Contest #2 - Final Question - Commonalities

Go visit some blogs for people who are participating in this swap. Find THREE people that you have something in common with - BESIDES the fact that you knit ;) Make a post linking to those 3 blogs, and tell what it is you have in common with the person on that blog!

Laurie C. and I would both say that we are shy, reserved and quiet when we first meet people, but love to speak in front of a group. Just ask my co-workers (poor things!).

Like Shawnee H., I never sneeze just once... Shawnee sneezes in threes. I'm usually a triple sneezer but sometimes more. Never less. And I sound like a cat when I sneeze!

Diamonds or pearls? Channon M. and I are both going to say "Pearls, please..." Although I'll never say "No, thank you" to either!

In reading through the blogs, I found that I have lots of things in common with lots of people. What's interesting about it is that often what we have in common, only I know about because I haven't posted about it, if you're still following me... I've added a few more bookmarks to my "blogs" list.

The First Blooms of Spring

I've had these done for a while, but just haven't gotten arround to getting a decent photo of them. My Lilac socks in the lilac bushes... The bushes haven't quite bloomed yet, but they will soon and then it will smell heavenly for a few days.
And another finished object. These are the Dresser Scarf socks from Interweave Knits a few years ago. Sorry - I don't have the issue, I borrowed it from the library and forget to make a note of the date... They are made out of Cascade Fixation. It was the first time that I had used it and I really liked how it knit. The socks were fun, but a bit of a challenge in that the cuff is knit flat and grafted, and not just simple grafting but garter stitch grafting. It was definitely alone in a room without any television, radio or conversation.

And finally, Mr. Me's very basic 2 X 2 rib work socks.

There are a few more FOs around here that I need to photograph, including the red mohair shawl - yay!

The View From Here

And now for some follow up photos. First - my parlour, and yes, Anne, it is very Victorian. But then that's the house overall. It was started in 1872, with the first addition in 1873 and the second and final around the turn of the last century. The couple in the photo above the chair were the recipients of the original land grant. This is the chair that I like to knit in.

And this is the view from my porch swing... I took it this morning. As you can tell, we're a little bit overcast today, but it is going to be VERY warm today - around 28 degrees Celcius here. On a hot summer day, it is a fabulous place to sit and knit, just watching the world and the boats go by.

My little piece of heaven...

Next Question, Please, Spring Felted Bag Mistresses

Where's your favorite place to knit or crochet? Describe (or show!) us where you sit and how you most enjoy your craft!

Honestly - pretty well anywhere... However, my two most likely knitting places are in the right hand corner of the couch - it's where the light is best and there is a table for my tea or coffee or wine (yeah, I drink and knit, wanna make something of it?) or in the "parlour" - no I'm not joking. I live in a very old house and we have a real honest to goodness parlour suitable for entertaining the preacher or the school teacher. The couch is in the living room and I often watch television as I knit. If the kids are watching something that I don't want to watch, then it is the parlour and some music for me.
During the summer, it is also very enjoyable to be able to sit on the porch swing and watch the world go by on the river. It's sort of lazy and decadent, but then that is half the fun, isn't it?
I have also been known to knit in meetings, although only internal ones. I think that it might freak some of my clients out just a bit too much...

I would post some pictures of my knitting spots, but sadly I am away on business right now and don't have access to my photos... I'll try and post a river view from my front porch once I'm home.

Seven Random Things

I'm kind of excited - this is the first time that I've been tagged! Nancy over at Days Go By tagged me. (Thanks Nancy!) So - here goes, "7 Random Things About Miss Me":

1. Thursday is my least favourite day of the week. I don't know why, but I always expect bad things to happen on Thursdays. I know that it isn't rational, but it's just the way that it is.

2. I despise raw mushrooms. You might as well just eat dirt.

3. If my toenails aren't painted when I'm wearing open toed shoes, I might just as well be naked because that is how I feel.

4. I can touch the end of my nose with my tongue.

5. My birthday is July 4th. That's as close to being an American as I'm going to get, I guess. Interestingly enough, my older sister's birthday is February 22nd, Washington's birthday.

6. I can speak French! Yeah - I'm still milking this one because I'm pretty proud of it.

7. Mr. Me is my second husband - and the LAST one! That's not because of the "'til death do us part" thing (any of you who know me know that we've had more than our share of challenges), but because I am counting on my friends to take me out back and shoot me if for any reason I ever think of it again!

And now it's my turn to tag people...
Let's start with The rules:

List 7 random things about yourself. Then, go and tag 7 other bloggers by making a comment on their Blog.Link them to your blog to get the rules.

And I'm tagging:

Alison
Canknitian
Crafty Canadian
Des aiguilles et du fil
Lesley
Scappyhappy
Stephanie Cake

Clearly, no one has to play, but please do if you have a few minutes!

Asparagus

I went for lunch yesterday with my French class. Our teacher (with a little help from her husband) made us a truly lovely meal. The bar has been raised! One of the vegetables with our lunch was asparagus - yum! I LOVE asparagus!!! For me, asparagus is definitely a "Spring Thing". Easter dinner is often ham with asparagus, and you know - the other stuff, the "fillers". I'm not quite sure where it was that we had run into asparagus before, I think that it was probably at a Lunch Causerie (Lunch'n'Learn) at work. The first time, I had had a brief conversation with a couple of my classmates about the effect that asparagus has on the odor of your... uhm... well... pee... They had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. When son the younger was still in diapers, I used to warn the daycare ladies that he had eaten asparagus for dinner since the already funky diapers would be more so that day after.
Encountering asparagus yet again, I raised this rather interesting phenomenom again. I was still met with blank stares... In an effort to confirm my "Super Geek" status, I came home and did a little searching on the net and found this for them. My quest to educate the masses on the oddities of nature continues...

Spring? Pardon?

It's the "May 2-4" weekend already! I've always thought of the May long weekend as the unofficial start of Summer, but the weather this year has put that seriously into question. On the bright side, the weather forecasters were wrong (I was shocked) about the amount of snow that we received yesterday, but it did snow. Snow in May... That is really kind of depressing. Hopefully the plants that I put in the garden last weekend have survived - hostas and daylilies. I tend to kill most plants so I look for things like "Hardy" on the labels now. I kept trying to convince Mr. Me that we should wait until after the long weekend at least, although the new moon in early June would really be better, but he was insistent that we wouldn't get another frost... WRONG!
Remember the Falling in Love socks? They finally told me who they wanted to belong to! They had been hanging out in The Magic Bag in my "sewing room", along with the other homeless FOs, while I waited for them patiently to tell me where they wanted to go. They met their new owner today and everyone seems to be happy. I truly enjoy giving gifts, but most especially when the gifts are unexpected by the recipients.
I do have some *new* FOs that I should post photos of, but unless the weather brightens up a bit, that may have to wait... And since there are FOs and the Canadian $ is strong, I did a little stash enhancement, but shhhh, Mr. Me just doesn't need to know. Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid and some Panda Cotton for my Sockapalooza 4 downstream pal. Yummy!
On the needles tonight are the Camelot socks. I may get the first one done this weekend after 3 years as a WIP - egads!

Contest #2 Question #2 - Spring Sprung

Living in Atlantic Canada, we sometimes (often!) go straight from Winter to Summer. Case in point - it snowed April 16th and was close to 80 degrees F on the 23rd. I posted about the coming of Spring back in April...

Despite its often very quick arrival, you know that Spring is coming when the weight restrictions go onto our rural roads. New Brunswick is basically trees and rocks, with a few people clustered about, but natural resources remain important to our economy, and that means trucks, and that means potholes in Spring. At least the weight restrictions mean that they aren't as bad as they might be... Although you can still damage your rims or loose a subcompact car.

Living on a river, another clear sign of Spring is the noise of the ice breaking up. Being a city kid, I was startled by it the first time I heard it, but I'm used to it now.

Sometimes They Just Don't "Get It"

Since I'm away on business, I don't have anyone saying "What are you doing on the computer again? Didn't you just blog? You spend all of your time on the computer or knitting!" Like that's a problem or something. However, I digress, and besides, it's NOT true! I work full-time and manage to keep the house and kids all in reasonable order.

Getting back to the time on the computer thing, I was reading Lesley's blog the other evening. Now I don't know Lesley. I've never met Lesley. But, I do read her blog fairly frequently. Some of her comments on Knitting Out Loud compelled me to start reading it. As I was doing this the other evening, Mr. Me decided to read over my shoulder. The conversation went like this:

Mr. Me: Is she pregnant?
Miss Me: Not anymore. See? Isn't he cute?!
Mr. Me: But why is she knitting?

This made me realize that Mr. Me had been spoiled with reasonably short and easy labours - 9.5 hours for the first one and I didn't even get him out of be for the first 3.5 hours of it, and 5.5 hours for the second - and that even though we've been together for almost 15 years, he still doesn't really get the knitting stuff all of the time.

Our First Sleepover

So younger son turned 7 this past week. The week involved my MIL staying with us from last Sunday until Friday morning, a family dinner and cake on the real birthday and 24 cupcakes for his class. And today/tonight is the "friend" birthday party. It is our first sleepover, too. Older son is a little miffed, but has overall been a very good sport about it. He has informed me that his next party is definitely a sleepover.
We kept the numbers small, inviting only 4 kids. Now I'm not sure what it says about modern manners, but a surprising number of people don't seem to understand the whole concept of RSVP. Of the 4 children, only one's parents actually bothered to call before today. A second one's Mom called today. The other 2? Well - whatever... Maybe it's just me, but I think that is very rude. Everyone makes misktakes sometimes, but the general response to RSVP is complete and utter silence...

Sunday May 6, 2006
And we all survived! A good time was had by all. It was too cold for the much anticipated water balloon fight, but the kids still had a good time playing outdoors, playing indoors (including BINGO, which they absolutely love...), eating homemade pizza and cake, watching movies, sleeping in sleeping bags and pancakes with real maple syrup for breakfast. We watched How to Eat Fried Worms and The Ant Bully. If you're looking for a kid movie, especially for boys, I would highly recommend the Worms.
I guess that I'll have to have the kids back once it is warmer because I don't know how the heck I'm ever going to need three containers of water balloons... Mr. Me's birthday is in the summer (as is mine), but I just don't think that he is a water balloon kind of guy.

Woobly Circles Felted Tote

This was part of Christmas gift 2006 for my FIL's wife. Let's just say that they want for absolutely nothing, which makes gifts for either of them incredibly difficult. This past year I thought that I would make Christmas gifts for her so that I could give her something that she simply could not buy.
I suppose that I had hoped that she would both like and appreciate the time and effort that I had put into things, but I don't think that I really expected her to... However, this past weekend, we spent a night with them. Now if someone has given me a gift that I don't like, I do try to be a least gracious enough to not make it obvious. Having spotted the bag in a pile of purses thrown on the floor in the corner of the bedroom we slept in, I decided to take the opportunity to take a picture of the bag.
I dislike the notion that we need to spend lots of money for a gift to be "nice". I personally always appreciate a handmade gift. Next year they may be getting lumps or coal or potatoes!

Scat Lyrics (The 7 Year Old Zoo Version)

Ski bi di bi do-do bap do poop Do ba do-do poop... Manure... Stinky...!

Part of our weekend away last weekend involved a trip to the zoo.

We saw lions and tiger

and bear - oh, my! Despite the fact that it was cold and damp, we had a good time. We got to see Tomar the Tiger for what may be our last time. He is 19 years old and is having kidney problems. You can tell that he is thinner than normal, although he is still quite beautiful to watch. Son the younger had been to the zoo before, but had been much too young to remember. I believe that he was in a baby carrier... It was HOT (more so with approx. 10 lbs. of baby strapped to me)! He slept. I tried not to collapse from heat exhaustion.

This trip, he'll remember it. Now he enjoyed the animals, but he seemed to find the animal droppings to be incredibly interesting. He commented on the sizes, shapes, colours and smells, making what I can only assume are meaningul comparisons for a 7 year old boy. With more than a decade of "boy" experience, I knew that bodily functions were endlessly amusing, but I had no idea that "poop" was quite so fascinating! Live and learn...

And for some gratuitous fibre content - a llama! Everytime I raised the camera, his/her (I didn't really look) ears went back. I was afraid I was going to get spit on. Great eyelashes! And their pupils are really interesting. They are a horizontal rectangle. Who knew? Not me!

KTE Treats!

Sometimes its all about ME! Last Friday evening when I picked up the mail, there was a package from France. It was my KTE box - all the way from France!!! Despite the fact that I was very excited about its arrival, we had previous plans to go away for the weekend, so the usual craziness ensued with trying to get everything and everyone packed for a weekend away. (More on the weekend away in a later post...)

Fast forward to Monday when I got to open the package - my treater, Hélène, had prepared a simply lovely package for me for the KTE. I did take pictures, but I must say that Hélène's are better! So I'm going to suggest that you click through to her blog to see my goodies. Since her blog is "en français", I'll give you a run through:
- 2 lovely French magazines, one knitting, one cross stitch.
- 4 (count 'em 4!) balls of yarn - from "Mohair des Fermes de France" called "Diva". It is a very yummy blend of 77% mohair and 23% silk. 2 balls are a lovely creamy colour and the other 2 are a plummy or aubergine colour. Like I said - YUMMY!
- A bag of loose tea and a tea ball for brewing it.
- A selection of lovely bath products which I can't wait to try.
- A lovely little bag with a cross stich border and the most exquisite cotton. I thought that it was silk initially! Inside are needles for finishing, 2 cable needles and 2 row counters. All just perfect.
- And last but not least, a very pretty card and a handwritten note.
For those of you that have been following along with me, you just KNOW that I was thrilled to get the magazines in French. It was a truly lovely surprise for me. Thank you again, Hélène, and I hope that my French e-mails of thanks were understandable!

To FELT or not to FELT: that is the question

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to let knits and purls of outrageous wool remain natural, Or to take the fabric against a sea of hot soapy water, And by friction felt them?

Poor Shakespeare... Poor readers! This may give you a few insights into the workings and wanderings of my mind (such that it is...). The Spring Felted Bag Exchange has a weekly question, and when I read it, Hamlet came to mind.

My first intentional (I'm sure that we've all had a few better forgotten laundry experiences) felting experience was a green baby jacket. I knit the fabric with my knitting machine (it hasn't been out its box since 1994) back in 1993 for the baby that my sister was expecting. My niece will be 14 in July... I felted the fabric, but never quite got around to the cutting, sewing and finishing work. Somehow, I don't think that it will fit anymore. I should probably finish it and wait for a baby shower. The colour would work for either a boy or a girl since I didn't know what the baby was when I started the project. At the time, "boiled" jackets were very fashionable.

My first felting experience with a handknit item was a hat. I was pregnant with my now 7 year old son, so that puts us in 1999. It was a hat. I saw some felted hats at LK Yarns (then Wool Tyme) in Halifax when we were down visiting my MIL, and decided I wanted to try it. I still have the hat, but in a moment of blondeness, I washed it and put it in the dryer... It would probably fit the younger son, but I don't think that a floppy brimmed hat is really quite his style!

On the to do list: make myself a new hat...