My niece emailed me again to clarify exactly what sort of yarn she wanted and what colours and in what quantity… so I’ll just quote her (loosely translated, after all my brain can’t really comprehend 6 years old inner logic. I tried to keep her adorable spelling mistakes)

I like to have yarn to make a blanket a big blue ball. yes yes it’s a good idae to teash me to make a :-[ hat. some orange :-* yarn :-P to make mittens. :-\ for :-D fall :-). some black yarn to make myself an eye mask .some multicoloured yarn O:-) to make a handbag.some turcoise yarn to make myself slippers a bigger basket :-) :-P :-D :-) ;-) :-* xxxxxoooooooxooxooxoxo ;-) :-P :-P :-* :-*

How awesome is she? It’ll be SO easy to shop for!!

I got an email from my 6 years old niece a week or so ago, she wrote it all herself and only had one spelling error. She asked to get armwarmers for christmas and I started to seek out nifty patterns I could make and thinking of stash yarn that would be ok for her ( washable and girl coloured ), I was super happy that she had emailed me and that she was seeking handknits! yay!

And then, I got this email sunday. In it she said that next time we have a knitting class together her brother could come too (awesome! pro men knitters all the way) and then ended the email saying… she would like to receive yarn for christmas. Squeeee! Adorable! Easy to shop for!

It appears that knitters can get obsessive even at a very young age. I’ll have to look through the stash for things she might like and that I bought to swatch… and I’ll go take a look at Effiloché again and try to find some machine washable medium yarn to teach her to make a hat :) That would be brilliant she could make something wearable quickly! Now if only I had time to go see her right away and take her shopping!

My grandmother fell from her bed during the night and broke her hip. She’s in the hospital now and my parents called to tell me she would have to have an operation to fix her hip. I can’t seem to grasp the idea that my grand-mother, magasineuse extraordinaire, will no longer be able to walk around shopping malls, at the best not for a while. I went to see her not 2 days ago and she was so happy to see me… :(

I took a life resolution yesterday : I will floss twice a day. I think taking resolutions in the middle of the year usually are more likely to hold than the New Year sort and just to make sure, I added a HUGE post-it in my bathroom mirror that says “Floss 2x day!”

Now we just need to see how long it will hold. It’s actually not as difficult or long as I thought it would be. It used to take me almost half an hour before when I had braces, even the hygienist at the dentist had trouble even when using a needle. I’m sure everybody wanted to know about my new detal hygiene decisions.

Which reminds me of this weekend’s spinning. Oh god. My yarn looks like barberpole on acid and I learned the hard way that navajo plying for the first time in your life on a spindle is pretty much as difficult as using chopsticks for the first time when you are famished. Not for the faint of heart. Some sections are not twisted and fall limply while others are so overtwisted and one ply kinked back on itself and created bumbs that look novelty-ish. And now I almost ran out of my practice fleece by making thrummed mittens (but they are adorable!) I’ll try to add pictures later tonight and also… Debbie’s scarf is finally done! Finished it (well.. 5 rows short but my ball was done) during the yarn harlot’s little reading last friday at McGill’s bookstore! It was awesome but I feel a bit bad that I didn’t stay to give her the magnet I had made for Sir Washie, but I was too hungry.

Just to start things clearly, it involves 3 out of 4 characters dying in a single battle, the fourth one managed to run away and stepped through a blood portal. I don’t think he will last long either.
We were in a dungeon to find a mystic lightbulb of something and arrived at a door. I don’t know why but everyone in the party seemed keen on opening it. Lorien the barbarian wanted to smash it open, Dan the rogue wanted to pick at the door and I listened to the other side. During a disagreement, (which involved lots of shouting to make ourselves heard by the DM) I lost patience and in a moment of enlightment I remebered the elf in Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk and I had the ridiculous bright idea to knock at the door.  I later blamed my animal companion monkey of having done the deed.

At least I had to foresight to run the away the instant I did it, convinced by the evil gleam in Babou’s eye that what I had done was moronic and that he was going to enjoy himself inmmensely watching us all perish. the spot where I hid was occupied by 4 kobolds and things might have turned not too badly if  had not rolled a 1. I missed so badly my hit that I let my club slip through my fingers, it hit the ceiling and brought a few hundred pounds of rocks tumbling on my head. I went from perfect health to minus 7 HP.

Joy.

Although at least I wasn’t the only one. The Barbarian and the cleric both died hacked down by a gang of men with scythes. It was nontheless a very cool game and I can’t wait for our next game even though it  means we will have to go through the hassle of creating new characters again.