Ravelympics 2010

The gold metal hockey game has just started and I'm trying to get some catching-up done. I'm on Team Puck This! on Ravelry and had originally decided to knit a pair of socks in the Sock Hockey event. However, due to various reasons, including a very sore right hand and arm, I dropped that idea. I'm still working on the first sock.

I found out at the end of last weekend that there is an event for dyers, Downhill Dyeing. Aha! I still had a chance! So yesterday I hauled out the dye pot and came up with four new colourways, all done in sock yarn.

Speed Merchant (named for Jack Laviolette)

Phantom Joe (named for Joe Malone)

Ambidexterous (for Bill Durnan)

And Chicoutimi Cucumber (Georges Vezina)
I'll most likely be putting these yarns in my shop next weekend, along with a couple others I haven't gotten around to. Work has left me worn out, and I don't expect it to get any better for the month of March.

Valentine's Weekend

This past weekend has not been something to blog about, nothing really interesting happened. I just came off a rough week at work and wanted to rest and watch as much Olympics as I could, seeing as how I missed so much during the week due to 5 days of basically work/sleep, work/sleep, work/sleep.

But Valentine's weekend the husbeast and I did a couple of fun things. On Saturday, we went to another of the Habs' equipment sales.
Husbeast got a pair of game-worn Andrei Markov gloves:


And my catch of the day was a goalie jersey worn during practice. I don't know which goalie wore it though. Was it Price? Was it Halak?

Nice fit, no?

The equipment is all cleaned before it's sold, but they can't get the puck marks out which makes it all the better, in my opinion. If you look closely, you can see some of the marks on the white parts of the jersey.

And on Valentine's Day, we drove to Mirabel where they have a skating trail going through the woods.


That's the husbeast in the distance. He took off ahead of me at one point and I was huffing along trying to catch up when he came whizzing up behind me. He'd done the whole trail and and started up again before I got halfway through.

I Love Etsy!

It's one of my favourite places to shop. So many awesome people on there creating unique and wonderful things. I've found some fabulous gifts on there, as well as things I absolutely HAD to have for myself.

My most recent purchase came in the mail today from a new Etsy seller, Beadopolis. Not much in that shop at the moment, it looks like it's still in the process of being set up. But I did get this fabulous necklace:

AND....it's reversible!


Another recent purchase comes from Manland:


This is a picture frame made from broken hockey sticks, with a puck that has a groove cut in it used as a stand. I just love this thing, not only is it too cool for words, but it's recycled!

Catching Up...

I have some catching up to do - I have once again fallen behind with the blogging. Stuff has been happening, so I'm going to try and get a few catch-up posts done.

For now, I finally got around to taking some decent pics of my Shalom Cardigan. The picture on my last post was really bugging me because it looked better than the photo showed.

Shalom

Finally finished my Shalom Cardigan. It looks nicer in person, hard to take a picture of yourself in the mirror, but what can you do? The yarn is Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool, which I dyed myself (again, colour is nicer in person than it appears in photo). If I ever decide to do this pattern again, I would make it smaller; I find it a wee bit big on me.


The colour actually looks like this:


The button is lovely. I got it from an etsy seller here. Her pottery is absolutely gorgeous.







Meanwhile I have been struggling with some Manos del Uruguay yarn that was gifted to me at least a year ago. Gorgeous stuff in purple and blue. I tried a February Lady Sweater, but that didn't work, so have attempted to force it into being a Liesl Cardigan, and it doesn't want to be that either. I think I'm going to do another Mini-Cardi with it. I saw some variations on Ravelry with longer bodies and sleeves, so am gonna give that a try. The plan was, after finishing my Hat Trick KAL and before starting the Ravelympics, to crank out a quick and easy cardi. Which doesn't leave me much time. Ah well, it will be what it will be :)

Andrei & Patrick

I'm finally getting around to adding some new colourways to the shop.
First off: Mr. Andrei Markov.

For Andrei I wanted something rather quiet and subdued, like the man is himself.

And I decided I needed some more goalies, so I did a Patrick Roy.

Patrick is rather more colourful :)

Both of these yarns are a new base yarn I've been working with. It's a wool/alpaca/nylon blend sock yarn, machine washable. Can't remember the percentages off-hand, but have it listed in the descriptions in the shop.

There won't be a heck of a lot of new listings for a bit, I have some sock yarns ordered, some worsted weight ordered and am waiting for one of my suppliers to get some more merino superwash sock yarn in stock. When the base yarns start coming in, I'll be dyeing them up.

Marvin the Marvelous

Today I had to do a terrible thing. My cat has been having respiratory difficulties for a few weeks now, so I made an appointment with the vet for this afternoon. It turned out to be the worst possible thing imaginable. A chest x-ray revealed tumors in his lungs. There was nothing that could be done. So I had to have him put to sleep.

Marvin would have been 14 years old on May 20th. I had been asked if I would temporarily foster his pregnant mother. She gave birth to three kittens in my bedroom closet. I fell in love with one little guy and decided I would keep him. I initially named him Merlin, but as his personality became more apparent, it was clear that this cat was no magician. He was a big, goofy, klutzy cat and I changed his name to Marvin.

I have loved that cat more than I ever could have imagined was possible and he loved me right back. He was Mama's big boy and I can't imagine what my life will be like without him. I love you Marvin, wherever you are and I miss you terribly.

I Don't Blog Enough

I've known this for a while but always managed to be too busy to blog. But seriously, would it really be that hard to write just one post a week? No, of course not!

This past weekend I had the chance to meet someone I've known through the Go Habs Go group on Ravelry for close to a year now. Caroline, who blogs over here, and I met for coffee and knitting and much talk about two of our favourite things: hockey and knitting. It was great to finally meet her!

This month there's been a Hat Trick KAL at the Puck This! group on Ravelry and this weekend I finished my hat trick.

The Habs hat was goal #1 and the pattern is the Flying Ace Aviator Hat. I liked this pattern, easy instructions to follow and there's plenty of room for coming up with your own variations. Tis pattern is a keeper and I'll be using it for any future ear-flap hats I may want to knit. I got the Habs patch from someone on ebay since they are impossible to find around here.
The middle hat is just a simple improvised hat. I did 2x2 ribbing and then knit plain stockinette, did decreases and added a pompom for that certain je-ne-sais-quois. The yarn is my own, worsted weight wool in the Emile "Butch" Bouchard colourway. It was originally intended to be a Hamrlik colourway, but I changed my mind.
Hat #3 is also my yarn in the Jacques Plante colourway. The pattern is the Hurricane Hat with some mods. I made the ribbing a fair bit taller and turned it up so as to have that extra layer of warmth for the ears, made the whole hat a bit taller so that it slouches a bit, and added a pompom (can we see a trend here? what's up with me and pompoms lately?)

I also finished the Shalom Cardigan this weekend. It's currently blocking and I just need to pick out a button from the button stash for it once it dries. Excuse the horrible picture, but the light in here is bad, when I use the flash it comes out a BRIGHT red, which it is not, and it's raining outside (yes, raining in January in Montreal, wtf?) so I can't take it outside. Better picture to come when it's dry.

Meanwhile, I have cast on another cardigan, this time it's Liesl which I've been wanting to knit for quite some time. I'm using some Manos del Uruguay yarn that I've had in the stash for too long. Liesl's designer, Ysolda Teague, is currently donating 80% of her pattern sales to Medicins Sans Frontieres till the end of January. Although I've made it a habit to not buy patterns until I'm ready to knit them, in this case I'm going to make an exception. There's a bunch of her patterns I'm in love with, so now is a very good time to get them.