Sock Syndrome

There is something seriously squiffy with silly knitters who suppose that knitting six pairs of socks simultaneously is smart.

Kitri (90% done)

Lothlorien (50% done)

York and Lancaster (50% done)

Snow Queen  (30% done)

Mannerstutzen Socken (25% done)

Rocking Sock Club Left over Socks (20% done)

And for some stupid reason I have this strong desire to start the sweater in pieces my mum gave me for Christmas... and maybe that lovely rose shawl that I've wanted for a while...

New Flamie Feature: Post Reactions

Assuming all as gone as planned, little boxes with canned responses should show up below posts now.  This will allow people to provide some feedback to what is being posted without having to write a comment.  Though comments are preferred (and you don't even have to sign up to comment), this might be useful for those for whom time is of the essence and the like.

Edit: Perhaps not, this new feature doesn't seem to be showing up, but it has alerted me to something else, that I'll now look into.

Shawl and Duvet: Hurray!

For Christmas Branwen (my lil' sister) gave me some lovely red beads and some beautiful peach coloured yarn to make a shawl! Well, I finished this beauty today and now it is blocking. The colours are just perfect (the edging is even a little darker) and the shawl looks like it will be a great size!

The shawl design is called Aeolian and the motifs are supposed to resemble Joshua tree yuccas, agaves and cactus flowers. I think the peach yarn and red beads look just like some of the beautiful flowers of the deserts out here!

One of our gifts from Serena was a new duvet for our bed. We were in dire need of something as it is a little too cool here in the winter to sleep with only a sheet, and as such we've been forced to use our sleeping bag from camping as a comforter. The new duvet looks fantastic and we look forward to testing it out tonight. One very useful feature is that there are two different insides to the duvet, which are used to control how much thermal insulation it provides. Should be wonderful here in LA, where the "winter" nights are cool, but during the summer only a light sheet is needed. Also take a look at our snazzy new bedside table... now there is one on each side of the bed!

Watch Out For Changes

Just a heads up that I'm fooling around with blog stuff, so who knows what'll happen!

De-icing the plane

So our flight from Calgary to LA was an eventful one! We waited in long lines, went through regular customs checks AND secondary customs checks (Because apparently Jason is a terrorist), we got padded and prodded through security and our bags went through a serious strip search. After that ordeal we grabbed some lunch (last poutine and iced caps for a while) and then headed onto the plane. We had some awesome seats and got to watch the deicing fun! I want that job... seriously, spraying green and pink goo on planes? AWESOME!



If you look closely you can see the green wings on the other plane!


P.S.: Sock, say goodbye to Calgary.

Christmas Puzzle

For Christmas, Rowan and I received a puzzle from Bill. Rowan does not have an exceeding amount of patience for puzzles, so it was mostly up to me to get this finished before we left. If memory serves, we started the puzzle on Christmas day or perhaps the day after, and it was only just finished today. It is a 1500 peice puzzle and though I have not done too many jigsaw puzzles in my life, I would rate this one as very difficult. See for yourself:

Edit/PS: I should give credit where credit is due though: I did have help from all of the Martindales on and off throughout the course of the puzzle's construction. Often just a few pieces here and there, but sometimes they were pieces that had been eluding me for hours and hours :D

Calgary Zoolights!