two and a half hours at the doctor's office!!

mostly in the waiting room...

then waiting in the little room...

on my own for far too long...

not even music to keep me company...



I thought they'd forgotten me!

BUT - not only did I have time to finish the gauge swatch for the cute Tie Tank from Cast On I plan to knit for myself, I was able to cast on the 113 stitches the pattern calls for and knit the first row!!

[I am very much an accessories knitter - hats, scarves, purses - and large projects scare me. I even started a felted knitting needle case a year ago and while I finally finished the knitting sometime in December I haven't yet felted it. Granted, I do plan to embellish it with funky yarns before I felt it but actually knitting that thing was so tedious! I don't think I'm a good candidate for felting. I need interesting stitches to play with to stay interested in something so big.]

I think the tank will be a good option to start with as an actual clothing piece. At least there aren't any sleeves!

The other thing that scares me a bit about knitting something so big is the cost of the yarn. This pattern calls for 14 balls of Berroco Jewel FX which at over $10 per ball could buy almost 10 tank tops ready made! Thanks to Wool Tyme's clearance centre though, I found 8 balls of Novita Cottonella at $2 per ball that fits the gauge perfectly!

I've started a new adventure!

Ode to a newly defunct Canadian Institution

I'm so upset!

(actually - I was so upset yesterday but didn't get time to write about it until now. I'll try to harness yesterday's emotion...)

With my trusty 40% off coupon in hand I stopped by my friendly neighbourhood Lewiscraft trying to find yarn to make the skull & crossbones sweater featured in knit.1 for my boyfriend and I found out that they're closing. Not only is that location closing...but ALL Lewiscraft stores are closing

I almost had tears well up when I saw the signs.

I love(d) Lewiscraft. Their yarn selection was decent...good all around basics with some specialty yarns. And definitely my favourite place to buy supplies. Their prices were great and their promotions! wow - perfect for a bargain-finder like me. The only possible positive to this is that I may be able to stock up on needles when(if) they go to half price...if any are left.

I knew that they had filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year but the employees in the Carlingwood location seemed pretty confident that they would stay open because they were one of the bigger stores and were fairly busy. Apparently Bentley Leather bought them out and is liquidating everything. What a luggage shop would want with a craft store I don't know.

It's so sad to see another Canadian company go under. Big-box-with-everything-under-the-sun-stores win again and we lose yet another specialty shop where people are actually familiar with the products they sell. Thank goodness for the local independant yarn shops still in Ottawa.

I'm Here!

It's time.

A brand new, blank book is the hardest thing to write in. Those first words must be inspired! inciteful! worthwhile! perfect! A brand new, blank webpage doesn't seem quite so bad. If I change my mind in the future at least I have the option to edit...

I am a lazy writer but an industrious knitter, and I'm hoping to even that out a bit. Wisdom says that writing begets writing, and knitting is a newly discovered passion (that I can't stop talking about) so we'll see how that works out.

I can't wait to explore the community of creative crafters out there, learn from them, share, and be inspired.

There. The hardest part is over...