Finer Things Monday

While my weekend was generally uneventful, I took the plunge and dyed my hair red! I had it this colour in my first year of University and was feeling a little nostalgic lately. So, off I went to Lush and picked up a brick of henna in Caca Rouge. It was a right mess to apply, and required me rocking a saran wrap turban for 4 hours while managing the drips running down my neck, but it was totally worth it!

Last week, I also finished and blocked my Snapdragon Tam! It has just enough slouch, though I do sort of wish I had made the medium size, but I was worried about running out of yarn.

Pattern: Snapdragon Tam from Ysolda

Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in Sunset

Needles: 4.0 mm

I only used 3/4 of the ball, so I could probably have gotten away with making the medium. I love the hand of the yarn, though it was a bit splitty for working cables. The colour is, well, perfect. It's such a nice pick-me-up to help get through the recent cold snap around here. Well, that's all I've got for now. I have a rather large assignment due on Wednesday, so I'm off to learn how to age and sex sheep from their bones! Oh, and enjoy a matcha latte in my favourite mug. I adore how the green in the mug matches the drink!

The Solution to Winter

I've come to the conclusion that my wardrobe requires many more handknit socks. Why is that? This is why.

I made these socks almost 2 years ago as a shop sample for Urban Knitters in Edmonton. When I got them back they went into my sock drawer and didn't emerge until Thursday night. I had forgotten about them entirely! The colour is a perfect combination of awful and awesome and they're nice and snug. They also have kept my feet warm during our cold snap which is more than I can say for the 3 layers of socks I had been wearing throughout the week.

So, for the rest of the evening I'll be working on my sadly neglected Lore Hoodie. I'm dyeing my hair this evening, so assuming it looks OK I'll be back soon with my newly finished and awesome Snapdragon tam!

P.S. Thanks to my dad for crawling on the floor to get a photo of the socks :)

Take Two

Even though it's only Tuesday, I feel like this week has lasted forever. It didn't help that I had a midterm in German this morning that I felt rather unprepared for, so I spent the last couple days stressing out about my lack of knowledge. Turns out, I actually can write a sufficient amount! I still have some problems with mixing French and German words up, but I've been getting much better. With the end of my paper proposal almost finished up, I'm ready to cast on for a new pair of mittens!

I've been dying to make Polska Mitts for months, and after buying the yarn last summer I was so saddened when they got resigned to the timeout chair. I've been pretty successful at cleaning up my WIPs in the last couple weeks so this is my treat! Plus, I feel like I need something to work on at school that isn't a sweater. 

So, for the rest of the evening I'm hibernating by my heater (it's a -40C windchill outside!) and casting on!

Stylin'

I don’t have any actual knitting content to share, though I do have a batch of undocumented FO’s to get through, I have a little late acknowledgement of an awesome nod from an awesome lady!

Earlier in the week Ariane over at Falling Stitches called me out as one of her stylish bloggers. So, in order to pass on this award, I’ve got 3 things to do.

Firstly, Thanks a million Ariane! I was, and still am, super flattered since I love pretty well everything she makes, and her ‘What’s Hot on Ravelry’ posts are always chalk full of inspiration. Her 7-interesting things also amused me, as I found out that we shared some wild hair colour and a few instruments in common!   And without further ado, here are 7 things that you probably don’t know about me:

1.     I used to be a pretty serious athlete and, even though my team sucked, I got to go to Europe twice to play Basketball

2.     I speak French mostly-fluently with a weird Prairie tinged Quebecois accent

3.     I’m learning to speak German, and it comes out with the same weird accent

4.     I currently have 5 fewer teeth than the average human being.

5.     If it weren’t for bacon, I would be a vegetarian

6.     My favourite time of the year in Edmonton is the 5 days in September where the leaves in the river valley are golden yellow. It takes my breath away every single year.

7.     I’m the biggest slob I’ve ever met.

The last thing I have to do is pass this on to other bloggers! So, here is my short list of nominations:

1.     Giulia at Drop Stitches Not Bombs: Love her knits and her beautiful changing scenery

2.     Dellybean: Officially responsible for my spinning habit, and the maker of always beautiful things!

3.     Jane of Spilly Jane: I wish I had 10 hands to make all her mittens and then wear them at all times.

4.     Steph at Crafting a Better Life: She has great taste and routinely makes my day

5.     Izabelle at Izzknit: Knitting, tattoos and adorable dogs all in the same place? Yes!

6.     Melissa at Knitting School Dropout: I can’t keep up with all her lovely designs

So, thanks again Ariane! Now I’m going to savour the last evening of my week off to work on a sweater and eat some pizza. I’ll be back with some real knitting content next week!

Sick Day

This post has officially been brought to you by the worst cold ever. Despite feeling like I had been hit over the head, I ventured out and foolishly wrote a test (which went terribly) and spent 3 hours making cranial measurements of dogs and wolves. That was an experience in itself, the poor husky I spent an hour with was shot. Poor puppy. So, I decided to take a sick day and stayed in bed until 1:30pm.

This cold as killed my desire to knit, and I've made little progress on my remaining FO's. My goal for the evening is to finish off the Bacon scarf which has officially crossed the 50% finished mark. First, however, I must work on studying the many bones that belong to fish for my quiz tomorrow afternoon. I will leave you with one of the only successful photos from The Lost Fingers show I went to on the weekend. If you haven't heard of them, they're a fantastic group from Montreal who play gypsy jazz covers of 80's, and now 90's, songs. I hadn't heard their latest album prior to the show, so I was giddy to hear the new songs including such gems as "Sunglasses at Night" and "Tom Sawyer." Check them out, you won't be sorry!

Plus, they wear awesome suits. So full of win.