Follow Me Down the Rabbit Hole!

Four years ago I was a 1st year in university, living in a dorm. I had just discovered, mostly by chance, the wonderful online world of knitting, and when I got back to school in January I decided to join it. I started this little blog. It followed me through school, to Europe and back again. It was there when I lived in my own apartment for a year, and while York was on strike. It was still there when I moved back in with my parents six months ago. I'm not going to lie to you, it never got any where I thought it would, but I don't know that I was ever proud enough of it to really show it off. It's a bit like having your mom over to your first dark dingy little basement apartment. The best thing this blog ever did for me was let me grow into it, into not being self conscious to say that I am a blogger. However, I have bigger and better plans for myself for this coming year, and I feel like this blog is just a little too small.



On that note, I would love it if you all grabbed your hats and coats and RSS feeds and took a few steps next door to my new blog, leeleetea.ca. As of today, I will no longer be blogging on this site. All the old content from here is there already, so it's just the same, but the furniture has been rearranged. I'm sure it will continue to be rearranged as I settle in, but for now it's just right. I feel much more comfortable with the wordpress platform, and I even got fancy and got a domain name! With this being the beginning of a new decade, as well as my four year blogiversary having been on the 3rd, it seems like the perfect time for new adventures. Unlike last time I'll be trumpeting it from the mountains and telling all my friends. Well, anyone who will listen!

See you there!

Little Scissors, Big Cut

Dudes, I finally did it! I've been getting lots of questions lately on whether or not I've cut the steek on my Hearts cardigan and I can finally say yes!

They are hard to see, but I did machine sew some reinforcement in there. These pictures really do speak a thousand words, so I'll just leave you with them and one comment. It really wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, except for one moment in the middle where I really hoped I had done it right, because otherwise all I had was a pile of very small bits of yarn. There really is no going back from a steek.

Sleep Sweet Snow

As far as I know it is still snowing outside, and has been since this morning. The house is freezing, so I would much rather be under the quilts on my bed. However, there is much to be done, so I'm piling on the layers elsewhere.

Snowing with Ripley

While Toronto may have had an incredibly mild start to winter, what with November and December being unseasonably warm and devoid of snowfall, the time has come for bundling. There's the longsleeved shirts and the sweaters, tights and long underwear. Hats, mitts, gloves, scarves, cowls and big parkas. While today may no be our coldest of the year, it was rather chilly. I now officially look like this 75% of my outdoor time. The other 25% I am wearing more layers.

The hat keeping me warm right now is Ripley, by Ysolda. I cast on in the car on the way to the Christmas Eve pagent, and I cast off Boxing Day morning. I did the less slouchy version as I wanted it to fit inside my helmet, for when I am riding my bicycle. It took maybe just over half a skein.

I believe that I knit the length of the edging a bit longer, or until it fit around my head, as I went down a needle size to create a denser fabric. The denser the fabric, the less wind gets in! I did a bit of giggery (a technical term) and picked up more stitches as well. I can't quite remember the math, but it did work. If anyone really wanted to know I'm sure I could figure it out. I generally wear the pleats on the side, for a cloche effect, however the pleats are genius for fitting under a helmet as they reduce the bunching up of scarf/hat at the back of my neck.


Forgive the poor photos, it was cold and snowing and I think my wireless remote was getting cold and didn't want to work. I think they turned out pretty well, considering!

Pool time, Tea time.

Today was the first day back in the pool after a long vacation away. It was lovely to see all my co-workers after the holidays, not to mention that the beginning of session training is sometimes the only time I see some people. However I was brutally reminded of what a toll the water can take on my skin, especially in the winter. I will have to seriously ramp up my moisturizing schedule for the next few months.

I am really trying to finish up some knitting projects, for a combination of reasons. Most of all I need the needles off my Ishbel, but I also have some gifts that need to be given, as well as the additional mental space. Perhaps tomorrow I will catch the sunlight for photographs... In the mean time I need to be guarding very early tomorrow morning, so it's off to bed for me.

A French Press

Well I've spent most of today hanging around in my jimjams. I'm loving these legging style ones that I picked up during the Roots Boxing Day sale last week. I'm not sure if they are actually warmer, but they sure are comfy. I do feel like a bit of a kid in them, but I don't mind. Other than being cozy, it's just too cold out to think much about wearing real clothes! I did get dressed later in the afternoon to go to dinner at a family friend's house, which was delicious. Their house was much warmer than this old drafty one.


As I was remiss in posting over the holidays you'll have to excuse a bit of a belated wrap up. I couldn't write about most things while I was doing them as I'm not quite sure who actually reads this in my family. My mom checks it everyday, so I certainly couldn't risk that. I joined in on the felting insanity this year and made her a pair of French Press Slippers. She was looking for classy, sophisticated slippers when we were at the One of a Kind, but we couldn't find anything. As soon as I heard that I knew what I would do!


This was my first foray into felting, and luckily I had Meagan to help me out in it. I'm not going to lie, she did most of the work, though my excuse is that I was officially working at the time. I love how they turned out, though next time I will take the straps out earlier as they over felted a little bit and are quite stiff. Searching for buttons is always fun, and I knew that I wanted red ones. Grey and red are one of my favourite colour combinations, especially when it is a grey fabric with red buttons.

It felt like everyone was all over these this year, the thing that everyone knit for holiday presents. The nice thing about them is that they are speedy enough to give to almost anyone, but also special enough to give to people for whom you care about. I was originally going to make many more, but changed things up at the last minute. However, that's not to say that there won't be more in the future.

These were not the only thing I knit for gifts this year, so there will be more posts like this. Some of the gifts have already flown the coop to be with their rightful owners, while some have stayed closer to home. And of course, I did knit some things for myself.

A New Year

Since recaps seem to be all the rage today, I thought I'd give it a try. Hey, all the cool kids are doing it!

2009 was... interesting. Many of the things I thought would happen didn't, while many unexpected things did. No one thought the TA's strike at York would go on until the end of January, and I really thought my days of living with my parents were over. I've been living in the basement (cliche I know...) since August, and it's really fine. I certainly didn't think I would go to New York twice!

I was able to go to two fiber events, Squam and Rhinebeck, as well as one music festival, Mariposa. The photography on here has improved exponentially since I got my Nikon D40 in June, and even better when I got a new lens in October. I am loving photography in a way that I didn't expect at all. I hope that in 2010 I will be able to continue to hone my skills. I finally finished my undergraduate degree last month, and not a moment too soon! I took my bike riding to new levels when I bicycled through a fair amount of last winter, though that was tested yesterday when a set of streetcar tracks depostited me in the intersection rather unceremoniously. I hope next year will go better than that!

In 2010 I hope to go to Europe, and to a few fiber events. I have big plans that will be made public in the next few days that I am very excited about. I am looking forward to another February trip to California, this time without writing papers on the bathroom floor of the hotel! I hope to find the courage to act upon my ideas and dreams this year. I have a terrible habit of holding myself back, but I feel like this year will be much better. My greatest wish is to be able to completely transform my work schedule in the next 6 months, which will be a challenge, but I am ready for it. There is no try, only do.

I've got 2010 in my sightlines and I'm ready.