I'll probably dream of buttons

I'm a person who gets overwhelmed with choices in a video store. (Is anybody not like that?) So you can imagine how I felt when I took my almost-finished Grannie Smith Cardigan to the button store today...


Oh my lord. That's just part of the floor-to-ceiling wall of buttons. I loved that there's a board that pulls out so you can lay your garment down flat. (Sweater preview! Just one more side seam and sleeve to sew up!)

Quelle surprise -- I couldn't make a decision. The cardigan is knit in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in the colour "charcoal," which is a pretty shifty colour, as a matter of fact. I find that in natural light it looks brown, and in artificial light it looks grey. Plus there is a slight variation in darkness, as with all LL semi-solids. Add to all this the fact that I'm just not sure what effect to go for. Do I want the buttons to blend in or stand out? To match or to complement? I ended up buying two sets of buttons: one is a round pearly cherry red, and the other is a flat pearly dove grey. I'm leaning towards the red. (I asked a Russian lady in the store for her advice on these two choices, and she pointed to each one and said, "No, and no." She elaborated that the red buttons were "an obligation," in that I'd have to also wear red somewhere else. I disagree.)

As an aside, here's something I've learned about sweater assembly: When you've finished knitting all the pieces, and all you have left is seaming and adding neck and button bands, you'll be tempted to say on Ravelry that you are 95% done your sweater -- but you're not. You're really not. More like 60%.

For locals who are looking for a huge dusty button collection, I'd recommend the Centre de Couture Snowdon. (Look at that blue sky! We're having a gorgeous fall in Montreal.) It's just a few blocks from Snowdon Metro. As well as buttons (many, many boxes of which date from the mid-1980s), you can buy thread, sewing notions, trims, buckles, etc. And in the back is an odd assortment of yarn -- mostly Patons, mostly vintage (because that's how long it's been sitting on the shelves), lots of acrylic but also Kroy sock yarn in not the most attractive colours. I did end up buying a few 1-ounce balls of Lady Galt Kroy sock yarn in a Harvest Gold colour, at $3 a ball. (It's not actually the hugest bargain; keep in mind that today's Kroy is a 1.75-ounce ball.) You never know -- the sock bug may bite me again one day.


Happy birthday, Mom!

Lunch

Bill took the day off with me today and we went out and ate meat, because that's what we do for fun. If you've been to Montreal, you've probably been to Schwartz's. And if you've been to Schwartz's and you're not a vegetarian, you probably had something like this:


On a completely unrelated note, I realized something slightly disturbing yesterday when I was looking in the mirror: I have the same haircut as the lady on Trading Spaces.

Snug

Yesterday was beautiful, and I certainly did not stay home to keep warm. After all, it'll be 20 degrees colder than that in a couple of months! No, I put on my down-filled coat and super-Sorel boots, and I -- along with a bunch of other local knitters -- went yarn shopping. Ariadne Knits opened its doors yesterday! I was excited to see the new shop, and to buy yarn for Kate's Bird in Hand Mittens and Adrian's Norwegian Snail Mittens, but I was also very excited to pick up a yarn order I'd place on Ariadne's website earlier last week.

I'd gone out for a walk on Tuesday evening, you see, and while walking and listening to the latest S&B podcast, my ears had nearly frozen and dropped off my head. My fault; I was still in winter-denial and hadn't worn a hat. Last year, it didn't even snow until Boxing Day, but this year promises to be a whole other kettle of fish, and I'm determined to keep warm throughout. Anyway, when I got home from my walk (during which I'd been listening to Nicole and Jenny talk about cozy knit hats and scarves while my ears froze, which was cruelly and unusually apt), I went straight to my Beehive booklets. "What I need," I thought to myself, "is some winter headwear."


I was looking for a balance of style and practicality. Some patterns certainly look practical, but, well, let's say they'd be challenging to pull off. Consider, for example, the ribbed helmet on the right:


I'm sure it's very toasty, and you could even eat with it on! But since I wouldn't actually want to wear it in public, I kept looking. (Or maybe it's just the models' disembodied heads that are a turn-off?)


OK, getting closer, but I don't think the Eyelet Hood would cut it in the wind. Plus, as Bill pointed out, it looks like chain mail. For the knitter on her way to a winter Renaissance faire -- perfect! Not for me, though.


Yes! This is it. This is exactly what I'm looking for. I'll understand if the appeal isn't immediately obvious to you, and maybe the coldness of my ears affected my judgment, but I settled on the Head Snugs, and I ordered the yarn. I'm going to be knitting a snug (plus, it's called a snug -- how cute is that?) in Warani, a suri alpaca/extra-fine merino blend: chocolate for the main colour, and turquoise for the contrasting Fair Isle. As soon as I finish Bill's Manly Mitts (I'm halfway through the first one), I'm casting on for my snug.

Because of the sudden wintry-ness outside, I've revisited my knitting queue, moving lots of cold-weather accessories to the top. After Bill's mitts and my snug, I'm going to be all about stranded mittens. Stranded mittens are the new socks. And Head Snugs are the new toques. You heard it here first.

But it's sunny!

(That's "feels like -8" in American.)

Stuff

1. I've been back in Montreal for a few days -- woke up to snow this morning! Yikes!

2. I'm very glad I broke down and paid the $42 (!!) to see Me, Mom & Morgentaler play on Sunday night -- it was really fun. (Anyone else out there know/remember this band? I don't know if they ever played outside Quebec.)

3. I really, really love Cosmicpluto Laura's new Rayne Wrap Cardigan.

4. I'm still working away on my scrap-X quilt, having bought more fabric scraps from Robyn at lilybug. Planning to make it queen-sized. Why not?

5. The November holiday-themed market at Poppytalk Handmade is making me all wanty (so click at your own risk).

6. Kate asked for a picture of Mooky, so here he is, loving his crocheted blankie.


7. I need more coffee now. Bye!

Fall Fire!

Knitting night in NDG is getting out of control -- when I got to the Second Cup last night, there were at least 15 knitters and someone had clamped a swift onto one of the little tables! Hilarious.

Then the lovely and generous Robyn gave me a fabulous birthday present: the October sock kit from her online shop, Robyn's Nest. The kit includes a 100-gram skein of LuLu's Yarns Supersock (wool/nylon; colourway: Fall Fire), a sock pattern by LuLu herself (Lucia Tedesco), and four pretty stitch markers made by Robyn. (Robyn is behind the Stitch Marker Exchange, so she knows her stitch markers.) The colours in this yarn are fabulous -- all the colours of the leaves that are outside on the sidewalks are in here: brown, orange, red, yellow, and a dark brownish-purple. Perfect for October. (You're jealous, aren't you? Too late for your own October kit, I'm afraid, but there's always November....) Thanks, Robyn!

Fantasy, indeed

We went out last night to see Final Fantasy play. I've been a fan for ages, but it was the first time I've seen him play live (other than as a part of Arcade Fire), and it was just as good as I'd expected. Accompanying the music was an enchanting and mesmerizing display of images, done on an overhead projector by artist Stephanie Comilang. And the encore was a cover of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy," which was pretty great. Of course you should seek out and listen to Final Fantasy's original music, but do take a few minutes to check out his version of "Fantasy" -- especially on video (found here). Actually, you should revisit the original (here) first, for the full glory of the cover. (If these links don't make your day, you should probably take your pulse, or have your sense of humour checked, or something. Trust me.)

So we got to the venue at about nine o'clock last night, which seemed ridiculously early, since I don't think I've ever seen a band take the stage before 9:30 in this town, but Ohbijou had already finished. So disappointing -- I'd been looking forward to seeing them. But we did see Basia Bulat's set, and she was completely charming. I'd heard a few of her songs before, mostly because it seems like every time I turn on CBC Radio someone is talking about her. (Go here and listen to "I Was a Daughter.")

The show was part of Pop Montreal. I'm not planning to go to any other shows, but I'm definitely thinking of checking out the Puces Pop fair this weekend. (Impressive vendor list here.) Other than that, I'll be knitting away on my Woodland Shawl so I can wear it to Rhinebeck, which is in two weeks! I'm giddy at the very thought of it.

Got outta town

I love Montreal, but I love getting away from it, too. Yesterday I spent the day in the country (about 45 minutes away, near Hemmingford), at the Roxham Wool Gathering. I went with fellow Montreal Knits ladies Robyn, Angela, and Kadi. We ran into Kate there, too. (Robyn went both days, and blogged about it here and here with lots of photos.)

It was a "wool gathering," but there was a lot more than wool -- or rather, there was lots more than yarn and roving for knitters. Several vendors were selling things made of wool, like these really fun felted hats by Elaine Saucier:


I loved the mittens, helmets, scarves, and pillows made of recycled wool sweaters by Genia (who doesn't have a website but sells her wares locally at L'Arterie):


There was a vendor selling alpaca yarn, finished alpaca socks and scarves, and the softest alpaca bears. Kadi met her new BFF:


There were also handmade crafty things that had little to do with wool. I loved the dolls by Raplapla (seriously, click that link), and I bought a typewriter-key (asterisk/hyphen) pin by Misssoka Salvageware.

It was great to get out of the city, and it was really great to be surrounded by such inspiring creativity. It was pretty fun to hang out with Robyn's little boy, too; Sean was all smiles, all day:


I even saw my first real-life sheep shearing!


Kadi and I were both ready to move to a farm by the end of the afternoon. Why not? Even the weeds are beautiful there:


Oh my, I can hardly wait for Rhinebeck...

End of summer

I took this picture one evening last week when Bill and I went to the Gibeau Orange Julep (celebrating 75 years this year!) for a seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time dinner of hot dogs and poutine. I think it was when I noticed how early it's getting dark now.

I love back-to-school time. As a Ph.D. student, one no longer goes back to school. One just stays in school all the time. Still, I'm on that student schedule where everything begins anew after Labour Day. I was at the library this week, and I was like a vampire sucking energy from all of those eager new undergrads. I'm so ready for fall. I was feeling a little guilty about my meager academic output over the summer, but I'm over it and I'm looking ahead. And I'm excited.

(Having said that, I'm taking today off and heading out soon to go to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Science Centre! And I'm really excited about that.)

La Bobineuse

Kate and I ventured off the beaten yarn-store track this morning, to la Bobineuse de Laine (translation: the Wool Winder) on Mont-Royal Avenue East. It's hard to describe this place -- there's a good blog post here about it. This is not brand-name yarn. The store is filled with cones of yarn that they sell by the pound. All of the prepared yarns are made up of several very thin strands, but they're not spun together; or, you can choose your own combination of various fibres, and they'll wind them together onto a cone on their huge old machinery. (Yeah, it's hard to explain.) There are lots of acrylics, but they also have cotton and wool, and it's crazy-cheap.

I figured it was a good place to buy cotton for a shopping bag: this one, for example, or this one, or maybe this one. At $10/pound, I couldn't really go wrong. (One needs about half a pound for a bag, in case you were wondering.) I was looking at some boring dark blue, but Kate pushed me (nicely) toward the métallique mélange cones, and I ended up buying an 8-ounce cone of a white-&-silver mix:


Grocery shopping is about to go glam, people.

Huh?

Remember my big crocheted blanket? I'd almost finished it, but then it got too warm to have a giant pile of wool on my lap. Well, I'm thinking it will be a good choice for tonight's TV-watching crafty time!

I joined Flickr recently because of Ravelry, and I've put up some more photos from the weekend. To see a little more of Old Quebec, click here.

Returning to well-rounded life

I went with some friends last night to the opening of La Biennale de Montréal, first at the École Bourget and then at the Parisian Laundry. (I especially liked the installation by Graeme Patterson at the Parisian Laundry.) I felt like I was reintroducing yet one more neglected element back into my life -- like sewing, reading for fun, and spending time out in the city, looking at art is something I used to do but dropped while doing coursework.

That's been the theme of this week, actually. For example, I went to my knitting group on Wednesday, for the first time since ... January? I had lots of fun, sitting outside, getting plenty of compliments on my Monkey-in-progress, and catching up with lots of the local knitters I've missed in the last few months.

I also went to a fabric store the other day and bought everything I'll need to make a new dress. I already had the fabric -- 3 yards of cherry-print Cool Cords -- which I'd bought thinking I'd make the dress version of Simplicity 3835 (the same pattern I used for the top in my last post), but having made the top I decided to look for a new dress pattern. I finally chose Simplicity 4116 -- I'm thinking I'll make view B, but without the tie at the neck. It looks very classic to me, with the little retro touch of the Peter Pan collar, and I think it will be flattering (depending on my sewing skills, of course). I also bought some cotton jersey in a light olive colour for another BBW top, because I do like it, but I think it would work better in a fabric with a little stretch.

Something else that is part of "normal" life for me is road trips, and Bill and I will be heading up to Quebec City on Sunday. I've been there two or three times before, but the last time was 14 or 15 years ago (!). So we're going to drive up there (it's about three hours away) and just hang out and walk around. I'm really looking forward to it. So I'll be back on Monday or Tuesday with some pretty pictures. Have a good weekend!

Touristy T-shirt shop on rue St-Paul, Old Montreal.

Poutine

Yesterday afternoon was another one of those can't-get-to-work-till-I-spend-some-time-out-of-the-house afternoons. And it was a gray and gloomy day. The kind of day where it seems like a good idea to make fries your main meal.

Bill had never had poutine before; I have a vague memory of eating it on a high school trip to Quebec City, but I had already quit eating meat by the time I first came to Montreal, and vegetarian poutine had simply not been an option back then. (I did order a poutine sans sauce once, very early on, but it wasn't really worth trying to explain myself to the Quebecois poutine-serving guy -- plus it was only fries and cheese curds, which just isn't right.)

We headed out to La Banquise, which is on the Plateau, close to Parc Lafontaine. Supposedly this is some of the best poutine in the city, so we figured it was the perfect place to break us in. We went in and sat down, and looked at the 20-ish different varieties of poutine on the menu. When our waitress came over, I said, "I have some questions. For a vegetarian--"

"There is nothing. Vegetarian. Here," she said, punctuating each word by poking our tabletop with her index fingers, "except the lettuce."

Au revoir, La Banquise. Next stop: Mondo Fritz on Blvd. St-Laurent. It's by no means a vegetarian restaurant, but the poutine sauce contains no meat or dairy products, so it's very vegetarian-friendly. It is not, however, the most "authentic" poutine experience: they serve grated cheese instead of squeaky cheese curds, and of course the peppercorn sauce. But it was so tasty! I couldn't finish my giant portion, but I got pretty close. Bill enjoyed his, too, but then he also coined the slogan "Poutine: Once in a Lifetime." I know people who eat poutine more than once a week, and I can't imagine that, but every couple of months I'd be happy to go back to Mondo Fritz for a big messy plate of it.

Since I didn't take my camera, I'll point you to a poutine Flickr group (yes, really) -- guaranteed to either whet or destroy your appetite.

This little piggy went to market

I went to Jean-Talon Market this afternoon, and it was like a vacation from winter! I love going to the market, not just for the produce, but for some of the crazy peripheral bits that remind me of being in an Asian market: fifteen different things plugged into an outlet, with wires hanging all over the place; music coming from a crappy radio that's hanging from the wall with rope; prices on hand-lettered signs; just the general jumbliness of things. All that stuff that makes the market different from a big grocery store.







Does anyone actually eat those bunnies made of maple sugar? Dentists must love seeing those for sale. Just looking at them makes me crave a glass of milk.

Knitting? Most peculiar indeed...

From this week's Mirror (Artsweek section, p. 48):

"Yarning for a brew: Whether or not this is specifically a Montreal thing is hard to say, but a new mini-trend has seeped its way into bars in this town, and, most peculiarly, indie rock shows: knitting. While a wholesome and productive pastime in other milieus, sitting in a corner with needles and a spool during a rock 'n' roll concert is right up there with standing in the front row text-messaging emoticons to your friends down the street. Unless you're knitting a beer, that is. Okay that doesn't fit either, but the point is, you can knit beer bottles -- out of yarn, of course. The pattern can be found at http://cidermoon.com/cm0115_KYOB.html."

I'll forgive the use of "spool" because through this link to a knitted beer bottle, I found a very nice free sock pattern (check it out) and spent an enjoyable couple of minutes drooling over some really pretty colourways (I want this yarn, please).

I bought new long johns last Friday, so I'm feeling very pleased with myself. What's it like where you are?

I guess some people actually watched the game, but did you catch the Superbowl half-time show yesterday? OhmigoditwasPRINCE! The Purple One was divine, as always. (I saw him play live once, at the Coliseum in Vancouver, on the Lovesexy tour in 1988. [Gulp! Nineteen years ago?] One of the best live shows ever.) I thought he was an interesting choice for the Superbowl -- talk about displaying different modes of masculinity! Performance 1: dozens of beefy, "manly" men running into one another. Performance 2: one small and fabulous man with a turquoise suit, immaculately set hair, and a high-pitched voice. A small but nice interruption of gender norms there. Nice work, Superbowl people.

Church bazaar

One of my favourite word pairings ever. I noticed a sign a week or two ago, put the dates in my mental to-do file, and headed out on Saturday to a basement bazaar at the Église St-Édouard (at St-Denis and Beaubien).


I tend to think of church bazaars taking place in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but a quick search of the local papers shows that I've been quite wrong about that. How exciting!

Ready to be heartbroken

Last night I had plans with my friend B to go see Camera Obscura play. We had a class together until 5:30 and figured we'd go out for a bite to eat afterwards, so we started walking to our destination with J, who is also in our Feminist Media Studies class. J ended up having dinner with us, and it turned out she was also planning to go to the show. What's more, over our bowls of vegetarian chili, it was determined that J had written her master's thesis on 1980s British twee/indie pop. This was turning into a theme night.

After bracing ourselves with allongés for the blistering cold outside, we headed out for the five-block walk to the venue. I couldn't believe I hadn't worn long johns. My thighs were like ice after two blocks. J decided to go home and drop off her school bag, and B and I carried on, to have a drink across the street before heading into the show. We never saw J again. The show was packed. It was kind of a funny crowd, but in ways that totally made sense: Everyone was adorable and clean-cut! There were more affectionate straight couples than at a high-school dance!

Anyway, Camera Obscura sounded great and were also adorable as all get-out. Towards the end of "Let's Get Out of this Country," singer Traceyanne Campbell broke into a few rounds of "If you'll be my bodyguard, I can be your long-lost pal," which may well be the cutest thing I've ever heard. (I always liked that song, partly because in high school, when it came out, everyone already did call me Al.) You should see them if they happen to come to your town on this tour. In the meantime, there always seem to be lots of dowloadable mp3s of their songs floating around out there, and fans of classic musicals, fabric prints, and general sweetness alike will want to watch the video for "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken."

Have an adorable day! Wear long johns if it's below -15!

Lucky me

I went out last night to see a show by a little local band you may have heard of, called the Arcade Fire. They played a "secret" show in a church basement, for friends (and, in my case, friends of friends). You can read an account of the show here (or, if you prefer, in French here). They played mostly new stuff; just three songs from Funeral, including "Rebellion (Lies)." (Watch the charming video for that song here.) It was lots of fun. The new album, Neon Bible, will be released March 6, and from the sounds of things last night, it'll be a good one.

Other than that, a pretty quiet weekend. Lots of reading, Indian food with a visiting friend, and a little knitting. I'm adapting Teva Durham's Lace Leaf Pullover to a different gauge. It's a little experimental. (No, I haven't finished Bill's vest or the Trellis sweater. It seems I lose interest in projects when they are 90 percent finished...)