And a blessed holiday season to you all

My elder daughter is home. Everyone agreed that we all got wonderful presents and that yesterday's shepherd's pie (our traditional Christmas meal) was exquisite. Today's turkey is in the oven. No one else is awake, so I can play on the computer to my heart's content. If anyone gets up in time we're going to go to the new Sherlock Holmes movie sometime.

Also I'm nearly done my second pair of toe-up socks. I wore the first pair to work on Tuesday and they felt great.

Things are good.

Guess this old dog still can learn a few new tricks

I'm doing two things I never thought I'd ever do - knitting something on five needles instead of four, and knitting socks from the toe up.

First real snow of the year

Of course it's the day of two Christmas parties. I suspect the gang from out of town (and higher ground) won't come in. Must ice the cake anyway. More leftovers but less fun if they're not there.


OTOH, deliberately bought sock yarn for the first time in my life yesterday. Now to see if I can manage toe-up socks.

There was a mouse in my office

A mouse! Honestly! And it's not like I worked in a barn or something. I'll admit the part of the building I'm in is almost 90 years old, but seriously that's no excuse.

Contrary to the story making the rounds, I did not scream. I did, however, swear loudly enough to roust my cross-hall neighbours out of their office, also known as the mancave. My swearing seems to excite them, for some reason.

The cagoule is working

I probably should have blocked it, or perhaps made it one stitch wider, but it does indeed keep the cold off the ears.

Want the pattern? It's at www.darngoodyarn.com.

The weather is jumping back and forth above and below the freezing mark the last few days. Most mornings there is frost on the trucks, but Halloween was almost balmy. It was supposed to rain all day, but at least here it didn't much. It was plenty windy, however.

I'm not in a big rush to try out any other winter woolies (or silkies), though.

My latest project

I like cowls. (I call them cagoules, my ninja-wannabe buddies at work call them buffs.)

What do you think of this one? It's a Möbius strip made with thick and thin (aka yoyo diet) yarn).

It's supposed to be chilly tonight, so it gets field-tested tomorrow.

Silk socks

Well, I can say with confidence that the silk socks work. They kept my feet nicely warm at Night Quest, an overnighter for Pathfinders and Rangers, despite the heavy frost on the tent.

Seduced by silk

There's just something about the way silk feels to work with. I've had a chance to experiment with embroidery with silk fibres, and I thought that was incredible enough, but knitting with silk is really wild.

Even the roughest-spun of the recycled sari silk has a smoothness (yes, dare I say it? a silkiness) that you don't get with anything else.

What do you think of  these silk socks?

I'm expecting them to be my "Sheesh, this bed is cold" socks.

Love the play of colours, too.

Try that again

Still experimenting, but here's hoping the title now links to some incredible silk yarn.

I love silk

Since the last time I posted, I've discovered recycled sari silk yarn. Have a look at the Web site above. Gorgeous stuff! I've knit more in the last three months than I had in several years.

Tattoos

I got a tattoo. I've been thinking about it for years, and finally I went ahead and did it.

While trying to decide what to get, I came to the conclusion I really liked the idea of an angel on my shoulder. However, I wasn't sure that some sissy in a pastel robe would be of much good to me, so I now have the Archangel Michael on my left shoulderblade.

I knew I had married the right man when I told him what I was going to do and he said, "With a flaming sword and everything?"

It may be spring soon

Almost all the snow is gone and the river has crested once, well below the dangerous flooding level. Temperatures reach the double digits at least every couple of days. Spring it may be!

Facebook etiquette

Just recently been friended by someone I haven't seen in over 30 years, and haven't missed, either.

Glad he's alive and happy and all that, but we were never friends and I doubt we will be now. However, he must have actively searched me, as we don't have any friends in common. Why on earth would he remember me after all this time?

I'd rather not have accepted his invitation, but it sounds so petty. I don't accept invitations from people I don't actually know, but if someone I did use to know actually looks me up, saying no sounds so rude.

Bizarre the ethical dilemmas of new technology!

Happy Valentine's Day to all

It's far too cold here and work is incredibly busy, so I'm not getting much else done, but I'm going to at least try to keep this up.

I've opened my mouth and volunteered for training (Guiding) that needs to be done, so of course I'm panicking. It will all work out. It always does.

And when it's this cold the roof doesn't leak.

Weather

I detest being cold. I also detest being too hot, and I guess 25 C is about right.

However, when it's cold the roof doesn't leak, whereas when we crawled up near the freezing mark over the weekend it did. In nasty places. There is something disconcerting about cold water on the small of your back when you're sitting on the toilet.

Interesting week

This week, I spent two days in Ottawa for consultations with the federal government, have been home for a couple of days and now head off to Moncton tomorrow for a Guiding conference.

Ottawa was a blast and I expect Moncton to be even better.

I just wish I had a nice fuzzy feeling that I actually did something useful in Ottawa. I listened attentively, made my opinions and those of my professional association known and stuck up for those who don't fit in with the mainstream of the profession. I keep being surprised at how entrenched the stereotypes are, though - and I firmly believe that translation is the main profession in this country where Anglos face racial prejudice. However, it's hard to convince someone who's never been on the receiving end that that's what it is.

But I digress. Of course, that's what blogs are for, isn't it?

Well, I've shamed myself into posting

Having had the audacity to publish an article on blogging, I guess I have to post once in a while, don't I?

See, ReBecca - I've taken your challenge, and will try to blog more often.

So what's new in my life since my last post in August? Lots of work, nowhere enough stitching or writing for my own purposes as opposed to what I do for a living.

I had a wild trip to Montréal in November to a conference. Arrived in the rain, left in the snow, got kicked out of the Museum of Modern Art. I'm off to Ottawa Sunday for more meetings. The next weekend is another conference in Moncton. I'm bringing my husband to this one. Poor man, he gets to go to the least exotic of the three.