When Fibre and Obsession Collide

I've always loved to knit, but lately, I can't be without something to knit by my side.

I think I've finally cracked the curse of the former smoking - I'm no longer eating constantly in an effort to soothe my oral habit. Unfortunately, that's been replaced by knitting. I actually get panicky if I don't have a project on the go. If I've completed something and don't have another thing to pick up immediately, I get sweaty.

When I smoked, I'd get that way if I finished a pack before going to bed. I'd go for a walk at 2am just to get a package for the next day! And, if they sold yarn and needles at Mac's Milk, you can bet I'd be shuffling over in my pyjamas and slippers in the dead of night to get my fix!

I won't have that problem for a while, now. I've got a couple of things currently on the go and more projects waiting in line behind them.

Projects In The Wings:
Accordian cardigans for Kieran and Sean. Yarn soon to be ordered from Handpainted Yarn

Currently On The Needles:
I'm working on a Pinwheel Blanket for my upstairs neighbours in Cottontots' Lime Berry. My neighbours are expecting their first child to arrive in the next 3-4 weeks. They're the best neighbours I've ever known, so I thought a nice baby blanket was in order.

I'm also working on a Stash Busting Blanket inspired by the Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits. Perhaps I'll get in trouble for busting their copyright, but I'm sure people have thought of this before: basically you gather up a colour coordinated bunch of yarn in varying textures, gauges and fibre contents, you cast a lot of stitches onto a super long circular needle, knit only one yarn per row in random (or seemingly random) order, leaving at least a tail at either end to form a fringe and knit until it's wide enough for you.

Waiting For Finishing:
I've just finished knitting up my Craftster Circular Shrug (see sidebar for pattern PDF). I knit it with 5" of 2x2 rib and 20" of 1x1 mock rib, and while it appears OK width ways, I should have added a few inches to all three sections of various ribbing. It looks to be a bit on the small size for my voluptuous proportions. I still have to block it to get the edges flat and get the vinegar smell out, so we'll see how it fits when it's sewn up. Who knows, maybe it'll become a gift!

My ScarfMe! scarf needs a bath. It's been off the needles for a couple of weeks, but I've been lazy about washing and blocking it to get the vinegar smell out of the wool. I'd tell you more about it, but I don't want to give it away before my secret scarf pal receives it. It's not super fancy, but it's interesting and the colours will appeal to my pal, I think. And it's fringed! My first fringeing experience and I'm so tickled by it! I may fringe everything. Especially Sean's sweater! Wheeee!

I knit a round baby blanket for my sister (who is due in early January) out of some wonderful fuzzy mohair blend Capricorn yarn I found at Value Village last year. I have to block it, but as beautiful as it was, I wasn't satisfied with the pattern, which I'm convinced had a flaw in it. It was the round blanket in The Knitting Goddess, but since the author died (at least, I think that's what happened to her, and she was super young) there is no record of pattern errata anywhere. So, instead of blocking it, I may frong the entire thing and start over using the pinwheel pattern. Cuz I'm crazy and masochistic like that! This one has also been off the needles for a few weeks, giving evidence to my blocking laziness.

Building My Stash:
My Sorta Secret Pal, my new blogfriend Dragon Knitter, sent me a KnitPixie (now inexplicably called kpixie) gift certificate. It was a cool gift, but it put me in an odd predicament: being a filthy communist hippie who doesn't use credit cards, and kpixie not having a PayPal option, I wasn't sure how to use my gift certificate. Kpixie listened to my predicament and very generously helped me out so that I could get this GORGEOUS skein of Recylced Silk Yarn (Kathmandu, Handpicked) which is made out of sari silk remnants! WooHoo! So, for now, this painfully beautiful, soft as butter skein of silk is sitting in my stash, dreaming of becoming something even more beautiful. I am looking for an alternate source for this yarn that I can pay using PayPal to get my lonely, erotically soft skein of yarn a friend and maybe we'll have ourselves a little yarn orgy. Thank you Dragon Knitter. Thank you for making this meeting between me and this delicious little yarn possible!

In a little non-yarn porn note: thank you everyone for your very kind words about the latest regarding my niece. She visited for lunch today and it was such a joy to play with her and have her around. Your kind words have really bouyed me during this difficult time and helped me find peace and strength within to work harder at having a healthier relationship with my baby sister, who I love dearly but sometimes have conflict with.

Push Pause

So, it's been a whacky week, as if there were ever any other kind around this place.

On Wednesday morning, I found out that we would be going to court yesterday (Thursday) regarding my niece. Remember the niece who was living with us just days after our wedding? Well, she was taken into custody by the Catholic Children's Aid Society (CCAS) who conned my sister into signing a temporary care agreement, told her she could terminate at any time and then, when she did terminate it a few days later, took her to court and made her daughter a ward of the CCAS.

Over the last few months, the family has been working together to get my niece back home where she belongs. Her mother may not be the best sister or daughter in the universe but she was a pretty good mom.

So, we finally got a hearing in front of a judge.

Me, both sisters, one boyfriend, my mum, my grandmother and my aunt all showed up in court dressed extremely well. After a little pow wow with the lawyer, we were called into the courtroom.

Six of us sat on the family side of the room. The CCAS had a single representative show up. She whined, "who are they?" when she saw us. "I mean, who exactly are they?"

The crown attorney turned and asked, "are you all family, no friends?" To which our attorney snapped, "yes, they're all family." The CCAS worker looked put off.

I expect that in such cases when a child has been removed from her mother's custody, the CCAS as not accustomed to seeing large-scale family support, particularly from a family as normal and presentable as ours. (No offense to anyone, but I've really seen some dooseys in the courthouse and our family stood out among them)

The judge came in and we all rose to greet him.

** Side Story Alert!
When I was at University, there was a guy in a number of my classes called J. In German class, he sat in front of me. He was tall and slim and very indie. He was in a band. He wore Sebadoh t-shirts and cardigans and I fell very quickly and hopelessly in love with him right from the start.

I was at least four years older than him, having dropped out of University only to go back four years later, but over the course of the year, we became friendly. I tried to work up the courage to ask him out to a movie, but I never could. I was paralysed by his thrift store beauty.

After a gig, he invited me to a party at his house. After loading up the van, a minivan dragnet popped out of the shadows and searched the vehicle, thinking we were a bunch of thugs trying to steal a minivan. I didn't get their reasoning - it must've taken more than a half hour to load all the gear and try to get the lot of us into the van, certainly too long to take when stealing a large vehicle!. Besides, the driver was the insurance holder!

Back at his house, J. got very drunk and the police were called, in order that we could complain. On the phone, J. became beligerent. "Do you know who I am?!" he roared. "My grandfather is Judge S.!"

Someone told me that J.s grandfather had a reputation for being a real hardass.

Not much later, J. passed out. I wandered home, only a few blocks away, and returned to my lowly existance as a moth to J.'s flame.

Standing in line at the registrar's office, waiting to turn in my papers for second year registration I saw a large wooden box for dropping completed papers off. It was covered over with the rejected id photos of recent students. As I stared at the photos, waiting in the neverending line to get the registrar's stamp, I saw J.s picture.

I had to have it! I needed it! My life would be a joyless mockery if I didn't take it!

With a little laugh, to tell everyone around me that I knew this person well and what a laugh that their picture was there and I would take it and show them and we'd all laugh because we were all such good friends, I snatched the tiny photo off the box.

For second year, J. transferred to a different University, one with a reputation for a better English department. I often moped that perhaps something might have happened between us if only I'd had the courage to ask him out to a movie or if I'd gotten drunk with him after a show.

I continued to think that way until three or four years later, when talking to a new friend, we discovered we both knew J. I told her of my crush on him. I talked lovingly of the back of his neck, the musty old v-neck sweaters he wore, of his brilliant little band.

"Uh, he's gay, right? You knew that, right? He came out in University."

I still had his picture in my wallet. In fact, I have the picture in my wallet right now! And, when they announced the judge presiding over my niece's custody case, I pulled the picture out and had a look at J. as his grandfather walked into the room.

**Side Story Now Over

The judge announced that he'd read the papers and was finding for CCAS, but was in support of a proposal just drafted. Five minutes later, he left the room and court was over. Thank goodness I didn't have to take the entire day off of work to be there for the whole 15 minutes it took!

So, while my sister is not immediately regaining custody, my niece is going to my aunt's house to live with her and my Oma, where my sister and everyone in the family, will have unlimited access. She will go home to my sister as soon as my sister completes a parenting class and shows a letter from her therapist saying she is mentally fit (which she always mostly was).

After court, everyone except my mum and I piled into my aunt's car and went back to my place (which is within walking distance of the courthouse - one odd perk to living in the downtown core of my city). I made roastbeef sandwiches while my little sister made everyone instant coffees and tea. We sat in the livingroom chatting away happily munching on cheese, chicken pepperettes, pasta salad with tuna and sandwiches.

It felt good to have the women of my family gathered together in happy company. I was proud that I managed to pull off the little gathering, as I'm not the greatest hostess in the world. I was relieved to know that, as soon as the police check clears on my 81 year old grandmother, the woman who escaped the nazis and the communists amidst gunfire with two babies in her arms, my niece will be coming home to her family, who have all missed her terribly.

De-Lurking Day!

I have declared today to be De-Lurking Day! Yay! Balloons for all the little children!

Please, stop by the comments and leave a quick message. You can leave a comment on this post, saying "hi" or go to an older post, re-live the good times in the archives and join in the never-ending conversation.

If you are here to grab the Craftster Circular Shrug Pattern, introduce yourself. I'd love to get to know more wonderful crafty people!

Thanks for stopping by.

The Highest Highs and The Lowest Lows

So, first, I'm sorry that it's been almost an entire week since my last post. It's certainly not for want of content, as you'll soon see, but just the fact that it was Canadian Thanksgiiving last weekend and it was an exceptionally busy time for us here at Casa Momcast.

Oh, The Highs!
On Friday night, we went to a local mall to have supper (Pad Thai! Yum!) and run some errands (bought Kieran the basis of his winter wardrobe). When walking back to the centre of the mall's first floor, after purchasing a present for Sean's sister's birthday and getting myself a sample of Lovely, the new Sarah Jessica Parker fragrance (I NEVER EVER EVER wear fragrance of any kind, in fact, my deodorant is my perfume! But, hey, it's SJ!), a girl came running up behind me shouting, "Excuse me!"

I stopped and turned when I realised it was me she was after and saw the black uniform of a cosmetic table girl and thought I'd perhaps dropped something in The Bay, where we'd just been.

The girl was no more than 24 and she wasn't from The Bay, she was from Faces and she'd chased me halfway through the mall to say,"Where did you get that?"

She was pointing to the taupe coloured blanket shrug I was wearing. "Pardon?" I asked, not sure if I understood.

"Where did you buy it? It's gorgeous!" the girl repeated.

"I made it. I knit it myself." I replied.

"You knit it?!" she asked incredulously. "Wow! I really like it!" And, a little disappointed, she turned and jogged back to her cosmetics counter.

I turned to Sean, who was laughing quietly at me and gave him a smug grin. He hates my shrug and a girl, obviously of the young and hip variety, had just chased me down the mall because she liked it so much.

What a proud moment!


My much desired Blanket Shrug
Originally uploaded by momcast.


Whoah! The Lows
On Tuesday, I was so cold, all I wanted to do was cuddle under a blanket and read. My fingers were too cold to knit and I didn't have the heart to make supper. So, after OK'ing it with Sean, I ordered pizza.

I decided to order from a great, family owned, Italian restaurant instead of a mega-corp. In addition to a large pizza, I also got one order of spaghetti and meatballs and one caesar salad.

The spaghetti was really filling and the pizza. Well, the pizza looked more like an extra, extra large! Needless to say, a lot of 'za got left in the box. No problem: we could all have it for our lunch the next day.

Since the box was far to big to go in the fridge, and I always leave pizza out on the counter or the table until it's thorougly cooled before bagging it up, it was on the kitchen table when I wandered out at 11pm with a hankering for munchies.

There was more than half a pizza there, so I quickly scarfed down, far faster than an human should eat, two slices of vegetarian yumminess. I stood next to the table, in the near dark, reading a book and sloppily ate that pizza. It was delicious and really hit the spot.

Just before closing the lid of the pizza box, I noticed there were a lot of dark specs all over the inside of the box. Strange, thought I as I leaned down for a closer look, they must have been very slopy to get so many little pieces of mushroom all over the box.

But it wasn't dried mushroom pieces.

It was mouse droppings.

The bloody mouse who is plaguing my home, got into the pizza box, which sat on my kitchen table, and had a feast. And I had just eaten two slices so fast I almost didn't taste them.

I almost chuffed all over the kitchen floor.

It was like kharma was returning the favour for so thoughlessly stuffing my face. That's what I get for being a pig. That's what I get for being too lazy to clean up properly after dinner.

I closed the lid of the pizza box and pulled out a sharpie and wrote on the top of the box: Danger! Mouse has been here. Going to go throw up now after eating two slices.

Sean laughed at me, again.

Do the Friday Shuffle!

Here are the last 10 songs that shuffled/played on my ipod/computer:

1. Fragile Happiness, Super Furry Animals
   
2. The Golden Egg, Quasi
   
3. I'm Going Out My Way, Stereolab
   
4. I Don't Mind, Slumber Party
   
5. Each One Unique, Salako
   
6. Chocolate, Snow Patrol
   
7. Substitute, The Who
   
8. Clean Out, Mates of State
   
9. Chromakey, Mathlete
   
10. Nothing To Be Done, The Pastels
    

What are you listening to?

And, PS, did anyone notice that I'm about 5 days ahead of myself, as evidenced in the Self Portrait Tuesday title? Geez! Whatta dork!

You know what you need?

Inspired by Sweetney this here little game is called "What You Need".

Go to Google and search for the term "*YOUR NAME* needs", as in "leanne needs", and see what comes up.

Leanne needs it up the bott but needs educashon first.
Leanne needs to get herself to a few male stripjoints.
Leanne needs a donor.
Leanne needs to present her credentials well.
Leanne needs wisdom and grace.
Leanne needs practice time to get things right.
Leanne needs to write a book.
Leanne needs to act Like And adult if she wants to be treated Like one.
Leanne needs phsycho therapy or whatever its called.
Leanne needs a kick in the keister.
Leanne needs some help.
Leanne needs her sleep.
Leanne needs you to lay guilt on her.
Leanne needs volunteers.
Leanne needs someone to take care of her.
Leanne needs to get on the three months plan.
Leanne needs midget slaves to walk around carrying her boobs all day.

I thougt I'd mix up the bizarre with the frightenly horoscope-ish. I didn't make any of these up, btw.

Let me know if you decide to give this a whirl.

Self Portrait Tuesday, October 9, 2005,

Documentary Challenge: Me as Mom

I am a mom. When my son was born, all other things that defined me seemed to pale in comparison to this.

Putting my son to sleep is something I do twice a day, every day. Generally, he falls asleep in my arms.

After he has fallen asleep in my arms, I usually transfer him to bed. He sleeps in my room, which is just off the living room of our flat, in the afternoon. I can sit on the sofa, knit and watch him sleep.

Stroganoff a la Secret Pal

My Secret Pal gave me a recipe for Hamburger Stroganoff and, like the idiot I really am, I failed to mention it in my last post. So, my Secret Pal, who is a most patient woman - to put up with my obvious idiocy - has further inspired a post.

I love Stroganoff. The ladies magazine kind, that is. I'm sure old Russian grannies are turning over in their graves everytime I refer to Hamburger Stroganoff as Stroganoff (I guess it's less offensive than called it Stroganov, which I think would be more linguistically accurate). I've never really had the "real thing".

These days, I just get the Hamburger Helper version and add in some grated carrots and finely chopped broccoli. It's my main "hide the veggies" meal, as Kieran won't eat most vegetables unless they're fairly well hidden. Strangely, he will eat copious amounts of La Luna's Cauliflower and Tomatoes, but I'm not really keen on deep frying all of our vegetables before cooking them up.

My mum used to make Stroganoff when I was a kid/teen. It was always one of our favourite meals. It's pretty easy, too. I loved the fact that we got it served, mostly, over egg noodles. For some reason, I loved egg noodles as a kid.

Once, while working on a play that was going into a regional competition, I had committed to being at school ALL DAY LONG on a Saturday. I was the sound person on the crew and that year my job consisted of exactly two cues in one hour: a ringing bell at 1/2 way through and Wonderful World but Sam Cooke at almost the end of the play. The year before I'd had dozens of cues! I had to run TWO portable cassette players! I felt underutilized.

It was nescessary to bring lunch and since I forsaw needly lots of food, what with all that friggin sitting around and sitting around and "click"-pressing the button on the cassette and "click"-shutting it off again and sitting around and sitting around and - do you get the idea? I anticipated wanting to eat to fill the void.

Since there was about one serving of leftover mashed potatoes and mum probably wasn't going to use them (what was she going to do with them? make three fish cakes? make two servings of hash browns? put enough saurkraut on the side of fried mashed potatoes for one person?) I took them for part of my lunch.

I'd seen my mum whip up some "meat on the pan" to put over meat. In fact, "meat on the pan" (hamburger, fried up with diced onion, with gravy base added in to make a gravy out of the hamburger drippings) was the basis of many things, including Stroganoff. We just happened to have some extra hamburger in the fridge that I could take a bit of and some sour cream that probably wouldn't be used up and decided: how hard could it be?

I'd watched my granny make lots of sauces. Invariably they were cream-style sauces like cheese sauce for broccoli and cauliflower or parsley cream sauce for chicken.

So, thinking I knew it all, I went ahead and fried up the ground beef (no bother with onions, they'd make me cry and they'd be too much work and at the aged of 16 I don't think I fully appreciated how to create flavour in cooking). When the hamburger was ready, I got out the 2-cup plastic measuring cup (which I still have in the cupboard) and filled it with about a half cup of milk to which was added 2 tablespoons of flour.

I mixed that up with a fork, but it still seemed awfully runny. So, I added a few more tablespoons of flour. Except, now it looked like thin glue. So I put more milk in. Finally satisfied with the ratio or flour to milk, I shook in some salt and pepper - though not a lot of pepper because I had sometime decided I didn't like pepper again with the not grasping how to create flavour in cooking - and dumped the whole thing in the pan.

It was a lot of liquid for a little bit of hamburger. But, I was sure it would thicken.

And it did. But it had this curious white look to it. And beef gravy wasn't supposed to look quite like that.

So I tasted it.

Holy Mary, mother of Gawd! It was awful!

You know what it tasted like? It tasted like flour. It tasted like runny, icky, blah flour.

So, I was late arriving for rehearsal - which I got yelled at about, cuz, you know, the sound tech needs to be there for the actor's notes and warmup excercises - because I had to boil a couple of eggs to make egg salad for sandwiches. This time, I chopped an entire onion into the mix, guaranteeing my sandwich would a)not be stolen and b)very tasty indeed.