soaping up with soap

Hello! I am still here!

I am fine, and ... nothing at all has happened, actually. What happened was that I had one of my momentary brainfreezes. I wrote this entire post, over a week ago, all about mittens (my new ones, which I love, and also the ones I made for my mothers-in-law for Christmas, which were the Super Secret Christmas Knitting), with a healthy defense of why I knit for myself. But then I didn't post it, because it turned out that I had forgotten to upload photographs of said Christmas mittens, and then I kept forgetting to upload them even when I was at home, and then I did upload them but I felt bad about the post, because by then the defensive-feeling about selfish knitting had left (it had been prompted by a passing comment from a friend), and I thought maybe I was just being too stentorian about it all — but I didn't want to rewrite it, either, and I couldn't write anything new without summarily tossing the post aside, so I just sat on the whole thing and felt very guilty not posting (while not doing anything about it). I think I was just kind of hoping that it would miraculously go away or something.

Anyway! So now we are going to pretend that post had just never existed to begin with, so we can move on.

Last Saturday, Pd played a bonspiel (a curling tournament) at the club, and came in first in his position! (You sign up individually, and then get placed on different teams, and in the end the people with the most points in each position win. Pierre played second, which will make sense to curlers and to no one else.) It was the Soapspiel, so this was his prize:


A Rubbermaid box full of soap-like things. The bright yellow handle near the bottom is attached to a giant tub of laundry detergent — one of those 4-litre bottles, I think. And next to it (which you can't see), is an equal measure of fabric softener. (I kept staring at it, and Pd kept telling me that it was fabric softener. I know that, but I was trying to figure out how or why one would use it. I actually never have. The entire concept perplexes me. Why would I want my clothes softened? I feel like I may be missing some essential point here.) There was also shampoo and conditioner, and some truly scary cleaning chemicals like Chlorox.

And there was also the smallest, cutest little bottle of hand sanitizer I have ever seen; it's practically single-use. I took a picture with a LEGO minifig for a size comparison:


Isn't that adorable? I don't even use hand sanitizer, but I'm tempted to carry it around, just because it's so cute. (I know. I am sad.) And yes, that is totally your second clue as to what my big birthday LEGO project is. (I didn't mention that it was LEGO, but I thought it was obvious from the last clue.) The whole kit is done, actually; we just haven't had time to diorama it. You can see a little bit of it in the background.

Meanwhile, the mittens have somehow snuck their way onto this post:


I finished them about a week and a half ago, and they're fabulous (and also looking significantly grubbier now). The stranding on the inside makes them fairly warm: they're not as cozy as my sheepskin ones, but they're not as bulky either, so that's fair. I've been wearing them every day.


They're not bad for my first colour-stranding project; I didn't make the floats long enough in some places and so sometimes the fabric gets kind of wonky. But I think I learned a lot, and you don't really notice when you're wearing them.

Details:
La Joie du Printemps mittens, by Heather Desserud. Knitted with Spud & Chloë Fine, in "popcorn" and "lizard," with 2mm needles.

a new year, a new hobby

It's not very auspicious, is it, to start off the new year by leaving my blog untended for more than a week — however, there it is. My only defense is that the first week back to work after 10 days of faffing off were rather stunning (in the literal sense). We have had two large parties since then — a New Year's Day Recovery party (which was exactly as it sounds), and a birthday party for me (er — ditto). I am now partied out, and so are the cats.

I was going to do a Christmas post, but the holidays seem like a lifetime ago. And really it wasn't terribly interesting — fun, but quiet. I also turned 30 last week, which sort of superceded the whole holiday thing (I mean. My birthday happens after Christmas every year, inevitably, but usually it gets overshadowed by the glitz. This year was different, because 30 is special — or so I was told. I am still waiting for my tiara).

The most cogent things about turning 30 is that I don't actually feel any different than I did two weeks ago, and that I now have a new pet project, thanks to my brother-in-law. I'll give you a clue:


Lots of points if you can figure out which specific kit it is. (There are indications, in that photo.) It has now entirely replaced the garter stitch blanket in my consciousness, which probably bodes ill for getting said blanket done any time in this new decade.