In which my model is retired

I often have Mug model my knitted garments because.. well, she's photogenic and I think every picture of her is beautiful.

I was just checking my flckr account and was absolutely, positive gobsmacked to find that not one but two freaks favorited her picture because they seem to have fetishes regarding bundled or scarved girls. She was wearing a helmet liner that I knitted for bike riding in the cold weather.

Serves the f'ers right.. I'm going to delete her picture and insert one of ME wearing it. I think that will put their fires out.

Grrr.

BC is for a couple of things

For Victoria, BC. I'm leaving tomorrow after work to hold my mother's hand for a little while.

On June 2, she's getting rid of BC.



I don't suppose it's terribly fair to have to deal with this shit when you're 75 and you're alone. So cancer? This isn't the first time I've held her hand when she faced her terrors and had you removed from her body. I hope it's the last. Honestly, I do.

Reunion video clips

It started when I was reading The Enchanting Juno's blog and there was mention of soldiers returning home to their pets. Youtube doesn't seem to want to play embedded videos at the moment, so I went directly to the site and did a search for something like 'reunite soldiers dogs'. Well.. there just isn't enough tissue in the world.

Because I haven't made anybody cry in a long while, check this out (well, if Youtube has regained it's sanity).

The Year of Estonian/Orenburg lace is turning into...

The year of the sock. The year of fundraising. The year of cycling. The year of knitting socks to fundraise for cycling.

In happy news, there is SOME progress on the lace front. I was able to find a copy of Galina's book from Shuttleworks, and so around the time of the Olympics I spent many, many hours working on the Eastern Star shawl. I think i have 5" or so completed (scoff if you may, that's one crapload of knitting we're talking about there); and tragically I dropped a stitch that ran allllll the way back to where the lace joins the shawl. On that note, the whole project went into the time out basket, and it resides there still.

OK, so I bought an Orenburg shawl from Galina. I admit it. It's fabulous and I love it, and I just saved myself a year of knitting. (It's everything I dreamed it would be and more)

My Estonian shawl (the Miralda) is almost complete, but I ran out of handspun just inches before the cast off. Not a huge problem (thank God), Correna had 4oz. of Bison that she bought from the same vendor as I had, so I have been spinning that to finish the shawl with. I thought I'd DO THE RIGHT THING (cuz I love her) and spin the whole 4oz and return her down in the form of yarn. So.. I need some extra time with that.


(an old picture.. it's almost done now)

As far as lace goes, I did knit Amy's new bolero pattern 'Watershed', and it's quite lovely. I chose the wrong yarn for the project, and the garment doesn't drape the way it ought to. My fault entirely.



Ohhhhh, and socks. I've been contract knitting them left, right and centre. Also, Martha donated a whole basket full that she'd knitted, so a bunch of the money I raised for the Ride to Conquer Cancer happened on account of socks. Currently I'm knitting a pair of yellow ones that I can wear during the ride. At least I hope so, they're DK weight, and maybe a little thick for the job. We'll see. I also have a pair of Casbah socks in blue on the needles, and finished a pair of Silk Garden 211 socks for Donna's birthday.

They're everywhere, they're everywhere.

What else? Hmmmmm... I knitted a Wool Leaves for a shop display. It's kinda cool, and will make a nice lap blanket when I bring it home.



Oh! Over a weekend retreat I knitted a version of Kourtney's "Mistaken" shawl. I absolutely adore it! You can knit it for yourself by downloading her free Ravelry pattern. (I actually knit the green one shown, but the picture is Kourtney's)



Lots of other stuff happening at the moment. My mom is having surgery on June 1 for breast cancer, so I'm going to fly to Victoria for 2 days. Nini turns 3 on June 4th. I have the MS Ride on June 12/13, the Ride for Dad on June 19th and the Ride to Conquer Cancer on June 26/27. It isn't even June yet, and somehow it seems like the summer is half over. To my utter shock, I barely have any more time to train for the rides. Damned blizzards.

The puppy turned one! He's so amazing, and cute, and funny, and sweet, and talented, and did I say funny?



Speaking of SHOCK, it would appear that I'm not going to have anything suitable completed to put into Stampede. I love a rosette, I have to say.

This has not been the year of taking good photographs, so I'll post this as is, and hope that I can fill it in with images at a later time instead of just.not.blogging.cuz.i.have.no.pictures.

If she wasn't blonde

and she wasn't... you know... Marilyn Monroe; she'd be lucky enough to have a hair style kinda like mine. Except I put mine behind my ears.

Adam says this is the coolest guy in the world

And I believe him.



I wish I had known about this type of fun before I was so wimpy that I wrote a blog post when I needed to put a (bacon shaped) bandaid on my elbow. And knee. Don't forget about the knee.

FTU = AOTK

Once upon a time, about 6 years ago, I rode Mug's new bike home from school for her. I didn't realize that the brakes might need to be adjusted; when I barely touched them, I did a spectacular endo directly in front of two people I knew well. I swear, that was the worst part. Well, that and my elbow. I took off a major hunk of it, and I must say.. healing up a body part that is constantly bending is not a fast or easy proposition.

So this brings us to this very day. Spring fever abounds, and there were absolutely loads of people out riding today. I was really excited because after picking up some shoes from MEC, we went to see the Bike Bros in Cochrane to retrieve my Cannondale. I wanted to upgrade my bike somewhat, and had new grips installed, switched to a clipless pedal system and also switched tires from commuter to slicks. Graham told me that the tire switch lightened the bike by 2 (rotational) lbs. After we got home I put the bike up on the fluid trainer and practiced clipping and unclipping my shoes to the bike.



Goes like this (on the trainer): Pedal. See imaginary stop sign. Unclip right foot. Apply brakes. Slightly steer towards right foot and lower unclipped foot to the ground. Raise left, clipped foot somewhat. Step down with same foot, creating motion; meanwhile clip right foot.

I had read quite a few clipless pedal threads on Team Estrogen, and asked my friend Jen for her input and suggestions. It was difficult and frustrating at first, but after a while things improved. I decided to take my show on the road.

Would have been really excellent if my natural motion was to step down with the right foot when I stop. Turns out that I'm a left foot stopper.



Same elbow. Matching knee. That's my bike seat you see above... I didn't love it in the first place, so no biggie. No broken bones, just some missing skin, lots of aches and pains and a butt shiner. I learned something important:

Failure to unclip = Ass over tea kettle.

I'd talk about knitting, but everything I knitted on the Orenburg today needs to be frogged because I somehow missed a rest row, so I'm zigging when I should be zagging.

Failure to purl =

Well, you know.