random monday

Feb 1 - coconut cream pie

I made a delicious coconut cream pie a couple weekends ago – it was a big hit! I used a can of coconut milk in place of the whole milk in the filling. It kind of turned a bit grey when I was cooking it, but whatever. It was soooo good.

February 5 - plying

Finished plying up a pound of merino/seacell blend that I’d been working on for AGES! It’s a 2-ply and maybe about 1800 yards. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, but it is quite soft and pretty. Maybe I’ll have it dyed.

February 11 - take two

Working on a new sample of an older pattern that I completely wrote up but never released. This one is in Zen Yarn Garden superwash worsted, in Moon Purple. I haven’t had a purple sweater in ages so it’s going to be great!

February 10 - digging out

Digging out this weekend. We didn’t get as much as in the US, but still the biggest snowstorm in a few winters – we got 30cm (12″). It was a good excuse to hunker down with slow cooker stew, Boardwalk Empire, and a new jigsaw puzzle.

February 4

My next sweater pattern release! I can’t wait to share it with you.

bottineau in action

As you might have noticed, I love cardigans – I wear them pretty much every day! But lately I’ve been exploring pullovers more.

15/365 - warm

Top: Anthropologie
Sweater: Bottineau

This is what I wore to my very last day working at lettuce knit. I started working there 9 years ago and I love it so much, but it’s time for me to concentrate on my design work. Thanks to all the friendly customers and customer-friends that I’ve made over the years, and a special thanks to everyone who came out last night for Stitch Night. Don’t worry though, I won’t be going anywhere – I still need to knit with people and shop!

weekend in Ottawa

I’m a bit behind in everything, not the least of which is my poor neglected blog! Let’s see about catching up. Last weekend I headed to Ottawa for a bit of a birthday trip. A friend and I drove (okay, he drove) and got there Thursday night. We stayed at his brother’s apartment in Byward Market – very, very convenient in terms of getting around, but it’s a bit wild on the weekends. Clubs and such.

the locks

Friday we walked around, took the bus to Hintonberg and checked out Parkdale farmer’s market (where there were berries all over the place!), a few little shops, and the yarn store on Wellington West, Wabi-Sabi. Bit of an adventure to get there with all the construction, but it was a nice little shop that carries a lot of Americo yarns – perfect if you want them but aren’t in Toronto.

Had a delicious pizza lunch at the Grand in Byward Market, then headed over to Parliament Hill for Fortissimo – a “musical extravaganza” put on my the armed forces. It was interesting, but they probably could’ve cut at least 15 minutes of unnecessary music.

Fortissimo 2009

Saturday we took the parliamentary tour and took lots of photos – including this crazy unicorn right outside the main entryway! Why’s his tongue sticking out? Weird.

drunken unicorn?!

archways

This view should be familiar to Canadians who watch the news – this is outside the House of Commons, where all the journalists lie in wait.

this view should be familiar to Canadians who watch the news

My favourite part was the library – it’s the only part of the building that survived a big fire, and it’s quite beautiful.

363.365 - old school

Saturday night we went to New Edinburgh Park for the Lumiere festival, which was super fun – the park is super dark, but the trails are lit with tons of pretty lanterns.

paper bag maze

(Candles-in-paper-bags maze)

swirly lantern

more of the lumiere festival

Sunday was pretty chill – we walked around the Glebe area and went to the Landsdowne farmer’s market. Can you tell I love farmer’s markets? So much pretty and yummy produce! I ended up baking a pie on Sunday too, with blueberries from the market.

pretty plums!

And then Monday it was back to Toronto and a full week of work at the store! Knitting news and some destashing is coming right up.