Productive Saturday Morning

Yesterday after work a co-worker was asking me if I at least sleep in on weekends and I replied that I don't really.  I love waking up early, knitting in bed for a few hours and then getting up for breakfast.  I usually get up when I start getting really hungry.

This morning I finished knitting two hats; one of them was on hold while I knit the second.  I often do this when I realize I don't have enough rows to knit while going to work; I'll just start something new to knit.  These are multi-coloured versions of  the Lace Striped Slouchy Hat.

Multi-coloured lace striped slouchy vegan hats

I also started working on a new headband, simple garter stitch that will be adorned with vintage or cute buttons. The first one I knit I found a bit too wide, ended up ripping it and now I love the new width.  With all the buttons I have I'm going to need to go button shopping for the navy headband.  I haven't found any in my stash that I find look great on it.

Vegan headbands

I should be taking pictures of the hats and headbands to add them to my shop as quickly as possible.  This is one part of the business that I find more of a chore.  I wish I had an assistant who loves taking pictures and writing listings while I spend my time knitting.

Why Blame it on the Vegans?

There's an article that appeared in the Guardian a few weeks back about quinoa.  The title of it is : Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa?

Why vegans?  I doubt very much there are enough of us to create the high demand for quinoa.  I personally haven't eaten any in a while although I did just buy a big bag last week.  I know a few co-workers who actually eat quinoa more than I do.  And they aren't anywhere near being vegan.

There are also a few misconceptions in the article.  One of them being the mistake everyone does about soy.  The majority of it is used to feed animals, not to make tofu or soymilk.  (It was corrected the next day in a footnote.)

Another misconception is about depending on food coming from other countries  :

 "rummage through the shopping baskets of vegetarians and vegans swiftly clocks up the food miles, a consequence of their higher dependency on products imported from faraway places. From tofu and tamari to carob and chickpeas, the axis of the vegetarian shopping list is heavily skewed to global."

Has the author even spoken to vegans or vegetarians? Or even done her research?  Most of my shopping list is not for food coming from around the globe.  A lot of it is produced and transformed here in Canada.  According to Pulse Canada :

Canada has emerged to become the world's largest exporter of lentil and pea, and a top five bean exporter.

I understand there are issues with food consumption but this article just added to the confusion instead of helping to understand the issues. 

Actually, there are issues with a lot of what Westerners consume since they are usually made in Third World countries by people who are paid a pittance and work grueling hours.  Will the author stomach the unpalatable truth about her computer?

Organizing My Coffee Cup Cozies

I may have finished this One Cup Cozy a Day project last September but I now have a bunch of cozies that were just bundled haphazardly in big plastic bins.  They weren't colour-coordinated at all which made it very hard for me to find the cozy when I sold one.

The article in Ladies' Home Journal's February 2013 issue means I have been getting more sales and looking for the correct cozy has been a pain.  Looking through my stuff I found these shoe-sized plastic bins and seperated them by colour.

Red, Blue and Multicoloured Coffee Cup Cozies

The multicoloured red one in the middle bin is one of the cozies featured in the article.

Pinks, Blue, Lilac and Purple Coffee Cup Cozies

I had to seperate the blues because they didn't all fit in one plastic bin.

Green, Yellow, Orange and Brown Coffee Cup Cozies

This one is a bigger plastic bin since I ran out of the smaller ones and probably would have needed at least 2 more. 

Now, it's certainly going to be a whole lot easier for me to find the cozies when I sell them in my shop.

Now it's Freezing Cold

Last week we had record amounts of snow and this week it's damn cold.  This is the one reason winter is my least favorite season.  I love the snow but hate sunny, damn cold weather.  A sunny day usually means it's going to be so cold.

This is what I looked like this morning leaving for work.  Bundled up and hoping not to fog up my glasses too much while I breathe.

And this is how the cats have been during this cold weather.  I don't even have to look for them around the apartment.  They have spent the entire time in my bedroom.  They only come out to see me when I get home and to eat.

Record Snowstorm in Montreal

Yesterday, we beat the March 4th, 1971 record of 43,2cm by getting 45cm of snow in one day.  I remember the 1971 storm mostly because of the home movies my mother made at the time.  I was almost 4 and loved playing in the snow.  Actually, my favorite activity then was eating the snow.

The weather was so bad we ended up leaving work at 15:00 and I made it home for 16:15.  Taking the subway helped a lot to make my commute home so short.

This morning on the way to work I brought my camera and took some pictures of the wonderful snow.

This is the entrance to my building which hadn't been cleared out at all.  I made those imprints when I arrived the night before.  For some reason most of the tenants prefer to use the back staircase.  When I got home tonight it had been cleared.

This is the street and what should be a sidewalk.  Normally the bus stop has been cleared a bit but not this morning.

This is the back of my apartment where some people have their cars parked.  It's all nice and clean but there's a slight problem to getting out.

The clean entrance leads to this : a huge snowbank.  It almost reaches my waist in height.  So, you can forget using your car to get to work. 

This was the sidewalk for the entire length of the street I usually walk to get to the subway.  It was nothing but huge snowbanks and a lot of them were created by people trying to get their cars out from under the snow.  I ended up taking the bus instead, a lot safer than walking in the street. 

The last two photos show how the snow really piled up on the balconies on one side of the street but not the other.

On the way to work I saw a few people helping each other out digging up cars and such.  Thankfully there are still some good neighbors around.

Did you witness such acts of helping or where you even someone who helped another?

Cyber Monday Free Shipping in my Etsy shop

I am having a Cyber Monday Sale by giving Free Shipping everywhere for all my items.

One of the new items in my shop are headbands.  I have them in a few colours and they make amazing stocking stuffers.  I'm sure you have a friend out there who's always complaining about freezing ears.

Don't Know How to Knit

Today's video is about people who tell me they don't know how to knit or tried it but can't.  In my roundabout way I just want you to go out, buy yarn and needles and just start knitting.  You can learn from videos on YouTube, using books or attending a class in a yarn shop.

Hope you enjoy the video.

I would love to hear about the yarn you bought and the knitting you have done.  So, please leave a comment below or come on my Facebook page and post a pic of what you've done so far.

Like I said, if you have any questions, ask them!  It will be my pleasure to answer them.