2016: Still waters running deep

Things have been a little... quiet... on the blog lately. As predicted, school has been kicking my butt time-wise, but I did do some things this past year. I'm going to make a concerted effort in the new year to follow my original goal of blogging on average once a week. Many posts are currently sitting in the drafts folder, but they will see the light of day. Maybe even this year.^*

On with the yearly wrap-up. It was a year. The consensus is that it sucked globally, but personally, it was pretty good. I had 8 months of vacation, followed by 4 months of making up for it in spades. The DC and I celebrated our first anniversary as married adorables and my cat Lucy celebrated her 17th birthday by finally realizing that she has massive arthritis in her hips and so therefore shouldn't be leaping from the sewing table to the ironing board and that she could, in fact, pee on this.

New year

My second leave year is up and I'm back at school. I only learned my schedule last week, and I have 4 (out of 6) preps this year; 1 of them is new, 2 of them are the pre-AP versions of courses I've taught before so they might as well be new, and while I've taught the fourth once before, we're making a few changes to how it's taught. So, yeah. Going to be a frantically busy year.^*

But you know how the kids seem to be getting younger every year?

Huh.

I've been doing some stuff that I will post timey-wimely (much like this post) to make it look like I've been keeping up with this blog thing at the same time as solidly crocheting and theatre-going and dining-in-white, among other things. But school is going to kick my butt for a while, so... yeah. Stay tuned. But don't hold your breath.

^*Especially since this year is the year I stay on top of my marking. No, really.

Stop laughing.

What a smashing, absolutely dashing spectacle

Another weekend, another opportunity to dress up — and inadvertently complete a Vintage Pledge make. I mean, it being a Vintage Pledge make was inadvertent; I only realized that the hat applied on my way home. Yay, planning. Handy, since it's #VPJuly and all. Scroll down if you're only here for the food clothes, because here be horses.

All I know about horse racing comes from Dick Francis mysteries and The Sting but I've always wanted to go to the racetrack, so I was happy to join in when a bunch of pals decided to go to the 157th running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine on Sunday.


I lucked out by getting this handsome lad to go with me. First stop: the Hats and Horseshoes Party where all the food and beverages were tasty but seriously overpriced. Also? There was croquet. Just like the Gatsby Party, right?

Why math is important: A 20s dress

I've pledged to make 2-3 things for my vintage pledge. One is this 20s dress gleaned from Loran's World's Art of the 20s dress challenge.

Update: Loran got it from The Midvale Cottage Post (specifically this post, but check out all the amazing 1920s stuff at that first link); I thought I had the original source can't believe I didn't click through. The pattern is from Ruth Wyeth Spears.


It's not a terribly useful dress, but it's oh so pretty. Chiffon. Floaty. I kept thinking this dress was familiar from somewhere...

Nine days a week: MMMay16 week 4

This week is a little long, yes? It feels like it kind of went to hell for me because in the middle of getting ready to leave for New York, I had to deal with an issue that wound up not being an issue but still wound up taking too much time because somebody didn't bother to tell me they weren't coming by after all thereby wasting said time and not letting me get on with all the stuff I was supposed to be getting on with. Plus I got a bit sick on the weekend. No UFOs finished, no new makes.

Sigh: MMMay16 week 3

Wow. So this week, I failed the "no-more-than-one-repeat-a-week" part of the challenge. Twice. First because I have been way too lazy to actually, you know, go outside my apartment — the deck is technically part of my apartment, even though it is outside. I've been rereading Robin McKinley books and some higher-class historical romances^* and didn't really get out of my pjs for three days. It is officially late Spring (people are calling it Summer already, but I'm not going to risk it) and I think it is finally time to take all my warm-weather clothes out of hibernation.

Once I finish that chapter.

Make up your mind, May: MMMay16 week 2

It's Spring in Ontario: one day slightly chilly, next day beautifully warm, then we plunge down to near-freezing with threats of snow and actual hail. Good times. Clothes were worn. It's halfway through Me Made May!

Eight Days a Week: MMM16 week 1

This year's MMM will be interesting because I'm not going into to work so I have no real reason to get out of my jammies other than to go outside and take pictures. Which, I'm hoping, will help get me out of my jammies. I've committed to wearing at least two me-made or refashioned items every day, with no more than one repeat per week, and make at least one item per week while finishing all my UFOs. This will be no problem, right? I'll be posting photos daily in the Flickr group and going into more detail on my weekly wrap-ups here. This week has eight days because for me, the week ends on Sunday. As always, I'm following Fat Mum Slim's photo prompts.

I've also been taking the opportunity to catch up, timey-wimey wise, on some old blog posts and I've linked to a bunch of them below. Really, my aim is to keep you from doing whatever it is you should be doing by taking you on a kind of wiki walk.

Transit of Mercury

Image Credit: NASA.

Four years ago, I managed to see the once-in-a-lifetime (for me) Transit of Venus, and although I didn't manage to capture it photographically, it still made me squee.

Tomorrow is the slightly-more-than-once-in-a-lifetime^* Transit of Mercury and I'm going to try to capture it again. I have a somewhat better camera these days, so here's hoping.

If you have a telescope or a set of binoculars, you should check it out. Just DON'T LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN! EVER!!!1! Check the links for how to make a viewing projector.

(MMM16 week 1 wrap-up coming later this evening.)

^*It happens about a dozen times per century; the next one is in 2019.

Pretty in pink paisley

The internet has spoken, and we have chosen button #2 for the Mathilde. So now I have no real excuse for not pushing on with that top. In the meantime, a super-quick sew:


So, I had some fabric leftover from my maxi Anna from last summer. It was just enough to squeeze out a Sewaholic Belcarra without having to sew scrap pieces together.

Help needed: too many button choices

So, I've nearly finished my sheer green Mathilde — oh yes, I didn't make that April 23rd deadline, but we didn't wind up going to the concert anyway — and now I don't know which buttons to put on it. Help!

It's a sheer forest green poly-something, and I'm thinking it's more for evenings out than for work. For those of you that don't know the Mathilde: it buttons down the back, and the buttons can be either normal or a feature, like so:



I tried to adjust the colours on these pics to make them true to life, but life is imperfect so I've also put short descriptions below. I've grouped them mostly by colour, but the order is otherwise random.

1. Forest green button that matches the fabric and so would blend, despite what the photo looks like.
   
2. Wood green with black centres. This is the most true-to-life colour representation.
   
3. Turquoise shiny pearl
   
4. Red shiny pearl
   
5. Black — like #1, these are actually a bit small.
   
6. Pearl ivory — I don't have enough of the three-ribbed ones, so the top one would be slightly different.
   
   
   
   
7. Royal blue peacock buttons currently on the blue Mathilde above (so I'd either have to buy more or take them off and go through this again with the blue Mathilde)
   
8. Darker royal blue buttons (which actually match the blue Mathilde above)
   
9. Light blue pearl flowers. These are my least favourite, tbh.
   
   The next row is just the back of the pearly buttons because I kind of like the patterns better.
   
10. Back of #4.
    
11. Back of #3.
    
12. Back of #9.
    

Choose wisely for me!

This is the kind of thing where Instagram would be useful, except you can't get it without a smartphone and so far I am too lazy to download Bluestacks just for one app.

It's official: we are the cutest

Try not to throw up.

Our wedding, photographed by the fabulous Rabbat Photography (and which I'm gonna blog about at some point) been featured on The Wedding Co. website. Go check it out!

Catching up, planning, and pledging

I find it ironic that with all my free time this year I haven't really updated my blog in forever. Case in point: I actually finished the Errandonnée in the allotted time, but it's waiting to be blogged. I have many posts in draft but it seems I'd rather spend my leave year being a hermit and reading or crocheting while marathoning forensics documentaries than blogging about it. Which is weird, because I like blogging. Not about forensic documentaries. Although I do have a drinking game.

Heartwrenching: Errandonnées #10-12

Yesterday was the last day of the Errandonnée, and I still needed to complete two more errands and ride a bunch more kilometres. And so I did.



The recent rise in temperature has led us to believe we won't need our space heater again, so I strapped it to my Opus to take it to our storage locker. It's an odd shape, with an asymmetric bulge at the back, so I had to balance it at an angle and it was a bit awkward biking with the top right beside the seat. I was worried that the horrible state of road on Ossington would bounce it right off, but that net bungee held it solidly.

I'm sure this will come back to bite us in a month.

Today's pi is round

Happy birthday, Albert Einstein! Complete coincidence.

Yes, it is that day beloved/hated by mathematicians and other number geeks, and which I celebrate because I quite like pie.

For those of you who write the date yyyy/mm/dd, happy 641.72272548*pi day. @jamesgrime

— Museum of Math (@MoMath1) March 14, 2016

Math with Bad Drawings has several (mathematical) pi recipes.

Here is a quite lovely Buffon's Needle explanation and applet from the University of Illinois.

And of course it wouldn't be Pi Day without a rant from Vi Hart. Substance over appearance all the way.

Urban weekending: Errandonnées #5-9

This past weekend was very urbany. It included shopping, a quasi-event, and brunch.

Errandonnée month means it's time to get my library card renewed. These days I've mostly been downloading ebooks, which is excellent for borrowing library books for the completely lazy because if you forget to pick them up or return them they just return themselves, no fine accruing. Alas, you still have to renew your card in person, so yesterday I set off up the road. It was one of those days were you feel that Spring is definitely about to happen; 17°C, sunny, and nary a curb snowbank in sight.

In which PhysicsGirl gets over a slight hangup and sews a top

Posted timey-wimey nearly two months later.


I have been slightly terrified of button holes. Not making them, because my machine makes a very nice button hole, but placing them, because while my machine makes a very nice button hole, I hadn't quite figured out where to put the fabric to get consistent placement. More to the point, I've been leary of my ability to accurately mark button hole placement. For this reason, I've been putting off starting my Mathilde blouses, which is all highly visible buttons up the back. This despite my having cut out two versions of said Mathilde nearly two years ago.

When I signed up for MakeDay at Victory Patterns studio (hosted by by Kristiann from Victory Patterns and Jennifer from Workroom Social — and yes, she is just as bubbly and friendly in real life), I decided it was time to pull up my socks and get going on this top.

A warm, cuddly sweater just in time for Spring

Posted timey-wimey-wise two months later.


I've been planning to make the Dana sweater from Interweave Crochet winter 2013 for over a year. I splurged last year on some Madeleinetosh Sock in Norway Spruce, which is blue with hints of green undertones. I would occasionally pet it, but I didn't really feel I could start it until I had finished the DC's waistcoat. That project was mostly done by the end of January, so I finally wound a ball (I've started making centre-pull balls and they are the best) and got started. I crocheted this mostly before, on the way to, during, and on the way home from my trip to Florida with Aged P. I kept trying to take breaks, but this pattern was kind of addictive and I wanted the sweater sooo much. My Ravelry notes are here.

Bike, food, and charity: Errandonnée #4

Danielle has been going to the weekly charity lunch at the Palais Royale for a while and thanks to the errandonnée (and being on leave) I finally got off my duff and went. I even finished my Mathilde top for the occasion.



The Palais hosts this lunch every Wednesday, unless notified. For a minimum donation of $15, you get to eat good food in art deco splendour. It's quite stripped down: you pick up the food buffet style, there are no linens, and you bus your own table, but it's a good place to hang out with friends and I'll be back for sure.

It's fairly easy to ride to but I have to complain about the utter lack of bike parking, even though it's right on the Martin Goodman trail. We really shouldn't have to ask for it.



As I left, it started sprinkling rain, but I made it home before I got too wet. Rain, not snow! Exciting!

Errandonée tally
Social Call: Charity lunch at Palais Royale (7 km)

Total Mileage: 18.8 km/11.8 mi
Total Categories used: 4

Gracefully Saved: Errandonée #1

The Errandonée started on Friday, but I didn't get started until today. I celebrated by dragging the DC out of bed so we could catch an early table for brunch at Saving Grace. He was thrilled, so say the least.

Errandonnée 2016: The triple double letter score is back!

It's ba-ack! The Errandonnée, one of my favourite times of year, sponsored by MG of Chasing Mailboxes DC.

I'm a much more successful errandoneure than coffeeneure, although this year the work category will be a bit trickier to complete.

Basic rules: Starting March 4, do 12 errands in 9 different categories in 12 days, going at least 3.34 km (2 miles) per errand, for a total of 50.1 km (30 miles). This year, you can even run as well as biking should that be your thing.

I've been a total hermit this year, so this will give me the impetus to get off my tush and do stuff. And maybe even catch up on all the blogging. Bring it.

First days, last days, and a casual skirt

Posted very timey-wimey more than a year later.


It's the first days of the new year, so we went to the last day of the last days of Pompeii exhibit at the ROM. Seemed fitting. I wore my first make of the new year: a tan denim Lekala spiral gore skirt. It's the second time I've made this skirt: scroll down to see more details but the tl;dr version is that... I like it, but it's too big in the waist. Again.