New Year, New Blogs

For many, the start of the new year is a time to assess our lives and to make changes or try something new. For Heather and I, our thoughts seem to turn to blogging. On January 2, 2007 we made our inaugural post on this blog. And now, two years later, we are trying something new. We've decided to retire the joint blog and try doing our own. Friends Knit Together will always be here should we choose to return to it. I'd like to stress that this is in no way a reflection of our friendship; if anything we are closer than ever now that we live a few blocks apart. The joint blog was great, the perfect way to enter the blogging world. Now we feel the need to branch out on our own and to move beyond talking solely about knitting. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I hope that all our loyal readers (is anyone still out there?) will follow us to our new homes.

Adriana will now be blogging at Miss Scarlet Knits: http://missscarletknits.blogspot.com/
Heather will be at Socks for Phlox: http://socksforphlox.blogspot.com/

ETA: Heather just returned from a trip to Nicaragua and will need a little time to get her blog all sorted out. Hopefully she'll post pictures for us soon!

Moving Part 2 (Adriana)

Oops, sorry for the delay in posting the second part of the move. First Thanksgiving happened and then I got distracted by having a social life. It's fun :D

Here are some pictures of the new apartment (Can I please say how hard it is to take pictures of rooms? The place is much nicer in person)

The kitchen with our old fridge


Our new kitchen table from Ikea (I love Ikea!!)


Pete's studio which has been unpacked since this picture was taken (but I was too lazy to take a new one :P)


The bedroom (which has a cool fire escape similar to the one in Rent but too small for singing and throwing down flaming pieces of paper)


The bathroom (oh, the excitement!)


My favourite room, the living room (now with lots of seating for movie nights!)


More of the living room including my favourite thing about the new place, the PVR! I love being able to watch my shows whenever and I totally abuse it to avoid seeing commercials :P


Cleo's favourite spot by the big window. The apartment is east-facing so Cleo loves to sunbathe :)

I also have a wee bit more knitting to show off. Right before I moved Kristy asked me to make a hat for her very pregnant cousin. After flipped through Itty Bitty Hats (courtesy of Bertha), we selected the Upside-Down Daisy Hat.

So cute!! Pardon the misshapeness, it was stuffed with plastic bags and will look much better on a baby.


I just love the top. I will definitely be making more of these hats in the future.

That's it for now! I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Moving Part 1 (Adriana)

And I'm back. Sorry for the long hiatus. Apparently I can't pack, move, unpack, job hunt, maintain my sanity, and blog at the same time. We are now mostly settled into our new home in Toronto and so far things are great. The apartment is lovely (pictures to come later) and I am loving our location. We live in a little village smack in the middle of the big city. Everything is a little bit more expensive, of course, but oh so convenient. Plus we're 5 minutes from the subway and from Heather, and Gen is just a short subway ride away. It's so terrific to move into a new city and already have a close circle of friends.

I had forgotten how much of a pain it is to move. The last two weeks before we left the apartment was a mess of boxes.

This is our dining room before the hardcore packing began. Please note Cleo sleeping on something on the floor.

Moving also means lots of getting rid of stuff. We try to recycle whenever possible so we were thrilled to discover that our city had an e-waste/Goodwill depot.

Here is some of our stuff for the depot. Sadly, there ended up being even more.

Being good tenants (with a very furry cat) we decided to steam clean our carpets. It wasn't that hard to do but did involve rearranging the furniture (N.B. if at all possible, wait until the furniture is gone before cleaning the carpets).

Cleo seemed to like the new position of the couch.

Despite all the craziness I still managed to take in a wedding show with my official Wedding Fairy, Kristy

Here we are surrounded by wedding dresses

I also managed to do some knitting:

I made a teapot cozy for the Canadian Cancer Society before I finished my internship there.

I also put the buttons on the green BSJ for Emma

I love those little frogs


In addition I dyed some yarn for Phoe. She was missing North American autumn colours and was feeling down in general so I decided to send her some autumn leaves inspired yarn.


I think I'd better stop here. Next time, more knitting and pictures of the new apartment!

Worth the Wait (Adriana)

As I sit here writing this it is currently 4:43pm, 17 minutes before the end of my internship. This has been possibly the best experience of my life. After years of schooling and two lackluster internships, I finally feel prepared to step into the workforce. And that's a good thing too because I've sent out dozens of resumes and I have an interview next week. Here I have felt capable and competent, and I have been appreciated by everyone in the office. It's such an amazing feeling, one that I will miss... at least until I get a fabulous new job where I will feel just as capable and where I will also be appreciated (fingers crossed).

It's now 4:47pm and I have just enough time to finally blog about an amazing birthday package I got a few weeks ago (bad blogger!!).

The lovely Bertha sent me a belated birthday present but it was totally worth the wait. I picked it up at the post office and immediately opened the outer packaging right in the middle of the mall. Unfortunately Bertha thwarted my efforts by individually wrapping every gift.

Look at them, so tantalizing and mysterious

I was a good girl and waited until I got home to open them (bear in mind that I was walking home and opening them right away would have made transporting them more challenging).

Oh the fabulousness!! (Yes, I have had a large amount of sugar today, why do you ask?)

At the top is Fleece Artist Nova Sock which is new to me, and in gorgeous colours that I've always loved together (dark purple and green). On the right is pink cashmere (*swoon*) from Posh Knits. 400m of fingering-weight goodness. What am I going to make with it?!?!
Bertha knew I had my eye on Itty Bitty Knits and I am thrilled to have my own copy. I'm going to break it out this weekend to look at with a friend whose cousin in pregnant.
If that wasn't enough, Bertha also sent along the most heavenly chocolate. It's milk chocolate and almonds, my favourite, so I wasn't able to resist. Folks, this chocolate has ruined me for cheap chocolate bars. There's just no comparison.

Bertha, thank you so much for this incredible birthday present. I love everything you sent me so very very much. You're a seriously awesome friend and I deeply regret that we live too far apart to hang out in real life.

Well, it's now 4:56pm. Time to run the spellchecker and then get my things together. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm going to a bridal show!!

A Little Something Green (Adriana)

With so many great patterns out there I rarely feel the urge to knit something twice. I think it takes a special pattern to make me need to do it again. So far I've only made Odessa (Rav link) and the Fake Isle Hat twice. However, I have now made three Baby Surprise Jackets. I don't know what is it about this pattern. It might be that it uses sock yarn, of which I have tons lying around, or it might be the easy-to-follow pattern. I think it's mostly just how much fun it is to take a blob like this:



And turn it into this:


So cute! I think it needs little froggy buttons to finish it off.

Unlike the other BSJs I've made, this one actually had a recipient in mind. My dear friend Emma, for whom I have knit several items, is going to be an auntie in the near future. The nephew of a funky lady like Emma definitely deserves an unusual sweater and I think this fits the bill. Em, I hope you approve :)

In other news, things continue to come together for our big move. Now that we've got the apartment, we've been looking into movers and will probably book them early next week. Pete's been given the task of finding tv, internet and phone provider(s) (any recommendations for the Toronto area would be appreciated), and Cleo, well, she's been helping out in her own special way.


Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Stash Additions (Adriana)

I totally didn't mean to go this long without blogging but life just never slows down. Once the Fringe was over we immediately had to turn our attention to finding an apartment in Toronto. I am pleased to announce that despite all the agencies that never called us back and all the apartments which were rented out right before we arrived, we managed to find a lovely place to live. It's in a beautiful neighbourhood, minutes from the subway and from Heather! Now I cannot wait until October 1st when it is mine!

Despite the lack of knitting time recently there has been some additions to my stash, almost all the result of a swap.


Squishy Cashmerino in Plum from a swap with Heather


Jitterbug in Alizarine from a swap with Phoe


Jitterbug in Lagoon also from Phoe which I immediately started to make into another BSJ, this one with an actual recipient in mind!


Jojoland Rhythm from a swap with WillWorkForYarn on Ravelry.
I've never used this yarn before so I'm definitely excited to see how it knits up


My first Smooshy...
Phoe had bought this for herself but didn't like the colours (Into the Mystic) so she was persuaded to sell it to me. Can you believe that I have never played with Smooshy before?!? I was definitely due. I'm thinking about making Gigi with it.


Now I just need to find more knitting time. Luckily, we're going to visit Pete's parents this weekend which translates into 6 hours of knitting time!

Big Purple Blob (Adriana)

For my birthday, Jane gave me some gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the purple and blues colourway. I loved it so much I didn't even take a picture of the yarn, I just wound it up and cast on. I had sworn off triangular shawls last year but Phoe did such a great job with her Shetland Triangle that I was inspired to make one of my own.

There is what it looks like right now:

The camera was having a lot of trouble with the colour. It's a lot more purple, and a lot less blue than it looks like here.

I've done 11 repeats so far, instead of the 8 in the pattern, because I wanted a bigger shawl (also I had lots of yarn). Now I think I'll do one more rep and then start the edging. The question is, do I continue to use the same yarn for the edging or do I use a darker purple?

Here is a close up though given how off the colours are, I think it might defeat the purpose.
Normally I'd just carry on with the same yarn but recently Carrieoke make a purple Shetland Triangle with a darker border that looks amazing! Mine would be less of a contrast but I think it might make the colours pop a little more.
Thoughts?

Also, I am destashing some Koigu Kersti if anyone is interested. (This destashing thing is addictive!)

My Inspiration (plus Destashing!) (Adriana)

A few weeks ago Phoe decided to have a contest in honour of her 300th post. She challenged her readers to take three pictures of things that inspire us. I wanted to do it but life has a way of taking time away from blogging so I'm just squeaking by before the deadline.

Toronto

For many people, the CN Tower is the symbol of Toronto. For me, it symbolizes a lot more. It symbolizes my future because, you see, Pete and I are moving there this fall. I'm almost done school and while there are some good arts organizations here in London, there are so many more in Toronto. Pete wants to continue writing music and plays, and he feels that he has exhausted most of the opportunities here. In short, it just makes sense for us to move.
I never thought I could live in Toronto. Visiting there last fall (when this picture was taken, ironically) I informed Pete that I could only tolerate to visit, I could never live there. Two months later, I changed my mind. It just made so much more sense for us to be where all the opportunities are (not to mention so many of our friends).
When I think about Toronto, I get excited. I think about the great (well-paying) job I'm going to have, all the new places we're going to explore, all the people we'll be able to spend time with, and all the cool and exciting things Pete will get a chance to do.
I'm so excited sometimes I don't think I can wait two months to move :)

Traveling

In the summer of 2005, when we lived out in BC, Pete and I rented a car and drove into Vancouver Island. We went to Nanaimo (I got to swim in the ocean!), and spelunking and hiking through some beautiful parks. It was amazing and definitely my favourite of our many trips.
Travel is something that Pete and I want to do more of in the future. So far we've been to Vancouver Island, Seattle, Montreal, Quebec City, and Ottawa. Next summer we are planning on going to the east coast, and we want to go somewhere exotic for our honeymoon. More vague future travels will include an Alaskan cruise and many trips to Europe.
This picture represents our love of travelling and inspires me to plan more exciting trips in the future.

My Rings

You had to know that I couldn't list things that inspire me without mentioning my wedding :)
These are my rings. The top one is my engagement ring and the bottom is my wedding band, which was actually my Granny's wedding ring.
I just love Granny's ring, I always have. It makes me think of my beloved grandmother (obviously) and my wonderful grandfather (who died in 1994). This ring, with it's good quality diamonds set in platinum, makes me see just how much Grandpa loves Granny (they were married in 1942, during the war). It represents my family, my grandparents, my parents, my brother, aunts and uncles, everyone that I called family when I was growing up. And it also represents the family that I will have in the future. This is a very special ring.
But my engagement ring represents Pete and I. We picked it out together on that amazing day when we went ring shopping together and I kept making him ask me again because I just couldn't believe that he had really proposed. This ring I get to wear right now, and every day I look at it and I marvel at the fact that someone loves me enough to want to marry me. This is also a very special ring.
And don't they look great together? It's like they were made for each other which is especially remarkable since Granny's ring is 66 years old.

Now that you've made it through the introspective portion of this blog post, time for the destashing!

Since we're moving soon I decided to get rid of the yarn that I just don't seem to want to knit with anymore. I loved them all at one point but, for one reason or other, they just haven't been knit.

They are all on my sell page on Rav but here are a few teaser pictures:

My handdyed in "Black and White and Red All Over"


6 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy


4 balls of Classic Elite Classic Silk

Feel free to make an offer or suggest a trade. Everything must go!

Surprise! (Adriana)

When I was in Ottawa I spent what little knitting time I had working on Granny's Christmas socks. By the time we got to my parents' house for the Toronto fringe, I was totally burned out on socks (just in time for the Summer of Socks, of course). Waiting for me on my bed was some sock yarn I'd ordered from the Unwind Yarn Company. Since I'm not one to put aside shiny new yarn I decided to knit EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket (Rav). I've wanted to make one for a while but I was a little afraid of it (for some reason). I was totally wrong. This is one of the funnest patterns out there! My favourite part is when someone asks what you're making and you have to explain that this thing that looks sort of like an amoeba is actually a baby sweater in disguise. When I cast off it couldn't have looked any less like a baby sweater:


but a few careful folds and Ta da!

Such cuteness!!

This pattern was so much fun that I immediately had to cast on another one, but in a self-striping yarn. I think this pattern is made for self-striping. I want to dye some self-striping yarn just to show it off in this pattern. This is Regia Canadiana in the Winnipeg colourway from the basement of Romni.


Look at the magical stripes!!

All these sweaters need now are some super cute buttons. I have some bumblebee buttons left over from Trellis but I only have enough for one sweater. I need your help to decide which sweater gets the bees and which will have to wait for its own buttons.

Choice #1


Choice #2


Please let me know which you think looks better.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and that Canadians enjoy their supersized weekend :D

Number Nuttiness (Adriana)

Numbers have always been important to me. I've always thought that some numbers were more attractive than others. All even numbers are pretty whereas 9, 7 and 5 can be attractive depending on their circumstances, but 3 and 1 definitely are not. I knew that I wanted to get married on an attractive date. When Pete and I were thinking about getting married in fall 2009 we looked at a calendar together and I told him all the pretty numbers that we could get married on. When we did end up setting the date, the decision was made based on when it fell in relation to a holiday (the Sunday of the May long weekend). That left me, someone who is obsessed with attractive numbers, getting married on 5/23/2010. Even the attractiveness of the year couldn't save it for me. I've had some time to come to grips with the date (yes, it did take me some time, I know I'm strange) and I discovered that May 23, 2010 is much prettier than 5/23/2010. Today is the first 23rd since we set the date and every time I've had to write the date (which has been a lot since I've been writing letters at work), I've smiled to myself and though "In one year and ten months I'll be getting married!" If I do that every month from now until the wedding, I bet that the number 23 won't seem that bad at all to me.

Not only do we have a date for the wedding, we have a venue as well: the Galt Country Club, which in addition to being lovely, is only 10 minutes from my parents' house (a big deal when all the other places would have involved highway travel to get there). It's a beautiful building which has a great division of space: we'll be able to get married in their rotunda, leave our guests to enjoy hors d'oeuvres in the large hallway and veranda while we take pictures, and afterwards the reception will be held in the ballroom. The grounds are gorgeous, it's on the river, and it's close enough to the picturesque downtown that we can go there for photos.

So, to honour the mini-anniversary of my wedding date, here are some views of downtown Galt where we will be taking pictures.


Ferguson Cottage where I want to go with my girls before the ceremony


A view down the river to the lovely churches


Quaint gives way to urban at the School of Architecture (pardon the raindrops)


Inside the school


The faux Greek ruins

(Blogging twice in two days?!? Don't get used to it :P)

A Trip in Pictures (Adriana)

Sorry for the long delay in blogging. It turns out that Fringing and blogging do not mix. I've been back home for a week now but between recovering from the trip and starting a new full-time placement, I haven't had time to think about the blog. But here I am now, ready to show off some pictures from the trip.

I don't have any pictures from the Toronto portion of the tour but rest assured that fun was had by all since I got to see Heather, Jane and Gen! Ottawa was much more exotic and I have plenty of pictures to show for our time there.

We went to Parliament Hill where I managed to knit-in-public next to the statues of the Famous Five who fought for women to be considered persons (can you believe they hadn't been?!?!). Interestingly, this group of five women are the only statues on Parliament Hill that aren't prime ministers or royalty.


We saw one of the official Parliamentary Cats (they have their own sanctuary on the hill).

We also saw a Parliamentary squirrel and groundhog but they weren't photoworthy.

Naturally we had to visit some museums while in Ottawa. We had the most amazing experience visiting the Canadian War Museum with my favourite great-aunt and great-uncle (ok, they are my only ones but they'd be my favourite anyways). It was incredible being there with them since they'd both lived through WWII and my uncle was actually a part of it.

Auntie Clayre and I model the very heavy helmets.

In what was a truly awe-inspiring moment, we got to see der Fuhrer's parade car.


After the seriousness of the War Museum, we needed some fun so we went to the Children's Museum with my good friend (and MoH) Calli, who came down from Montreal to hang out and see the show.
The Children's Museum was so much fun. Pete and Calli are like two peas in a pod, and they had a total blast there.

Here they are taking part in an impromptu play. Pete is the evil owl and Calli is the ordinary ocean.


Pete and I got to ride a vespa (I have no idea what those green lights are. I don't remember an infestation of glowing green bugs when we were there. It looks pretty cool, though :P)


And Pete pretended he was a member of the crew of the HMS Pinafore.

We went back to Montreal with Calli for a day, during which I found and purchased my wedding dress!!! We also had dinner with my dear Emma, who was the recipient of the Ribbed Lace Bolero (Rav) I made earlier in the summer.


It's fun to knit for people who are so appreciative.


And so sassy!

While there Pete got to meet Emma's adorable kitties.

I love this picture!!

That it for now. There was some knitting done on the trip but not as much as I would have liked. I'll be back in a few days to show off what little knitting I managed to accomplish, and to update you all on the latest wedding details (here's a hint, there are some!).