New job!!

Hey!! I know it's been too long. I've been wanting to write for over a week but I've been buzy and, well, lazy.

In the last week, I've been thinking alot about my new job. And not only thinking about it, but started it. (Woot woot!!)

I met with my supervisor on Friday, and she introduced me to everyone we could find in the building, and that's a lot of people. I don't remember most of the names and even some faces are blury. After walking for a while around in the labyrinth that is now my workplace, I was given 2 huge 4" binders full with documents for me to read. In the afternnon I was left to my own devices with my binders and a short list of names of people I needed to see. Everyone is very nice and helpful, especially when I randomly asked where I could find the people associated with the names on my list. I ended the day with a saturated brain, an exhausted body and a happy mood.

Yesterday and today were dedicated to more reading and some training on the different systems. Today I saw a client at home, wrote my recommendation, faxed it, wrote my progress note and did my stats. All for the first time as an occupational therapist. It also means that I signed as an OT for the very first time. It really is starting to sink in: I'm a health care professional. I'm an OT.

I'm starting to feel like a grown-up: working and making money (not quite yet, but soon enough I'll get my first pay cheque), driving to and from work, signing paperwork without it needing to be co-signed. I have an office (well, a cubicule actually, that will change once the person I replace leaves, as I'll be taking over her cubie, which has a window), my own phone extension. I don't have a computer yet (will get that once I move) or a work email (it'll come... eventually... I hope).

I have more to talk about, and pictures, but it's not work related. Yes, it's yarn related. Tomorow maybe.

Good night

Of cookies and yarn

Hey there.

Before I start telling you what I've been doing lately, I'll start by telling you how I'm doing: not so good.  Not really bad, but not really good.  I haven't been sleeping well for at least the last two weeks, which means my pain threshold is lower (meaning more pain) and my pain tolerance is also lower, making harder to ignore.  I think that the sleeping well is probably due to me starting the new job soon (orientation tomorow and meeting with the supervisor Friday next week).  It's positive, but stressful none the less.

Now, to how I've been spending my days.

On the skiing front, I haven't skied again, but I have new boots.  I'll be able to ski (giving that the temperature allows it) as soon as I find my old othotics and manage to fit them in the boots.  I know all of you want spring to come and stay, and I do too, but to be honest, I also want to try my boots this season.

Last week-end we went to visit my inlaws.  My niece really is cute and she runs everywhere.  I tried playing with her and giving her yogurt (I really thought that she would be my friend if I gave her her snack), but she stayed away from me as much as could manage.  I did manage a hug as they were on their way out the door.  The cutest thing she did was always calling for Papi (granddad).  Here they are together reading a book about crocodiles:

Now, about the cooking:  I've baked two banana breads and some lemon cookies last Thursday, and some gross banana-cheez whiz-olive cookies.  I know it sounds bad, and it smelled even worst, but the suggestion came from my brother-in-law a few weeks ago when I asked around for some new ideas of cookies.  I know he was joking, but I promised him some for his birthday.  He did try them and he said it wasn't bad and he was right (I ended up trying it myself).  The olive was only on top, so the banana and cheez whiz together aren't too bad.  I did make a video but I can't play it on my computer, let alone edit it to make it shorter.

Silicone baking pans make for fat banana breads

Yarn wize, I had been doing more dying.  It was also my sister-in-law's birthday.  I had a hard time finding what I could get her (she tends to buy what she wants when she wants it).  Then I had a flash of genius.  Her and my BIL are into buying locally whenever possible.  So that's what I did.  On my road trip to Log Cabin a few weeks ago, I got two skeins of local yarn (at least the alpaca in the yarn is local, and it was spun locally).  I also got some Jacquard dyes to over dye the yarn.  And then I stalked her Ravelry page to find a pattern she liked.  I have plenty of ideas to overdye more yarn.  Should get to it next week.

Picture taken by my sister-in-law

Picture taken by my sister-in-law

I've been knitting a Tee. It took just about over two weeks. I just have to show it off.

 I'm currently working on some funny slippers for D.  I get some pictures when they're done.

Little cutie

Yesterday we were in Montreal visiting my mother, my brother, his wive and their little one, Cédric.

He's just the cutest little man. He gets his hair from his father...

And makes funny little faces like his mother. :D

Lately, he's been going about with always something in his mouth. All through the day yesterday, I couldn't help but just look at him, smile and laugh.

We spend some time cuddling and giving each other kisses.

Next weekend, we'll be heading out to D's parents near Mont-Tremblant to visit with them, D's brothers family. Can't wait to see little Lili.

On the knitting front, I finished this shawl a while ago, but was only gifted yesterday. The pattern is called Daybreak (rav link), by Stephen West, and the yarn is Cascade Pacific (rav link).

Buzy bee

Hey there!

I've been wanting to write for a few says, but I've been busy. Here's what happend.

Friday
Last Friday, I took the bus to the ski shop with my ski boots to see if they could do anything about the pain in my feet when skiing. The guy told me, after examining my feet alone, in the boots, and in various positions, that he thinks the boots are too big for me, but he thinks I should see a foot specialist that specialises in sports wear because of the obvious difference in sizes between my feet and the "infirmity" (for lack of a better word) of my right foot (I was born with a club foot). I left the store with my boots and no immediate solution, but contact info for someone that could help.

When leaving the store, I walked to one of my favorite yarn store in Ottawa, Knit-Knackers to sit and knit for a while. Although I wasn't planning on buying anything (trying the yarn diet thing, and failing miserably), but they had a 50% off sale on odd balls and discontinued yarn. I ended up buying 7 skeins of Noro Maiko (rav link) in color 115 - Coral. Since I was bored of the current WIP, I decided to cast on right away for a beautiful buttoned top-down short-sleeve top.

After a while, I left the store to meet Lynne at her work place so we could go to the gym together (I wanted a lift from downtown with my ski boots to knit-night and she wanted a buddy to go to the gym before knit-night). So we headed to the gym, did some warming up and some weight lifting. It felt great (the workout felt good, not the being-in-a-gym-full-of-very-fit-people part). I really should do that more often.

After the gym, we went to the Royal Oak for dinner and had a steak salad (hummm, steak!!).

And then, we finally made it to knit-night, where D joined us after work for some frogging (Kari brought some WIP that needed frogging). D really enjoys ripping the fabric and undoing hours of work. We left the coffee shop at closing and headed home.


Saturday
Kari and I had planned to go for a road trip west of Ottawa to three different yarn stores. She picked me up around 10 and we started with Just Knitting in Carleton place.

Then we headed to Perth, where we stopped for lunch at Fiddleheads, where I ordered a pear, beets, portobello and goat cheese salad. I was a bit disapointed when the plate arrived. I wich I took a picture because it was very beautifully presented, but it was a pear cut in three widthwise with goat cheese and portobello between the botom and middle parts, and more goat cheese and beets between the middle and top parts. It was delicious, but wouldn't take me far. I had to order something else (a very tasty club sandwich). It ended up costing me quite a bit since the "salad" was 14$ + a 11$ sandwich, + Kari's lunch (to pay for gas).

After lunch we went to Janie H. Knits in Perth. I got some colorful yarn to replace D's slippers (his curent ones now have holes in them).

After Perth, we drove to Northbrook to see Nancy at her store, Log Cabin Yarns. I got some things for a gift, so I'm not going to give any details yet. I also got 4 littles skeins (25 yards each) of some yummy 100% silk with beads. I haven't decided yet what to do with them.

On the way home, we stopped at Value Village for some item needed to complete my surprise gift. Then to the grocery store for dinner. Kari stayed for dinner (D cooked the sausages and asparagus on the BBQ).

Sunday
Altough I was exhausted, we got out of the house to run some errands: Ikea, Micheals, MEC, Fabricland, Loblaws, Dollar store, LCBO. After all that, we just plucked down on the sofa and I knit while D played Skyrim (very addictive video game for the actual player, D, and the back seat player, me).

Monday
Here in Ontario, Monday was Family Day. D worked (paid tripple time, who could refuse that). I met the foot specialist to get his opinion on the ski boots. He said I need new boots as my current ones are effectively too big. Additionnaly to new boots with a correct fit, he can make some adjustements for the foot issues. He was very encouraging. And TandL is currently having a sale. :)

Today
Had an errand to run in the morning, then worked on the surprise gift (which too me many hours). I also washed the dished, did some laundry, I'm cooking beans for D's chili, and there's a roast in the oven. I'm tired but content.

Sorry, no pictures today, but there'll be plenty next week since this surprise gift and a secret knitted item are going to be gifted over the weekend.

update

I know it's been a while since last I wrote. Here's what happend since.

First, I got the job. I think I told you about a job interview mid-January. They finaly called back last week to tell me I have the job. It's at CSSS Gatineau, in home care. Which means I'll be driving to client's homes to make sure they're safe and independant, and that they don't need anything. I'll start as soon as I have my license to practice (which should in the next week or two). I'm very excited about it. You see, I've been trying to become an OT for the last 10 years.Finishing OT school was the first step, but what's the point if I don't have employement in the field? My dream is becoming reality.

Earlier this week, it was Valentines day, and this year's Feb. 14 was our 10th together D and I. What did we do for this special day? We took a Thai cooking class on Monday and we ate too much. We learned how to make (1) Green Curry Puffs, (2) Mango Salad, (3) PineappleChicken Stir-Fry, (4) Sweet Basil Beef, and (5) Fried Bananas. everything was delicious, but I particularly loved the Green Curry Puffs and the Mango Salad. And we laughed. At D mostly. The teacher asked him to prepare sauce with soy sauce, fish sauce and other little ingredients, and after a few minutes, D come to see her whipping the mix and asking how you're supposed to make bubbles in it. The teacher just laughed and said he was silly. Than I understood and told D that I thing she meant DOUBLE, not BUBBLE the mix, as in "double the recipe". The teacher was chinese and it did sound like "bubble this". But it was really funny.

And yesterday, we went skiing, again. Unfortunatly, I was only able to do 1 run down the hill, my feet hurt too much. But on the plus side, I felt no weakness or shaking in my legs. They usually feel like jelly half-way down the first run. Not this time. Tomorow, I'm going to the ski shop to see if they can do something for the pain. If not, I'll make an appointment with my orthesist (the guy that makes my shoe insoles) to see if he has any suggestions.

Knitting wise, I finished a secret project. I don't know if the person it's intended to read this blog regularly, so I'm not going to post pictures yet. I'm also working on a felted bag. The was 3/4 of a cardigan, until I realised (after both fronts, the back and a sleeve were done) that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish the second sleeve, the button band, the collar and all the finishing.. So it was frogged (frog means that it was riped. It's called frogging because you "rip it, rip it, rip it". Say it out loud, you'll get it). Knowing that this yarn would felt easily, I decided to make a felted project. And browsing on Ravelry (a community website, similar to Facebook, but dedicated to the fiber arts), I found a pattern for a beautiful felted bag that is sold 10$. I decided to design my own, inspired by the 10$ one. All the knitting is done. It is waiting it's turn for the washing machine (along with some towels) to be felted (felting is putting an item knitted with an animal fiber like wool or alpaca in the wash in hot water and lots of agitation to shrink it and make a denser fabric, great for slippers, bags, warm mittens). Once felted, I'm going to try an line it. Not sure how since I'm all that good at sewing, but I'll sure try. I'm also writing up the pattern to share for anyone interested (for free).
Here's a picture of the bag before it get in the wash.

On the dyeing front, I haven't touch the yarn that needs to be overdyed. Finding red food coloring days before Valentines Day proved to be impossible. So I need to wait for the grocery store to get a new shippement. (Lynne, I know Micheals probably has red Wilton's food dye, but I prefer the liquid form to the gel based ones. But thanks for offering).

See you soon.

dyeing

For the last few weeks, I've been having fun with white yarn and food coloring (and food items), with mixed results. I've been wanting to have a go at it more seriously and enlisted a friend (Kari, you should check out her blog for her side of the story) to come over yesterday afternoon for an afternoon of dyeing yarn and good food.

Here's a recap of the day:

1- Carrot soup with veggies and hummus for lunch.

2- Set up the kitchen and start dyeing.


Supplies: food coloring, kool-aid, pocking stick, seringe and squirt bottles



Soaking the yarn



Neon green as a base color



Add some darker green and dark blue



Love the resulting colors



Soaking in orange Kool-Aid (smells good)



Orange Kool-Aid (still smells good)



Grape Kool-Aid (smells good too)



3 skeins of chunky superwash soaking



Result: I need to over dye it, there's a lot of white spots (need to buy more food coloring first, I'm out of red, of course)


3- Hang the skeins up to dry

All of them drying in the spare bedroom (you can see the white spots on the chunky yellow-orange-red ones)

Kari's beautiful 3 colored skein (purple, green and blue)

4- Dinner of homemade chicken wings (broiled, not fried) with a honey-garlic-ginger sauce and more veggies while watching the Super Bowl (I rooted for the Giants because of the red on their uniforms, of course).

5- Me exhausted but happy.

baby surprise jacket and skiing

Hey there!! There are three things I want to abord today.

First, I'd really like to know who reads this blogs. Some of you I know (Hi Doum, mom, Lynn, Amy). When I look at the stats from the blog, it shows that most of my readers are from Canada, which is expected, but I also have readers in Russia, Germany and United-States. I would appreciate if you could drop a line in the comments for me so I can have a better idea of who you are. Thank you!!

Second, I want to show off the surprise I was preparing last week. It's called Baby Surprise Jacket, it was designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman in 1968. Looking at the pattern, it's not at first obvious on how it works, but it does. I started with the green, blue and white, and decided it was kinda boring, so I added a touch of orange. So, here it is.

Third, guess what I did yesterday. First, I did 15 minutes on the elliptical. Then, breakfast and much knitting in front of the TV. When D got home from work, he fired up the BBQ to grill some steaks, while I prepared the brocoli. After dinner? We went skiing. That's right. Skiing. On the slopes. Where there's snow and other skiers going down really fast.

I managed to go down twice, which is twice as much as what I did earlier this year. And I didn't fall, even once. For some reason, my feet hurt so bad when I'm on the hill. We'll have to go shopping for a new pair of boots. Hopefully, with proper boots, I'll last a little longer on the hill and get some more practice. I really need some practice.

The picture was taken in 2008 I believe, I don't have any recent pictures of me skiing. For those of you who know me, you would be surprised to know that my coat and my snow pants are both bright red this year. And I still look like I'm constipated (although, apparently I was better yesterday than I did earlier).

Now, let's take an inventory of what hurts today: muscles in my bum, my shoulders and back a little (from pushing on the poles when you don't have enough speed to get through a flat part of the slop, or to get to the lift). I'm actually much better than what I expected. It's motivating to know that I got better in such a sort time and that my body isn't complaining about it too much!!! Yay!!!

That's it for now.