Back from the Great White North. To be specific, home of you know who, Toronto, Ontario. Great City, amazingly diverse, and so hip it hurts. I went home for the holidays, and then up to Toronto for Boxing Day and sales. It’s only about a 3 hour drive from my parents home in Michigan.

I remembered to photo this place, this time-

I really like this place. It’s totally teeny teeny tiny inside, like, if 20 people where in there it’d be like the photos of a bunch of people crammed into a phone booth. Great stuff though, I guess you’ve really got to limit what you carry in a small space to the good stuff. 66 1/2 Nassau St. Near Kensington Market, off of College and Spadina, if you’re in the area. I picked up some more of that wonderful fleece artist roving I love so much.

I drove back to Pittsburgh yesterday, I had a show to shoot. If you live near here, you might have heard of these guys,The Clarks. They always have holiday shows, this time it’s 4 in a row. Wednesday-Saturday. I’ll be working three of those nights.
From last night-

and so, so, many more. They give me free reign, and I spend the whole set running around the whole stage area. It’s great.
To see more of my work, go here. It’s still under constuction, but the live section is viewable.

AND, Knitting!!!
I started the cabled slipper sock design.

So far, the going is good. I think that I lost a few brain cells working out that chart, though. For those of you who think knitting from a chart is hairy, trying creating one. Holy crap, my eyes crossed so many times, my brain almost exploded. Really.
It’s very simple so far, I love the picot edge. Never did one of those before. I’ll more than likely make the pattern available eventually. If anyone’s interested. The yarn is Baby Ull, held double. US 3 needles. but I’ll probably revise to a 4, just to make them a bit roomier. I also usually cable without the needle, but I found this fabric too tight and the yarn too slippery for that. I kept dropping the damn stitches without using the needle. Anyway- Happy New Year Knitters!

Filed by Julia at 1:37 am under General,Knitting
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I got my socks! I got my socks! I’m so excited, I’m wearing them right now! They are amazing, I’ve never had socks knit for me before, I love them! This is my first sock exchange, and it totally went great.

I had this post all thought out for today, I was going to show you all what the basement of a yarn shoppe looks like, and I had photos of the shoppe that I work at, and knitting progress photos…. but screw it, I got my socks!!!!!!

My Secret Elf Knitter is Lori of “Creative Brainwave”. A bog I haven’t visited before, but will now on a daily basis. Mad props to Lori for having the stamina to knit two whole socks in one solid color, with a great cablely pattern, even. I don’t know about other sock knitters, but if I’m going to knit socks with toothpicks, I need to be entertained, that’s the secret of the self stripeing yarn obsession thing. So now you know. I totally have respect for Lori as a knitter, these things are superb.

You want Photos??! Okay….
First, the package was inspected by my package inspector,
Charles “Chuck” “the Face” Bean,

Then the contents get inspected by my Cat-Dog, Guy (yes, we named our cat “Guy”)

Lori sent Socks, of course, a lovely card, and some Lindt White Chocolate, Yum!

They fit perfectly, and I LOVE the color!

A closeup of the pattern,

Lori knit these in Fortissima Socka, Colour #1005
The Pattern is “Uptown Boot Socks, Interweave Knits, Winter 2003.
I love them, did I mention that? Thanks Lori!

And, a photo of the sockeater, looking very guilty, or sleepy, or cute. Whatever.

Filed by Julia at 6:32 am under Knitting
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Yay!!! (That’s one of my favorite words)(is it a word?, Okay, expression then.)
My secret sock pal, the lovely person who I knit for, Is the fab Lynda, from Knit Together! It was a pleasure, to knit for her. I haven’t gotton my socks yet, but I know they were sent, so I’m all geared for mail delivery, stalking the mail person like a certain someone I know. The waiting! It’s making me nuts! I have only cleaning to do tomorrow (bleh), oh, and finishing a certain holiday knit for a certain person who shares my DNA. I seriously want to knit anything else. Like Seriously. Yo.

I’ve got some photos to post, probly tomorrow, I flew to MI last weekend for my parents Xmas party. Can we say Wasted? Yes we can. My dad is a wine connosuer (SP?), and yet, I got my drink on with a bottle of Stoli. and the tonic. and the limes. I figure, I appreciate the wine, but I can’t afford to familiarize myself with it like my parents and their wine people. So save it for them, and pass me the Stoli!

Also, a minor knitting tragedy this weekend. The certain person that shares my DNA has a certain dog. A sock eating, yep, eating, dog. Oh yeah, that’s right. The little F@#$er took out one of the heels in one of my Hand. Knit. Socks. I’m not too too upset, for 3 reasons:

A) They weren’t even close to being a favorite.
2) I use an after thought heel, so it’s easily replaced.
and D) I was a bit drunk from dinner with my siblings and some friends. Hey, I wasn’t driving.

Ask my dad where his cashmere socks went. 2 pairs. at least they were store bought. shesh.

Filed by Julia at 7:45 am under General
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Yay! I finished my secet holiday exchange socks last friday, a week ahead of time! They go into the mail tomorrow, and meet my pal hopefully this weekend. I’ll reveal her as soon as I know she has her socks, and other assorted goodies! *Wink*
A big big thanks to Ariane for putting this thing together!
*MWAH*

A view of the toes

The color is pretty true, at least on my monitor, The color is very purply, with a little orange, and green. It took forever to decide on colors and pattern, oh I hope they fit!

Don’t worry sock pal, my feet are clean and petticured!

Specs:
Pattern: My own, Toe up in my usual pattern, with a little lace pattern inserted where appropriate.
Yarn: Also my own. A special varigated, one of a kind, just for my sock pal.
Needles: Addi Size 2us, which, to my horror, are actually more like 2.5 us, yeah, that’s right, get out your needle checkers, cause these babys are too tight for a 2, and too small for a 3. Jerks.
Heel: My Favorite! An afterthought heel. Looks just like the short row heel, but uses less yarn.

Next up: I need to finish knitting my sister’s wrap, and I started a sweater, (whoops) out of rowan Plaid, in Creeper. and some socks, but I don’t usually count those! I plan to finish my majestic sweater after the holidays, I just don’t want to face cables right now, I want fast Knitting!

Filed by Julia at 5:17 am under Knitting
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Hello knitters of the world! I have a favor to ask…..

This little fella needs a home. He came to me as a stray. Litterally. This cat lived in my neighborhood, and never ever came when i called him. Until the other night when it was butt-ass cold. I saw him, and called to him, and he came right over. He decided he’d had enough of the street life, and wanted a home. I was more than happy to help. I never intended to keep him, and now, as it turn out I can’t keep him.

This little guy tested positve for FIV. That’s the feline version of HIV. I already have 4 cats, so he’s been living in the spare room. He’s soooo cool people! He’s very affectionate, and eats like a horse. He is litterbox trained. He currently has all his shots, and will be neutered next week. I’m asking everybody. If you live in the mid-east or east, I live in pittsburgh, I will arrange to get him to a good home. He deserves it.
He needs to be in a single cat, or cat with FIV environment. There is a shelter in town that’s good at placing FIV cats, but they’re full at the moment. He’s on the waiting list, they won’t euthanize him just for being FIV positive.
If you, or someone you know will love him and give him a good home, please get in touch!

my email is msjuliaj AT hotmail DOT com

Look at that face….

Filed by Julia at 2:41 am under General
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Everybody go the JCREW site, and check
these puppies out. I love them. As soon as I finish what I’m knitting now, I’m totally making up the pattern, I swear, really…

…and, the new Knitty is up! I really like Tubey, and guess who’s got a pattern in it?! Oh, and I love Jess Hutch’s “Kate” So. Cool.

Filed by Julia at 5:24 am under General
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Today was a good day. A good day that almost got crappy real fast. I was working up at the yarn shoppe (Yarns Unlimited, no site)
waiting on these two very, high mateniece ladies, when the phone rang. The lady I was working with answered it, and I start hearing, “Orange Chibi what? oh, last one, NEW JERSEY??! Can’t you get them there?” This is where I step in. Having brought about this ordering frenzy by letting the fantastic Miss Norma, in on this great piece of knitting paraphanelia, and her informing the knitblog community how to get one, and knowing exactly what for and why this caller was calling, I took over. Guess who it was! Okay I’ll tell you, it was the awesome Cara, from January One! I was excited, I told her who I was, and she was excited. I love this small yarn loving world! She’s very cool, it was a pleasure to meet her, she’s got a great New Jersey/New York accent, and since we’re both photographers, we got to talking about what’s a good web gallery way to showcase photos. In fact, she’s the first knitblogger I’ve got to connect with in a non-computer manner. That’s just cool. Go say Hello!

What’s that you say? You want to see some Knitting/Fiber oriented fodder? Well, twist my arm!

This is some of that great fleece artist wool roving I picked up in Toronto, I couldn’t wait to start spinning it! It’s just luscious, and the color! that’s about 1oz on the bobbin, I should have the thing plyed and set by tonight. I have an Ashford Joy wheel, in case anyone wants to know.

What’s that, you want more? Okay…

These are the socks for my sercret holiday sock exchange pal. I hand dyed it specially for her. It’s varigated, something I don’t dye up all that often. It’s totally one of kind. I like it, I hope she does too. The pattern is my own, I found a sweet little lace pattern and inserted it into my sock pattern, the one I always make up as I go.

As for my majestic sweater, it’s on hold for 3 reasons.

1) I need to finish these socks before next week.
2) I finally admited to myself it may end up being a wee bit tight.*
3) I have holiday knitting to do!

I don’t usually knit for people by choice, but I make exceptions. This year I am knitting a coat for my sisters dog. (I know, I know..)
It’s the dog coat that’s in the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton book that has the Klaralund pattern in it. Also, a matching wrap for my sister. This is purely for the humor involved. My sister and her pooch in matching wraps. I may just pee my pants watching them try them on on Christmas Morning! I’m making up the wrap pattern. If it’s cool, I’ll post the pattern. That’s the extent of my holiday knitting.

This is Louie, Louie V.

oh, and dyeing tons of Vesper yarn on top of that. So there you go.

* I was so excited to start the majestic sweater, I started it on US 6 needles, when I intended to use 7′s or 8′s cause i’m using Kid Classic, and all. but I only had US6 size circs on hand, and didn’t want to wait. Bonehead move, I admit. Although, it was suggested to me that gussets would swiftly nip that prob in the butt. So. I’m boldly going where so many stubborn knitter’s have gone before, solidly believing I won’t have to rip the whole thing out and start again. But I’m on the arms, people, the arms!!!

Filed by Julia at 5:16 am under General
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