100/70

well that's more like it. although i had a really salty dinner last night and drank a coffee before going in. but still, when they said 100/70 i didn't think "am i dead?".

tomorrow we go for blood work. fun! nothing like being stuck with needles and peeing in a cup at 7:30 in the morning to really remind you that life is what you make of it.

i am quite proud that my resting heart rate is 60 though. and not something that would indicate i am the lazy sloth that i am. :)

in other news... it seems that if i'm not working late (which i am) then i'm on the biggest time suck of all time: facebook. oh, but then if i'm not on facebook or working late i'm on the biggest time suck of all time specific to fibre fetishists: ravelry. what is it about that site that just drains the minutes away? it's fantastic - i love it! i only wish i had more friends who knit.

90/55

i went to see the Naturopath today and that was my blood pressure. 90/55. I don't think it's ever been so low (not like i know what it is all the time, but whenever i've had it taken and they say it's low it's never THAT low). she did ask me several times if i was ever dizzy. (which i'm not).

huh.

distraction from thinking too hard about the end

My grandfather died last weekend. At this point I don't have too much to say about it as it's too recent for me to gather any concrete rational thoughts on it. The loss makes the distance between here and there feel even more immense. I'll go home in mid-September for the memorial. For anyone interested the obit can be accessed here.

Moving on to less tearful things....

my baby surprise sweater in action!

Now that I know how the sweater fits together I would stripe it differently the next time I knit this. (I really had no idea what I was doing. I'm not sure how I feel about the shorter sleeve (as per the original design) but I'll withhold judgement until I hear feedback from the parents. I'm sure EZ knew what she was doing when she designed it. And who am I to argue with EZ? I'm also not happy with the buttons - it needs bigger ones. the bottom two buttons in the picture aren't done up because really, there's no point if they are just going to fall out of the button holes every time the little one moves.

The WIP parade:

Something for someone for Christmas. That's all I can say for now and all I'll show until after the 25th of December! I think it will be a big hit. :)

I finally turned the heel on V's sock. I'm hoping to have these wrapped up within the month. The flight to the west coast and back should help with that.

More mindless knitting. The pocketbook slippers. My feet are always cold and I hate wearing socks so this could have been a good solution to that issue. I'm not convinced about this pattern for me. It might be better for someone with shorter feet. I'll finish the second one that is barely started so I have a pair. These really aren't using much of the wool (Patons SWS - 70% wool, 30% soy) so I'll have enough to make these slippers as well. I know I like this pattern so that should be better.

in case you weren't convinced they actually could be worn on the feet...

Thrums to make mittens! There is no way in hell my hands are going to be cold here this winter. Ha! Take that Newfoundland winter! Jen 1, Newfoundland Winter 0. (OK ok, it's more like Newfoundland Winter 8675, Jen 1... but whatever).
(and in case you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say thrums, THIS is what I mean. It's tradition. It's warm. I figure I can knit my own, no need to buy!)


The leisel scarf. I'm feeling particulary 'meh' about the pattern as a whole. The only reason I cast on for it was because I happened to have it lying around. This might get frogged in favour of the flame scarf from Knit and Tonic.

green scarf, lounging

another scarf, this one almost done. it's just a nice easy brioche stitch: cast on of a multiple of 3 and then *yo,sl1,k2tog* repeat. alternating greens every second row. niiiiiice and mindless. and the fabric created by brioche is really really soft and squooshy. yum. this one might get kept by me.

a big PS for Michelle... you complained that you don't figure prominently enough in my blog...does it count that i got your baby AND the back of your husband's head in this post??

busy

the last two weeks have been really busy. with the tuckamore festival going on it's been seemingly non-stop chamber music. there is only one concert left on sunday and then we are done. i managed to somehow volunteer myself to work the merchandise table at almost all the concerts so i haven't been able to skip out at all.
V's dad was here the first week which was great. their concert was fantastic, as always, and it was fun to see him again. the shanghai quartet has been here for the past several days and their two concerts were also incredible. V is really good friends with the cellist, Nick, and I met him last august in new york so it was fun to see him again. i forgot my camera when we took him out to cape spear otherwise i'd have funny photos of him and big V. oh well.
i've gone on a couple of short hikes in the last week or so as well. Karen and i went on one that wasn't very good just north of ferryland. the views were incredible, but the hike itself was crap. then V and his dad and I hiked down to North Head from Cape Spear. we saw whales off of cape spear - or rather, one whale. it was neat. i think V's dad got some good photos of it. sometime this fall i want to hike to Maddox Cove. it wasn't in the cards for us this time though. i also want to do the hike from Cape Spear back into the city. apparently there is some really cool stuff to see.

cool caves on the crap hike

the trail to maddox cove

me at north head

saturday.

map of the east coast trail; capespear to blackhead portion

yesterday was a wonderful day. it was beautiful and warm all day and we had a great time getting out and about. first off, after lounging around drinking coffee and eating croissant from the french bakery a few blocks away, we drove out to cape spear. from the parking lot there we walked south on the East Coast Trail down to Black Head. (on the map we started in the yellow area and walked down to the bottom point). it's around 4.5-5 km one direction so in a couple hours we wandered a good 8 km, maybe a bit more. we were moving pretty quickly though since we were on a tight schedule. the scenery is all the same basically: lots of boggy areas and long sweeping vistas of ocean. if it were still whale season it would be a great vantage point to watch them.

lighthouse of cape spear seen in the distance.

those brown specs in the grasses are pitcher plants

pitcher plants. the provincial flower of newfoundland, these are carnivorous.

the wind at this point was so strong that i was leaning into it and it was holding me up. it was pretty incredible, and only felt a wee bit like it was going to sweep me into the ocean.

view from along the trail

after our hiking around and around the cape, we wandered over to the annual Folk Fest being held at Bannerman park. there were some great groups from all over. this band was fantastic; i have no idea who they were or where they were from but the music was Greek and middle eastern-y. lots of fun to listen to. we enjoyed a cold beer from the beer tent and ate Indian food from the Hindu Temple Association tent. ah, nothing spells Folk Fest like Chickpea Masala, a cold Molson product and some international music.


I also stopped by all the craft tents and found a woman with a spinning wheel spinning yarn! she had beautiful sweaters for sale as well at the yarn itself. i bought a small skein and have already wound it into a ball. i really need to get a ball winder so that i can make nice cakes and not these lumpy bumpy hand rolled jobs. it does the trick though. i think this should be enough to make a hat. and if i like it, i know where i can get more! i also bought a teeny tiny little bowl from one of the potters - small enough to use as a salt cellar as i have nothing to put salt in and the box just looks wrong on the table.

hand spun 2-ply, 100% wool, 168 yards, grey and white.

all in all it was a great day.

i came across this site while poking around the net looking for locally grown food ideas here in NL. it's a great idea and i'd love to try it. using their "find your 100 miles" calculator it seems that my 100 miles gets me over 50% open ocean and the land that i do have to eat off of is the rockiest of rocky Avalon peninsula. i know there is local meat here, a ton of seafood, berries.... some veg although that's a tough one.... canning would have to be involved.... no grain though... not even grain other than wheat (i don't know that 100% but this IS a big rock with no farmland. there is a reason why these people live on salt fish and .... salt fish.

something to consider though.

AND - big EXCITING news. you all need to go to this podcast and listen. in this game, "circles of mosquitos", when Sage says "and Jennifer created this soundscape"... she's talking about ME. ya. that's right. i'm gettin' involved. (the link is to the specific episode - oh, and it's only, like, 6 minutes long so yes you do have time to listen.)

ya. i rock.

oh, and i passed my exam. woo.