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.

Sens vs Caps

Yesterday the husbeast and I drove to Ottawa right after work to see the Capitals play the Senators at Scotiabank Place. It was an interesting experience seeing a game in another venue besides the Bell Centre, not to mention the fact that I wasn't overly invested in the outcome of the game. I was happy to be able to see Ovechkin play.

Here's Ovie going to the sin bin!


And Ovie and Varlamov. Quite liked seeing Varly play as well. Totally fascinated by goalies, can hardly keep my eyes off them. Unfortunately I did not get to see Kovalev play since he had to fly back to Russia for the funeral of his mother-in-law.

We are still trying to decide whether or not to keep the tickets I bought for the Dec. 28th game there against the Habs. The husbeast has been no help in making the decision and right now I'm leaning towards selling them since they were so darn expensive and I really can't afford the expense so close to Christmas, especially after I blew a fair bit on my Halak stick. Christmas is coming way too fast, as usual.

Today I'm taking a "therapy" day. I'm too tired to be of any use, so am just lazing around.

It's Only Rock 'n Roll....But Halak It!!

Yup, that's Halak's stick I got in my hot little hands. Today they had a sale at the Bell Centre of game-used equipment. I went there hoping for a Halak stick and they actually had one. I am just thrilled to pieces. I was seriously lusting over one of his blockers but alas, Christmas is coming and I need to buy a few gifts still. I'm sure they'll have another sale in the spring, which gives me plenty of time to save up.

The husbeast made quite a haul. A pair of skates, a practice jersey, a stick and coolest of all: a pair of Saku's gloves.

One of the members of the Go Habs Go group on Ravelry (Allison) has a boyfriend who is in town this weekend with his two brothers and their dad (if I'm remembering correctly). He saw me there! Recognized me because I was holding a Halak stick and wearing my vintage hockey sweater. He came over and said hello and it was great to meet him. Wish he had Allison with him, but someday...

We stopped by the Centennial Plaza before leaving to take pictures of ourselves in front of the new monument and I got asked by a man and his son to take a picture of them. Turns out they're visiting from Nova Scotia and were given tickets to tonight's game by the coach of the Red Wings who's staying at the same hotel. Lucky guys!

Working on the Current Players...

After doing a Halak colourway, I figured I could do a few more of our current players, so first off is Mike Cammalleri.Carey Price

Brian Gionta

And Roman Hamrlik

With more to come....

My Precious Yarn

Newest colourway: Jaroslav Halak. I will try to get a better picture this weekend, as the colours as they appear here are more intense in real life. Top hank is a wool/nylon blend and bottom hank is wool/alpaca/nylon. I have learned that alpaca does not pull up the dye as much as wool, since the colours come out more muted with the alpaca. hmm.

I really need to get my butt in gear in regards to the upkeep of the shop. I need to do a bit of dyeing, but am quite low on base yarns. That situation needs to be rectified. Also, I have not as yet sent off a cheque to the Kid's Foundation. Only gotten as far as typing up a letter, so that is on the list of things to do for this weekend. I also have a few ideas floating around in my brain that need to be brought to fruition. Getting Rejean Houle to autograph his yarn was great, and has me wondering who else I could get to sign yarn labels. I am thinking it might not be outside the realm of possibility to get signed Beliveau yarns. But first I want to spiffy up the labels, nothing too fancy, but they could be a bit better.

I've also been thinking of designing a few patterns to sell. I've had some great ideas, but finding the time to make them a reality is an entirely different thing. Stupid job takes up a lot of time, not to mention all the day-to-day stuff. And then there's the Christmas knitting that needs to be take care of.

Sigh.

Well, first things first. I have Halak yarn to reskein, base yarns to order, and a cheque to put in the mail.

Vintage Habs Sweater

Six and a half months in the making:

Honestly, I think I knit this thing at least twice over, since I had to rip back and re-knit so many parts of it. I did the neckband four times before I settled on this one.

I spent last weekend at my sister's and brought the sweater with me so I could sew the emblem on with her machine. It's cut out from sheets of wool felt. I love that kind of "puffy" effect that resulted. Today I did the last little bit - cut off the excess interfacing from the back of the logo, closed up te underarms with a three-needle bind-off, and wove in a few ends. Then a bit of a steam blocking. And there she is!

I will be wearing it out for the first time tomorrow to work, and then to the Bell Centre. We're got tix to a game against the Thrashers. Which we really need to win, since we've lost the last five games (urgh!). Although last Saturday's game was still kinda awesome, since it was Kovy's first time back in Montreal since becoming a Sen. Seeing him score a goal was fraught with mixed emotions, but the fans didn't seem to mind too much. They gave him a standing ovation!

Random Stuff

I was looking for a random picture to put up and couldn't find the one I was looking for, so the random squirrel it is!
I haven't posted in an age and a half. Last time was during my vacation, which is now just a lovely memory :( Today is Labour Day and the last day of a four day weekend. Back to the grind tomorrow, though I have only a three day week.
Lots of things have been happening. Hockey season is approaching and it has been a hell of an off-season for the Habs. I have been sad for the most part, what with losing all my favourite players. The last straw was Robert Lang. There were rumours flying around about him trying out for the team during training camp, but his agent quelled those rumours. I dunno, I just don't know. Tickets for 3 to 10 game packages went on sale last Saturday and DH and I tried to get some, but we basically sat on our computers watching the packs sell out one by one. As a consolation, DH bought tix to the preseason game against Ottawa. He figures Kovalev will show up since it's in Montreal. I sure hope so. The individual tix go on sale next Saturday, so we will try again.
Other than that, we've been working on trying to turn this place into a comfy cozy home. We bought a sofa this weekend which will be coming next Saturday. Not the greatest looking thing, boring beige type colour, but it'll look good with nice colourful cushions and a knitted afghan draped over the back. Which I will have to knit. I dug out the Lizard Ridge blanket I started ages ago and now I have a good incentive for finishing it. The sofa is super comfortable though. Two reclining seats, all the better to watch movies and hockey from. I'm sure we will be very happy with it.

Shop Update

Oh, I am tired. I was up late last night. I got some stitch markers made, took some photos and did an update on my shop. Really bad photo up there, but the light was not optimal, and I was too tired to give a poop. I listed my autographed Rejean Houle yarn, though I didn't really want to, want to keep it! I'm going to be pulling out the dye pot today. I have a few hanks of undyed yarns and a couple of ideas. I've been wanting to do a Newsy Lalonde yarn and Henri Richard needs a yarn too, me thinks. I was thinking of going fabric shopping today, since I want to sew some more project bags, but think some new yarns need to be done. They take some time to dry, and then I have to do the reskeining.

Home Sweet Home

I've actually been back from Toronto for a couple of days now. It was a great trip, wore myself out, spent too much. I managed to hit four yarn shops and bought yarn in all of them. The Purple Purl was the most fun, since I got to meet Drea from the Puck This! group on Ravelry, that was all kinds of awesome. Now I'm back home, and DH drove back yesterday with his son for another 5 days or so. I have the place all to myself, and it is lovely. Just me and the cats.
I have been slowly working on some new stuff for the shop. I closed the shop for vacation before leaving and haven't reopened yet. I'll be doing that within the next day or two with some new stock. I should have 3 or 4 hockey-themed project bags, some new stitch markers, and at least a couple new yarns. I want to dye some more, but that might not happen till next week, I am on vacation, after all! But I have a new hank of the Morenz colourway, and a new one : The Ambassador. It's a Rejean Houle yarn, and I got it autographed when we went on the Bell Centre tour. I have a picture of it somewhere that I wanted to post, but can't seem to find it, really need to get organized!

Bluffer's Park

I'm a bit behind in my postings, lotsa things going on and i have some catching up to do. On Tuesday morning we went to Bluffer's Park and had a nice walk. Quite lovely there. The afternon was spent doing a whole lotta nothing. We were pretty much wiped out from the day before and needed to recover. Spent the day sitting around and eating.

Hockey & Knitting...

...go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Yesterday we made a pilgrimage to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Dudes. What an awesome building. The building itself is beautiful, and oh the treasures it contains!


We walked until our feet darn near fell off. After the HHOF, we wandered downtown. I went to Romni and went off my yarn diet. They were having a SALE for heaven sakes, 20% off. So the stash has grown. But I got some lovely stuff, some MMMMalabrigo, and Fleece Artist, and lotsa other goodies.

I'm on Vay-cay-shun!!!

Oh, this is sweet, an entire month away from the job. I've been off since last Friday. We drove to Toronto on Saturday and are staying here till probably next Sunday. We are wearing ourselves out already, my feet are killing me! We are staying at the house of two of Chris' sisters in the Beaches area, it's nice here. The house is lovely, the tiny backyard is pretty, and there's a Siamese cat living here that is tiny, but the loudest cat I have ever met. Very demanding, she wants what she wants when she wants it.
When we got in Saturday night, we went out in search of a restaurant that served pasta. Can't remember the name of the place, but the spaghetti was good. Yesterday we went to Kensington Market and wandered about. Went to Lettuce Knit, and a store called Blue Banana where I bought a painting that tickled my fancy. Also started buying some Canadian treats for round two of the Puck This hockey swap. I enjoyed the first one so much, I gotta do round two! We also went book shopping at The World's Biggest Bookstore. I have a nice pile of reading material now.

My heart is breaking

It's too difficult to talk right now. Eleven players gone thus far, including our brave captain. Not to mention the player that got me started down the road I'm on, Alex Kovalev. It's a whole different team and it's going to take me a long while to adjust to what Gainey did.