…or, how to dress for success on a poverty lawyer’s salary:

My “creative lawyering” (quotation marks intentional) suit jacket!

So – how did this nefarious plan come about? I wish I could tell you that this was a brilliant idea I’ve had percolating for months and months because I am such a great artiste.

However, instead, this is something my tortured brain came up with halfway through trying to make a cardigan for my good friend Barb with some sweater in progress pieces which she (a non-knitter) found in her aunt’s house when cleaning it out.

The inspiration

Barb, when she gave these to me, said “I’m not sure what it was supposed to be.” Well, when seeing these four pieces, neither was genius knitter Kristina, to be honest. My first thought was “why would anyone knit four sleeves for a sweater?” After approximately 25 minutes of my usual deep philosophical musing, JJ came into the room and said “I hope you didn’t pick that colour for my cardigan.” Eureka!!

This was another element to the donated pieces that I found very, very confusing initially. I finally figured out that it was intended to be the base for a buttonband (I think).

There was also a fully completed back. (The knitting is lovely, by the way. Thank you, Barb’s aunt – although your colour and yarn choice [Paton’s Canadiana 100% acrylic, Pepto Bismol colourway] don’t really work for me – no offence intended!).

Barb, being the very nice, kind and selfless person that she is, gifted these to me so that I could make something for myself. Well, I, being equally nice, kind and selfless, especially when it comes to knitting… HA!… really had the best intentions of making something for Barb with the pieces and regifting it to her.

Until, that is, I started (for no reason obvious to me) hyperventilating about the fact that my nice little research stint might soon come to an end, which means that I will have to go back to wearing (insert Jaws music here): BUSINESS DRAG.

Agh!!

So, naturally, I decided to go and find the ugliest suit jacket in my closet and cut it to shreds.

NB: the flying saucer shaped object in the bottom centre of the photo is not a falsie. It is a shoulder pad. The world’s largest shoulder pad, I should think (at least it is now… its twin succumbed to my “I actually wore a jacket with Stayfree Maxi shoulder pads in 2002?!? And it wasn’t Hallowe’en? I actually wore it to WORK?!?!” inspired panic attack.

I .. ahem… forgot to take a “before” photo of the jacket, which is just as well. I really don’t know what possessed me to buy an oversized and doublebreasted BEIGE suit jacket (even from Thrift Villa!) – maybe it was me trying to look authoritative and mature the first few weeks on the job. Instead, I imagine I looked like a chipmunk who came across a christening suit discarded outside the Goodwill. And an anaemic one at that. Beige!!! I can’t believe it…

But I digress. I decided to try for a highly ironic “I AM wearing business dress… see? There’s a tie, and a collar” look. Never mind that I can’t actually sew or line anything… but I had to try as I think the person who does my alterations would start laughing so hard if I came in with this request that I could never, ever go back.

Explanation, not excuse, for the extremely lame stitching job you see here. I think it adds to the anti-Bay Street message, myself. I should start a couture line: Bespoke by Brouhaha.

Anyway, so in my usual depraved fashion the design took shape. Unfortunately, the nightmare picture left in my brain last Thursday while on the streetcar in the financial district right at 5:00 p.m. – a line of about 100 people in suits, marching resolutely down University Avenue toward Union Station, most of them talking on cell phones (aghghgh! Zombies!!!) – caused me to become overzealous with the scissors. My de- or re-constructed suit jacket contains pretty much whatever I could salvage from the carnage.

The Collar

I was actually quite impressed that I didn’t do quite the hatchet job on seaming this as I would ordinarily.

Oh, and a tip for those as sewing-challenged as I – handsewing through 2 layers of suit jacket material plus lining is not best endeavoured without a thimble… although in a pinch, parquet flooring and gravity will do.

The Button Band

As I was trying for an ironic look, I did manage to salvage the two front buttons and the band (plus, this saved me the hassle of trying to figure out how to make buttonholes). There were two other buttonholes in the original knitted piece at the bottom and I decided to use funky ceramic buttons for those. Only one shows in the photo. I’m not sufficiently motivated to get out the camera again. The other one is light green.

The Breast Pocket

I just couldn’t resist. This is a fully functional lined pocket. The perfect repository for business cards, pens, a lace square or:

The Anti-Zombie Handkerchief!!

This pocket will NEVER be used to hold a cell phone (I lost mine and will never replace it unless someone makes it a condition of a job paying at least $50,000 more than I make now – and from what I gather, most people are now wearing these ET jobs that light up their ear, anyway).

The sleeves

The sleeves still have their original lining – I am patting myself on the back for that one!

Note the four cute little buttons at the bottom – original detail. I was going to chop the lower parts of the sleeve off and add knitted cuffs from Barb’s aunt’s sleeves but was too lazy and unskilled to pull this off.

The iron on heart and flower decals serve a practical aesthaetic purpose. They are there to hide two huge cigarette burns.

(“How does one get cigarette burns on the upper sleeves of a business jacket?”, you might well ask. The answer: if you ever have the misfortune of attending the Landlord and Tenant Board on a day when there are 100 plus hearings and a full moon, you will soon find out – especially if you smoke and your stressed out clients also smoke and you try to advise them in the smoking area to calm them down….)

Inner lining and Dunhill pocket
I have to say I’m quite proud of these as well. The cigarette pocket is a necessary design feature for me – I suppose one could use it to hold other things, like lighters (I typically store my lighter in my right brassiere cup. Don’t ask.).

For those three people who are still reading, here are some specs and design notes:

Specs
– size = 36 inches (original jacket = women’s size 8)
– design: my own. Knitted pieces made by Barb’s aunt
– knitting pattern = unknown as I did not knit the pieces and there was no pattern with what I was given, though I suspect Patons had a lot to do with it.
– yarn = knitted pieces are Paton’s Canadiana (100% acrylic), colour 164 (Pepto?). Trim and seaming are Brown’s Sheep Worsted (85% wool, 15% acrylic), Limeade and Red Hot Passion (from remnants in the stash). Approx. 1 skein total of Brown Sheep
– notions = 4.5 mm Aero straight needles, 4.5 mm bamboo crochet hook, 2 iron on decals, 2 ceramic buttons, 2 suit buttons from original suit, craft needle, tapestry needle
– time spent = 10 hours approx.
– date started = 27 October 2007
– date finished = 28 October 2007

Notes:
– I seamed the knitted pieces together using a crochet hook. I may never seam with a tapestry needle again! This entailed crocheting one single crochet round around each knitted piece, then attaching where needed with another line of single crochet.
– The right side border is garter stitch: 2 rows Limeade, 2 rows Pepto and 1 row and bindoff in Red Hot Passion
– The left side border and bottom border were originally supposed to be i-cord edging. However, I do not have the Nicki Epstein book, couldn’t remember how to do this, and was too lazy and stubborn to look it up. So, my first intention was a garter border similar to the right side. However, due to more laziness, I gave up after only one knit row (on the wrong side). Imagine my surprise when this, combined with the crochet row and the bindoff row (on RS) created something which looks very much like i-cord edging! Let’s call it “I-Cord Edging for Lazyass Numbskulls”.

– it took me the majority of the time spent on this project to seam the suit pieces to the knitted pieces and to sew in the lining and pockets. This time factor would be greatly reduced with a sewing machine. (I have a tiny one which I can’t figure out how to use, and which would anyway likely not handle knitting).

(Almost) looking forward to business drag again…

Kristina

PS. In case you still think I’m completely selfish, here is something I’m working on with Barb’s aunt’s sleeves (the sleeves of Barb’s aunt? where are the grammar police when you need them!) to give to Barb… maybe.

I’m not sure what it will be yet. If you have any ideas for me, please Email me 😉

I’m sure I’m not the only knitfiend/crafter who has insisted strenuously that although I love knitting, I will NEVER:

(a) knit socks (because why knit them when you can buy them at Zellers for $2/pair?!”):Kristina’s First and Last Socks
(March 2007 or thereabouts)
(Now, I will most likely inveitably knit them again despite the second NEVER… ach, here goes the good ol’ merry go round!)

(b) knit lace (because “it’s too picky and fine and I hate yarnovers”). Too many pics to show here – just check out practically every knitting related post here since June 2007, not to mention the burgeoning Handmaiden and other laceweight stash):

(c) knit a washcloth.

No offence to anyone who is deeply into the washcloth craze, but I haven’t broken this particular “never” yet. (this may well be personally because I don’t appear to believe in coordinating bath towels, but rather grab whatever is cheapest and plushest at Winners…)

My high falutin’ snob standards respecting washcloths, though, do not seem to extend to handkerchiefs, at least not any more.

Hence, today’s post is a show and tell about Never No 4 (note to self: must compose mambo today):

(d) embroider zombies on a cut up pair of briefs to make a snotrag.

Er… I’m sure you’re saying right now “here is one for the “never” annals, for sure! I blame Holly, the Voice of Evil for warping my brain with her brilliant zombie fighting adventures (when is the book coming out?). After an Email chat with her about warshcloths, I got this idea.

So, for those who are as warped as me, here was the design process, such as it is.

1. Sketch or graph your motifs.

One huge problem with this for me – I cannot sketch, and am not great at graphs either. Viz:

Please note the ruffles chip grease stain and the ripped graph paper (and I’d like to know why my legal research office does not accommodate me by stocking graph paper for me to liberate. For shame!).

However, I thought that since my cross-stitch skills are virtually non-existent (see point #2, infra), I’d best try for some sort of plan.

The girl picture comes (very, very roughly speaking, and with no offence intended to Average Jane Crafter) from Craftzine blog

2. Find a canvas

Since this was supposed to be a handkerchief, I initially figured there was no problem as JJ is the only person I know who still carries real-live handkerchieves (which I find rather cute and quaint, although I make him wash them.

Unfortunately, I was busted raiding his stash. The inevitable security guard vs. lawyer interrogation session ensued (in my experience, the lawyers always lose):

JJ: What exactly are ye doin’, hen?
KB: Um… er… I need to borrow one of your handkerchiefs.
JJ: What for?
KB: Um…er… (brilliant excuses cycling through my brain but not stopping long enough to actually form one, as usual)… because I want to make a zombie fighting snotrag.
JJ: What?
KB: (boring attempt at explaining my various psychoses follows)
JJ: But you don’t even like zombie movies! You keep making me change the channel when they come on. I had to learn to program that blasted digital TV thingy just to tape a zombie movie because you refused!!
KB: Well, er… Hallowe’en is coming.
JJ: But you’re dressing like a cheerleader! Or was it Carmen Miranda? I can’t remember, lassie – you’re all over the place like a fart in a trance. But I don’t think any of it had to do with zombies!
KB: But – zombies are a hallowe’en thing, aren’t they?
JJ: What about all that yarn you keep bringing in? You made me order all that stuff on the line (sic) to make me a vest. Where is the vest? And don’t think I haven’t noticed you sneaking straight to the second bedroom after work with more yarn – practically every day! Why don’t you use some of that? And how about mah vest?

(note: here is the swatch for the vest – from the Best of Interweave Knits, done in Knitpicks CotLin. See how short it is? And the poor colour quality? I think the zombies were getting to me…)

KB: It’s not “on the line”, JJ – it’s on line. ON LINE. OK?! And this is not the Spanish Inquisition.
JJ: Don’t you quote Monty Python at me. It’s crrrrap. I was turning the channel from BBC to avoid that crrrap back home while you were still in diapers. Anyway, all you did was “knit, knit, knit” for the last year. Now that’s not good enough? Make yourself another nice top – or my vest. You never make me anything.
KB: You’ve been wearing the gansey I made you for the past week!!!
JJ: Oh – so you don’t appreciate that I really like to wear the sweaters you make for me? You just want to glue that bloody fridge poetry onto stuff instead and now do god knows what with mah handkerchief?

(If anyone knows, by the way, which school in Glasgow exists to teach Irish Scottish men how to employ the Greek/Jewish/general European mother syndrome, please let me know. I wish to send them a strong letter.)

KB: So, can I just have one of your handkerchiefs?
JJ: NO.

End of discussion, more or less. (I did have a cheesy whiny little comeback that I thought better of sharing, for once:)

KBs Tortured Brain: Well, I don’t want any of your snotty rags anyway. Just as well. Who wants to see your dried up snot on my blog? SO THERE. Nyah nyah nyah.

All this to say, I was deprived of the supreme ironic potential of using an actual snotrag (because, of course, with my ADD I had to start on this right away. The bottles of limeless Corona probably had something to do with it as well.).

I tried first with JJs eyeglass cleaning cloth. He noticed and snatched it from me, muttering about wee greek horrors.

So – I cut up a pair of his briefs instead. Heh. Heh. Heh.

3. Start cross-stitching

I suspect I’ve mentioned that I hate sewing. My cross-stitch skills are also pretty lame (oh – and that would constitute “never no. 5″… I nearly slaughtered myself several times during the making of this one last year:Santa Hell and said “NO MORE NEEDLEPOINT!!!”.

So, what do I do – decide to do a cross-stitch on a medium that has no grid. Good thinking, Batgirl!

I also, by the way, forgot how to do the basic x-stitch. Luckily there are lots of on-line instructions.

4. Attach meaningful symbolism to your piece.

This is really difficult to do when your emblems are probably not recognizable to anyone but yourself. However…

(a)
I think that at least the “no” sign should be instantly recognizable for what it is (at least, if you’re a smoker!). Too bad mine came out lopsided, as 4 Coronas makes it quite difficult to follow a graph.

(b)
This is the most significant part of the pattern, and so, it stands to reason (in my universe, anyway) the least obvious. To the left is the house under possible siege by the zombie. To the right is the zombie. The house has a red roof which is the “voice of evil zombie banishing” colour, and a lame attempt at grass (which could also be viewed as a protective force-field of snot). The house is shooting out sunrays toward the zombie. Did Zombie Die!!!

(c)

The Jolly Roger. Again, a bit lopsided. I picked fuschia as being a fabulous evil banishing tough chick colour.

The border is green. The significance of that, given the inspiration by Holly, should be quite obvious.

You will also note a blank spot in the “canvas”. (JJ’s very helpful comment, by the way, was “You forgot something”). This has symbolic and practical meaning.

Symbolism = the great unknown as to the outcome of any purported zombie attack
Practicality = If it’s a snotrag, one needs someplace to blow one’s nose.

Most importantly perhaps, though:

Truth = I got bored and couldn’t face stitching “Home Sweet Zombie-Free Home”.

Please note also the other design feature – an elastic lanyard/zombie stunner.

Next up, perhaps: a set of briefs with “If’s it no’ scottish it’s crrrap” stitched onto the y-front, a saltire on one cheek and a canadian flag on the other. (JJs says “Don’t bother.” Might as well wave a red cape in front of the proverbial bull, really. You think he’d have figured this out by now!)

Actually, though, it seems as though it really is time to go back to the knitting…
although today I’m off to Canadian Tire to buy terracotta flowerpots for my mosaic tealight holders (they’re always a big hit as they throw off sparks when in use… I’ll take a pic of a finished one when at my friend’s place for Hallowe’en).

Happy weekend!

when driving back from work with JJ last evening, we saw a lovely harvest moon (and now Neil Young tunes are cycling through my brain like hamsters on crack). The above is my lame attempt to photograph it later…

Maybe because of the moon, JJ finally agreed to let me post He Gansey (No Sheep for You) pics on the blog:

“Just call me Charles Atlas”. Actually, I think he was trying to do a “OPA!” thing.

This is how the recalcitrant moon first morphed when I tried to photograph it:

What a bugger, eh?

And now for today’s craft photo… a repurposed cigar box I decorated last year, mostly with broken vintage teacups (and some fiestaware):

I am addicted to those “this china is from Britain” bits on the bottom of the old teacups for some reason.

More creative endeavours – see today’s other blog post about haiku.

Finally, just in time for Hallowe’en, I saw this blog post on how to make your own candy bars (I love Twix!!!)

Chow!

Happy Friday!

Darx from Knittyboard (sorry, no blog link) asked to see these – and some coworkers also wanted to see them “in print” as the original copy was in my inimitable chickenscratch.

Tenant Reverse Haiku

(* I say “reverse” because little genius me just realised that she confused the appropriate Haiku metre: these are written in 7/5/7 instead of 5/7/5. SIGH)

(27 September 2007, Kristina B, written during a staff meeting)

fire alarm battery dead
screaming so loudly
super answers not his phone

eviction hearing today
“pay and stay” says judge
cockroaches do not matter

landlord landlord go away
no written notice
come against another day

fridge is broken yet again
landlord doesn’t care
I fill in my form T6

I plan to perform these at the next regional conference: wearing feudal landlord garb. 🙂

And the next one is a REAL haiku… written 24 October 2007 at a conference in anticipation of a talking head’s speech to take place the following day and concomitant consternation by a colleaugue that she had forgotten to bring Buzzword Bingo cards – or, rather, this card.

An Ode to Horizontality
or
The 6th Minute of the Game

(written on 24 October in anticipation of the speech by our fearless leader at TCTC yesterday AM – Jennifer Ramsay forgot to bring the bulls**t bingo cards. This is a true haiku in 5/7/5 metre)

synergies galore
silos, Rubik, Value Ag*…
“BINGO!” cry out I.

**Note: the phrase “Value Agenda” has become popular of late, apparently. And, did you know that “Sharing is a two way street”?

Now, back to the regularly scheduled knitting programme:

The fancy Brea Bag which I think must be by the fabulous Norah Gaughan. Pattern available free at the Berocco website.

Specs:

Yarn = Paton’s Decor (sorry, Berocco) – 50/50 wool/acrylic – cranberry, burgundy and blue
Needle Size = 4.5 mm
Started = a couple of summers ago while on holiday in Kingston, then became a long-forgotten UFO
Finished = yesterday at training conference (outlaw knitting!!!)

Notes:

– I used two different yarn colours in the main part of the pattern – I think that shows a bit on this picture. In person, it gives the colour some depth.
– I wanted a burgundy and blue purse at the time for work, hence the colour choices (not my favourite combo now, but I like the bag.
– The pattern was very fun to work with and quite simple. Good cable project for a beginner.
– I would recommend, however, a yarn with more stitch definition than the Paton, which is a bit “fuzzy” looking. Maybe Jo Sharp Desert Cotton…
– I like knitting in public! I just had the strap to finish and it was easy enough to take to my conference. A good way to stay awake during dry legal stuff, let me tell you! Today I am presenting so don’t really think I can get away with this, though (although I’m at risk of falling asleep during my own presentation…;-). Hopefully the crowd likes the fancy feudalism clipart I found for my landlord/tenant case review powerpoint!!

I hope to have another long-term UFO finished (in new form) tomorrow or Saturday, then back to my design project. Stay tuned!

I don’t know whether to kiss or curse Holly for introducing me to Craft magazine. Now I will never get any work done!!

I fell in love with the mag after seeing this:

Homage to Carmen Miranda!

How can I not love a magazine where a burlesque entertainer (Angie Pontani) shows you how to make fancy headdresses! I don’t any more have the body to wear thecute short sparkly outfit, but the headgear will go so well with this dress:

(The photo does not do it justice. I really need to buy a scanner. However, it is very sparkly, covered in sequins… I scored it for $20 at Thrift Villa in Parkdale to wear to my “I finally managed to become a lawyer” party. (Wanted to wear it to my actual call to the Bar, but figured they wouldn’t call me then and I would have blown $35,000 for nothing. I refuse to show you the photos of me wearing the robes and tabs and looking very, very goofy. I have not had occasion to have to wear robes since, thankfully).

So – now I’m off to the Dollarama ASAP to find cheap fake fruit and maybe even a glue gun! I plan to make several for the first performance of the Club 425 Dance troupe (we have lessons at my workplace at lunchtime led by the fabulous Madame Jennie, who will not let me show a picture of her). The performance is at yet unscheduled, mostly because yours truly is a great dancer who can’t follow set steps, unlike her equally talented co-workers in the troupe.

One of the dance tunes featured, I’m hoping, will come from one of these CDs which I finally scored yesterday after hunting high and low:

I should mention that my musical tastes after date back 50 or so years. I suspect that in a past life I was meant to be part of the Rat Pack, but was instead stuck inside the house in some Greek village with permission to leave once a year for church with my head covered in a kerchief.

But really, how can you not love a guy who actually recorded “Hair Goes Latin”???? (and if anyone finds this, I’ll knit you a Tuscany in exchange.

I have to go now to upload 3 CDs worth of Edmundo Ros onto my iPod. It is a happy day indeed in the JK household (and JJ will surely be happy to stop listening to the caterwauling Greek selections I’ve been into for the last while!).

I will, however, leave you with a parting cheesecake shot of me doing the Wedding Samba decked out in my Tuscany and Montego Bay scarf (warning: if you don’t like burlesque or nude back with love handles, skip this one…). This is my response to a dare/bet – the person who dared/bet me (who, by request, shall remain nameless) now owes me a skein of sea silk. Heh heh heh.

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Just holding my head because I don’t have the towering fruit headpiece yet.

Have you ever had that stuff called “fridge poetry” on your fridge at home? I had it for years and years, providing much hilarity at parties particularly after everyone had had a few – especially since someone had gifted me with the smutty version of fridge poetry.

In the time period since I first acquired the fridge poetry, I have moved apartments… er… six or seven times due to either wanderlust or the inevitable discontentment that comes from being a tenant advocate who is also a tenant! (I prefer the wanderlust reason myself – it sounds far more sweeping and majestic than “this landlord is never going to fix anything, so I might as well just move”).

The last time I moved (which was a happy move in that we were upgrading to acquire a 32 foot balcony plus a second bedroom which has become the stash/craft room, library, etc) I finally said to myself “Enough!! I’m not putting up this fridge poetry ANY MORE!!”. However, hoarder little me could not bear to toss it out. It sat in a tupperware container for some time and then I decided to deal with it once and for all.

So – here’s what I came up with, about a year and a half ago:

Warning: due to the smutty fridge poetry used in part in this piece, viewer discretion is strongly advised regarding the resulting subject matter! 😉 don’t say I didn’t warn you!

The Box That Dreams Are Made Of!!!

Detail Shot:

You will note that I made no real attempt at creating poetry and that for the most part the words were placed at random (I really wish I had saved all the great stuff people had “written” over the years. I started to then lost the scraps of paper I was using to write them down during some move or other).

Please note also the very pleasing “sepia” effect on part of the fridge poetry. Second hand smoke can be a wonderful dyeing medium, I’ve learned. Looking at this box “in person” I could actually tell you which of two sets of fridge poetry each individual magnet came from, based on how nicotine-stained it is.

Smoking is SO glamorous! (any Canadians here who remember that poster campaign back in the 80s with the really ugly photo of a person with about 100 lit cigarettes jammed in his/her mouth, surrounded by smoke? Peculiar that I took up smoking approximately 35 minutes after first seeing that poster at the high school – it stressed me out!).

But I digress. To make a lovely heirloom poet’s box, simply glue fridge magnets onto an old shoebox. The lovely sepia effect could be accomplished as well without years of smoking – by painting the magnets once dried with contact cement, which will also produce an extra layer of adhesive.

And now it strikes me that I could have made my life much easier by using a metal box. Oh well. This will give me an excuse to try to find the petty cash box at the office, as I just remembered I have more fridge poetry in sepia/white, pink and lavender as well (the latter two being queer fridge poetry). “Really, I wasn’t stealing the money… I just wanted the box to use for another craft”.

Hmm.

Amy has tagged me… I’m it. agh. 😉

This one is not too time consuming, anyway.

For the unfortunate taggees (and I do hope I haven’t tagged you before. I haven’t done it all that often):

Open the book you’re currently reading to page 161 and copy the fifth sentence on the page, then tag 5 bloggers.

All righty – p.161, 5th sentence:

Cory J. wrote: “The interpretation of the word “corruptly” must take place within the context of s.426 itself.”

And – I know you’re all going to want to rush out and buy a copy… so here is the cover shot for your convenience:

(such dull reading matter that the photo came out in black and white).

Oh – I just realised the photo came out backwards. The book is:

Sullivan, Ruth A., “Driedger on the Construction of Statutes, 3rd ed.” (Butterworths: Markham, 1994). (Make sure you buy the 4th ed. with the red cover… I picked up the wrong one when leaving the office Friday. But if you’re desperate, the 3rd ed. will do.

hee hee

And… the winners are:
Holly

Haley

Natalie

Joan

and… (drumroll please!)

Wannietta

…although with the first one, at least, I’d rather say “damn and blast” because:

(a) it’s way too 80s to actually wear; and
(b) there have appeared in it some mysterious holes. Grr.

I came across both of these when excavating the spare room closet looking for winter wear (why, when they are calling for 22 C/75 F or thereabouts weather today, you might well ask. I have no answer that makes any sense):

1. David

This pattern came originally from Knitting Masterpieces. If anyone ever comes across a copy, either snatch it up for yourself or consider a “donation” to me … I have long lost the copy I, ahem, liberated from the local public library at the time (what goes around, they do say, comes around). My WHAM! sweater comes from the same pattern book. There are wonderful patterns in it although I imagine the shapes are now rather dated. In the vague mists of the history in my brain (which can be very vague indeed) there is a wonderful sweater based on a Monet painting.

Anyway, this was made… oh, 18 years ago or so in my foolish youth and well before the word “intarsia” became the equivalent of two four-letter words in my household.

In case the front isn’t recognisable, the sleeves tell you the provenance of the original image:

(in case this is not instantly legible, it reads “Michelangelo”, despite the fact that my tortured brain this morning views it as “Hell’s Angels” for some odd reason… )

And just in case you’re not sure who David is: I love Wikipedia!!!
Cool, eh? (on second thought… don’t answer that!)

2. KB Bag

This is about the level of intarsia I can currently hack ;-). It is of far more recent provenance – I think I made it in April 2006 or thereabouts. Design is found in one of the Debbie Stoller books – I think “Stitch n Bitch Nation” although am now too lazy to check. It may have been called the “Bowling Bag” although if I stuck a 5 lb bowling ball in here (which is all it could accommodate) I would undoubtedly drop it and break my foot. (Note: it is actually called “Letter Have It” and the designer is Georgia Coleman)

Yarn = Lett Lopi (an excellent felting yarn, by the by).

The design concept is rather obvious, I think – the colleagues got a big kick out of this bag as my longstanding nickname at work and in my field overall has been “KB” – maybe because the spelling of the full name “Kristina Brouhaha” is a bit too difficult for all those lawyers to grasp? hee hee

Anyway, this at the very least has cheered up what promises to be a gloomy day weather wise… when do we get to set forward the clocks, anyway? I detest this 6 hours of sunlight a day thing.

kb

My results of the Sault Ste Marie Value Village expedition, in part:

1. Just Ducky!

Quack was starting to get lonely. Now he has a little friend… Daisy (I’m not too imaginative with the names for the birds, I must confess. It’s not my fault: I grew up in a house where the only pet was named “Budgie”.

The vase between is also a new household display piece.

2. Addicted to beads

Here is a very fancy beaded purse featuring Thumper and … I forget (I guess my amnesia is not limited to birds, actually):

Check out the happy look on Thumper’s face in contemplation of the carrot (wish I got equally excited by veggies!)

3. Scarves

Just what I needed as I’ve started a knitting scarf binge…

I also scored a floor length fancy fitted dress, 5 tops (including a cute little cashmere sweater), some books, a denim-look Eddie Bauer sweater for JJ and some other stuff… all for $96.47. (Wonder if they’d notice if I tried to put on trip expenses… hmm… kidding, of course.

Oh, and lest I forget, here is some of the new J-K household yarn:

Berocco Idol (left) and Knitpicks Cotlin (right). Am glad to report that JJ favours the beige colour for his brioche vest… which means I get the blue for myself 😉 The sea silk is still at the office as I want to take it to the bead shop tomorrow to try to find some complimentary beads (although I may order some from Earthfaire instead).

I think that’s enough. Off to prepare some bread and water for dinner (which is now all I can afford…)

kb

PS. Oh – I almost forgot – my Hallowe’en costume!! (also from Boutique VV):

Now I just need to find some pompoms… excuse for a trip to Dollarama (where even I can’t do much damage). I also have a big blonde wig hiding somewhere…

😉