"that is the most canadian sweater ever"

so, last fall i had many cryptic posts about a mystery surprise knitted christmas present i was working on. but once it was done, i never somehow got around to posting photos here! there are many and numerous step-by-step pics on ravelry, but i hadn't taken a decent photo of the grateful recipient, and then we had such a mild spring and early summer he hadn't worn it in a while.

but lo and behold, the advent of june appears to have brought with it an early autumn (i hope i'm kidding), so out it came! how gratifying when we were out last night and a friend of his was amazed (that is where the quote in the title of this post came from) and impressed that i had actually made it myself.

this afternoon i got a few snaps!

inspired by this sweater belonging to grant lawrence, i knit it over the course of three months of subway rides and work lunch hours, never pulling it out at home unless my husband was guaranteed to be gone for hours. i used just about 8 bales of briggs & little country roving (with the leftovers going to the invadin ur space sweater i'm currently working on for the kiddo).

so without further ado, here it is, modelled by the man it was made for:

exterminate!

eek, two weeks since i've posted! i still have to get around to charting the sleeves for the sweater i'm working on, and i am still working on the bonkers-tiny-gauge cardi for myself, and and i am still waiting for a quite hour or two to make up the secret xmas surprise, and i've started a little crochet project.

but what's taken up a lot of time lately is this:



basically all stuff that was lying around the house (or in the case of the foam, lying in the street): felt, quilt batt, cardboard boxes and tubes, miscellaneous bits of fabric and trims. purchased items: styro balls, project glue that promised to stick to the styro balls, a can of silver spray paint (used up the entire thing, or i would have given him another coat), and one baseball cap which cost a dollar at goodwill.



there were a few "what are you?" comments, and a few "a dalek!!" exclamations, but the highlight of the evening was coming across - you guess it - a dalek jack o'lantern! here's a pic of the two daleks together. i think we made each other's night!

mm, bagels

ok here's my favourite from the seven sins series:



warning, the song will get stuck in your head. but it's so good! this is the jamie travis "on greed" "do you like butter on your bagel" short that i promised a couple of weeks ago! airing tonight at 10 pm ET/7 pm PM on bravo! in canada, and obvs online around the world...

where i've been for the past week...

there's a reason i haven't been posting; i've been far too busy at work! on wednesday we launched our new show in short, an exploration of the seven sins. and with it we launched a new youtube channel featuring all the short films in wednesday's ep. why youtube? well our old player was somewhat buggy, and of course it was only flash so useless for ipads and iphones. now youtube takes care of the software/format schmozzle for us.

we've also launched planet sin a website of true confessions, but also (better?) the reporting and shaming of others! for those who like pointing the finger.

so i've been ignoring my own blog and crafts and stuff and instead been working like mad on those two things.

there's one big project that ties it all together: a series of 7 short films, one for each of the sins, which are rolling out one per episode, and going on line at the youtube channel and planet sin at the same time. my favourites are envy by bruce mcdonald, which literally made me gasp when i realised what was about to happen, and the stylish mini-musical greed by jamie travis, although i have now had the bagel song stuck in my head for weeks and it is driving me crazy. i also suspect that "do you like butter on your bagel" may be a euphemism for something, but i'm afraid to google.

envy airs this coming wednesday 11 may on bravo! at 10pm ET/7 pm PT. greed is on the 25 may, same bat time, same bat channel.

finished? of course not!

but after some time at the machine and a few hours with mildred pierce, i have the new lining tacked into the anything else-inspired tweed coat and the inner pocket is done - with the label returned to its rightful place!




and while looking up the link to mildred pierce, i discovered that it's been made into a tv series to air at the end of march! horrifying. except that it is directed by todd "superstar" haynes, and starring kate winslet, so might be actually good. important to note: it seems to be a series in the uk sense, what might be called a mini-series in the us. so, no dragging the story into 26-eps-a-year for five years in hopes on syndication. thank goodness.

fairly... late?

The fairly legal hat pattern is up! I was interrupted by a family thing last night so it was verrry late by the time I got the hat done. and then all day today I hoped for a moment with good outdoor light to get a photo, but my husband borrowed my camera! So, I have a crappy mobile snap, but nothing to write home about...  

A decent photo will be posted soon I hope! But the good news is, the pattern is up!

holy slacking off!

with the sweater for tg proving endless (and so boring at this point! i have one sleeve to go and i just... can't... do... it...) i've been avoiding updating the ravelry projects page. maybe will fix that tonight.

but i have started a couple of new projects... just so i can say "yay, i finished something" and feel a little more productive! one is a vest in eggplant alpaca with a twist highlander (soft and tweedy), one is a hat inspired by a couple of threads about a promo for the show fairly legal - i haven't seen the show (or the promo) but i like the hat, and i need a hat, and it looks like i will have loads of briggs & little tuffy leftover from tg's sweater, so i decided to whip up a slouchier
version of it. i should have it finished tonight, and will post the pattern then!