Especially guid for me, because it’s the start of a long weekend!

(Not so guid for JJ, alas, who is working today, tomorrow and Sunday… but at least his next Friday will be very, very guid indeed when he gets to take me out for dinner with that big fat statutory holiday paycheque! He gets paid double time this weekend to sit around and play Spider Solitaire and fool around with Google Earth. So don’t shed too many tears for him.)

WARNING: anyone who is not comfortable of the idea of a somewhat irreverent take on the most serious holiday in the Christian calendar might want to avoid reading this post. Don’t say you weren’t warned!!

Now, for any of you not familiar with the intricate details of the Christian tradition, Good Friday is meant to be a big day of mourning. Why?

Oh. I see. Most of you are probably familiar with this guy. Even if you are not Christian, I suspect you can’t help but have heard too much a lot about him, at least in Western cultures.

Anyway, the historical event depicted in that image has led, almost 2000 years later, to many different prohibitions of certain behaviours on the basis that people are supposed to mourn and be abstemious – not a concept I’m familiar with, personally, as you might well have gathered.

However, depending upon where you live, all or any of the following might be forbidden today:

– shopping
– betting or watching horse racing
– eating altogether
– eating meat
– dancing
– watching comedy or dance performances
– digging in the dirt – huh?!

(I think that knitting, however, is probably allowed – as long as you pretend not to enjoy it. And in fact, depending upon where you live, your TV knitting choice might be well enhanced today, as some jurisdictions also ban television advertising on Good Friday.)

Anyway, with all of these depredations, why is it referred to as “Good Friday”, anyway?!?

This is what the United Church has to say on the matter:

It is a day that is good because God was drawing the world to God’s self in Christ. As seen in John’s gospel, particularly, God was in control. God was not making the best of a bad situation, but was working out God’s intention for the world — winning salvation for all people. We call it “good” because we look backward at the crucifixion through the lens of Easter!

Hmm, well – I don’t know that it was all that good for this guy:

Maybe that’s why the Orthodox Christians (as, technically anyway, am I) call it “Big Friday”, at least in Greece and Cyprus. Oh, and – because we have to be different know better, it is usually on a different this day – this year, it falls on 25 April and Easter on 27 April.

It is a very sombre day, of course.

I mean, crack a smile, guys – it’s not the end of the world, is it?!

(The guy in the middle with the big crown was apparently called Archbishop Kontogeorge. This happens to be the maiden name of my mother’s mother and the original surname of the ultra-cool cousin/slash uncle of mine who sends me a bunch of funny stuff by Email. So – my question – where the $#&(@$*&@#( is the crown, as I really, really need to inherit it!)

It’s a pretty boring holiday as Greek ones go – mostly because it involves no food (or none that you would want to eat, anyway). Instead, people stay up all night the previous night reconstructing the tomb of Christ.

This is called the epitafio in Greek. I just learned that in English it is called the… wait for it… Holy Sepulchre. Love that phrase!

Anyway, on the evening of Big Friday a bunch of guys then get roped into picking it up:

…and carrying it around the block while a bunch of people follow them around singing sad songs.

What a blast, eh? And for this, we have to wait another five weeks. I don’t know if I can stand the excitement.

(Oh – but it’s not all so bad. My mother likes the one sad song they sing on this evening so much that she plays it on the piano and sings it all year. This must be some kind of sin or another, I think – so obviously I come from all my debaucheries honestly! Thanks, Mom!)

Now, in other countries they do something similar, but with a twist. Check out this re-enactment of the Crucifixion:

… while in Bermuda, there is a big kite-flying festival every year on Good Friday. People make some pretty elaborate kites:


Now, that seems like it could be a lot of fun! But then again, they’ve also got weather like this:

… as opposed to what’s been going on up here this week.

Far more conducive to the festive spirit, don’t you think?

Anyway – one good thing about Good Friday – it would appear from all of the above photos that the one thing that is not prohibited is colour. This surprises me, given that I think that if one turned up wearing anything more vivid than charcoal grey at your average Greek funeral, one would end up being the next one in the coffin. But hey. I’ll never complain about bright colours!

And, at any rate, I guess it is a day to celebrate if you actually believe in all this stuff. It is a rather creepy and mysterious day in history – and a couple of days from now, this guy

will have metamorphosed into…

OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Hmm… so that’s why he could fly!

Hey, what happened to the Natural Law Party, anyway? I think they should strongly consider running a candidate in the presidential election south of the border, frankly. It would be a good counterpoint to all the bizarreness around the current situation… and maybe they’d even stand a chance! Go Doug!

And then, 2000 years from now people might be celebrating Big Fat Monday, the day commemorating the magical transcendental metamorphosis of Doug Henning into:

Well, I think that’s about enough. A very, very Good Friday to you.

I’m cheating a bit today, folks, as I am lazy and it is driech outside.

Driech = Scottish for “cold, rainy, damp, dreary and generally crappy”. I’m advised by my resident Scotsman that the Scottish have about fifty words for “rainy weather”. Note, however, that this is unconfirmed and he has been known in past to tell some pretty wild stuff about Scotland to see if people believe it. Then if they do buy whatever preposterous stuff he’s come up with, he usually says “Tek your heid oot your arse, sonny jim/hen, and see the world”.

Such a gentleman, eh?

In celebration of the fact that a couple of my designs have been published on Knitting Patterns Central – a great free resource – check it out and submit your own patterns! – I thought I’d re-photographs some of my blasts from the past…

(besides, with all that new TV stuff on … finally… I must confess I’m kinda missing the reruns! Strange, eh?)

1. Crazed Harlequin Dress

Aphrodite looks stunning in this dress, if I do say so myself, even in the winter!

It is actually a tank sleeve dress as you will see from the link, but I’ve taken to wearing it with a black silk blouse underneath for winter.

Multicoloured goodness!

2. Rainbow Tunic Dress

This dress actually shows off Aphrodite’s waist quite well. It doesn’t fall in quite such a flattering manner on my Greek peasant bod. Oh well.

The dress was a great way to try samples of yarns and use up single skeins from swaps and such.
Va-va-voom!

(My breasts are bigger than hers, though. Heh heh.)

3. Montego Bay Tunic

which was originally my first lace project ever… ! I realise now that my lace career started on 27 August 2007… wow, just seven months ago!

I had fun with this one, and the coworkers all got a kick out of it too. I got called “Barbarella” for the next week…

I wish!

Well, I feel less “driech” now – how about you?

Anyway, that’s it for me for now (told you I was lazy!). Oh, in knitting news, I’m working on a vegan Tuscany shawl commissioned by co-worker H. Hope to provide some pics of that in progress plus another rant or three tomorrow when I am back to my regularly scheduled programming!

Happy Tuesday!

Who was it again who said “There’s a sucker born every minute?”

I’m beginning to wonder if all of the suckers emigrated to Toronto while I wasn’t looking.

The evidence?

First off, I saw a number of pretty wild food spending choices in the latest issue of Toronto Life.

Here is an example of a $170.00 steak:

That’s what you pay for six ounces, mind you.

(Gotta like that line “… only a client dinner can justify the expense”. I guess that’s because you’d be billing the clients for it at the end of the day.)

If that’s a bit too rich for your blood, or should you not have a bunch of sucker clients at your disposal, you can pick up this 12 ounce steak for $94.00 – a bargain!

(And, apparently the cows are happy while they’re living. I’ve never quite understood this new concept, mind you. Why is the meat eater’s conscience salved because the cows, chickens etc have a good time before you kill them and eat them? Could someone please explain this to me?)

This is more along the usual price range of the beef entering this house:

Anyway, next I saw an article about $15 cups of coffee being all the rage on College Street. Now, you know I’m interested in coffee, but this is a bit much. People line up for it, apparently.

Oh – and it’s the only coffee in the joint in question that you can’t take with you to go. Probably a good thing – they’d likely want to tack on a toonie for a paper cup and one of those annoying little sleeve thingies so you don’t burn yourself.

(Last year, I saw another wildly overpriced coffee for sale in a grocery store: it’s called Kopi Lewak. It has a unique flavour which comes from – get this – the fact that the beans are eaten and then excreted by a small cat-like creature called a civet. Seriously. I shit kid you not!

This is what it looks like in the wild, apparently:

Mmm-mmm good. And what do they charge for this? $120.00 for four ounces/113 grams – and you can bet for that price they have some pretty exact scales… you’re not going to get 115 grams!. That’s $480 per pound, folks.)

And I thought Starbucks was expensive. I think I’ll stick with my extra large Tim’s – $1.75 a pint.

Author’s note: er, um… I may well have posted about the catsh1t coffee before. If so, sorry… but it seemed to fit in well with this theme, don’t you think.

Anyway, yesterday I saw something which really took the cake. At the place near my office where they sell $15.00 hot chocolate mix, which I thought was bad enough…

… I saw this stuff first thing in the morning.

Now, this was guaranteed to put me in a bad mood up front. I hate the word “bl**g” – so much that I can’t even bring myself to type it. I don’t know if it’s an official word yet but I would start a petition to keep it out of the Oxford English Dictionary if not.

Then I saw the price: $75.00!!!! For 750 ml of WATER!!!! From TENNESSEE!!! This, by the way, in a city in CANADA which ran out of its snow removal budget in… wait for it… January.

(Yes, I’m shouting. I’ve just about had it.)

I immediately came to the office and googled it, of course. According to a review I read, this is water that makes a “truly defining statement”. And it tastes good. It’s WATER, people! Has everyone forgotten what fish do in water, I ask you!!

Oh – but some good news… the bottles are recyclable! Why anyone stupid enough to actually but a $75 bottle of water would then turn around and recycle this bottle is beyond my tiny little brain… The B word is made out of Swarovski crystals, after all.

Well, I don’t know about you, but for $75 I’d rather have 47 feet of this fancy Swarovski crystal studded yarn:

I might actually be able to make something useful with it.

At this point, however, I must confess that I feel quite virtuous. You see, when I treated myself to a little pop-in to Lettuce Knits on the way to an appointment yesterday, I came across this silk laceweight yarn to die for yesterday:

Blue Moon! I’ve heard of this stuff. Apparently there are only now two stores in Canada which sell it, and Lettuce Knit just got it in. Check it out!

Isn’t that colourway gorgeous? It’s called Thraven. I don’t know what a “thraven” is, but it sounds cool to me.

And now, if I win the lottery and stop having to go to work, I can make this beauty from Victorian Lace Today:
The Cap Shawl. Swoon. If I ever made one, I’d probably walk around all day with it, just like this.

Anyway, I loved this yarn so much that I bought 2000 metres of it (each skein is sold in 1000 metres of weight). I won’t tell you how much it cost me (despite all of the excesses of other people described above, I feel embarrassed)…let’s just say that it was pennies per metre. Better than $1.59 for a foot (one third of a metre, roughly) in my book.

I feel much better now (although the extreme guilt of cheating on the Handmaiden is hard to live with. But I’m sure I’ll cope.

I also managed to pick up some educational materials at Lettuce Knit:

And all for less than the price of a six ounce steak. Damn, I’m guid.

Now, I gather that Pope J2P2 had attempted to strip Patrick of his sainthood some time back.)

(why? did he fear that Patrick looked better in green that he did?

You be the judge!

Anyway, since I’m not sure of that status of that situation, not being Catholic nor Irish, I’ll just call him Patrick.)

I assume, for the purpose of this blog post, that Patrick did not get stripped of angel status as well.

Now, why would he be robed in blue?

Well, believe it or not, according to Wikipedia one of his colours is blue. St Patrick’s Blue, to be exact.

And you know I believe everything in Wikipedia.

Besides, this mysterious blue hued lady dropped by my apartment earlier today and confirmed the story.

If you don’t believe me, here’s the proof – some mysterious objects she left with me:

What am I going on about now? you ask. Gentle reader, all will be revealed, but you’ll have to bear with me a while longer.

You see, I would have told you before today that I don’t really like green. As I said, I’m not Irish. (I live with someone who is Irish, his parents having been Irish, but he refuses to identify himself as Irish. Long story. I’m sure if you bring him a bottle of some malt whisky – any malt whisky! he’d love to share all with you.

However, I had to revise this opinion when looking through the stash today:

Now, a lot of it has blue in it – so that’s my excuse. But still, quite a bit of green. Hmm.

(Oh, I forgot this stuff:

Man alive – do I ever have a short memory!!)

Now, blue, in addition to being a St. Patrick colour, is my favourite colour this week, and also the colour of Scotland where JJ insists his heart lies. So, in light of this, I think that now the mystery lace project will have to be made with this yarn, as I’m going to start it on or just before the feast day of Patrick.

This is now the third time I’ve changed my mind about the yarn for this project. However, it is Italian Silk – and I don’t want the Fleece Artist to think I’ve completely thrown her over for the Handmaiden!

Now, we did not go to the big Patrick parade today… J “shurrup woman, ah keep tellin’ ya ah’m no’ irish, ah’m scottish! OHKEH???” J wouldn’t hear of it. Just as well because parades freak me out.

Instead, we went food shopping. There should actually be a house rule that we never go food shopping on any day which directly follows both household paydays (which happens fairly rarely). Why? This is the end result:

But, to be fair, we did have to get in some food for a little party tomorrow in honour of Patrick it being Monday.

And, just to prove that no-one Irish actually resides in this apartment, there’s none o’ that colcannan, bridie or boiled corned beef crap here. No way. Top of the line for us non-Irish people.

(Check out the sticker on the front prime rib for proof that a certain resident of this household who shall remain nameless is scottish no’ irish.)

Of course, there will be no green beer either – nor any of that whisky spelled with an “E”:

Glesga! Glesga! Och aye the noo – go Rangers! Aye ready aye.

(Oops, channeling JJ again. )

Now, the President will be doing most of the catering of this wee do… and since I’m Greek I don’t like any of that British/Scottish/Irish muck anyway:

I love the President! JJ gets pies, which makes him happy… I get guid fillings!

Some more Medi stuff:

(The lemons are going on the roast. Don’t tell JJ.)

However, never let it be said that I don’t know about compromise. Here is the Irish Scottish component of the big feast:

(man, so much more boring than the President’s mediterranean finest!!)

And dessert:

The late night snack, however, must definetely be Canajan:

Anyway, I have another reason to celebrate: I have finished knitting the SOTSii!!!

She’s currently keeping JJ Grackle warm. (Grackle is JJ’s little friend which, although originally from France, came from … where…? Ireland!!! And when did JJ get him? Why, when he was visiting relatives in IRELAND. Blood relatives. Does this not make him Irish? I’m so confused…).

I’m very, very happy to be finished – I’ll bore you more later in the week on the whole shootin’ match should you bother to check in after all this nonsense today.

But, for all of the reasons discussed above, I felt this would be a suitable tribute to Patrick.

Rest in peace, Patrick. Anyone who managed to chase all of the politicians snakes out of Ireland is a guid guy in my books.

I really manage to impress myself sometimes – even by my own exalted standards. Really, I do.

Have finished Clue 8 of my SOTSii! (I LOVE lime green!!!) Only 50 more rows to go!!!!

Almost at the end of my measuring tape…

I now officially lurve this pattern.

Check out my bead highway!!!
(Must consider bribing Clarabelle to come to Canada and take some photos of it when it’s finished, though. I love her lace photos!)

Now, the only reason I was able to finish yesterday (given all my skiving earlier in the day – two blog posts! Over the top!) was that I decided to fix one of my favourite quick dishes for dinner: perogies.

Bacon, onions and dumplings – what’s not to like, anyway? And all in less than half an hour (twenty-five minutes if you’re not doing the madwoman with the camera bit.

The Brouhaha Tutorial on the Art of Perogies

(Action photos and all). Serves two (or one and a half if you’re me – JJ gets less as a couple get popped into my mouth from his plate. Chef’s prerogative.)

First, fill a pasta pot or large saucepan with water and put on to boil.

Next, take one-half pound of strip (streaky) bacon, cut into 1 inch wide pieces and fry on medium heat 10 minutes or so until it looks like this. It’s better to use a regular (rather than non-stick pan) and is worth the clean-up effort. Trust me.

There needs to be lots of fat. Don’t pour any of it off (well, of course you can, but why?!).

Next, cut down an onion – I like those Vidalia or other sweet onions.

This is how I slice it for these…

Brouhaha Tip for Gourmetdom on the Cheap: always save your scrap stuff and skins from onions in a ziploc bag in the freezer. They’re great for throwing into stockpots for the best lovely golden chicken or veg stock you’ve ever had. (Or, they can be used for dyeing yarn, or so I’m told.)

Then add your onions to the bacon in the frying pan.

Reduce heat to low and let sit – the onions should get nice and soft and juicy and caramelly.

Now, get your perogies from the freezer:

I used the potato and cheddar ones tonight. Perogies are the best. These bags cost $4.00 each and have 50 pieces each. And – these are the expensive ones!

Plus, check out the cute Mr. Perogie:

Right on, man!

Hey, why is this guy blushing more than the other one? Is it because he’s on the blue label. (blue… get it? heh heh).

(Now, this will not be a big selling point for my mother. She hates ads in which they make the food into little cute cartoons, like the M&M guys:

Her theory – how is it good advertising for food to make it too cute and loveable to eat, anyway? She has a point, actually…but I like Mr. Perogie. So there, Mom!!)

Take 14-16 perogies and plop them into the now-boiling water (and yes, I assure you, “plop” is a chef’s term of art. A little known fact. You’ll never see it in cookbooks – it’s a trade secret). Oh, put some salt in the boiling water, too.

Boil them for about 5 minutes. They will start rising to the top when done.

Drain and add to your frying pan.

Raise the temperature to high. Make sure the perogies are mostly near the bottom of the pan (I spoon the bacon/onion mixture onto the top) and fry for a couple of minutes on each side or until they turn a lovely gold colour).

Add some parsley, and eat! Mmm. You can put sour cream on the side – I think that’s traditional – but I don’t like sour cream. I use extra bacon instead to ensure the appropriate fat content.

And what will I be doing today?

Three guesses and the first two don’t count.

Happy Sunday!

… because this year it falls on the heels of Non-Rent-PayDay, that most hallowed of feast days in the Brouhaha annals – and the most expensive. Which means that today, the Ides of March, I’m broke.

Well, not quite. Because – wonder of wonder miracle of miracles – today a long-awaited work expenses cheque for $170 odd arrived just before I was to head out to Romni, ostensibly to pick out yarn for co-worker Ws Tuscany which I am to start on Easter weekend.

Now, the wonderful thing about expense reimbursement cheques, at least in my brain, is that they are like free money as I actually spent the money so long ago I’ve forgotten I spent it in the first place. Handy piece of rationalisation, eh?

Good Kristina: It’s not ACTUALLY free money you know. Besides, we should put it into the savings account for a rainy day…

Evil Kristina: Oh, get off your high horse, would you?!?!? #$()$*@($*)#@(.

So, what’s a girl to do with $170 burning a hole in her pocket?! Well, two options, apparently:
1. Buy a steak.

or…

2. …well, you know…
The choice was clear: Handmaiden Lace Silk!!!

Vintage colourway!!! Yippee!!

Not sure which colourway… maybe a one-off based on the Bronze colourway? Anyway, this will be perfect for the mystery project I’ll be starting soon rather than the Camelspin (it too is fabulous, but I was thinking that the end result would end up a bit smaller than I had hoped. And the buttercream and crystal beads will work fabulously…).

(Still eagerly awaiting the appearance of Dandelion… then I’ll know it’s spring).

And, while I was at it, some Malabrigo in the Curacao colourway – couldn’t resist! It’s so loud.

Oh, er… and the stuff that W. picked out for the version of Tuscany that I am making for her, of course.

W. wanted vegan yarn, so we went with bamboo. It’s lovely and silky. The colourway is a tad more muted than I would go for, but will look fab on W. and match her usual colour choices.

I also picked this up:

… where I learned about the $170.00 steak.

A bit rich for my blood. These are the usual culinary choices in the KB/JJ Household:

… and for dessert:

(I love these T.G.I. Friday’s chips that are flavoured like bar snax. Best of both worlds!… and movie popcorn – maybe my favourite snack ever. This week, anyway.)

Well, it’s about time for junk food lunch, no?!

The Ides of March isn’t so bad after all. But then, I’m not an emperor. Yet.

Hi all: came across this on Sarah’s blog yesterday – have no idea if it relates to some contest or not… but I thought it was cool. So, lucky you – you get two posts from me today!

Beware the Ides of March… and beware procrastinators with finish-itis concerning lovely lace stole patterns! Sigh.

I’m into stormy patterns now, apparently – perhaps not surprising given the current weather here. However, this scarf brings me some joy! And Aphrodite likes it as well… despite the grey weather!

The lovely Storm Water scarf! It seems to have taken forever and the early process was ribbit-ridden, but success is now mine!

And check out this amazing Handmaiden Sea Silk…

Specs:

Pattern: Ciobair Fibre Designs (came with the yarn for $2.00 extra)

Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk (silk/seaweed fibre), one skein (the scarf used 95 of 100 grams).

Needles: 3.75 mm addis.


Size: 69″ long by 10.5″ wide

Start date: 21 February 2008, after two prior aborted attempts back in November 2007 and earlier in February.

Finish Date: 12 March 2008.

Notes:

– I knitted this pattern exclusively in public (mostly on my daily commute, but sometimes in staff meetings.

– I had a hard time getting the pattern (through my fault alone, I think). I actually had started it back in November 1007 at a public legal educational conference, but screwed it up and frogged many times and threw it aside in disgust. Then had to frog again earlier in February when I restarted it. However, once I got the pattern it was simple enough to do in transit. So, if you try it, stick it out – it’s worth it!!!

– loved, as ever, working with the Sea Silk. Kudos to Handmaiden.

I brought it to the office today for the post-blocking photo. You may recall that pre-blocking the scarf looked like this:

(One of the coworkers thought it was a windsock!)

Well, now it looks like this…

What a difference, eh? It’s officially taller than me! The blocking did its usual magic…

So, what’s on the agenda for today? Look what I got in the mail yesterday!

Four fabulous patterns by Sivia Harding. However, must finish the SOTSii first… today Clue 9 (the last clue!) will be released. I’m about halfway through Clue 8 at present.

It’s a big day for me in a lot of ways…

Why am I dressed as a lawyer today? Well, I may have some good news within the week (and no, I’m not expecting – that would be very bad news – and no, I’m not getting married). All I can say is – please think about me between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. EST…

And, off to Romni at lunch for the PayDay ritual!

Thank goddess it’s Friday!

Cheers,

Kristina

To whom it may concern:

I read with great interest the Vatican’s pronouncement on 21st century sins in Tuesday’s paper.

You cannot imagine how impressed I was to learn that the Men in Red are turning their minds to some 21st century issues for once.

However, Pope Benedict forgot one very important one, which should be not only the eighth new deadly sin but also the 11th Commandment as far as I see it:

Shovel thy sidewalks!

This was the scene in my neighbourhood yesterday more than four days after the Big Storm 2008. Four days!!!

I’m not certain whether the City of Toronto itself should be trying to squeeze itself into a confessional booth or not, or if I should just go after my neighbours and the landlords of multi-res buildings on Bathurst north of Heath.

All I know is that three days have passed since the last big storm, and the sidewalks leading from my building to the St Clair West subway station resemble a vertical rock climbing gym surface.

Come on, people!! Have some consideration for others, would you?

I also note that, although the sidewalks and curbsides are a complete shambles…

… people have somehow managed to shovel out their own driveways in order to drive their own cars:

To be fair, The City did also clear the way in front of one of the six bus stops between my apartment and the subway station:

And the sidewalks downtown near my office? Let’s just say that if I actually wanted to go skating, I’d attend at Nathan Phillips Square rather than try to walk to the newsagent at Queen and Spadina!

It strikes me as though Toronto, once a pedestrian friendly city, now hates to think about people walking. Every resource available seems to have been poured into the road clearing of late. An important task, granted, but not all of us can afford to drive to work:

In my building, many people don’t even have cars. We pay a premium in rent and property taxes to live near a subway station, which has become well night impossible to access of late:

And of course, the TTC have also overwhelmingly voted to go on strike as of 1 April. I have no confidence at this point that the current snow will have even been removed from the sidewalks in my neighbourhood by then, nor that it will have thawed, which is what it seems the City is waiting for at this point.

I have become so depressed by this situation that I couldn’t even manage to scoop the best Treasure from Trash in a long time:

(which is probably just as well, really, because – never mind the Red Coats, JJ would call in the white coats if I came home with this beauty!)

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the past three days it has taken me on average 10 minutes to walk the 1/2 block from here:
…to here:

(This is my private entrance to the building. It has become necessary in order to avoid all my fans. Ah, the price of fame!)

So, Mayor Miller, Councillor Mihevic and (less and less) kind residents of Toronto, take a lesson from the Pope. Have pity on all of those hapless and carless pedestrians out there and shovel thy sidewalks. Please.

Yours truly,

Kristina Brouhaha
*********************
I wrote a version of the above as a letter to the editor to the Toronto Star yesterday. Not surprisingly, it hasn’t been published. I didn’t expect it to be, what with the religious content and all.

So, I’m in a rather pissy mood – quelle surprise, eh?

But on the upside, I finished knitting my Storm Water Scarf yesterday!

(I couldn’t resist photographing it on top of this subway news rag in order to verify the date. If I had a dollar for every tenant I have assisted who brought some version of this type of photo or video to their eviction hearing, I would never have to assist a tenant again before an eviction hearing as I would be sitting on the beach outside my Greek island villa, knitting.

My personal favourite – when they bring in the camcorder, which features some common or garden disrepair items then pans artfully over to the 24 hour news station playing on the TV and focuses on the date on the screen. These Hollywood hostage films have a lot to answer for…

So, in that proud tradition, here is my screenshot of the day:

I’m still a snow and ice hostage, apparently. Sigh.)

So, here’s nerdy pre-blocking photo, taken at my office:
We’ll see how much she grows by tomorrow when I hope to wear her back to the office. She’s marinating blocking as I rant speak:

And – a coworker has commissioned me to make her a vegan Tuscany. So tomorrow – PayDay – we get to make a little lunchtime journey to Romni to look for bamboo and soy yarn!!!

So, all is not lost.

Happy Thursday!

you can do magic you can have anything that you desire…
magic, and all you need is some blocking wire…

(apologies to America).

(Where are they now, anyway?!)

Warning: ultra-geeky knitting content ahead, even by my obsessive standards!

I decided to play with my newest toys (the blocking wires that Wannietta forced me to buy the other week) and see if I could reblock my Tuscany to better effect.

(I should clarify something. I may have stated the other day that I had never actually blocked this before. I can’t remember – it’s all just becoming a blur. Anyway, that is clearly untrue. However, the blocking job would have been cursory at best.)

It grew! It is now four inches wider and three inches deeper than before!

Ah, the lovely silken rolling hills of Toscana! Wish I were there!

(This is a photo of Siena, Italy. Sigh.)

But instead, I’m in Toronto, land of snow, freezing rain and cold. No green to be seen for kilometres… and those well south of the border, I fear. Oh well… I’m trying to make the best of it!

Here’s the Tuscany again! Reborn!

(Check out some of my lubbly-jubbly mosaics to the left!!! Specifically, No Mirrors in Mah Hoose! and my mini bird bath. Shameless self-promotion!!! I tell you…

Oh, the pronunciation of the name of the mirror project is my little tribute to JJ, my favourite Scotsman. The same JJ, by the way, who entertained me greatly with a 1 1/2 hour running monologue last night when we watched Barbara Walter’s recent TV special on the British monarchy.

Barbara made the dire mistake of calling the kilted piper who ushers in the Changing of the Guard “Buckingham Palace’s version of a factory whistle”. This offended both JJ’s working class heritage and Scottish heritage, apparently. JJ who, by the way, was conscripted into the Air Force for three years at the Queen’s behest – or was it the King at the time? Hmm…), detested every minute of it (this is the guy who spells the word “sir” with the letters C-U-R in his brain, don’t forget!) and still resents it some 52 years later. Hmm.)

But I digress, as ever. Here is a close up (no light in mah hoose today, rather than no mirrors, obviously!)

So, I can hardly wait to see what magic will be wreaked when I block this puppy:

This is my Storm Water scarf which I started back in February. I had the world’s worst six hour staff meeting yesterday, but on the bright side it was very productive for this travel project. It will be finished after today’s commute and I will block it tonight. Stay tuned…

What will this turn into, I wonder? Something lovely, I think. Ah, Sea Silk!

Will it be as lovely as Tuscany, though? Hard to believe!

Well, that’s enough for time. Away to work…

Happy Wednesday!!!