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!).

And We're Off (Adriana)

Today is our last day at home for the next month. Naturally, since there is so much to do, I got together with my wedding buddy Kristy and we checked out dresses (one of them has serious potential but I can't find a picture online). We also investigated floral options. I've been struggling to put together a budget so it's good to find out some estimates.

Lately I've been running around like chicken with it's head cut off (which is ok because even headless chickens have their good days) but I've still managed to get in some knitting (of course).

Look! I finished the Endpaper Mitts!

A double layer of wool is perfect for the summertime :)

I'm very proud of these, actually. I haven't done much FI in the past so it's pretty exciting that they actually look like they are supposed to.

The obligatory inside-out shot

Way back in February I bought a cell phone. Naturally I decided to make a cozy for it (loosely based on this pattern). I finished and felted it in one day but I kept forgetting to put on a button until this weekend.

Cute, eh? I used Frog Tree Merino which I had overdyed blue

Lately Pete's been on a kick to keep us from being poisoned by plastic water bottles (weird, huh?) so we recently invested in these pretties. They are great because they don't slowly kill you but they aren't so good at keeping the water cold. Water bottle cozy to the rescue!

This is a pattern I designed myself and knit in a couple of hours. It's in the project details on Rav if you're interested in making one for yourself.

I guess I should get back to packing. I hoping to be able to check email from the road but I won't be able to blog until the second leg of the tour which we are spending at my parents'. I hope everyone has a great rest of June. See you in July!

Yarn on Tour (Adriana)

As I've mentioned before, on June 18th we're leaving to take Pete's show on tour. The first stop is Ottawa, with a brief trip to Montreal. I plan on checking out the yarns stores there but I need to bring some stash with me.

Here are the yarns I'm considering taking:

1) Yarn I dyed 2 years ago. Pools with my usual 64 stitches so would need a pattern with less or more stitches.
2) The Knittery Cashmere sock yarn from Phoe
3) Sunshine Yarns Gryffindor Stripes (stockinette)
4) Handmaiden Casbah with 5) Cherry Tree Hill for heels and toes (this will be stockinette socks for my Granny)
6) Random Regia that I bought a million years ago. I knit half a sock and then ripped it out in a fit of insanity (stockinette or 3x1 ribbing)
7) Yarn dyed by Heather. Pools with stitch count between 60 and 64.
8) Jaywalkers I started a million years ago. I really should finish them since they are so close to being done.

Here's where you come in: yarns 1, 2, and 7 need patterns. The patterns can't be overly complicated since I might only have short bursts of knitting time. I'd prefer them to be memorizable. Thanks!

WIP Thursday (Adriana)

Clearly I've made some progress on the first Endpaper Mitt. I'm always surprised at how fast Fair Isle knits up. This is helping me get over my fear of colourwork and the Jane and I are in negotiations for her to design a mitten for me to knit(yay!!).

I meant to blog this yesterday but then life exploded, except it was in the best way possible. You see, it was my birthday and I had the most terrific day. I worked in the morning and then went to try on wedding dresses with my official Keeper-of-the-Bride's-Sanity (if you think that's a weird title I also have a Bagel-of-Honour. This is such a wacky wedding). After trying on dresses (no winners but I did narrow down the bridesmaid dress colour) I went for a nice long swim at the gym. It was truly delicious (I love swimming!). The perfect day was capped off by a visit from my parents who took Pete, my brother and I out to dinner. I ate so many shrimp! It really want one of the best birthday's I've ever had.

The next time I post I'm going to ask your opinions on what yarn I should take on tour with me. I will definitely be hitting up some yarn stores but I need to bring a supply with me to last until the shopping can begin. I'm thinking socks are the way to go. But what yarn and what patterns? That's where you all will come in :)