Ah, Red Wine and Knitting

A delightful, delightful time. So it is possible to work a 12 hour day and still do the fab thing. I just love knitting. With what other endeavour can a girl walk into group of total strangers and within 5 minutes be laughing and comfortable? Thanks to (going around the table, and with apologies if mispelt)) Amy, Sophie, Tara, Janine, Ann Marie, Elizabeth, Erin, Vivienne, Elizabeth and Jen. Everyone was as friendly as could be. And I will definitely be checking out SnB at The Knit Cafe as Amy suggested. I wasn't familiar with that one. One highlight of the evening was when Veronica Tennant (a knitter, as it turns out) and her husband came over to chat. How lovely she is. Speaking as someone who, as a girl, had pictures of her Juliet all over my bedroom, I was thrilled.

Very impressed with the Rosewater. I could certainly get used to the gracious, elegant service of the staff and the beautiful surroundings. At one point, when they were out of a wine that I had ordered, the sommelier came over to personally apologize. Wow. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. Alas, my pocketbook could not handle the swanky living too regularly. What an amazing treat though. Perhaps the husband could be persuaded to...

Special thanks to the Urban Sherpa for organizing the whole thing. You rock. And you do it while looking incredibly sexy in your little black dress.

I floated home on a warm sea of expensive red wine, very glad that I went.

Some Past Work

I haven't finished anything new in a while due to having so many projects on the go. I did, however, run across this little item that I knit last winter. I'd actually forgotten about it until it was spotted half under the bed of the daughter. Worth a look I thought. It's prettier than I remember.
The problem with all the dolly dresses I've knit is that I kind of make them up as I go along. I start with a skirt pattern from one of the old books and work up, adjusting the size and mixing and matching as I go. I always forget to write anything down, so if I hit a winner, there is no way to ever replicate it.
The special feature of this dress is it was my first time switching colour in mid row - the bodice. With my instructions firmly beside me I wrapped that red and purple into a right tangly mess. Not a bad result though. The sleeves are a little boxy for my taste.

What'll I Wear?

Just a quick note to babble about how happy I am that the Very Special S'n'B is this Saturday. What an amazingly festive idea, organized by the lovely women of TTC Knitalong. That event looked like so much fun, that I got the nerve up to RSVP for the Rosewater evening. "Nerve?", you say? Yes, nerve. It can be hard to do the social thing with a group of people one has never met before. However, everyone seems so cool and I am really looking forward to meeting you all. This fits in beautifully with my plan to get my butt out once in a while and see people.
If you'll excuse me now, I have to spend the rest of the week trying on everything I own.

Got It

After an entire evening of trying patterns, stitches and needle sizes (frog and frog again), I finally found a pattern that suits the sari silk.

The Drop Stitch Scarf from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation has a loose enough, yet fancy enough weave, that it really highlights the colours and varying texture of the yarn. It's also embarrassingly easy. Now, because each ball of yarn is a different colour tone, and 2 skeins seemed to be required per scarf, I broke one ball half way through and joined on a new one. That ball is now used and I'm about to join on the second half of the first for a hopefully planned looking colour scheme. This is really due to the fact that I hate knitting stripes.
This yarn has a fibre factory smell to it, and it is not colourfast so it will need a salt and vinegar soak before blocking.

The scarf so far...If you were my sister, would you like me for Christmas?

A close up of the stitches.

Silk and Musings

The sari silk arrived two days ago and of course, the first thing I did was take pictures. That's the daughter's hand. She is practising to be a game show model here. LOVE the colours!! It came with a page of instructions which I'm enjoying following as I wind the balls, untwisting the over twisted sections by wrapping an elastic around the ball and dangling the thing. Ever untwist the phone receiver cord? Same principle. Highly entertaining. The texture is coarser than I expected. Now I'm musing about what to knit with it.

Speaking of musings...I'm at a bit of an impass, blog-wise. I'm wondering about my blog's direction and content. I've been cruising many knitting blogs, both in the GTA ring and around the world, and I've noted several styles. Some are strictly knitting - no personal info or pictures. Others have almost no knitting content at all, rant about any old thing , include tons of personal photos. I intended mine to be the former - just knitting, but now I'm reconsidering. The blogs that are the most interesting and that I re-visit over and over again, tend to be those that have achieved a balance. It seems that when the craft is put into a context, it takes on more meaning. One comment I came across recently was that the blog writer wished more people, would include photos of their surroundings. However, I also personally find the blogs with endless pictures of aunts, children, boyfriends, girlfriends, babies on & on etc...to be tiresome. (I'll also never put a picture of the daughter here - per her request and my own unease).

Open for discussion: What do you think? What's in good taste, bad taste? Entertaining? Just plain boring? How much is too much or too little?

I Did The "needs to" Thingy.

Very cool! Here's what I Googled:

1) Yvette needs to try on these clothes.
2) Yvette needs to think about what she is trying to demonstrate.
3) Yvette needs To pick up her Phone.
4) Yvette needs to find another line of work .
5) Yvette needs to shut her mouth for 5 minutes. She is a yammering moron.
6) Yvette needs to get shaken up.
7) Yvette needs to discuss the ideal location, then training can be arranged.
8) Yvette needs to get her ears cleared out .
9) Yvette needs to stop doing this to herself.
10) Yvette needs to go!!