A baby blanket for Johann

I haven’t posted in a very long time, I know. I just haven’t felt up to it. Will I be posting her and there? Sure! Regularly? Ha! Those who know me best know that I am really sporadic in things.

A lot has been going on, some things have changed, other things haven’t changed. Such is life.

Today, I just want to upload some pictures of my latest knitting project (I haven’t knitted in quite a while). It’s a baby blanket for Johann (a co-worker’s second child, first boy). I knitted up a blanket for her daughter, Zoé, a few years back and she requested a blanket for their latest child. My pleasure!

The blanket measures about 30″x40″ and is done in a “honeycomb” pattern. I had actually knitted up a blanket in the same pattern (different colours) a while back – I might post that one up too once I put the final touches on it. It knits up fairly quickly and is not as complex as it looks.

The blanket folded into 4.

One closeup of the blanket and the honeycomb pattern.

Slightly different look at the blanket and the pattern.

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A Palestinian teapot cozy for Suad

Assalamu alaikum everyone,

I’ve been out for a while, busy with too many projects and too little time. I’ve been working on one post for a while (and hope to have it up soon enough) and another series of posts is in the works for our trip out to the Maritimes (in the summer of 2011!). It’s late but better late than never as my mother is planning a road trip out there soon and I figured she might appreciate it (along with others).

Today’s post is concerning my latest knitting project. The original pattern is for a Matryoshka teapot cozy by Loly Fuertes (Ravelry link). She is beyond cute and I just had to try it out!

The perfect opportunity to use the pattern presented itself, unfortunately, with the moving away of a dear friend, Suad. She has some Palestinian ancestry and I was inspired by a picture of her wearing a traditional Palestinian dress “thobe“. Here are a few examples. 1 2 3

I used the pattern as a base and added in some colourwork (or intarsia knitting) – essentially doubling the thickness of the material (offers more insulation for your teapot in the end). I also switched up the pattern a bit for even increases and decreases (to keep symmetry in colourwork) and some embroidery. All in all, it took about 1.5 weeks of furious work! But it would seem it was really worth it.

Now I’m just waiting for Suad to tell me what she has named her.

Front – Devant

Bust closeup – Le buste de plus près

Back – Dos

Side view – Vue de biais

Hair bun and embroidery – Cheveux en chignon et broderie

Front skirt embroidery – Broderie sur le devant de la jupe

Embroidery on the back of the skirt – Broderie sur le dos de la jupe

**********

Assalamu alaikum tout le monde,

Ça fait un bon bout que je n’ai rien publié sur mon blogue; j’ai trop de projets et pas assez de temps! Ça fait quelque temps que je travaille sur un article (et j’espère le publier sous peu) et j’ai aussi une autre série d’articles à vous préparer sur notre voyage aux Maritimes (en 2011!). Oui, c’est très tard pour le rajouter au site mais ma mère compte faire un voyage aux Maritimes, en voiture, cet été, et donc, je crois qu’elle apprécierait bien que je partage ce qu’on a fait et vu lors ed notre voyage… Peut-être d’autres aimeraient ça aussi!

Aujourd’hui, je vais partager mon dernier projet de tricot. La patron original est pout un cache théière Matryoshka par Loly Fuertes (Lien vers Ravelry). C’est super quétaine et je voulais absolument en faire un!

L’occasion (ou l’excuse) parfaite pour utiliser se patron s’est présenté quand, malheureusement, j’ai su qu’une de mes bonnes copines quittait Montréal pour les États. Suad a quelques ancêtres qui provenaient de la Palestine et j’ai été inspirée par une photo d’elle et d’une de ces robes traditionnelles palestiniennes « thobe ». Voici quelques exemples. 1 2 3

J’ai utilisé le patron comme base et j’ai rajouté quelques éléments : tricot avec changement de couleur (intarsia) qui a, en effet, doublé l’épaisseur du cache théière et l’a rendu encore plus isolant. J’ai aussi changé les augmentations et réductions de mailles pour qu’elles soient plus symétriques, et j’ai aussi rajouté de la broderie. Ça m’a pris environ 1.5 semaines de travail fulgurant! Mais il semblerait que ça en valait le coup!

Maintenant, j’attends juste que Suad me dise ce qu’elle l’a nommée.

Happy Birthday Habibi!

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ballon, basketball, birthday, cake, fête, gâteau, Salem

Today is Salem’s birthday. – Happy birthday Love of my life! – He’s turning XX years old and he’s been so-so about his past couple of birthdays. I think he’s just crazy. So it’s my job to do my best to make him happy on his birthday.

For some reason, I got it in my head to try making him some crazy, amazing cake I saw here. Wow!

I’ve never worked with fondant, made my own buttercream (or at least I don’t recall) and I think I never went over 2 layers… So of course I had to go ahead and make him a life-sized basketball cake!

It was hard work, a long day and I hit quite a few bumps in the road (watermelon-flavoured marshmalows for the giant Rice Krispie that makes up the bottom half, colouring the fondant, covering the ball with the fondant without tearing it and getting too many folds – F****CK!!!, and the cat trying to lick the cake). In the end, it was worth seeing the happy and surprised look on his face when I came out with the cake.

Happy Birthday Habibi – I hope to see you this happy for every one of your birthdays.
See pictures after the French post.

C’est la fête à Salem aujourd’hui. Bonne fête à l’amour de ma vie! Il a maintenant XX ans et, depuis quelques années maintenant, il n’est pas trop positif quand à ces fêtes. Je croîs qu’il est fou, quoi, alors c’est à moi de faire de mon mieux pour m’assurer qu’il soit content le jour de sa fête.

Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais je me suis fait l’idée que je devrais lui faire ce gâteau que j’ai trouvé sur ce site. Ayoye!

Je n’ai aucune expérience avec le fondant, n’ai jamais fait mon propre glaçage à la crème au beurre (Du moins, je ne m’en souviens pas) et je ne crois pas avoir fait un gâteau de plus de 2 étages… J’ai alors eu la magnifique idée de lui faire un gâteau en forme de ballon de basket! Maudite folle!

C’était beaucoup de travail, ça a fait une longue journée et il y a eu quelques pépins (guimauves au melon d’eau pour le Rice Krispie géant qui forme la partie du bas, colorer le fondant, placer le fondant sans trop de plis et sans le déchirer – merde!!!!, et la chatte qui a tenté de léché le gâteau). Mais, en fin de compte, ça valait le coup quand j’ai vu à quel point il était content et surpris quand je lui ai présenté son gâteau.

Bonne fête Habibi; j’espère te voir aussi content à chaque année pour ta fête.

My workstation. Have I ever mentioned just how much I can’t wait to get a decent kitchen?

The cake, 5 minutes after completion. It’s not perfect, but I’ll just have to shut up and take it.

The cake from a different angle.

Salem’s 2012 Birthday Cake – yes, it’s the size of a real basketball. No, you cannot go shoot some hoops with it.

Salem and Caro with the cake – Caro is exhausted at this point.

Yes, there’s cake inside!

It (was) harvest time! – C’était le temps de la récolte!

So, while I did post about my fire escape garden once, I never really did an update. I took a picture of one of my harvests but totally neglected to put it up here. Sorry!
The first harvest below dates from late July and has a bit of everything, minus the peppers. The other 2 pictures come from a bit later on, in August – the cherry tomatoes were coming out in full-force and I had one pepper (it never got bigger).

Je me suis rendue compte que, bien que j’ai écrit un article de blogue concernant mon jardin sur notre sortie secours, je ne vous ai jamais montré ce que j’ai eu la chance de récolter. J’ai pris des photos mais j’ai négligé de les rajouter au blogue. Désolé!
La première récolte date de la fin juillet et contient un peu de tout sauf les piments. Les 2 autres photos sont du mois d’août; on peut y voir que le plant de tomates cerise est en pleine forme et que j’avais aussi un piment (il n’est pas devenu plus gros que sur la photo).

Lettuce, mint, cherry tomatoes, tarragon and basil.
Laitue, menthe, tomates cerise, estragon et basilic.

Bang – cherry tomato explosion! Des tomates cerise pleine la face!

A tiny green pepper. Un petit piment vert.

Our trip to Alberta – part 2!

Alright, so I know that our trip to Alberta was 2 months ago and I RUSHED to get pictures of our nephew up once we came back but then, as always, laziness overtook me. I finally got around to going through the pictures, colour-correcting them and then resizing them so I could post them on here without anyone being able to complain about spinach in their teeth the size of Jupiter!

I’m also thinking about starting up on what I am doing for fitness but I’m not sure anyone is interested… If anyone wants to know what I do for food and physical activity please let me know. It may actually work as a bit of a motivator since I would be accountable to all those who come and read this (tiny) blog. I think it might also be interesting for people to see what I have planned for Ramadan – trying to reach a healthy balance between my religious duties, food, fitness and everything else! Which reminds me, I need to start working on a schedule. So, en bref, let me know if this is of (any) interest whatsoever.

Alright, enough yapping like a chihuahua, lets get to the pictures!

Caro, the silly wife.

The hot husband.

On the way to Banff.

Mother, daughter and son.

The brand new mommy and daddy. 🙂

Salem looking tough, Caro looking like a weirdo stalker. Nothing new here!

Residents mingle – Mr. Deer and Mr. Pedestrian.

About halfway up the mountain side.

Subhan’Allah! Art in nature.

I could sit here all day.

A beautiful mountain range behind my gorgeous husband!

The mountains, valley and river. Can I build my house here?

Salem in full hiking mode.

Beautiful view of a neighbouring mountain and the river and valley below.

There’s actually snow at the top! It’s not just an illusion!

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the patterns formed by the bark on this tree. This was taken at the top of the mountain on our hiking trip to Banff.

Chocolate-fondue and all the fixings!

Post-chocolate fondue get together with my sister-in-law and my friend, Anna.

Once every 4 years, I get a birthday

This year, I get an actual birthday. I woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning though but things started getting better as I got to work.

Many people were wishing me happy birthday through work e-mail and on Facebook. I got a few calls and some texts as well.

Mom sent me some wonderful flowers and a balloon. 🙂 Of course, she didn’t sign the card so it took me a few minutes to guess who might have sent them to me.

My co-worker, Bib, even offered to treat me to a dessert at Trattoria on the way back to work at lunch time. I had heard of Tartuffo before but never tried it. Boy was it ever yummy!!!

To top off my lunch hour, I tried out some watercolour painting. I wanted to familiarize myself wit the medium for a project (I’ve never painted with watercolour before) and so I just gave it a try while at my desk. I must admit that I quite like the results but I still have to work at it a bit more before I start up on my project.

Now lets see what the man has planned for me tonight…

Une couverte pour Zoé – A blanket for Zoé

A few months ago, a co-worker of mine had her first baby. I had decided to crochet her a baby blanket. So off to Ravelry I went to find a pattern and get started. It took me a while simply because the blanket was so large but I’m hoping it will last her for many years to come. The mother was certainly thrilled.

Gah! I’m super late!

This is just a quick update on what’s going on. I know, I’ve been a bad, bad girl! So bad that I only realized now that one picture from my package post is only half displayed! I’ll get around to fixing that ASAP! Sorry!

Also, I’m so behind on answering the SP13 weekly question (or… well… this was in December)
Part A: Are you doing any holiday knitting?
Hehehehehe… no! 😀

Part B: Have you finished?
If I have none, then I guess I am finished! Amazing! For once I’m ahead and not way behind!

So…. what new? I am starting a new job in just over a week and a half! Weeeeeeee!!!! Note to self: get a book on digital photography techniques. I’ll be working on putting items on a website, taking pictures of said items, writing up item descriptions, working with other departments to make one HUGE website… and I get to be creative! Oh, and benefits after 3 months, pension plan after 6 months and… AND… get this! Vacation time after a year! WHAT’S THAT?! **all wide-eyed** I can’t wait! What’s this company? It’s a company that has an office in Montreal and 14 co-ops in the North of Quebec (and by North, I mean WAYYYYYYYY up north, as in permafrost my friend!). We supply all items for these 14 co-ops (food, clothing, gasoline, storage, building materials, programs, etc etc). It’s a really neat company and big on helping out everyone in the community.

On my plate for the next week or so:
1- Finish up everything at the office here
2- Impress Salem’s mother! I mean REALLY impress! She’s in town until the 25th and I plan on cooking a crazy meal (yet I’m not too sure what to make yet).
3- Finish organizing Mom’s 60th birthday dinner (shhh…. don’t tell her I let her age slip out).

Projects I am currently working on:
1- Picture frame earring organizer (pictures to come soon). Of course, it’ll be decorated with henna!
2- Dad’s thrummed slippers (almost done!)
3- SP13 knitted item #1
4- Lama’s scarf (may be frogged, I noticed a mistake – damn!!!!)
5- Mom’s ab… abbyl…abhlynn…. errr.. cowl. I just need to add beads and hope she’s a bit more enthused about it when I present it to her for the 2nd time (oh, the grimace on her face the first time I showed it to her. I must admit it really hurt).
6- Whatever I just forgot.

Upcoming projects:
1- My giant above-couch painting/mirror project! I swear, I’ll do it!
2- Salem’s Henry scarf
3- Do the 2nd herring-bone mitten
4- A shawl for Nanan
5- Henna jewelry and … housewares (it’s a secret!)
6- My personal website
7- Get back to my Bettie Page poster (done in Illustrator)
8- Make a hat for myself (if it’s the Fishy hat, then I might even use various scraps!)
9- Various projects with dad (including a fold-down table/counter for my tiny kitchen and a deep shadow box to display my growing seashell collection)
10- I’m sure I’m forgetting something, I just can’t recall what it is… :-S Sorry!