This sweater is seriously taking up all my time, but the end is in sight... the body is done, and I'm a sleeve and a half away from completion. I've also been trying to learn how to crochet, and have managed to turn out this little swatch:I don't remember learning how to knit, so I can't remember a time when my knitting ever looked as wonky as the beginnings of my crochet! But I'm planning on keeping at it. Ravelry has had some very inspiring crochet projects, and I'm itching to branch out my skills. And I'm excited to start this little kit soon: A Christmas gift from one of my soon-to-be sisters in law. So cute! About a week ago G and I caught the very awesome band Land of Talk in concert at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. Go listen to their track, 'Some are Lakes'. They are amazing live. G and I decided to move the wedding to March, so planning has kicked into overdrive! To be honest, I'm really glad it's going to be sooner rather than later... I get the feeling that as far as brides go, I'm a pretty lousy bride. I'm excited to marry the man I love and focus on building a meaningful life together, but I'm less interested in wedding dress shopping, guestbooks, butterfly/dove/unicorn releases and all that fuss. My favourite part about the wedding planning is this: we are doing the entire thing on a $5,000 budget. And I'm please to report that so far, we are on track. Post-wedding, I'll do a breakdown of what the costs were, and how it was done, should anyone else wish to get a few ideas on how to have a budget-friendly wedding.

This sweater is fairly generic sure, but I'm head over heels about the color! So vibrant and punchy it lends that hopefulness that comes in springtime. Judging by the looks of that pilling, it's more than likely cashmere. Love it even more! Meanwhile, outside of the LA bubble it's winter. Snowy, slushy winter. Which means heavier knits. There are a hundred versions of these bulky knit cardigans everywhere this season. This one on Megan Fox @ an airport. I don't know who decided they were the must have, but I'll put money on the same people who picked Sorels as the boot of the season. I was hankering for a pair of these this Christmas... that is, until I counted 23 pairs within a 5 minute window, mostly on walking Aritzia clones. *shudder*

I confess, I am addicted to design blogs and check out many of my favourites on a daily basis. Design Sponge is defintiely one of my favourites- great range of ideas and price points, and I love their recipe Fridays and DIY Wednesdays. And then every now and then, a batch of knitted goodness is served up: I love it. I feel like you could knit a cozy for every single thing in your home, and as long as it was plain white, it would look fresh and modern. It currently retails for $429.00 here. I can't imagine how a clock cozy could cost that much, but hey, we're all fairly used to the bizarre and extreme markups on knitted goods, aren't we?? ;) On the home front: I'm learning to crochet, still slaving away at a giant green sweater, and planning my wedding. Details on all of the above coming soon!

Until recently, the very act of publishing a post seemed daunting. You know I'd half write up a post and then in my most typical, insecure (and procrastinators) self I'd never finish it. Many times this would happen over the course of the last year. The longer and longer it went on, the more I felt I had to have something realllllllly substantial (not to mention a FO) for you guys. The guilt riddled me whenever I'd see one of Julie's posts big or small, and it was never my intent to be absent for so long of stretches. It's been unfair of me to expect her to hold up the tent alone. If I'm going to be 100% honest, I felt overshadowed by my brilliantly skilled sister. But such is the hazard of co-blogging with an English lit major who can also knit like a demon. I think it's safe to say that my hesitancy is gone. Whatever it was, the veil of 2008 has lifted. Judging by this past week alone I've seen that I have a lot to share and I want to share it with you. Peek into my brain, see what I see! Big or small, you better believe I'm going to post it! Today though, lets start with the small.

I saw this plain knit beanie across the street at Billabong, yesterday. (On sale for $12 btw.) Love the color on color motif. It just goes to show that even with a little more time than skill you can make a great impact. For those of you not familiar with embroidery stitches, this tutorial at purlbee.com helped me a lot.

I've been kicking around in the olde photo shoppe the past two days trying to make a temporary deader image for our blank little site. I had a draft going but I couldn't find the right dingbat or stamp I was after. I stumbled naturally upon a few brush sites, namely- www.brusheezy.com's offering called Stitch.

Download the file here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/1083-Stitch These are pretty kick ass too: Download file here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/972-Lace Download file here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/932-Embroidery Download file here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/899-Hand-Drawn-Floral-Patterns Download file here: http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/874-Old-Postage-Stamp-Brushes EDIT: Wouldn't ya know, that my version of photoshop supports none of the above. Boo!

We've been tagged by Ern at Love Granny. She's made the cutest koigu ballet slippers that Julie and I both adore. Check em out. Here are the rules of this meme, should you choose to participate. 1. go to your documents 2. go to your 6th file. 3. go to your 6th picture. 4. blog about it.

This is my 6th photo. I took this with T's D200 on August 21st. (side note: I love that flickr tells me these things!) I brought the big gun out so I could get more practice with action shooting. I like this photo and probably would not have given it a second thought if not for this meme. It was late in the day but Kevin had invited Becs, Jules and I to the Hershey skate park in Mississauga for a small competition. I can't remember what it was called, but I know who it was run by; Ollie a tall hunky blonde German friend of Kev's. Man, I must have taken 200-300 shots that night and only a handful came out decent. Julie Delicious Bewitching Becca Brilliant Bartholomew These were my favorites... ironically not action shots.

This past Thursday Julie and I had a date to meet up at Romni's, little did I know that she had some ulterior motives for her location choice, sneaky kitten. She said that we were there because she was going to buy me some yarn and that was that. I long ago learned not put up a fight with her on these occasions. (Who'd want to? Please don't buy me some pretty yarn Julie, I would not like to work with some outstanding fiber on a garment of my choice!) A little while later we found these three special skeins of Misti Alpaca. 80% Baby Suri Alpaca 20% Silk Hand painted with more colors that any Dream In Color yarn I've seen. This specific colorway (#15, lot#80110) is so incredibly awesome that I took picture after picture loving the twists and contrasts in the color play. These three were taken in a northern facing window on a cloudy day. The next were with a makeshift light box to get a softer effect. It's even softer than it looks, practically dancing over my skin. I am very lucky girl. Which brings me to the second reason Julie wanted to meet up... She asked me to be a maid of honor at her wedding! I accepted enthusiastically through a flurry of hugs and tears. I will be happily sharing my maid of honourdom with our fantastic mutual friend Monica. I'm peanut butter jelly time excited this and my new yarn! Woo! Here is the ideal that I have for it. I sketched this ages ago and this yarn has inspired me to figure it out for real. 1. lying flat: a round cabled shrug with detailed rectangular back piece 2. around the neck: a cushy collar that naturally falls high 3. big twist: the main cable needs to be simple and defined 4. from behind: a look at how the piece sits 5. (seems I skipped 5 altogether) 6. supplemental: if the first idea doesn't work out... 7. coverage: the priority areas that need warmth I can picture this alternate version with ribbing of some sort around the arm holes to give it more finishing. A cable with texture in the center, big detailed stitches perhaps? As you can see, I have some hammering out to do. I tried on a great vestish piece at Fraiche (great store on Queen) a while back. I wonder if I could deconstruct it...and if I have the patience for the cables? The back is knit sideways and the front pieces look separate but seem to be attached by the cable. Two modish buttons close and cross the panels for an overlapping collar. Inspiration is oozing out of me. Now, if only I could get rid of this second sock syndrome. I've been stuck on the second of the spiral socks for forever and a day. I simply couldn't get it to match in gauge, that sock has been frogged more times than miss piggy. At the moment the heel turn has just finished and it's onto the home stretch gusset and instep! The time it would take to knit these socks was horribly miscalculated!