Saturday, January 07, 2006

Viewer appreciation Day

ok, without wanting to sound too syrupy ~~
i
would like to thank everyone for their comments & messages.
it's surprising & hugely great to know
that people are reading
the blog.
And this week, none other than the Yarn Harlot
popped by to comment. i was shocked ! A Celebrity.
and a knitting celebrity at that ! in my bloghood.
And i still haven't received
her latest book in the mail. Surely Chapters online
service is messing with my head, to build up my
anticipation. (enough already ! )


My "someone" for whom the italian mittens were knit
has commented to say that she received her mittens.
I am thrilled. thank you Canada post for Express post
and speedy delivery.
(did you see her comment ? it made me laugh out loud).

This week, i downloaded my first knitting podcasts.

Thanks to Alison at the Blue blog for the links!
I have just been listening to "cast on" by Brenda Dayne.
really enjoyed it.

i have just started the cast on for a pair of socks.
I received a lovely skein of Mountain colour bearfoot
from my mom. Thanks mom !
it's colour is called pheasant,
and i think it's going to knit up to be very pretty.
You may know that this is not my first

time to knit with this luscious wool.
so here's a scoop: this new skein of wool is MUCH
thinner than previous skeins. this one is just as soft
as ever, colours are just as Divine as can be - but this
one is actually sock weight yarn. Darn.
One thing that was so thrilling about the earlier

versions of Mountain colour bearfoot was it's
great size. It was thicker than sock weight yarn
and i could knit it up on 3.5 mm needles. this meant
faster sock completion. I am a Huge Fan of Instant
Gratification. especially for knitting.

(note, this wool is not actually
made from the fuzz of bear's feet). (Because bears can
run too fast and they don't like people combing their

feet to get out the nice wool).

Now, for some totally unrelated eye candy:

i present for you, some photo Garden inspiration.
This is a total opposite of the season in which
this is being written.
Photo taken in August, in Montreal Canada ....






Rediscovered


This week, while ensuring that there were no
more skeins of Deadly-dangerous (to me)
alpaca lurking in my wool stash,
i came across this beautiful wool slub:



Wow.
it's 100% wool,
and soft as angel's wings.


not sure what i'm going to use it for yet.
frankly, it's so nice to look at it in its guise a
a wooly fluffy clouds.
But if you have any ideas, i would love to hear from you.


Friday, January 06, 2006

Someone special ....

Dear Someone,

Thank you very much for your witty
and charming comment posted to my blog.

You have taught me a valuable lesson:
not to take photos of secret things, even when you're

sure that person is not going to see them.

Ah. Well. there you go.

Secret presents are very hard to hold in quietly.
secret knitting is just so exciting. Who knew ! ?

and, while on the topic of
surprises; this was just found in my
knitting bag.
i'd squirrelled these dog cookies away
to keep someone (the knitting Companion)
constantly surprised while we knit. It must have
been quite a few weeks ago.
Today i was surprised when he found the whole
bag and brought it to me.

What a guy. (and polite, too)






Sock Season continues ....



Not only are these Regia socks,
that were finished in december,

being put to good use; they are fitting very nicely.

i seemed to have fallen out of my "sizing" groove
for my own socks after making the gift socks.
Glad that i've gotten things under fit-control again.
These were terrific colours to work with on dark days.

And the italian wool mittens ?
they're in the post right
now, winging their way to waiting hands.
have my fingers crossed that they'll arrive today.


thank you for all the comments, everyone !

i have a very big deadline to work for ... that
i really should have finished by now.
Monday is my "postmark by" date.
i'm really hoping i breeze right through this.
(and subsequently get accepted).

Non knitting news:
i'm getting new glasses this month.

i'm not heading to any kind of store today, which
by the look of my horoscope for today,
is a really good thing. and did you know you can
get your horoscope delivered to your cellulaire
daily ? ooh, how fun ...

now, time for tea
and get to work.
*sigh* i really don't enjoy paperwork !

here is a quote that i've just found
thanks to Robert Genn's letters;
that i will leave with you.

i hope that it makes you laugh.

"Artists ought to walk a mile in someone else's pants.
That
way you're a mile away and you have their pants."
(Joe
Blodgett)


Thursday, January 05, 2006

sock gazing


new Regia socks.
As yet ~ to be worn.

enjoy their joyful colourway, as my new socks sit here keeping toasty.

have you read the newest book by the yarn Harlot ?
i am waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail.
Fingers crossed that my copy will arrive soon.
I am not a patient person.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Mirage Mittens


finished, and ready to mail off !

these heavy wool mittens are made from pillowy soft "Mirage" wool
by Alessandra. 100% wool, 4 skeins.
i knit them snugly so they wouldn't be drafty, yet soft & pretty
hand covers. I hope they'll do a good job at keeping their
new owner cozy.

i used the free mitten pattern for the blue blog for these mittens.

sharing the free will

some of you may be familiar with the fabulous
Free Will Astrology.
here is the forecast for this week, from that website:


FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week beginning January 5
Copyright 2006 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com




ARIES (March 21-April 19):
I'm hoping that in 2006 you will work your ass
off with great ingenuity--not just at your job,
but in every area of your
life. Do you have it in you to break all
your previous records for brilliant
diligence? Are you willing to summon
fierce discipline and crafty willpower
not only to pump up your career ambitions
but also to refine your
approach to intimacy and increase your
command over your own
emotions? Are you finally ready to
master all the excruciating but crucial
details you've always avoided? If so,
you could generate years' worth of
blessings.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Some religious traditions preach the doctrine
that desire is a major obstacle to enlightenment.
To escape from the predicament of your
suffering, they insist, you must overcome all of your
yearning. But Tantric scholar
Daniel Odier believes this dogma is a
delusion. In his book *Desire: The Tantric Path
to Awakening,* he says
desire should be at the heart of spiritual practice.
Not all longings are
equally sacred, of course: Fantasies about
winning the lottery or seeing an
adversary punished are not on a par with
wanting to expand your capacity
to bestow blessings and give love.
In 2006, Taurus, consider the
possibility that Odier is right. Try
out the hypothesis that the most
spiritual thing you can do is
cultivate high-minded yearnings.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
"The Simpsons" TV show has made the leap to
the Arab world. Broadcast by satellite from
Dubai, it reaches a big
audience in the Middle East. A few
transformations were necessary,
however. In accordance with Islamic law,
the man of the house doesn't
drink beer or eat pork. Instead, he enjoys
soda and beef sausages. His
name is Omar instead of Homer, and he
doesn't frequent squalid bars or
befriend scruffy derelicts as he does in the
American version of the show.
On the other hand, son Bart (now called Badr)
is still a brat. Omar is as
lazy as Homer, and, like the original,
works at a nuclear power facility. I
mention this, Gemini, because it's a
good analogue for your possible
future. In 2006, you will have the
power and opportunity to translate
something you're good at into a brand new sphere.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
There's no delicate way to say this, so please
stop reading and come back next week
if you're offended by graphic
references to pleasure. According to
my analysis of the long-term
astrological omens, you're on tap to
experience more orgasms in 2006
than you have in any previous year. On average,
your climaxes are also
likely to be longer and more intense.
Other varieties of bliss, rapture, and
joy will probably occur at record levels,
as well. Think you can handle it?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Recently someone asked me,
"What do you look
for in an ally, Rob?" Here's what
I said: "I favor people who take
responsibility for their unripe qualities
and don't spew their undigested
angst on me when they're feeling
low." I think this approach should
become a priority for you, Leo.
In 2006, you will have striking
opportunities to upgrade your relationship
to relationships. One of the
best ways to do that is to give special
preference to connections with
emotionally intelligent people who work
hard to transmute their own darkness.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In 2006, you will have greatest success if you
approach every experience as a student.
Your ability to experience
happiness will expand if you re-ignite
your love of learning and become
perpetually ablaze with curiosity.
You know that old expression, "When
the student is ready, the teacher will
appear"? I suggest you make
yourself ready, because a crucial teacher
is or will soon be in your vicinity.
Here's another key piece of advice,
courtesy of J. Bronowski: "It is
important that students bring a certain
ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence
to their studies; they are not here to
worship what is known, but to
question it."

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In a few weeks, economist Benjamin Bernanke
will begin serving as the chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board, becoming
the most important person in setting
America's monetary policy. Though
news reports typically describe him as
cautious and scholarly, he has
promised to prevent deflation by any
means necessary--even by printing
lots of extra money and throwing it out
of helicopters. If that occurs in
the coming months, members of your sign
will no doubt be in the right
places at the right times to gather up
disproportionately large shares of
those dollars floating down from above.
The astrological omens suggest
that 2006 will be a time of financial luck for
Librans of every nationality. If
you're ever going to benefit from
a windfall, it'll be this year.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
In my homeland of Northern California, four
of the most overused terms are "juicy,"
"sacred," "radical," and "wild." I
haven't made a scientific study, but I'd
guess that maybe 30 percent of
all workshops and self-help books originating
in this part of the world have
at least one of those words in their titles.
As a connoisseur of language, I
naturally try to avoid them myself.
Nevertheless, your long-term
astrological omens demand that I
invoke them to describe your destiny. In
fact, I'm duty-bound to predict that 2006
will be the Year of Juicy Sacred
Radical Wildness for you Scorpios. Do your best,
please, to express the
primal potency of these words.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
A few weeks ago a group of people in
the Netherlands reserved a large hall in hopes
of breaking the world record for falling
dominoes. Their goal was
to set up and then topple
4,321,000 of the rectangular black tiles.
While they were working, a
sparrow flew in an open window and
accidentally knocked over 23,000
pieces. It was only a temporary setback,
however. The record-seekers
restored the prematurely fallen pieces and
ultimately achieved their goal. I
predict that this vignette will have a
metaphorical similarity to your
destiny in 2006. If you assign yourself
an epic yet fun goal (which I hope
you will), you'll probably experience an
unforeseen interruption, but will
prevail in the end. (P.S. Don't do anything
like what the Dutch people did,
which was shoot the bird.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Stage magician David Copperfield made an
intriguing announcement recently. He told the
German magazine *Galore*
that in his next show, he will use magic to make
a woman pregnant--
without touching her. That's similar to the
kind of mojo you will possess in
2006, Capricorn. It's true that your success
in the past has usually come
from your pragmatic intelligence,
organizational ability, and thoroughness.
But in the coming months you will
also have a talent for conjuring
beautiful illusions that ultimately become very real.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Every person you know has a different idea
about who you are, and none of those
notions is exactly the same as the
image you have of yourself. In other words,
there are hundreds of
unauthorized versions of you in addition to
the one you believe in. Usually
you don't have much power to control this,
but that could change in
2006. More than at any other previous time,
you'll have a knack for
bringing public opinion into alignment
with your own picture of yourself.
Your reputation may even come to closely
resemble the person you really are.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

I encourage you to climb trees in 2006,
Pisces. I also suggest that you regularly
look down at the world from
mountaintops and skyscrapers and flying dreams.
Get above it all, in other
words. Give yourself the pleasure of gazing
from vistas that inspire you to
meditate on the really big picture. You might
also consider expanding your
consciousness now and then if you do so
in a disciplined, careful, and
responsible way. (Getting high on a mix
of street meth with strangers at
3 a.m. is not what I mean.)
Your magical symbol for the year is a golden
ladder.


foggy Wednesday


the Regia wool ... before the socks.
and i still have some left over

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Tuesday

finished my most recent socks of
very festive pink & brown

Regia wool.

No photos yet.
and i will leave you with this quote:

"No artist is pleased.
There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction,
a blessed unrest that keeps us marching
and makes us more alive than the others."

(Martha Graham)

Sunday, January 01, 2006

happy new year

GEORGIA NICOLS January 01, 2006

All Signs (Eastern Time Zone)

We have a Grand Cross:
planets at 6 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 9 o clock, 3

o'clock i.e. Mars in Taurus opposite Jupiter in Scorpio,
and Saturn in Leo
opposite Neptune in Aquarius.
This creates tension for everyone. We all

feel stressed for different reasons.
(You're not losing it. And you're not
alone.)
By mid-February, Mars leaves Taurus
where it's been for six months

(gasp) instead of its usual six weeks.
This releases some of this tension,

and lightens up that singular Taurus emphasis,
which we feel in different

ways. Actually, planetary tension like this
promotes great accomplishment!

This means 2006 starts off with an ultimato.
(That's the choice of eating

your vegetables or going to bed without supper.)
Happy New Year to
everyone!