Category: shameless self-indulgence

some knits for summer – and a free pattern!

7 Comments

Well, summer is coming (says she, groaning at the thought of venturing out into a miserable cold rainy day) and the summertime knits are parading along right in front of it!

Ever wanted to make your own Converse sneakers? Here’s the pattern.
And don’t say I never gave you anything!

(I love Craft Magazine!)

I also like this pattern in the Interweave Knits Summer 2008 edition:

The pattern is by Barbara Gregory, a local designer and artist who also created the fabulous Bacardi cardigan:

As for Vogue Knitting, none of the patterns in the current issue really spoke to me (probably a good thing as I might start speaking back and people would look at me funny). However, check out this rib/cable pattern!

The instructions are available for free on their website here.

But what am I plotting? Well, I’m still awaiting my order from Blue Moon – in typical indecisive style, I changed my request for Sapphire to (love the name!) Lover’s Leap:


(What I really wanted to do, of course, is write back and say “Just give me one… no, make that two… of everything please. But I haven’t won the lottery. Yet. It won’t be very long until I’m famous though, as I’m sure the phone will be ringing off the hook today with calls from publishers who have seen my letter to the editor today and want to offer me a book deal.)

As well, in addition to the Sherwood, I’m working on the lovely Moonshadow stole by Sivia Harding (the kit is available at Earthfaire online):

I’ve picked a different colourway, Velvet Turquoise from Liius yarns, a wool mohair blend:

It’s lovely stuff.

I’m also trying to decide whether I should make one of these for myself.

But actually, on second thought, it probably won’t work unless I get the name of her makeup artist as well.

Miaow. I invite you to put your caption for this photo in the comments section.

Happy Thursday!

**************

social responsibility and … booze?

3 Comments

Well, summer has arrived!!!

How do I know? Because the LCBO has come out with its early summer issue of the Food and Drink magazine!

Now, this has got to be the best free mag going! Not only does it have lots of free yummy recipes:

(A note: if you’re trying to diet, never, ever look at this magazine. Although the photos look so good that you could probably end up eating the paper they’re printed on…)

…but also lots of important lifestyle tips. I mean, I don’t know how much longer I can survive without buying some chocolate covered sunflower seeds:

…Dufflet chocolate bark:

…or a $32.00 lemon juicer!

(But here, gentle reader, I must confess that I actually now own one of these. In my defence, JJ bought it for me as a gift, knowing how much I love lemon, and it cost quite a bit less than $32.00 where he got it.)

And, here’s the perfect hostess gift for the next time you need one: a “chip ‘n dip” set

Only $240.00!! (Hmmm… how many bags of chips could I actually buy with that, though – and hey, they taste the same coming right out of the bag, no?).

Now, the only reason that the LCBO can actually offer this mag for free (which, by the way, has in past inspired a complaint to the Ombudsman from companies which actually sell their magazines) is that it is government controlled.

That’s right, folks – here in Ontario the government sells us our liquor. At a premium, of course.

What cheeses me off more though of late is that we’re also paying to get lectured while buying booze these days. For example, the LCBO used to have plastic bags like this:

Now, let me tell you, these bags were famous. They were the best plastic bags ever. This was the topic of many of those banal smoking area or elevator chats. Seriously. You could have a whole five minute conversation on “Don’t the LCBO have the best bags?”. I even know one landlord rep who used them as briefcases!

Well, alas, no more. Seemingly overnight, they discontinued the plastic bags in order to save the environment. So, instead, you can get either a free (paper) bag – great if you’ve driven in your gaz guzzling SUV to the liquor store, not so great if you are walking any distance – or, you can have one of these “enviro-bags”:

…which costs $1.95.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think it’s a good idea to do away with plastic bags. However, because they didn’t bother to announce that they were doing this but landed it on us, I was actually forced to buy one of their bags when I stopped in on the way home from work one day.

But then perhaps whinging like this is not socially responsible of me. As a consumer, however, I’m just getting tired of corporations taking the moral high ground, lecturing me about my (lack of) commitment to the environment, then turning a profit from it.

It strikes me that if the LCBO were really serious about encouraging people to use these bags (rather than paper, which as I understand it, involves trees being cut down), they would sell them at cost. And although I don’t know for certain I would venture to say that the LCBO does not itself pay $1.95 for each bag.

I mean, it’s not as though they’re hurting any!

The LCBO transferred a record $1.275-billion dividend, not including taxes, to the Ontario government in fiscal 2006-07. It is the 13th straight year the LCBO has increased its dividend to the province and the fourth consecutive year the dividend has topped $1 billion.

I’d love to know how much of next year’s billion plus “dividend” (is this a fancy word for “profit”?) relates to the sale of enviro-bags, myself.

And is it “socially responsible”, pray tell, to hawk $240 chip bowls rather than encouraging people to donate that kind of money to – oh, I don’t know – Mothers Against Drunk Driving, perhaps?!

Humph.

**************

Never on Sunday…

5 Comments

I tend to refrain from shopping for yarn on Sunday, preferring instead to clean the house laze about, go out for coffee, knit, etc.  It is, after all, meant to be a day of rest (I am a subscriber of the “take what you like and leave the rest” school of religion, obviously).

Which meant, of course, that I had to go trolling for yarn yesterday!

Yes, yes – I was unfaithful to the Handmaiden yet again! I should be hanging my head in shame, not gloating about it over the Internet, I suppose.

But in my defence, I had the car yesterday and was in the mood to explore. So I headed up to a shop I had heard about some time back called The Enchanted Needle.

This shop is located in a city called Woodbridge, just north of Toronto:

Woodbridge used to look like this, apparently:

Now it looks more like this:

And it’s full of these:

Argh.  Let me tell you that the Enchanted Needle was the only beacon of light in what otherwise seems to be Strip Mall Hell.  It is a great shop, primarily focusing on needlepoints and tapestries.  I saw some kits for pieces like this:

I had to avert my eyes, because the last thing I need is another expensive and time-consuming hobby.  So, instead, I headed upstairs to the smaller space where they sell knitting yarns.

It is there that I found the Misti Alpaca Handpaints depicted above there.  Blue, turquoise and lime green – what’s not to like?!  I won’t tell you how many skeins I got there.  Suffice it to say that if I were to tie all the skeins together, affix one end to the doorknob in my apartment building and venture out on foot in Toronto, there are few places I couldn’t find my way back from.

For good measure, I threw these in:

2.25 mm knitting needles!  If you had told me I’d be buying such a skinny pair of needles a year ago, I would tell you that you had taken leave of your senses.  Instead, the senseless one is I.

I guess having new kilometres of yarn in the stash wasn’t enough, as I promptly arrived home and ordered the following from Blue Moon Fiber Arts: Blue Moonstone…

…and Star Sapphire.

Why did I have to take up lace knitting! It requires kilometres of yarn and every project takes a long time to finish.  This ensures that the stash will grow to brobdignanian proportions.

On that note, I think it’s time to go off and re-organize the stash.

But not before I explain the photo at the top.  That is a photo of Melina Mercouri, who was a famous Greek actress and singer:

The film she is probably known most for here in North America is Never On Sunday…

… where she played a hooker with a heart of gold who organized all the other hookers in Athens to stand up to the big bad bossman pimp, and led them in a strike!

A woman after my own pinko heart, clearly.  She later became a Minister of Parliament and they’ve even made stamps with her on it!

The whole country mourned when she died some time back.

Vale Melina.  I want to be you when I grow up.

Happy Sunday!

PayDay mysteries… and a new family member!

7 Comments

Well, what a coincidence that on PayDay, I came across a mysterious door…

…which led to a long and winding path through an enchanted forest.

And where did the path end?

My local yarn store!

Amazing, isn’t it? So, of course I just had to buy some yarn.

Misti Alpaca has managed to outdo themselves, I learned, with some new handpainted lace yarn in 800g skeins!

(In actual fact, I had learned this before PayDay. But it was a guid excuse to lay in some more stock.)

Isn’t this sumptuous?

I also succumbed, finally, to the temptation to give in to that dreaded Siren, Kureyon.

Now, I don’t quite get why I would want to knit socks out of this scratchy-as-hell yarn. However, I couldn’t resist the lure of the rainbow…

So, the lovely Leane suggested that I pair the Kureyon with a strand of this Kid Seta and make a shawl:

As you’ve probably gathered by now, I am highly suggestible to anything to do with the acquisition of yarn. But it’s lovely in itself, isn’t it?

Almost like a sunset in a skein!

I even bought some novelty yarn on sale because of the fab colour:

Fit for a Yarn Queen.

And, finally, this rather uncharacteristic purchase. The yarn is called Twelve and it’s got twelve types of yarn in one.

Funky, eh? I thought it would make a cute party scarf at some point.

But lest you think I was selfish on this very fine day, let it be known that JJ got a goodie as well:

A garden gnome for the balcony flowerbox!!!

And not only that, but it comes with a handy reference manual on All Things Gnomish:

In this photo is the author of the guidebook (I’ll leave you to guess who that might be):

JJ is quite chuffed, and as I write is talking to the gnome. I’m advised that his name is Wee John. (And now you understand why it is that JJ actually puts up with all my foolishness. He’s a bit barmy himself, eh?

And finally now I realise why I was so inspired to do my Group of Seven project!!

Methinks the wee pagan Quack Junior and Wee John will become fast friends…

I just hope that they don’t run off to the forest together!

Happy Thursday!


PayDay – The Sequel

Leave a comment

(or, how Kristina spent the rent money at the LYS – yet again).

I think I’ve broken my own past record for lack of willpower vis-a-vis PayDay spending. Remember what I said only yesterday?:

…This typically means, if you have followed this blog for any length of time, that tomorrow you will be expecting a big post with about 50 photos of the yarn I am about to acquire today. Well, I have news for you. There will be no yarn purchases today…

That was posted to my blog at 9:10 a.m. yesterday. At 11 or so I went out on an errand to the bank – to cash JJs pensioner cheque and get his half of the rent to deposit into my bank account. I blame the line up at his bank, really – which is up on Queen Street West, also home of Romni. While (im)patiently waiting my turn, the dulcet tones of Deam Martin emanating from my iPod inexplicably faded, replaced by a little voice:

Evil Kristina: Why not just take a little run to Romni – it’s just down the street – and see if they still have any of that Handmaiden Camelspun left?

Good Kristina: We didn’t buy any the last time – because we don’t need it!! And it is not “just down the street” – we’re at Spadina and Romni is west of Bathurst, for goddess’ sake!
Evil Kristina: Ah, come on – it’s not likely that they’ve got any left, anyway – you know how the Handmaiden flies out of that store…

Good Kristina: Usually in your hands!

Evil Kristina: Besides, you need buttons for the Tilted Duster.

Good Kristina: I haven’t even started knitting that yet!!!

Evil Kristina: Look, here comes a streetcar now – let’s just hop in it. It won’t take any time at all…

Good Kristina: I have to get back to the office!!!


Evil Kristina: What is 10 minutes here or there going to hurt? It’s not like you’re punching a timeclock or anything…

Well, I think you can guess the outcome of that little spat. It would also seem as though Evil Kristina slipped Good Kristina some knock-out drops in transit…

As soon as I walked into the store this jumped out at me:

(ahem… having rooted through the Handmaiden bin, anyway). The espresso coloured Camelspun I had seen when they had first got it in – but refrained from buying. How virtuous of me…

But – sigh – there were all sorts of other great colourways of the Camelspun as well. This was another favourite:
I couldn’t decide, so had to take both.

I then wrenched myself away from the Handmaiden area (which, by the way, is extremely close to the cash register. They are evil in there, really!) to look for buttons, and found these:
However, I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. I went back to the Handmaiden section and pulled out a skein of Sea Silk which I had studiously ignored before:


It had a pattern on it!!!


This is the point at which Good Kristina awoke briefly from her deep slumber to protest:

Good Kristina: Have you forgotten about all this then, back at the house?…

…including Sea Silk, by the way, which you just had to have back in the summer, and which still sits there?!?

Evil Kristina: Yeah, yeah, yeah – but those ones didn’t come with a pattern!

Good Kristina: You don’t need another pattern! You went and got that whole Victorian lace book, and then another lace book!!!

Evil Kristina: But this pattern looks easy. We could take it on the trip with us…

Good Kristina: We’re supposed to be trying to design patterns now!!! Why buy another scarf pattern?!?

Evil Kristina: It’s only $2.00.

Good Kristina: What?!? It’s $39.50. Can’t you read?

Evil Kristina: Yeah – $37.50 for the yarn, $2.00 for the pattern = $39.50. Can’t you add or subtract?

Good Kristina, perhaps wisely, gave up at this point.

So, this is how Wonder Woman here, who was going to spend no money on yarn on 30 November, ended up shelling out… um… well, let’s just say it was less than $170.00.

The kind woman at the cash actually asked me if I run a knitting business, seeing as I apparently buy so much yarn there. When I said no, she suggested I join a knitting guild so as to get a 10 per cent discount in future. This might be a good idea…

But of course, this is now it for the yarn spending for the calendar year 2007. I won’t be buying any more yarn until 2008. I am most certainly not going near any yarn store in London while I’m there… I don’t need any more Rowan products either!

(And, if you believe that, I’ve got some really good bargains on never-used Fleece Artist and Handmaiden to show you…)

Happy Saturday! Please note that on this date in 1835, Hans Christen Andersen published his first book of fairy tales. The Emperor’s New Clothes is sounding pretty familiar right now…

Well, I’m off to make some breakfast (my weekend standard – jumbo twister Montreal-style bagel with peanut butter and bacon. I used to make this at work during the week but got tired of everyone asking me if I was pregnant!), then deliver the rent cheque… sigh.

Shameless self-indulgence…

Leave a comment

…or, How Kristina Went to the LYS for Buttons Only and Ended Up Buying More Handmaiden and Fleece Artist.

I imagine that just about any knitter who reads this will relate to tales of an everburgeoning stash. My stash drawers and tote box, in particular, runneth over with fancy silks, silk blends and wool by those beckoning sirens, Handmaiden and Fleece Artist.

With this in mind, I set off for the LYS at the lunch break – only, mind you, to look for buttons for JJs vest in the making:

When I got to the LYS, however, I realised that I had forgotten they now close on Mondays!

I remained remarkably calm. After all, there was a huge sewing emporium just down the street. So, I popped in there and got the buttons. I felt quite virtuous that I hadn’t just gone back to the office and tried the LYS again on Tuesday instead.

Virtuous, that is, until 2:30 p.m. or so when visions of this started dancing in my head…

A skein of Fleece Artist Italian Silk that looks remarkably, er. chartreuse. The identical skein, in fact, to one that I had been laughing at the last time I was at the LYS close to my house, Knitomatic I think my words to Leane, who works at the store, were “There is no one in the world who this bile colour would look decent on.”

No one, apparently, except Evil Kristina, to whom the yellowy-green colour was a light beckoning me towards some oasis.

By the time I left work it was pouring with rain which was starting to turn into sleet. I made a steadfast decision not to stop in at Knitomatic (a ten minute walk from my place) and instead to take the bus all the way home.

Until, that is, the Knitomatic bus stop (as I have come to think of it – I can’t even tell you the name of the cross-street!) approached.

The inevitable internal dialogue then began:

Evil Kristina: Hey!!! You forgot to pull the bell cord. Our stop’s coming up.

Good Kristina: I told you we’re not stopping here tonight. The weather is crap, and besides, that colour is horrid.

Evil Kristina: Well then, let’s just go have a look at it again. It will make you feel good to walk out of there without having bought anything.

Good thinking. At any rate, although no one usually gets off at this stop, about five people stood up and made tracks to the door. This was a sign.

So, when I arrived at Knitomatic looking like a drowned chipmunk (oh, did I mention I forgot my umbrella today?), I headed straight for the little baskets where the Fleece Artist and Handmaiden yarns live. And guess what I saw?

A shiny buttercream confection of half silk, half wool – by Handmaiden.

Good Kristina: Put that back. You don’t need it.

Evil Kristina: Of course I don’t need it – I want it! It’s only $31 – a steal!

Good Kristina: But just think of that whole stash of Handmaiden and Fleece Artist that we came across yesterday in the spare room!

Evil Kristina: Did you see any in this colour there?

Good Kristina: Er… no, come to think of it.

Evil Kristina: Well, don’t we need a nice neutral colour for a change to balance off all those jewel tones?

(Good point!)

Good Kristina: NO!!! Besides, since you bought all that laceweight yarn, you haven’t even wanted to knit any more lace! So, what is the point of buying more?

Evil Kristina: I already told you, that’s going to be the New Year’s resolution – lace knitting. Forget that “quitting smoking” bit. You just set yourself up for failure when you try to quit smoking at New Year’s!

Good Kristina: But we don’t even believe in New Year’s resolutions!!!

Evil Kristina: My point exactly!!

(Huh?)

Good Kristina: That doesn’t even make sense, you moron. Besides, we decided at the beginning of the summer that we wouldn’t be buying any more wool, and stick to cotton and other stuff.

Evil Kristina: Oh? So why’d you buy this in August then?

Good Kristina: (grasping at straws) Well, it was cheap. And I still want to knit lace.

Evil Kristina: But the buttercream colour looks so Victorian! It’s perfect for lace.

(Score: 1/0 for Evil Kristina. But, never content to rest on her laurels…)

Evil Kristina: So, what about this one then?

Good Kristina: (exasperated) What about it?!? The buttercream one is meant to be instead of this one. Let’s just pay for it and go.

Evil Kristina: But it’s so funky!!

Good Kristina: It is not “funky”, it’s hideous. Why do you think it’s still sitting there? Because no one wants to buy it!

Evil Kristina: But it’s Italian Silk by Handmaiden!!

Good Kristina: We already have two skeins of that, don’t you remember?!?

Evil Kristina: So? When did that ever stop you before? Remember that week when you searched high and low throughout the city to find Sea Silk in the Ocean colourway after hearing about it on Ravelry…

…and then, the same week – the same week, mind you! – you saw this purple Sea Silk…

…and just had to have it!!

Good Kristina: (sulking) It was my birthday that week.

Evil Kristina: Ah yes, your birthday. Didn’t you buy the Alchemy that week as well, because you just had to make that Oriel blouse which now you don’t even like any more?

Good Kristina: Um, er…

Evil Kristina: And how convenient that it falls right after that stupid Payday holiday you’ve started celebrating to justify your spending to yourself!

Good Kristina: We’re not getting the chartreuse colour. Period.

(long pause)

Evil Kristina: Look, you know you’re just going to come back later in the week for it – and you’ll be pissed off if it’s not there!

(longer pause)

Good Kristina: I don’t know…

Evil Kristina: Look at it this way. You’re knitting that vest for JJ, right? Despite the fact that you have all this other stuff you want to make for yourself? So, don’t you deserve a little treat?

Good Kristina: (faltering) But… if I get new silk I won’t want to finish his vest…

Evil Kristina: Hey, you’ve got lots of willpower. You’ll finish it. He needs it for the trip, right?

Good Kristina: …well, all right then.

Final score: 2/0 for Evil Kristina.

And the moral of the story, you ask? Never go to the LYS for buttons again. There are sewing shops that sell buttons without all of the other tempations that the LYS holds…

Temptations such as this:


And this…


…and more of this…

(The first photo that I took of this yarn, by the way, will show you just how excited I was by my new purchases – jumping up and down!)

Not to mention this:

Good Kristina: Well, surely that doesn’t really count as I bought it on sale 1/2 price!

Evil Kristina: Yeah, but were these two on sale? Huh? Huh?

Good Kristina: Um, er…

You would think that I would learn, wouldn’t you!

Sigh. In closing, last year on this day Harper (the PM)’s motion to declare Québécois “a nation within a unified Canada” was endorsed. I still haven’t figured out what that means, but hey.

Cheers,

Kristina

PS. Actually, the final score was 2/1 for Evil Kristina. She spotted a bright yellow skein of Super 10 on her way out but Good Kristina managed to talk her out of it in light of this:

(Hmm. No yellow. Maybe I’ll have to walk home from the subway station this evening. It doesn’t really take that much longer than the bus…

Yeah, right.)