Going to Paris in 5-4-3-2...

1 day before I'm off to Paris!
I have so much to do before I leave that I won't write much, except to say that:

• Last weekend was spent in Montreal eating and partying with friends and at the airport picking up a famous epidemiologist. I spent the week driving her around the city, taking her to restaurants at night, explaining her how things worked in the department and research group, even having her here for our first BBQ of the year. It was awesome, she was so interesting, an intellectual like I like them, who can have a discussion about anything, because she can find something interesting in anything. I'm very happy I got to spend so much time with her, it was a very intense intellectual stimulation, even if it meant not to be home one single evening. 
• I have 10 inches left on 1st woven baby blanket, hoping to start blanket #2 today. Now I have to learn how to crochet the edges. 

36 inches done, 4 more to go! 

I really like the pattern, I can't wait to see what it will look like when I wash it.

•  I still didn't find the knitting I lost 2 weeks ago. That included a set of Denise interchangeable needles, yarn, and other stuff (I can't remember what else was in the bag). It is very frustrating, because it was almost, almost finished. 
• My blouse is also starting to look more and more like a blouse. I'm really hoping to finish it before the end of the sewing semester (early June). 

Can't believe I know how to make collars! 

I will totally wear that, one day! I can picture it with my jeans skirt.

Still can believe I can make collars!!!:-) 

• I went to a weaving class last weekend. The highlight of the day was to meet 2 new expats from Montreal in 3R. The other highlight was that I was feeling comfortable around all the looms. I think I'm slowly becoming a weaver. 
• Other highlight of the past few weeks: I started to take the bus with a girl I met in the farmers' circle, and discovered that we have a lot of common interests. Well, that shouldn't come as a surprise, since we both belong to the same craft circle. But we also share the fact that we follow sewing and knitting patterns in English (oh, being able to talk to someone without having to check/translate every single word I say...), we both want to learn the complete way (no short cut that our fellow farmers like so much), we like to make our own clothes, and we like vintage sewing patterns. We discussed the possibility to have a sew-along this summer, because we both want to make Gertie's shirtwaist dress. I think that after having sewn 2 skirt and 1 blouse, I can tackle this project, especially with the help of someone with much more experience than me :-).  
• My man decided to organize our housewarming party (a year after we got the house) on May 18. Those who know me and are not on Facebook, consider yourself invited. We will try to get the house ready on time...and have enough alcohol so you can't see what is not finished. 
• Oh my, I'm leaving for Paris tomorrow, and I have nothing ready, except for my passport, plane ticket, a few euros from previous trips and list of stores to visit. I don't even have my aunt's address. I didn't even talked to her about the trip yet, her sister (who I am travelling with) organized everything. I hope she knows I'm coming. Those who know me know that this is not normal. However, I'm hoping that this will mean real vacations. I have a friend who went to Paris last week, and on his Facebook status, he mentioned that he had to wait several hours on a Tuesday morning to visit the catacombes. This is now the only thing that is on my list as NOT to visit. 
• I have 24 hours to find my camera battery charger. It is probably somewhere with my knitting :-( 
• Ok, there is one other thing that is almost organized for that trip, and it is what knitting I'll bring. I decided on Graylina, except in a red that will match my blouse. I just need to find needles to do the ribbing, since the ones I need are on the lost knitting. 
• I might have forgotten to tell you that a few weeks ago, my man invited out to lunch, and asked me if I really, really wanted to go to Malaysia for my big 4-0 this year. He was not too warm to the idea, but had to give his vacations dates at work, so a decision had to be made. Final verdict: we are going to Malaysia for 4 weeks over the Christmas holidays! I can't wait, I am so excited. 
• Meanwhile I also bought tickets to Santa Fe in August, where I will spend a week with my friend from Lilloet and a few of her friends. 
• Life is good, very good. 

Talk to you soon about Paris! Have a good week!

In need of vacations

Well, first thing I want to say is that life is good again! After a very intensive week training the person who replaced me at the university chiropractic clinic, I'm now finally back in my quiet research jobs. It's still 2 jobs, and it is still not permanent, but at least, it's only 2 jobs with 1-year contracts, the longest I've had in a few years (including the last jobs I had in Montreal). It makes such a difference, although I still need to rest from the 4 last months' craziness. I don't seem to be able to get that at home. I just look around and get depressed about the house and everything I should be doing in it. But then I have no energy to do it. So I get more depressed.

The knitting, sewing and weaving also suffered from this lethargy.

For example, I knit those baby booties at the speed of the light, because I wanted a friend to bring them in Hungary at the end of March to give to a friend who is expecting. But something went very wrong..I did not notice anything before I almost gave them to him. The plan is now to knit a 2nd one for each of them. While in vacations.

I also started a little kimono for another friend who was expecting (she had a beautiful baby boy last weekend). It's an easy knit, which I keep fixing, because I seem to have forgotten how to read instructions. Or that there are instructions to be read. I don't have a picture here because I can't find the bag in which it is. Vacations, vacations...please come soon!

I missed about 3 sewing classes in the past month, between Washington and a meeting. So when I went back this week, I was wayyy behind everybody else, although one of the things I love about this course is that everybody can go at their own rhythm. The other excuse I have for being behind is that I had to do everything twice so far, mostly because we had to modify the pattern to fit me after the first try, but also because I can't seem to be able to sew straight anymore. I have to admit that I am a little bit happy that we had to modify the pattern, because I have been complaining my whole life that nothing fits on my unexistant shoulders, and this seemed to have proven my point.

Looks more like a pyjama than a blouse, I know

Did I show you my beautiful fabric, and the beautiful buttons I found to go with it?

I can't wait to wear it, and I feel I should knit something to go with it. I'm thinking about this or this. What do you think?

The good news of the week is that after about a month, I finished warping my loom, and started to weave a little bit.

It's a baby blanket for the baby that was born last weekend. I better hurry if I want him to get it before he enters kindergarten! It's a beautiful pattern, easy to follow, but I still need calm and quiet so I don't get confused between the treadling. Can you see the mistake I made already? The problem is that in our new house, the loom is facing the TV. So I got totally distracted when my man started watching it while I was weaving. I will try to weave with ear plugs, so see if it makes a difference, but it is something I already wrote down as having to change when we redo the basement.

a mistake, already :-( 

So, really, I need vacations. I can't keep working like this, one stitch/one mistake.

The only thing that can help is a little trip, and I am looking forward to Paris a lot! I think that the fact that it was not planned, nor even part of my bucket list makes it even more exciting. I mean, of course, I'm happy to go to Paris for a week, but it is not in my top destinations, so I have no expectation, and no plan, except for having a "café-crème", and a glass of good wine.

Well, of course, I started to make a list of interesting stores to visit. Most of the addresses I found here. I looked around, and most stores seem to still be open (the post is from 2009).

But there are still 17 days before I leave...Hopefully that means about 40 inches of baby blanket, but I suspect it will be 17 days of mistakes. Until then, I'm going to go play in the snow, because, yes, of course, we are getting 5 to 10 cm of snow today. It's a very wintery spring, this year. Meanwhile, in Paris, they are expecting 23 degrees this weekend. Imagine in 17 days!

Back to winter wonderland

I spoke too quickly, of course; we got an extra 20 cm of snow this week, bringing us back to winter. But of course, we, being used to Canadian winters, know all about this annual mid-March storm, which bring big heavy flakes of wet snow: it's the last storm that brings an eventual spring...I'm happy to have a little bit of white covering the ugly grey of our early spring.

I managed to go ski before the end of the winter! 

The only thing is that this year, I had already experienced a little bit of real spring, by spending a few days in Washington last week, where I presented at the ACC-RAC.

Random cute house with cherry blossoms in Washington

The presentation went very well, and my team wan 2 prizes out of 9. I was very proud of our postdoctoral and PhD students who wan. It was also fun to meet authors I heard about over and over in the past 2 years I've been working with this research team.I managed to wear something I made (and to take a picture of it...)

My skirt! 

Being there for work, there was not too much time to visit, so we carefully prepared our itinerary for the one day off we had.

We ended up spending half a day visiting all the main monuments

Michelle's garden!

And then spent the second half of that day visiting the Smithsonian museums. I was there with my man and 3 male students, a chiropractor, a kinesiologist, and an engineer. The guys decided to visit the museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs, and I decided to visit the Museum of American History.

It was awesome. I had time to see everything, from the different wars that USA participated in to Michelle Obama's inaugural gown. There was a lot about American pop culture, with Kermit the frog, Dorothy's ruby slippers and Julia Child's kitchen.

Washington was also great for its wonderful food: we had awesome Mexican, Ethiopian and Turkish food! Nothing that can be found in 3R!

And I had a little time to knit..waiting for the plane on the way back. I also managed to go to a yarn store near our hotel, but I didn't have much time to shop, because my boss was with me. I ended up buying the cutest buttons ever. I'll take a picture for the next entry.

Then I came back to work. I was supposed to go back working full time as a research clerk (not sure at all of the translation...), but somehow, because of a few misunderstandings, I still worked 4 jobs this week. But Monday morning, my replacement is supposed to show up at the clinic, and April 1 should be when I go back to a quiet. life of only 2 jobs. Just in time to start preparing for my next trip: a week in Paris with my 2 aunts, who are both 80 and over, but incredibly active, curious and interested in everything (just the way I hope to be at their age).  I think it's going to be a lot of fun!!!
More details in the next entry. Have a great week!

First FO of the year

The end of February has been snowy here. We got a lot of snow for several days in a row, non stop. It was beautiful. And now, 2 weeks later, BANG!  I woke up this morning and it is spring. Temperatures are over 0,  the sun is out early (although we change the time tonight), the birds are back, and there is a constant sound of water, because of all the snow that is melting. It feels very feng shui.

February 

February

February

March! You can't see it, but the snow on the roof is melting and it almost sounds like there is a fountain or a river near by. 

All the windows of the house are open for a little bit of fresh air. Feels so good! 

Crafty news...
This week, I finally, finally finished my folded. By the time I finished it, I just wanted to throw it out of the window, and set it on fire :-(

Everything went so well, including the sleeves with DPN and including the folding, so I was not ready for the nastiness of the collar. Everything that could happen happened. I redid it about 14 times. I blame myself, for making stupid mistakes and thinking that from one row to the other, I could remember how to start a short row with a YO (not!). But there is something in that yarn, mixed with needles, that just drove me nuts in the last few hours I spent on that sweater. Somehow, it was as if the needles were so big, they made everything so loose, and it created wholes. At the end, I didn't know if they were actual wholes or loose stitches and I kept trying to fix things that were maybe not wrong. I ended up deciding that that would be it, because even if I wanted to undo some rows to start the collar again, I had no idea where I would have had to start from. I tried it on several times (even while I knitted it, which I think contributed to the loosening of the stitches) and it was ok. The I tried to block it. Oh my. As soon as I took it out of the water, I knew there was something wrong. I felt the whole thing stretching, and I as I was placing it to block, I was not able to put in into place.
So here is the result (it's not as bad as I expected, but still...):

All the shape at the waist has disappeared. The collar fits because I redid the BO 3 or 4 times until it was tight enough. I also knitted only 3/4 of the rows I was supposed to after the folds. Anyway, it's wearable, and it's a nice casual sweater, but I think that if I was to knit it again, I would just do it one size smaller.
This week, I went back to familiar baby patterns, so the next few weeks should be easier in terms of knitting for me.

In the past few weeks, I also worked a little bit on my next sewing project in my sewing class, but there too, the results are not convincing. I cut the pattern and the fabric, and started to assembly it, but I had to undo everything I did because the pattern had to be modified to make the shoulders smaller. The crafty life of a  pear-shaped woman is not easy!

However, something that is going well is weaving.

Last week I practiced finishing techniques.

And I started to warp my loom for baby blankets, with the help of a lady I met in my weaving class a few weeks ago. So far, so good. I can't start to weave the patterns I chose!

The rest of my life is good. I bought Valerian and used it for about a week, and it helped a lot going through the nigh without having insomnia. This week, I woke up only a few times, and last night I had a wonderful 7 hours  of sleep in a row. Digestion problems are also going away. I know everything is getting better because my work situation is getting better, and that both are linked. I practised the presentation I'll be giving next week in Washington, and instantly felt so much calmer. The very frustrating thing is to know what causes all the health problems, and yet not being able to control them. My work situation should improve again when I come back from the conference next week, so let's see if I get my energy back then.
Have a good week!

Getting closer to the baby blankets

I'm just coming back from my weaving yarn shopping expedition. I don't know if the blankets will be well woven, but they will be nice colours!

2/8 cotton for the babies to come

I took today off from work, thanks to the the days of overtime I accumulated, because I spent the weekend at a Hungarian folk dance camp with a lot of my friends, and I knew I would have trouble waking up this morning. I spent a good part of the weekend celebrating that I quit one of my jobs on Friday. Life will get back to normal soon! Meanwhile, I didn't get insomnia since Friday. It may be due to the fact that I partied a lot on Friday and Saturday night, and that I went to bed at 4 am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, but I have been able to sleep all day on Saturday in a cabin shared with a bunch of people, and I did not wake up once last night. I know it is all psychological and due to the stress and exhaustion, and it is so frustrating that even if I know it, it doesn't stop! Let's see if knowing I will finish contract #4 soon will change something, or if I need more tequila shots to sleep all night!

I did wear my new skirt at Saturday night's tanchaz, but didn't get the chance to take nice pictures. I only threw my camera at my man when someone asked me to dance and asked him to take a few pictures.

Mezosegi dance with Ted!

So here they are. That's all I have. I guess we'll have to wait for spring to get more, because that skirt is made of cotton and I can't wear it in this weather...I'm very happy with it. And it was great that some people who follow the blog recognized it when I arrived at tanchaz!

Going to Montreal means that I saw my friend and knitting mentor Elizabeth, so I got to work a little bit on my folded. I found a mistake in the pattern (a missing word), but besides a little moment of panic because I didn't know what to do, I think it is coming along nicely. I'm doing the raglan and decreasing for the neck, and I have a few stitches to graft to attach the sleeves. So I probably have one or 2 weeks'worth of bus rides left to work on it.

This is it for this week's updates. I have great weaving plans (including warping my loom, and travelling far away from 3R to discuss weaving with an expert) for next week, but I'll write more about them when they are confirmed. Have a great week! I'm going to bed, even if it is not even 9 yet...

Past few weeks

Time is flying by, but at least this time, I have things to say about the past few weeks.

There has been mostly a lot of work. How I do that, I don't know, but I always get myself in this kind of situation (I think the answer is that I don't know how to say no, and I'm kind of addicted to the feeling of being useful...I have to work on that...) Anyway, I'm still working 3 contracts, with 4 supervisors, 7 employees that report to me, about 88 undergrad students and 15 grad students with a lot of questions about a lot of things calling, writing to me, and knocking at my door. On top of that, I'm going to present the result of a small research project in Washington next month, and I did not start the presentation. Not surprisingly, the quality of my work, my interest in it, and my whole health are suffering. I've started to have insomnia, waking up in the middle of the night thinking about what I forgot to do, and I'm at the point where I don't digest anything - a-ny-thing. This week, supervisor #3 asked me if I could do more days for him, and I almost had a panic attack. I had to put a break on a few things that I was doing outside of work and that brought more deadlines and stress. That is already making a huge difference. Fortunately, my situation at work is known, and changes should come soon. I'm just looking forward to see what "soon" means...

Meanwhile, some fun things have happened too!

The office is starting to look like an office

Need to add our books 

There has been a Sunday at a kite festival.

It was not warm...

...but we had a nice fire to roast marshmallows...

...and the out house toilets were well insulated!

There was a weekend in Montreal, with a brunch, a haircut at my favourite salon, knitting and Indian food with good friends, traditional dance and music concert, late chat with my parents, and my aunt's 80th birthday brunch, with a lot of champagne! (Too busy, I did not have the time to take any picture).

There is a second almost finished skirt (the plan is to wear it next Saturday night!)



And Friday and yesterday, there has been a wonderful weaving class.

What my side of the desk looked like as we learned to read a pattern and plan how to warp the loom. 

It was given by the weaving guild of a town not far from 3R. I went as much to distract myself from work than to learn something, because I have big plans to meet someone who I think will be able to teach me a lot and answer all my questions in a few weeks. But I had left my name to that guild a few months ago, and when the lady called me back last week, I decided it was an excellent way to take some of the overtime hours I did over the past weeks, without staying home alone, which would have led me to do laundry and stress over things that are not done in the house.
So I rented a car and went. We were 3 students, including a very funny 79 year old lady. I learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know I needed to know in order to plan my weaving projects. I'm now able to plan everything down to the exact price of the pieces I will weave. It was also a good time for me to learn this, after I actually warped my loom once, and woven a few things. Tonight, I'm planning to apply what I learned to a present I want to weave for 2 of my expecting friends, and the teacher has agreed that if I do all the planning and send her a copy of it, she will correct it before I go buy my yarn next week. I told her it would be like my exam to pass the course. The 2 other students also decided to come with me yarn shopping, so that will be a fun expedition!

2nd sleeve about to get finished!

And I finished my 2nd sleeve this morning! I decided to block both sleeves before I continue knitting the sweater, mainly because I was such a novice DPN knitting, the tension is not nice and created some ugly holes. I'm hoping to be able to fix a bit of that with the blocking.
By the way, although I'm not "enjoying" knitting with DPN yet, the 2nd sleeve has been way lass painful to knit than the 1st one. Also, I learned that the metal needles I was using, even if it was more difficult, in order to get used to them, were not a good choice. Because they were big, and the yarn small, their weight probably contributed to the tension problems. So, as you can see on the picture, I switched back to the bamboo ones, which are much easier to use, although my tension gets very tight when I use them, so I cannot say I enjoy them more, except for the fact that they helped me finish much faster!

I'm now going to make soup for my lunches this week, hoping it will be easy to digest while being healthy! Have a great Sunday afternoon, and talk to you soon!

"My country is not a country, it's winter"

These are the first words of a song written by one of our poets. And boy, this week, was he right.
The past week has been cold. Like, very cold. Like, feels-like -38-Celsius-because-of-windchill cold. Getting out of the house at  7:15 am and walking for 12 minutes to the bus stop have been a little bit of a challenge. It felt like the cold air went straight to my brain through my nose, and that my thighs would fall of. But at the same time, there is a great feeling of being strong about being able to just carry on with our life in that kind of conditions. And it makes -25 feels like spring.

In that past week, I managed to finish something (Hurray!) and wear it at work (double hurray!)
It's the skirt that I very, very slowly sewed together.

Picture sucks, but it is because I am home alone, and I'm too comfortable with my  warm clothes and do not want to expose my legs to the cold air, so I am not wearing it and taking a picture of myself. 

I took this picture in a hurry, because I have to bring it to my sewing class this afternoon to show my teacher.

In other news, despite being very happy to have finished one sleeve of my folded, I am very sad to announce that I still hate DPNs. I still keep loosing them, or they get in the knitted part and pull on the yarn, or they fall off and I have to fix several stitches, or they get stuck in the sleeves of the sweater I'm wearing. Moreover, the knitting doesn't look good and regular. I'm hoping that a good blocking will fix it (or part of it). I'm starting the second sleeve today, and I hope to finish it soon so I can go back to my circular needles. Now, I know that you will say that I could have done it all on circular needles, and then you would not have to read all my complaints. But the problem is that I am a very stubborn person, and I wanted to learn how to knit with DPNs.  So I did. Next step is to learn to enjoy it. I see a lot of socks coming up in the next months to teach me that.
Meanwhile, I've been telling myself regularly that I would not need to sew anything, at least. So it's not too bad. I'm trying not to think how much easier, faster and prettier this would have been on my circular needles...

The other craft I'm thinking about a lot right now is weaving. I'm obsessed  about fixing my small Meco loom, and warping my 60" Clement again. I'm planning to take some time off from work to shop and warp. I'm thinking baby blankets overshot. I've been pinning in my weaving board like a maniac, and now need to find time to go explore all these sites. But I am stubborn, and these blankets will get woven. I'm just not sure when.

Have a great weekend, I'm off to my sewing class!