YAY!

Yesterday we took a long overdue drive to one of our favourite places - the Annapolis Valley.

Mr. Happy had been working in the Valley last week on a film shoot. They had shot some scenes at a local beach and he wanted to show it to me. We pulled the sleeping Mogrunt out of the back seat, carefully picked our way down the path to the beach and were treated to this:

The Mogrunt wandered out onto the beach, quiet except for our voices and the cries of the birds flirting (fighting?) above our heads, raised his arms up and shouted...

"YAY!!!!!!"

That was exactly how I felt. It was a beautiful place. The tide was out - and those that know the Bay of Fundy understand that this meant the beach went on for what seemed like forever.

You doubt me? Here, look for yourself. We were about two-thirds of the way from the high tide mark at this point (if the tide was high, we would be under about 15-20 feet of water here):

I grew up on the other side of this body of water - no, not the land you can see on the horizon (that's actually where my dad grew up) - and I still feel a fierce sense of home whenever I'm near it.

The boy had a great time running around on the beach - we eventually took off his shoes and once he got over the feeling of the sand (still mushy and wet from the departing tide) under his feet - and I think he wore off some energy.

When it was time to leave, well, let's just say he didn't go quietly.

Moments after we drove out the road, the sky opened up in the kind of torrential downpour that only seems to happen around farm country. Thank goodness we weren't out on that beach when it happened.

We grabbed some lunch in Port Williams, then headed up to Gaspereau Valley Fibres where I picked up some "Kitchen Sink Lopi" from Legacy Lane. It's listed on their site as a novelty yarn, which something in me finds offensive. It's beautiful, colourful and soft, so maybe it is a "novelty" for the Lopi name. I also picked up a copy of Ysolda Teague's Ishbel. I can't wait to knit that up. Surely I have something in the stash for it.

From there we stopped for a quick visit with the lovely Lala who has always said, "Stop by when you're in the neighbourhood!" Little did she know that we would take her up on the offer one day! If you've not seen Lala's artwork, you must click that link. She's a kindred spirit to fibre lovers everywhere.

After leaving Lala's hideaway, we headed for the farm market where we picked up some Gravensteins (which rival Cortlands as my favourite apple), and pears before grabbing a coffee at Just Us and then heading home.

It was a perfect day, made only more perfect by this:

A double rainbow that arched over our heads. The brightest bow ended right over the highway. And for those of you who have been looking at my photos on Flickr and have quote the "Double Rainbow" song, asking, "What does it mean?"... Let me tell you this:

When a double rainbow ends on the 103, it means that the roadkill is wearing green pants, a green hat and black shoes... and there are gold coins scattered all over the highway.

Feeding Some Of The Family

Last week I borrowed a book from the library called, "feeding the whole family". It has some great recipes in it with suggestions at the bottom of each page of what you can feed your baby from the ingredients you are using to make the meal. It's very handy and after looking through it I think I'll probably get my own copy.

The recipes use lots of healthy ingredients and I'm very inspired to use this book.  I bought soba and udon noodles as well as quinoa after peeking through it. The Mogrunt had soba noodles and tofu for supper. He seemed to like it esp the noodles.

At lunch today, Mr. Happy was feeding the Mogrunt some quinoa I had made and he said to me, "this quinoa is really good."

I asked, "oh? You tried it?"

Mr. Happy said, "yeah, it's tasty."

To which I replied, "that would be the breast milk."

I don't think this is what they meant by "feeding the whole family".

He's Going To Be Impossible To Live With

Mr. Happy won "Studio Engineer of the Year" at the Music Nova Scotia awards this weekend.

He's already told me that I have to be nice to him b/c he's an award winner. Sigh. I already do his laundry, what more does he want? If he thinks this gets him off dish-washing duty or gets him out of changing diapers, he's going to be terrifically disappointed.

Congratulations, sweetie. You deserve it!

Here's the article in the local paper.

For anyone who might be interested in such things, Mr. Happy is currently working on his first solo album. Recording should be finished in the next week or so and then it's on to mixing and mastering. Almost done!!! YAY!

Mother Nature is a Tricky Mistress

 

Yesterday dawned clear, bright and warm.  Mr. Happy and I crawled out of bed at 7:30am to walk to the Dartmouth Farmer's Market. It was beautiful and sunny. Birds were singing. And while the world still looks a little "messy" (picture piles of dirty, melting snow), it felt like spring and green grass would be along any minute.

Now, you may be wondering what, pray tell, was so important that we would be headed to the market so early in the morning?

These are chocolate croissants (Pain au Chocolat) made byTwo If By Sea Bakeshop. The Proprietress of which is the girlfriend of a musical friend of Mr. Happy.

Now, I will admit that Mr. Happy has been telling me about these croissants for ages, but as he hadn't eaten them he didn't know if she made Chocolate-filled Croissants.

Enter Fate.

I picked up a copy of the Coast this week and inside was an article about the croissants including the most valuable tidbit of information: pain au chocolat! And another valuable tidbit: "usually sells out by 10:30am"

You see this?

This is the face of a very happy girl.

And this?

This is the face of a guy who, although he has been working insane hours this week, pulled himself out of bed so that his wife would have company at the market. (This is also the face of a guy who is thrilled that the Dartmouth Farmer's Market is much less crowded than the Halifax market and that there are plenty of tables and chair at which to sit and relax.)

We left the market completely satisfied with our purchase - Mr. Happy departed for his parents' place for a visit and I went home as a friend had hoped to stop in. Alas, she had a rather rough night, but was kind enough to send a message of explanation...

No matter, I used the opportunity to get started on some much needed house cleaning and tidying.

The weather outside was a whopping 10C, so I left the front door open, turned off the thermostat and set to work. It was a glorious day. I managed to get quite a few things taken care of before heading out in the afternoon for a visit with friends and a couple of errands..

This morning, however, Mother Nature is, most-likely, chuckling to herself about this little surprise:

You've GOT to be kidding me.

Sue's Talk Was a Little Too Late for Me

Yesterday I went to work, but was home by noon. We got a heck of a snowstorm yesterday and the entire city shut down by 4:30pm - even the malls closed. Yes, ladies and gents - the malls. That's when you know the road conditions are bad.

So much has gone on since my last post. First of all, I did finally get to Newfoundland. It was, quite possibly, the WORST LANDING I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED. While I don't fly nearly as often as some of my coworkers, I have had a variety of experiences flying (including torrential downpours, emergency medical landings, turbulence that kept us seated for the entire flight...)

The winds were gusting to 150km/hr in St. John's on the 14th of January... and the pilot had to make a second attempt at the runway because of that. Those of us on the East Coast know that if you need to land anywhere in a windstorm, you want to hope that your pilot regularly flies in and out of St. John's. Those guys know what they are doing. So, while I wasn't too frightened when we were being tossed around like a paper airplane in an electric fan testing facility, I will admit that it wasn't quite like landing on a balmy, calm summer day. Gah!

I was in St. John's for a student conference. When I saw the agenda for the conference, I will admit that I was particularly interested in hearing one speaker: Sue Johanson. Some of you may know her from her American show, "Talk Sex With Sue"... but we Canadians know and love her from the "Sunday Night Sex Show" (please click that link - the photos along are worth it).

Sue captured everyone's attention the moment she walked onto the stage. She holds no punches and tells it like it is. She's frank, matter of fact and funny as heck. Her analogies, gestures and anecdotes had the entire conference room roaring with laughter... and all the while, learning things about our selves that we should have known years ago.

Did I mention that she'll be 79 this year? Oh yessiree - someone's grandma just told all the secrets!

Anyhooooo... the conference was great and the trip home was without incident, thank goodness.


In Baby News:

We had our second ultrasound on the 19th and other than the wee one being wee, all is well.

I'm only 5'1.25" and come from a family that makes not only small babies, but small people. We did have a few rather stressful days worrying about what the doctor at the FAS clinic told us, but we tried not to worry until we talked to the OB about it... a whole ten days later. Our OB told us that she is 99.9% sure that the baby is fine. We both felt like we were walking on air after that appointment.

Backtracking: We told the nurse at the U/S clinic that we didn't want to know what sex the baby was, but if it was obvious, then we probably wouldn't miss it. We do know the sex b/c a certain someone wasn't being very shy. But you'll have to wait for the next post. And if you already know, try not to shout it from the rooftops. Mr. Happy and I figured that we are incredibly bad at keeping secrets, so we decided to tell everyone the sex of the baby in advance. Plus, this guarantees that we won't get a deluge of neutral coloured things. Which isn't always a bad thing, but it's kind of nice knowing.

For those who are curious about the bump progress - here is a photo from 20 weeks + 1 day. I'll be 22 weeks on Friday.

(In case you're wondering, the shirt I'm wearing has dogs on it - it's the "Fairy Dogmother" shirt from "The Fleas Knees Tees" - given to me by my two favourite chihuahuas and the lovely lady who keeps them in kibble.

It's getting really hard to get out of bed in the morning b/c there is a 6:30am, by invitation only, party going on in my belly every day. The Mogrunt was moving the furniture back so he could dance. In fact, he tends to have parties when I'm at my desk. It's quiet awkward, explaining to my boss where the music is coming from.


In Knitting News:

I don't know if it is some sort of deranged nesting instinct or not, but I've been on a sock bender. Specifically, knitting socks for Mr. Happy. I think it's because I know that knitting for him might go by the wayside when the Mogrunt appears. The poor soul only had two pairs of wife-knit socks and as it has been quite cold out, and as I had the yarn, I decided to knit him a couple pairs of socks.

He has size 11.5 feet, so I pulled out the Opal 6-ply and had at it:

First up - orange.

Currently on the needles? Another pair of Opal 6-ply, but self-patterning. I do believe that I picked up both of these balls of yarn at Tangled Skeins' Boxing Day sale in 2007. Yoi. I would like to get a ball of chocolate brown to make him a pair of socks with orange toes & heels... but I haven't seen any locally.

I'm also working on a tiny teddy bear for the Mogrunt. It's the bear from Debbie Bliss' Baby Cashmerino book. Here's a ravelry link.

I don't have a photo to share right now as I can't seem to get my act together to take photos when the sun is shining.

Another bit of knitting that I wanted to share isn't something I made myself. It is, in fact, something my grandmother made. A couple years ago, I gave her the pattern for Catherine Vardy's felted mitts. In speaking with my cousin at Christmas time, it turns out that Catherine was a classmate of hers at Kings College in Halifax. Sing it with me - "It's a small world!"

Anyhooooo - Grammy loves this pattern and has made several pairs of mitts from it. I've made a few pairs myself, but never a pair for myself.

These are now my favourite mitts of all time. They are super warm. They kept my fingers toasty while I was walking around Signal Hill in the -27C windchill (at ground level - I'm sure it was more like -40C on top of the hill).

That's all for now!

Best Husband Ever

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm still recuperating from the weekend. It's kind of exhausting, playing hostess to 140 people. It's more exhausting when you don't sleep well. It wasn't for lack of comfort... because let me tell you - those beds at the Lord Nelson are like sleeping on a cloud. I woke up both nights with the weekend's agenda running through my head. Ugh! Shut off, brain, shut off!

I'll also admit that I've been so wiped out these last few weeks, what with travelling, getting ready for the conference and then attending the conference, that I haven't felt inclined to knit anything that I can show you - (No worries, IL, I'm still plugging away at your piece!) - Thus I must apologize for the distinct lack of knitting photos on the blog. For that matter - any photos.


Now, I'm sure you're wondering about the title to this post. Mr. Happy left the house this morning, before the crack of dawn, to travel to Toronto. A friend of his owns a cottage in the Muskokas and that cottage is the ultimate destination. A group of about 8 guys are headed to the cottage for the weekend. They're flying in from all over Canada and I believe that one is even coming from Dubai. Mr. Happy hasn't been able to get together with these friends in years. The annual cottage gathering is an old tradition that started when they were in high school together. Mr. Happy only just found out that he was able to get away from work in order to join the gang. Needless to say, he was pretty excited about it.

He promised to buy me a present while he was in Toronto. While I don't usually buy him presents on business trips, I wasn't going to turn down such an offer. Tonight, he navigated the Toronto transit system and found his way to Lettuce Knit.

Once there, he found himself amidst the Wednesday night knitting group. They had received advanced notice of his arrival and asked to see his socks so as to ensure they had the right husband. Mr. Happy gamely lifted his pant-legs to show off his orange socks. He then called me and passed the phone to Megan so that I could let her know which yarn I wanted to go along with the pattern I had requested.

As if I didn't already love him with all my heart and soul...

Introducing Adjustoform!

Adjustoform is adjustable to your size!

Simply open the snaps, slip it on like a vest and have a close and honest friend adjust it to your size by pinching or pulling the wires. It's quick, it's easy and if you wear it out as a vest, it's also haute couture!

Many thanks to Mr. Happy for bringing home this little gem from Valouie Vilaghe!

Running Away From Home

Last Thursday Mr. Happy announced that he was taking Friday night and Saturday off (nothing revolutionary for those with 9-5 jobs, but quite out of the ordinary for him). As soon as he said it, an alarm went off in my head:

Me: Let's run away.

Mr. Happy: Ok, where to?

Me: We have a gift certificate to Oak Island! [1] Ohhhhhh... we can watch cable TV!

Mr. Happy: Ohhhhhh, that's right! Let's go!

So we set out for Oak Island. After checking in, we decided to drive back to Chester for supper. We ate in the F'ocsle Tavern (delicious pan fried haddock) and then, as it was a relatively rain-free evening[2], decided to walk around the town.

Just as we were about to enter a corner store, Mr. Happy noticed a Chester Playhouse sign stating that Old Man Luedecke would be playing there, that night! We turned around and saw that there were people standing outside the Playhouse - it was our lucky day - intermission!

We ran over and talked to the lady in charge. She let us in for 1/2 price and we got to see the rest of the show! While we waited for intermission to end, Chris (aka the Old Man) came into the lobby. He was surprised to see Andrew there and came over to talk. It was the first time I had had a chance to meet and talk to him. What a great guy; he's just as genuine as his music. With intermission ending, we went in and found a seat in the playhouse.

If you haven't heard him before, please check out his music. It's not every day that I fall in love with the music of a banjo player.

Here's his web page and here's his myspace page

Mahone Bay in the fog

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Mahone Bay where, of course, I went to Have A Yarn. I've been meaning to pick up yarn to try out a particular baby sweater pattern[3]. If you are pregnant and a friend of mine, this may or may not be for your baby. It may just be going into my gift stash. Yes, I have a stash of gifts for young and old alike. No, I don't think it's weird.

Here's a picture of the cuff:

I also picked up some Lana Grossa sock yarn to make socks for my niece. They're quite splashy. Despite having already cast on for this project, I have no photo of it. The yarn is from their "Sunset" collection - It's the sock in the middle of the picture Girls just wanna have fun, if you know what I'm sayin'.

We left Mahone Bay and headed back "up the coast" to Chester where we wandered in and out of a few artists' shops. Then we had lunch at the Kiwi Cafe.

I fell in love with the colours in the cafe. It was so cheery on that overcast afternoon. Mr. Happy ordered the Adult Grilled Cheese (so delicious - on homemade bread) and I ordered the Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup. We did a little sharing:

It was a short trip, but it was really nice to get out of the city and slow down for a while. I'm headed into a very busy time at work, and I know that I'll be thinking of the music in the Chester Playhouse and the visit to Mahone Bay when I'm standing at a booth at some conference this fall.



[1] Thanks again to the very, very kind friends who gave this to us for our anniversary.

[2] There's been so much rain here lately that we no longer classify things as sunny, we classify things in terms of dampness.

[3] I fell off the "Knit the Stash" wagon quite a while ago, but must note that I have definitely curbed my insane yarn-buying habits. I've decided that this "knit the stash" plan is more of a lifestyle change than a cold-turkey diet. Whereas before I treated the LYS as a all-you-can-knit buffet, I’m trying to make better, healthier choices. It’s much easier to do now that I don’t visit my LYS every single weekend. I've got my eye on some of the new Trekking tweed, but I'm going to wait until I get a couple more projects finished before buying it. See? Old Stephanie would have bought it the first day she saw it.

Sunny weekend = FO pictures!

After all the running around last week, I had Friday off, which made for a nice long weekend - and a sunny one at that.

Just what did I do with my beautiful long weekend? Well, I finished things, of course:

I've been calling this Shetland Skies:

It reminds me of the sky in a Van Gogh painting.

Isn't it pretty?

Pattern: Shetland Triangle
Yarn: Sea Silk
Needles: 3.5mm
State of Happiness: Elated

This is the blasted Victorian Shoulderette that I made intending to give it to my maternal (non-knitting) grandmother:

I cursed my way through every stitch. I just don't find garter stitch lace to be intuitive at all. My hat is off to Sivia Harding for designing the wretched thing. I may have to say a prayer over it or something to ward off all the evil feelings I hold toward it.
Funny thing is that I love how it looks on. Who woulda thunk it?

Pattern: Victorian Shoulderette
Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca somethin' or other (cloud?)
Needles: Only the ones I used to gouge out my eyes.
State of Happiness: Relief. Like the kind you feel after meeting an ex-boyfriend or ex-friend in the mall and being forced to make small talk until you manage to come up with a reasonable excuse and get out of there!

What was Mr. Happy doing while I was running around the house, finishing projects, making him lunch and doing laundry?

He was painting the trim on the SS Yarn Barn:

...and he deserved every draw from that bottle of beer.

Pippin was having a grand old time running around our back yard, alternating between coming to me for snuggles and skritchy scratches:

And rough-housing with "Unca Andwew""

Mr. Happy was kind enough to take my FO photos, and we had a good laugh about this out-take:

Pippin asks, "What we lookin' at, Auntie Sessanie?"

And this one, that I took. Talk about timing:

Run, Pippin, run!

Pippin says:

"I AM NOT AN OUT-TAKE. I AM A CUTIE PIE."

After all that hard work and play, Mr. Happy and I headed over to Halifax to have supper at Chabaa Thai. On our way there, we spotted something funny in the window above Port of Wines:

Can you see it?

Click here to find out what it is.

Party, Party, Party

The last four weeks have been nothing but party, party, party. At least it seems that way. I haven't had a full weekend on my own since, um, early July?

I spent the weekend of the 19th at the cottage... then we came back for a party on the 26th. As Mr. Happy and I haven't had a big back yard party at our place in years and certainly we've never had one with as many people. We thought that it was about time that we put our back yard to good use [1] and our anniversary was a good reason.

So, we invited a whole pile of people, asked them to bring some food and crossed our fingers that it didn't rain.

The morning started out a little overcast, but by the time our first guests arrived, it was sunny and warm.

Becca and Troy weren't sure if they could make it down for the party, so you can imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and saw two people arriving early. Mr. Happy had gone out to get some ice, so when I saw them crossing the street I started to panic thinking people were arriving early and thought, "Oh no, I don't even know who they ar... eeeeh! It's Becca and Troy!!!!" and I went running out of the house. Then Mr. Happy arrived the look on his face when Becca opened the door was priceless.

As this is the first party we've hosted in quite a while, we may not have had all our ducks in a row, but we were smart enough to invite the neighbours:

'cause if you're going to have loud obnoxious party guests, it's better if the neighbours are part of the noise! We have the most wonderful neighbours. They arrived with chairs and a table and flowers for us. They proceeded to crack open a bottle of wine and get a little tipsy right in the center of the party. It was awesome.

We didn't realize how many of our friends had kids until they were all running around in the yard. The kids seemed to have have fun playing catch:

...and um, tackle:

And so did the grown ups:

In fact some of the "adults" stuck around and played ball until dark.

The KOLers came and found a cool spot under the tarp. They even graciously took over the BBQ so that Mr. Happy could have a chance to eat.

While I think everyone had a good time, I really wish we had taken more time to organize the event. I got home from vacation the day before the party. I was a little stressed on Friday. (OK, alot stressed.) Also, we had planned to have some friends play music at the party, but they got stuck in traffic leaving a festival in Antigonish. Next time, we'll send out the invitations a bit earlier and check the music festival list for a date that doesn't conflict.

Regardless, we did have a lot of fun and were really glad so many people could make it out. It was really nice for Mr. Happy's family because they got to meet some of our friends. My dad and my SM couldn't make it to the party, but maybe next time. My family did represent, in the form of my great-aunt Mary and her daughter, Denise. It was so nice of them to drop in. Out of all the guests at the party, only Andrew's family[3], Becca and my great-aunt Mary had attended our wedding. We'll have to do something fun for our 15th and make sure that the whole family comes down!

One last note: At some point during the day, one of the guests spotted some of my old comic books in the spare room. After checking with Mr. Happy, he was shocked to discover that they were mine. [2] He alerted the rest of the gang and this is what I found going on a while later:

I love the juxtaposition of heavy metal rockers and chenille bedspread. I'm still wondering if I should have frisked them before they left the party.

Petitebean? You'd tell me if Sausage stole my Power Pack books, right?



[1] It's certainly not working for us as a vegetable garden.
[2] I went to my parents pharmacy after school every day, so I spent a lot of time reading the comic books on the rack. I've got a pretty good collection, but nothing is mint. It's all well-loved.
[3] My nephew Ben was technically present at the wedding, although he wasn't born for another 2 months. ;)

10 Years Ago Today

10 years ago today, Andrew and I were married in St. Andrews, New Brunswick in the Lazy Croft Garden at the Algonquin hotel.

It was a hot, hot day, unlike today which is rainy and drizzly. Andrew's dad performed the ceremony and my dad made everyone cry when he spoke at the reception.

It was a good day but a hard day in some ways. A few years ago, Andrew wrote a song about our wedding day and the hard parts about it. It's on the last album he recorded with his band. It makes me cry and it makes me proud.

Many things have happened in these last 10 years, some things I would like to change, others that I wouldn't; but I definitely would not change the fact that Andrew and I face all those things together.



(In case you're wondering, my dress and shawl were made by the amazing Angela Bright who does NOT make wedding dresses, but she made an exception for me. She hand beaded the shawl and the dress, and for that she deserves a medal.)

Yet Another Reason To Marry* A Knitter

It's not just about the handknit socks and using the yarn as insulation...

Sometimes, knitters fix things too!

My dad gave Mr. Happy this sweater for Christmas. It's from a nice store, but apparently that nice store has "seam" issues. A few minutes after that photo was taken, I had nicely repaired the sweater with some yarn. Easy peasy.

The downside of this repair job? We showed my SIL and then she asked me to repair her sweater... which just happened to be from the same store as Mr. Happy's sweater. I'm pretty sure I can fix her sweater too, but I'm going to have to wait for the daytime as it's fine yarn and it's a black sweater.

It's not really a downside. I'm more than happy to fix my SIL's sweater. She's a sweetie. I'm just worried that word might spread...

...does anyone know where I can find a darning egg?

*or become otherwise romantically entangled with

Forgive Me, Blogland, For I Have Purchased Wool

Ahem. It would seem that I must make an addendum to my self-imposed rules of Knit The Stash 2008.

I will say that I have been very, very good (for the most part). I have been to the yarn shop numerous times and have left each time without yarn for myself.

Since swearing off yarn purchasing for a year I have refrained from buying the following:
1. Silk Garden Lite (even though I've dreamed about it for years)
2. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (ON SALE, PEOPLE, ON SALE)
3. Glorious, glorious sock yarns of varying shades, weights and price ranges.

There has been a high emotional cost to not buying this yarn. I have cried longingly over the Silk Garden. I have visions of dancing socks... and have been told by Mr. Happy that I cry out, "CASHMERINO! ON SALE!" in my sleep.

It would seem that I have had a very hard time not giving my money to local yarn store owners. However, I have had two circumstances arise that have required me to purchase yarn.

Situation #1: I needed yarn to make a gift.

The Ninja has gone and had herself a baby girl. A baby girl who may turn pink when she wears this sweater:

Pattern: Plackett Neck baby sweater from LMKG
Yarn: Serendipity tweed from Brown Sheep

During wash/rinse number three I called Jak and told her that the colour was running like crazy. She asked if I had used vinegar in the wash like the yarn lable suggested.

I had not.

Ninja? I did use the vinegar in the end... but this colour might still run a bit when you wash it. Please, just hand it over to me and I'll wash it when the time comes. That being said, I think there is a better chance that Miss Munchkin will outgrow this sweater before she has a chance to spit up on it!


Situation #2: I had a felting accident.

Countless times I have chastised Mr. Happy when I have found his hand-knit hats in the wash. Luckily, I wash everything in cold water and have always managed to find his hats, no worse for the wear, before they reached the dryer. A couple of weeks ago I threw his hat in the wash and thought to myself, "I'll just grab that before it goes in the dryer." Did I pull the hat out this time?

I did not.

His hat is so small that it looks like it would fit an orange. Why yes, I will take some ice cream with that humble pie.

I went to the yarn shop the next day to get some yarn to make him another like it:

Details:
Pattern: Mr. Moe - the original version from Moe's blog.
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino (50% off!)


So, as you can see, I had no other option than to create the following Addendum for my "Knit The Stash 2008" list of rules:

Addendum #1: I may purchase yarn if it is to be immediately knit into a gift.

Addendum #2: I may purchase yarn if I accidentally felt another of Mr. Happy's *$&#(-ing hats.

Blogland, I hope you can forgive me. I know that you had such great hopes for me and my bank account. Now that you know the truth I will move ahead with a clear conscience.

The Elf Has Been Busy

Well, I certainly disappeared again, didn't I?

After the week of therapy, trying to get over having such a huge head... and a nice blocking of the hat, we're getting along much better now. In fact, the Le Souch has been my constant companion these last couple of weeks as the weather is getting colder here. I'll try to get a photo of the hat - which I love, love, love - to show you all.

The weather has been somewhat mild and, as of Friday, I was still riding my bicycle back and forth to work. I don't know what Monday will bring as the temperature has dropped significantly yesterday. We've even got a nice dusting of snow on the ground outside.

This has put me in a very festive mood and with only 22 days left until Christmas, I've been knitting my wee heart out.

1. Socks for my nephew, Ben

These are about 20 rows for being done. If I could figure out how to type and knit at the same time, they would be done right now as they are sitting in front of me.

Yarn: Knitpicks Felici in Firefighter
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: 60 stitches, toe up.
Notes: I stood next to Ben in the kitchen the other week and slid my foot next to his when he wasn't paying attention. His feet are almost the same size as mine now... and they will grow, so I'm making them a bit big for me. I hope he doesn't mind having to "grow into" his Christmas present.

2. Copy Cat Slouch - for?

I cast on this hat on Friday night and cast off last night - it was done so quickly, I didn't get a chance to post this picture before I was casting off! A nice, quick knit if you ask me. The pattern is courtesy of Moe. Believe it or not, this hat actually does slouch on my head - even before blocking!

Yarn: Cascade somethin' or other - bought eons ago at Tangled Skeins.
Needles: 4mm and 5mm
Pattern: Find it here
Notes: Moe rocks the hat knitting world once again! (On a side note - I haven't blocked this hat yet, so right now it looks for all the world, like a hat for a conehead.)

3. Gauntlet Style Felted Mitts for BIL

I'm making these mittens for my BIL. Now that he and my SIL have move down town, he walks to work every day. And since he's a surgeon - well, it's important that he doesn't lose a finger to frostbite.

I think I'm going to have to rip back the first mitten and add some more of the dark grey to it as there isn't any more of the light grey at Tangled Skeins. darn it.

Pattern: Catherine Vardy's - Gauntlet Style Felted Mittens
Needles: 6mm and 5mm
Yarn: BS LP Bulky
Notes: This is the third pair of these mittens I've made. I love the pattern.

4. Socks for Mr. Happy - also known as his R-O-C-K in the UK socks.

Ok, the truth is, I knit these socks in October. I made them for Mr. Happy to wear when he was in England shooting a "making of" video for a band. He's usually got them on his feet, so this was a rare photo of his socks outside of his shoes. He loves his handknit socks so much that I feel awful that he only has two pairs. Yup. Two. A ball of yarn was purchased to make him another in the very near future.

That's all for now and hopefully, that's not all for this week. There was a turf war at KOL a couple weeks ago that needs to be documented.

One last thing

Ok, before I head off into conference land.

I have been knitting...

Projects on the go:
1. Socks for Mr. Happy - Burnt orange 6-ply Opal - the man has size 11 feet, you think I'm insane enough to use 4-ply?
2. Turtleneck shrug for moi
3. Silk scarf - for ?


Projects recently finished:
1. My dad's Christmas present. (sorry, not telling you what it is, but knitters will know - the Magic Loop ROCKS!)
2. Another Sweet Baby cap - for Tangled Skeins this time!

And I've been stashing...

...and Crap. I wanted to say something else, but I can't remember what it was.

Silly conference... sucking out all my brain cells.

Tuesday morning: I remember now!

It's time for the annual Home Heating Hold Out!

It's the yearly contest of the wills to see how long Mr. Happy and I can last without turning on the furnace. We usually give in some time in early November, when we can see our breath in the morning, and I start using the hairdryer to heat up my pants before putting them on.

Mr. Happy is heading off to the U.K. next week* and will be gone until November 1st. I'll be on my own, wearing my multiple layers of fleece and watching steam curl off my coffee in the morning.

Good times.


*Mr. Happy will be creating a "making of" video for a local musician who is recording in Dover right now.

Red Carpet Concert

I'm catching up on all the news from last week... and am realizing what a busy week it was!

So, to review:
Tuesday: Knitting with the Gang at KOL
Wednesday: Pop In Sessions with Buck 65
Thursday: Well, I guess I should tell you about Thursday, shouldn't I?

Thursday morning the illustrious Uncle K, Aunt K and Cousin Jenny arrived from Alberta. They had taken the red-eye flight and were just waking from naps when I arrived home from work.

After a quick supper, we geared up and headed downtown. The Westerners aren't accustomed to the damp air here on the Atlantic ocean, so Uncle K borrowed a tuque:

...and a wooly monster.

Since there were many things going on downtown (translation: there would be little to NO parking), we took the bus across the bridge and walked to our destination: The Atlantic Film Festival Gala on Argyle Street. Here's Henry, posing on the red carpet. (I'm sure he's going to end up in the paper as the "best dressed".)

Soooo, what were we doing on the red carpet? We were with the band, of course:

The Heavy Blinkers played! (Mr. Happy is the guy in the hat at the piano.) They played songs that are going on the new album - my favourite being, of course, one that Mr. Happy wrote. (With apologies to Jason, who seems to be reading a lot of knit blogs these days.)

After the band played, I was talking to some friends and other band members when I turned around to see this:

Henry in a lip lock with Ruth Minnikin. Her boyfriend is NOT going to be happy about this. Henry is really taking this "Wooly Mammoth" stage personality too seriously. Speaking of Wooly Mammoth, his new hero played after the Blinkers:

We had to drag him home.

One Block Radio

Ok... Let's move away from the drama on the corner. The more I think about it... well, as I told Becca the other night, "Don't let the china teacups fool you, I can hold my own with the rednecks"

You all know Mr. Happy, the crazy man I'm married to, right? Well, at his studio he's set up a radio transmitter - it's CRTC approved, so he's on the up and up - and he's calling it "One Block Radio". He played some of the promo spots for me tonight.

He plays some Heavy Blinkers tracks in the background while he's talking in this relaxed, late-night radio host voice:

"You're listening to One Block Radio. We're here for your listening pleasure, 'specially if you're on the corner of Main* and Portland, all the way up to Commercial Street and maybe as far down as Oak, if you're really lucky and you've got a big antennae... I guess the man with the biggest antennae wins... or woman... so stay tuned... 107 on the FM dial. One Block."

(I changed all the street names to protect his location.)

In another segment, he cold-called his band-mate, Jason, and proceeded to interview him about their band's upcoming album. Jason giggled through the first part of the call and then totally got into it and answered the questions seriously.

Tomorrow, Mr. Happy tells me he's planning on interviewing another local musicians.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my husband?

Watch out knitters. He has access to some of your phone numbers.