Sweater!

My rogue is finally finished!

Those of you who are not knitters may feel free to ignore this entry entirely.

I started this sweater 2-3 years ago, and have been working at it on & off ever since. I didn't let myself knit the summer I was studying for MCAT, so it has been ignored for months at a time.


It's knit out of Cascade 220 in a heather colourway (9443). It's a dark red with a bright blue heathered into it.

This pattern is available at www.girlfromauntie.com.

I did the cardigan modifications because I really don't like pullovers. They're always too hot and make my hair all staticky in the winter.

Issues that I had were:


1. I did the hem modification where you start the hem on smaller neeldes before a turning row. Then you knit the length of the hem and knit each stitch together with it's corresponding cast-on loop. Sounds genius, but I may have got my row count wrong or something, because it was extremely flippy, and the hem was always pointing straight up when I tried it on.

I'm a pretty easygoing knitter, but it just looked stupid. So I got very brave and cut off my original hem. Then I knit downward and just made a plain old hem that had to be sewed down in the traditional fashion. I cut one row closer than I had planned, and almost ended up messing with the cabling. So close.

2. I have a little cable-crossing error that doesn't bother me enough to change it at this point in time.

3. I forgot the pocket. Doh! Wasn't paying attention at the point in the pattern where you are supposed to start it. Oh well, I may get bored and try to find a creative way to add pockets later.



I weighed this sweater before putting in the zipper and it was 603 grams. So just over six skeins. Not bad considering I lengthened the body and the sleeves.

This was a fun pattern and I'm so happy with the finished product. It fits me well. I put in a 24 inch zipper so I can keep my neck warm when it's windy out. And now for more pictures!

Stampede

I have decided that I hate working in Calgary during Stampede. It's too hot to sleep, and as soon as I do sleep, the fireworks go off. Then I get to sleep again just in time for all the drunks to make it back to our neighborhood screaming. Veterinary clinics do not close for Stampede, and they don't pay their employees to stand around eating pancakes and drinking beer like the downtown workers, which leaves me rather jealous. So as I am self-employed, I was able to decide that I no longer work that part of July. I had my cousin's 13 and 15 year old daughters come to Calgary, and took them to Stampede instead.

We had a lot of fun. Mike and I are old and boring, and I get motion sickness VERY easily, so we set them loose on the rides and had them check in with us at regular intervals. Thank goodness for cell phones.

My inner redneck LOVES watching motocross. There wasn't any there, but there was a fun BMX show. It'll do.



Mike was rather obsessed with eating as many foods "on a stick" that he could find.

He had a corndog, and ice cream on a stick, but his favorite was pizza on a stick.
We all agreed it was quite tasty.


I also enjoyed the pickle kabob on a stick:

My favorite indulgence was the funnel cake. Mike's cell phone camera managed to capture the holiness of the crumbs and powdered sugar left on the plate:

It's a good thing we went over several days. Especially since Davina was on a successful quest for deep fried oreos. That's too much grease for a single visit.

I wasn't sure how a boring couple of people like Mike and myself were going to entertain teenagers. What I forgot is that when I was a teenager, there was no internet! Give them a laptop and they can amuse themselves for hours. Mike was giving free geek lessons. Katie is a star pupil:


Davina and Katie are fun and smart kids, and we enjoyed having them around. I managed to keep the cat allergens in our house from killing Davina by drugging her with antihistamines every few hours. I'm not sure her lungs would have survived a longer visit, though. I sent them home with the first season of Veronica Mars. They of course became immediate addicts and I had to ship them seasons 2 and 3 ASAP.


I wonder if I'm brave enough to do it again next year?

Been gone gone gone so long.

I left Calgary after work on April 20th, and didn't really get back home until June 4th. I spent a week in Lethbridge, 36 hours at home, flew to Fort Mac for 3 weeks, came home for 4 days (worked 2 of them) and then went back to Grande Prairie for a couple of weeks. It's nice to be back.


As for my adventures while away, some are so long ago that they're getting a bit blurry. I'll have to go through my photos to jog my memory. Apparently the evil forces of Voldemort are getting a little out of control near the Starbucks in Lethbridge.



Up in Fort Mac I stayed with my friend Alison & her husband, along with their daughters Mary & Anna. Aren't they cute?

As usual, Fort McMurray was full of Newfies and their fun phrases and habits. And apparently their strange foods too. I didn't feel the need to buy any.

I worked at 2 clinics while I was up there. The clinic I had never worked at before was really fun, and they gave me this SWEET RIDE to drive around in while I was working for them. There's a cartoon turtle hanging on for dear life on the other side, and a bunch of animal backsides on the tailgate where it says "happy tails to you".

I kept my eyes on the road, but Alison assures me that we got a lot of strange looks while going out for coffee in it. I think I can safely say that I was driving the most noticeable pickup truck in Fort McMurray. That's saying a lot.

After a few days at home where I enjoyed the relative quiet of living with Mike and the cat, I went home to Grande Prairie. I spent a couple of nights at my grandparents' new place (quite the palace) and the rest of the time at my brother's. Where they also have two small children.


Rebekah is difficult to photograph because if the red-eye on my camera goes off, she stops smiling, but if I don't use the flash, she's just a happy pink blur.

She has also developed the adorable habit of sucking her thumb. That's her mom, my wonderful sister in law Sarah holding her there.





My nephew James and I also had some pretty good times together this visit. He really enjoys roaring at me like a lion. He REALLY thinks it's great if I shriek and run away when he roars. He was jumping and roaring when I took this picture, so I couldn't get him centered in the shot.


After peeking inside James' Backyardigans lunchbox, I have decided that I will never ask a toddler to pack my lunch. What you see there is 3 Thomas the Train toys, an old muffin, a really old timbit type dessert, and an unopened jar of babyfood. Meat babyfood. Pretty grim if you ask me.





James and I had a lot of fun at the park, where he was kind enough to bury my feet in the sand. I also introduced him to the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, which is by far one of the best movies to watch with a 2 year old. During the really fun bit where the chipmunks are singing the Witch Doctor song, he grabbed my brother's guitar hero guitar and started rockin' out with them. I think that he's proably rockin' out at a third grade level these days. Very advanced, that boy.



Whenever I felt the need to flee the toddler/infant lifestyle, I went over to my friend Marti's house and hung out with her and the animals. This is Crispy the italian greyhound on my lap. Poor unsuspecting guy was under my knife for a little lumpectomy just a few days later. He is resilient and quickly regained his prancy walk after surgery. That reminds me that I have to call her and see what the histopathology results were.



Just a few days before I left Grande Prairie my poor little sister Kristed cut of the end of her finger while chopping kindling. None of the bone is missing, so it should be alright. I brought her bandaids and a sympathy card to make her feel better.





Maybe I should have bought her and Opi matching tea sets instead.

Even without the gift of fine china, she recovered quickly, and was able to hold her own in a Magnadoodle race with James before taking me to the airport. Note that she was only using 4 fingers to draw as fast as she could, and James was using all 10 of his to erase her drawings.

That's all I have to report for today. I'll post an update on my knitting projects tomorrow.

How did they not see this coming?

I've been working late shifts at one of the emergency clinic in town this week. They're supposed to be 3pm to 1am, but they've been stretching a bit later. I worked 3pm to 4am the other day. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I was coming home last night at 3:30am and listening to the news radio station. They predicted today might be a little cloudy and it might rain.

I had an appointment to get an oil change and have the summer tires put on the car today, since it's my only weekday off until the rapture. Or until May 22 if you want to avoid hyperbole.

I got up at 10am and was still exhausted from the night before. My very nice husband Mike agreed to take the car in for me, and I would pick it up later today. When he went out to the car it looked like this:





He made it about 5 blocks from home before deciding that he didn't want to die on the roads today. He turned around and barely made it up a small hill on the way back.

I went for a walk this afternoon and it had started again. This is thick, heavy stuff that sticks to you and causes major heart attacks in middle-aged men who have to shovel it. This is what I looked like one block from home:



But at least the gnome is still happy.



Creepy little bugger. Mike was terrified of this thing when he was a toddler. Smart guy.

In other news I've been to Lethbridge to work lately, and will be going back in a couple of weeks. I really like that place. If only the university would open an engineering department where Mike could teach.

I also spent some time working up in the northeast end of the city. Aptly, there was a plethora of adorable pitbulls to vaccinate:



If you click on the picture you can see the little pink dots that we drew on their heads with a highliter to keep track of who had already been vaccinated and dewormed.

So that's what's been going on with me. Any suggestions on how to go to bed 6 hours earlier than "usual" tonight? I have to work at 9am tomorrow.

Cute Stuff

I've had a pretty good week apart from having a nasty cold. Fortunately, I didn't have any work booked for 6 days in a row, so I got to stay home and surf the interwebs and knit and blow my nose a lot.

I'm currently knitting a pattern called tulip, which will be a little cardigan for my goddaughter. Since this picture I've managed to finish one of the sleeves. It feels good to work on something so colourful right around easter. Although maybe I should have been working on something a bit more sombre on Good Friday?



I have volunteered to do interviews for the first crop of prospective veterinary students at the University of Calgary's new vet school. I had my training session on Wednesday. Let's hope the spelling of the word "veterinary" in the parking meters gets corrected before they graduate in four years.



Mike's parents stopped in Calgary for a night on their way to vacation in Costa Rica. His brother came up from Lethbridge to see them, and my brother and his wife & kids also happened to be in Calgary this weekend. It was awesome.

Mike and I babysat my nephew James today and he was an angel. It helps that he was mesmerized by watching Treehouse for a couple of hours. He even managed to share space with our grouchy old cat with no altercations.

This is a picture of him polishing off a 100 calorie pack of fudge shop cookies. I figure that there can't be too much sugar if there's only 100 calories, and he had already eaten some cheese at that point. He wasn't nearly as grumpy as this picture makes him look.



His little sister Rebekah has started smiling and is EXTREMELY cute.



The only sad part about this week is that one of the greatest veterinary technicians I've ever worked with is moving back to Ontario. I'm going to miss her so much.

Almost an Engineer.

Mike's iron ring ceremony was yesterday. Only 51 more days until he's done.

He doesn't like the fact that the UofC ceremony is open to everybody, so I didn't go. But I did go to the dinner and that was fun.

Here's a rare sighting of Mike in a suit, waiting for the bus to go downtown to the dinner:



Unfortunately we were halfway there when we realized we had forgotten the tickets. So we bailed off the bus and had our friends Tamara and Shawn come get us, take us home to get the tickets, and take us back downtown in time for everything.

Then we found out we didn't even need the tickets to get in. Sigh.

Immortalized (temporarily)

The clinic I work at the most in Calgary has a rather ugly sign, so we've been using a window painter to make the building more interesting to look at, and to tell people about us.

I had to laugh when I saw that they had the window painter put me on the windows this time.

I feel famous!