ĭn'də-strē

tragically hip

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?

Yes, because I am a snob about everything I do or buy. I grew up in a military family and even though both my parents worked, we didn't have a lot of money. My parents only bought my sister and I toys for our birthdays, Christmas and 1 gift at the end of every school year if we passed. We grew up learning to value nature and relationships, not stuff, and hence, why I am a minimalist. I live my lifestyle at the level I can afford because not only am I a yarn snob, I'm also a tech snob, design snob, coffee snob, tea snob, wine snob, sex snob, travel snob and food snob. I'm sure it was Julia Child that said "cook with the best ingredients you can afford".

I truly believe that quality means less quantity and by making thoughtful, engaged choices, you buy less stuff and therefore less strain on natural resources and in the long term, your budget.

I buy the highest quality of yarn I can afford. I prefer to knit with silk, alpaca, merino, stainless steel (Habu) and cashmere. However, in my about me section I mention I have a fondness for microfibers. Technology is cool and sometimes the fabrics and such that are created are equally as cool. I saw a rayon clapotis on Ravelry that would blow your mind.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?

I crochet but don't find it as fun as knitting. I only do it because some things, such as the wave blanket look bad ass when done in crochet.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)?

yes b'y. I'm allergic to corn pollen, raw egg whites and tetracycline.

4. How long have you been knitting?

11 months as of this meme.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

yes b'y; of course I have amazon wishlists. I should link those...

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

oh that's easy! Soft florals such as rose, wisteria, lilac and cherry blossom.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?

no, not really. I like cupcakes though and once a year I like to eat a sundae. My thing is salty and spicy foods.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?

everything! I prefer custom :) sewing, beading, quilting, woodworking, decorating, scrapbooking, photography, drawing, soap making, candle making, glass etching, embroidery, needlepoint, baking, cooking, cross stitch, blogging, writing, poetry, and web programming.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I've never owned a stereo; strange but true. However, I own 6 ipods and 2 macbooks so yes, they both play mp3s. My favourite music genres are thrash, heavy metal, blues and classical. My favourite artists are Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Tool, Slipknot, Deep Purple, Pantera, Slayer, Seether, Disturbed, Static X, John Williams, Beethoven, Queens of the Stone Age...and so on.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

my favourite colour is blue in all the shades of the ocean and stormy skies. However, even more, I love black, charcoal grey and white. I hate orange, mustard yellow, avocado and acid green. Favourite season for colour? Late spring especially in France. I love flowers and spring rain.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

My parents have been married for 40 years and I love and adore both of them :) I had the privilege of being raised by two wonderful, logical, liberal people. I also have a sister who is almost 4 years older than me. My parents have a Labrador Retriever puppy named Sandy. My family lives in British Columbia and I live in St. John's, Newfoundland.

I however am single and have no pets. I would love a puppy but since I work in Alberta, that won't become a reality for awhile.

12. What are your life dreams?

Honestly? Man + Dog + Truck + House designed by an architect to my extremely specific instructions. Seriously. I make Martha Stewart seem reasonable and cooperative. I would also love to own a Yarn Shop that also sells Japanese textiles.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?

Debbie Bliss cashmerino is my favourite yarn. I also love knitting with silk, merino, cashmere and stainless steel. I enjoy knitting with bamboo and look forward to knitting with paper.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Cotton; hurts my fingers and wrists. Oh and Noro, because it sucks and looks trashy.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?

Well currently I'm knitting a lot of scarves but that isn't my knitting obsession. My obsession would be cabled bunnyhugs (hoodies), fingerless gloves and socks.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I've only knit scarves so far but I love creating accessories so I'm sure bags, gloves and socks will become my favourites. Oh and anything for my home. To be honest I'm more of a textile-phile than anything else. I love to custom decorate my spaces.

17. What are you knitting right now?Right now?

My Newfoundland scarf collection and Daire's architect scarf. I'm making 4 scarves inspired by my new home in Newfoundland. The St. John's scarf is made from 100% Alpaca; the Water Street scarf is made from bamboo/wool; the Newfoundland scarf is made from cashmere; and the Cape Spear scarf is made from Rowan Kid Silk haze.

18. What do you think about ponchos?

fugly! They should never be knit or worn; ever.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?

Straight for almost everything but circular for stockinette and for knitting cashmere scarves.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Metal, hunny, just like my music.

21. Are you a sock knitter?

I have the potential to be an obsessive sock knitter.

22. How did you learn to knit?

February 2008. I couldn't follow the lame instructions in the couple of knitting books I had on how to purl so I said "ahh fuck it, I'm a geek so I'll do what computer geeks do". I got online and taught myself how to knit from youtube!

23. How old is your oldest UFO?

oOoOoh I think 3 months old. It's a pink Montego Bay scarf knit using SeaSilk.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

Animated character? hmm.... Wall-E :) Favourite animal; wolves. Favourite bird: penguins.

25. What is your favorite holiday?

Oh c'mon! Gimme a hard one! I'm pagan and have gothic underpinnings so naturally it's Hallowe'en.

26. Is there anything that you collect?

*LMAO* books in quantities you wouldn't believe. Some people have yarn stashes, I have a book hoard that put your stashes to shame, and it's beautiful, inspiring and unreal. I also collect coffee mugs, Star Wars stuff, eye shadow, yarn, and t-shirts.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

none. I'm all about the hunt. I go to Chapters every time I'm home and shop for my magazines and books.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?

Yup and I bought it today. I am a Francophile so I waited many months to buy French Girl Knits. I bought it today along with a book called My French Life.

ruby on cables

it's hockey night in Canada and I'm watching boring hockey. Karin mentioned in the comments that we lead completely different lives. I believe that is probably true. The price of oil closed today at $36 a barrel. A lot of my fellow workers are getting laid off as the economy continues it's downward turn.

Being an Oil Sands worker, I understand the transient nature of the job. Often workers move from site to site every few months or after each project is complete. That's construction. However, I and some of my friends have been here between 1 and 6 years. When we are here at camp, we work together, drink copious amounts of coffee together, and eat together. Sometimes, some of us have relationships with each other. So over the years we've built strong friendships. Knowing that soon we may never see each other again is really hard to deal with; for me anyways. Often we do move on to another job and carry on with our friendships but right now, that's not a reality.

I find it difficult to work out my feelings knowing that every day may be the last day I see my friends as we can be all flown to 4 corners of this great country-- from sea to shining sea...indeed. So I try to relax and knit and just enjoy the time that I have with each of them, drama free.

Karin also mentioned a book called Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman. It seems great minds think alike because I am currently knitting a reversible cable scarf from that book. So although I haven't found my compact flash card for my camera, I took a few pictures with my cell phone. Enjoy :)

The Water Street Scarf. I usually don't wear skinny scarves but since I'll be wearing this at home where the weather is much milder, I decided to knit this up. It's about 5" wide and the yarn has a gorgeous sheen; very sophisticated. The yarn is 85% bamboo and 15% wool. Awe-some.

This is a picture of the Water Street scarf and the St. John's scarf. Both scarves are an off-white; the shade of fresh almonds. The St. John's scarf is my favourite 2 x 2 rib and is 7" wide so I will stay nice and warm up at camp. It is made out of 100% Alpaca, which I love. I love monochromatic colour schemes so instead of contrasting colours, I decided to contrast textures by using different yarns in complementary patterns.

Above are two pictures of the sunset outside of my office today :) Gorgeous prairie sky.

apparently a write off

according to my horoscope, 2009 is supposed to be a write off because all the good stuff isn't supposed to happen until 2010; meh...figures. I'm not to bothered because I don't really believe in horoscopes and also, because I wouldn't mind an off year.

I got to meet 4 fine ladies of the Newfoundland & Labrador knitters group from Ravelry tonight. It was fun and a new and different experience for me. All my friends are men and I work with 3000 other men at my job site so being around women blew my mind. Cool though.

Speaking of other cool stuff, I got to cross an item off my 101 in 1001 days list. I moved to Newfoundland. Technically I could also cross off that I knitted a scarf but I don't want to. I'll save that for when I finish my scarf.

I've been busy the past few days. I forgot what it's like to have a social life. Rueben has been staying with me and we went drinking with another guy from work last night. I plan on having breakfast with Perry and Rob on Saturday morning. Pretty much, I've been up to something with someone almost every day. So this is how all the rest of you live. Awesome. Too bad it's all going to disappear on Monday when I head back up to camp for work.

seaweed

My parents bought me a plane ticket home to BC for Yule! That's awesome and it means I get to meet the new puppy. It also means I'll be doing a lot of flying in December. Good thing that I took up this knitting madness in February.

Speaking of knitting, I've decided to add a 5th colour to my Architect scarf. Not surprising as I never fail to modify a pattern or nor follow any rules perexactly. I want my scarf to be really long so I'm using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in colours #340203, #340202 , #340100, #34016 and #340003. All the colours match perfectly with the picture I took of the Atlantic ocean during my visit to Cape Spear, Newfoundland. I was going to wait to knit it up but I want it for my move to St. John's on December 30. I have a lot of knitting to do...

Sorry no pictures, I didn't bring my macbook with me this tour at camp.

small miracles

today I am happy because I finally found a soulmate of sorts on the internets. Someone, even though we've never met, I feel I understand completely. Someone who is a minimalist, loves the purity of white in decoration and loves to knit and wear black and grey (although my personal palette also includes blue and some green). Not to mention she tends to meander into the poetic. I think it's spooky how alike we are when it comes to aesthetics. Let me know what you think.

I am worried a bit that I can't fit into the knitting or arts and crafts community. I don't really ever fit in anywhere (but to me that's a good thing). I don't game enough to be called a gamer. I no longer build or tweak computers and software so my geekry has suffered. I have zero female friends as I'm not on the fast-track for a husband and 2.5 kids. I work in oil and I read dead philosophers; what are we going to talk about?

It's comforting though, that there are a few souls that share my aesthetics and philosophy when it comes to everything DIY. I knit, cook, sew, bake and dabble in photography and visual art. I do other stuff, like read too much, but those are my main hobbies. I am not into fussy, embellished, ornate, gilded, bright or colourful. I am into pure, simple, minimal, industrial, natural, elemental, structured, hard and soft, dark and light. It's nice to know I'm not alone.

As for the knitting in queue (which I talk a lot about because after reading and going to the gym, it's the only thing I can do up at camp):

1. Architect Scarf - Moe - Orange, Blue & White (50% complete)
2. Architect Scarf - Me - Atlantic Blue, Sky Blue, Muted Seafoam Green, White. Inspired by this picture I took in Newfoundland
3. Architect Scarf - Daire - Black, Dark Grey, Grey, Purple
4. Montego Bay Scarf - Lori - Moss Colourway (?) Handmaiden SeaSilk
5. Montego Bay Scarf - Me - Ocean Colourway (?) Handmaiden SeaSilk
6. fishnet scarf - Me - Topaz Colourway (?) Handmaiden SeaSilk
7. 1 x 1 rib scarf - Grey and Atlantic Blue - Alpacha yarn
8. scarf from Custom Knits - navy blue Debbie Bliss 100% Pure Silk
9. 2 x 2 rib scarf - black - Debbie Bliss cashmerino (25% complete)
10. cable scarf - navy blue - Angora / Merino wool
11. cable tuque - navy blue - Angora / Merino wool

yup, that's a lot of scarves but they will all be well used and well loved this winter. After the scarves are finished, I will be knitting a tuque, a pair of mermaid fingerless gloves and a pair of socks. Once finished my focus will be on knitting pillowcases and blankets for my camp room and new apartment. I don't have a lot of opportunity to sew because I'm at camp mostly, but perhaps during my 1 month vacation at Yule. I still have that skull and crossbones fabric I want to make an Amy Butler apron and pot holders out of.

so they say

I am 1/3 through another knitting project and have almost completed the Hockey Night In Canada scarf. I was at the yarn shop this weekend and I noticed that my scarf looks different than their scarf. I'm not sure why that is...perhaps because I've knitted mine tighter so it's not as drape-y?

I'm knitting a scarf for Captain Intense. It's done in 2 x 2 ribbing using 100% merino wool in the colours of the Chicago Bears. Captain Intense + Chicago Bears = True Love. He even flew to Chicago last winter to attend a game. He really wanted a bright orange scarf but I decided to knit it using the Architect Scarf pattern from the book the Greetings from Knit Cafe. He's undecided how he feels about the addition of blue and white. So if he doesn't like it, it will probably find a home with an Edmonton Oilers fan.

Speaking of me and knitting. Last night after dinner with my friend Mike:

Me: I get to spend the rest of my night reading my knitting books. Am happy!
Mike: Oh man! It's bad enough you knit!

So this morning I asked him why he said that. Apparently I don't fit the profile of a knitter. I guess that's true. I don't really fit any profiles though. The best way I could sum myself up would be; picture the character Temperance Brennan from Bones but dressed in a lot of black or Think Geek t-shirts and listening to a lot of heavy metal and thrash. It doesn't matter though. I love art and I love making things. I find it calms my mind but also allows me to keep the creative process going. It's a catalyst and far less sweaty than Yoga.

This was last Thursday when I finally left camp after a 17 day shift. Not much snow but my car door was frozen shut because of freezing rain so I had to kick it loose. Don't worry; Sleipnir was unharmed.

Driving out of camp. This is why I knit so many scarves. heh.

Driving through the snowy woods. I think it's beautiful.

I had to take a short detour due to mods heading into camp.

The highway home. This was taken after leaving Fort McMurray.

The start of the architect scarf for Captain Intense, done in the colours of the Chicago Bears; of course.

My stash is mostly all blue. This is some cashmere yarn I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet. I have cashmere, silk, silk/seaweed, alpaca, and merino wool.

More Handmaiden Seasilk yarn for me :) The two blue hanks are for me and the green is for my sister. The dark blue silk yarn is going to be for yet another scarf from the book Custom Knits. Yes, there is a method to my madness.

Another shot of my cashmere yarn. I love the colours.

Another shot of my Handmaiden Seasilk yarn and Debbie Bliss 100% silk yarn.

randomness

The Montego Bay scarf, henceforth named the Hockey Night in Canada scarf, in honour of all the hours and hours of hockey I watched while knitting it, is almost complete.

My next project is to finish my black cashmerino 2 x 2 ribbed scarf in black. Then I plan on knitting this, and then the teardrop scarf. Hopefully, I'll be set for winter by that time and all that knitting complete. In order to finish the Montego Bay scarf, I used my favourite 5mm needles which are the same ones I'm using for the cashmerino scarf. So until I finish the first project, I can't complete the second. See? Keeps me from having unfinished projects. Technically I could buy another set of 5mm needles but these are my favourite set of needles and I really enjoy using them.

I really want to keep knitting tonight but I have to start packing up my camp room. It's been snowing all day so I imagine it's going to be a more than 12 hour drive home on Thursday. This will be my last drive home as next shift I start flying again, so I need to take as much as I can back with me.

I'm looking forward to spending all weekend with my library. To be honest, I own so many books I forget what exactly I own. That's just nuts. Sure it'll be scary giving away so many books, but I know it will be worth it. I love the freedom minimalist living allows. Life is about people and adventure and love; not stuff.