Dudes, it's cold out!!

Ok so in rather short order our not-so-cold weather has dramatically disappeared.
Remember that huge icicle we had in front of our living room window? It fell off last night. The only thing I can think of was that the -35C temps last night finally did it in (it hasn't been this cold in weeks). I'm just glad it didn't break the window on the way down.

It's FINALLY Monday today which means that all the stores in town should be open again after being closed for the holidays - even boxing day - What retail store closes on boxing day?! I normally don't miss the stores down south but I really did this week when I wanted to go and buy stuff and have it NOW instead of ordering stuff online and waiting a week or more (which, I normally quite enjoy but I'm being impatient this week!). gah... Of course New Years puts a kink in the whole stores (and post office) being open thing... Annoying... Another annoying thing? My favourite hardware store in town is closed now - for good (and yes, I have a favourite hardware store). grrr... In a town with limited stores basically every store has at least one thing you can't buy in all the others and this hardware store was FULL of stuff that you could only get there (and for a decent price). I even buy my shampoo at the friggin' hardware store! I of course only find out about this news AFTER the store closes so I even miss out on all the deals! I'm really getting shafted with the shopping this week!

I took some crafty pictures last night but haven't had a chance to upload them. I wanted to write this quickly before I go out to some meetings to let everyone know that it's -37C bleh!


Temperature: -37C (it needs repeating!)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Done for Another Year

So I didn't really end up getting any pictures of our dinner... I took a few of our tray of roasted veggies (before they went into the oven) and a picture of my first purple potato (have you eve had a purple potato? They're actually quite tasty if you can get over the fact it's purple) but no pictures of the lamb. A few reasons for that were 1. I didn't think anyone wanted to see a picture of a raw leg of lamb pre-roasting and 2. When it was finally done I was in a hurry to get it on the table. Despite the lack of pictures, everyone enjoyed the dinner - the landlords especially (*phew!*). Glen also enjoyed having lambie leftovers for two days.

Yesterday I took two of our residents to a friend/co-worker's house for Christmas dinner. The dinner was incredibly tasty especially since I didn't have to make any of it myself (ok, that's a lie, I made buns and brought them along with 2 lemon meringue pies - but y'know the main stuff I didn't have to do - yay!).

Since she was going to be pulling out the nice linens and the silver I thought I'd make her some place cards for the table with my Cricut (see how handy this damn machine is?!)

We all left pretty stuffed and I got to go back to work for 2 hours and try not to fall asleep (tough task!).

All in all it was pretty relaxing and the residents were on their best behaviour which was nice (sometimes you never know what might happen). Now that the stress of Christmas is over I can focus on the stress of being supervisor and being in charge on the 2nd when my boss goes on vacation for 7 weeks - ahhhhhh!


Temperature: -21C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Fast Approaching...

Well, it's practically here! We're having out big dinner tonight because I work on Christmas Day. Since it's only Glen and I and the landlords are in town for the holidays (first time in 5 or 6 years) we're having them up for dinner. We do a very untraditional dinner for Christmas so I thought I'd share since I didn't blog about it last year.
Glen isn't a fan of turkey or ham (he'll eat it if he's invited to someone's house but it's a waste and a bit excessive to cook a whole turkey just for him) so I decided that on our first Christmas together we'd cook a leg of lamb (they eat a lot of lamb in Australia and he doesn't get to eat it nearly as often here). So a roast leg of lamb has become our Christmas tradition. Normally I roast some veggies with it (potatoes and carrots) and this year I'm adding brussel sprouts and corn on the cob to the menu (If you're going un-tradtional you might as well REALLY go un-traditional!).
My landlord's last lamb experience was a bad one so I'm hoping I change their mind about it ;-)

So yeah... I have some cookies to bake today and maybe some buns (maybe not on the buns... We'll see) aaaaaaaaaaand my Cricut arrived yesterday! Wooo!

I'd planned to use it to cut out some vinyl to etch some glasses for my landlords so I'm glad it's here! My original plan was to etch a pie plate and put cookies in it but certain types of pyrex don't etch... grrr... I got everything cut out and arranged on the pie plate and put the etching cream on only to find out it didn't work... bleh

So yeah! I should get going and start everything! Hopefully I'll be back soon to post pictures of our dinner!

Temperature: -20C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Busy, busy, busy!

Ahhh I think I need two more weeks to finish all my Christmas prep! I've started the Christmas baking at work (40 tarts and 5 dozen chocolate cookies so far) and I'm kind of not into it this year... Part of the reason is I accidentally baked my cookies a little too long and their crunchier than I'd like (which is no big deal but I hate to give over-done cookies to people). bleh... I have to get a move-on though because the boxes should be handed out by next Monday.
I've had super lots to do at work too because I've been made supervisor (surprise!) so I've been typing up new forms, doing a lot of running around etc. At least being busy makes the day go faster.
I have a bunch of knitting that my landlord wants me to do for them and I've had NO time to do it. I've hardly knit anything since the craft fair - boo!
And on top of all that I'm way behind in shipping presents out. I have two more to send and I don't think they'll make it in time (damn).

I've been doing a bit more cleaning to get ready to have some company next week (landlords over for dinner, some friends over for a small get-together). AND I'm getting the packrat room cleaned and useable because I'm getting a Cricut Expression. I'm SO excited! I've been looking for something that does this for a long time... I've been diligently tracking it and it's just cleared Canada customs.. Hopefully it's here soon!

We had a bit of a blizzard today but I guess it was all done by the time I got up so that's kind of boring! I was expecting something a little more substantial than a few hours. Also, Glen hasn't really seen a blizzard so I was kind of hoping to get a good one.


Temperature: -17C (feels like -26C)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Christmas Prep

Well! The tree is up here, the house at work is decorated and I'm about to start my massive Christmas baking at work. Yikes! I can't believe it's the 10th (ok technically the 11th) already! Last year I did over 400 cookies (as well as an unknown amount of tarts) and put together close to a dozen boxes to hand out (long term care, people that have done favours for us through the year, resident's families etc) and this year probably won't be much different. Our butter didn't get delivered so I have to wait for that (probably tomorrow).
I'm going to bring my camera to work because I'm really proud of how everything there turned out. For now though here are pictures from my own house (click for big):

We don't do a lot of decorating here - mainly just put the tree up. Our place isn't really big enough to go all-out. Now that I have my new lenses and a remote switch (in my opinion), I'm getting some great close-up tree pictures - probably the best Christmas pictures yet. I'm already thinking of next year's Christmas card design (I know, crazy).

The Hat of Doom is still in my possession even though my co-worker sounded DESPERATE for me not to give it away/sell it and she was FOR SURE coming to pick it up. Annoying.

I'm knitting some cute animals to hand out with a few of my presents this year. I bought some "gifts that give more" - among the ones I bought was a microloan for a pig and a microloan for a bunch of chickens. The people that get these gifts are getting a little knit pig/chickens. I thought about knitting trees for the tree ones I bought but I don't think I have time now. I have some knitted ornaments to make for the landlords and ideally for some other family (and myself) but again, with all the baking and stuff happening at work I doubt I'll have time now. Oh well though :-) The ornaments were so popular that I might knit some through the year so I'll have a bunch. Grand plans, right?

It has gotten REALLY cold here (which the current temperature doesn't really reflect). I think it has mostly been the wind chill but, walking just from the vehicle into the arena yesterday was BRUTAL! I was so cold! And even the arena itself was freezing (I know the arena is generally chilly but this was unusually cold). brrrr...


Temperature: -27C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

In Which I Throw My Knitting Across the Room... And Then My Brain Explodes....

A few weeks ago a co-worker (whom I greatly dislike) told me she had a pattern book for some hats and was wondering if I could knit her one. I told her to bring the book and I'd see what I could do. So she brought over the Paton's booklet "Where Did You Get That Hat!" (which I happen to own anyway). She picked out TWO hats the red beret on the front and the main cover image. I basically told her that I'd only knit one and I was only going to knit the red one. I ended up making it in black because I don't have any red yarn that was suitable...

This hat has been one pain in the arse after another!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I told the co-worker that I'd be able to knit her hat after the craft fair but I managed to find some spare time before-hand and got 90% of it done by then. On the last day of the craft fair (2 minutes before we're supposed to pack up) she comes by with a ball of yarn (a lady at the CF was selling her home-spun) and asked me how much of it I'd need to knit her hat. So I told her that I'd already started. THEN she decides that I should knit her TWO hats of doom! I leveled with her and told her I HATED knitting the Hat of Doom and there would be NO WAY I'd make another... Her reply? "Maybe I'll twist your arm and get you to make me another" - aksdflkajs!!!
She walked away and I thought that was the end of it... NO! She came back and starts talking to me about the Hat of Doom and I had to try to explain to her that knitting something you hate takes ALL the fun out of it (combined with hating the person makes for a pretty miserable experience).
The Hat of Doom is a shitty hat to knit and I disliked every.single.stitch.... Dislikeing something in such a way doesn't really lend itself to making you want to mass produce them! You know what she finally said to me? "Oh, I get it, you hate knitting hats" *cough* She totally didn't get that I didn't like knitting this SPECIFIC hat. My reply? "Yes, you're right. I hate knitting hats."

*blinks*


Temperature: -25C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

I Guess We Don't Open Our Curtains That Often...

Look what I found yesterday when I opened the curtains:

Yikes!

Where did THAT come from? And how come we didn't notice it a looooooong time ago?! I don't think something like that grows overnight - it would've had to be a few days - or at least a week! And we thought the one we had last year was massive...

Today's my first day at my new-old job. I had 5 days off (3 for the craft fair and my regular 2) and managed to get A LOT done. I took pretty much everything out of the packrat room and am trying to get it to be a more functional room rather than a room stuff gets tossed when we can't put it away... I should've taken a before picture but it was embarrassing (think NO floor space and things piled everywhere -- when we showed a friend that room she said "you can call one of the community groups and they could come and take all that stuff to the dump for you" haha :-( Its not all garbage just... stuff... We are clearly living in too small an apartment for my things...). Anyway, there's floor space now and things are a bit more organized but there's a long way to go. Our main hallway is cleaned out too and as soon as the livingroom is done I'll put our tree up (for the livingroom to be clean all the stuff has to be moved into the hall where the tree is going). Progress though!

I had hockey lastnight and it was fun minus the fact I think I'm getting a cold so it turned out to be pretty hardcore... I felt OK before I started and when I got home I was pretty exhausted and miserable... Almost got a few goals - it means I'm at least getting the puck and getting a chance to shoot!


Temperature: -29C (whaaaaaaaaat?!?!)
Sunrise: 1:03om
Sunset: 2:24pm
(only 3 days left!)

Craft Fair Wrap-Up and Arctic Life

Well! The craft fair is done for another year. If I wouldn't have ordered prints and cards (it was a last minute decision to do it) it would've been a raging success this year. But because of that up-front cost... Not so much. I just barely broke even which is pretty disappointing especially because I have to find somewhere in my tiny place to store 14 canvas photos (I didn't sell a single one) and I need to make about 150 friends to send Christmas cards to.
My ornaments however, HUGE hit. That's pretty much all I sold. I counted up my totals and I sold 49 items - one table top snowman, 4 baby sweaters, 3 or 4 packs of cards a pair of mittens and the rest was ornaments.

Small rant and one example of the few rude people I had this weekend:
I had a lady come by about 4 times looking at one of the little sweaters I had - I had 4 different sizes - the largest one was $50 and the one smaller than that was $40 (I also had two smaller ones for $30 and an even smaller one for $20). She was looking at the two and then rudely commented "$50?! What's the difference!?" so I explained to her what the difference was (size and different yarn) and she walked away. She came back a few other times to look at it and once brought her husband by to look at it. She came back today to look at it AGAIN and then was pissed off that I hadn't lowered my price on the last day (I'm not desperate to sell everything so I didn't lower my prices today - and plus I feel like it rips off the people that buy stuff the first day). Then she came back again and looked at it and was asking me about it (etc) and then starts to take out her money. Once she paid for it she still bitched about how expensive it was! Like I'd twisted her arm to buy it or something... sheesh...
Also - I still can't get over the people that will stand at your table and talk about your stuff (negatively) when you're sitting RIGHT THERE... I can hear youuuuuuu!

And now for a segment on Arctic Life... Or at least Inuvik Life and what happens when the road is open (kind of - I think it's still only light traffic) and the stores haven't lowered their prices.

Exhibit A: Bananas

Exhibit B: Beef Jerky

This looks like pretty tasty beef jerky - I hope someone looks at the price before they buy it... Get ready for a shock!

Yikes!!!!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!


Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 12:46pm
Sunset: 2:39pm

The Backdrop Hasn't Fallen Over Yet!

Well! The first night is finished! It was pretty busy (as it usually is on the first night) one minute there were only a few people milling about and then there were people EVERYWHERE!
Here's my table:

So I've done pretty good for the first day (about half of what I made the first year total - so that's good) hopefully things will pick up tomorrow and Sunday and some prints will sell.


Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 12:26pm
Sunset: 2:57pm

Last Minute Preparation!

Well! The craft fair is tomorrow and I hate to jinx it but I think I'm ready!
I ended up building the cursed backdrop myself. I sucked it up and went to the hardware store and explained what I wanted - thankfully a nice person was working and didn't laugh at me and was even able to suggest the thickness of plywood to use. My main piece is 4"x6½" and then I have two side panels that are 2"x6½" (that way I only needed two pieces of plywood because they come in 4"x8" sheets). I got it painted and hinged together and I think it should be pretty good! (we're going to ignore the HILARIOUS story about me painting it first THEN hinging it and the hinges being on the wrong side and me having to repaint it - I wasn't about to move the hinges!) . I'm just waiting for Glen to get up so we can go downstairs and take the pins out of the hinges so we can move it easier tomorrow (because if we didn't I could bet money that the damn thing would bust).

I sewed up another bear -no pictures yet- he's blue with yellow accents (inside of ears, paws, back of head, bow). I still like my first one better and I seemed to have more trouble with the second one. We did an appliqué tea towel project at quilting on Monday - my first appliqué - no pictures of that either. It turned out pretty cute I think (I put three stars on a white towel).

I got my first goal in hockey on Tuesday! Glen just happened to come that night to take pictures for me and even managed to get a picture of me scoring! woo!

Maybe now that the first goal is out of the way I'll get more ;-)

Today is my last day of work under the old contract. If I didn't get my position back it would be my last day at the group home - weird!! I have the next three days off because of the craft fair so when I go back on Wednesday I'll be working for my old boss. There's been "goodbye" notes at the end of reports all week now... WEIRD!

Cross your fingers that the craft fair goes well and my backdrop doesn't fall and crush me mid-way through!!!


Temperature: -18C
Sunrise: 12:20pm
Sunset: 3:02pm

Sewing

I finished a cute little Christmas print bear tonight. He would've been finished yesterday but I forgot a piece and had to take the head apart (the head was turning out narrow and duck-like and I was getting disappointed - no kidding! I forgot the piece that goes on the back of the head - ugh - and btw - having to photocopy and enlarge pieces is a giant pain).

I think he turned out pretty cute. He was a bit fiddly to do and isn't perfect but it was a great start and I'm sure the next one will go a bit better (and the picture isn't great since it's almost 4am).

Temperature: -20C (feels like: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:56am
Sunset: 3:23pm

Getting down to the wire...

Craft fair knitting has definitely slowed to a crawl... I've been getting some sewing done though. I wanted to make some fabric baskets to hold things on my table so I made a few of those. I also thought I'd make some for presents so I made a few extra (and once I get more cording I'll probably do a bunch more). A co-worker's husband is hopefully coming by tonight to look at my plans for a backdrop thingy. In exactly one week I'll be hauling my stuff over to the rec. centre to set up!

I've been cutting out blocks for a quilt too (I have one on the go that is driving me insane so I've started cutting out stuff for a new one just to give me a mental break from it). No pictures of it yet but I'm pretty excited about both of them (my first attempts at triangle pieces). I don't have enough fabric for the first one so I bought some extra and it *kind of* matches --- That's what happens when you buy fabric 7 years ago and only get around to finish sewing stuff together now. So I'm hoping it will work out afterall...

It has gotten outrageously cold here - or it was outrageously cold yesterday anyway. -38C with the windchill - wtf? I got into the truck yesterday and it said -29C (no windchill) brrrr! It's not supposed to be this cold yet!!! I've been waiting to pull out my parka and my warm mitts but I think I might be doing it sooner than planned. It's also super dark out now (doesn't help that it's been overcast). Not enjoying that much either... blehhh!


Temperature: -18C (winchill: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:45am
Sunset: 3:33pm

Whoops! Scolded Again!

Not much is happening really... I'm trying to finish up craft fair stuff - I've gotten everything priced now and everything I ordered has arrived (finally!) and now the only thing left is to build some sort of background/backdrop thing... I've made a few calls around town but no one has gotten back to me yet so I might have to suck it up and build it myself (and then have it fall and crush me during the craft fair!). bleh! I really wish I had some carpentry experience (y'know besides nailing pre-fab stuff together!!).

Work is pretty much the same.

I did a photoshoot with a friend on Tuesday which was pretty fun. I haven't gotten around to looking at the pictures yet but I think we got a few good ones (we were basically going for standard portrait kind of photos).

I know things have been getting kind of boring around here - no photos even! I've pretty much been doing the same things every day and my days off are getting eaten up by quilting and hockey - feels like I have no time off! So not very inspiring stuff to blog about...

Temperature: -14C (feels like -20C - brrrrrr!)
Sunrise: 11:14am
Sunset: 4:01pm

I've been scolded!

Sorry for the long silence it's been a long and confusing two weeks.
I don't really have any news so that's the main reason I've been waiting to update. I've been offered my regular position back but haven't signed any papers. I don't think I'll get screwed over but I wouldn't be surprised if something random happened. Things at work are really confusing because there are some staff members that aren't getting their job back and they are WAY disgruntled (don't blame them really) BUT they're making everyone else's life difficult. So much so that a few of us aren't telling that we've been offered positions. Yikes... It also means all the things I wasn't going to have to do (like putting together Christmas lists for 5 people) I'm going to do. So I brought all the latest Sears catalogues home with me tonight to hopefully compile some lists on my days off.

My days off lately have been rather unproductive due to me deciding to get a life. I've been faithfully going to quilting every Monday (not really getting a lot done though... hmmm) and then hockey on Tuesdays. Hockey is SO.MUCH.FUN. I'm having a blast. I hurt myself pretty bad last week but I should be good to go by Tuesday again - thank goodness for pads and a helmet!!! My head bounced off the ice (I don't even know how I fell but I lost my balance, my feet came out from under me and I landed on my back) so I've been recovering from what I imagine is ice whiplash :-P And a lot of soreness. But, totally worth it.

Knitting wise, I haven't gotten a lot of big things done but many, many small mittens. I'm embellishing them (and some mini sweaters) with felt cut-outs (Christmas trees, presents, stockings, snowmen, hearts etc). I spent my evening yesterday tracing out, cutting and embelishing little felt things. I'm really pleased with how they're turning out. I'm seriously going to make an effort to unpack everything and take a picture of it!
Speaking of the craft fair, I got my big box of "table stuff" on Thursday (table cloth, cash box, gift bags etc) the only major thing I have left to do is figure out a backdrop thing for my photos. I'll either borrow one or build one (yikes!). Only a few more weeks!

So there ya go! I think that's a pretty decent update --- Oh! And if there are people reading that I owe letters to I'm going to try super hard to get them written this week! Sorry I'm such a terrible penpal! ugh! :-(


Temperature: -12C (feels like -18C)
Sunrise: 10:19am
Sunset: 4:54pm
(stupid time change! Only a month of daylight left!)

Something Unexpected...

Ok, I know everyone (or just Teri!!) is expecting me to post craft fair progress photos and I totally plan to do that but it might be a few days. I like to take pictures during the day because I hate (hate, hate) using my flash. Tomorrow and the next few days are going to be a bit busy and stressful so I don't know if I'll have time.

The place I work for came up for tender and someone -not my current employer- was awarded the contract so I'm technically out of a job in a month or so. We all just found out on Friday so things have been a little crazy. We're not really sure what's going to happen and if our employer will be able to accommodate us at the other home or what.. We're (all the full timers - 6 of us) hopefully going to have a conference call with them tomorrow to see what's up. I have no idea about how any of this works and if we're entitled to anything.

Anyone want to drive up and help me pack?


Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 10:20am
Sunset: 6:54pm

Craft Fair Knitting

Well, I've had the week off work (they're replacing the carpet and linoleum with industrial linoleum stuff - wooo!) so that would explain why I haven't posted since last week. I've been super busy with craft fair knitting and I've managed to keep up with my self-imposed quota of completing at least one thing a day (doesn't matter how big or small as long as something is done). I've seemed to have misplaced my size 6 Knit Picks interchangeable needle tips though - grrr... I'm making some snowmen and I've found knitting with size 4 and size 6 (same yarn) give me a pretty noticeable size difference so I wanted to do a few on size 6's and a few on size 4s to give people a bit of choice (I also did one on size 8s with chunky yarn and he's HUGE! 15"!). I've also gone through my huge "random FO" bag and dug out all the things that didn't have a specific home. I figured it's as good a time as any to weed out that sort of thing since a lot of the things I won't need when we move (scarves, mittens, toques etc).

I'm going to hockey tonight - woo! I'm excpecting it to thouroughly kick my butt since it's a power skate workshop.

So yeah! I have a tonne of errands to run today since yesterday was a holiday (holiday Mondays totally mess with my days off!) and the landlord's truck is in the shop again... Last week it was getting a new windshield (not because of us - the landlords wanted a new one for the winter since the old one might've broke with the extreme cold & warming up the vehicle) and now the fan belt is all crazy.. So the mechanic is towing it in sometime today (man, I hope that's what's wrong!!!).

I hope everyone that can goes out to vote today!! (I've been pissed off about this whole election thing but I'm sad I won't get to watch all of it on TV tonight - I like watching the numbers go up and down).


Temperature: -6C
Sunrise: 9:57pm
Sunset: 7:20pm

Hockey Night In Inuvik

Had my first night of hockey tonight! I had a lot of fun despite falling a few times and not being the best skater (I did pretty good though).

Glen came and took some pictures (I'm the one in all black):

Next week is a power skating clinic so that should be fun - wearing all the pads helps feeling more secure on the ice!


I've been super busy with knitting for the craft fair (Nov 28-30). I've managed to get one thing per day done even if it has meant staying up until silly times to sew the last little bit on. Hopefully I'll have a nice full table by the time it's all said and done!



Temperature: -6C
Sunrise: 9:27am
Sunset: 7:54pm

Thrummed Mittens Term Position: Now until June...

I finished my thrummed mittens last night! I hate to say that I'm relieved to have them finished because that might sound like I didn't enjoy knitting them - I did. I just lost the momentum after the first one and it was hard to get that back and get the second one done. Once I started, it was quick (I'm sure I could've finished it in an evening but it took me a few hours over two days - The longest part was making all my little thrums).

The mittens are more even than they look in the picture!

I'm not 100% sure what I want to work on next... I have a sock that's partially started from my Whitehorse trip... But then my knitted Nativity that needs some attention... I'd love to have the Nativity done by this Christmas (totally possible if I work at it) so I should maybe get some work done on it.

Speaking of the dreaded "C" word... I have NO idea what I want to do for gifts this year... I toyed around with making stuff but I have NO idea what to make everyone... I guess I should figure that out ASAP!

We got a tonne of snow overnight! Usually the snow is good because that means all the mud is gone but that's not really the case - there's still mud around hiding under all the wet snow... I got totally covered in mud yesterday trying to wipe the truck off - grr! Maybe before it gets too cold I'll try to wash the truck...

Temperature: -1C (feels like -5C)
Sunrise: 8:58am
Sunset: 8:27pm

Winter Wonderland

Look what I woke up to this morning:

I don't a lot of progress on the second thrummed mitten. I haven't really felt like knitting the last few days. I did some reorganising in the "packrat room" on my days off though. We went and bought some HUGE clear storage bins so I could get my yarn out of the random bags and boxes they were in (you know you have too much yarn when all the yarn you have of ONE brand won't fit into the bin!).

We went to the community sign up night on Monday so I could register for hockey and I also signed up for the quilting guild. One of the girls that runs it has been bugging me for over a year to join. They meet on Monday nights (day off!) and they have a better location than they did before. It'll give me an excuse to get some quilting done! And I'll probably learn some new techniques. I was taught to quilt by my grandma (basic patchwork quilting) and obviously there's SO much more to quilting than basic patchwork (which I really enjoy but it would be nice to do patterns and appliqué and all that sort of thing). The girls also want me to teach them needle felting so that should be fun too.


Temperature: -1C
Sunrise: 8:48am
Sunset: 8:40pm

Thrum-tastic (a WIP)

I have LOTS of roving left over from my needle felting workshop this summer so I decided I needed some thrummed mittens (I LOVE mittens!).

I used the Yarn Harlot's pattern and instructions. I only made minor changes in the top shaping and the thumb (to get the right amount of thrums on the thumb I needed to decrease 4 stitches) and I didn't make my thrums quite as large - I did half a mitten then decided to rip it all out and start again with smaller thrums - one reason was because I was running out of green roving and another was because they were kind of distorting all the other stitches. Oh and I changed the measurements - I did more thrums before the thumb section and a longer cuff (3").

An example of how big my thrums are (size 3.75mm needles)

I'm still working on mitten number two since I didn't bring it on the trip (I started a pair of socks though and managed to knit in the truck for about 5 hours! I get car sick SO easily - especially lately for some reason - so this is a huge accomplishment since all I can normally do is stare out the windows).

Another knitting thing I'm kind of contemplating is knitting a pair of hockey socks (which are really leg warmers and not socks). I've decided to start playing hockey this fall because the women's team plays on Tuesdays (one of my nights off!) and it sounds like a fun thing to do. I've never played hockey outside of school so this should be kind of an interesting experience lol They welcome players of all ages and a friend of mine (one of the girls I went to Whitehorse with) is going to be playing too. I picked up all my gear in Whitehorse so I'm all ready to go. Registration is on Monday and the first night is the 7th. I'm super excited and if all the gear wasn't so hot to wear I'd totally be wearing it around the house lol.


Temperature: +5C
Sunrise: 8:30am
Sunset: 9:01pm

Our Trip to Whitehorse

We're back and our trip to Whitehorse has been declared a success on all levels. We left Inuvik a little later than we wanted to on Friday evening and didn't get in to Eagle Plains until 11:30pm (Yukon time). We hit some funky weather on the other side of the Peel River ferry that lasted pretty much into Eagle Plains. We woke up early and head breakfast and got back on the road by 9am. Lots of fog and snow but also LOTS of mud.

The fog and miserable weather lasted until Engineer Creek and then it cleared off for the rest of the drive as the weather got nicer, the temperature got warmer - we cheered every time it went up a degree.

After a long drive, we arrived in Whitehorse at 8:30pm on Saturday. We checked into our hotel and went and had some A&W then drove around to see what time stores would be open the next day.
Sunday was spent shopping. Mostly Wal-Mart, Superstore and Canadian Tire. I stocked up on a lot of things that are going to be pretty expensive when the road is closed (and things that are already expensive now). So things like toilet paper, paper towel, kleenex, laundry soap, kitty litter and pop. Pop was SO cheap in Whitehorse! For a case (12 cans) it's between $10 and $12 here, at Superstore, it was $5.98. I also found a soup that I had while visiting my mum and stocked up on that.
Sunday night we went out for sushi - yay! Then went and saw a movie - Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2. I think I enjoyed it way more than the first one.

On Monday we woke up at the crack of dawn so we could take the truck in for some minor repairs (stuff that needed to be repaired before the trip). I got to meet up with Jo's sister Teri. We went and had tea/hot chocolate and then went to the yarn store! I had a lot of fun and wish we had a little bit longer. (I hope you had fun too Teri!!).
We finished our last bit of shopping, packed up the truck and got on the road. We got to Dawson City Monday evening, had dinner and then spent a few hours at Diamond Tooth Gerties - they do three shows a night and we missed the first one which ended up being the one I wanted to see the most (the Cancan girl part).

We got up on Tuesday and went and got some old time pictures done and got back on the road for the last leg of our trip. We arrived in Inuvik at midnight. We didn't see a lot of wildlife - three foxes a bunch of ptarmigan and then a mother grizzly and two cubs.

Here's a link to the pictures on my Flickr set - I don't have time to caption them right now so I'll try to do that when I get home from work tonight.


Temperature: +6C
Sunrise: 8:22am
Sunset: 9:10pm

Ready to Go!

Just waiting for a friend to pick me up and then we'll be on the road to Whitehorse!
Hopefully when I get back on Tuesday I'll have fun pictures and stories to share.

Have a great weekend!


Temperature: +2C (feels like -2C) [dare I mention the "s" word?]
Sunrise: 8:01am
Sunset: 9:36pm

Whoops!

I didn't realise it had been so long since I updated!
Well, since the last time I wrote, Finnegan has come home from the vet (two and a half weeks home and still not blocked!) and is still recovering. I'd say he's about 90% back to how he was before. My brother has made the quickest cross country drive ever (it took them just over a week to get from here to southern Ontario and that's with 4 days visiting family) AND got engaged! And I've finished two pairs of socks and started on a pair of thrummed mittens!

My brother, Cristine and her dad driving away

Finnegan (the fur is taking a while to grow back).

Afterthought heel socks in Knit Picks Felici - Coney Island and OnLine Tropic.

On Friday I'm going on a road trip with some friends to Whitehorse (we'll get back on Tuesday). We want to stock up on some supplies before winter sets in and prices go up like crazy and I also need to pick up some special cat food for Finnegan (one of the friends has a cat that had the same problems as Finnegan and she needs cat food too). I'm thinking of joining the women's hockey team in town (Tuesday nights - one of my days off!) so I'm going to pick up some gear when I'm down. I'm really excited about this trip since I've never been to Whitehorse before and the furthest I've been down the road is the Arctic Circle sign. The Dempster is supposed to be really nice in fall too so I'll have my camera for lots of pictures.


Temperature: +3C
Sunrise: 7:46am
Sunset: 9:53pm

In Knitting News...

Well since I don't have good news to share with you (I don't really even have terrible news either) I figured I'd better post about that bear I mentioned a while a go. He's very small - maybe 4 or 5" sitting. I thread jointed his arms and legs so he can sort of stand but I think he looks better sitting.

Pattern: Oliver from The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool
Needles: 3.25mm


I'm in the process of doing another one with the knit side out but that might be put aside because I have a sudden urge to make myself some mittens (debating fingerless mittens or full on gloves... Haven't really decided yet).


In kitty news, Finnegan is still at the vet... He's very slowly getting better - we're basically waiting for the pH of his urine to be more acidic to dissolve the last of the crystal chunks. The amount of large crystals has decreased but it only takes one to block him back up. We're hoping a special food will be in for him in the next day or two because that should really get things going. He'll be home very soon if the food is in and I'm not really 100% sure what will happen if the food isn't here by tomorrow. It's been rough waiting and thinking about those tough decisions.


Temperature: +7C
Sunrise: 6:28am
Sunset: 11:12pm

Update...

Just an update to let everyone know, Finnegan is back at the vet's.

He reblocked on Thursday and I took him back in early Friday morning. The vet had troubles with the catheter but finally got it inserted this morning (Saturday). Finnegan is doing well (considering) and is on IV fluids & antibiotics and still has the catheter in place.
The vet wants to keep him hooked up to everything for another 72 hours at least - he said the crystals in Finnegan's urine are so bad that when he put the sample on the slide for the microscope then put the cover slip on it, it actually "crunched" *sigh*
Finnegan will likely have a few more shaved spots when he comes home too because the vet had to extract urine with a needle through his abdomen when the catheter wouldn't go in.

Cross your fingers that things continue to get better the other alternative is a very drastic (and not 100% successful) surgery.

War Wounds

Well, we've gone through quite the ordeal & emotional roller coaster the last few days.
My (youngest) cat Finnegan got sick on Friday and because of our lack of high-tech vet equipment up here it was a bit of a long process figuring out what was wrong with him. First we thought he might've swallowed something, then we thought it might be a kitty disease and then on Monday the vet felt a mass in Finnegan's stomach. We made the heart wrenching decision of deciding on exploratory surgery (it was that or send him out of town and at that point we thought they'd end up doing surgery anyway) and made what could've been the "good-bye visit" at the vet's. Thankfully before the surgery part came, the vet discovered that Finnegan was experiencing urinary issues (yay for catheters!). Finnegan is back home recuperating, on antibiotics and will be on a special diet for the rest of his life.

Finnegan sporting a shaved leg from his IV (he chewed it out the first night, little bugger!!)

I hope I never have to make any of those heart wrenching decisions again. And I wish that pet care didn't have to come down to "how much are you willing to spend to save your pet's life?". I'm thankful the vet is a family friend and extremely compassionate but also very frank about what problems and risks we were potentially facing.
I ended up having to take two days off of work because I was so upset and because I wanted to watch Finnegan to see if he was getting sicker (he started getting sick on Friday and I ended up taking him in for fluids on Sunday night because he wasn't eating or drinking and kept throwing up - he was still peeing a tiny bit though which was probably the only thing that kept him going for so long).

Like children you're not really supposed to have a favourite and I hate to admit it but he's my favourite. I love my other cat Tilley (she's 5, Finnegan is 3) but she wants nothing to do with me. It's a female thing - she LOVES Glen. Finnegan is THE MOST affectionate cat ever and will cuddle and snuggle and purr all day long if you'd let him. He runs to greet me at the door and follows me around the house. He also spends a lot of time laying across my shoulders (where he is right now) - it's either that or carry him around in my arms all day. He reminds me a lot of one of our first cats. We called him Boogity (Boogie for short - his mum's name was Squirrel - lol) he slept on my bed with me, under the covers with his head on my pillow.

Me with my buddy Boogie.

Unfortunately Boogie got into the neighbour's antifreeze and passed away at a very young age (probably not long after that picture was taken). I'll never forget the day my mum met me half-way on my way home from school to tell me the news.

I don't really want to end on such a sad note so I'll say that I finished knitting a small bear. I'll post about it another day though. He's quite cute and I've already started another.


Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 11:44pm

*Achoo!!!*

I have a cold... Colds should be illegal in the summer - especially during the Arctic summer - especially, especially during an Arctic summer in August when it's 18C after being rainy and cold for a week. humph...

I'm glad it's August only because my poor picture folder is about to explode (by all other accounts August = shitty because summer is practically over then we're back to evil, cold winter)... I had to do more sorting today (I start getting paranoid when my folder takes a while to load) and hopefully organising things into MORE folders (251 folders in my one huge "Megan's Folder") will help my "July 2008" folder a bit... I still haven't uploaded photos from the last photo session either... eek...
I'm getting the itch to set up my studio set again... I need to find the time to clean the space I need and then the time to actually set everything up... And then I need to find a willing model lol... Glen is not a fan of having his picture taken (especially with my honkin' lens) so he's sort of out... hmmmm

We're looking at getting one of those portable hard drive thingies. Does anyone know if there's much difference between different brands? I found a site that does cool coloured/customisable ones for a decent price. I don't know about anyone else but it's hard for me to resist fun colours (evident in my Elann Peruvian Highland Wool collection) ;-)

Not much knitting happening. I'm getting bored with felted clogs (already). I'm going to try to pace myself and make a few pairs between projects instead of trying to do like 10 pairs at once like I'd sort of planned. The hard part is deciding what I should do next... Another toy perhaps?

Here's a pretty picture to make up for a crappy post:

(the bees are getting really dopey - this one just sat there - we thought it was dead then I blew on it and it started moving a bit)

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: 5:12am
Sunset: 12:43am