Comic Con Montreal 2014

This weekend we took 2 (of the 3) kids to Comic Con Montreal. This is my 3rd year going. Two years ago (September 2012) I dressed up as Wonder Woman (and no one else in my family dressed up). Last year (September 2013) I dressed up as Rainbow Brite and the rest of my crew were Superman, Darth Vadar & Batman. This year, we planned in advance and we went with a DC theme. We were the Bat Family. Batgirl, Batman, Joker & Robin.It was TOTALLY awesome. (I think I look great in red hair! I haven’t been red in many years. (This was a wig… not my natural hair).

We had a lot of fun. Lots of people asked to take our picture. I keep checking to see if any of them will show up on other instagram feeds, with comic con hashtags, or photo mapping of Palais des Congrais.

I even got to meet Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver Queen aka “Arrow” on Arrow. I am a huge fan of him & the show. I got a picture of him autographed. I wanted to do the photo op too, but hundreds of people stood in line to do so, and with the 2 kids there was no way we were able to wait a few hours from 515pm. The kids were exhausted and wanted to leave by 4-430pm. Either way he liked our costumes and he shook my hand, and that was awesome enough! And he let me take a picture of him signing my photo.

Now we must start thinking about what we will do for costumes for next year. Next year we will bring Quentin with us (this year, at almost 4 he’s still a bit of a handful and keeping an eye on 2 kids was a lot of work in a crowded place, we didn’t want to be outnumbered with all 3 kids, especially since Quentin doesn’t sit still). We’re thinking a Marvel theme for next year since this year we went with DC.

Expensive Happy Meal Toy

- Happy Meal with Toy: 3.99$+tx
- Plumber to get flushed toy out of toilet: 100$
- Plumber puts back toilet (after having to remove toilet) and now it’s leaking, so he send us to Costco for a new toilet: 94.99$+tx
- Plumber comes back to install toilet: 50$
- Hoping my almost 4 year old learned his lesson and won’t ever do that again… PRICELESS.

Yarn Bombing

For work, over the summer, I worked on a secret project with some of my knitting/crochet friends. I decided to yarn bomb a bicycle that had been sitting in my parents shed at their house for many years. I thought it would be a neat window display, and a fun way to attract people to the shop, and definitely make a conversation piece. Well, it’s certainly working. It was a fabulous idea. I started off with crocheting a bike seat cover in Berroco Vintage Colors.

Then I made streamers for the bike handle. Those were a lot of fun to make. I used leftover neon scraps for the handles and N.Y. Yarns Twinkle for the streamers. What a ton of fun!

Then I made a basket for the bike. I based my pattern loosely on the pattern I linked on Ravelry, however I didn’t buy her pattern, as I understand the basic design so I made up my own. And it came out very lovely. It was pretty simple to figure out how to make one. It was a lot of single crochet! The yarn was also leftovers from my stash.

Then I used swatches that I had made to cover a bike helmet. No real pattern for it. Instead of fighting with the shape of the helmet for seaming, I used my trusty hot glue gun to put the swatches on the helmet.

So this picture above is the finished window display. I love the way it came out. I want to thank all my knitting & crochet friends that made a piece or two (or a few) to cover the bike. I absolutely love it and it’s just very awesome. It was a fun project to work on. I am already dreaming up what we can yarn bomb next…

Come by Pointe-Claire Plaza to check it out! It’ll be on display for a little bit longer while we prepare the next window.

Twist Fibre Festival

 

On Saturday August 23rd, I went on a road trip with my friend Sara to Saint-André-Avellin, Quebec, to check out Twist Fibre Festival. It was a nice hour and a half drive from our houses, on a very beautiful scenic route. (Above right photo is some items our friend Eugenia was selling in her booth).

  

Ashford had a booth at the festival (left hand photo) and as of this past week, the shop is officially an Ashford dealer. I am VERY excited about this. I am taking a weaving class soon as I’ve wanted to learn how to weave for a very long time. Weaving will definitely help me use up my yarn stash! There was also a yarn bombed spinning wheel at the show in one of the booths.

 

One of the coolest things was the Purling J’s Roving Yarn Co truck. They hail from Kingston, Ontario, and it’s the coolest thing ever. A mobile yarn store. How cool!??!!

 

(Left, me inside the truck)
(Right, me knitting at Eugenia’s booth, just hanging out).

After the festival, I went out for dinner in Saint-André-Avellin with Sara, Eugenia & Manon. Eugenia & Manon happen to be on my exec for the knitting guild this year (I was elected President this past May for this upcoming year). We had drinks, some of us knitted, we talked about our purchases from the day, and it was very nice & relaxing. The restaurant we went to, Au Vieux Chaudron was very tasty. I even had lunch, at the festival, with a lot of Knitting Guild Members. It was really nice to meet up with them at the festival.

First Day of School 2014

First day of Grade 2! "When I grow up I want to be a goalie for the NHL".

First day of Grade 1! "When I grow up I want to play for the NHL”.

My gosh, they’re growing up too fast.

Embrace

I wanted to show off the new yarn we got in stock at the shop, so I knit up my cowl design, since fall/winter is just around the corner. 3 balls of Embrace will make 2 cowls. You need 1 and 1/3 ball to make a cowl.

For this cowl, I cast on 20 stitches instead of the 22 called for in the pattern and omitted the K1 after the first 3 stitches and the K1 before the last 3 (on RS), and the P1 after the first 3 stitches and the P1 before the last 3 stitches (on the WS). It was super bulky and I didn’t fear rolling in on the edges. For bulky yarn, you should leave the extra 2 stitches in to help prevent rolling.

Buttons are in stock in the shop! This pattern makes great Xmas gifts and it knits up in no time at all!

Head Start Hat

I knitted this Head Start hat in the round, instead of flat, as per the pattern on the ball band. I cast on 56 stitches instead of the 54 stitches so that the 2x2 ribbing would work out. I also knit it to 7” instead of 9” as I wanted it as a hat, not a slouch. I did the decreases as written on the ball band. I used up 44g of the 50g ball.

LOVE the way this color way knit up! It was a tad deceiving on the ball, but knits up very lovely!

 

Maderia

I finished up Maderia, which is a free pattern by Berroco, for their yarn, Linus. This was an interesting knit. The yarn was interesting to work with - if you pull too hard, it tears easily. It has a nice drape to it, and I’ve worn it a few times since finishing it on August 3rd. The yarn feels nice in your hands, while knitting. Everything on the pattern was smooth sailing until I got to the front/back neck shaping. The instructions (even with the errata) was not 100% clear (poorly written). Being an experienced knitter, I was able to figure out what they meant but the instructions would throw a beginner off. I am actually working with a student in my drop-in classes at the shop who is knitting this as well, and I am going to have to re-write the instructions for her once we get to the top on her tank top.

I added about 3” to the length before shaping for the armholes. I like my t-shirts/tank tops to be longer.

It fits well. I made the medium size and it drapes/hangs nicely. I like the asymmetrical neck and bottom. It’s very different/unique and lovely at the same time.

How my garden grows

I’ve been meaning to post about my garden. I haven’t had the time until now to sit down and write a post. I finally found 10 minutes. (And I probably should be doing something else, but I didn’t want this to be too outdated!)

These photos are from June:

Curly lettuce (left) & Romaine lettuce (right)

      

Snow peas (left) & green beans (right).

Tomatoes section. (I planted grape, cherry & larger tomatoes).

Cucumbers & zucchini section is against the brick wall almost all the way down the entire plot of the 24 foot garden. I planted 2 or 3 kinds of cucumbers & one type of zucchini.

Peppers (left) (some green, and maybe we’ll be surprised with another color, as my sister-in-law gave us 2 pepper plants, but wasn’t sure what color they were) & raddish loot (right)

These photos below are from two weeks ago already:

 

Curly lettuce (left) & Romaine lettuce (right)

   

Cucumbers & zucchini section doing very well against the back wall.

 

Pepper section. So far all the know still is the green pepper plants… the other plants haven’t started to grow any peppers yet. Maybe soon!

 

Snow peas (left) & green beans (right). The snow peas have been producing and we’ve been eating them right off the plant already. The green beans are now almost ready to pick some to steam as a side dish for dinner!

The tomato section. We have a lot of tomatoes growing finally. I actually ate 1 red grape tomato already and it was beyond delicious. I cannot wait for more to come!

I’ll be back soon with another garden update to show you what new we’ve gotten since I took these pics (which are about 2 weeks old now).

Are you growing anything delicious in your garden?