Olivia Hat.

This hat took no time. a couple nights of star trek, maybe a movie or two. I am so releived that i did not run out of harn though...i even have enough to make the pompon i had in mind. (i'll update with that pic as soon as its on and joel can snap the back of my head.)

note: my hair is wet in the picture. it is not THAT greassy, yet...

I realise that i really enjoy making more complicated patterns while i knit. even though it takes more time, and more yarn, its somewhat more entertaining then going along in jersey or garther stitch. this is a mix of purls, cables, rice-stitch (<3), and double-stitches, or fisher-man...

i hope she still like that little blue. it is a little baby-ish. i dont know if id manage to wear it a lot with my coats. i see it going nicely with a little jean jacket in the spring though, and a red pashmina (i think thats the colour she bought at china town last year.)

anyways, im allergic to sweet alpacas*...so i have to send the gift to her. (no being selfish and keeping it.)

though, i think i will need more hats, and berets and such, since my last thing is trying to "go no poo ". This does NOT have anything to do with my desastrous attempt at trying to cut gluten. (no fibres at all is no good for your belly. dont worry i stopped that nonsens.) but this new trend of going sort of organic on your own head and hair seems quite clever to me. im not the best to explain this, most people i've tryed to talk through this looked at me like i was going wacko...I am going through the worst phase at the moment (day 4, so technically, two days of not shampooing compared to normal habit) and i will be still "adapting" for a couple weeks. i hope my boyfriend doesnt make me sleep in the living room. i rinced and (scalp massage) water washed my hair today, and it does look nice and silky and doesnt smell as much as yesterday.....

*

MORE PICS, with the pompom.




There is not a lot of things that are more enjoyable, then giving a hair cut to a nice pompom you succeded making. (for some reason, this makes me so nervous. it can unravel and end up a total mess..)

Is November really here?

Just a little tiny update. Is it just me or it doesnt quite feel like winter yet? November 1st has passed a couple days ago, and christmas-Craze has not hit me yet....which is very weird.
I am totally one of those freaks who thinks of christmas gift lists 3 months ahead. I dont know, this year, hollidays dont seem to have the same impact on me. Just like halloween didnt make me go AS nuts as usually. First off, we didnt host a party. maybe thats it.
I did carve a pumpkin. (and cook the whole flesh too. pumpkin soup, pumpkin and squash with meat sauce and melted cheeze, and buckweat pumpkin spice muffins-that were not that great)

Still, there was this amazing little strip of pictures we took for halloween night #2...that is magnetted on my fridge and is just too good not to share. We had exanged costumes for the second night. (boredom) I was originaly the mime.



So while we're waiting for the few silly leaves left to fall, and for the snow to come, that's what's on the needles...

*while star-trecking with lover before bed* I've been knitting this sweather for myself, with this acrylic blend called "super-softie" or something. It is totally "throw in the washer and dryer" so that is good for me. You have to imagine the look in navy blue, since this is an attrocious apricot colour..



and remember this angora blend tuque i was knitting?? that reminded me of biscottis? well, its done and worn and all. but i cant find it these days..so i dont have a picture of it. (my room is a little messy at the moment.) but i will take a picture soon.

in the mean time, i quite liked the pattern, though there is a couple modifications i'd make. Im going to use it to knit my friend's christmas present. (i bought the yarn for her birthday, in december, last year...not bad hein?? this is history repeating....) its a really nice alpaca blend i've knitted many many times. (genevieve red bell-sweather, pumpkin mits (that ended up being gen's too.... red mits, i cant seem to find either....)
anyways, its this swirl of off white and baby blue, and its gonna look amazing i think. Im thinking of adding a pompon. just cause they're great and wintery. and probably going for a cable-knit/purl. this friend is a knitter too. and id feel weird giving her a jersey-knitted hat. but thats just me being obsessed maybe.




that's the pattern of the tuque. it doesnt show very well but this is needle 6,5mm. its a quickie.

ok, back to work, black and white, poetry, poetry....
and i'm having a friend over for dinner, porc roast with fresh plums and honey.
(cause i bought this hummongus basket of plums and i'm stock with them..)


***


ok, the beret was NOT THAT DEEP into the chaos.
so here's a quick picture. the colour is not that dark, my bedroom is dark.



and here is the alpaca i was talking about:



and the dry unsuccessful muffins, but one of the amazing things of winter, good citrus fruits. i adore grapefruit.

Triangle scarf crusade.

My Mommy did it.
SHE CROCHÉED ME MY SCARF THAT I WANTED!! <3

She actually had quite a hard time figuring the super unclear instructions....i DO love phildar for their fashion patterns, but i dont know how they manage to confuse us so hard sometimes...the whole thing was constructed out of several squares that you had to croché seperatly (and figure out) first.

anyways, the result is great. i love it. the yarn we chose together turned out even prettier then i thought. the little white patches it makes....oh pretty. its lovely between brown and purple and goes with most my clothes.







special love to the little "flower" trim all around it. and the tassels.

and sorry my bathroom mirror is so nasty with toothpaste stains...oups. time to clean soon.

++
some pics of the chinese lanthern exibition at the botanical garden.
+
and some mighty tasty orange autumn soup.









Soup:

-Butternut squash
-carrott
-orange coliflower
-chicken broth
-parmesan crusts, gouda cheeze
-salt n pepper
-fresh sage

sam-reduction.

My dear dear friend Samantha, has litterally been melting half her size over the last 6 months.
i am very happy to be her new gym body, and hope that her slimming frenzy might motivate/have some magic influence on my body.
So i found myself fixing some shirts for her recently. (as mode of paiement for her making of my wonderful website: pauleillustration.com ) and liking it quite a bit. since her weight loss mementum is not quite stopped, she will be bringing me more clothes to fix. like i was telling her, this takes no time and is actually so much fun and creative.

BEFORE:

AFTER. (first time at appliqué. went sort of well.) pleeted the neck line and took in the sides/sleeves.



BEFORE shirt from bedo that was sort of an inverted tryangle pattern.

AFTER. now its straight. made the ribbons with red biais, that i zizaged in grey on both sides.


voilà!

autumn random.

just a sort of mass update, because i feel all over the place, and needed a little sorting.
i also read a "random" post today and felt like i needed to share too.

first of all, i dont think i ended up posting decent, clear pictures of the king-size quilt i made over the summer. since it is a major realisation (for me to finish it and use it). ill give it some honner now.





As you can see here, sometime lately i DYED a pillow case totally unwillfully. For some mystic reason it ended up in the "colour" wash and of course, that week included my lovely joel's bright red jeans...i was fumming mad. this set of white sheets are actually good quality whatever ammount of thread sheets...(you know the kind you justify buying because white will always go with your stuff, and it will last....)
but, having calmed down, i sort of like how this makes our bed look very girl side/boy side. mine is the pink one, obviously. it IS a nice pink. at least.


AND NOW, talking about things that end up dyed in pink not on purpose....
the waldo sweather...many of you are actually aware of the catastrophe that accured last year, when i first washed the red and white sweather i knitted for joel. (joel..6'4 man...knitted in size 4mm needles.)
there was a lot of angry cries and such. the pink was a very vibrant, flamboyant, bubble gum pink. (im trying to put a white cardboard thingy in the picture to fix my white balance...the picture does not show how vivid the pink is in real life. too pink for ME to wear the damn sweather)



but, flash of genius..i decided to dye it more. i'll try and dye it red. joel likes red. and there is much more chances he'll wear it again that way.

and for whats on the needles now, a beret i stole in my mom's awsome accessory catalogue. im using this super soft angora blend. the colour actually makes me think of biscottis, so i took a picture of my afternoon snack. this yarn is terribly soft, and i think it will be very warm. im thinking of knitting myself a neck-warmer with the rest of the yarn...i have this problem lately, of always buying too much yarns for projects..even when i follow indications. whatever.




lastly, here is a picture of my new dog-free, picture addorned, living room. Toto does not live with us anymore. due to some lonelyness-barking issues. this is a watercolour joel gave me for valentine's day. im happy it thrones in my office now. where i always pictured it.

granny smith fail.

Okay.

so i did finish knitting the sweather in time. (i actually finished sewing the colar on in the bus over to my moms house...how is that for last minute??)

but, the buttom line being, the sweather was not a hit at all...
the sewing was a little clumsy...as it always is with me..it always ends up being the crucial (and cursed part) when projects either turn out good, or in the garbage/frustration tears.

this one was sort of in the middle. i didnt like the arm seams that much but i felt like the white colar brought it together, and made it look pretty dashing.

wrong.

my mom did not like the white colar. she actually might salvage the shirt by taking it off and crochéing a green colar instead...

anyways...here is a pic of all the peices before i started sewing them. i like this picture because it sort of looks like im SCOTCH-TAPING it together. i did not take a pic of it on my mom, in the melt down...but i might if it turns out wearable later.



*to be noted: she also got two hand made and embroidered dish clothes for her kitchen, and a very pretty card from joel. so she was happy anyways.

granny smith/saterday

ok, today big-long day.
got a lot of images to work on. something to do with a theater play, a boston terrier, and a bunch of 8 year olds.
im also having my parents over for dinner. im cooking this:
AND i obviously need to clean around the house before they get here...

nevertheless, here's the pattern that salvaged the granny smith project. and what im going to make out of it.



OH AND +++
i totally want my mom to crochet me this:

wish i had ordered the accessory fall catalogue too...save some shipping. all the accessories in it are cool. though this is probably the kind of thing she could figure out easily without the pattern. i think that colour/yarn choice makes it look like a table center cloth thingy....i dont know what colour i'd want....a cherry red? pumkin? chocolate brown?