Well, I finally have some photos of Tubey's progress to report. I am a little further along than this at the current moment though... I have knit several inches of the body. There are still quite a few left, though, so it's looking like it will be a photo finish. Hopefully, I will have the luck of our Canadian athletes in Torino.

So, for starters, here I am at the beginning, with pattern, yarn, and needles at the ready. I did all my swatching prior to the flame being lit. I selected Tubey because I really love the design and I thought it would be a challenge for me to knit all the way through a sweater (something I have yet to do), let alone to do so in just 16 days. The yarn is Patons Classic Wool in black. Yes, black. What my wardrobe needs right now is a good basic black top in a flattering kinda-dressy style. Bingo.

Then there was the crochet cast-on (a technique that I found very easy to do and ripe with potential). The lovely green yarn that I used made me momentarily sad that I would not be using colour or doing stripes in my version of Tubey, but I had to remain focussed.

Then, after hours and hours of stockinette stitch, I had this:

I adjusted the shoulder width ever-so-slightly, and as a shrug, this is an excellent fit right now. We'll see how the body goes, but it's looking like it will be fine. I think my gauge for length was off from the pattern yarn (I rarely check this, especially when all the instructions say to knit to a length, rather than number of stitches), because the number of stitches that I could pick up around the body was different. I am confident that this will not be a huge problem, based on my own calculations.

I received a lovely surprise in the mail yesterday from Lana. It was a great little note with a set of artist trading cards that she made (which are super cool, especially the Guiness one), and an altered frame magnet with a fun pic of us with our knitting. Knit wits! hehee. Thanks so much, Lana! ^_^ What a great surprise.

Now, for a few other random photos of knitting, food, and other household stuff. I've been unable to post for a while, so this stuff tends to pile up.

First, a few skeins of sock yarn that I picked up on sale at the ol' Walmart (which, in Stephenville, has a letter that doesn't light up, so it's called AL-MART... haha. All-mart).

Next, the food. I have been keeping up on my cooking pretty well. I even tried my hand at making soy milk from scratch (recipe from How It All Vegan). While I'm glad that I was able to make it myself, I was not a huge fan of the result. I was also quite repulsed by powdered soy milk, which I picked up on a whim at the local bulk store. Maybe it's an acquired taste (if one could like chaulky, bitter, beany liquid). My personal advice would be to to stick to the storebought stuff.

A beverage that was a success is this honey, lemon, and ginger tea. I got the recipe from the January issue of Vegetarian Times magazine, and it is delicious, soothing, and keeps colds at bay. As you can easily see from the photo, it's just sliced lemons and ginger (I use a couple of lemons and a tonne of ginger) marinated in a cup or so of honey. Add a portion to a mug of boiling water and you have a soothing hot winter beverage. The ginger makes it nice and spicy. You have no idea how many jars of honey Dave and I have consumed in the last few weeks. 

Another winter favourite of mine is a vegetarian pea soup. This recipe came from Everyday Food magazine, which I tried last year. I make a large batch of this and freeze it for those days when you just can't get the energy to make something. This soup is yummy and soothing on cold days.

I planted a few "babies" from my mother of thousands plant, and I love seeing them grow right before my eyes. They are pretty quick - easily twice this size already after one week.