Between pregnancy sleepies, work stress, vacation not-stress-but-busy.ness, I’m way behind on blogging! Here are the SP12 QotWs, but I *promise* I’ll post again soon with something knitting or my exciting baby news!

QotW#3:
What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

The “perfect” amount of stash would be small enough that it fits into its designated containers/organization space, but still contains enough variety that one could decide to work on any given project andhave the yarn on hand. My stash is not perfect, therefore, because I can’t up and knit a sweater even thogh I really want to — I’m always just picking up small skens of sock or lace yarns — and also is kind of spilling, well, everywhere…

QotW #4:
1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?
2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

1) I have never used linen. I feel this is a great lack, and should probably be remedies sooner rather than later.
2) I don’t think I could go very long without some 100%wool (merino, BFL, or the like) sock-weight yarn! Perfect for socks, necessary for colourwork, lovely for lace, adaptable for baby-knits and even some fine sweaters… I would’t want to be without!

As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

This is a tough one — I don’t know what was my “favourite” part of summer vacation. I think I just loved that I’d get to spend even more time playing outdoors. I have many memories of lemonade stands with my best friend, imagination games, “painting” the fence-boards with water and seeing how long it took my masterpieces to evaporate, riding my bike down the little alley behind the houses, walking through the rain and puddles…

I think something I always looked forward to was strawberry picking time. My family & grandparents would always go to a you-pick-your-own place, spend a few hours getting roasted and gorging on fresh strawberries, as long as the kids’ attention spans would last. Then invariably a few days later my Grandma would make strawberry jam, and with that, jam tarts. Oh, how much I wish I could have tea and a fresh jam tart (or three) now!

Secret Pal 12 Questionnaire

Editor’s Note: Writing all the answers isn’t’ very helpful if the post stays in “draft” for days — sorry, Secret Pal! Here it is, better late than never…

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I really like soft wools and silks. Anything natural, really, nothing synthetic!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
A shoebox, and a roll-up holder my friend sewed for me.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I’ve been knitting about 5 years or so now. Definitely a strong intermediate.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes I do — Knitting book list here, spinning books here!

5. What’s your favorite scent?
I like deeper scents, like amber and vanilla, for perfume, but citrus-y scents for cleansers.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I love sweet treats! Chocolate is always a winner (organic dark even better!)

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I love to spin, now. I’d like to get into felting, too. Otherwise I occasionally dabble in sewing and other crafts.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I really like Folk, Celtic, and world-fusion electronica, but have a very open “ear”. I definitely have mp3 capabilities.

9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?
I really love burgndies and purples, and also rich autumnal tones (brown, deep green, russets…). I don’t really wear blue, and a have very little interest in neons!

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I’m currently pregnant with baby #1!! We also have two kitties.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Heck yes — Toronto gets cold!

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Socks and lace. Very addictive!

13. What are you knitting right now?
Socks, when I have the energy.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Metal for pointiness, wood for smoothness.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
A swift yes, a winder no.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Um… maybe a year? It’s buried somewhere, so I’ve forgotten about it!

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmastime.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Faerie art books. Small oil lamps. Yarn. Spinning fibre. Instruments I love but can’t play.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I really should get a subscription to Spin Off, but I haven’t yet. I am currently coveting a set of KnitPicks Harmony needles.

21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?
I’d like to get better at making a sweater actually fit me.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Indeed I am! I wear a women’s size 8 shoe.

23. When is your birthday?
February 1st.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what’s your ID?
aemmeleia

Question of the Week: What is your favorite summertime drink??

Iced Chai! (tea, milk, sugar/honey, and ice… mmm)
In general, I’m a big fan of iced teas in summer (must be my Virginian heritage coming through!). And while “sangria” would also be high up on the list, this summer it’s off-limits for me; so, iced teas, here I come!

* * * * *
In other news, WWKIP day/1000 Knitters photo-shoot/Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s birthday shindig at Lettuce Knit was a total blast. I got to meet Franklin (*squee*!!), hang out with knitters (it’s been too long!), eat Glenna’s cupcakes for breakfast (mmm… cupcakes…) and chat over Big Fat Burritos with said lovely cupcake-baker. I even won a little prize (a recycled tote with one of Franklin’s cartoons on one side)! Fantastic day.

Did I bring my camera? Of course not. I should start attaching it to my wallet with mitten-strings or something. Sheesh.

…But none from my camera. I have been battling near-terminal “camnesia” these days!

Last night I got to attend my first-ever swanky cocktail party for a large urban centre “cultural event”! Upon the generous nomination from an independent musician friend of mine, I participated in the photography project Toronto’s Milles Femmes, one of the “1000 x portraits” series by French photographer Pierre Maraval. I had a very professional little make-up and photo session a month or so back, and yesterday evening got all dolled up to view the installation and ate tiny hamburgers and drank many glasses of sparkling water, both of which were tremendous fun!

If you check out The Making of Toronto’s Milles Femmes website, you can watch a small YouTube video about the project and get a peek at my photo — I’m the last face you’ll see there! Damn you WordPress, why will you not let me embed this video??

And in a very similar vein, this weekend Franklin Habit’s 1000 Knittters is making a Toronto stop, and I’ll be in the morning group (#22, whoo!). Will I be seeing you there? Or perhaps later that day, for the Yarn Harlot’s birthday celebration? What fun lies ahead!

But, since I cannot offer any photos of my self, my photographers (ha! like I’m someone fancy!), or even of own today, I’ll leave you with the fun little Flickr mosaic meme:

1. Alas / Hope is the thing with feathers…, 2. Fajitas, 3. wanker chick with hickey, 4. Burgundy Dragonfly, 5. 16/365: Flickr Halloween Choice #4: Hugh Jackman, 6. Tea Corner…, 7. KELLS PRIORY. KILKENNY, IRELAND., 8. Double Chocolate Cheesecake, 9. The Writer, 10. inhibited creativity, 11. Hide-and-Seek, 12. Amelias Flower

Want to play too?
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

Tune in next time for a Secret Pal questionnaire, and perhaps a tale of 6+lbs of camel hair…

Curious as to whom I will be sending my copy of The Friday Night Knitting Club? Let’s find out!

From Random.org, I rolled 1 virtual die (six sides, one per comment!) and got this:

Die Roller
You rolled 1 die:
6
Timestamp: 2008-06-09 17:50:31 UTC

So Liz, the book is yours (for a while)! I’ll send you an email and we can figure out addresses. No worries about US postage, either!

I thought one last fun thing for the Friday Night Knit(blog)ing Club would be to have a kind of record of “club members”, where the book has gone, and what gets written in it. So I’m going to add a page to this site soon, and would love it if the subsequent readers would send me similar photos & data to go here.

Tune in next time for a real-live Finished Object (gasp!) and even more stashing…

This week I’ve been eating more and sleeping less, but still feeling very drained at the end of the day. As I walked home the other day after work, along the route that just happens to pass right by a book store, I picked up a copy of The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. Forgoing my own Tuesday and Wednesday night ‘knitting clubs’ (at the PP and LK respectively) I spent two evening curled up on my couch with some much needed and greatly enjoyed relaxing reading.

The Friday Night Knitting Club is just the right kind of book when you’re in the mood for a tale of strong women, unexpected sisterhoods, and a dash of romance (with a bonus smattering of knitting wisdom). The book is very cleverly arranged into several sections from “casting on” and “knit and purl”, to “ripping it all out”. (I was reminded of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s books on these pages.) Set in glamorous Manhattan, the story of the “mompreneur”, yarn-shop Walker and Daughter owner, and single mother Georgia Walker and her mixed-race daughter Dakota offers an insightful view into the variances of urban knitters’ lives. The eclectic group of staff, friends, and customers whose own deep, often poignant, life’s stories lend a depth and richness to the tale. I am not above admitting that there were several moments in the book, both touching and sorrowful, that made me cry (although the pregnancy hormones seem to let flow much more frequently than I did before), but there are real gems of humour and thoughtfulness throughout. While not a “deep” read, there are many elements of women’s lives (from senior sex to depression to planned parenthood) that are genuinely thought-provoking long after the book has been put down. While I missed being out with my own knitting community, I do think I spent two evenings in quite lovely company.

Now I’m usually much more of a speculative fiction girl than a “chick lit” reader, though well-worn copies of Bridget Jones’ Diary and Like Water for Chocolate do appear on my shelves. But therein lies the problem — with the great de-cluttering of bedroom #2 (formerly office/craft room, now baby-room-to-be) we’ve literally decimated (as in “are keeping only one tenth of the total”!) our book collection, getting rid of those extra three copies (not kidding at all) of Interview with a Vampire and boxing for storage those novels and school texts we can’t bear to be rid of forever. And then I go out and buy new books.

One of these days I’ll learn how to take my library books back on time, not every 8 months when I can swallow my pride and humbly request a decrease in the astronomically-accrued fines. That day has not quite come yet, though, so I figure the next best thing is to read a book and, instead of being guilty over the price or storage, just pass it on.

Hence I’d like to begin the Friday Night Knit(Blog)ing Club.
Club rules are simple:
1) I will write my name, blog address, and a little note in the cover of my copy of The Friday Night Knitting Club;
2) You leave a comment on this post, maybe with a little story about your favourite “knitting club” or inspiring group of women;
3) I’ll randomly chose someone to mail the book to, so you can read it too;
4) When you’re done with the book, you’ll write a blog post similar to this one, offering the book up to the next “member” of The Friday Night Knit(Blog)ing Club, will write your own little note in the cover, and mail it on…

Free Book! (and possibility of fibery extras.) Fun swap! “Exclusive” club! (ok, so not really; just depending on how fast people read and the post delivers.) Leave a comment to “Join up”!!

Whatever is a knitter to do when she cannot find the energy to knit? Why, buy yarn for the future, of course! (A positive attitude always helps, right?)

This Indigo Moon sock yarn in “Aubergine” was the one and only in the basket, and just cried out to me to someday be knit into a pair of Baudelaire socks.

First Jennifer showed me the pair of fingerless mitts she was knitting from this yarn. Then I tried one on. Then she showed me the colours. Then I was hooked, and a skein of Malabrigo Silky Wool in “Stonechat” just had to be mine.

You’re probably seen similar skeins of Manos Del Uruguay around here before. Good ol’ colourway 102, you remind me of embers at twilight and I’ve loved your texture since I was a wee knitter. Finally the many incarnations of my previous stash have become a comforting triangular shawl*, and this last, lonely skein in the discount bin was destined to come home and be that shawl’s border. It was fate, not impulse sale-buying!

Not one, not three, but six skeins of Elann Peruvian Alpaca Fina were my loot from Glenna’s stash at her fabulous dissertation party at the Purple Purl last Friday (it was like a hobbit’s birthday — she brought presents for the guests!). I think half are “smoky grape” (lavender) and the other three “Byzantium” (magenta), and together they will either form a very pretty shawl or a snuggly, lacy wrap/shrug.

Greed also got the better of me that night, and since this skein of Austermann Step (mit Aloe!) was left out of the table after several minutes passes of the table had been made by the other party-goers, I popped it in with the Elann. Sheepish thank yous are owed to Glenna. Dru or I will have a nice pair of socks soon**. (Bets can be placed now if they will be a) Monkeys or b) any other pattern at all.)

*Stay tuned! There actually has been a marginal amount of knitting during my DVD vegetation phases, so unless the border I’m working completely sucks there may be an FO soon**!
** If by “soon” I can mean 2 days to 2 months. Y’know, “soon”!

Weekend
In order to celebrate Jodi’s return to Canada and completion of her MFA (Yay Jodi!), we took off down to Windsor for the long weekend, sharing the ride with Krista and hanging out with people we haven’t seen in far too long, especially all in one place. The party was a tonne of fun (though I pooped out ‘early’ at midnight), and the next day was spent lounging around Jodi’s place until we all got up the energy to lounge around Kelly’s farm.

The farm, as usual, was also great: the lambs have grown huge, the sheep have manicured the property into fine lawns (sometimes to Raven’s chagrin, I think he said one ate a small peach tree), the chickens are still humorous. There was a small rabbit-related tragedy, but I guess that’s just the way country life goes, and a side effect of it all may mean Kelly has angoras in her future…

Pregnancy
Midwife’s appointment last week went really well. I loved hearing the baby’s heartbeat! (Probably could have listened to it for hours — anyone know a good fetal heart monitor rental in Toronto? or recommend a similar thing for purchase for the later weeks?)

I have continued to lose a little weight, so I’ve been given the happy directive to eat what I want whenever, and not to fuss about the calorie content (so long as I keep eating my fruit and veg.) even if it’s ice cream. I’m now in the second trimester, but don’t really notice any big changes to how I feel. That mythical “energy boost” can come along anytime now!

Despite the weight loss, there have definitely been some physical increases. I had to break down and get ‘maternity’ pants. Oh, the comfort! Also got an incredibly generous loan of clothing from Emily, so I should be fitly clothed for a while. I long to sew myself wrap dresses and stretchy skirts, but until the creative mojo returns it’s not going to happen.

Week So Far
I taught at the Purl last night. I think it went kind-of awfully (deep apologies to any of my students who actually read this blog), mostly due to my inability to think or communicate anymore. Jennifer and Miko seem to still like me, though, and I’m engaged for another class next week (thank the lares and penates it’s one I’ve taught before).

Otherwise, there has been so little knitting in my like I’m beginning to get despondent. Where are the oversized cardigans, the booties and BSJs? I haven’t even turned the heel on that Noro sock.

I do, however, continue to acquire yarn.

I am so tired of being tired.

Most evenings I come home from work and am like some sort of zombie, shambling around between napping and complaining that I don’t want to eat/go out/go to bed… But they say this should pass soon, and it’s all for a good cause:

My first baby photo! Can you see the nose? Or the little floating toes?)

But folks, perhaps there has been a slight turn towards the light… I have been KNITTING.

Noro sock yarn, my own(!) pattern.

Ok, so the only reason I bought this nifty new Noro Kureyon sock yarn was because I was so brain-dean I forgot to bring knitting to knit-night, but hey, it was a good excuse for a small spree and kicked my but into knitting mode! I executed the picot hem all on my ownses at knit-night last week, and a few days later performed the miraculous feat of looking though a stitch dictionary, finding a cute pattern, and checking the math so it fit with my stitch count. (These days, that’s practically the same as rocket science!)

Simple-but-effective lace pattern, cute picot hem.

Hooray for little victories, I say. This may be coming slowly, but I like the way it’s turning out so far and it’s already bigger than I expected. Much like the baby!