So I spent some time at Village Yarns today, feeling my way through the yarn, hunting for some good wool for my next project. I’m looking for some non-itchy wool for a touque as I don’t like itchy wool. I like that now there are wools out there that aren’t itchy, because otherwise my knitting endeavours would be a tad limited. I found a few that would do nicely, so now I’m going to price them out at the various stores here in the Big Smoke. Oh! And I also bought the final couple of skeins for my next baby blanket, which I’m also excited about. I really wanted the final colour to be a lighter colour, a gray or perhaps a creme, but I couldn’t find any today. I could’ve gone to another store tomorrow, however I’m a little impatient and want to start this blanket NOW, so it’ll have to do with black. I’ll keep you posted on its progress.

I also found some other cheap yarn to add to my stash. I don’t know what I’ll do with it, but I liked the colours, so I bought. My stash went from a half-empty bag to a now overflowing one. Good thing I have a few days off to reorganize my house, that way I can figure out where to store the stash! haha

I also watched two of the myriad of movies I’ve got taped on my PVR (that’s a personal video recorder, a Tivo to my American friends): Barefoot in the Park and 84 Charing Cross Road. I wanted to watch the first as it’s a “classic” movie, and I feel like I should watch more of those, but sheesh, what a boring movie! I love watching Robert Redford as a young man, as he was terribly handsome, but there was no real plot to the movie. It’s only about watching a young Jane Fonda as a vivacious young bride teasing her conservative new hubby, Robert. Nothing really happens. People come to their 5th floor walk up, we laugh as everyone is breathless coming up the stairs. We laugh at the dude who lives in the attic above them. We laugh as Jane’s proper 1960’s mother comes over and tries some Moroccan food. But that’s it! Sheesh. I had to turn it off after about 30 minutes. 84 Charing Cross Road was a much better movie. It was made in 1986, however it reminded me of an 18th century epistolary French novel. It’s the story of a New York writer who buys out of print British books from a London book shop. It spans 30 or 40 years, and is just wonderful. It drew me in within 15 minutes, and I was engrossed in the story for the rest of the movie. I highly recommend it, especially because it would’ve been one of the first times we North Americans would’ve seen Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench (although they’ve had long careers in Europe, we didn’t really know them till the early 90’s). Kind of funny to compare Sir Anthony’s prim & proper book merchant to the creepy Dr. Lecter in Silence of the Lambs!

Yes, the blankie imperfecta is finished!

(Thanks to my sister who acted as photographer extraordinaire.)
I’m quite pleased with the result, as it’s the perfect size for snuggling under while watching tv on the couch, and is nice and soft. I used Bernat Satin in mocha, burgundy, evergreen, admiral, aubergine and silver. The border is in ebony, which I think adds a nice touch. I had lots of fun knitting this up. (and you can’t even see the imperfections.)

(that’s me, shivering out in the snow in the backyard.)

I look forward to starting my next project, a couple of baby blankets for some friends with little ones on the way.

Yes, only one more sleep kiddies till the fat man arrives. Most exciting.

The knitting continues on the blankie imperfecta. I finished three sides of the border, and it looks quite nice. I wasn’t sure exactly how to do it before starting, but seeing as I didn’t have any more joiner thing-a-ma-bobs for my Denise needles, I wasn’t able to knit it in the round. So I just did up some smaller logs on each side. Looks good. I’ll post pix soon once I figure out how to use my sister’s new camera. (It’s the holidays, I’m out of town at her place, and since the new camera’s her Christmas present, I gotta ask before using it. haha) Although since today there seems to be actual sun, perhaps I should take the photo this morning! It’s so rare to see the sun around here these days, that I scarcely know what to do.

Today my sister and I make up the traditional Christmas paniscia. (Go look here if you want to see the recipe we’re using.) Now this dish isn’t traditionally made at this time of year, it’s just that as a warm & yummy risotto dish, we tend to only make it at this time of year cuz it’s usually cold outside. Plus it takes like 8 hours to make as there’s lots of simmering and cooking down of vegetables, so we need a good chunk of time. The biggest reason is that my brother in law’s not a big fan of it, and you can’t make just a small amount of it, so we save it for when I come to visit. Mmm, mmm! Can’t wait for the paniscia!

In case I don’t get to do another post for a couple of days, as it is after all, Santa time, I bid you all Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy Hannukah!

The other day I was reading the Yarn-a-go-go blog, like I do every day, and I had to start laughing at her latest post. She was talking about how she was turning all blue, and she was ready to go to the hospital after a couple of days when she suddenly realized that it was her new jeans that were turning her hands and legs blue! (I guess she actually uses the pockets in her jeans.) I laughed and laughed about that, because we’ve all done that before: worn something new without washing it. Mayhem usually ensues. I’ve got a similar story about my new jeans, not quite as funny, but amusing (at least to me).

I bought some new jeans at Wal-Mart on the weekend…what? Wal-Mart? Yes, if you can believe it, I bought some fashionable jeans at Wal-Mart for a supremely fashionable price. I was actually on the hunt for a dark coloured pair, and found them there, go figure. Anyways, I had time to wash them before wearing, so I did. Monday comes around, and I pull on the dark pair and head off to work. As I’m sitting here typing away, I noticed a strange smell, very light, not too strong, but there nonetheless. I couldn’t quite place it, but it was vaguely familiar. Part way through the morning I took a sniff of my sweater, wondering if it was some strange chemical reaction was occurring between my perfume and laundry detergent, but no dice. The sweater was fine. Throughout the day I kept smelling it, and it was really starting to intrigue me. But then I got busy at work, and forgot all about it.

Until I went home and changed into my lounge-about-wear. I took my jeans, my brand new jeans, and shook them before folding. And the smell hit me again. “Could it be my jeans?” I wondered, as I brought a leg up to my schnoz for a wiff. Sure enough, the culprit was the jeans, and no, they didn’t smell like my laundry detergent (which is Gain, and smells really good!). It suddenly occurred to me what the smell was: moth balls! My brand spankin’ new jeans smell of moth balls! Not really strong, but it’s there. And how do I know what moth balls smell like? My mother. Growing up she used to put them in all our drawers, in the closet, etc. Now I don’t know if we ever had any moths (I know I didn’t see any), but I guess she used to see them in the old country, going after all her nice wool sweaters and other natural fibre clothes, so she thought that here in the new country the situation would be the same.

But the jeans just fit me so perfectly and the price was just so right that I can’t get rid of them for some pesky light smell that will hopefully go away with time. Oh the things we do for fashion.

The blankie’s almost done! I’m actually getting to the ends of all my yarn, which is nice. Although that makes for some interesting logs on the blankie because instead of being the prescribed 9 ridges, some are only 2 or 3, because that’s all the yarn I had left! That’s all right though, because it lets me do more than just one log a night. I even found some black yarn in my stash that I thought was another colour, so I’ve decided to use it to edge the blankie once it’s done. Hopefully that’ll happen this week, so that it’ll be ready for Xmas.

My sister’s also going to show me how to knit up a little pouch to store my birthday present in. I bought myself an iPod nano, and it’s so teeny tiny that I fear I will either break it or something. And as I don’t want to spend $30 on an official Apple case for it, I figured this was a good way to practice my knitting skillz.

Speaking of my sister, you should go check out her blog, as she’s published our zia Lelia’s paniscia recipe, and it’s quite tasty. Paniscia is a traditional peasant risotto dish from our parent’s hometown of Novara, Italy. It’s super yummy, but as it’s a peasant dish, it takes all day to make, because the peasants would traditionally be out tending the farm animals or whatnot whilst it cooked over the open fire. This is why we usually reserve it for the Xmas holidays, because we’re usually ensconsed in the warm house while it’s cold & snowy outside. So go take a look and if you have the time, I highly recommend you try the recipe. You won’t be disappointed!