Road Trip: Part 1

Our trip started early in the morning, way before any stores were open. We took our sweet time (I drove the speed limit) to get to our first destination. Looking for a Bayview Avenue from Davis Street in Newmarket was a back and forth driving. Once we hit
Yonge street, we knew we had to turn around.We decided to go back, and if we hit Leslie, we had gone too far. Bayview street name changes somewhere and we didn't know it. Finally, we turned on another street and I said that it must be somewhere "here". So it was and we found our first destination,
Serenity Knits. The store had not opened yet, but the owner had just arrived and welcomed us in anyway. She went to walk the little puppy "Stitches" and let us take care of the store.

We started looking around, what a nice selection of yarns.I really liked the store, the owner was super nice, and she has
the friendliest smile.
I found Butterfly yarn, and bought enough to make a summer top. The colors are Forest and Haze.

I also bought fun needles that are called Swing Needles. I have to find out how those are used. Well, I found how to use them, when looking for the link.

After the fun experience in Serenity Knits, we headed towards our next goal, Unwind Yarn store.

Road Trip: Part 2

We headed towards the center of the town and found Unwind Yarn Store with ease.
Another nice store with a friendly lady helping us choose yarns. Unfortunately I was suddenly not in the mood. Rather, I was imagining what I could make with my Butterfly yarn that I had bought at Serenity Knits.

I had fun with the mirror, though, taking pictures of me.

It was Easter Saturday, and of course we met the bunny on the street near the Unwind store. He waved at us, but didn't talk. Don't Easter Bunnies talk?

Road Trip: Part 3

After Unwind Yarn store, we headed for lunch. My boss had recommended Cachet restaurant.
We sat in the patio, and enjoyed the warm weather. I had a hamburger, which was all beef, no frozen stuff neither. It was just way too delicious. Sherri had something with eggs (Benedict), and Carol had a very yummy looking salad. I was just too much in need for a hamburger, didn't even
look at the menu.

We chatted, watched people walking by, with kids, with dogs, and watched the water playing in the river that was near the restaurant. I took some pictures outside, and I must say that this
area was very nice.

After the tasty lunch, it was time to hit the next yarn store, which was in Unionville: Mary's Yarns.

Road Trip: Part 4

Our last yarn store was in Unionville: Mary's Yarns.
What a quaint store. We browsed in different rooms that were
set up more or less for type of yarns. There was even a room for "on sale, 50% off". And lots of buttons. The baby yarn room was quite imaginative.



I found Lang Merino Superwash, #239, yarn in that 50% off room. I got 12 skeins for $4.00 a skein. That was a steal. Oh, and the color is one of my favorites, very odd mustard yellow/green/brown something color. I am sure it has a name. I searched the web, no luck for that color (most likely discontinued, no wonder, it looks icky, but I love it).

I have to be careful with that yarn, it's superwash, and I don't have too many positive thoughts of superwash merino yarns. Zara was one of them, once you wash it, when wet, it stretches every which way and scares the living hell out of you (which is a good thing, hell escapes). However, after screaming and being worried, the fabric decides to return to its original shape. So, I have decided to wash my new sweater-to-do with this yarn and then dry it in the dryer, so I don't have to get worried. I dries nicely in a dryer. I've done it with Zara.

From Mary's yarns we headed for home, but stopped at Tim's first. It's a must.

Road Trip: Part 5

No road trip isn't perfect unless you visit Tim's at least once. Our last stop was there, and with the "Roll up the Rim" contest, we once again won "Please Play Again" or something like that.

After 153 klicks in total, I was at home and allowed myself to be extremely lazy for the rest of
the night.

What a great trip.

Butterflies, Flowers and Cards

I was looking for ideas to use on cards that I want to make. I found a butterfly that I had made a long time ago, and decided to use those little critters. Now, where to find a quick and easy pattern, so that I don't have to start thinking.

Went to Crochet Pattern Central and then Butterflies, and WOW, the first one I clicked on was this one: Crocheted Sass.

I made three butterflies in about 5 minutes, and loving the easiness yet prettiness in making the winged beauty.

After a little while, I went back to CPC and clicked on Spring Butterfly and that one is easy, also.

Of course there are oodles and oodles of butterfly patterns, but I need to finish the card before Easter is over.

To make this card, you will need:

-a blank card, either bought or made from cardboard
-felt fabric
-good glue, fabric glue would be good for the flowers and butterflies
-crocheted rope (or if you want, some ribbon)
-scissors
-patience


Here is what I have done this far:

1: Cut a suitable sized card from a file folder

2: Cut felt fabric to fit on top of one side of the card

3: Glued the fabric on

4: Assembled the ready made butterflies and flowers on the fabric. I will glue them on later.

5: I have stopped for tonight, because I don't have good fabric glue, which I will get tomorrow.

Of course, if you think it would be better to sew the flowers and butterflies on the fabric go ahead, but do it before the fabric is glued on the card.

March 24, 2010.
Finished the card. Now I need to invent some sort of text inside.
This is a birthday card for a friend.

Latest spree

Zentangles have given me some new ideas for crocheting.







Most of these were done in March. However, when I look back into my drawing "career" I have done this type drawing for years.
I have more in my flickr album, if you are interested in seeing some of my work. Not everything is there, most of my stuff is in
a chest that my father gave me when I was a teenager.

From this style of drawing I decided that I should be able to use a crochet hook to "draw" some zentangles, and so I did. Here is a picture what I have done since the idea came to my mind:
I was fortunate to find more of that lighter color thread, which is used to join those pieces together. I went to Romni Wools yesterday, and later met my friends at Purl around lunch time. My idea of going to Eaton's Centre didn't pan out, since wanted to go to Purl. Had a great time, once again.

My upstairs "neighbors" woke me up this morning, by banging something with a hammer or what ever. Do people have to nail things at 9:30 in the morning when people like to sleep in.
Oh, well, I really don't like getting up that late, because half the best time of the day for chores is gone. Besides, I have to have this lazy time too, when I wake up. It's been a bit too long now.
Time to get going and looking productive.

Sunday in March

I have been watching Jule and Julia on DVD. How much can one person cook in a year? I would not think of making something out of a cook book every day. I forget that I cook every day of the year, except when hubby cooks, or we order pizza or KFC or we go out. But, regardless, we cook
every day possible. I just didn't think that one would do it from recipes all the time.

I have many cook books, even the Joy of Cooking, but not Julia Child's book. What a shame, is it not? Of course my Joy isn't the original, it's the one that has been made to fit the modern kitchen, with food processors and microwave ovens, etc. My book is on the shelf unused. I think I have checked one recipe during the years I have owned this book.

It's been a week of no production in my knitting world. I tried to crochet a little bit, and managed to make an Irish Crochet beginner's motif

Any other projects are sitting either on the table or in my bag.
I managed to knit a few rows at our monthly knit group meeting.
I am trying to make a scarf from Margaret Hubert's book "Knit or
Crochet - Have it Your Way".

The scarf is knitted with Noro Kureyon sock yarn.
Of course I have a long way to go to finish the scarf, since I have a mere 30 cm done out of 2 meters (which is my goal). But it's going to be very pretty. What do you think?

I have done a few more rows than shows on the picture, but not much.

The "Forest and Trees" socks are now resting, and I will get back to them when my knitting slump has recovered. Until then, I will do my zentangles and watch TV.

Back in December, someone decided to come too close to my car, when I was waiting at the red
light. The damage was not substantial, but my car is leased and has to be fixed before I return it
to the dealer. The man's insurance is paying the fix, which is not too much money, but I refuse to
pay it myself, since I didn't cause the damage. Well, I have been guilty of causing damage by turning left and gotten hit by another car, but that's not the point here. The dealer would charge much more to fix any damages I have on the leased car. So, anyone who has a leased car, if any damage is done, fix it before the dealer takes you to the cleaners.

So, I have been thinking of getting the bumper fixed, thinking and thinking, and finally, after a dream one night (I was at a body shop with my car), I decided it was time to just go, leave the car, and take the public transit to go to work. It's going to be fun. One way is to take a bus to
a subway station, take one subway going north, then another to go east, then take another bus
to work. Fun. I wish I felt like knitting, I could do lot of it in the subway and bus.
Another way is to take a bus to another bus, go north, take a bus from a subway station......are you still reading? I am not, this is so boring. I wish I could just fly in a traffic plane, wouldn't that be fun?

Oscars? Are you going to watch the Award show tonight? I am. I've seen so many of the movies that were nominated that it would be more interesting to watch now than before when I had not seen any of the movies. We got movie passes for Christmas, so it's been fun. We even saw Avatar. My favorite actress is Sandra Bullock, and she was excellent in "The Blind Side". I also liked George Clooney in his role in "Up in the Air"
If you like country music, you should see (just sayi'n) the "Crazy Heart" with Jeff Bridges.

Back to food:

I have a tasty and easy soup recipe here:

2 containers of low sodium chicken broth
1 package Cole-slaw mix
1 package bean sprouts
1 Spanish onion (chopped)
3 celery stalks (chopped)
1-2 green peppers (chopped)
1-2 cups cauliflower buds
1-2 cups broccoli buds
2 cups green beans (cut in nice pieces)
2 cups carrots (I use baby carrots)
couple tomatoes (chopped) or canned chopped tomatoes
add spices to your liking

Cook until the cabbage is soft (this will take about an hour or two)

About half an hour before it's ready, throw in some uncooked chicken
breast pieces. Make sure the chicken is cooked before you start enjoying
your soup.

Of course this is just an idea for a soup, anything else can be added, and
if I had dill, I would add that, too. I don't think there is a limit to what can
be mixed in. I don't use potatoes, because I have to watch starch intake.

Well, I think it's time to sign off, and make more coffee and watch some telly.

Knitter's exercise

Have you ever thought about how to squeeze in some healthy exercise when knitting?

When I was knitting these socks thoughts for exercises came to mind:





*Knit some stitches
drop some
pick them back on the needle

Perspiration

drop a needle on the floor
pick the needle from the floor
not getting off the chair

knit some stitches

yarn ball falls on the floor
run after yarn (have to get off the chair)
pick the yarn ball

Perspiration

drop a needle on the floor
pick the needle*

Repeat ** 10 times.

Adding some important tips:

The shorter the fingernails are, the more difficult it is to pick the needle up from
the floor, thus creating more bending time, thus more stress movement for tummy muscles.

If you are knitting socks with very thin needles, and have some scrunched together stitches that
need to be separated after the cable stitches, it would be a good idea to have a slightly longer thumb nail to be used as a tool to separate the stitches. Trust me on this one. I am going to
make sure that my thumb nails are nice and somewhat pointy, just for the above reason.

Any other tips from my readers would be welcomed.

To clarify the above, I am knitting a sock with minuscule size needles and the stitches are
always very tightly together after the cables. Did I show you a picture of my sock start?
well, here it is, isn't she pretty?

Emergency Tools

How can I go anywhere without necessary tools for my knitting, or crocheting?

Well, this morning I was looking for a cable needle to go with my minuscule size knitting needles. All the ones I have are too fat. My needles are size 1.5 mm. It's less than 0 in American size.

What did I do? I collected some dull pointed tapestry needles, another size 1.5 mm needle (how many times am I going to mention "needle") (must count: 7) and then looked for a toothpick. Where do we keep toothpicks? Nowhere where I am looking. So, that will be a future idea, after going to the store and buying a whole package of them. I only need one, thank you. I wonder if they sell single toothpicks. Perhaps I should go out for lunch and get some from a restaurant.


I have tons of paperclips, small, coloured, big and huge. I picked the one that had approximately the same body type as my 1.5 mm needle: skinny. Opened the clip, made it more or less straight, and cut it in almost the middle to make two. With an nail file I smoothed the ends. Of course I don't have any nail polish handy to cover any roughness that the file didn't catch. I'll do it later at home. I came in dang early to work, an hour earlier than our office opens.

Oh, and the toothpick will be painted with nail polish, or some lacquer, if I have any at home.

Here are samples of my "cable needles" in emergency:

We got snow!!!

Here are some not-so-interesting pictures from my way home from work.
The trip took double the time than in a normal weather, and I even left 5 minutes earlier that
usually.
Perhaps they look boring, but for me it was interesting to see how the traffic was moving with the snow. Not very fast; I think my average speed was 25 km/hr.
This probably isn't anything to write home about, but considering that we have received about 10 cm (4") snow this year, it is kind of fun to see the white stuff. Mind you, there is more in the forecast for the rest of the week, and I am not looking forward to that.


I think TTC (our transit system) sounds pretty desirable.