...And Holding!

Dear Harold,

You are truly a man for all seasons...

A time to rest:


A time to play:


And a time to be a pirate!


Happy Birthday!

Love always,
Gladys

(This blog post brought to you by the number 39, and the letters Q, OMG, and WTF.)

Life Lessons

I learned something today, that I hope I can carry with me into a better future. Maybe someone out there can benefit from this, too. Which is why I'm putting it out there for all the world to see...so that you, too, may learn from my valuable experience.

I learned that, if you put a dish of butter in the oven to melt (trying to save on dishes, and the oven's on to pre-heat anyway) and you leave a fork in the dish...no matter how careful you are to remember to use pot holders when removing said dish from said oven...said fork will Still Be Hot.

I'm just sayin'.

One sock, two socks, my socks, blue socks!

I finally had some time yesterday to get outside and take pics of my new FOs - a pair of Tidal Wave socks in Sweet Georgia's Tough Love sock yarn (Riptide colourway). I took my new pretties out into the yarn to play in the spring weather. I think they had a good time:

I'm very pleased with how the pattern & the colour worked together...Now I just have to find time to wash 'em, so I can wear 'em! This course I'm in - thank FSM it's only 5 weeks! - has a lot more homework than I was ready for. It's going fine, but I'm not getting as much knitting done (or, you know, dishes, laundry, cooking, etc) as I thought I might. Oh well. Halfway done. Mr.Q has stepped up to the plate admirably as far as the household chores go, but I'm not quite ready to ask him to wash my hand-knits. Not he, who thinks "dreadlocking" the knitting is great fun!

But now I'm home, I only have one assignment to print out & I'm done all my homework for this week (I actually haven't procrastinated at all...yet...which is a little out-of-character and surprising for me. I'm kind of enjoying the lack of stress, though I'm not quite sure what do with this relaxed feeling. Weird!) I had to do a grammar presentation today, and I think I rocked it. Yes, that's me, a grammar geek. I kind of like grammar. I think it's fun.

Is that more or less embarrassing a (not so) secret than wearing socks with Birkenstocks? I'll have to ponder that. Perhaps over some knitting and Torchwood. Ianto makes me tingle, with that sexy Welsh accent!

Sproing! Sproing!

Today, the Vernal Equinox, needs mentioning for two Very Important Reasons. First, it is my little sister's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is, coz she's probably still strong enough to wind me with a sucker-punch to the gut. Not that, you know, we ever did that kind of thing to each other. And I bet she can run faster than me. So instead, here are some birthday flowers for her:

Second, it's the First Day of Spring! Which means it's time for all manner of springish things - birds building nests, plants having sex in public, gardeners planning their fall harvests, people everywhere dusting off their bikes & lawnmowers, and enjoying that sassy feeling of the sun making the sap (ahem!) run a little faster. But more importantly, it's time for this:

Mwah hah hah hah hah!

I swear to Bob, people would be less offended & shocked if I told them I was barbequeing fat juicy babies.

Mwah hah hah hah hah!

The Needles on the Bus go Click Click Click...

Usually when I'm knitting on the bus, people leave me alone. I almost always get someone standing right over me, no matter where I'm sitting, even if they're the only person standing on the bus. But they also leave me alone. (In fact, a friend has a theory that they pick me on purpose, coz I look so busy they won't have to engage with me. Makes sense.)

Anyway, yesterday was not a day where I was left alone. And it was kind of entertaining. On the way downtown, a middle-aged Japanese lady came up to me just before she got off the bus. "Are you knitting a sock?" she asked, and gushed all over my knitting. (Tidal Wave - it's an easy pattern, but it looks pretty, and I'm using a Sweet Georgia yarn - Riptide colourway, if you're interested - so I don't have to do much to these socks to make them sexy!) It was a cheery little interlude, and left me smiling.

At the next stop, a big, burly guy got on the bus. (Public transit is...interesting...at the best of times, and I take it through an area that is definitely not upper-crust!) Most of the "interesting" characters that take the bus through this part of town are harmless, but colourful. Never a dull moment! Anyway, Big Burly Guy gets on, sees me knitting, and from the front of the bus announces: "It's CROW-shay!"

"Knitting, actually," I answered.

"Well I call it CROW-shay," he replied.

"Totally different things," I said, and he sat down & proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the ride.

Half-way downtown, and I've already had more bus action regarding the knitting than I get in a week. It was good for a grin; I got off the bus and went about my day.

But going home, it happens again. I'm taking a course that I need for work (ridiculous bit of hoop-jumping, but whatever) and so I'm not leaving downtown till after 7:30. At which time, the bus is more crowded - and slower! - than I'm used to. And I'm tired & just want to get home. I pull out my sock & start knitting to pass the time. You know, as knitters do.

About 5 minutes later, a woman across the aisle asks where I got my stitch marker. I'm confused - stitch marker? Is this Muggle-speak for needles? Needle holder? What? She repeats her question, pointing at my sock. I turn it over, and lo - there is indeed a green stitch marker at the heel which I had long forgotten about. "Oh! My stitch marker! I think it's from Michaels," I said.

"Are you knitting a sock?" she asked, and proceeded to tell me that she has just taken up knitting. She's taking a class at Baaad Anna's, the LYS in my neighbourhood. We have a nice little chat about knitting, and when the person next to me got off the bus, she came over to have a closer look at my sock. She hadn't heard of Ravelry (gasp!) so I gave her the website address (I'm such an enabler!). We introduced ourselves, and I got off the bus feeling like I had Done the Good Work of welcoming a new member to the flock.

Waiting to cross the street, there was another woman who had just got off the bus with me. I caught her stealing somewhat furtive glances at me, but I didn't think much of it - it's probably what I would do if I was in her shoes, standing next to the Only Person Who'd Been Talking on the Bus. The light changes, and we start to cross.

Halfway across the street, she looks back and asks, kind of shyly, "Did you knit your hat, too?"

"Why yes, yes I did."

"I really like it," she said.

"Thanks! Have a great night!" and we went our separate ways.

Not a bad thread to tie my day together!

Expecting a city-sized hangover....

So the party's finally over...I was tempted to go downtown yesterday afternoon to check out the street-party after the hockey game...But came to my senses in good time! I really don't like crowds, so it probably wouldn't have been the best idea! (Especially when word came that Translink had cancelled all the buses into and out of downtown because of the crowds. I don't think it was a planned cancellation, either - more of a "Holy shit! We weren't expecting this!" kind of situation.)

Also, it would have kind of felt like cheating, since I didn't actually watch the game. I wanted to (not because I've become a secret hockey fan, but I figure I can watch 2 hockey games every 4 years - when our women's and men's teams make it to the gold medal game. I have that much Canadian pride!) Anyway, I couldn't watch the game because we don't have a TV. This shouldn't have been an issue - I had planned to watch the live stream instead. But our computer is really getting old & cranky, and when I tried to watch the webcast, it kept overheating and shutting down. So that plan went out the window.

Instead, I got to follow an interesting and highly-entertaining commentary of the game via friends' Twitter and Ravelry posts. And let me tell you, that was probably way more fun!

Unlike many, many other knitters yesterday, I was not scrambling to get my Ravelympics (or Knitting Olympics) project finished. I gave that up as a lost cause early yesterday morning, when I ripped back the sleeve-joining that I had spent several painstaking hours knitting the night before. Something is whacked, and I need help to figure it out. So I put the Viking Sweater of Doom away, and pulled out some socks-in-progress. (Which felt very, very tiny! And soft!)

Before I packed up the VSoD, though, I had Mr.Q try on the sleeves & check the length of the body thus far. He's tickled with the sweater, and promises to wear it with pride, however badly I arse up the sleeve-join. (Me, if the upper body ends up looking like something knit by penguins on LSD, I'd rather he wasn't wearing it for all the world to see, but I appreciate his support. I'll just have to find a way to fend off those penguins.)

A pic of the beastie thus far...the body (hopefully) won't be quite as long on him as it looks, when it's finished. (And in the interest of full disclosure, I had most of the body already knit - the sleeves were my Ravelympic accomplishment. Not as much as I'd hoped for, but certainly enough to feel like a "personal best.")