Old Friends

When I took Delores out this past week, I thought I was close to starting on the armhole steeks. I had quite a bit more done than I thought.

I'm actually just a few rows from the neckline decreases! It had been awhile since I'd picked her up; primarily due to Malcolm. He was so excitable around yarn, I could only imagine the havoc he would have created around multiple yarns. And scissors. You know, everytime I pick up a Fair Isle or colourwork project, I marvel at how much I'd missed it. I just love the way the pattern develops, and watching the colours mesh together. So, once the shoulders are seemed, it's on to the sleeves.

Ick. Do you know when I started her? 2006. *hanging head in shame*

Another project I'm just in love with is Dunadd.

It is a lot of work. Although the cabling method is fairly simple, and consistent across the chart, it does add up to long rows, especially when you hit the centre of the motifs. But, it's just fascinating to watch how the designs come together. I'm about half way through the 2nd of 5 sections. I don't expect to finish it anytime soon. I manage about 2 nights a week working on it. I'm working on finishing up Dorset Down.

We have been training and planning for Atticus' upcoming vet visit. He's still oblivious.

"...*sniff sniff* I smell food..."

"Be cool Gandalf, remember your training..."

"OK RECRUITS!!! WE'RE GONNA RUN THROUGH SOME SCENARIOS!"

"MA'AM YES MA'AM!!"

"Listen up! It's Saturday morning. Atticus senses something is up and is cowering in a corner! WHAT DO YOU DO?!! Private Malcolm!"

"MA'AM! Throw myself on the floor and have a meltdown! MA'AM!"

"Wha'...? NO! Private Gandalf!"

"MA'AM! I tell him to stop being such a nancy-boy, and go back to sleep! MA'AM!"

"What the...?! NO!! Private Mae!"

"MA'AM! I snuggle up next to him, and clean his ears and head! MA'AM!"

"Exactly Private Mae! You 2 clowns can learn something from this recruit! Now drop to the floor, and give me 25 pushups each! And I want to hear you say you're poodles! NOW!"

"Huh? Seriously Mom??"

"...poodle...I don't think so..."

"QUIET EVERYONE! I'm trying to nap here...geez..."

Will Atticus put 2 and 2 together, and get 4?? Will the neckline prove to be Delores' undoing?? Will Privates Malcolm and Gandalf admit to being poodles?? And will Mae continue to be an A+ recruit, or is she hiding a dark secret...??

Tune in next time...

My Life, She Is Tough...

"Sometimes, it's tough being me. Mom's listening to her 80's music again. Which is not a bad thing necessarily. A little Joy Division, a little Crowded House...me, I'm partial to the really cool Canadian bands like Tom Cochrane/Red Rider, and the Box..."

"No crappy pop though. But I really have to draw the line at recreating some of those videos. I'm not talking about U2 (back when they were cool and relevant) on the roof of a building. I mean like wearing a flower pot on your head like DEVO. OK. Actually, only Gandalf is doing that..."

"Are we not kitties? We are DEV-O!"

"See? Man, what a geek..."

"Now. See my face? It's the face of a slightly nervous cat. OK, maybe not so much now. But! Let me tell you, we had some pretty fierce weather last Thursday. Not like - oh, Atticus wants sympathy kind of bad weather. Like. Atticus is mush kind of bad weather. Some places had tornadoes! We just had really high winds and lighting and rain and rain and rain."

"Can you tell? No? Well, believe me. That rain was POURING down. Our power even went out! And a big tree down the street fell down. And it flooded the backyard and the basement too. And then, the next thing you know? Sun, and cooler by about 5 degrees (Celcius, of course). Crazy crazy, let me tell you."

"Right. That's it for me. As you can see, it's been a stressful week. And recounting it to you all has been tiring, *yawn*. Gonna have a snooze now. 'K, ROCK ON everyone. I think Mom wants to show some knitting stuff now."

Well, Atticus is quite chatty, isn't he? But, he's quite the guest blogger, I'll give him that. He's right when he says it was a pretty fierce storm we had last week! Although we were lucky within the city of Toronto, there were tornadoes north of the city. Pretty rough stuff. Even Gandalf was a bit nervous, and normally storms don't bother him. But, Mae slept through it all. I suppose the day she flips out over a storm is the day I really worry.

You know what? I have been knitting. Despite the icky heat and humidity of last week. It may have been the first stretch we'd had all summer, but let me tell you. That fact does no make it any less palatable to me. Knitting becomes...a bit hard. I still did manage to work on some stuff. One being Delores, my long suffering Starmore Fair Isle jacket.

I have less than one pattern repeat to go before reaching the neckline! Gandalf would like you to take note of the armhole steek.

"See? Between the red and green stitch markers? Mom alternates the steek colours each round; some knitters do it the other way. I guess at the end of the day, it's whatever floats your boat. Anyway. I thought I'd just show you that. For some reason, Mom says I wasn't supposed to be in the picture. Which. Makes no sense to me. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Are We Not Kitties, Mae?"

"Oh God shut up. Please."

"We Are DEV-O!"

Gandalf Questions Things, Part II

"What do you mean, do I want a baby brother? Why?? Why would I want a baby brother?"

Heh.

A Long Post But Worth It!

Someone put up such a fight on Friday, we didn't make it to the V-E-T.

"Go. Away."

I gave up after one scratch, a few kicks, and a tinkle or two.

So we try again in a week. I need a new strategy.

(Oh, and please bear with me through this looooong post. It'll be worth it in the end!)

We have updates! It's been awhile since I showed off some of them, which doesn't mean I have been neglecting them - just neglecting to update you on them.

"Lalalalalala...doodeedoo...lalalalalalalala..."




Mmmmm...Laleli. I had hoped to have the body completed, and I'm around 10 rounds short of that. It WILL be completed today!



Once I've done that, I want to finish Delores' body. Then I can work the sleeves on both, and the button bands. I was pleasantly surprised (more like a "right on!") when I realized that I have around 15 rounds left until I start the armhole shaping. It seems kind of short... but then I remembered that the buttonband continues all the way around to hem the body. Now that is going to be a LONG, LONG knit... Oh well... Probably shouldn't get too ahead of myself.


And a new kid on the block! I alluded to her briefly last week.

"Lalalalala...oh, a pointy thing...lalalalalalala...I wonder if playing with it would have the same outcome as "running with scissors" Mom always tells me not to do?...Hey! Wait a minute! Hey! Are you taking a picture? Wha' the..."

This would be Columbia, from the Starmore book "American Portraits". I did have a picture of the lower edge of Columbia last week , however I wasn't too happy with how it came out, so I didn't post it... This is much better. I'm using some of the Jamiesons Aran I just stocked up on - this is the "Chartreuse" colour - and it's perfect for this design.

Oh...and my little Nordic Sweetheart hat? Um. I kind of forgot to block her... Got caught up in other stuff and she remained unblocked (although not unloved!). But, I WILL block her today. Yessiree.

What Would You Have Done?


OK. Bear with through this.


I'm really fortunate that I live in a great apartment, in a very nice area of town, close to everything, and painless to get to and from work downtown. It's my home, the longest I've lived anywhere in my life, and has been my home for almost 10 years. I've always had wonderful neighbours. And I still do. My neighbour in the apartment downstairs is great; she's always been considerate, and besides - she has a cute dog! She's not the issue. The issue is her adopted sister, who lives with her.


Now, she's also very quiet for the most part, works hard (the girl gets up at 4:30am everyday for work) - and has special needs (she was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome).


However. There was a time last spring or early summer where I went a period of time where I received no mail. I asked next door to see if it had maybe been delivered to the wrong house, and it hadn't. I had my suspicions that the sister may have taken it (Lorraine, remember me telling you about that?), but I thought - nah, that's just paranoid. And besides, after a couple of weeks or so, it again started showing up, and I received a pile in one day. And that was that. The odd time I would find some of my stuff in the flyers pile next to the door to be recycled, but didn't think much of it. Then, about a month or so ago, I got home from work and went to put my newspaper in the recycle bin, and found some mail addressed to me in the bin! It was my book club catalogue, and although annoyed - I didn't say anything; I just didn't think about bringing it up. About 2 weeks ago, I came home and found one of my magazines thrown on the lawn, in a spot where the wind could not have blown it. I have a big front porch that's pretty much protected from the wind due to the construction, and even if it had been windy - no way it could have been blown there.


Now for this past week. A week this past Friday, a couple of people at work who live in the same neighbourhood as I do told me that they had received their T4 slips in the mail (for non-Canadians - this is the summary of your previous years' income that your employer puts together for filing your taxes). I figured - cool, I should be getting mine. Nothing came on the Friday. I was a bit concerned, I figured by Monday for sure it would be there. I got home from work, and there was NO mail for me. I had a sneaking suspicion... The recycle bins were by the side of road for our next day pick up, so I went over to have a look.


And what do you think I found in the recycle bin? A magazine, my KnitPicks catalogue, my cell phone bill. And my T4 slip.


I was LIVID. Rumaged through the bin, and didn't find anything else.


Went into the house, calmed myself down, and called my neighbour downstairs. I talked to her for a good while, and she herself was not impressed that her sister had been doing it (because we both knew it was her). To her defence, she made no excuses for this behaviour. And she confirmed that she had placed my mail that morning by my door - so she knew it had arrived that day. She said it was her sister's "passive-aggressive" mind, and once she gets a bee in her bonnet, she obsesses over it. Now, I was very nice about the whole situation - I like her, and she's always been a good neighbour. She said she'd talk to her about it, and she did. I understand completely about her sister - I know she has special needs. She's had a rough go of it (their adoptive mother is a saint for having raised her to the level she's at), and her way of thinking is not like yours and mine.


I'm not a vindictive person, I'm very much someone who can look at the big picture in a situation like this and say - what's it worth? Sure, it's my mail, my IMPORTANT mail, but I trust it won't happen again. Oh, and WHY did she do it? She said I make noise. ??? Which I dismiss out of hand, as my neighbour has told me that this is the first time she's lived outside her mother's house, and doesn't understand the concept of daily activity. She takes it personally.


Now. Sure I have 3 cats, but they are 95% of the time very quiet. If Gandalf and Atticus roughhouse, it never lasts more than 15 - 20 minutes at most. And - this is an old house, built in 1892. The hardwood floors are old and creaky. It apparently bothers her to hear this noise. Well, as I told my neighbour - if she can't understand that walking around will make the floors creak in spots, she may not be ready to live outside her mother's house. It's life - and it's going to happen. I will say - I am a quiet person, I'm very considerate, and after all, I've lived here for 10 years in perfect harmony and NO problems or complaints with others below me. And our mailman? It's been the same guy for the past 6 years. It's not him.

Anyway. I'm going on, and you get the picture.


If it happens again, my options are to call the owner, which I'm reluctant to do at this point because it would result most certainly in both of them being evicted (they are NOT on good terms with the owner), and to report this as mail theft to the police. I am on very good terms with the owner - after all, I've been an excellent tenant for 10 years, and her parents who owned the house prior to her taking it over, were wonderful people and very good to me.


Being the person that I am, I'm not keen on either option. But, at what point do I kick my tolerance level aside, and do what is well within my rights to do? If it happens again...

They are walking on eggshells right now, and deep down inside I'm not convinced it won't happen again. I understand my neighbour's sister has special needs, which is why I'm giving her this second chance.


Should I have given her a second chance? Or should I have just told the owner of what's been happening, and let her deal with them?


Anyway, thanks for lending an ear...

Moving on to more exciting stuff!


Guess what?! IT'S A KITTY-COUNSEL APPROVED CONTEST!!



I swapped some Campion in my stash with a lovely lady on Ravelry for some Dunedin she had hibernating. I now have 15 skeins of lovely Dunedin in Mulberry.

Mmmmm, nice... Notice how someone keeps injecting himself into *every* picture I try to take...

Your mission. What should I make with it? Because I can't decide.

Here are your choices (the links are to projects on Ravelry):

1. Elizabeth of York, from "Tudor Roses",
2. Kimberley, from "A Collector's Item's",
3. Spanish Knight, from "A Collector's Item".


Send me an e-mail (bdepocas at rogers dot com), giving me your choice, and very importantly - why. Or, leave it in the comments. If you do leave your choice in the comments, be sure to include your e-mail address! Blogger doesn't record it unless you put it in.


Which ever gets the most votes becomes my Dunedin project, and from those who nominated the winning design, a winner will be chosen.

Contest closes at midnight, Saturday, March 8th, and the winner will be announced next Sunday.

And you will win a most fabulous winter pick me up box with some of my favourite comfort foods, yarn and other fun stuff!

Anyone, anywhere is eligible! Just remember to include your e-mail address.

Thanks again for listening!