Knitting Pains

I sped through my last minute Christmas knitting on a 10 hour train ride and at that time my hands were sore. The thing is, my wrists have been sore ever since. Whenever i knit for a little while, my wrists get sore! On thursday, I went to the Ariadne's Knit Night and although I had a very nice time, I had to leave because i just couldn't take the pain of knitting anymore. I had to put ice on my wrists. I found a forum on ravelry that has lots of posts about this. I bought braces to put on my wrists while I'm knitting. I haven't had a chance to test them out too often yet. Let me know if anyone has any tips about this.

I got some great books for Christmas. One of my favorites is "Mason-Dixon Knitting". I know that it came out last year and I'm far back on the bandwagon, but I love it. They use very simple cotton and linen yarns and create things for mostly to decorate your home with. Their blankets are very tempting to knit up. I don't usually like home decorating books or objects. I'm never tempted to make pillow covers or curtains. Maybe it's because I'm always creating fake decors for fictitious peoples' apartments. Anyway, they are so liberating in the way that they encourage you to change the designs and make your own version. The book is more like a recipe book for knitting. Pretty loose ingredients and cooking times... if you keep it the same the dish will be delicious. If you alter it with your tastes it might be even more exciting. It's just really steering me in the direction of building my designing confidence. I will be designing my own knitting by the end of the year... just simple things (one of those new years resolutions?).

Here are a few pictures from Christmas. This is what we ate for dinner:
We ate a lot of large meals with Andreas' parents, but this was the official Christmas meal.


We had a traditional Quebec meal, porc's feet cooked in maple syrup for many hours. Then we made mashed potatoes with lots of cheese and roasted garlic in them. Kheo was very helpful in the kitchen with Andreas.



This is what Kheo ate for dinner.

This is what Dude wanted to eat for dinner:

This is Molie finishing up her dinner:


Everyone was full and happy...as usual.

Ariadne Knits!

I was so happy to visit the new yarn shop in Montreal last week. For a major city, we were lacking in yarn shops for a little while. Now we have three! The owners of Ariadne are really friendly women. I went over with Bridget and took some photos. It's a very cozy place with couches and a fireplace (a great Canadian must this time of year), lots of colorful yarn, good music in the background and easy conversations. I can't wait to start going to their knit nights. I had to miss their first one this week because of longer than expected work hours. But it's every other thursday (starting Dec.13). Check out their site for more info. I heard that they even had a male knitter this week! How exotic! They're also having a christmas drive this weekend so take look at their blog for more info.

I will try to have the time to stop by the Hot Cakes Craft Bazaar (5039 St.Dominique ) this weekend to fill up on some crafty stocking stuffers. For any montrealers that are interested, it's from Dec.14(12-8 pm), 15th (11-6 pm), 16th (11-5 pm). I'm really hoping to make it.