Waugh! June 3, 2009

I’m going to the Edmonton Folk Festival!  Woot!  I was flirting with the notion of heading to the Calgary one; they’ve got Gomez going there and I’ve been a fan for some time, and Esthero and Sarah Harmer will be there too, but mostly I wanted to see Iron & Wine and he’s coming to Edmonton!

I also got the Wednesday night ticket, through which I will see Sarah McLachlan!

The artists I am most looking forward to seeing are Jill Barber (check out the dress she’s got on in her bio!), Neko Case, Iron and Wine (who is far more than his cover on the Garden State Soundtrack…), Old Man Luedecke, Danny Michel, and Souljah Fyah (who I once saw when I first moved into E-town and loved them).  I’m also interested in seeing Kathleen Edwards, Eivør (they’re from the Faroe Islands and there’s some knitting tradition there, although I don’t know how much knitting the artists of this group do), and I’m hopeful that I’ll enjoy Great Lake Swimmers live because I haven’t fallen in love with them on CD.  And I’ll be very un-Canadian and probably try to shy away from Joel Plaskett; I used to like him, but now his voice grates on my nerves something fierce.

The coolest thing about the Folk Fest is the workshops.  They have all of these mini-stages set up throughout the grounds and most of the artists don’t just do shows on the main stage, many of them collaborate on the workshops, so you get a really interesting intimate setting with them.  Oh my heart. The other cool thing about the workshops is you get to know and love some of the more obscure artsists.

There will of course be knitting, and potentially spinning, in public.

And as I was writing this post, my copy of Iron & Wine’s Around the Well arrived in the mail!

Waugh!

Still Alive February 5, 2009

Just ambivalent or something. I’ve got a lot of projects on the go but few are near the finish line.

I turned 32 on Sunday and had a very good weekend of it. If you have access to a Playstation 3, I highly recommend you find access to Little Big Planet; great party game.

If you can handle campy gore, I recommend you see “My Bloody Valentine” in 3D. And if you want to see life after superstardom, check out “The Wrestler”.

Today I’m going to get a free DQ Blizzard and perhaps some cotton lace as I want to drape a 1905 blouse to go with this great skirt I made last week.

Yup, I’m full of excitement.

Gifted November 11, 2008

I received some mail this past week but have been too much of a slacker to post about it.  So here I finally am.

First Parcel: Boo-Ty Swap.  I got some really lovely things from Judds R’Us.  They all came wrapped in the cute orange gingham bag.  Ghirardelli chocolates (OMG they were so good!), a package of Hallowe’en gummies, a little notebook and ghosty pen, a cute little pocket mirror which will come in handy, a Jack O’Lantern plate and a little pair of bags for carrying around my sock knitting.  So great, thanks so much!

And the second parcel was the second half of the gifts I mentioned earlier from CarpeDyem for the Favorite Things swap (you can only see that link if you’re a Ravelry member) through Ravelry and Knit & Purl Mama.  The first parcel came with almost every single needle size under the sun in bamboo straights, the fulled knitted bag, the Noro yarn (which is of course already being worked with into toe-up socks), the little polka-dot notebook where I’ve started taking notes on my Noro socks, the pumpkin candles, the very useful clothespin style stitch markers and two packets of Horlicks Hot Chocolate malt drink.  After getting the Horlicks I found out that you can get it in Canada but so far I’ve not found the chocolate variety which makes me sad because I had the first packet and had the best sleep in recent memory.  So I’m hoarding the second packet.  But I digress.  In the second package was the giant tin of chocolate dipped Cadbury’s cookies (insert Homer-like groan here) and the most deliciously fragrant Earl Grey ever.  So lovely; I’m so spoiled.

Confession Time October 4, 2008

So…I didn’t finish my Master Spinner Level 2 homework and had to get an extension.  I think the cut-off date is November 1…tonight, if all goes according to plan (which it hasn’t been…I had to go to my office twice this morning because I forgot things there that were important to finishing; like my carders, my wool combs, and for the second visit, my scale!) I should be finished.

Earlier this week I decided I wouldn’t let myself do any personal knitting until I did finish it, which has been PAINFUL.  Especially with the Through the Loops Mystery Sock Knit Along for Socktoberfest.  I didn’t, however, stop myself from buying the yarn nor from starting to dye it.  I purchased some Sandnes Mini Alpakka and it’s currently languishing just below 200 F in a pre-mordant bath of Alum and Cream of Tartar.  I’m going to dye it with Cutch Extract from Maiwa.

And on Thursday I bought myself a little gift to hang out in the office.  Yes, it’s a cactus, and yes, it’s got pink needles.  Noice.

Needs More, She Said October 1, 2008

It’s a quote from a song, but I don’t remember which song or which artist…I’m thinking Barenaked Ladies though.

Anyway, Firefly said that so far only 10 people have signed up for the Boo-ty Swap…come on, you know you want to sign up.  It’s only five little things (and you can combine them and send fewer if you go that way), it’s a brief swap, and the joy of it is you get to meet someone new AND give to them AND receive something from someone else who is new!  Come on, join the swap…tomorrow’s the last day to sign up.  PLEASE sign up.  The more, the merrier!

Also, Through the Loops is having a Socktoberfest Mystery Knit Along if you’re a member of her fan-group on Ravelry.  She’s the designer of my Achillea socks, so it’s going to be an awesome sock!  Yay!

Another Package Arrived! September 3, 2008

Lil Rose Thorn got her softy!  Yay!

Funniest Tour Ever! August 24, 2008

Have you ever watched the film So I Married an Axe Murderer?  There’s a scene where Mike Meyers and his buddy go to Alcatraz for a tour, and their guide, played by the late Phil Hartman, gives the tour in an exceptionally dry but painfully hilarious way?  That’s the kind of tour guide my brother, his friend C and I had yesterday when we went to the Ben & Jerry’s plant for a tour.  He was really rather dead-pan, but we kept laughing so hard.  Best quotes:

“There’s a guy who works down there named Christian.  He’s got tattoos.  We’re friends on Facebook.”

“Tonight there will be a free movie on the patio.  It’s Ferris Beuler’s Day off.  I’ll be there.  You can be there, or don’t be, I don’t care.”

Awesome.  More awesomeness?  I had my first taste of Fish Food; they don’t sell it in any of the shops I go to in Canada…though maybe they would at the standalone shops.  I came, I saw, and I DO have the T-shirt to prove it (I’m such a geek).

Other highlights of the day included a nifty McDonalds in Malone and a tasty meal at Tail O’the Pup in Saranac, New York, ferry ride across Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont (though I didn’t see Charles, their alleged lake monster).  We drove through Lake Placid, but didn’t stop.  It looked like an interesting little town, and had a nifty shopping district but we were so full of meat that we were kind of ambivalent at this point.  

If you’re ever in Quebec with the ability to drive down into the States and you like scenery involving hills, mountains, and lush vegetation, I totally recommend going into New York and Vermont through Lake Placid and Burlington.  And don’t forget to stop and taste the ice cream along the way!

Swap Softly v. 2.0 Recipient Update! August 20, 2008

I got news from Kenyetta that she got her package from Lil Rose Thorn.

Spin Me Right Round… July 25, 2008

I had to quote that song…I am nothing if not a slave to the fromage. This post is, of course, about the status of my Master Spinner homework.

Today, because it’s a beautiful day and I wasted my last weekend in my apartment, I’m going to go outside and spin for awhile. The one thing about a basement apartment is that I don’t have access to a balcony, so I’m going to take my Moroccan rug and sit and spin on our front step. Heehee…first I’m going to play a bit with my new spindle:

Isn’t she beautiful? She’s a takli, and she spins so smooth and true. I got her with my cotton kit from Cotton Clouds (who have really great customer service, by the by). The cotton currently on the takli is naturally coloured that way! Awesome!

I may take my wheel out later, but the step isn’t very large…I may have to find a bit of plywood or something at some point, and a lawn chair, as there’s this really underutilized section of our lawn by a big ol’ spruce that could become my “balcony”.  I wonder where I could find these things for free?  Or I’ll just spin in my apartment with the blinds open (gasp).

I’ve put Level II on a bit of a hiatus, not because I’m being a slacker…well, maybe a little due to that.   However, right now the reason is that I have decided that I need more supplies.  I was trying to do all of my course work with the supplies provided in class, but I lost a lot in trying to figure it out.  And, I’ll admit, that some of the stuff I did do could be better; my llama/blend project in which I was supposed to make a mini vest is…unimpressive. and there are a few other things I could enhance. I’ve got this little extra time, I may as well take it. So I’ve ordered more supplies through Etsy and Ebay, and am waiting for them to be shipped off and arrive, hopefully in the next two weeks.

And then later tonight, I’m going to see the last show of my long-lost buddy’s band, The Uncas.

Tomorrow, among whatever else I’ll be doing, I’m going to go see Metric and Bedouin Soundclash at the local exhibition.

For My SWOFTY Chicas July 25, 2008

A gallery of softies that have been turned inside out and re-stuffed.  AWESOME.