Sunday, September 28, 2008

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

Thursday, September 25, 2008

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

Saturday, September 20, 2008

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

Thursday, September 18, 2008

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

Friday, September 12, 2008

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

Monday, September 8, 2008

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