Friday, January 26, 2007

We got cocky

NEVER TAKE WATER AWAY FROM A COMPULSIVE HAND WASHER

Christopher and I live in a bungalow in Toronto (which in winter can be the equivalent of living in the freaking Arctic) We have no basement (primative, I know) and for the past 8 winters, save last year, our pipes have frozen at least once. Last year was quite warm and we had just put in a new furnace so of course it wasn't until 5 am that I realized that we might be losing the water. Now I don't know why (she swallowed a fly) I didn't think to plug in the pipes or find the small heater but I didn't and awoke this morning to NOTHING. Not a drop.

As I said before, we have experienced this many many times, so I went over to Shoppers Drug, bought an 18L bottle of water poured some out for precious tea and other things, filled the toilet and turned on the heater.

Funny enough, a last week I read about dry shampoo. You can buy it and you don't have to wash your hair (great when you have forgotten to get up on time, or just not in the mood) so while I was there I asked about it and they had it but it was REALLY expensive. I thought, okay, I will look up alternatives and if they don't work I will come back. So I found out that you can use Cornstarch and IT WORKS, IT REALLY REALLY WORKS.

I put it into a small container, dipped my fingers in the rubbed it into my hair, tada, no greasy feel which is whyI always wash my hair. Try it, it works.

Now off to make some tea and wait for the water to come back on. Thank heaven I did laundry and ran the dishwasher last night. YAY FOR PURELL.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

FUTURAMA

Way better than the Simpsons. It only lasted 4 seasons. That is always the way.

I recently replied to a girl who was looking for a brain slug for her friend. Knowing it was an easy pattern I decided I could knit it for her. So I did. I started it 4 times before I decided to crochet it. As you may know, I only learned to crochet a few months ago so this was a challenge to say the least. After MANY tries I finally finished him.

I sent him along with some 'canada only' treats to Ireland in exchange for some Irish Stamps. What am I going to do with the stamps? wait and see.

I wound yarn around a pipecleaner that I threaded through his head. It worked out so well. Yay, I crocheted.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

oops, i guess its been a while

I have crapped out on all you guys.. I have been so lazy.

Okay, so what has been going on? Well.. not a heck of a lot.

I have gotten back into sewing, which is a great quick fix cause we all know how long knitting takes. I recently finished a little hoodie for both Tsuki's new daughter and Chris' (hubby) new nephew. I don't have pics yet but am hoping to soon. I knitted the Baby Viking Hat for my friends Norm and Carm's son... So cute, I have never met such a calm baby before ('cept yours tsuk) I knew the hat was for him when I saw it. Here are some photos. Beware the hat is a little large but Norm's brother Niall says that Owen loves it (also see http://sinfulknitter.blogspot.com/2006/04/better-little-too-big-than-too-small.html for the pants I knitted him) on to the pics.



Now the horns have to be adjusted, I am thinking of threading some pipe cleaners through so it can be adjusted, and I haven't had a chance to get over there to do it but you see how amazing it looked on him. Tell me that is not a face for the viking hat.

SOCKS

I have fallen in love with socks. As you might remember I have had some problems with socks, mainly the Jaywalker. It was going well but I got frustrated after I discovered that I had addedd about 16 extra stitches. So I frogged it, well no, i cut it and started again using the 'step by step cheat sheet for socks' from the Knitting Rules book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It is the perfect sock pattern, it fits exactly right so I just cast on and away I go. Here are my socks.


Standard Cat photo.

the left one, was Knitpicks Yarn that I dyed myself using Wilton's Icing Dye. It was set up to to be self striping for Jaywalker but it looks just a great in regular sock form.

The right one, was done using Double Knitting yarn. Now i can't remember which kind but as you can see its patchy. This was the way the yarn was but it's ok, it's kinda cool.

And for you knitting freaks, I cast off the toe using the 3 needle method. I can't get the hang of Kitchener stitch for closing the toe, Look. it takes the same amount of time (if you count pulling out and re stitching 7 times using kitchener) and really tidy. This is the way to go I seriously suggest trying it.

Time to go, more sock knitting to do.