Another post of unrelated nonsense

Aghhhh. My cream of wheat just overflowed all over the microwave. Now I will starve and have to clean at the same time. Poor me.

Clapotisn't

I know I was going to make a Clapotis out of this yarn, but it resisted. Actually, I love the Clapotis pattern. I think it's beautiful, and I want one, but this is the third time I've tried to make one, and the third time the yarn has turned around and given me attitude and insisted on becoming something else. However, I did get to play with the macro setting on our new camera, so hooray!

what am I?

Socks Socks and well, more Socks

I like knitting socks. They're small, easily portable projects that I can finish quickly and that I don't really have to sew any seams for, or weave in many ends. So I've been knitting many socks recently, particularly while I was workingat the museum and had time on the bus to knit every day. Here are two recently completed socks: On the left, embossed leaves from Interweave Knits something or other (I'll look it up if anyone is really interested) and on the right, using up scraps of other sock yarn (3 different yarns). Don't worry, both socks have matching mates, and I've also knitted lots of other socks, but I don't have a really good way to display them. So this'll have to do.

hooray for socks. boo for crummy weather and flash pictures that are a little washed out.

Birthday Sweater

I can't for the life of me remember if I've mentioned this thing before, but this is a sweater I'm knitting Richard for his birthday. (What? I'm only three weeks - okay, a month late. Or, you could say I'm eleven months early. bwahahaha) I'm basing it on the gansey pattern by Ann Bud in the Winter 2004 Interweave Knits magazine. I've had to do a little tweaking, mostly because the pattern is for a man with a 44" chest, which Richard isn't. (That man is all torso, and let me tell you, that's a lot of knitting.)


I'm doing the sleeves on a zillion double-pointed needles because I hate 16" circulars. The cord between the needles is too short for me, and I end up straining and hurting my hands. Not that any metal needles are much better - I really do prefer plastic.

Tis the Season

To realize that I haven't even thought about christmas cards yet and that they should really go into the mail YESTERDAY if I want to have any hope of them reaching the recipients on time. I resist buying cards for a couple of reasons- I'm cheap, I want mine to be memorable, I'm not sending gifts to most people, so the card needs to be heartfelt and personal. Perhaps my time is better spent today thinking about this, rather than surfing the internet aimlessly. Perhaps.

Excuses

Keji clouds in late afternoon

Well, I have been silent for a couple of weeks, but in my defence I was working three jobs for the last two weeks in October, and also had my brother Michael visiting us, so I was a wee bit busy.

Sadly, my contract at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is over for this season, but my wonderful bosses there made it clear that I'll be offered a position next season starting in May. Woo and hoo! If I can't get anything else in the field (and really, there isn't much going on in Nova Scotia museums over the winter) I'm all over it. I can't believe how much fun it was working there!

Just for fun, you can follow this link to watch a video about two of my feline coworkers at the museum. It was made by a NSCAD student a little while ago. (NSCAD University is a fine arts school down the street from the museum.)

In other exciting news, Richard and I have invested in a new camera. Our old one is about three or four years old, and is an inexpensive point and shoot. Not terrible, but not fantastic, either. We went to Carsand Mosher, a local camera store, and got absolutely fantastic service, and a new camera! It is another Olympus - like I said we like the first one, it's just not big enough any more, and we can use the same memory cards - an SP 510UZ. It has 7.1 MP and 10x optical zoom, as well as an anti-shake thingy (I know, my grasp of technical terminology is astounding), which, as you know, is very good for my jittery self.

Last weekend (-ish, I haven't got a clue what day it is) we went to the Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct, and laughing ourselves silly about the word 'adjunct' we went for a hike. A windy cold hike. But nice nonetheless.

The point I'm getting to is that we (by this I mean Richard) took some pictures with our new camera.

the macro! so much better than the old one - with the new camera, we can contro depth of vision and flash and shutter speed. also, it has an onboard users manual. neato.

we had to have been about 16 metres away from these guys. go optical zoom!

silly siblings on a hill

patterns in the sand - these were neat. they were only along one strip of beach, parallel to the water but just below the high tide mark. I've no idea what makes them - sand fleas or something? this one looks like a little lizard

the money shot. I think Michael has missed his calling as a Sears catalogue model. for the 1978 wishbook edition. how rugged... and plaid

We were out from mid afternoon until twilight, and as you can see, the new camera can cope with different light conditions much more easily than the old. I think Richard may want to use this camera as an entry into more a much more serious pursuit of photography as a hobby - it is adaptable to certain lenses, and as I mentioned above, gives the photographer manual control over different things.

Next time: what have I been knitting? (You didn't think a little extra work would make me quit, didja? What else am I going to do on the bus?)