knitche

I don’t know why this makes me laugh so much….but it does:

more graph humor and song chart memes

When we moved into this house, some 3 1/2 years ago now, I had no idea what to do for window coverings. I was thrilled to find paper blinds, which filled the bill quite well. I can become completely paralyzed when it comes to decorating decisions, so this bought me lots of time. In the dining room, they looked like this:

Not bad, but after 3 1/2 years even my paralysis had worn off. One day, about two weeks ago, I was flipping through a craft book at work and had a brilliant inspiration — cornices! Easy to make and easy to hang, or so the book claimed. Without giving myself time to second guess, we first dashed off to find some drapes:

With those safely hung, my husband crafted the cornice boxes and between us we used an extra drape panel, some batting and a whole lot of staples, and ta-da…custom cornices to match the drapes:

All in all, very easy to do. And I’m pretty please with the results. We did the same treatment on the window of the office/den which is next to the dining room. It’s so light and airy in here now!

I’ve been in Alberta for a few days, visiting the daughters and granddaughters — it was a quick visit, and long over due. I am basically exhausted and hope to spend most of tomorrow sleeping.

I did, however, learn a life’s truism today during my flight from Calgary to Abbotsford. It is simply this: Everyone and his grandmother (literally in some cases) now require assistance and so line up to pre-board. However, no one needs assistance deplaning.

Go figure.

The Game,Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Copied this from An Island Girl.

Here’s my answers:

How about 500 different things?

Found this on a Ravelry post…and didn’t want to lose it!

This will be my last new cast on for some time. I swear.

Well, at least until something else comes off the needles.

But this, this is for my husband. It’s not quite the knitted jacket he admired in a gift shop last New Year’s, but I think he’ll like it anyway - the “concept”, a zippered jacket, is the same. I’ve been reading the different observations of the project at Ravelry, and will definitely have to keep in mind the potential problems with the sleeves. For now though, it’s a nice steady easy knit. Perfect for watching Farscape.

I’m giving lace a shot — and I quite like it. I’m relying entirely on the notion that it will look a lot better when blocked (because it’s surely not looking like much now!), but I’m enjoying the knit. It’s also a case of semi-stealth knitting — I don’t work on it while Mom’s around, but I don’t hide it either.

The pattern is “Blue Jeans Lace Leaf” shawl, and if all goes well it will be for my mom for her birthday (July 21st). I’m on the tenth of twenty one repeats, though the actual number of repeats will be largely dependent on how far the skein goes.

The fibre is “Suri Blue” by Fleece Artist. It’s rather nice to work with, though very fine and a bit taxing on the eyes. It also has a faintly chemical smell which bothers me a little — anyone have any suggestions for taking care of that before blocking?

My husband has two favourite bands, Def Leppard and Rush. It took me a while to come around to both, but I’d have to classify myself as a fan now too. For Rush in particular, I was a hold out until seeing them in concert a few years ago — that was, and probably still is, the best concert I’ve ever attended. On Thursday night we got to see them again in Vancouver - and it was pretty damned good too.

The largest single thing that turned me into a Rush fan was Neal Peart. Now, I’m long over the 20 minute drum solo…I was over the 20 minute drum solo when I was in my teens. I think those were the parts of the concerts in the 70’s you endured because your boyfriend seemed to be so into it. It was also a good opportunity to hit the washroom.

But Neal Peart’s solo? That’s something entirely different. Brilliant would be a word too overused and yet too lacking to fully describe Peart’s solo. The Youtube clip gives some idea of it, but even that pales to seeing and hearing it live.

I woke up to rolling thunder this morning. Severe weather, of any sort, is fairly uncommon where I live. We do get endless rain (and by gosh it’s raining right now) and some snow in the winter, but for the most part the weather is…well..even and steady whatever it has chosen to do. That’s not to say we don’t get some storms - and there have been some notable ones since I’ve been here, but in comparison to other places I’ve lived in Canada? It’s very tame here.

So when it thundered this morning, I woke up thinking “Is this what an earthquake sounds like? But if it’s an earthquake, why isn’t the house shaking?” That’s right…I can no longer immediately identify thunder. And, I’ve never been in an earthquake, but that was my first assumption. I’m hoping this means I’m now a true BC’er (or at least, Lower Mainlander) and not in the first stages of senility.

I have been married for a little over 25 years. That I’ve done anything for twenty five years (!) makes me shake my head in disbelief, but this has definitely been worth it. My husband is simply a decent and fine person and I consider myself blessed to have him as my best friend and my companion.

In those accumulated 25 years (plus dating time), I’ve never knit anything for him. Never even considered it seriously. He’s not a sweater wearer and I didn’t start knitting socks until a year or so ago. But, not long ago, I was doing something knitterlyish (how’s that for a word?), and he asked “When are you going to knit me something?”

So, I’m starting small with a pair of socks and then plan to work up to a cardigan (maybe for Christmas).

The socks are plain and dark and are working up quite nicely. The picture has brightened up the tones a lot - but they’re really fairly dark. I’m disappointed that the stripes don’t match better, but I’m not obsessing. Really. I’m not. I even talked him into trying on the sock already - though I have to admit he looked quite brutish trying to manouever around the needles.