Almost Canada Day

Today begins another summer long weekend.  This is good.  So good that I'll start things out by sharing a fun drink I discovered this Spring in Vancouver.  I'd been waiting for the weather to get good and hot to spring out this gem, and I think we're there.  This drink is superb: refreshing, zesty, cool, with a super unique flavour.  It's made with  Pimm's No. 1, a British drink.  Drink with pinky extended and wave like the queen.   

Best summer drink.

I'll get to the knitting in a moment, but first, another thing to share:

If you have not yet discovered Audioscrobber, do click and explore. 

As for the knitting...  It's been there, but things are going rough--cotton and I are going through another rough patch.  Especially the Phildar cotton which has been throwing me ball after ball of yarn with broken ends joined with ugly knots throughout it.  Look at this mess: 

 
Grrrr....

They're everywhere, the damned things.  Of course I'm too impatient (read: lazy) to start rows over (or an entire piece, for that matter) once I find myself knitting with another ball that's joined in the middle, so this sweater is doomed to be filled with things that will irritate me. 

What I can't have

Ohhh, why do I always want what I can’t have? I’ve had this Vesper Sock Yarn on my mind for a while now, and it’s near sin for me to think about it. What with a giant stash of projects and supplies, it really is wrong wrong wrong to think about starting something new. Really, it is. I’m sure that if I bought this yarn, it would go directly from its package into a basket, never to be seen again, only to be added to the long list of unfinished projects. I think it’s much better that I hold this stuff at bay for a while, and come back to it as a reward for completing at least one project from the pile.

The poisoned apple

Yes, exactly, that’s what I’ll do. But dammit it’s tempting. The colours…ohhh, the colours! Sigh, another time.

By the way, happy St. Jean Baptiste Day.

bird

 
On my mind today: birds with arms

It's been a while, hasn't it? Another week's just about flown by, and I've been thinking about a whole bunch of things that somehow come back to this bird with arms and wooden feet.  This image was the center of a somewhat controversial debate a few years ago when McSweeny's 4 (late winter 2000) came out with the illustration on the left on the cover, claiming to be a Dave Eggers original.  Yet, anoter website had previously featured a story with the image on the right much prior to the release of McSweeny's 4. 

What am I thinking that comes back to this bird?  I'll start with books.  I've been thinking about books, specifically what book I should add to the reading list next.  Summer reading is up, and I've been meaning to read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius for a long time, written by Dave Eggers, who is also the editor of the bird-debated McSweeny's 4 (see above).  A Heartbreaking Work has been recommended to me for ages by a fellow knitter, whose most recent recommendation has weighed heavily in favour of us attending the Newport Folk Festival   (by the way, Miss G: do you know that this is the Dunkin' Donuts Folk Festival??) to see Emmylou Harris and Bright Eyes (and maybe the Pixies and Richard Thompson if I can do some clever convincing to attend Saturday as well).

So, I've been thinking about books, and about Dave Eggers, and about the Newport Folk Festival, and road trips, and mostly about summer.   And of course, about the bird, and somehow these have all found their way here today as I procrastinate on just about everything.  Fun.

Ritter Day

Ritter Sport chocolates

This is me, hard at work, greatly distracted by a box of chocolates at home, which were brought back from a friend's work trip to Germany. I'm confused, distracted, and drooling... Thinking of the Ritter choclates that await me, and also a bit about John Ritter.

Domino Deciders???

Secretly, I love magazines. Really, I do. I rarely buy them, I rarely read them, but I love the idea of magazines--quick, easy, glossy, fun. I especially love new magazines because they offer an extra promise of freshness. I have a major issue with magazines though, which is that I hate the over marketing and selling of things, and the idea that everyone should go out and buy the same beautiful things to keep up with the style of the day. I'm also not a fan of Hollywood in general, so that keeps me clear from most magazines.

But, of course, because I do secretly love magazines, I am prone to compromising from time to time, particularly in favour of summer beach and travel reading.  I got bored while doing groceries today, and got distracted by the magazine section, so I decided to nose around to see what's going on in magazine land.  I was really surprised at all the new magazines--Tango, Weekend, and Domino caught my eye, but I'm just so torn...  They look so pretty and fun, but they deep down drive me kind of crazy.  Do I really need a magazine to tell me how to have the perfect weekend (let me guess, it involves shopping)?  What will Tango say about my relationship?  And, will I be able to read Domino (who, by the way, have thought out their marketing strategy right down to naming their forum members Domino Deciders) without it enabling me to run out and buy things?

 
Two of the 8 kabillion new magazines out this summer

 Like this, for example.  How will I be able to resist the most beautiful ironing board on earth?? Bahhh.

Surfing

I seriously love the internet, there's always something to check out. After lunch today, I took a minute to check Wikipedia to look into something that was under dispute, and then looked up knitting just for fun. The entry on knitting's kind of interesting--I love the caption on the photo below.

Wikipedia: File Under Knitting

The links section lead me to the site above, whose entry page is pretty hip, in my opinion.

No knitting

It's pretty sad, really.  The amount of time I've spent knitting these past few weeks has been so minimal, I'm starting to wonder how long it will be before things pick up again.  Time's just flying by, and I keep finding myself at 10 at night wondering where the day went. 

And so, during this drought/intermission, I bring you one scarf found crumpled in the closet, completed before this blog's existence:

 
Echarpe from Marie Claire Idées Hiver 2004
Knit with Alpaca Peru (Rose)

Plus one lonely knitting basket:

Sigh...

Good day, sunshine

Finally, Saturday!

Coffee's brewing, it's sunny and nice, though I doubt there will be knitting. Looking forward to checking out the Ladyfest Craft Sale today, which I know will be filled with great finds.

Here's quite a neat art project:

knitting photo project on flickr

Very interesting, do check it out. Add this to the list of reasons I love flickr.

Tired, blah

It's Wednesday, and I'm greatly looking forward to waking up on Saturday morning to a nice cup of strong coffee. And after that, maybe I'll get some knitting done.

One can hope...

Road Trip Mania

Another road trip looms large. Heading to Fredericton, NB tomorrow morning, due back on Monday. Love 12-hour drives. Happy weekend!

Morning

'Morning!

It's not quite 8, and I'm procrastinating getting dressed for work. Instead, I thought I'd post 2 random pictures. First up, a book we gave to our friend's daughter, who turned one on the weekend. A bit advanced reading for a one-year old, but I think she'll like the music.

And, the other, more multicolour yarn I'm liking. I love that knitting is popular in my age group now. 5 years ago, you would never see anything with colours as cool as this.

Knitterly Things Vesper Sock yarn from Knitpixie. Sigh...

And with that, on with the day.