Oh My Gosh - It's Madeline Tosh

My birthday present from my Mom arrived today. Apparently she wasn't going to tell me and was going to hold on to it until Saturday but it's hard to keep a secret like this!
There are seven skeins of this lovely yarn - Madeline Tosh Merino in Kale -single ply worsted - soft and smooshy. In some light it's chocolatey brown, in other it has a red/purple hue, but it's oh so pretty.

I honestly wasn't sure what I was going to get when it arrived. On my computer it looked greyish/brownish/purple. I did some searching on the net and found some that was almost black, another that was more purple and one that was pink!(though I think she mislabeled her colour)

I am quite pleased with it though. I wound one ball up at mom's with full intentions of coming home, ignoring the squid sock, the house mess and starting my sweater. But I had some Wandering Cat business that couldn't be ignored and now it's almost time for bed and I still have to put the garbage out.

*Sigh* that means I won't be able to start it until at least Friday, as the next three days are long ones. C'est La Vie!

Not-so-unwelcome interuptions

Well, things didn't exactly go as planned this weekend. I had planned to finish the squid sock while at Job #2 on Saturday, and spend my Sunday doing a much needed cleaning on the house (how can a place get so messy, when I'm barely home to mess it up... I swear it's all the cats)

Saturday, work was much busier than normal, and in addition, I got a little wrapped up in an editing side project I have - so I only worked on Squid for about and hour and a half. Then, when I got home, I found out that we needed to head to Long Point - that night.

Dave and his uncle share a cottage there, and his uncle was supposed to go up this weekend and get everything ready for the winter, but ended up having to work. As the temperatures are dropping, it really needed to be done now. So Dave asked if I'd like to go for a drive (it's about two hours from here)

The cottage is Dave's space, and I rarely get invited, so even though I really needed to stay home and clean and knit - I packed up some warm jammies, extra socks and blankets (smart move... it was COLD) and away we went. I did get a little sock knitting done last night, but mostly we enjoyed a warm fire, a bottle of wine (or two) and each other's company. Can't say I really regret it.

I only wish I had brought my camera. This morning I got up really early, and went for a walk along the shore of Lake Erie. It was cold, and the sand was frozen, but it was beautiful. And every few minutes, a flock of Tundra Swans would fly overhead - working their way south for the winter. I've never seen so many at once, and rarely in flight! It was cool

I also gathered some fresh water clam shells while I was there, and I'm hoping to make them into some jewellry eventually.

We came back this afternoon and stopped by Mom's on the way home, where I snagged her back up camera. Which means....... an in focus close up shot of SQUID!!!! I'll take some more later. Love the colour, love the yarns and the pattern is going swimmingly! With any luck, I should have the pattern out by the middle of next week!

Oh, and don't forget - there are only six days left to take part in Boss Cat's Birthday Blowout!

Sights of the City never Seen

As some of you know, while I don't live there, I work in Hamilton (both jobs)

For those who don't know, Hamilton is a steel town, very blue collar, with a reputation for being dingy.. a reputation pretty much built on this:(Picture by Bobcatnorth on Flickr)

The view from the QEW as you drive by it. (Now I see a certain beauty in that panorama, but most don't they just see pollution) But I have lived in or around the city for my entire life, and unlike certain snobs from Toronto think, there is much, much more to it.

Lately, I've been eating at my desk and using my lunch breaks to go for a walk - it's amazing how far you can go in 30 minutes! As I've been walking I've seen many beautiful sides of the city, that most people never get to see, so every week or so, I thought I'd share some of them with you.

I loved how this business was decorated for ChristmasIt's not as noticeable in the picture, but compare the size of the bigger wreath to the door below it... that is one HUGE wreath! The business is a Salon or Spa on King Street

Up next is the Scottish Rite - Hamilton is full of beautiful architecture, but this one is by far my favourite. If I ever win the lottery, this is where Dave and I are getting hitched!

This is the view from King Street - a huge imposing building surrounded by enormous wrought iron gates:
Then around the corner on Queen Street:
So beautiful!

Along Main St. W., I found these cute row houses, the core is full of them. Some are businesses and apartments and some are still homes... you can really see Hamilton's Victorian era here.I had to take a picture of this adorable little garden someone planted by their basement window:These flowers won't last much longer - we had an unseasonably warm November, but the temperatures are pushing towards freezing.

And last, one of Hamilton's landmarks, the Catholic Cathedral.
I am not religious, but we have some beautiful churches in the city, and this one is definitely the most ornate.

This pic was actually taken from my work. The cathedral is about a 20 minute walk away (I think) but it's huge and sits up on a hill. If you've every travelled the 403 through Hamilton, you've seen this sucker!

Maybe one day my feet will take me over there and get you some closer pics. I've never been over there myself!

Onwards and Upwards

With December here and four Christmas projects still on my to-do list, I figured I'd better get a wiggle on!

I decided the guy version of the maroon sock would work well for one of my recipients, and since I have to knit it to design it, I'm killing two birds with one stone.

I cast on with some lovely grey Scheepjes I raided from Mom's stash. I did a couple pattern repeats but it just wasn't working out. The yarn wasn't smooth enough to give really good stitch definition, so I called up mom and put in an order for a semi-solid, inky colour skein of Alley Cat

This is what she came up with:

Pretty good eh? Reminds me of BIC pens when they explode in your hand... I called it Squid.

While I was waiting for it to dry, I cast on for the second pair of guy socks I have to knit this Christmas. I chose a nice rustic green Fortissma Socka that was also raided from Mom's stash... I sense a theme here....

Anyway, here it is with the Squid sock too....I got the Squid yarn as soon as it was dry and cast on, so the green sock is getting set aside because the Alley Cat is so much nicer to knit with than the Fortissima. Once again, sorry for the crappy pic... the Squid sock has arrows (like the maroon sock) and the green sock has mini cables. Both are about 3.5 inches long so far.

I have to say it's so nice now that I'm knitting at Job #2. It looks like my editor will be off until Christmas, so without that evening knitting time, I'd never get everything done for Christmas!

The Most Exciting Contest EVER...

... well I think so any way.

If you've been over to Mom's blog you've already heard about:

BOSS CAT'S BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT!!!!

(Boss Cat would be me... mom is doing all the work lately, I'm just supervising and throwing around unsolicited advice)

In celebration of my impending 30th birthday on December 12th (feel free to send me presents!) we are holding a special contest.

From December 1st to 12th, every item purchased at Wandering Cat Yarns will give the purchaser one entry into the contest. On December 13th, we will take all those entries and draw for three prize packages - one for each fantabulous decade of my life!

Each package will include:

1 skein of Wandering Cat Yarns - a special Boss Cat Birthday colourway

1 sock pattern - which has ties to the birthday theme
1 set of stitch markers - also in keeping with the birthday theme

So, buy for Christmas, buy for yourself and win some free yarnz! Mom's just put up some new colours and with the way she's dyeing it up there's sure to be more coming (I think someone put crack in our dye powder - cause she's totally addicted.)

This one is my favourite

(It's called Grendel - she wouldn't let me call it Troll Bogies)

And, now I'd like to share with you a little Birthday story

Some of you already know, I have a lot of friend and family birthdays in December (five family members, three friends) - apparently every one likes to get it on in March...

...anyway, obviously I'm no exception.

Except I was supposed to be. I was supposed to be born some time in late November. But, never one to be told what to do and how to do it, I made my debut two weeks late. Interestingly enough, I also decided to grace everyone with my presence just a few short hours before my brother's birthday - he turned two the very next day.As you can see, he never really got over it... but damn! I'm adorable!

Of socks and quilts and feelin' poopy

I apologize for the posting delay, I meant to post yesterday, but I haven't been feeling well - that and Dave was monopolizing the computer as he attempted to outfly the Red Baron (yeah, it's a Snoopy game...)

Anyway while working a kabillion hours, and fighting a this nasty bug, I did manage to accomplish a few things - first the maroon socks!
Sorry for the craptacular photo - new camera coming soon. And I will get better pictures before I post the pattern. One Christmas present down!

I started the men's version last night, but the yarn I had for it isn't working out. It's not smooth enough to give nice pattern definition. Mom is kindly dying me some Alley Cat today, so I'll restart them later this week.

In the mean time, I started on a sewing project. You may remember a while back I picked up some wicked Pontiac GTO fabric for Dave's six-year-old cousin. The kids is OBSSESSED with GTOs and it was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up. I also picked up some white and black broadcloth. The end result will be a checkered flag quilt, with a GTO backing.
I cut all the squares out today and intended to at least sew the checkered flag - but then I got a really bad case of the sleepy/queasies and went to lay down for four hours.

I've had some chicken noodle soup, and I think the rest of the evening will be spent working on Dad's Christmas socks. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow morning. I have to much work to call in sick.

The Wednesday Report

As I wrote the title to this post I totally went "Holy Crap, it's Wednesday already... and Wednesday is almost over."

But I guess 50+ hour work weeks will do that to you. But I'm not complaining (loudly or even that much), there are some definite perks:

1) The money of course, which will include at least 10 hours of overtime at time and a half. It almost makes me want to stop all Christmas knitting and go to the mall. Then I remember my mountain of debt and pick the needles back up.

2)It finally gives me a chance to show the bosses that my editor is not the only person in the building who can do this job - something I hope they will remember if promotion time ever rolls around.

3) The companies are sending in samples for our gift guides - and they are mine all mine! I am currently polishing off a box of chocolate - but seriously, what self respecting box of chocolates only has nine morsels in it? Nine isn't enough to last five minutes. Give me Pot o' Gold any day!

Tonight I made a very small amount of sock knitting progress at Job #2 - I finished the heel on the maroon sock. I should have finished more, but I was having issues. Sometimes heels just fly for me, other times, like tonight, I screw up every other row. I drop stitches, knit them together, pick up stitches that aren't really stitches, then my slips and knits don't line up. I ripped back several times but by the time 9 pm rolled around it was done and I'm now working on decreasing for the gusset - PHEW!

I don't have pictures because my camera is a total piece of crap and won't focus unless you're 10 feet away from you subject - I have a feeling some of that overtime will be going to a new camera.

Well that's it for now, it's off for a bath, pajamas, a book and some serious kitty snuggle time.

She's getting impatient - can't you tell?