socks look really blue in that picture, but there are actually a lot of different, subtle colours. Thank you so much!

Finished! August 4, 2007

The sockapalooza socks, they are finished!

I finished them Thursday night. Now all that’s left is weaving in the ends and washing and blocking them.

The one thing that bugs me about them is that the sock on the left is slightly more reddish than the one on the right. I dyed the two balls of yarn separately, using exactly the same measurements for everything (possibly for the first time). What I think happened is that the sock on the right got stirred more than the one on the left, so that the red in the dye dissolved more.

Sock update June 19, 2007

I saw “Knocked Up” on the weekend, and boy was it funny! Crude in lots of places, but still the funniest thing I’ve seen all year. Besides that, not much else is new. My nephew is still cute as a button, and keeping his mom and dad up all night. I found out yesterday that Bing isn’t 8 years old as I (for some reason) thought he was - he’s almost 14. He’s no longer affectionately called “big guy” when I come home at night and he starts meowing at me - he’s “my grumpy-assed old man” now!

However, the title is about the progress on the socks, so here’s some:

The sockapalooza sock looks like this.

(It looks distorted because it’s on my hand. It doesn’t fit on my foot.) Turns out that this yarn is perfect for this pattern, and I hope my recipient likes it just as much as I do. Right now, I’m turning the heel on the first sock, and when I’m done that, I go up a needle size to do the leg part. Which means I can start the second foot right away. Woo!

The other sock (it doesn’t have a cool name yet).

This one has gone on the backburner until I’m finished the sockapalooza socks, or until I get bored of the other. The pattern is one of my own devising, which is a good thing because I can’t find the basic pattern I used to start it. Gulp.

There are two other projects I need to start, but they’re both top secret things. Sorry.

May’s Read Books June 3, 2007

I haven’t been all that good a blogger lately. I blame it on the fact I now have a real backyard all to myself! With real gardens! And I can plant things in it! And it needs to be weeded! A lot, in fact! But! Plants and flowers! Wow! [1] Most evenings, I come home after work, acknowledge the existence of the cat, get changed into my grubby gardening clothes, and spend an hour or so out there. When I come inside, I eat, and then collapse on the nearest flat surface until it’s time to haul myself upstairs and collapse onto the flat surface that is my bed. Long story wrapped up - the blog has fallen to the wayside for the moment, along with other leisure activities like “housekeeping” [2] and “laundry” [3]. Also, I haven’t had a whole weekend to myself in weeks, and it’s going to be weeks until I do [4].

Reading this over again, I thought it sounds like I might be creatively and mentally drained by now; oddly, the opposite is true. I have three or four simultaneous knitting projects on the needles at the moment, including two pair of socks [6], a scarf and two baby projects. Then there’s the whole garden thing - already I’m making notes on what’s working and what isn’t for next year [7]. I also did some home decorating-type things - I set up what I like to call my “outer sanctum” in my porch for those (eventual) Saturday mornings to sit and drink coffee and read, or evenings to drink gin and tonics and read.

Finally, May was the month where I almost as many books in five weeks as I had all year so far.

~ Jeffery Moore, The Memory Artist (8)
A heartbreaking book about synthanesia and Alzheimer’s. It’s told from different perspectives, as if reading a journal compiled by the doctor who is studying the mother (Alzheimer’s) and the son (synthanesia); the doctor is a pompous ass, and the five protagonists as his lab rats, who succeed anyways.

~ Sarah Waters, Fingersmith (7)
At the first surprise plot twist, I had the strongest feeling of deja vu - I’d either read this book before, or I’d read a similar one in the past few years, before I started keeping track of what I read (this is year three). Very Victorian, very gothic, and pretty good.

~ Alexander McCall Smith, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (8)
Okay, okay - I finally succumbed to the pressure of just about everyone, and was pleased to find I actually liked this one. Plain, simple, few distractions.

~ Tanya Huff, Smoke and Mirrors (7.5) and Smoke and Ashes (7.5)
A few years ago at a convention where I got to meet her and sign a book of hers I’d just bought [8]. She’s a lovely person, funny as hell, and I would read the phone book if she wrote it. These two are a continuation of the Henry Fitzroy/Blood series (so far there are three in this series.)

~ Stephanie Meyers, Twilight (7)
For a while, I was on a vampire tear. I thought the protagonist was naive and kind of dense, and the whole thing was repetitive [9]; still, I was disappointed when I finished this book.

~ Sam Enthoven, The Black Tattoo (3)
If you read this book, you won’t need ever read any classic British sci-fi/fantasy books because this one does a great job of borrowing bits and pieces from all of them.

~ Tanya Huff, Long Hot Summoning (6)
The last in the Keeper Chronicles, and the one that drags on at the end.

~ Fiona Patton, The Golden Sword (6)
Didn’t care much for the protagonist, but it was one of those fantasy books you don’t need to have read the three previous books in the series to know what’s going on.

~ Anthony Bidulka, Amuse Bouche (6.5)
Given that the title hints at a possible foodie angle, I was disappointed that it wasn’t about crime in the kitchen world. It was a fairly solid book once I got past that, a bit predictable, yet well-paced.

[1] And, with that, I officially use up my quota of exclamation marks for the month.
[2] Lordy, you should see the cat hair everywhere… on the other hand, maybe not…
[3] My flimsy excuse for this is I like to hang it on the clothes line instead of using the drier, so there has to be enough daylight left for me to do it.
[4] A single day here and there, but nothing so decadent as two! whole! days! [5]
[5] Aaaand now I start on next month’s quota of exclamation marks.
[6] Normally, I’m lucky if I can focus on one at a time.
[7] i.e. working: snapdragons as a border, the begonias; not working: planting the impatience too early, the bleeding hearts in their current spot - move them to the front next spring because now they’re almost completely hidden by The Hosta That Ate My Garden and The Iris That’s Helping It.
[8] It was also the same convention where I got to stand in line for four hours to get Neil Gaiman to autograph a couple of books for me. It was the best four hours ever, and I still swoon when I hear him do readings.
[9] “I love you!” “I love you too, but you should be scared of me! Grrr!” “I know! But I still love you!” “I love you too, but…” etc.

Sock it to me! May 28, 2007

Oh, that subject line has never been used before, and it’s never going to get old. Moving along…

I signed up to participate in Sockapalooza 4 this year, just one of a thousand or so to do so (and one of four Rebeccas - go us!) So far, all I’ve accomplished is picking out the pattern I’ll be using (Marnie MacLean’s Wyvern Sock pattern), and to finally decide on a yarn. Maybe.

Originally, it was an eye-searing yellow Paton’s Kroy yarn; since I had no use for such a colour, I dyed it green with some food colouring. Now it’s a fairly nice golden-green colour, shot through with streaks of red from where the food colouring didn’t dissolve properly (I’m sure there’s someone out there who can explain why the clumps turned the yarn red.) It’s a maybe because I’m still not sure this is THE yarn I want to use. I bought some backup today, just in case, and I might try the craft store in town to see what they have. The pattern screams for a green somewhere in the yarn. Or at least it does to me.

(To the other Sockapalooza bloggers who find their way here: Hi! This is my blog! It’s not so much a knitting blog as one where I occasionally post about my knitting, among other things.)

So, while I have the knitting out, let’s see what else I’ve been up to.

A second tea cozy!

The outside is a whole ball of Noro Kureyon, and some leftover Briggs and Little (I think) on the inside.

Another scarf!

It’s also using Noro Kureyon; it’s a broken rib pattern with two different balls of yarn, alternating every second row. Because it’s dead easy to work on, it sits beside the computer where I can work on a few rows at a time when I’m waiting for something to load.

The skull hat!

Done, except to iron and sew up the brim to the inside. It will look awesome when it’s done.

More yarn! Of which I have no pictures! The yarn store in St. Catharines is closing, for reasons both mundane and sorrow-inducing. Suffice to say, whenever the topic is mentioned around my sisters and I, we all start moaning and wailing and tearing at our hair. Okay, maybe that’s a bit much, but it’s pretty close to the truth. Anyway… All the yarn is on sale, and my sister bought me a bag of fun stuff.

Also? I got to see The Neph this weekend, and he’s even cuter in person! He sleeps most of the time, but he’s so soft and cuddly! Pictures of those when I get them.

You need to see this April 25, 2007

Rather than write a lengthy treatise about what I’ve been up to (short story: busy at work, busy at home) I have pictures to share with you that hopefully capture some of what I’ve been doing lately.

The weather has been spectacular lately, which has given me a chance to play in my garden. Last week, I got to play the game every new homeowner gets to play in the spring - Weed or Plant?

Weed, I think. I can’t remember what was there in the fall.

Easy! Plant - irises! And they’ve doubled in size since I took the picture.

The tulips in the back are finally starting to bloom.

These are going to be sunflowers, once they start growing.

On Saturday night, I looked out my back door and saw this.

I thought, How the hell did Bing get past me when I went outside? Turning to go get a can of cat food to lure him back in, I tripped over the real Bing. Since then, I’ve learned this guy’s name is Chicklet, and he belongs to the house around the corner.

The hat is a hatband away from being finished.

The yarn is splity and twisty, and I wouldn’t use it again. For anyone thinking of making this hat, I’d suggest you go with something comparable instead of the recommended yarn. Also, I’m thinking of adapting it to make a baby hat. (To my sister: calm down, not for you!)

And, I got new glasses!

I love them! (Please don’t ask me what that expression on my face is. It’s not quite a smile, not quite a wince of pain. It may actually be both.)

The only thing missing is a picture of the heap o’ papers on my desk at work. It’s almost the end of the month, with all its associated administrivia (statistics, board reports, timesheets, etc.) I’m also working on a presentation I’m doing at a conference next month on all the fantastic technology projects we’re doing at the library. In all honesty, some of them are pretty cool and I should share them with you someday.

A little bit of this and that March 26, 2007

Lots of things to update, and not much time in which to do it. Between the thunderstorms and the whole “getting ready for work” thing, let’s see what I can tell you about.

~ Last Thursday was the only day of the year where you could legitimately say, “Go Rebecca! It’s your birthday! We’re going to party like it’s your birthday!” and have it be accurate. For those of you keeping score at home, it’s the 31st time this has happened.

~ Most of the time I experiment with cooking, it turns out okay. Occasionally, it turns out badly. And on rare, shining occasions, it turns out better than expected, which was the case with the spinach sauce I made to go on some leftover penne noodles at the beginning of the month.

It’s a carton of baby spinach, tossed into the food processor and chopped until it’s all shredded into tiny little pieces. Then you make a white sauce (two tablespoons butter, two tablespoons flour, one cup of milk; melt the butter, stir in the flour until smooth, and then slowly add the milk in parts) and dump in the spinach. Pour on cooked noodles, stir, and serve. Tasty! And a pretty colour!

~ I’ve been experimenting with knitting multiple projects at the same time. Normally, it’s all I can do to finish one project, yet I’m finding I like having several things on the needles, so I can switch projects when I get bored. One of my recently completed projects is a tea cozy for my little teapot.

My teapot - it is both short and stout. And now it has a sweater!

~ This past weekend was my sister and b-i-l’s annual ball hockey tournament. At first, it looked like this would be the first year the weather wouldn’t co-operate and we’d have to play in the rain. In the end, we played in the mist [1] and the mud, and no one got injured. Also, a good time was had by all. My photos are here.

~ Had I more time, I’d post the playlist I listened to on the drive from here to Guelph and back. It’s dope, yo.

[1] Isn’t that a Sigourney Weaver movie - “Ball Hockey Players in the Mist”?

Did someone say “knitting”? February 10, 2007

Remember when I was lamenting that I didn’t have any knitting projects to fill the void left by my finishing my mother’s socks? Well I don’t really have an equally demanding project to stimulate my attention, but I am working on a few other little things at the moment.

First are the squares for the cancer blanket the knitting guild is working on.

The yarn was from a grab bag the guild president bought. It is a pleasing shade of blue, and I’ll be sorry to be finished with it. (On a side note to Cynthia: I have four squares for the Warming Grace blankets which I unearthed a few weeks ago. When I get my act together - surely, I will be dangerous if that ever happens - I’ll mail them off.)

Next is the scarf.

The stitch pattern is called “seafoam”, and it comes from the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Vol. 1: Knit & Purl. I like this pattern - it’s not exactly mindless, but it doesn’t require me to devote all my attention to what I’m doing. However, I’ve almost finished the ball and I don’t have any more of that particular colour, so I’m going to frog it and do something else. It’s a shame because it looks so cool. Maybe I’ll just redo it at a narrower width.

Finally, we have the project which was meant to be the sock-replacer: Fetching with alpaca.

Don’t get excited about it - for starters, the yarn is a dark brown, even though it looks orange there. Also, the yarn is much too thick for the project - either I have to find bigger needles or yarn that gets gauge closer to what the pattern calls for. I think I’m just going to try to find yarn that’s closer to what the pattern calls for and save this one for something else.

And then there’s this

I love the material - the plan is to take it apart and use the material for other projects. What exactly I don’t know yet, but it will come to me.

Now we come to the fun stuff. At work, a couple of the librarians booked all the display cases for the month of December to give everyone a chance to show off our crafts we’ve made over the year. I promised a friend I’d make him a We Call Them Pirates hat because it’s the kind of badass thing he’d wear. I’ve decided this is going to be *my* contribution because it’s the kind of practical, show-offy yet clever thing I’d do.