Now, if you know me, and I realize that its hard to get that kind of insight from reading someone’s blog, I am a pretty morally relaxed kind of person. Nudity? Meh. Cussing? Double meh. Littering? Well, if you must.

But, stealing from a charity? No way, Jose.

Here is how it all went down. I went to Chapters today to buy a co-worker a last-minute gift certificate. Of course, I went at the time of day when all the street lights aligned and everyone converged on that particular parking lot all at once.

It was busy. The checkout line was wound around past three racks of magazines. The cashiers looked frazzled. And, rightly so, as there were only three of them (but that is a rant for another day).

So, I waited my turn and got to the front of the line, asked for my gift card and specified the amount. He rang it through on my visa and then I went looking for a gift card sleeve – those handy things that make a crappy gift like a gift certificate look like something special and well thought out.

So, he informed me that they were all out and that  he forgot to mention that I could buy one of the special charity ones for a dollar. I bitched and moaned a bit about the fact that I didn’t have a dollar on me and that he had already finished ringing my other purchase through and I didn’t want to put a dollar on the Visa, but that I really needed a sleeve. Really, I don’t know where I was going with it, except that the part of me that needed one really just wanted him to produce a complimentary one from out of thin air or something.  And that’s when he said it….

“You know, it’s all the same to me”.

He looked me right in the eye and practically dared me to take the damn thing. I shrugged, made some sort of non-committal noise and slunk out of the store feeling a very misplaced sense of shame, guilt, and something dirtier that I still can’t put my finger on. I mean, who does that? I get that he was busy, but still it was totally unacceptable. He has a crap tonne of bad Karma coming his way.

Not me though.

Luckily, I returned a missing wallet today to the Police Station on my way into work. Karma counterbalance. Works every time.

First, the first FO of the New Year to achieve blogworthy status. My new years babe, if you will.

Pattern: Clapotis

Yarn: WM 100% in Maus Jung

Needles: US 5 (3.75mm)

Cast on: Nov 30

Cast off: Dec 30

It will be going off to live with it’s new owner shortly.

I am resolutely not making any New Years goals for my knitting on this blog. I did that last year and didn’t knit a single thing. So, 2010 will be my go with the flow year. Let’s see what it will bring.

Happy New Year everyone!

…after the flowers have wilted and died…

…and not long after the last steak has been BBQ’ed…

It will be Sweater Time again!

Yup, it’s that time of year again where my thoughts turn to falling leaves, Halloween, and dare I say it, SNOW! I can’t wait to get out the snuggly warm hand-knit sweaters and socks of seasons past and start dreaming of hand-knits present and future.

I have the yarn wound and ready to start my first sweater of the season; Wicked.

I am thinking that this Malabrigo will suit the pattern just fine.

And, then it’s off to the races with the Apres Surf Hoodie from last Summer’s Interweave Knits. Hopefully soon, this:

will become this:

And finally, I am thinking that with the return of fall, also comes the return of knee socks. So, watch out for these socks coming soon to needles near you!

To which, I of course told him; I am so not.

I mean, when you look at this definition, it doesn’t sound so nice, right?

ob·ses·sion

n.

1. Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety.
2. A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion.

But, the more I think about it, maybe I am. And, maybe that is not such a bad thing.

A few years ago, before I started knitting, I was a stressed out, tightly wound trouble maker. I wasn’t so happy and I wasn’t so nice.

Then I found knitting and it was like a whole, other world opened up for me. I made new friends, we had our own special language, and we even went on knitting related field trips together.

Knitting makes me happy, calm, and easier to be around.

So, I think then, that this definition makes more sense for me. And, I can live with this obsession.

ob⋅ses⋅sion

–noun

Oh, and as an added bonus, I make pretty things.  So, tell me; what has your obsession done for you?

We are almost done

We spent the weekend landscaping. It was some tough, let me tell you!

Hard Work!

Another project taking up a lot of my time is the Cookie A. KAL project #2.

For some reason, I decided to knit a pattern this month that requires a little more concentration than is usually allotted during the tv hours in our house. Of course, with small children, all knitting related activities need to be jammed into those fleeting moments between the time that the kids go to bed and the time that I go to bed. And, this is prime time for both tv watching and snuggling with TG.

So, not a ton of progress is being made on these Marlene‘s, but they sure are pretty.

We need to be finished in six days!

This is the first time I have broken into the Sundara stash and I must say, I love how it is working up. The subtle shading and firm twist really makes the twisted ribbing pop!

Of course, things would go a lot faster if I stopped sneaking away from the knitting to buy some new yarn. But how could I resist this?

Wollmeise in Poison #5

Oooooh, Pretty

Great For Picking My Nose With

Anything good?

She did this over and over for about an hour until I tried to take it away.

Ewww...

Anyone know how to get boogers out of a silk scarf?

And found this:

BMFA Sock Club Kit March 2009

I haven’t loved a kit this much since the Monsoon kit that came out in 2007.

So I threw everything else aside and gleefully cast on for the first sock.

Then I realized that I jogged my picot edge (or so I thought), resulting in a sock knit on the bias. So, I ripped the darn thing out, undid the picot edge, started knitting the leg again and realized that the sock biases all on it’s own.

Of course.

So, here is the progress that I’ve made so far. I keep trying not to think about all that work lost.

Rogue Roses

And, see, the little rosebuds? These socks are so girly, I could just about plotz.

Oooh, rosebuds.

I am a little concerned about the fit of the sweater, as I think it’s too small (ack!), however, I won’t know for sure until it’s done. Cross your fingers…

In other news, I turned the heel of my Hedera sock.

Ooooh, a heel

I purposely over exposed the picture to show the pattern a little better. So far, I am loving working with the Dream in Color, Smooshy, however, I have heard some poor reviews about it lately.

Even babies gotta eat

See, over the weekend, as part of my job (I am so darned fortunate to have a great job), I was able to attend the AFL Conference for Diversity and Human Rights. See, this conference is a big deal in the Labour community to which I belong through work. The conference was amazing and so eye opening. It really left me with one huge thing to ponder. What are my roots? What is my history? And, what will I pass on to my children and their children?

I realized that I wished that I knew more about my grandmother and her grandmother, and her grandmother… (well, you get the idea). And, I realized that I wished that there was someone in the family, an aunt, or some other relation that I could have learned to knit from as a child.

I had been thinking about this for two days now, when today, I went for a massage. And, at the office where I go to get the most amazing massages ever (it hurts like hell, but it’s worth every excruciating minute), the receptionist asked me who knit my socks. Well, this sparked a whole discussion about her family (who incidentally has strong Norwegian roots) and the knitting she remembers her mother doing every spare minute of the day when she was a child.

It left me feeling a sense of pride and somehow sadness when she asked me who taught me to knit and I replied, “myself”. I felt somehow happy and sad all at the same time. And, I resolved that both my children will learn to knit… even if they hate it.

I want them to be able to say that they learned from their Mother and pass it onto their children as well.

Monkey Likes Them

P.S. One sock down… one sock to go.