Ladies who Lunch - Part 4

I'm VERY late to this party - since everyone else posted practically the next day !

But, since this will be my whole vacation post, I'll start at the beginning and lead up to the good stuff. As we often do, we spent some of our vacation visiting friends in Toronto. Normally, we have no plans, it's downtime (& shopping LOL) This year, I had one day planned for me, the rest we played by ear.

In my last post, I mentioned, amongst all the SM pics, that we spend some time visiting antique shops, consignment shops and the like. Last year, we carted home two pieces of furniture - this year one new piece came home with us. As an aside, I don't go "just" to buy furniture - if I could find these kinds of deals in Montreal, I'd snap 'em up !

Our house has NO cupboard space - my tiny galley kitchen in our old apartment has more cupboards than this house does. We've been looking for a buffet/sideboard type of cabinet for a long time. The intention was to take off the lunch counter in the pic below and replace it with storage.

An hour after we got home, the counter was off and replaced with this...please, please ignore the mess !



Now the good stuff !

When I knew we were going to Toronto, I emailed Connie and let her know. Connie, who should list mindreading in her list of talents, absolutely recognized the hidden (but not extremely subtle) message in my email - 'please, please come to Toronto and shop with me!'
And so she left her family to take care of business for the day and did just that :-)

Here we are at the start of our morning. I didn't know that Toronto had their own version of New York's Sewing Man sculpture. We've got a very large thimble, with concrete buttons surrounding trees as seating and a measuring tape imprinted into the sidewalk - pretty cool.





There's no point rehashing the trip down Queen Street as Connie has done a wonderfully complete post on the subject here...The down low on fabric shopping in Toronto

And that's not all ! I emailed Reethi and Connie emailed Sue and they met us for a while at lunchtime. We managed to catch up on the past couple of months, eat and get in some bead shopping before they had to get back to work.

Here's the 'Friends' shot - yes, we all have the same pic. We gave our cameras to a gentleman in Downtown Fabrics and he took one for all of us - we probably should have changed positions a little bit LOL !

The haul (from left to right):

16 yards of black poly/cotton broadcloth (I picked this up at a local thrift shop for $5.99) It's sure to come in handy.

Downtown Fabrics...
The wild print is a Nina Ricci cotton
Below that is a blue cotton, for a shirt and a purple and light blue knit for tees.

The steel blue and red fabrics are technical fabrics. The blue (cotton/nylon) from Chu Shing Textiles and the Red from Affordable Textiles.

The only fabric with a plan is the blue cotton/nylon - I've got a skirt that is just a titch too small and I'd like to try to copy it.

The yarns are both sock yarns, the yellow from Romni Wools on Queen Street and the other from Creative Yarns in Scarborough.

And that was my phenomenal vacation this year - I sure hope we can do it again sometime !!!!!

It's been 2 weeks...

and so, there's a long ramble to follow...............



I haven't done any more sewing since the invisible zip drama production in the last post ! LOL
I got the zip in, the lining attached and the sides sewn up. And stopped.

Last weekend I went to New Brunswick for the weekend. One of my brothers is moving to England (long story) this Sunday and last weekend was the get-together. I wasn't home for Christmas and so hadn't seen DB since LAST Christmas !

It was a great couple of days - 6 of the 8 siblings were there & I got to spend time with all of them, a couple nieces & nephews and my BFF (we met in grade 1 and are now trying to ignore the fact that that was 40 years ago)

Friday afternoon, I made a point of spending a few hours with my Mom. So, do you want to know ? It's tougher each time. She is now in the physical care unit as she can't do for herself at all anymore. I know this, I know she must be fed, I know she can't move herself, I know she doesn't know me. What I didn't picture is that while they do have her sitting up in a chair, it is a geriatric chair that she is seatbelted into. You know, the mental picture you have of residents in a nursing home restrained in chairs to keep them sitting upright because they can't hold themselves up - sitting in groups but no real mental activity happening ? That's where Mom is at now. She still has some response but not a lot. My sister & I were able to make her smile a couple of times. That's it, that's all I can type about it.

The visit with everyone on Saturday was wonderful, although bittersweet. There are so many of us and we live in different cities and live our own lives, but we would all say we are close. It's hard to imagine DB moving so far away. Up to now, my eldest brother & I lived the furthest and we're only in Montreal.

Sunday, I got a 2nd visit with my BFF. We met for coffee but it turned out neither of us had any plans for the afternoon (other than me needing to be at the airport on time LOL). We went to visit her parents, who I haven't seen in about 4 years.

It turns out that Mom (BFF's mom) quilts. I can't believe I didn't know that, considering I spent as much time at their house as at my own when we were growing up.
Anyway, during our visit, it came up somehow and Mom asked if I wanted to see her quilts. Well, yeah !!! 1 on her bed, 1 on the bed in the spare room and 11 - yes, 11 ! in her cupboard !

I almost cried - I didn't have my camera.

Here's a sample though. Every bit of this is hand-quilted.

The top is machine-pieced though...



See this bed ? It's MY spare room bed - Mom GIFTED this amazing quilt to me ! While oohing and aahing over all of her quilts, I mentioned that this one was my favorite and she GAVE it to me.
I'm stunned ...

Since I make stuff, I'm not usually the recipient of such wonderful gifts. BFF though, was very happy. Some time down the road, she's going to have to find loving, appreciative homes for all of these quilts. Well, it will be well loved and I can truly appreciate all of the work that went into this quilt.

I've been home now 3 times with socks on the needles and this visit I only packed my own socks. I have just 4 pairs made and that was enough for a weekend trip.


Today's update - Being on a short workweek, I'm generally off on Fridays, but we were really busy this week and I offered to go in today (not a freebie, the time will be added to my banked time)
Afterwards, I walked to a "NEW LYS" !

Ariadne Knits - I recently found out that a coworker also knits and she mentioned this shop last week when I was hyperventilating (LOL) over the possibility of my metal Addi's with my 1/2 done socks being confiscated at the airport. FYI - they were fine, both ways, thank goodness. Since I finished at about noon today and I was bundled up, I decided to walk down and check it out. I should know better, right ? Yeah, bought a ball of sock yarn. The burgandy-ish ball on the left - "Trekking XXL"

The pattern and the Opal 'Orange' are my purchases from Cricket Cove in Saint John last weekend.

I must say, so far this is my favorite yarn store in Montreal. VERY friendly and helpful. A while back I posted about another one close to work. On my first visit they were also very friendly, but I've been back 3 or 4 times since and although I buy something every time, I've not encountered any welcoming personality at all - I admit to being somewhat disappointed.

Anyway, I'll give Ariadne Knits a few more tries and see if it keeps up the welcome. For some reason, I think they will. And in the meantime, I need to keep knitting or I'll soon have a stash to measure against my fabric stash !
Anyone want to take bets on whether the skirt actually gets finished this weekend ? If you paid attention to the first paragraph, you know the only thing left is the hem. Can anyone tell me why it takes so long to psyche myself up to do a hem ?

Last post of 2009

It's been another busy week...

This year DH & I packed up the furbabies and headed to Toronto to spend the holidays with friends. We arrived Christmas Eve and will make our way home on Saturday after we recuperate from tonights' New Years Eve party. :-)

As is usual when we visit here, it has been all about the food (with a bit of shopping !) and the company. We've even managed some exercise - so to speak ! The new toy in this house is a Wii and it has been put to good use by all of us. Bowling & golf. It's amazing how much you actually do move ;-) *I think I want one*

Of course, my knitting projects came along with me.

My 'bristow' cardigan was started on Dec 2 using the brown Cascade 220 wool I bought this summer. The body was done on a circular needle and it is ready to be split for the armholes. I brought an extra ball to be ready for this but I decided, rather than doing the back and each front separately, I would do them all at once. Since I have to work on 3 parts of the sweater, only have 2 balls of yarn and don't want to use both ends of one ball, I need another ball to continue. It will wait til I get home, but here it is as it looks now...the shaping looks quite good if I do say so myself (first sweater I ever made with waist shaping)


My socks, though, have moved along quite nicely. These are the 'Lacy Rib Socks' from Socks from the Toe Up book. I've finished the foot, done the gusset, the slip-stitch heel and this morning, started up the legs.

It should go quickly enough now, that they could be finished before the end of next week.


Shopping this week - only 3 balls of yarn...

Arequipa - 65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca, 15% nylon, 100gm, the color below would be accurate if it weren't shiny.


2 -50gm balls of Patons Kroy, Cobalt Jacquard, 75% wool, 25% nylon



As 2009 comes to a close, I would like to say thanks for reading everyone. I appreciate all of your comments and encouragement.

I wish you all a safe, enjoyable New Years Eve !

Picture Update

Thanks for the wishes everyone...I feel much better today, it has been a nasty week. Antibiotics are a wonderful thing when they're necessary.

So, I finally got around to taking a set of the promised pics.

Socks - still at the same point as last week, about 2 inches above the heel. Didn't even feel like knitting these past few days. If I had, I'd probably have 'em done by now.



Yarn - this is the brown, Cascade 220 I picked up at Creative Yarns in Toronto. I really need a new sweater at work, I freeze all the time. This yarn came in hanks. When I mentioned having to learn to deal with the hanks, the owner very kindly offered to ball them up for me. Took him about 45 minutes (3 gave him a rough time !) It would have taken me forever. I'd never seen a Swift and Ball Winder in action before...it was pretty cool.




Fabric - Been considering the Wardrobe Contest at PR - have basics, need a print. Went out today, got this - it was not labelled for content (it was on the discount wall). It's poly/spandex, I think. Approx 50% stretch, good recovery. It does NOT wrinkle. Still need a print - LOL !



Furniture - we bought 2 pieces in Toronto.

a china cabinet - we finished our china set and it all now has a home. We just got the last few pieces in July and they never came out of the bag til now, no place to put them.



an armoire for the spare room - my kitchen does not have enough cupboards, I want to use my linen closet as a pantry. New armoire is now home to sheets, table linens, etc. Linen closet is now a pantry.



As you can see, Skippy very graciously stayed still long enough for me to get a pic. My first attempt wasn't good. He wandered through, just as I took the picture, so I put him on a 'down' which he did very nicely, dont'cha think :-) and snapped another one.

I love this piece. The shelves are cedar lined and the mirror on the inside door will be very handy. No pic, but the drawers were lined with some really old stuff. Well, that's gone. I picked up some new liner today, just have to cut out a piece for each of the drawers.



These are old pieces but I'm not sure how old. They're solid wood and really heavy, the armoire especially. Even after taking out the drawers, it was heavy ! DH spent quite some time cleaning these up and we're quite happy with them both.

Mid-Vacation

I was starting to feel a bit disconnected, so decided to do a mid-vacation post.

We're into week 2 of our vacation and we're are still in Toronto. I think we're going to be here til Thursday. It's our longest visit here with our friends and it's been great. I've been on the run since we arrived !

Antique stores, yarn stores, the garment district...yes, I've picked up a few things, pics later.

Saturday we went to the 'Taste of the Danforth" - a food festival on Danforth St and I'd no idea what to expect except LOTS of people. Oh, yes, LOTS of people !!

Projects / Shopping ?

Well, I did finish the blue bamboo socks before we left last Sunday, but I haven't cast off. One is cast off but it is too tight. I need to put those stitches back on the needles (a bigger needle, I think) and cast off again. I'm hoping that that will be enough to loosen the cuff. First thing on the 'to-do' list once we get home.

Next pair of socks - DH bought me Wendy Johnson's book Socks from the Toe Up. Where to start ? Which to choose ? I couldn't choose. The current plan is to start at the beginning and work my way through the book.

I cast on the first pattern 'Dead Simple Lace Socks' in the car on Sunday. Magic Loop, 2 at once, 64 stitch foot, 32 stitch Turkish cast on, 2.5 mm / 40" needle, Regia 4-ply Solid in green.

This pic was taken Sunday. Today I have only a couple rows to go before I increase for the gusset.

Wednesday, the girls gave the guys a break and went to Queen Street West, Toronto's garment district. I was very restrained. What I really wanted were knits and I bought just that. And only 3 pieces :-)

First up - (darn receipt doesn't have the store on it and I forgot to take note, I "think" it was World Sewing Center) - 2 meters, lightweight jersey, not poly, I think it's cotton.

Next purchases @ Affordable Textiles, Inc., 2 pieces

1 meter - poly/spandex

2 meters - bamboo. I petted this one for a while before I bought it, and if they had other colors, I'd have bought more. None left, unfortunately.

Moving on to the yarn - Romni Wools

More restraint, I only bought one ball. It would be really easy to accumulate a yarn 'collection' to go with my fabric collection, but I think one ball (or so) at a time is best.

That's it for this trip, I don't think there are any more purchases coming up. We'll be home in a couple of days and I hope to have 3-4 days in the sewing room before going back to work.

A few more supplies

Of COURSE I bought something while I was in New Brunswick a few weeks ago !

Today after work I decided to wander up to the Garment District on St Hubert Street - I've only been there once, quite a few years ago. The fact that most things were not labeled and not priced really freaked me out and I never went back. I spent the whole afternoon there today and picked up a couple items - no fabric but that was major willpower in effect - I'm so proud of myself !

Here are the goodies:
From NB - Pink twill (a 1m remnant) and the Toefutsies yarn.

Today's finds - buttons to go with the twill, a Clover double tracing wheel, 2-6000m spools of KAVA thread (The name of the store is Kava - don't know the actual origin of the thread)

I've never seen a double tracing wheel, so I grabbed it when I saw it.
The thread is new to me but the lady assured me it was good for both the serger and the sewing machine. If I don't like it, well it's not a great loss, each spool was only $2 ! 6000m !

See the price on the fabric ? $2.24 - and it was 1/2 off that ... $1.12 :-)
The buttons were $.57 total
Are you doing the math ?
This skirt (probably another BWOF-04-2009-101) is going to cost < $1.75 - now that's my kind of shopping LOL !

A catch-up post

I started this post on Monday when I got back, but boy, things got busy this week ! I spent a bit of time each day working on it. Here goes...


The party

Well, the party was a rousing success ! My aunt had a great time and spent 2 full hours greeting everyone in the receiving line. No breaks - one person suggested a break. Miss some of the party ? I don't think so ! He didn't suggest it again - LOL !

I heard by way of the grapevine that she was concerned not many people would attend - last count of the guestbook was 293. That doesn't count the ones who didn't sign and the ones who signed 'and family', so well over 300 people all of them cousins at one level or another. Even knowing my family is huge, it's a funny thing to walk into a reception hall and be related to every single person there.

Here she is with my Dad and one of my sisters - lookin' good for 100 years old, no ?


and with my younger brother - handsome guy, isn't he ?
hmmm, don't tell him I said so, I think it's against sibling rules LOL :-)


After the party some of us went back to my other sister's place (remember, there's 8 of us !)
We don't get together often, so when we can, we make the most of it. There were lots of silly faces in the pics that night, this one's not too bad. Only 5 of us in this one.




The shopping

As is my habit, there was a visit to Fabricville. And I bought.....N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

I think it's a first and DH had a hard time believing I came home empty-handed. Well, almost...

At Christmas, I bought a few balls of Koigu sock yarn but have not yet attempted a sock. This trip I stumbled upon a yarn store uptown and decided then and there that it was time to get started - of course that required all the supplies:

A pattern, a set of 2.75mm bamboo dpn's and a 100g ball of Opal in the Crazy pattern/colorway (OMG $18.99/ball !!!)



After a test swatch that told me I should probably be using 3mm needles, I cast on anyway. My foot is long (size 9) but narrow. It should fit. If not, I'll undo it and start again. At this price, I'm not giving them away - who knew the cost of sock yarn !!! And WHY do I make the first attempt with Opal yarn and not the much less expensive Koigu ?

This is where they are now were on Wednesday - the pattern is nothing like the display sock, but I'll keep going and see what happens. My first time with bamboo needles - they're great :-)




and THIS is where they were yesterday - just about 6" long. I took this pic right before I started the instructions for the heel




That was it for the trip, hmmm, what else ?

March Wrap-up - only the newsprint tee. Not much to require a wrap-up post, but if there is one completed object per month, that will be a very successful year for me.


BWOF - picked up the April issue today - the first time it was available before the 1st of the month. There a few things that caught my eye. Now that I've made one BWOF item, there are more to come.





I think that's it for now - I wouln't have missed my aunt's party for the world, but I'm GLAD to be back home.

One more look back

The loot...
A KitchenAid Slow Cooker & Blender and a new cell phone.


We returned the Slow Cooker this morning...the lid did not fit the ceramic liner well at all - it wobbled horribly and there was a large open space where the lid did not sit flat.
I got a new slow cooker last year (different brand) with the same problem and it just doesn't cook well (actually it doesn't cook at all - a meal still uncooked after 10 hours is not good).

This year I knew enough to check the fit of the lid right away - after checking, I went onto the KitchenAid website in the forum to check it out. It seems like this is a somewhat common problem and the company line of the forum moderators is

quote..."An airtight seal is not a positive feature - It causes pressure to build. This could cause things like moisture spraying out when the pressure relieves itself when the lid is lifted. Also, if the pot cools before cleaning with the lid on, it can actually cause a vacuum making it hard to get the lid off. The purpose of the lid is to help retain heat and moisture while letting the unit breathe. Extensive testing has shown that even a slight gap (up to ¼”) would not affect the performance or quality of the food cooked in the KitchenAid Slow Cooker"...unquote

Sorry, I'm having trouble swallowing this one ! The whole point of a 'slow cooker' is that it cooks at a low enough temp that it WON'T boil over and with a large air gap, too much liquid evaporates defeating the purpose of keeping the moisture in the pot.

I'd like another one, but only if I can find a better lid/insert combo.


My last fabric/yarn purchases of the year. The Fabricville near my Dad (less than a 10 min walk!) is great and I always check it out when I'm home.



all three fabrics are quite a bit darker than the picture shows

The orange on the top is a knit, I think ponte de roma but I'm not positive - it was in the remnant bin, 1.25 yards for $1

The brown and the other orange are wool samples. Originally $10/m but on a 50% off sale - brown (4 meters), orange (3 meters). The tags were not specific of the exact content - they could be wool blends but I'm not sure how to tell. They're definitely wool - they've been pretreated already & wet wool has it's own smell !

As usual, I have no specific projects in mind, but with this amount of yardage, I could do a short jackets & skirt with the orange and possibly jacket & pants with the brown, we'll see. Knowing me, they are about to start the aging process :-)



There is no Michaels in Montreal, there IS one near the Fabricville in Saint John so, yes, I have to check it out. They had some great sales for Boxing Day...I went to look over the yarn.

I'd like to attempt socks and these yarns were all $7.99 for $4 per ball. A lady in the store told me 3 balls will make 2 pairs of short socks and showed me the ones she was wearing !!! We do have some interesting experiences when buying our crafting supplies, yes ?

I couldn't decide which I liked best so I bought 3 balls each of the 4 yarns in the picture, no point buying 2 balls and having 1/2 ball left over LOL. I don't know if they're good quality or not, they are very soft and hopefully I will have wearable socks at the end of this 'new' journey.

And so, 2009 begins...