Louise (aka ladybugaloo) spoiled me rotten! She knit me the Broadstreet Mittens out of Malabrigo and gave me a package full of goodies including a gingerbread man soap, a button that says “chinchillin’” and has a picture of a chinchilla, sticker that says “knitters have balls” now adorning my laptop, lipbalm from Rocky Mountain Soap Company, and a polka dot project bag.

I spoiled Jesse (aka canadiantreefrog) and because I kept unravelling and reknitting the fingerless mitts, I was knitting at the dinner table before we swapped presents. However, I got them done and Jesse seemed to like—as did her birdie Ivan. I also made her chandalier earrings with Swarovski crystals.

But, I’ve got some big news! I am going back to school full-time in September. I will be doing a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University. I am very excited because the degree sounds perfect for my career goals. I will miss working on awesome events full time, but I think this is the right step for me. I registered for classes this morning!

Other than that, I’ve just got some summer plans and camping trips in the works. I don’t know if I’ll get to do any travelling (I had wanted to drive around BC and Alberta) due to saving money for university.

I’ve been knitting:

The pattern is Gaenor and the yarn is Unwind Yarns: Throwing Sheep into Rainbows which I bought at Gibsons last summer. This photo was taken at wenchlette’s Wedding Send-off party and I was just beginning the decrease rows. Therefore: it is halfway done!

I have some other secret things on the needles and I’ve been test knitting for my friend Carmen, so personal knitting is on the back burner. Speaking of Carmen, I went to go visit her studio (she is MelonHead KnitWear) a couple weeks ago and brought cookies:

Yarn Cookies!!

I’ve got several books I haven’t reviewed—including Up Up Up by Julie Booker—so stay tuned for those. I’m already on book 3 in A Song of Ice & Fire series (Game of Thrones) and recently received an ARC for Marina Endicott’s new book, The Little Shadows.

Also speaking about books, I’ve been using GoodReads more and LibraryThing less. I am finding more people on GoodReads that I know and hence gravitating towards it so that I can see what they’re reading. Find me on GoodReads if you’d like.

Anyway, I must be off to bed. My car is in the shop (because it failed AirCare) and I need to make sure I’m up if the mechanic calls. P.S. Sorry for the downtime on the website. My blog was migrated to a new server so I could upgrade to WP 3.2.

P.P.S. Circle me if you’re on Google+, or let me know if you want an invite.

Physically, I am bumping into things and bashing myself by accident. It’s like I have an issue with depth perception. I tried to put on my shoes today and kicked the wall. I went to close a door and accidentally punched the wall. I’ve broken at least 4 fingernails by catching them on things. This could be a serious problem considering I’m taking sword fighting lessons. I’m also concerned since I’ve been working on sewing projects. Hopefully I can dial 9-1-1 before I pass out from lack of blood. Death by sewing machine… kinda funny.

Mentally, I have been having trouble speaking, mixing words up, and my spelling has gone out the window. My reading skills are also suffering, but that may also be the spelling issue or my non-existent dyslexia. I typed “dying” instead of “dyeing”, read “touting” as “touching” and “viral” as “virus”, and often leaving out transitional words such as “the” and “with”, thus changing a sentence completely.

So now I’m sitting here, wondering what I should do so that I’ll be safe from myself. Knitting would inevitably result in a giant yarn tangle or dropped stitches, I already explained the fear of the sewing machine, and anything that involves movement or speed such as riding my bike is out. That leaves books, movies, and the internet.

Books: I’ve finished Voyager by Diana Gabaldon and need to write up a review. Before that I read a few graphic novels that I need to post reviews for. Now I’m into the second book of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings.

Movies: I watched Sense & Sensibility (1995) last night with Kate Winslett, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Hugh Laurie, and Emma Thompson. Wow what a cast. I haven’t read the book, but I enjoyed the movie. I think the romance story lines were very similar to Pride & Prejudice (class, society, rumours, reputation) but that the character interactions weren’t as strong. However, the cast was amazing and I did enjoy the movie immensely. Did I mention that I did end up watching the BBC mini-series of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth? Awesome! I love Colin Firth so much.

Speaking of movies, I just went on IMDB.com and discovered a Footloose remake. Watch the trailer here. Umm… I’m not sure how I feel about this, and I’m concerned it’s just going to be some sort of hip-hop debacle. Footloose is the 80s and Kevin Bacon. Can you imagine someone trying to remake Ferris Bueller’s Day Off without Matthew Broderick? Or Pretty in Pink without Molly Ringwald? No! It just wouldn’t work.

Television: I’ve been watching HBO’s The Game of Thrones, which is based on the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. HBO is so awesome and I am loving it so far. It’s pretty much 98% perfect, and I’m guessing that’s because George R.R. Martin is one of the executive producers.

Internet: There are lots of great things I’ve found recently. If you follow me on Twitter, I usually share them there. But here are a couple gems.

• Bloggess’ “Pick your Battles” — I laughed so hard I wasn’t making a sound and tears were streaming down my cheeks.
• Dear Photograph — A really neat project, taking photos of old photos in their original location.
• A Stranger A Day — A Vancouverite is chatting up strangers about tattoos, daily
• The Slave Lake Book Auction, which I mentioned before, wrapped up last week with a total of $4,909 in donations to the library!
• The Bank of Canada is rolling out new bills made of polymer (plastic) and our money will look even more like Monopoly money.
• Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011 has been announced for Sept. 12-16. I designed the new look and launched the website recently.

Slave Lake Book Auction

Recent wildfires in Alberta destroyed nearly half of the town of Slave Lake, including the newly completed, 18-month-old library. This Globe & Mail article sums up the library’s history, renovation, and devastation. It’s hard to imagine that loss to a community and it makes me teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Slave Lake (Alberta) library burning during wildfire on May 15, 2011

The library is accepting donations of books less than 2 years old, but they also need money for computers, furniture, construction, etc. So Colleen McKie, a Canadian living on the East Coast, has organized the Slave Lake Book Auction. Go bid (just not against me) for a good cause!

Featured Reader at House of Anansi Press

Check it out!! I’m the Featured Reader over at the House of Anansi Press for June 2011.

Trish tweeted that they were looking for a blogger/reader to feature for June and I jumped at the chance. I am so honoured and excited.

I love House of Anansi Press — they produce wonderful books, have gorgeous designs, and authors/illustrators/reviewers/employees all seem to have nothing but good things to say. While I may not love every book I read that has been published by Anansi, I love the diversity of their titles and the variety in their subject matter.

Thank you Trish & Anansi!

City of Vancouver Archives have been digitized

This is just a really neat local accomplishment. As part of Vancouver125—the City of Vancouver’s 125th birthday celebrations—the archives have successfully digitized their complete collection.

My friend Jason (of Illustrated Vancouver fame) was at the launch party a while ago where they were giving away all their duplicate prints (keeping only the originals). Now I have a lovely selection too, including trains and long-since-demolished buildings. I think they shall become art.

More Art / Home Décor / Crafty Projects

Speaking of art and home decor, I have been working very hard on several home improvement projects, including some IkeaHacks. I’ve been photographing the projects so I can hopefully post some DIYs soon.

My knitting has been unmotivated but I’m chugging away on a design idea. Although I might be able to share some of the stash additions… I don’t know if I’ve already updated on those.

I really want to sew summer skirts and have recently dug out my patterns and fabric. You can really tell what kind of skirts I tend to gravitate towards by looking at my sewing patterns. Speaking of sewing, I do have some finished items to share, but I need to take photos with the recipient, so those are on the back-burner.

Reading Updates

I have been utterly absorbed in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. I’ve had to force-ably remove myself from it and take a breather. I’m reading other books (I’m a few behind in reviews) but I’m constantly thinking—even dreaming—about the Outlander story. It’s true what Diana says, no one ever gets over Jamie Fraser…. *swoon*

First up: Yuletide Gnome [rav link] Pattern by Alan Dart, published by Simply Knitting Magazine (UK). I knit it from Simply Knitting’s Christmas Gifts Extra! booklet.

Limbless gnome with a bean bag butt (to help him sit up)

This poor gnome was sitting unfinished for several months. He was supposed to be a gift for the Festivus Miracle Swap-o-Rama at Christmas time. At least I finally finished him. Now to remember to bring him next time I see Carly.

The pattern was fairly straight forward, although a lot of seaming (typical for Alan Dart patterns). Before I attached his limbs, they looked super huge and not porportional to the body, but it seemed to work out.

P.S. This was the first time I’ve knit with eyelash yarn (to make the beard) and I am not a fan. I kept dropping stitches because of all the extra threads getting in the way. Very annoying.

Modeling the Blue Slouchy Melonhead Hat

Second FO: My slouchy MelonHead Knitwear hat.

I blogged about this one before because I had to frog it. However, once I figured out what I did wrong, I was off laughing on a fast camel.

This was a quick knit and I am in love with the handspun, hand-dyed yarn. Carmen of MelonHead KnitWear is an absolutely adventurous and fun designer. The yarn she spins can be art pieces in and of themselves, so I was so happy to knit her slouchy hat pattern; the simplicity of the pattern complements the yarn perfectly.

I am also excited that I have another fuchsia skein as I plan to knit another slouchy hat.

Maybe I should also get another skein in a silver or other neutral colour so that I can match any outfit possible.

Slouchy handknit hat made with handspun, hand-dyed yarn. Lotsa hands!

First, let’s get the obligatory Henry photo out of the way. Here he is sunbathing in the Spring sunshine at the end of March. Such a cutie!

Chico’s cage is in the background and I have since moved it to the other side of the room so he doesn’t get the morning and afternoon sun as directly.

Next up to the plate is The BC Book Prizes (aka work). In March the finalists were announced, then everything took off.

At the beginning of April we had the Soirée to celebrate the Finalists and kick off the author tour. Then the author tour took place over two weeks, leading straight up to the Gala last Thursday.

The Gala went fantastically and now we’re in the home stretch. We have a bit of wrapping up, some final Winners promotion, and then we’re done this year. Check out the winners of the 27th annual BC Book Prizes online.

While work was busy, Vancouver has been flip-flopping in between Spring and Autumn. We had a cold snap in February but now some days are rainy and grey while others are bright and sunny. Fortunately with daylight savings, the days are getting lighter longer. I love daylight savings in the Spring.

April also marks the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, which is especially timely with the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Vancouver is home to thousands of cherry blossom trees, many of which were given to the city from our Japanese sister cities.

Cherry blossoms line the street on West 64th Avenue near Historic Joy Kogawa House

Every year in late March / early April the blossoms begin to emerge and signal spring. For a whole glorious month, several varieties of cherry trees (and plum and ornamentals too) bloom throughout the city and dust the streets in pink. It is truly beautiful.

I’ve read a few books that I’ve yet to review/blog, including The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I’m looking forward to watching the new television series by HBO.

In other television news, I’ve just finished the first season of 21 Jump Street and I love it. Not just because Johnny Depp is awesome, but because it’s lighthearted and funny while still having some substance.

21 Jump Street was filmed in Vancouver too so I love seeing scenes and trying to figure out what school or park or location they’re in. It’s also difficult though because a lot has changed; community centres have been overhauled, high schools have been renovated, and even the streets look different.

Mmmm, young Johnny Depp dressed as a punk rocker *swoon*

For those who don’t know, 21 Jump Street was a television series in the 80s and early 90s about a group of rookie cops who looked too young to be taken seriously, so they were assigned to a special undercover task force to go into high schools and colleges.

Rumour has it that Johnny Depp initially signed on for six seasons not thinking it would make it past one season, and he also wanted to work with Frederic Forrest. Unfortunately for Johnny, the series had five seasons—mainly because of his name—and Frederic Forrest’s character was killed off after only six episodes. (Johnny was only in the first four seasons but his photo was used for season five anyway).

In other news, I finished the hat I had frogged several times. I got a friend to take pictures at knitting a couple weeks ago but haven’t imported the photos yet. Separate FO report to come. Another FO that needs a full report: the Christmas gnome is finally assembled and still needs to be delivered. Oops. Sorry Carly!

What else? Oh! I watched the BBC miniseries for Pride & Prejudice. I loved it! Even more than the movie with Kiera Knightly. Colin Firth was fantastic and even the six-part miniseries (6 hours total) didn’t seem like enough. I didn’t want it to end.

I’m sure there are more updates, but they shall have to wait for another post. I will have more pictures coming soon.

Since she knew I was a knitter, she gave me the pattern she wrote when I bought 2 skeins of the yarn. However, because it was just her personal notes and not a published pattern, I had some issues and I ended up with waaaay too many stitches. Oops!

Erm, it’s meant to be a slouchy hat, right? Just be distracted by the beautiful colours. Ignore the 200% increase in stitches.

So I frogged and reknit. It’s quite a simple pattern and the yarn is lovely, so I’m not too fussed. I’m now at the crown decreases, and I only wish that I’d had the right size of needles in circulars because I don’t want to have to seam.

I am relatively happy with them, but still wish I had better finishing techniques.

The photos are by Jason Vanderhill (who did the photographs for the yarn bombing article I wrote). I was wearing the gloves during yarn bombing and Jason took photos of us working, inadvertently getting nice photos of my fingerless gloves.

Literally.

Today was the day — the official yarnbombing of Joy Kogawa’s cherry tree. I contributed about 100 blossoms and arrived this afternoon to help install the yarn blossoms (and bark!) on the tree.

The executive director of the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society managed to get a fire engine with ladder to help install the blossoms in the higher branches. My dad also dropped off a ladder and I made my way up into the tree (I probably should have signed some sort of liability waver first, eh?).

It was a gorgeous sunny day; the first day of Spring in my mind. And the tree looked absolutely fantastic. There were well over 500 blossoms by my guess, and it was amazing to see the literary community collide with the yarn community. Fantastic day.

Photo above of me in the tree taken by my friend, Jason Vanderhill of IllustratedVancouver. Photos below taken by me.

Finishing touches on the cherry tree bark | My “tag” with one of the blossoms I made.

Finished tree full of blossoms. Even started covering the apple tree beside it and the neighbour’s tree!

This immediately sparked my interest as it merged two of my passions—yarn and books! And I immediately knew the perfect yarn to use (from my stash too) and started crocheting blossoms.

I also had a thought— at my new internship I’ve got the chance to contribute to various magazine websites (I’m in the digital editorial department). So I mentioned the yarn bombing to Granville Magazine‘s editor, Hilary Henegar. She liked the idea and said to go ahead with the article.

I attended the first of two knit-ins that Leanne and the other co-author, Mandy Moore (tech editor of Knitty), planned at the Historic Joy Kogawa House. It was a roaring success with at least 30 people in attendance and standing room only. I interviewed Mandy and Leanne as well as the Historic Joy Kogawa House’s volunteer executive director, Ann-Marie Metten.

Here is my article in Granville online: Yarn bombing a literary landmark on Vancouver’s south side

I also attended the second knit-in because I’m passionate about raising awareness for the Society and I had about 45 more blossoms to drop off (I’d left about a dozen the first knit in).

My blossoms are ready to go

Mandy Moore teaches someone how to crochet

Attendee crochets a chain of blossoms

Blossom box after the second knit-in

I’ve placed a call for help on Ravelry because out-of-towners can mail in contributions:
Historic Joy Kogawa House
1450 West 64th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6P 2N4

Submissions will be accepted up until March 1, 2011. All cherry blossoms should be made out of pink yarn. Or you can knit/crochet large chunks of “bark” out of brown yarn.

I’ll be attending the “bombing” on March 6 to stitch all of the cherry blossoms (and bark!) into place. And I’m hoping to do more of a ‘photo essay’ with a photographer friend.