Better late than never.

Way back in August, I went to Hong Kong - and of course bought some yarn. Not a lot since I was there less than a week. And all the yarn is Japanese... not that I'm complaining. It's a bit anti-climatic since I've already shown a FO knit with some of it, but I'm going to post pics of boths sets anyway.

First, the Diacity "For Men". Why is it for men? I have no idea, but the colours are perfect for the Grandpa Scarves I'm making for Christmas. The picture came out a bit dark - the one on the top right is actually navy blue. 50g balls of non-scratchy worsted wool. With the exchange rate, they worked out to about $3.00 each.



The other yarn was a bit more expensive. More like $6.50 per ball. But I think it was worth it. I'm still getting used to The Boy's camera, and this photo really doesn't do the yarn justice at all. It shows the colours pretty well, but it missed the shimmer completely. I should probably try again, but I don't know if I will. You can see what I mean here. It's a wool/nylon/mohair blend, and when I finally get around to making SnB Nation's Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers, this is what I'm going to use. I'll definitely have some leftover, but that's as far as I've planned.



Both yarns are made by the same company - Diakeito. I'd love to see these yarns turn up here, because I've loved what I've seen (and had no complaints working with the Diacity). I'm sure it's in North America somewhere, but so far I've had no luck finding it in Vancouver.

Postcards

I joined a postcard swap on Knitty a while back. Here are the cards I have so far. (Sorry about the glare. I couldn't find a way to avoid it without taking individual photos.)

More SP goodness.

My second package arrived two days ago. I was out shopping with a friend and missed its delivery, but it was waiting safe and sound when I came home - a brown cardboard box with my name on it. And also the words "Yes, you may take this box as a hint! SP" The box is from amazon.ca, and has the remnants of a postal code, which means that my SP is either from Ontario, or is tricky. Very tricky.

Anyway, on to the goods.



First the non-yarn stuff. The card is a picture of a 1950's couple sipping soda through two straws - awww. I can't say that I'd want to live back then, but if I was forced to wear clothes from a different era for the rest of my life, I'd probably pick the 50's. Look at her blouse. Little eyelets (which you can't see very well in my photo) and an adorable collar. I could do that. Buddy definitely needs to do something about his hair though.

Next, a book. Hooray! One can never have enough books. (Unless, perhaps, she's a 1950's housewife. Hmm...) I definitely have a penchant for fantasy, but I'm by no means a connoisseur. Partly because my reading tends to be pretty eclectic. Partly because my prime reading years were dominated by Star Trek, Stephen King and Anne Rice. The result is that there are authors I've always meant to read, but simply haven't gotten around to yet. David Eddings is one of those. And now that I've been given the first book in one of his series, I have no excuse!

Now onto the yarn. The Cherry Tree Hill is kind of lost in the photo. It's quite a dark yarn, mostly green and green-brown, but there are shades of blue and purple hidden in there as well. It's quite soft, and I've been assured it's feltable. I'm goign to have to play with it for a while. I haven't figured out what to do with it yet, but that's kind of par for the course for me.

Except for with the other yarn. The Noro Kureyon. My SP says the colourway "screamed autumn" at her, and made her think of me. The colours are perfect. I absolutely adore this yarn! And, I've never used Noro yarn before. It's always seemed too expensive since I've never really had a project in mind for it, even though I stop to fondle it every time I visit the LYS. But I've already started knitting a scarf with it. (Inspired by this one, but half as wide. I just love how the 'mistake rib' shows off th colours.) I have to be honest - I have more scarves than any one person needs. But I don't have a skinny scarf, and I don't have a Noro scarf. Soon I'll have both. I think I'm going to want to buy another skein so I can make it super-long. Darn! An escuse to buy Noro! :)



Thanks once again, mystery SP. Time for me to start sleuthing...

What book are you?

I seem to be in an update-my-blog kind of mood today. Must be from all the cleaning. (I'm pretty sure I'm just using this as an excuse to escape from it.) Anyway, I thought this quiz result was funny - especially the last line. Maybe I'm just batty from being locked in my office all day.

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

One Christmas present down...

I'm making Christmas scarves for my Grandfathers from yarn I got in Hong Kong. (I took pictures of the yarn... I think they got deleted.) The yarn is really nice non-scratchy wool and was only $3 Canadian per 50g ball. But they only had the one bag, and the colours were 4 ball of the brown-ish, two of the red, one dark blue, and one light blue. So stripes it is.

Here's the first one.



I was trying to go for a repeating pattern (so I wouldn't run out of one colour) but one that looked random. I think I did pretty good. You can't see it very well the way I layed it out, but it's just a five-stripe repeat with the red and blue reversed the next time around. Like this.

VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV
VVVVVVV

Oh, and the cable pattern is reversible. I've never seen that before. You really do learn something new all the time, don't you?



The only thing I regret about it was all those stripes! I mean, really, what was I thinking? I had 74 ends to sew in. SEVENTY-FOUR!! For one scarf! Rediculous. It took me two evenings to get them all done. I was ready to burn the thing by the time I was finished. The next scarf is the same pattern, but the stripes are twice as thick. I haven't decided which Grandpa gets which scarf yet.

Surprises never cease.

So I'm in my kitchen today, minding my own business, cooking pasta, when I hear a knock on the door. Kind of weird. We live in a basement suite and the entrance is at the rear of the house so we don't get a lot of drop-by's. And friends don't usually pop in during the afternoon - at night it's a different story. So anyway, I go to the door and there's a parcel delivery guy there. He confirms my name, and then hands me this:



"What on earth is this?" I think. "Yarn? For me? The label says 'gift', but it can't be from my SP because there's a return name and address - and she was way too sneaky last time to slip up that badly. Oh well. There's nothing wrong with free yarn." So ignoring the pasta for the moment, I fetch a knife and carefully open up the box.

Yep. It seems to be for me.



Three skeins of No No Kitty yarn in an absolutely stunning colourway called Summer Swim.
(Is it wrong of me to want to knit winter mitts and a hat with a yarn called Summer Swim?)



I've spent so much time today fondling it. I love it! I want to wear it. Now! Maybe as a bracelet.



Okay maybe not. But something for me for this winter definitely. I'm being selfish with this yarn, which also seems wrong since it was a RAK. But I'm allowed to be selfish from time to time, right?

There's a lot of weird in the world.

Two nights ago, my fortune cookie said,
"ACCEPT THE NEXT PROPOSITION YOU HEAR."
Not particularly good advice, I think, even if it did come from a cookie.

Today I got a piece of spam email. Normally I don't read these things, but I know a Jessica, and it's not uncommon for my friends to send messages without subjects - I've given up trying to change that. Here's what it said:

Did those students miss eating last winter?.
Have the managers already loved shouting?.
Joseph doesn't dislike praying carelessly..
Was Michael enjoying running early last month?.
Don't you practice dancing as often as possible?.
I hate playing quickly..
Jackie is missing jogging by the sea at present..
Jack is not missing singing near the station..
Were those pilots practicing praying?.
They aren't enjoying running..
They aren't enjoying running..
Do you practice driving in London?.
But this is where you come in: Between now and November, you, the American people, you can reject
the tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past. And instead you can embrace the politics of hope, the
politics of what's possible because this is America, where everything is possible..
Mark at 27 months looked ?normal?. He came from a good family who provided lots of stimulation. Mark
had one word--'ba' as in 'Ball.' Everything was 'ba.' After a few days of orientation in the classroom, I
presented the computer. The first day he sat at the computer for 20 minutes and pressed the ball, bus, bee
on the IntelliKeys keyboard over and over again. He then looked at me and pointed to the ball and said
?Ba? Then he pointed to the bee and said 'Be' and the Bus and said 'Bu.' I was astonished and his
mother started to cry..
i need to get a pedicure. my feet smell and itch.
11. Ninety six bottles of beer, three a's, three b's, one c, two d's, thirty three e's, seven f's, one g, ten
h's, nine i's, four l's, sixteen n's, ten o's, thirteen r's, twenty three s's, twenty three t's, four u's, four
v's, five w's, three x's, and five y's on the wall..
9.
Mr. Hanson isn't practicing working..
I am a teacher of preschool children with disabilities. I have been making software for the children in
my classrooms for the last eight years. Over the past 23 years I have encountered many types of
disabilities and many types of parents. The question.
EDWARDS: But what have we seen? Relentless negative attacks against John. So in the weeks ahead,
we know what's coming, don't we?.
That pilot is missing surfing..
Donna's daughter hasn't practiced playing yet..
The pilots were enjoying jogging at the company..
Until that day, he could not hear the language differences. He asked for the computer every day by
pointing to it. He was allowed to spend time each day on the noun program. One year later he was talking in full sentences and was staffed into normal preschool..

Oh sure. Lure me with your poetry in an attempt to sell me something (I think...). Seriously though; what kind of an email is this? It wasn't a virus. And who but the crazy ones like me are going to read even as far as "Jackie is missing jogging by the sea"? I like to pretend that people like me are too smart to then write this "Jessica" back to get more information about this software.

WTF