The Point of knitting

2008-09-04T20:17:00.002-04:00

Wow!

Somebody loves me!!!!!!!

Thanks Fleegle so much, I love you too, you have one of the most witty blogs around, and while I may well be away for a long stretch of time, I do always come and check a few blogs, and always those blogs, Fleegle has already named most of those on her list of who the award goes to, so I feel I should add 4 more, which is of course part of what I must do when I blog about this most prestigous of awards.

1. Post this award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 4 other bloggers, and add their links as well.
4. leave a comment at the new recipients' blogs, so they can pass it on.

So, sorting through Fleegles list to whittle out the ones that aren't on my side bar is a hard job.

Wannietta isn't though, so she gets one, I love Wannietta, she does the most amazing work, and very fast too, so does Cynthia she is an amazing woman who I am sure is waiting patiently for me to send her a package, I haven't forgotten Cynthia! And I also have one not on my sidebar but I do read all the time too, Kathleen, she is also in the same town as me, her birthday is 2 days before mine and she has a daughter named Elizabeth too, plus she knits an awful lot, including some crazy double knitting that would have had me cursing. And of course the lovely Jean Miles all the way in Scotland, my only non Canuck on the list. I could go on and on, there so many fabo bloggers.

The Mystery shawl

2008-07-27T20:12:00.002-04:00

The knit along is going great, with a fantastic group that are well behaved, polite and doing well knitting along, all seems to be well, I am starting to hear eerie music playing in my ears, nothing should be this easy should it!

Well, one more clue to post, then all will be done and I can get back to normal, I guess that would be ignoring the fact that I have a blog, and knitting erratically.

Quite the opposite has been true though during the KAL, I have knit on two things, a spice caravan robe, which is almost finished, and my own, yet another of the Mystery shawl.

Pictures should be coming soon, I know I keep promising, but life has a terrible way of interrupting my thought train. I have loved knitting the Robe, and am already thinking of other colourways to knit it in. That will have to wait though as I have another design on the needles, it just popped up in the past week, so I have been test running it today, and I quite like it, so will see where it goes. So I guess I have 3 things on the needles right now, OK, two are almost finished though.

The girls have been knitting today, both of them, I almost fell over. Katherine can really knit now, and Elizabeth is venturing in the realm of YO's and decreases. A proud moment for Mommy.

The weather has been a bit sucky this summer, either scorching hot or threatening rain clouds and thunder storms. I really dislike settling down on the deck to knit, only to have to run indoors again 5 minutes later burdened down by knitting, cups and other stuff that finds its way out so quickly.

Summer is nowhere near done, yet already I am planning September. I have been asked if I would like to work at my local yarn store, seems like a bit of a silly question to me! Anyway, it obviously isn't a silly question as the owner June, doesn't know my plans. SO I think I will be going to work there soon. COOL!
June is super nice too, I think she is just really lovely, and I can't wait to talk things through with her, should be fun.....

K

Urmm, am I stupid!?!?!?!?

2008-07-04T14:44:00.003-04:00

Last Friday, the first day of the school holidays, I was sat on my deck, knowing, deeply that something was missing in my life, something that had happened in previous years, like a tradition, on this first day of the holidays. It was later that day I realized it was knitting, knitting the Mystery stole KAL. It isn't happening this year until August, Melanie has passed along the torch to her Mom this year so that she may have some time with her child this summer, fair do's!

That's all fine and well but what about me?
I feel like a chunk of life is missing, like I don't have enough going on in my life.

Just shoot me now.
I just started a group, on yahoo, for a mystery KAL.
It's lace, it's a shawl, it's triangular, and it's my own design, go ahead join if you think I might have a decent design in me.

Mystery KAL

Let's hope it's not me, myself and I in there.
It will start next Friday, the 11th, and the last clue will be posted on the first of August, in time for the start of the stole KAL that Melanie's mom will host this year.

Hellooo....

2008-06-26T21:16:00.001-04:00

I swear I heard an echo.
I have been gone way too long, I know, but have been thinking of blogging for ages now, surely that counts for something.
I have been knitting, lot's actually, and I will be back in a day or two to actually show off some of it.
For now though, I think the fact that I actually managed to write something here is a step in the right direction.

See you soon.

K

Guess what happens

2008-01-31T09:25:00.000-05:00

When you forget to starch!

Well, simply put, nothing. I did block, I have proof, but at unpinning time I should have listened to the little voice in my head saying somethings not right here.

I finished the other doily too!

These really are lovely things, I have to block them soon as they are going into a display for the month of February at the local library.

Man, Soo just puts me to shame. I started the Forest path stole when? I don't know, like 50 million years ago. She started hers within recent history, and is almost done! Go check it out, it's stunning, and also the same yarn and colour that I used for the next item of comment.

I finally finished a shawl too, and I am desperate to show it off, it is the third and final version hopefully of a design of mine own! Not an intricate lace, quite basic lace actually, but still it was a challenge for me to think about the knitting rather than just blindly follow a pattern like I have basically all of my knitting life. No pictures today though, I want to get some good pictures first, and they all need blocking.

Designing is addictive. I have this one finished now, and another pattern on the needles now, another one all worked out, and ideas for about 10 more. One I am really stuck on though, and it's bothering me, I can't quite figure out which way is up with the bloody thing. I think I get a good idea about it then shoot it down almost immediately. It may have to wait awhile. I have way too many things that need finishing.

It's strange to blog twice in such a short period of time! Not much has happened, so I feel like I don't have much of anything to say!

Coming to terms with

2008-01-23T11:55:00.000-05:00

I think it's fair to say that the more I don't blog, the less I want to. I had to come to terms with having not blogged in over a month, with 155 pictures on the camera to wade through, with a number of other things, all before I could get to this, a post finally after a month and 13 days!

Yikes.

Well lets cover some ground then. Happy Christmas/holidays, happy new year, gosh, if I had left it much longer I would have been wishing you many happy snogs on Valentine's day.

Bad news out of the way first I guess. I failed one of my courses, the one I feared I would fail, so it wasn't too hard to absorb, and I got right back onto that horse, enrolling right back into the course.

Both of our Guinea Pigs died in the hiatus too, one just two weeks ago. We are now down to our last small animal Woody the Hamster who turns 4 this month we think. He may be blind and deaf, almost bald and quite jumpy, but is leading a very happy life from what I can tell.

Well, I got some neat stuff for Christmas. I ordered the new Cat Bhordi book for myself for Christmas, I ordered late, and was sure it wasn't going to get to me for the holiday, especially when Friday rolled around and no book in the mail. Strangely enough my sister in law saw the mail van at the door on the Sunday, and almost came over to investigate. It was my book! Who knew they delivered on Sunday. Perhaps the Canadian postal service would be more efficient if they worked week round delivering.
I started a pair of socks already, they are sweet, and being knit in my own hand dyed yarn. The yarn is from Sheldridge farms. Really nice soft yarn.

I did of course start the second at the same time, no second sock syndrome here.

I also bought a Burda magazine on Ebay. No work done there yet. I have this linen thread all lined up to do the cover picture, although I have done a lot of Red work recently so I am leaning more towards a mid/deep blue in the same linen thread it's a 16/1. I didn't get any translation sheets with the Burda so have some Babel fishing to do, if that fails to enlighten I have a German friend I may ask for some assistance .

A while ago dear sweet Jane sent me a package that was absolutely bang on the money made for me! Such superb stuff in it I had to stifle the tears.

Amongst all the stuff was a brilliant lace magazine, an Italian publication that is jam packed with great lace patterns, big and small. If I can grasp what it says on the cover, over 60 items. The Lacis bag Jane sent was promptly put into action, and the other items, a Bone magnifying glass and needle case are hidden from childrens paws, I can't honestly say I use them yet, maybe when I know I don't have to worry about the brats fingers grabbing them all the time.
Jane is so lucky living so close to Lacis!

I have already knit up one doily, and am working on a second. Many more are definitely on my to do list. Lots of blocking coming up in my future. The one I am working on right now is the top one on the second photo here.

I did a lot of weaving leading up to Christmas, two table runners and three scarves. I got to try a few new patterns, and one new yarn I was dying to try. The Silk garden lite yarn, it's really nice, and weaves up like a dream.

One runner was for my Mom, she loves it, and says the colour is spot on.

I have been trying new things again, tatting was top of the list as I keep trying and keep failing, many pathetic attempts later I was frustrated. So I set aside time to work on it. Work I did. I decided on heavier yarn than I tried before, this helped me to be able to pick back if needed, and I needed that quite a lot as it turns out.

This is project 1

Not yet finished

This is project 2

A Celtic bookmark

Almost finished.

I almost started project 3 last night, but managed to stop myself in time when I looked at my knitting basket. I don't want to go into multiple projects with this.

I also tried Chain Maille too, this has called me since I saw a Post on Wannietta's blog over two years ago when she tried it at the Creative needlework show.

I have done one bracelet for myself, since it was my first attempt I used stainless steel, mistake number one. I am allergic to nickel, so now it just lies around. I ordered some brass rings online and have done some more work with that, here is a little bracelet I made for Katherine.

I will leave you with a picture of just some of the snow we have had so far this season. This is my Brother in laws race car.

A disappearing trick

2007-12-10T20:35:00.000-05:00

Well for a few days at least anyway, Exam time again.
These feel really important this time. I will be half way through this course if I pass all this term. I think there is still lots more to do after those, but right now, half way. It will be good, and I think I really have to screw up the final to fail.

Lots of knitting and weaving going on.
Christmas stuff mainly.

1 table runner for mom, second on loom went to guild shop.
3 woven scarfs, one for Sisters chap.
2 headbands one for niece other for Katherine
1 scarf for sister, the fiddlesticks florence, almost finished, although I have now missed the deadline for guarenteed delivery to Britain for Christmas.
Hat and mitts for Elizabeth, mitts done, hat, all the yarn is spun up, and hat is about 33%

Buying, lots, heehee, of course. I tried the silk garden light in a woven scarf with a black weft and it came out awesome.
I finally got me a cone of colourmart cashmere/silk, yes I was a colourmart virgin. Feels good to have passed that now, boy, great service and a wonderful product.
I bought an ebay item, a Burda magazine, that should be here soon.
One of the nicest things though has been a skein of Naturally one ply angora wool, I made two headbands from it, and it is divine, I see lots more of it in my future.

Hopefully I can insert some photo's soon, but my mind is all a tiz with studying, and trying to sort out photo's right now is not appealing to me.

So I will be back after Thursday with piccies.

K

Back at it.

2007-11-28T09:37:00.000-05:00

After the brief hiatus from knitting last week, I got right back on that horse and started finishing things again.

Veil of Isis is finished, and stunning. I was going to go for an extra repeat and make it bigger, but decided to see how the 5 repeats would work out. I blocked her, and she is a bit small, but I think I could block her a bit more, but then the shawl will be very fine, hopefully I can find a nice balance.
This was a great knit, and I reckon I may well knit this again, Andea the designer is very talented.

Also finished is the Whisper scarf. Katherine likes to get in on all the photos opportunities.

I am very close to finishing a weaving project that has been on loom way too long. A table runner for my mother, and a spare to go for sale in the guild shop.

The guild is making progress finally with a website, which we have, but there hasn't been any activity on it for a long time. Hopefully we can get things running smoothly soon, and talk of a spinners blog for the guild has come up, it could be interesting.

Not sure how much actual knitting I can do today, my arms are killing me after playing a little to forcefully (maybe thats excitedly) on a thing that the girls are getting for Christmas, I had to test it out....... It's great fun, and I think I will enjoy it as much as the kids will, maybe even more, I already have tons of items picked out to go with it.

I ran into a fellow raveller in my LYS two weeks ago, things are getting weird here, she is also Kathleen, her one of her two daughters is Elizabeth, and her birthday is two days before mine. There is another Raveller from our town that has a birthday right in between me and Kathleen.

Ron is progressing on the log cabin pretty quickly, the roof is almost complete, and he plans to have the wood stove in this weekend.
I drove out there last week, it's pretty amazing what he has done.

So of course I get motivated each weekend to work on the braided rug, I gotta tell you, this thing could be addictive, it's beautiful in a way I had never appreciated before, and the possibilities are endless. While I can't see me ever actually making any of the cords needed for the braiding as it is sewing, if I were ever come across another great stash of the wool again, I would snatch it up. The rug itself is stunning, a lovely rug to stand on too.
My actual braiding and joining may well be far from perfect, and I fear will need some resewing pretty quickly, but the rug hides a lot of my flaws.

I don't know what happened.

2007-11-21T09:16:00.003-05:00

None of the pictures are enlarging on my last post, I am unsure what happened.

I will try again.

See now that one worked.
I see now what I did, dingbat, it must have been a fevered mind I was working on.

Sickness has passed through our house, and I think we are all back up on our feet again today, although it was a very rough few days, and the knitting needles are stone cold.

This blog post by Kate made my heart sink. There are a few of us around here that have that very fear I think, and this is the main reason I decided not to go with the one ply silk for the WRS.

All that said though, my heart breaks for Kate, how painful that must have been to see. I lost a stitch on Princess way back in the beginning, it was almost the undoing of the whole thing, yeah, even with all the yarn, needle angst. I dropped a stitch on the border, and such as mercerized cotton does, it ran like you wouldn't have believed, it was at ten rows down before I caught it. But the damage was done, and it lost all sorts of other little slipped stitches and YO's

So ten times 800+ stitches, in a yarn you hate at this moment in time, on needles that have given you nothing but heartburn, on a shawl you are quickly coming to loath, hmm, rip or tink, big question huh, I don't think I would have been too torn up if the ripping had gone awry.

I did of course rip, not thinking that if one errant stitch can go so bad then the potential for 800 or more was really, really disaster in the making.
However we do know that the story did indeed end well, so the ripping wasn't such a bad judgment call on my part.

Kate's story though has reminded me of something though
My brain needs a few good nudges this past week.

I took the Forest path stole out of it's little bag last week, and was set to start again, and there is was, three broken strands in the yarn two blocks back. Now, this isn't a major issue on the Forest stole, not a biggie at all. But WTF!!!

It's been in a bag, all along, waiting, doing nothing.......

So I ripped, and redid.
Then I got sick, so it went back to it's dark place again. I don't want to knit those blocks any more times than is necessary, so I think I will knit on her again today, just to be sure that all is well.

Anyway, back to the point, where are all these broken threads coming from???
I am utterly stumped. I had two skeins of laceweight do this, like cuts not animal bites, one skein was particularly bad, and now I remember way back, about 4 years, another skein.

The breaks on Forest path were all in a line, three rows, stacked ontop of each other.

I am clearly doing something to cause this, but when I don't touch something for months on end, and it's in a zippy bag, with no holes in it. HOW????

Anyway, final comment for a rambling mind, I received a package the day I was flat on my back completely unable to move, it sat on my bed for a while, Katherine put it there I think, then someone moved it, it got moved a few times, and was finally opened a day later. I knew it was yarn in there, and there was no desire at all to open the box, I think at that moment I should have asked someone to call the coroner, just to see if I was indeed dead.

So I've been busy!

2007-11-14T09:52:00.000-05:00

Is that really an excuse not to post finished Princess pictures?

Ok, so we had a crazy week or so with the MIL in hospital, that definitely qualifies as a valid excuse.
The rest of my excuse basically boils down to FO'S.

And while I have been busily knitting on other things too, this is about the FO's as it shows some actual achievement.

Pants for little David.
A pattern from knitty, Blu, that I was dying to use up the last of my denim yarn on, but even these didn't extend to the last ball, so I have a solitary ball of denim now, waiting patiently to get used up in some cute little project.

They clearly need a little finishing.

As does this, the whisper scarf one.

Upon finishing that I quickly started a new one.
The florence scarf also from Fiddlesticks.
I am using Malabrigo baby merino lace, which is stunning, I fell in love at first touch.

Clearly a bad picture, and to be honest I am not loving knitting this thing already, I had planned to send to Sis for Christmas, but I seriously doubt it will be finished.

I did finally block the Faroese shawl, but bad pictures persist, I will try again later.

I finally finished the mitts for Elizabeth, my handspun from Bluefaced Leicester I got at Etsy. The plan is a hat too.

Noro is nearing completion, I have two more rows of squares ready to be sewn on.

This blankie is going out to the log cabin that Ron is building on our Bush property out in Mosport, Clarington, that is also nearing completion so I will for sure post piccies when that is done.

Also, as part of a guild group we have been braiding rugs, here is mine so far, there is a little bit of bump in it, that I keep thinking I should fix now before I get any further, but I keep going and regretting that move with each bit I sew up.

This is also going to the cabin.

Princess is clearly determined to be a rather prickly thorn in my side forever.
It needs blocking again, that's for sure, less length more height is needed.
And clearly asking a person half your height and well over 1/6th your age to try to take picture's is not the wisest of things to do. Due to darkening days I ran out of people of a decent stature to take daylight pictures outside, and resorted to the shrimp doing the photog's for me. Clearly this is one of my dafter moments.

The end result of half pint taking pictures while trying to balance precariously on a tiny chair is me resembling the Hunchback, and Princess not exactly having her finest of hours, although the poor thing has seen worse.

Good old coathangers.

Clearly lacking considerable brain power today too. I almost forgot to add some blocking pictures.

On spinning, I have almost completed the classes I am taking, and loving it so much, we had a great week two weeks ago with a lot of light bulb moments on everybody's part.

So much sampling, trying out new techniques, great fun, odd results.

Our spinning instructor is having us come up with a final project for our last class on friday, I have of course gone with laceweight. Using the new skills I have acquired, I am washing some beautiful corriedale fleece I got earlier in the year. Flick carding, always preserving the lock, so that I can do a worsted prep and worsted spin.

Not going to badly I think.

And finally, some mohair I received from a guild member, that wasn't in the best of shape, the mohair had been washed once by the person selling it, and clearly needed another wash, which I tried, then let it get bone dry, and tried Laritza's dryer method to remove some of the debris.

It came out good enough that I now want to play with it. I didn't want to screw up the entire lot, so just did half.

Princess is finally finished

2007-10-28T13:31:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it!!!

So long in the making, and finally off the needles. A big hole in the knitting basket eagerly awaits a new project.

Finished and unwashed

Lightly pinned out on a 6 by 4 mat.

Edging detail

Even on a 4 X 6 mat it has plenty of give.

Clearly my mental math trying to figure out how many blocks I need to block was way off, so I will be buying more today, then maybe get it blocked out properly tonight.

She still needs another good long soak, all the greying hasn't gone yet, it may be a boil that cleans it all up, thank goodness I used cotton.

I still can't quite get my head around her being finished.

And yet, I have so many more things going on I barely stopped.....

Princess, completed, October 27th 2007, will she lie in peace now for a good number of years?

No way, she will be dragged out for everybody to meet.

Past halfway

2007-10-23T09:39:00.000-04:00

Princess is coming along slowly. I have managed to get past the half way point, I would be further if I hadn't been sucked into Ravelry. I think I got lost in there all day Sunday.

On Friday I started two new things, The veil of Isis and one of the Fiddlesticks whisper scarves, I have a bad case of startitis I think....
I had a birthday yesterday, largely uneventful, mostly since I was being a bit of a misery.
On Saturday night some arse broke into my car and stole all my CD's, I am mega pissed at this. All the neighbourhood cars were ransacked, but the gits left my doors wide open.

Then to to my misery Lewis did not pull off the greatest championship victory of all of F1 history. I was major bummed about this too, I feel for the guy, I hope it comes good for him next year.

Anyway, I have too many pretty things on the needles to stay annoyed for too long. I bit the bullet and decided to bead the Isis shawl as well. I am doing it in Skacel Merino laceweight on 2.75 mm needles. It's pretty.

This shawl is addictive, I am considerably further on from this photo but can barely tear myself away from it to take a picture.

I have done a bit more than this on the whisper scarf too, its' a quick knit.

I finally blocked the MS3

And pafuglehale

And then ruined all that lovely pinning by throwing it promptly into a pan of bleachy water.

A light bleaching later and the results are pretty stunning, and apart from one issue, there appears to be no damage to the thread. Strange thing was this one thing though, one thread had been cut twice, this was after the bleaching, I have no idea what happened, or how I will fix it, but it doesn't appear to have been a result of the bleaching.
So when Princess is finished she will get a normal handwash, once I see how things stand with her she might get a soapy boil, if that isn't effective then it will be into bleach.
I have discussed this with Sharon Miller, so feel fairly confident about it.

Pafuglehale was always intended to be a trial run for cleaning Princess, but it's too pretty to just treat like junk, so I will try to fix it, but it's going back in the pot, the edging isn't right, I soon discovered this on blocking.

Anyway, spinning classes are going great, and guess what! My spinning instructor is deep into Shetland lace!!! How cool is that!!!!!!!

She has loaned me a book, Knitting by the fireside, and on the hillside by Linda G Fryer.
It's about the Lace knitting Industry in the Shetlands, now I have looked into buying this book, $800 and up on Amazon.ca. Yikes!!!

It looks to be interesting, and will carry on reading it tonight, but I have been so desperately trying to finish my Diana Gabaldon book that I started reading again a few weeks ago.

I have a few books coming to me hopefully today, one is the last book of the Outlander series.
One is a Galina Khmeleva book and I forgot what the other was, so hopefully it gets here and my HK package too, I am busting to get that Melanie pattern.

Gotta go anyway, running late.

K

Can't decide!

2007-10-14T00:28:00.000-04:00

Gee there's a surprise.

Knit, spin or weave.

I have spent all night helping the girls to gut their bedroom, and now I want to relax a little, so what do I do, I go to my new toy, Ravelry!

I got my invite yesterday and promptly added some friends and found two more Princess knitters. I haven't added much, or done much, but have had a great deal of fun looking around.

I am slowly approaching the middle of the edging on the Princess, yes, I decided to carry on as I couldn't decide how to safely wash it, mostly because of the bright red (you would think I had never had a red laundry accident) cotton I used for the provisional cast on.

No photo's again today, so much is going on and mid terms are just up ahead so the next week or so is going to be chaotic, mostly because I still have an awful lot or reading to do before I am even to the point the mid terms will cover.

I am approaching brain overload again. I hate this feeling with a passion, nothing gets done, and I feel like crap.

I am taking some spinning classes on friday nights, it's a beginner class, even though I have been spinning for three to four years, I never did take a beginner class, two drop spindle, a linen and a cotton class, but never the basics, so I really need the info being fed into me right now, I just need to find time to do my homework for spinning now.

So if your on Ravelry and want to add me as a friend or whatever, friend is likely the only thing you will do as I haven't added sod all yet,' cept Princess of course, I go by my yahoo name of minihunting, I found Jean, Miss Alice, Jane and Laritza already.

I really did follow the crowd on this one, I wasn't interested until everyone was talking about it, but now I see how valuable a tool this could turn into, and blow wide open the world of knitting!

I think the stats are at 27,000 added now, at 57% of the list. I didn't wait long, and that was 7 or 17 thousand ahead of me, I forget now.

Princess stinks!

2007-10-05T20:59:00.000-04:00

Seriously stinky piece of fabric right now, it's not a smell so much as a dusty reek. I have horrific dust allergies, and can sense dust a mile off, but this puppy needs washing, it has been bothering me now for about a month, I am not sure I can carry on with the edging until it is washed.
What a dilemma! Man I had to spell check dilemma, my brain is fried from too much school work!

Lots further forward.

2007-10-01T15:58:00.000-04:00

I finished the centre, yay!!! I got so excited that I quickly went onto some of the edging, and got quite far. I meant to post last week about this but everything went kind of crazy as this little girl turned 5 on Thursday.

Anyway, the centre worked out nicely after finishing the last little emblem at the top then the break pattern.

It is so hard to get a great photo conveying the grandness of the shawl that I have taken to using non conventional things as sizing.

At the end of the laurel leaf pattern, Sharon advises that when you break the yarn leave a long tail. I know I did, and I had the sneaking feeling that my tail was shrinking all the way through the centre pick up, only when I got to about 30 rows left did I know that my tail had shrunk, I begin to worry, but then I think I will have enough, but with a few rows left I was going to run out, so attached another piece of cotton just incase.

Once I got to the edging I switched to a circular needle, I may still switch back to the straights as the circular doesn't feel comfortable. These needles have seen a lot of action though, and deserved a break.

So here we have some more edging attached, finally.

Another unconventional shot.

But given that I have large feet you can now see that thing is big.

The edging is actually going pretty quickly, and I managed to get past the laurel leaf onto the centre panel last night, I think I may have done one more last night than is on the picture.

To celebrate the small victories I am having with the Princess now I started another project.
I started it on Saturday night while watching the F1 race from Fuji Japan.
What an numbskull. It was such an exciting race it was all I could do to keep the knitting on the needles.

It's the flower Faroese shawl from Lucy Neatby. This has been on my list of to do's for what seems like forever. I am using 5mm needles and Fiddlesticks country silk.

I thought it was going to be one of those brain killing projects when I first started, it seemed fairly complicated at first, but when you get into it it is fairly straight forward. I think having to figure that out while trying to watch Lewis Hamilton master rain racing just fried my brain.

I almost cast on another project, but couldn't make up my mind, there will be a post about this fight fairly soon I think. The faeroese shawl shouldn't take too long to make and then the battle for the next cast on will commence.

K

Slightly bigger

2007-09-14T08:47:00.000-04:00

Princess is really the only thing I have been working on this past week. New school term has started so everything else has gone to pot!
I did pass, with good grades, the two units I took last term, so this time I am feeling a lot more confidant. This time around I take three, this will take me to half way through the course. My plan is to be finished by August 2008. I am really enjoying the courses I am taking, but am certainly feeling overwhelmed by the work at times. So I am going to try to get well ahead early, but that involves an awful lot of reading, and Princess is not good reading knitting. I only have one thing on the needle that is good reading knitting, so that has been winning some attention.

Anyway. To Princess, I have been following Jeans comments on the Princess, she is going at great speed again. She has run into all the same issues I have had with the centre, which is so very comforting in it's own strange little way, I think Jean is now sorted as to how to decrease a few of those border stitches, I certainly wish I had thought of it sooner than I did. She will be able to spread to decreasing out a bit more than I did.

I had enough stitches for 13 repeats of the centre pattern on the border, picking up one every row. At 7 repeats I realized that 13 repeats would make the shawl way too big. So I have to pick up 2 stitches every row now to decrease the shawl down to ten repeats. I finally decided on ten once I got to repeat 9, it is becoming very clear that ten is likely the maximum you would want to do.
From top to tail, when I stretch her out, she is almost arms length, which means that she is approaching my height. I still have a ways to go, then the edging!

Anyway, I got some pictures a few days ago, at the end of repeat 9.

Since then I have added a few more rows, I am now at 55 rows left to do, total! I see my weekend dance card is filled already. I know I will be knitting like a crazy person until that bit is finished, one of those speed up to slow down times. I know, it's pointless I am going to be rushing onward to finish this part, it's a milestone after all, and a mighty big one, but once I hit the edging again I will be slower than a snail again for a good few repeats, at least until I get into the swing of the pattern.

Never mind that anyway, how exciting is it for me to be almost there, well I can hardly contain my excitement! But I have to, I have about 75 pages of heating instruction to read, then I have to go weave some on some pretty little table runners I am working on, the Princess might see me later.

Comments,

Laritza, I am glad you found me too, I love your blog, your knitting is simply amazing, and I am glad that we are able to talk a little more freely here about projects than on the HK list, I love the list, and want to keep it as it is, but miss some of the banter with more open groups. Can you imagine if we all just started nattering away on that list?
Fleegle, Jane, Miss Alice, be sure to ask any questions you have about the Princess, I am glad to help out if I can.I am sure I will have tons of them on the WRS. Fleegle your knitting is stunning too, you think things out a lot more than I do, I still tend to depend on patterns way too much, but am getting away from that pretty quickly. I am gathering experience pretty rapidly now and need to start thinking for myself.

I did finish pafuglehale, I just need to block that now.

I am still working on a secret something.
Katherine will be five in two weeks, so that particular event has a few knitted things on the go too, nothing terribly interesting though.

Anyway, the girls got back to school last week, so here is a piccie of Katherine looking super cute on her first day, Elizabeth had already been back a few days at that point.

Elizabeth also lost a tooth last night, she doesn't want to hand it over to the tooth fairy so she got no money for it.

I blame Jane

2007-08-24T22:14:00.000-04:00

Dear Jane, you have been posting pictures of doilies, all that doily loveliness made my weaker side cave and produce this so far.

This means that this has suffered.
While on the subject of Princess, I have to say right now, I almost want to stop knitting it now, at least until November, I would have lots of company knitting along with me then, Jane, Miss Alice, Fleegle, I know you are all eager and I bet you all have a copy reserved already to be sent to you when the release happens. I am doing it backwards, once the new lot of Princess knitters start I will be doing the WRS, at least I know a few people now that have knit this, that can offer support.

This also suffered although it finally did get finished, just not yet blocked.

In an attempt to finish some things I did pick up a sock the other day, and promptly put it back down again.

I also tried to knit on a few other things, to break the spell that pafugelhale has cast on me, all futile efforts.

I have tried to knit further on this too, I did break some grounds with it, turning one corner, but the doily kept calling me.

And so I continue to knit on the doily, checking out which will be my next victim!
I have a bid on an ebay auction, lots of doilies!!!! Sunday I will know if I win, it's a pretty impressive set so I am eager.

The local farmers market is great fun to go to, there is some really great stuff there, unfortunately its only on one day a week. I got some beautiful gladioli this week, they are stunning, and far nicer than what I find in the local stores.

This is my favourite one I think even though I got them for the deep purple and maroon colours that were in the bunch.

In the midst of the bizarre weather we are having, this little blossom brightens me up.

Fin!

2007-08-16T22:57:00.000-04:00

OK, so some things aren't fin, but others are. Princess isn't, but the exams are, all in all I think I did OK, I went in to the finals with good backing from the coursework, so unless I completely bolloxed the exams, I should do OK, or at least pass.

Turns out Princess in the state she was in going into study time was an excellent stress reliever, I could work on a monotonous pattern on a long row pretty quickly boiling off all that pent up steam and stress, I think that's what got me through these last few weeks, the added bonus was that I got a lot of her done, and now I am in the final stages. She will be finished before the end of the next round of exams.

I plan to have WRS in full swing for that set, it should see me through a few terms.

Well, the last clue to the mystery shawl comes out tomorrow, so hopefully I will have pictures to flash of that, and I still never managed to arrange a meet up with local knitters for it, shame on me. I should try to set something up anyway to meet the other lady that was going to knit along with me and Wannietta.

Jane has been talking doily a lot recently, it has so prompted me to start one. I have had pafuglehale on my list for too many years, so I am starting that. I also have a small book of doilies that are fighting for my attention, so might just sway over there too.

I never did post any piccies of our trip out east, and now that I am trying to photobucket is playing up. In the time it took me to finish the post photobucket started playing nicely again.

On our way out east we dropped in on Quebec city, I had never been there before and was eager to see it, that's basically all we did in our hurry to get to N.S.

We saw Chateau Frontenac

We saw a horse drawn buggy

We saw canon's

And the river.

Then we left Quebec city

We stayed in the province of Quebec the first night, Elizabeth enjoyed getting out of the car!

The next day we got to New Brunswick quite early and finally found a Timmies! Good breakfast times.... To my American friends, next time your in Canada, if you've never had one, have a Timmies.

In Moncton N.B we got to Magnetic Hill
That was absolutely fantastic, Ron was suitably impressed which made it all worth the trip there.

We rode the train around the park, and hit the road again.

We had made it to Nova Scotia!

The next installment shall follow soon I hope, maybe by delaying these photo's I might get to enjoy my holiday a bit longer, I am actually missing N.S, I would love to live out there, it's so calm and peaceful out there.
Richmond Hill, where I am in Ontario is busier all through the day time than Halifax N.S in rush hour.

Back to normal

2007-08-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

Well, all seems to be right again, my stress levels have far reduced since my rather stressed sounding post a few days ago. I think I have got to the point with the studying now that if it isn't in there now I will never know it by tuesday.

So much knitting and spinning has been going on.
When we were in Nova Scotia I picked up a spindle and some fluff at the fisheries museum, I love the spindle, and am using the fluff that came with it. There should be enough fluff for a pair of socks if all works out well. There was two balls of white roving and one colourful ball, I have spindled the whole ball of the colour and almost all of the first white ball. This is by far the most amount of drop spindling I have ever done.

I did finish clue 5 of MS3 on the Friday it was released, but this week i am taking it slower, still having a number of rows left to do on clue 6. I still only have a photo from the last clue though, and it's not good, so I may as well wait to post the picture of clue 6 finished.

Princess is really the only other thing I have been working on this past few weeks, so have a few piccies to share of that again.

She has grown, so much so that I am concerned about the size, all of a sudden the shawl got big, so big that I pinned it out last night and did some measuring.

Only slightly stretched out the border measures 26 inches, including edging.

I think (my memory appears to be shot) the centre so far measures 24 inches. The edging alone is in the 2 inch area.

Sharon's dimensions finished were 64 inches in the centre. So far I am running at about 50 inches.

Like I said, all of a sudden she got big! That's me sitting normally knitting, the centre is half way down my lap, the border is well past my knee's.

Anyway, the rate she is growing at is rather alarming, I don't want to do all that work to end up with a monster of a shawl, so I think I have to pick up edging stitches more frequently now, it's supposed to be one a row, but I want to reduce by about two pattern repeats in the next 5 so have to start picking up 2 stitches on some rows. I want to try to spread it out more evenly than trying to do it all at the end, so think I should start now I am almost at repeat 8.

Edit, ok so I figured out that each pattern repeat is about 4 inches, at the 50 inches so far, and 7 repeats done, I need 3 more repeats and the edging, to make 64 inches. I might err on the side of larger may be better and go for one more repeat after that, but I also have to include one last repeat of the little fir tree thingy that I think Jean referred to as a Dalek! That will put me at about 69 inches. I think I have to decide soon though so that I can balance out the pick up rate of the edging. 69 inches is taller than me, by a little bit, maybe ten repeats would be better, 64 inches is about 5' 3", even with a roll at the neckline to reduce the length a little that would be almost as tall as me! Yikes, if I do do ten repeats I am looking at starting the edging pretty soon, how exciting!

And just because its still my favourite feature of the shawl, here is the laurel leaf insertion dressed up a little.

K

Dragging my behind

2007-08-09T03:36:00.000-04:00

Well, I have been poorly for a wee while, I got a sore throat on our way out to Nova Scotia, that was it, or so I thought.
A few days after getting back I found a lump on my neck, it was one of those ones that moves quite freely, so I wasn't at all concerned, but funnily enough, the first thing I did when I found it was check my glands around my jaw. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. A week goes by, the lump is still there, so when I am at the doc's for the Bi weekly allergy shot I ask about it, and yes, it's a swollen gland, things went down hill from there. I spent the day on my back yesterday, absolutely out of it.
This I didn't need. In May I started a course with Centennial college, actually two courses, in Home inspection, and my finals are next week. I don't need this.
I am also busy finishing up a secret project, learning an awful lot on the way, trying desperately to work on the Princess, trying to spin some fibre once in a while so that the wheel doesn't feel neglected, trying to put some more edging on the Unst stole(this I have managed to do), trying not to forget about the huge cross stitch project, trying, trying, trying so hard not to forget everything else.

I think my mind just gave out yesterday and told me to have a sick day.

I caved and bought some water toys for the girls for the backyard, I need some peace and quiet.
I was supposed to be trying to set up a meeting for local MS3 knitters, but that has fallen by the wayside this week.

I feel another sick day coming on......

Deborah, the Princess is a pattern from Heirloom knitting, and is currently unavailable, but will be re-released this coming November. If you ever plan to make the shawl, I do have a large list of dont's! LOL.

Lynne, I do feel like it is a huge achievement, I am getting rather keen to finish it now, the end is getting closer to being within sight.

Miss Alice and Jane, the hankies are finished with the weaving bit, now I still have a bit more finishing to do, but soon, and I know you love photo's Miss Alice, so I will try to get pictures, and better ones up soon, there has been some advancing on her.

2007-07-31T17:03:00.000-04:00

Thanks Jean, I had lots of fun with this toy, Check out Elizabeth

And Katherine
Well I also had trouble doing her picture, and it was dragging the computer down to dial up speed so I gave up.

K

I'm back......

2007-07-27T21:06:00.000-04:00

A whirlwind tour of the maritimes and some of New England, in 5 days, 4500km to be exact, Ontario, through Quebec, New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia, back through New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
We did a lot, saw a lot, drove a lot, and had a lot of fun. My only regret was that I wasn't able to connect with Arrianah in Nova Scotia, I had internet troubles prior to leaving, I didn't get her email until I got home. I have lots of pictures, so so many. I totally loved N.S. It rocks!

I will do a bigger post about the trip tomorrow, I am still all tuckered out even though I have been back for a day.

K

More Princess

2007-07-19T12:24:00.000-04:00

Well, I dug out Princess, I rescued her from the swampy bottoms of the knitting basket, where some knitting has gone, only to never be seen again!
I am valiantly trying to revive her.
I have managed almost two centre panel repeats in the past few days.

Here she is just after restarting.

A little bit further on, I put her onto three long circulars, it's still hard to get a photo.

The full length, what I have done, and what is left to do.

Last night, almost two full repeats added.

You are not mistaken, it is not a trick of the eye, the thing does not seem to grow, it is inhaling thread at a good rate now, but does not seem to grow, the only thing I am seeing is all those poor waiting stitches on the needles getting dirtier and dirtier. I remember Laritza's washing picture of the WRS, it is disturbing how much dirt is on the knitting, I wish I could wash her right now. Jean is absolutely right about my deadline of November, I do still have an alarmingly large amount of work to do, even when I have finished the centre panel, there is the break pattern between the edging and the panel, and then the edging again, I remember it being 85 points on the two edges, so I guess it will be about half or slightly more along the top. The edging took me about an hour a point, that was when I had nothing on the needle to hamper progress.

I have knit other things, like MS3, I have finished part 3, eagerly awaiting part 4, I have made a hat for a friend going through chemo right now, a top for Katherine, and almost finished Elizabeth's cardigan, all quick knits though.

We did finally finish the Polar puzzle, some pieces missing, that didn't surprise me.

The girls have been busy this summer, making scones, candles, soap, some tie dye stuff, Elizabeth is in a class this week for painting.

I just deleted the tie dye photo by mistake.

There is a constant supply of foamies, paint and other kid friendly stuff flying around our dining room and living room. It's keeping them busy though. The weather has been iffy the past week, so I have been thankful for the indoor activities we have to keep them occupied.
Elizabeth has been doing lots of knitting and some hand weaving. Katherine is still trying her hardest to knit.

We are off on a trip to the east coast on Saturday, so I won't be posting until after we return, but hopefully I will get lots of pictures of Nova Scotia to show. I have never been there so I am excited. We will spend a bit of time in New Brunswick and Quebec too.
We only have a week, so it will be busy, busy, busy.

Later

K

Princess.

2007-07-11T12:59:00.000-04:00

I feel a re-devotion coming on, I reckon a day with the Princess might get me back on track, it feels right!

I will post piccies soon as I haven't posted one in such a long time.

The weather has finally cooled down some, the past two days have been suffocating. I can get back to knitting the Raku too, mohair on days like that is impossible.

At the memorial of a friend last year her sister was telling the story of the day they were all in a car, much on a day like the ones that have just passed, and Ann was knitting a mohair sweater, in a car full of people, on a day that feels like the pits of hell, she was trying to make her sister try this sweater on. At that point a few of the ladies from my guild turned and looked at me, as if to indicate that that is the same kind of irrational behavior that I show towards knitting. I took it as a compliment, Ann was a superb knitter, one of my inspirations that turned me to weaving.

However, I do draw the line at knitting with mohair on a day when the air is so thick that the fibre sticks more to your hands than it does to the thread it is supposed to be attached to.

The summer of lace,and A-longs....

2007-07-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

I am busy, busy, busy, busy as a bee, what with this, and that, and everything else.

Knitting, cross stitching, crocheting(not), weaving.

Too much going on really. I have ton's of pictures, but need to get them organized, so will try to get that done here, if only for my own peace of mind.

Busy thing the first.

If you haven't already heard about it there is a KAL going on for the third Mystery stole. I made the first one two years ago, joined last year but didn't actually make it as I was even busier this time last year. So I promised I would actually KAL with this one.

It's lovely, so lovely already that I am contemplating a second one, I am knitting the first in Misti Alpaca rose colour I think.
The second one if I start it will be white or black with beads.

End of clue 1

End of clue 2.

Thing the second.

The thing that has been occupying so much of my time is the Mystery X with Chatelaine, the cross stitch.
I started in April, so was already three months behind.
I caught up one month finally in June.

Month one
Half way

End of month 1

Part way through month 2

Bit more of part 2

Part two finished and 3 finished.

This is where I am now, working part 4 and 5 at the same time.

I also got my beads and started to add them too.

Thing the third, crochet 88 snowflakes, no advancement on that, at all, I am stuck at February.

Finally, all the lace other than MS3.

Raku Suri stole

Still working on panel one, there is a few errors in the chart, so i am slowly trying to work through this and correcting the chart as I go. Wool used is a Kertzer mohair, in a colour I think looks like Raku pottery.

Forest Path stole, I have no good pictures of this yet, as I am still early on in it, due to the nature of entrelac it's tricky to get a piccie!

Princess still stalled, but it is getting closer to the top of the pile as I worry about finishing it by November.

Oh, and lots of cotton spinning, no matter how much I do, it never seems to get bigger on the bobbin, I must have a good 1000 yards on it, but am still at about half a bobbin. Of course that 1000 is in my opinion, it's probably way less than that. I am thinking of winding half onto another bobbin and plying, just to see how much is on there already, that and the fact the twist is already probably set in since it's been on the wheel so long.

Weaving, I almost forgot.
I borrowed the 8 shaft loom from the guild, finally did my my first 8 shaft project. While debating cutting off the first item I spotted a threading error, that convinced me it needed to come off so that I could fix the error.

I love this last picture, it makes the linen look like old linen, from a mummy or something.....

I would shout this out, but I am Canadian, so I modestly offer this interesting article.

2007-07-04T13:24:00.000-04:00

As a British transplant here in Canada, I sometimes feel like a phoney, saying I am Canadian. To anyone listening, they will clearly hear I am actually British.

However, my life reads like that of a Canadian. I am modest, I don't like to be the centre of attention, I don't demand thanks for everything I do. I quietly go about my work, doing what needs to be done.

Today though, I read a great article, it makes me even more proud to be Canadian, even more than I was after reading the Harlot's annual thanks to Canada on Canada Day.
I quickly adopted to life in Canada, I adopted the way of life in about 2 short months. I have now been here almost eleven years.
I feel like I have been here long enough now not to feel like a phoney saying I am Canadian. I am after all a citizen, I got that as quickly as I could.

So, my point, I am Canadian, I am proud, and I feel like these are my country men.

Salute to a Brave Man

What have I done now.....

2007-07-01T18:56:00.000-04:00

Ok, here is part of what has been distracting me so badly recently.

My new business, Fibre to Fabric.

I have been a stay at home Mom long enough that I should have done this sooner. It is something I have always wanted to do, and this most recent need to have a yarn store has been pestering me for about two years now.

I have decided to go with a blog shop for a while, to see how things go, I may end up with a "proper" shop if all goes well. I am familiar with the blog way of working now so it seemed to make the most sense.

It may well be a bit sparse and messy looking right now, I hope that changes soon. I may need to enroll some help to get things organized!

I have been busy scanning, photographing, editing, posting, enrolling, updating and basically re-inventing myself today after an exceptionally busy day yesterday too.

I certainly hope some of the people that check in here regularly will at least take a look and offer any thoughts on where they would like to see improvement.

I know the payment issue is a little bit odd right now, but once I get into the swing of things I want to switch to paypal buttons, I still have to figure out the tax problems there. In ontario we have the two taxes, and all of Canada pays one lot of those, and some other provinces also get to pay the GST. Once I can figure out the shipping bit I may be able to figure things out a bit better, at least from how they are now.

If anyone knows how to work that out for the paypal buttons please let me know. My mind is frazzled from everything else today and just doesn't seem to want to digest the Paypal info. I think my mind is just overloaded, and I need a break.

Yes I am stressing a little.

I aim to make the store comfortable to navigate and browse through, I also want to have that cozy yarn store feeling that is missing from big online yarn companies. I had thought about setting up a yahoo group as a place to meet and greet potential customers. I love yahoo groups, I have met a great deal of fantastic people though them, and now have met some of them in person too.

I only have a small amount of inventory right now, but once the week is back on track I will be ordering further items, so will have to go through all the categorizing again.

Anyway, I make it sound like I can't handle it, don't worry, I think I can!!!

My aim is to stay with laceweights although a few other things might just appear as if by magic that aren't lace weight related.
I will also venture into fibres and spinning accessories when I am feeling more comfortable in the skin of a yarnstore owner.

I feel that as a Canadian first and foremost I have to offer the finest lace products from this great land. Top of the list to me is Fidllesticks designs, so I have a great amount of patterns from Fiddlesticks, as well as Zephyr and some Country silk. I have some Lucy Neatby lace and shawl designs too.

Later this week I will hopefully get an order in with another top of the list, yarn company, now, come on, I know you know who I mean.......

They are a bit further away from me though so shipping will take longer.

Well anyway, i have to get back to work now. Sorting through all these fantastic designs is driving me crazy, I want to knit them all!

Wish me luck on what could be a crazy adventure.

Sharing

2007-06-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

Some pictures of recent things that I never got around to actually blogging about, in other words catch up time.

A few weeks ago Katherine came to me with a set of needles and a ball of sock yarn and said "teach me to make socks" Kodak moment, unfortunately I didn't have a camera on me. I was almost in tears she was so damn cute.

She has, since she was about 18 months old tried to knit, each attempt getting her closer, this latest attempt sees her almost fully forming a knit stitch.

Check out that concentration.

She is still trying, but doesn't like too much instruction from me as she thinks she knows everything now.

These are the buttons I ordered from a lady on Etsy. I will have to find a link to her.
I can't say enough about this woman, she was wonderful, she worked to what I wanted, size and colour, and came through amazingly. She put up with my slow response and indecision.

In the end I loved the buttons so much that when she showed me three sets, two white and reds for me to chose from, I decided I wanted the three sets instead of the two.

And look at the gift she sent me!!!! I love it, but am not sure what to hang it on as I only wear a single necklace, and am more than comfortable with it, I may have to save it for special occasions.

She posted quickly, it arrived safely and promptly.
Her service was outstanding, and I WILL do business with her again.

In April at the guild we did screen printing as the meeting workshop, Sandi Luck one of the members daughters came and showed us how.

What a fun project!

These are the items I got to take home, all of the designs were made by the guild members.

Thats enough for now, the next post should be up to date.

K

This morning

2007-06-18T13:25:00.000-04:00

Dave called from the UK, his exact words were " Well we just got home from the hospital, with a little boy."

I am sure they are as blown away by this as me, probably a lot more so. Much is needed to change, like the bright pink car seat he came home in, the clothes that Dave had to go buy from the gift shop in the hospital, just so the poor lad wasn't all gussied up in pink.

I actually feel a little silly now for having bought and made all that girly stuff. I should have bought at least a few things that were boy/girl, I think there was one thing that fits that bill.

I have lots of knitting to do.

Please welcome David to the world though, David is a family name on the Fathers side so it is fitting he gets that name, not like we would notice one more David in our family either. We even have it as a surname in my moms branch of the family, Davidson that is.

I have a cousin David, an Uncle Dave, now the sisters chap and son are David, Ron has an Uncle Dave and two cousins called David. One thing though, my Dads name is Ron, so I guess the new parents thought both Grandfathers name would be good for first and middle name, so David Ronald, now that isn't my favourite name, and I know one other Ronald that will be super smug about the choice of name.
Ron, the love of my life, I am sure will drive me daft about this.

I have been promised pictures soon. What a difference a day makes, yesterday I was hoping they would remember to get photo's in some of the stuff I sent, today I REALLY hope they don't LOL.

My sisters daughters are going to have a bit of shock when they get home from school. Molly wanted a brother at first, but was happy with a girl.

Still blown away.

K

2007-06-18T00:23:00.000-04:00

Please looky here, what a beautiful piece of work. Well done Miss Alice Faye.

This is only the second WRS I know of finished other than the designers.

Still waiting

2007-06-17T16:34:00.001-04:00

Like a cat on hot bricks I am just about jumping up and down waiting.

I just finished talking to my Mom and my sis, her daughter and her fella Dave, labor has started, very slowly though, it could be a long wait.......

I won't sleep well tonight, unless baby graces us quickly.
There is a tradition of babies being born two years apart in our family, so far it's always been siblings, but me and my sister didn't follow that. However, it is my cousin's little girls second birthday today, so it would be sweet if she hurried up a bit, but it is 9:40 pm in the UK, so not much chance now unless she just flies out.

The parcel arrived on time, phewww....... Everybody loves all the gifts, and I have ordered pictures of Baby in some of them. Let's hope they remember, but I think I can forgive if they don't.

Impatient.

2007-06-13T17:08:00.000-04:00

I was going to wait until the big event, to put a name with whom I am talking about but I still haven't heard anything yet, and she is supposed to be here tomorrow.

My sister is due to have her baby tomorrow, and I am fed up of calling the baby Lily/Ruby, hair colour is going to determine her name. my sister is a red head, and so far she hasn't produced a red haired child, but the hopes are all on this little one. If she is a red head obviously Ruby is the name.
I have been so busy making this child clothes and blankets that I had to put a lot of other stuff aside. I had put my deadline as a month before she was due to get everything posted to the UK in time, well Katherine's surgery fell on that exact day, so things got shuffled a bit and I was still late finishing everything and getting it posted, let's hope she isn't waiting for the parcel before her big arrival. My sister will be a hippo.

Anyway, here are the rest of the things that got posted to her along with all the other bits I had made that I posted about a few weeks ago.

This is a EZ surprise jacket, slightly different from the original, stocking stich based with a little bit of lace. Made in Koigu, with hand made glass buttons from a wonderful Etsy artist. I will post more about her later. The little hat is a lacy vine hat from Knitting daily, that thing is sweet, I could make lots of them. I should have modeled it on a baby doll, but couldn't find the doll I knew it would fit right.

This is a jacket made in sumlime, a wonderful little jacket that obviously knits up quickly, the sublime yarn is exactly that, a real treat to knit with.

What handmade package would be complete without a hand made card. I saw this as a freebie on a cross stitch magazine, from the UK no less, and knew I had to make it for Baby.

My girls are both so sweet, Elizabeth hand felted a little teddy bear for baby, and Katherine insisted I send her favourite baby book to her. This didn't help with the cost of the shipping.
Her book was a Noddy book, which of course also originally came from Britain, it was sent to her by her great grandmother.
This baby will be living in the lap of luxury in those little cardigans I made for her, and there is more being made already for bigger sizes, but Koigu and Sublime are definitely on the list again.

There was one other cardi made but I neglected to get a picture of it. I wasn't overly keen on it anyway, it looked way too wide.

A great weekend.

2007-06-11T15:22:00.000-04:00

So super freaking cool, well done Spiders

I wish I had been there to see some of that gold winning magic.

On Saturday I went to the Ontario Hand spinners seminar in Barrie, it was brilliant.
I took a cotton spinning class, and I really loved it, so much that the spindle I promised myself in the sales area turned into a akha spindle specifically for cotton. While I may not actually use it for much cotton it is a super little lace spindle. Now I have never done much drop spindle spinning, I think it may have been the spindles I was using to be honest. I got a Woodshaper, better known as a Forrester spindle, and I am in love, I think that maybe now, I get it. What ever it is.
I bought some superwash merino and tencel that is being spun up on it right now. I got lots of cotton, and a big bag of merino seacell blend.

I could have spent so much more.... It was a sin the amount of fibres there. It was more of a sin that I didn't come home with more.

I met a lot of interesting folk, the funniest being when me and another lady were humming and hawwing over a merino colour, I said something to the woman I was with, and the other lady turned to me and said something along the lines of, your from the same area as me (for folks not in the know that's the midlands in england. Sure enough, very close to each other, I am from outside of the Birmingham area, she was from an area of Birmingham. So I stop for a minute, take a look at her, and then it hit me, where I had seen her before. I promptly said "Ohhhh, your a Toronto Spider!" Yup, Julie, the one I have only ever seen on pictures posted by Wannietta, at that point I had no idea they got the gold or I think she would have got a hug, poor lass. I did see Lorraine Smith around and about as well.

Well anyway, the bad blogger in me refused to remember to take some pictures of the whole do, so I will only have some fibre piccies to show, and they are kind of boring, most of the fibre is a natural colour. I couldn't find any natural coloured cotton which was a shame, as I will have to shop through the states, and we were warned that this was likely the case.

Gotta go, got lots of knitting on the go that needs attention. I started a new lace stole last night, and I am all excited to carry on with it.

K

2007-05-29T09:02:00.000-04:00

How Bizarre, some things you would just never think of, especially when your more couch monster than mountain climber, Mt everest clean up.

I had a strange bag given to me yesterday, it contains a bit of a story, a lot of acrylic wool, has traveled from Florida to Michigan to Ontario, and I have no idea where it will go next, but for the love of the art, I am going to be the last stop on the knitting journey.

My sister in law is a science fiction fan, and goes to a lot of the conventions, don't worry, she is banned from costume wearing at birthday parties. She is a big Doctor who fan, she spent the past weekend in Michigan at some convention, I had the pleasure of looking after the cat and the birds as usual, gotta say here I am no fan of birds, and she has a lot of them.
Anyway, the bag, she comes over last night with this garbage bag , I could see knitting needles poking out of it, so my interest was piqued right there, She has never been known to knit, so I knew this involved me somehow.

A lady had died while in the middle of knitting a doctor who scarf, for the 4th Doc apparently, I only know this as I was informed last night, the 4th doctor wore a horrendously large scarf, hand knit by the woman that had been given a bag of yarn and told to knit a scarf, so she just knit, and knit and continued knitting, until it was 25 feet long, this is where I know that the scarf I have in my possession is only half way done, it's already about 12 feet long. Now this is a scarf from the seventies, I know this as I used to watch doctor who myself as a kid in Britain, so it's not a pretty thing. The ladies daughter had found this bag in a closet after her mom had died and knew how much her mom would love to see the scarf finished, this is where I come in, I don't know where it's going after I finish it, but its not staying here, there is just no need for 25 ft scarves in this house, the majority of the population of this house is under 5'6" tall. Me being the only over that height will not be wearing it either, so just get that out of your mind right now.

I can't see that there is enough yarn to make it the right length (big sigh of relief) so will do all I can just to get it finished, then pass it along to the sis in law, and she can then maybe find a fan that would want it.

I only said I would finish it as the woman had spent so much time knitting this thing, and it was her first knitting project, you gotta give the woman an A for effort on that first knitting project.

Is there anybody here????

2007-05-24T09:24:00.000-04:00

I must apologize first for my erratic nature over the past six weeks, I know at times it surely looked like I had dropped off the face of the planet altogether. I assure you I didn't.
I am even feeling up to posting pictures today.

I have done a lot of weaving recently, and this is causing me a problem, this is a knitting blog after all, and as Jean puts it, she isn't interested in crochet, puzzles etc, all the other non knitting stuff, gimme the Princess!!!
Ok so I don't have Princess picture today, but soon, there has been progress, slow, but still there.

I will quickly flash some weaving piccies, then get back to normal content.

This is a double width weave baby blanket I made last week, after coming off the loom it was full of errors.

So I fixed them.

Every

Single

Last

One.

And I love the finished blanket.

On the left a dish towel in cottolin, and two tencel scarves

These are the patterns I wove them in, the zigzag on one, and the diagonal blocks on the other. Rosepath in weaving terms.

Even as I sat here writing, the post man arrived, I of course ran to the mail box, tail wagging, and sure enough my new patterns were there. I got Forest stole Pathe, Raku suri stole and winter wonderland all from the Alpaca yarn company.

Ok this post is getting photo heavy. I may have to cut it short just so that there isn't too many pictures all in one go.

Contrary to what I believe I am

Apparently

A sock

Knitter

Stop fighting it.

Another baby blanket, turned out a little small but still lovely.

And finally my favourite all time baby cardigan.

Lots of other stuff on the go and finished, but still need to get pictures and organize myself.

Hope the pictures soothe the readers that don't like text rich posts, but more photo's. I promise to try harder to get the pictures up more now.

K

Getting back to norm.

2007-05-19T16:50:00.000-04:00

Short post for today, I have been busy, and will be so for a few more days, then I can do so unveiling of what I have been working on. Princess has had to take a back seat for a while. I plan to get back at it next week though.
I ordered Victorian Lace today yesterday, and some alpaca yarn from knitpicks, also a few other lace patterns that I have been hankering for. You may see something of a little pattern right there. Yep, I am back to the lace. So many other things distracted me recently that lace has taken a back seat. I plan to rectify that very, very soon.
There has actually been so much going on here that I am surprised I have gotten anything finished, far from it I have gotten lots finished.

Katherine's eyes are getting better, they are still red and a little swollen, they are hurting her now, but I think that is the itching from the stitches dissolving, eye drops are no longer an issue, she gladly takes them. Occassionally though I have to cuddle her for half an hour though until the Motrin kicks in.

See you soon.....

Bleuchhhh...

2007-05-16T23:53:00.000-04:00

A mothers diary.

Sunday, Mothers day, Elizabeth is sick, she threw up everywhere.
Monday, Mother is sick. Monday night Katherine is sick.
Tuesday, Katherine has eye surgery, thankfully not put off due to sickness last night. Tuesday afternoon, barely squeak home from the Sick Kids hospital when Father starts throwing up.
Wednesday, sleep, LOTS.

For those wondering, Katherine had surgery on both eyes, she is doing well now, both eyes are red and one is swollen a little, it is indeed world war three trying to get her antibiotic/anti-inflammatory drops into her eyes, but is getting easier.
Putting the memory of being at the sick kids hospital, further into my mind however is proving harder.
When nurses are called angels it is true, the nurses at children's hospitals deserve the highest praise you can grab for a person. The doctors are stunning, but the nurses have all the hard work, working one on one with sick children day in and day out must be so hard. I could imagine sometimes it is hard to go to work, but the rewards are phenomenal. The downsides are more than obvious.
Today is my appreciation to Nurses around the world day, thank you for your work. I appreciate you.

Anybody interested in more information Toronto's hospital for sick kids please visit their site.

Im not dead.......

2007-05-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

Ok I have been hiding out a little, sneaking a look in at blogs here and there, but not commenting or anything. Thought I should check in and confirm that I am still about.

I hit a turning point today, or at least realized it today, I am actually excited about Katherine's surgery now. It has been so long since I have looked into her face and expected to see two eyes looking back at me.
I think it's about time Mommy got her wish. Her surgery is two days after Mothers day, so that will be my present.

I will be back soon with knitting news and photo's, please bear with me though as I am very scatterbrained still. I am still trying to convince myself that it is the surgery doing this to me, what will be my excuse afterwards.

Concentrate.....

2007-04-14T21:03:00.000-04:00

I am having a hard time concentrating, on anything.
I have already knit on four different things today. I have many other things that are calling me to knit on them. I can't settle, I know why, and if the past two weeks is what I will be like until what is distracting me is over, then I have another very long month ahead of me.

We got a date for Katherine's eye surgery.
I have had a long time to prepare for this, but I can't shake it, the feeling of dread follows me everywhere. I thought it was the thought of her having an eye surgery, someone cutting her eye muscles. While that thought does bring up the bile, it is not the thing I finally came to realise that is bothering me.

It's the anesthesia. My baby doll, under a general, lifeless, limp, my little 4 year old sweetheart. The thing that brings light into my life.

I can barely stand it.

I cry on command.

Not gushing, just a trickle.

I know it is only eye surgery, a very simple little procedure. Many other younger children have gone through so much more, we have seen some of that on our trips to the Sick Kids hospital in Toronto. This is still my little baby though. She remains unfazed.

Needless to say there really isn't lots of progress on anything, but little on lots.
Princess waddles along at a snails pace. My entrelac socks are almost done. I started a pair of socks for Katherine in Austermanns step with Aloe. I still have to think of a special something for her for recuperation time, I am thinking of tarting up a topsy turnabout doll
for her doing it in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty colours . I have done a lot of spinning and dyeing too.

I have also been suffering with the allergies again, I encountered a mouldy garbage bag at the guild hall, it got worse each day and it was after spending a total of about 14 hours there that I figured out what it was that was bothering me so much, I have had sore dry eyes, headaches and fatigue all week. I hope that the removal of the bag will improve things there for me as I have to go back on tuesday for 3 hours.

Overdue

2007-04-04T08:58:00.000-04:00

I have had some Princess pictures sitting around doing nothing for a while now, I really should share. I also dragged out the Unst stole and almost did some knitting on it.

Trying to get a good photo of the Princess is turning into a chore all of its own.

I have also joined two more yahoo groups. One is the 88 snowflakes group, 88 crochet snowflakes in a year. I joined last month and have done 8 already, January's that is. I am already falling way behind, I try to do 3 a week, but haven't managed that for a few weeks now. One is blocked the rest are in need.

I also joined a cross stitch group, Wannietta is doing the mystery x cross stitch from Chatelaine, and it is gorgeous so far, so I decided to go ahead and join too, I got the charts, I got the fabric, I just can't decide whether to get the thread kit or not, it is pricey, and I do already have most of the DMC colours, but the threads with the kit are some pretty looking things. That said I don't cross stitch much anymore, and I can't tell you how many unfinished projects I have waiting in the wings for some attention. I started one at christmas, didn't get far, bought magazine's with stuff I want to do, but so far, not much has been stitched.

In further knitting news....

I tried shadow knitting.

I do have a side view piccie of that but for some reason blogger just won't get the photo I want, it comes up with the original where all the mess on my stove can be seen, yukk!.
I will get another later and try to post it.

I also finally finished my hand spun fingerless gloves. I will post a picture later maybe, I also finished Elizabeth's socks in time for her birthday.

I also have a passion for jigsaw puzzles. After finishing a 1000 piece that consisted of an awful lot of pink and yellow, it was Disney Princess's, I decided to go for the shaped puzzle again, Katherine in her infinite wisdom decided a year ago that the puzzle I had spent hours, days on, should in fact all be back in it's original single piece form. I put it away, and now I want to do it again, now that Katherine is a bit older and not so willing to destroy many many hours worth of work.
I haven't got very far.

Another meme

2007-03-27T13:33:00.000-04:00

Mark the movies you've seen you've seen with an (X). If the total is over 85, you have no life.

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest*
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
( ) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(X) Scary Movie
(X) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(X) Lilo & Stitch
(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
( ) Signs
(X) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
(X) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
(X) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
(X) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong
( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
(X) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(X) Halloween
(X) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
( ) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
(X) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
(X) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(X) Independence Day
(X) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(X) Christine
(X) E.T.
(X) Children of the Corn (He wants YOU Malachi!)
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds (
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3
( ) X-Men
( ) X-2
( ) X3
( ) Spider-Man
( ) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
(X) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(X) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
(X) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*
( ) 28 days later (A fabulous zombie movie.)
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 1
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
( ) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
( ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
( ) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(X) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
(X) Hannibal

I think I got 70 there, so not too bad, I am not particularly a movie buff, so I knew I would have lots of blanks on this. I got this meme from momcast, who appears to like zombie movies, I don't, I love horror movies, but not Zombies, I can't eat braised beef because of a Zombie movie I saw way back when I was a bit of a kid. One of those association problems.

My movie style seems to be things I saw as a kid or teenager and now things I saw with my kids!!! Quite sad, but I have started renting movies again recently, I almost rented blood diamond yesterday but wasn't sure if I would get through the film without lots of tears. I talked to the English laddie at the till, he seemed to think I might well blubber, since that makes it kind of hard to knit I had to pass.

2007-03-26T22:33:00.000-04:00

So After all the book talk, I thought I would share what I am reading right now. I love Egyptology, that and Japanese history are my favourite two histories, specifically. I love history, I watch as much as I can get, and read what I can. Christian Jacq's books are amazing, this is the third series of his I have read, and for as much factual history as you can read, you never actually get the feeling of being there, being in the time, the smells, the senses, the people, Jacq's books bring that to you, and they are factual books, these aren't some cooked up fairytales. My other favourite on Egypt is Paul Doherty, his books are also based on real events.

This book arrived in this lot of packages I received finally last week. They all arrived in one day, it was great to have so many boxes sat on the doorstep for me.

As you can see my knitpicks needle finally arrived.

I haven't used it on the precious Princess, I can't think of a break happening again now. Now that I have come so far.

An insertion, completed!!!! Not very good pictures of it, but I want to wait to get a bit more of the centre knitted before I see how it really looks. It's quite exciting.

I have been reading Jeans blog for a while, on and off, but she recently posted on the HK knitting group that she was back at the Princess after a long break, because of a break!!!!!

She has really jumped back into the fire, and is working on all cylinders getting it knitted up now.

I have taken a little more than a week off the Princess, just to do other stuff, and am working on the Roza socks from interweave magazine. They are supposed to be for Eliz on wednesday, but not looking terribly likely now. I will of course try.

Elizabeth is 9 on Wednesday, can barely believe it, she got her ATV on Sunday and promptly flipped it, I of course did the mandatory screaming fit at Ron, that this is exactly why I didn't want her having an ATV, but she got back on and only ran into one more car......

Book meme

2007-03-25T12:45:00.000-04:00

I found this book meme over at Cath's blog, I know I haven't read many on the list but wanted to see how many I had, or was interested in reading. Bold the ones read, Italicize the ones I want to read, and leave plain the ones I am not interested in.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) I have almost read all of this series and loved it, although it slowed down in the last few books, I still love it.
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)This is by far the best of Browns book, IMHO
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) Great book want to see movie too...
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)Another huge King fan, read most of his books in my time.
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)The book is on my bedside table, ready to read.
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)Fantastic book, Tandia was almost as good.
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)Awesome book.
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) 49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) Isn't this the book equivelant of the Princess shawl?
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) One of my favourite Authors, I love the vampire and witch series.
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell) Haven't read, but just finished watching the entire mini-series on dvd, plan to look for books.
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) Another one on the nightstand.
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Gentlemen, start your engines....

2007-03-19T22:04:00.000-04:00

I can't tell you how happy I am to see F1 back, I love it, love it, love it.

Formula one

Fin!

2007-03-16T00:21:00.000-04:00

Ok, well the border is, and I have got onto the insertion band, oh joy, what fun, about a squillion YO's k2tog's.

It's beautiful, that grey streak through it bugs the crap out of me, but until washing day I can handle it.

I think once I get a few repeats of the centre pattern done I may well have to put this to a side for a while again, it is taking over my life.

One horse race.

2007-03-10T12:45:00.000-05:00

The Princess is now flying off the needles, after my fight with the phildar needles I went looking for Inox, as suggested by Sharon Miller, I couldn't get any of them, and being stuck in a snow storm my options were limited to the store I was in.

I found Pony 30 cm 2mm needles.
I have knit on these, the horse power behind them is awesome, blinding, mesmerizing, simply mind boggling.

I have knit a lot.

First an apology to Jane, I said I would post yesterday, but I kept hearing this loud demanding noise coming from the area of the Princess, I couldn't resist the call.

This photo is from last sunday, The needle on the fabric was supposed to represent where I have knit from since I picked it up again a few weeks ago. The needle position isn't quite right, towards the right of the picture is more accurate where as at the left it droops down too low. I you can see the greying area above the needle, the is roughly where I have gone from, I got a few rows on the knitpicks before it broke, then went to the grey needles. A thought just came to me, while the grey area may well bug the crap out of me, it is also like a timeline for my knitting, like rings in a tree, only now I hope I don't have anymore potentially damaging marks on the shawl to tell the tale.

This is just the expanded version of the previous photo.

This though, is today's up to date progress report. See the little paisley like motif, that is right near the top of the border, I am at row 193, a plain knit row, I haven't done one of those in so long! I really enjoyed it. I have 27, count em, 27 more rows to go, then some plain garter, then the insertion! Woo hoo, happy dance, the end is in sight for the border, I do have to remind myself every once in a while just how much further I have to go. This puppy is huge even after the border, that is no small triangle that goes inside the border, then edging after that.

This is the whole lot bunched up on the 30cm needles.

I had to see for myself last week just how big this thing is, I couldn't get my mind around the size of it, so needed a visual, well there it is, the whole length sat out on my three seater couch, all 64 inches in length, just sat there, falling limply to the cracks of the cushions, no stretching, no blocking no real attempt to spread it out. I won't try this again, all those open ends made me very nervous. Three circulars, one 24" and two 32" circ's.

Enjoy.

The little things

2007-03-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

Oh so many of them, boy, I just can't get enough of the quick knits recently.

Where do I start!

Ok, a gansey pin cushion from the workshop.

A start to the cushion cover too.

The gansey is coming along great too, I am almost done the front now, and will do the three needle bind off tonight for the shoulders.

Ok, the continually, ever expanding pile of little things, here is some of it.

The expanded version of this messy pile is this,

Eunny's entrelac socks from IK magazine,

Some handspun fleece artist merino made into a (yes one so far) finserless mitten, pattern from knitty.

More handspun goodness, corriedale for estonian mittens, a Nancy Bush pattern this is my second attempt at these, the first lot of handspun was unsuitable, now it is working out lovely.

A baby jacket in Opal petticoat (started this morning).

A baby jacket from Sublime, (started last night).

Here is the cutie that got me hooked on this pattern!

Here some lovely sock yarn ready to become a pair of Roza's socks also from IK mag, pattern by Grumperina.

Some yarn I am spinning for Mitts for the girls.

This is an antique wheel on loan from the guild, I can't remember the name, and the label isn't too clear, it's a neat little wheel, with distaff and lazy kate all built in, I just can't seem to get going with it though.

I am adding continually to this little knits pile, I have nordic mitts that dissappeared into the pile somewhere last week, I started a fair isle vest, ok so that's not so little, but in comparison to the Princess everything is little.

The weather here is brutal, at the weekend we had that hideous ice/snow storm. Elizabeth got a snow day. Then yesterday I was driving to my LYS and got caught in another snow storm, imagine my horror at being trapped in a yarn shop for 1 and a half hours, ( ROFLMFAO)

Look at this ice on my poor little PT!

That was from the ice storm.

The snow I got caught up in yesterday was part of the storm that caused this...... crash

We had a co worker of Ron's with us all afternoon as another worker had left early and got hit by a tractor trailer in that very crash, he called to warn everyone not to bother trying to get north yet.
Poor guy, I hope he's ok, but then the using of the cell phone would indicate he is fine.

Ron took the girls shopping last week, Elizabeth will be nine this month and her big pressie is an ATV, so they needed to accessorize , not my idea of the complimentary accessories, but what do I know.

I can't get no satisfaction

2007-03-02T13:14:00.002-05:00

In response to a query I sent to Phildar re the needles, this is the response I got.

Good morning,

Thank you for visiting our international website www.phildar.com

In reply to your request our needles should be buy on line by
pair.

Best Regards.

See you soon on www.phildar.com,
Phildar e-business team

Knitpicks says that my needle got lost in transit to Canada,
another is being sent.

Big things

2007-02-28T13:01:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know, I haven't posted in a long time, big surprise, for all the promises I make to myself to post more often, it is shameful.

I have been awfully busy knitting though, I spent a week solid working solely on the Princess, with much to show for it. That was a trying time though as my circular needle fell apart as I had about 600 stitches loaded onto the side that broke. New needle is apparently in the mail, but two weeks already come on, Canada post may be slow sometimes, but I have received things in less than 24 hours.
My needles I am working on now are long 2mm Phildar needles, it took me forever to remember who made them, I have issues with them too, the powder coating is rubbing off, and leaving a greying on the fabric. I don't think it's the coating thats doing it now, just a gradual degrading of the metal. Funnily enough it is only one tip that is doing this. I may well have to contact Phildar too, but I can't return any needles to them until Knitpicks gets my new needle to me, I shall call them monday if it isn't in the mail box by then.

I almost gave up on the Princess, I was beginning to think this project was doomed, but after a conversation with Sharon Miller about boiling *shudder* the shawl after it's finished I feel much better.

Here is the needle point.

Here is the greying.

That nice creamy line in there is all I got knit on the knitpicks circ before it broke.

And here is me fixing the result of the break.

A nice picture of some progress, again until I get my new circular I won't be able to get another shot like this, and I have done quite a bit more on her since this was taken.

Finally some progress on Ron's gansey, the workshop has now ended and I have got one pin cushion done, a cushion cover in the works, Ron's gansey the back is now actually finished, and a hat planned.

I will post again soon, hopefully with a Princess shot up to date as I am now back at working on her, I took a week break in between to do some little things, in the hope that the needle would arrive, I did a bit of modular knitting in that week, I have never really done much, just a little entrelac. I made two scarfs, one using up the ends of two balls of sock yarn, that is for Katherine, and Elizabeth got another one. I made a hat, a really nice one, and started on a pair of nordic mittens and Eunny's Entrelac socks from Interweave knits latest issue, the mitts are from an older issue.
Anyway, I will do another post later about that stuff, I still have to round up all the stuff as it's kids knits it disappears pretty quickly.
More spinning and weaving for sure, but the focus has definitely been on knitting. I did get more yarn spun up to knit Ron's Estonian mittens, they have been on the needles for way to long.

In traveling news, it looks like my plans for a vaca this year may well be off for good.
Ron has been offered a position on the "A" team at work, he works for Magna. We spent a year in Mexico and a year in America with Magna, and now it looks like they have finally cottoned on to how good a guy Ron is to have around. They sent him to the states twice last year to do fixes at Ford, and were pleased with the outcome. So pleased I guess that he has now been offered this position. Essentially the "A" team travel around the world doing quick fixes for the company, Ron has worked on many different types of tooling now so has the experience and skill they need.

My only hope of the holiday I so badly want is if they send him to the UK to any of the plants there. Of course the stars and planets all have to align correctly for that to fall into place.

Well it's a nice cold crisp sunny day here in the frozen tundra that is Canada, I should go and knit.

Hasta Mañana

Trying to make up

2007-02-06T23:26:00.000-05:00

For what I haven't posted recently.

I have been up to lots, spinning, knitting and weaving, I will start with the weaving.

I fell in love with a pattern in a handwoven magazine, a rep weave for a table runner.

This

I must just simply make this at some point. Same colours are planned. I also really like these rep weave place mats, but thats for way later.

I wanted to try rep weave before I committed to a larger project like the table runner.

So here is my first effort, it is now finished but I don't have a piccie of it yet.

And yes I am still in love with weaving. I am working my first floor loom project at the guild now, a table runner or dish cloths, haven't decided yet, in an Atwater Bronson Lace, and I also have a warp ready to go onto the table loom tomorrow for a cottolin project.

I have finished the denim cotton sweater I started a long time ago, it is so dark though it is difficult to get good pictures of it, but since it has been washed a few times now it is started to develop the detail in it, I totally love the sweater. I started a sweater from a magazine but gave up due to irregular pattern changes, it was too much trying to keep up with it, basically it was doing my melon in, I wasn't enjoying it at all, so I did this instead.

It is lovely, I think I have fallen in love with this sweater, and while I don't have a finished piccie of this either yet, then you will have to make do with partial pics.

The darker of the pictures is pretty close to the colour in real life.

I just wanted to share this picture with you, I love homepride products, I love that I can get them in Canada, I grew up with this company in Britain, I even had a little homepride man baking set when I was little, it had scoops and spoons, his hat was the bowl and there was a sieve and everything man, it was awesome, I wish I could still get one, my girls would love it.

Anyway, this is end of round one for updates. More soon, got lots of piccies to round up.

I really wondered about this one!!!!!

2007-01-31T00:21:00.001-05:00

Nuns on the run

A visit

2007-01-10T12:43:00.000-05:00

I know, long time again, but it has been a busy time. School holidays are chaotic.

On Friday Wannietta visited here with her lovely daughter Amanda, all I have heard about since then is Amanda. The girls just loved her.

I got to spend the day with Wannietta, I loosely say the word teaching, teaching her to spin. I say loosely as it was pretty much here's the wheel, this is how it works, now spin! So she did, and that was about all I contributed to her day of spinning.

I really don't like the words "your a natural" when it comes to things we are familiar with already, Wannietta works with yarn day in and day out, I feel like that it is a given that spinning will be natural to her. It was for me too. Maybe it's the combination of the right wheel, the right fibre etc, but when it comes together it all works amazingly.

More on the "your a natural" label, I was classified this at my guild meeting concerning weaving, comments about the spinning, neat edges, and weaving of the scarf I made for Ron, and the colour gamp I made.

I have a whole slew of photo's of the progress of the scarf from fleece to finished object. I shan't bore you with them all, only a few.

I have lot's of stuff I should post about, old stuff that is really getting past the point of me wanting to post about.

Anyway, the weaving.

This is the fibre and some spun singles. Not a quality picture, it doesn't do the fibre justice. It's a merino/silk blend.

I have totally fallen in love with this particular blend, I have more of the black but want to do more of it in different colours.

Here is the 2 ply yarn

Beginning weaving, and the herringbone pattern I will use for the scarf. the white is just to check the pattern.

Whee, actually weaving....

Finished weaving scarf 2 in a ribbed weave, it took a while but I found a pattern that worked on the threading I had on the loom already. I threaded for the herringbone and had a few patterns that I could use but none other than the rib actually worked on the set up.

Two finished scarves.

Ron wore his all day long Christmas day

Talking of Christmas, look what I got!
Fleece artist Merino, FA mohair to spin, samples of Ramie top and tencel to spin, cones of mercerized cotton for a rep weave I want to try. Oh and another 4oz of the luscious merino/silk blend, yummy.

I have already spun up some of it, and am off to do some right now.

Almost forgot my colour gamp.

I did three different sample gamps, had fun doing them, two twill one tabby weave, the one above is warp and weft same colour twill. I used knit picks pallette, the second twill was using lighter shades of the colours in the warp, it looks really good. I have a few other things I want to try in weaving, then want to try tartan, I have looked into my family tartans and love both of them.

Anywho, gotta go spin some and watch Max and Ruby, then read about 50 books to Katherine, thanks Wannietta!!!

A wonderful christmas

2006-12-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I am sick, have been for a while but I guess it wasn't allowed to catch up w3ith me until boxing day. Now I feel like I have done ten rounds with Tyson.

I started a FLAK for Ron, to be honest I'm not loving it, so thought I would look for a Gansey to knit for him. Now, for quite a while I have been avoiding my yahoo groups, mainly because that is how I get sucked into KAL'S. While bored a few days ago I ventured into the EZasPi group, to discover they are starting a Gansey workshop in January. PERFECTO!!!

The group is EZasPi

Making a list

2006-12-22T00:28:00.000-05:00

Checking it twice.

Get kids to school..... check
Return library books...... check
Go to Gemini fibres...... check
Spend too much money..... check, check
get nails done..... check
Do christmas grocery shopping..... check
sleep.... check
Weave, knit anything to advance the gift lists....... check, check, triple freaking check
Take pain killers
Take pain killers
Take pain killers
Listen to the pain in hand

OY!!!!!!!!!!!
TAKE YOUR FREAKIN PAINKILLERS YOU DUMBASS!!!!!!!!! ....... ok check.

Pain in hands has indeed returned, I now have to accept the fact that I have to take a good long break from the obsessive nature I take on with my hobbies.

Gee I am so glad I didn't spend too much money at Gemini Fibres today!

Urghhhhh......

But seriously who can pass up on fleece artist fibres.

Busy spinning

2006-12-18T18:45:00.000-05:00

I have spent the past three days spinning up 8oz of Merino/silk, to about 528 yards of yummy yarn. This yarn is destined to become two scarves, I wanted to make three, so will still have to get more fibre.
Right now I only have this one picture of two bobbins of singles, but rest assured it is all spun and plied now. I am going to the guild hall tonight to make the warp for weaving.

Here is the socks that I made to send to Britain for my sister and her family.
I admit to cheating and actually buying one pair from the guild shop. My hands just couldn't take knitting another pair of socks.
the blue bag has the purchased socks in it, so therefore are not actually seen here.
From left to right, Fair isle socks for Charlotte, Ribbon bow socks for Molly and golfing socks for Chez! I hope they all fit just fine, I have had enough of knitting socks for a while.

Since I am back into spinning for now I would love to get spinning some cotton, since I have never spun cotton i don't know where to begin, I have to get checking some books out at the guild while there tonight.
I have a few bags of cotton, one really nice bag, and some little bags of bits and bobs.

Working sucks. My new work never seems to be able to sort out my hours, they are beginning to wear on my nerves.

Where are all the Wii systems!!!!!!!!!

Christmas is beginning to wear on my nerves.

Baby alive, don't even get me started on that! One store wants $100 for one where as everybody else wants $50-$60. Thieving pigs. My nerves are at snapping point.

Katherine is likely to get surgery on her eye in the summer next year, it may well just put a spanner in the works for my holiday to Britain, This wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't missed out on my vacation this year..... I need to travel.

I discovered a long time ago that I like to travel, I haven't traveled any further than Niagara falls in more than three years, I am going crazy. My nerves are about 1/16th of an inch away from popping and snarling crazily around the entire family, which break for vacation in 4 days. All of them! Every single body around this house for two weeks.

Work may well turn into a blessing during my time of need.

With two weeks to go

2006-12-11T14:46:00.000-05:00

I am sadly behind in all the knitting I had planned for gifts.

I have decided to gift myself this year, the gift of taking it easy, my hand now no longer hurts, and it feels good to say that, so instead of rushing right back in and ending right where I was two months ago, I have decided not to worry about gifts, those that need to be posted will just have to be late, those that are for people here will just have to wait. If anyone ever wants handmade crap from me again, they will have to wait.

I don't want surgery!!!!

I am however busy making a pioneer costume for Eliz, she visits a pioneer school on wednesday (is there something wrong with how that is spelled? Spell check is highlighting it) she is really into all this stuff, I think in most part because of my involvement with the Burr House, spinning and weaving and of course the knitting.
They get to eat a proper lunch, mason jars and home made bread, LOL, I am making her some bread in a neat little kit I found at a store.
Photo's will follow, I just don't have any right now.

It has been so long since I have posted pictures that I will have to do a big photo post, I have lots of FO's to show, so soon hopefully.

Passing the torch along

2006-11-22T17:12:00.000-05:00

Ok so I apologize to the like, one reader of my blog, that I haven't posted in over a month.
We had internet issues for 2 days, 2DAYS man, I got over it pretty quickly, still seething at bell a bit, but we soon figured out what to do with no computer, problem is I got to into not doing computer, and I am now just getting back to reading blogs, etc, but still not totally into it.

Tomorrow is my tenth wedding anniversary. My gift is a new digital camera, I so loved my old Olympus digital that I went with another, this one is a 6.0 MP, I am stoked, tomorrow the old will pass along it's approval to the new. I am not opening it until then, but hopefully will get piccies up soon after that.

I have of course been busy knitting, what on earth else would I do with no computer. I finished my moms shawl the green moss from HK's simply stunning line.
I have made socks, a shrug is almost finished, I have spun, I have done lots of weaving, I have plans to make a FLAK for Ron, I made a lace baby booty.
I have been busy, but perhaps the biggest thing in my news recently is that I start work again this week. Part time, in a shop, it is exactly what I wanted, Katherine is still only part time school, so I want a care free job until she is in school full time. In those two years I want to finish my architecture diploma and hopefully do a course with Humber college for Building inspection, I really should have a few other ideas if that doesn't work out.
History seems to be my second biggest interest next to knitting, that and architecture go hand in hand so I think I should also look down that avenue.

My hand is still hurting, I finished a month of anti-inflammatories, they helped but not completely, so I have another two month supply, at least the burning sensation has all but stopped.
I am finding it hard to completely stop knitting to let them heal. My other hobbies hurt just as much. The last resort is a major jigsaw puzzle. I don't particularly want to end up having surgery for it, so I should stop knitting, but I have things I need to finish, others can wait, it's these few things I need to finish that are bothering me.

Anyway, more tomorrow hopefully, don't hold me to it though, as I know that I uually don't post for a month when I say something like that.

Weaving, like I needed more things to do.

2006-10-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

I have been so busy over the past 5 weeks. I took my very first weaving class, it ended this tuesday, having woven 4 placemats you would think I would have pretty much had my fill of weaving for a while, that is if you know me, that I really didn't have much interest in weaving going into this, it was supposed to just leapfrog me into being able to hold my own at an upcoming linen weaving class at Burr house, date yet to be set.
Well, that plan of not weaving much more completely went to pot, I wove a small stole for Katherine, and have enough warp left to do one for Elizabeth. I am currently warping my loom for some stripe work, I only have a table loom, so can't fit a full size tea towel on it, I figured at 2/3rd size I was also pushing it, so plopped onto the idea of doing little towels for the kitchen, the girls are always driving me crazy looking for towels in the kitchen, so thought 6 little things would be nice, my towel draw is full to bursting, but all it takes is one time for Katherine to get her paws on the drawer to empty it completely. Too many towels is never enough.

This is the stole on the loom.

This is the placemats.

Since I last posted, I have passed along the baby blanket to the lady that ordered it, she was very pleased with the blanket, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

In future when I am blocking I shall take a picture, and I shall look at picture to see if the thing looks remotely like the shape it is supposed to be.

A visit, an FO and a pain.

2006-10-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

Wannietta came to our spinners guild last week. I t was so great to finally meet her. She is as bubbly as she appears on her blog, she is as into knitting as you would expect, she is also a very nice person, and can knit like a devil........

I felt insanely slow knitting next to her, I can't imagine how one could get any faster than that.

Her talk about the speed competition was great, I would like to go to the Creative Festival now this year just to see the speed knitting.
I may well have to teach a bit of spinning to Wannietta too, this is cool, I love to share spinning with people, while I am no expert (nowhere close) just a spin to knit kinda person actually, I really enjoy the feeling of creating my own yarn. It gives me an opportunity to meet Wannietta again too, which I suspect could be a lot more fun than the meeting at the guild where we didn't get much opportunity to talk.

I did see a bit of a secret project, and what I saw I liked, but it wasn't enough to give away anything, so I too have to wait!

I finally finished my Fair isle cardi, it dressed out nicely, but needs a bit of a firmer dressing in the sleeves, which I suspect I may have to alter before I am totally happy.

I wound some balls of the cobweb silk I have ready to knit the wedding ring shawl from Heirloom knitting, it took almost 45 minutes to wind these two little balls, thats a lot of yarn in those two little bundles. I am busting a gut to start the shawl but desperately want to finish the Princess before I start another huge project, so Princess has been dragged out, kicking and screaming, to the top of the lace basket, which is currently quite full.
I just couldn't let go of wanting to start a new lace project, so I started another simply stunning project, the Jade shawl in yellow, it is looking good so far, so this is project three on the needles of Heirloom knittings. Yet I still kept going back to the wedding ring shawl, wanting to start, I got as far as checking needle sizes, I found my 2.25 mm needles after a bit of hunting, they are in my Unst stole! That's project 4 of HK's designs..... I should finish at least one before I put the big project onto the needles, it will be hard. I have a birthday coming up, and was sure I was going to order the Cora shawl kit as a pressie to myself, but here's the bitch, it's another HK design, and while I obviously adore her designs, I also just as obviously have issues with finishing them. While I have finished lots of them having 4 on the needle right now isn't sitting too well with me.

Here is some Princess progress, and a kind of marker for me to see how much I do in months to come.

Another busy week.

2006-10-03T09:39:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago I got a call asking if I had any baby blankets I could sell, I didn't so so the next question was if I would make one. After heitating for a while I agreed to it.
I couldn't pick a pattern, so decided to make one from my own rather busy little mind.

I finished last night.

I have to block it as it is to go to it's new home tomorrow I hope.

In the time I made the blanket, I also made a number of mindless pieces, scarfs and dishcloths really, I have been eyeing this sari silk stuff for a while and finally caved and bought a skein. I wasn't impressed..... Tree trunk needles equal burning hands for me, as it turns out most things on the needles for me right now are on big needles. Not fun. I need some tiny lace to correct my poor fingies.

I will be starting back on the indigo top this week, also my fairisle cardi that is languishing again. Two or three other lace projects fill in the gaps, and scarfs are the sealers.

Last week Babydoll had a birthday. She was 4! Big girl now, she can beat me on the gamecube, draw really cool pictures, dry dishes, help to cook dinner, she is growing in leaps and bounds.

This week is proving to be busy too. I have weaving again today, lesson 3/5. The weaving bit! Wahooooo.

Tomorrow is guild meeting night, Wannietta is coming to visit with us and talk about her knitting title. This is turning out to be good timing, I had forgotten that the Needlework festival is later this month, this is where Wannietta got her title at.

I hope the title stays just where it is.

I was supposed to go to a yarn sale on saturday, but just couldn't make it, considering the stash busting I am supposed to be doing, it's probably a good thing.

I am back to not having anything on the box to watch, I have a few dvd's I never have watched, Elizabeth, Katherine, and their aunt and Uncle watched one of them on Saturday, they enjoyed it, so I guess I should now too. It was the new Pink Panther movie with Steve Martin. I have held back on watching this as I really love the old movies of the Pink Panther, and nobody but Sellers in my mind could be the Pink Panther. We shall see....
I keep seeing Pink Panther DVD's everywhere, I may well cave and get the box set!

Anyway, back to fibre things, I may well remember to take my camera with me to the lesson today, so will post back with news on how it went tomorrow. Hopefully I remember to take a picture of the baby blanket after blocking.

Something more

2006-09-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

Than my usual rambling, today we have pictures! woohoo!!!!

I will get to more photo's again later, but for now there are my Babydoll's first day at school pictures. I was so proud of her.

Here she is just about to go into class, still looking rather worried. Note the purple buttons on the blue cardigan, yes the birthday cardi turned into the first day of school cardi, the button band needs to be recast off, it's a bit snug. Katherine was given final decision on pattern, yarn and buttons, I tried hard to convince her, but she was adamant that the purple were the buttons she needed. They aren't too bad.

Here she is at the end of the day with her new friend, a girl we didn't even know that lives about 3 houses away from us, and is even in Katherine's class. Behind the two new buds is Elizabeth, the bus buddy!!! How grown up she is now. Somewhere behind her is her friend Andrew, I think he is cute on her.

I was so confused yesterday morning, it was the first time in more than 8 years I haven't had a child running around during the day time, sure there has been occasional days when Ron has had the two out for the day, but yesterday was different. the first few hours of the morning I was sneaking around trying not to disturb Katherine sleeping, only to remember she wasn't in bed. My Babydoll can sleep, I was concerned about her staying awake at school. Sleep is a bad thing to her, she doesn't like to go to bed, but once she is asleep she can go down for a very long time. If she doesn't get enough sleep at night she is sleepy and drowsy in the morning if woken up, but if she is left to sleep it out then she is fine.

Eventually I got used to the idea of having no child to hold me back, and went to the guild to card some wool (yeah, exciting) only to discover that the drum carder was broken, so I took it home for Ron to fix, which he did, then I spent a few hours carding last night, and finally did a bit of spinning.

So who is gonna win Rockstar??????????????

I have been following supernova since week 3, and said Magni straight off the bat, but after the rather uninspiring performance last night I have to think the fans may go off a bit, the other choice for me is Toby, Ron doesn't like him though, we both love Lukas though, he is brilliant, and as a performer I would love to see more of him, just not with Supernova I don't think, he is the local boy and I should show support for him I guess, but I just think Magni has got it. Ron who hasn't watched much of the show agree's with me. He seems to suit the band to a tee!
I don't usually watch reality shows, but I started watching this when Cheryl my sis was here from the UK, her fave was Lukas.
Unfortunately for me it is guild night tonight, and I am meeting a woman there that I know from a knitting list I am on. I will miss the show~~~~~
Thank goodness for Rogers digital terminals, I get the show in different time zones, yeah, so I think I will get to see it at west coast time.

Katherine has been growing tomato's, we have had no rain all summer, the tomato's really suffered for it, but on Sunday Katherine finally got here tomato! This has been tomato watch 2006, it seemed like forever, and poor Babe was losing interest until they finally changed colour.

Finally on a little knitting news, I caved, big time, and started another knit your own mystery Pi shawl. I am almost done clue two, 3 will be out on friday, the first few clue's get knit up quickly, the start of a Pi shawl is always pretty fast, here is clue one, looks like nothing right now, but it is already on a circular, when clue 2 is done I will post another piccie.

I have so many things I have on needles, or expectantly waiting to be started that I think I am suffering for it, I can't make my mind up what I will work on. I have done little quick things for the past few days, then a bt here, a bit there on lot's of different things, to then turn to start another thing only to stop myself again.
I did take to heart something that another blogger had said.
Wannietta, it's all your fault, LOL, you have to love an enabler, and that is indeed what the wicked woman has done to me.
I loved her post about indigo yarn, so much that when I fell across a pattern in a box at the guild, for a indigo yarn item, it felt pre determined that I would make this. So off I went and got yarn enough for the item, turns out the LYS was having a yarn sale that week ( I had no idea) I got the yarn half off, returned home to start the item, it was a vest, I don't wear vests, don't even ask why I wanted to make it. I couldn't find the pattern, and I knew I didn't have enough yarn for a sweater, so I started one, LOL!
It's gorgeous, but on return to the store to get more yarn I found that it had all gone. order, wait, no phone call, worry, finally I got fed up and called them. It will be in later this week with a bit of luck, crisis averted.

The sweater is gorgeous, it isn't the same Rowan denim that Wannietta used, but it is still gorgeous, and certainly leaves a lot of blue on the old mitts. I can't wait to finish and wash it for the first time. I haven't been so excited about a knitting item since, well, the last one I cast on.

Finally, I just had to post this link, I left it to Wannietta in the comments, but I don't think it was possible to get the whole link from there.

F1 article

Nuff said!

Urmmm....Update!

2006-09-10T23:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I am a week past all my company leaving, and as great as it was to have them all here, they left my all tuckered out, which is why I am only just getting around to the blog now. Last week was a blur, bank holiday monday, followed by back to school on tuesday for Elizabeth, and an orientation session for Babydoll, who starts Junior Kinder this coming tuesday, wednesday was the start of the guild year, and since I am now on the executive committee I figured I should be there. That meeting added a whole slew of new activities for the upcoming months, including meeting with Wannietta at the October meeting, the OHS seminar, the sheep to shawl, a Try something new event in town and so many other things that my mind is a blank.
Today I found out that one of the women on the knitting in canada group I am on (where I first met Wannietta) is in the same town as me, so now I think a meeting is inevitable here. AWESOME!! Finally a network of knitters may emerge in this ever expanding town just north of the big T.O!

Photo's? I have lots, but not of enough things, and to be honest I couldn't care less about posting them right now, they are in a mess, just as my mind feels it too is a mess. I didn't take some piccies of the few FO's that went back to Britain, including one of those lovely Heirloom knitting SImply stunning shawls! I can get pictures later though, no worries. I will do a post on photo's maybe tueday, I have a whole day to myself!!!!!!!!! (yippee)

Thought of the day, (other than shabby mind!) Utter glee, Michael Schumacher retiring not only from Ferrari, but also from the F1 circuit.
I was never a fan, a fan can't get me to say he wasn't a damn good driver, as he obviously was, but I never liked him. He's had his day, move over and let the young ones gain some glory.

Busy times

2006-07-24T16:18:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time, my sister and family are visiting from Britain, we did all the typical tourist trap stuff last week, and are taking it easy this week.
I have been busy knitting, until they got here, and have barely lifted the needles since. I am working on the green moss shawl from simply stunning line of Heirloom knitting, in the rowan colour heavenly. My sister brought the wool over for me. It cost me 38 GBP's for 4 balls of Rowan KSH and 2 balls of heirloom knittings merino. Quite the deal. I did get a bit of Princess done before the masses arrived, but haven't touched it since. I have two green moss shawls to make first, then will gt back to that and the million other things lying on the top of my knitting basket.

Gotta go, I'm missing out on all the fun.

My life

2006-07-12T23:37:00.000-04:00

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales(I was actually so close to doing this, was supposed to be there right now, so this is on my list for next year.
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

This is pretty cool, I was amazed at how many I had done. I go this from momcast

There are so many things on the list I would love to do, I hope at some later date in my life I can check off more than I did this time.

In a very bored state.

2006-07-08T19:38:00.000-04:00

Just got news that I can't go to my usual club tonight, we were on our way out the door as we got the call.
This has left me in a very bored state! I don't want to work on any of my knitting for some reason, usually this is a chance to get ahead. I have on lily of the valley repeat to do on the wrap, then the edging, I could have that done real quick, if only I could be bothered.
I have done quite a lot on my fair isle cardi the past few days, but can't be bothered working on that right now either, maybe this is sock time.

Just the blah's, that will soon pass I guess.

My mind has been reeling with the thought of being free from all KAL's and the FIFA world cup finishing tomorrow.

What will I do? what to do, what to do, I have a list as long as my arm, starting on a mohair shawl I think is the first thing, some spinning, lots of new things, I mean LOTS!

I have yarn to start the wedding ring shawl, but would rather finish Princess first before I start that, I also have Unst's edging to finish. Most of the items I will be making in the next few months are Heirloom knitting pieces. All that mohair in the height of summer, wonderful. I swore last year I wouldn't attempt it again.

I have some beautiful pink hand dyed tencel that I would love to work with, but don't know what to make with it. It was from Ann's sale, she handdyed it, so I really want to make something great from it, special you know.

Hmm, like I said, my mind is reeling.

Kodak moments

2006-07-07T14:42:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I have finished the peacock, some photo's to follow, the wrap is almost done, I started the second border last night, it won't take long to do. I have made a top, part of a crocheted blanket, part of a sock, and knitted about a sleeve on a fair isle cardi, some of the shrug and some of the Pi shawl, all in a month. It's hard to believe that month ends on Sunday, Englands out, France and Italy in the final, I hope France wins, but I think that Italy might actually pull it off.
Oh well, that's my football interests for 4 years over with, maybe Scotland will qualify for 2010.

To the peacock anyway.

Look at that lovely green water, it got a lot darker, and just went from bad to worse.

This is the result of that washing, note the lack of any green hue on the shawl.

Add more blue....

To get this.

Not quite dark enough, but getting there. I will dye it a deeper blue, and hopefully that will be it, of course my biggest problem is remembering to buy dye.

The Estonian wrap is just gorgeous, what a pleasure that has been to make.
I have pictures of this too, this is it off the needle, before I started the second border.

You just can't leave knitted items lying around in this house, not even to grab the camera from the desk.

Knitting in public. Note the Timmies

Spinning in public.

I took the girls to the park yesterday, what a lovely day, we popped into the guild first to card a bag of guild fleece that a lady had passed onto me. Lovely wool, so I though spinning would be nice, had to pop home to get a drop spindle, but had fun doing it. I forgot how nice it was to use a drop spindle. I haven't used one in a long time. I also haven't done any spinning in months, so got the wheel out last night and spun a bobbin, then navajo plied it. It turned out really nice.

Anyway, week one of the school hols hasn't been to bad as of yet, we had a kodak moment last night, if the moment could even have been captured, I think the photo would have been the look of shock on my face when the girls BOTH asked for seconds with dinner! It's usually a fight just to keep them at the table.

Peacock done.

2006-07-04T00:14:00.000-04:00

Off the needles, washed, dye running, pale blue/purple/dark blue. *SOB*

Drying, preparing to re-dye....

Did I say *SOB*

In the last week

2006-07-01T12:19:00.000-04:00

Of the football, with England in their 1/4 game going on right now, not winning, but not losing either, I am nearing the end of peacock. I have 23 rows to go, about 17%. I will be done soon. Then I can continue on the Estonian stole. I ordered more yarn to finish my Kyoapi knit-your-own-adventure-pi, after the stole is finished I have two other things to finish, then I will let myself cast on something new. Maybe some socks, probably another lace piece, and will get back to working on Unst and Princess, for a few weeks at least.

Piccies later.

I'm 10% redneck, strawberry ice cream

2006-06-29T15:25:00.000-04:00

Your Summer Ride is a Mini Cooper

You are all about unique, one of a kind adventures.

The only thing predictable about your summer is that it's unpredictable!

What's Your Summer Ride?

I also have a choleric temperament, just like Wannietta

Everytime she posts one of these quizzes I end up spending an hour over there playing the silly quizzes.

Was impressed with the Mini result though, I am a huge fan of mini's, I had a '74 Mini when I lived in England, my cat is called Mini, and I have promised myself that any future animals will be Austin, Rover or Cooper.

Progress

2006-06-28T09:38:00.000-04:00

Well over due for a photographic update. So here it is.

First up is the tee I made for Baby doll.

I have had lots of trouble with the neck, I just can't seem to get the front neck nice, it puckered on my first attempt at crocheting, the neck was way too loose so needed some adjusting. I undid the first attempt and tried again, it looked much better, but was still too loose, so I have added another two rows of single crochet around it with some decreasing. Baby doll has yet to try on this attempt. More on this later....

Next, the estonian garden stole, what a beautiful stole this is going to be. this photo is of the centre completed, which was about 65% done, I am now at 75% done, which means I have finally worked some nupps! Oh what fun! NOT! Urghh, they may as well be freakin bobbles. I hate bobbles, and despite my better judgement I decided to try the nupps, knowing full well I would hate making them as much as bobbles. Ok, so the result is a lot nicer than a bobble, and I can see the appeal in them, and I am so glad I chose this instead of this as my first attempt at nupps.
One thing, if you ever decide to make anything with nupps on it, a) make the nupp loose, and 2) make sure them needles are pointy.

OK, just going to get a photo of the nupps.......

Ok, finally, the peacock. Here is a picture from the early days, just in the very early stages still, back when it was easy to work a row, when there was just a few stitches per row.

That all seems so long ago.

Peacock is now at about 62% done, I know I fell behind a little with it, but will soon catch up. I was worrying about the colour, but the picture looks pretty good so far, it's hard to tell exactly how it will turn out, blocking may take away the look, or it could make it look even nicer, hard to say, either way I still love it, and if the colour is horrid, then I can just over dye it.

Ron and the girls spent a day out at our property in Mosport on Sunday which left me with a lot of time to watch football and F1, England of course won, yay England. Another few days to there next match, can't wait. The F1 was in Montreal last weekend, Jacques Villeneuve as usual didn't do very well, going out in the final few laps. Oh well, DC didn't do well either. Alonso won though, and that's really what matters as I want him to win again this year.

Ron bought an old truck for bombing around the property, he loved being able to get around in there, it's 5 parcels of 10 acres, 2 of the lots are ours, the other three are his brothers and sisters.

My mom and sister are going to be blessing me with their company this year, so I will be ordering some yarn from the UK for them to bring over to me. First on my list is rowan kildsilk haze, one of the night shades, Medici, I will be making the green moss shawl from Simply stunning for my sister, my mom, given free choice on the heirloom knitting site, picked the same thing as my sister, so I have two green moss shawls to make. The only time I have made the same thing twice was the Creatures of the reef shawl from fiddlesticks, I made one for myself, and my mom loved it so much she wanted one too, same colour. This time however she doesn't want the same colour, thank god. In fact she doesn't even want it in mohair, she would like a silvery grey, anything but fluffy shawl, so now the hunt begins for the perfect yarn for this. Any ideas anyone???
I had thought maybe if Misti Alpaca has a silvery grey colour that would be ok, but that is slightly fluffy too. Maybe I need a trip out to a yarn store.... Mary's in unionville, I love that store. Mary is so nice and friendly, I have only been there once, but Mary seemed like an old friend. Must go there more often.

I could spin something for the shawl, but again, a matter of finding the right fleece.

One more thing for now anyway, this is turning into a marathon post.

Our resident fat cat sleeps in the oddest positions,

In this piccie she is doubled over, legs akimbo, what a strange cat, she regularly sleeps in the same postition. This one from last night had me running for the camera, which is now going to be perched on the table to get the latest wacky way to sleep courtesy of Maggie Moo.

Mini, my first baby kitty has never been featured here , so I thought I should get a shot of her up, well getting a shot of her to begin with is nigh on impossible, she is one of the aloof kitties, you know the type, real regal snootiness, until she spots a paper ball, then it's baby kitty time.

She did add a helping hand on the first peacock photo though, very kind of her to hold down the paper, think she thought it was going to roll up and be thrown across the room for her.

Where I'm at.

2006-06-22T15:55:00.000-04:00

Okay so almost two weeks have gone by on the FIFA knitting, no photo's today, but I will try for my next post, the Peacock shawl is difficult to photo, working on straights on a triangular shawl, it is difficult to get an anywhere near decent photo.
I am almost 50% on that now, about two rows shy of the half way mark. I am at about the same place with the wrap, but I did get distracted earlier in the week and finally made Baby doll's top, she loves it, it is finished, bar a few ends needing tied in. I also got back to working on my fair isle top, the Pi shawl for Eliz and the shrug for her too.

I went to the sale of Ann's yarn, fleece and equipment last week, I spent a lot, and got tons of stuff. I got a table loom and a really great score of six balls of filatura kid mohair in the most divine yellow colour. That has simply stunning written all over it. I have already made blue diamonds, pink puzzle and the dove shawl from this collection, 6 balls is enough for two of the smaller shawls, so I think Jade and lavender as I want to make the edwardian in the same colour as it is shown, and my sis wants the Green moss shawl made in blue for her. I may have to hold of on my decision as my mom might also want one, she is yet to decide.

I also got the Elsebath Lavold bookViking patterns for knitting I am going to be busy this fall making a number of the sweaters in that book.

I am going to buckle down in the two shawls, try to finish the Estonian one this week, I need to get back to more spinning, I acquired a lot of fleece recently and none of it is getting worked, my storage space shrinks quickly with the addition of fleece. I did try more natural dying this week and was succesful in getting something other than a variant of tan, I got a green!!! Woohoo, quite a nice colour too, a nice olive colour. That was with rhubarb and iron, I want to try rhubarb by itself as it contains oxalic acid which is a mordant, if that comes out like the olive green then no loss, and I haven't been spinning up the fleece for the dying now so even less time into it if I am not satisfied with the colour. It's getting to the point that I should be out in the garden harvesting the plants for dying, but got so carried away with my knitting I totally forgot, plus I haven't got any more mordants yet, I may well just cave and order online.

England has advanced, I am happy, even happier they won't meet Germany in the next round!

GO ENGLAND!~~

Dear Kenny.

2006-06-09T17:42:00.000-04:00

Where have you been hiding yourself?

This is pomatomus

This is the yarn I used,

Lovely socks by Cookie A. She also has a pair in the new issue of knitty. Really cute too.

Just to let you know Kenny, I had to go digging around wool shops looking for the vogue issue with the twisted float shrug in it. I got totally absorbed in your talk of the shrug, and now just simply have to make one.

On knitting news, I felt the need for instant gratification~~~~~

I was so fed up with things not going my way, taking too long, whatever, it was time for something to work up quickly, so I made a pair of socks, for DD#2 Katherine. She has little size ten feet, so they work up very quickly, I started first one last night, and this is where I am with them now.

I haven't started on my world cup knitting yet, I want to actually finish the socks first. But this is what I am doing,

The estonian garden wrap.

And the peacock shawl from Fiddlesticks, my adventure in dying took a very weird turn, I have no idea if this yarn will look nice or not, but I thought it was worth trying.

I started with this

And ended with this.

Here is the pattern, for those not familiar with it.

Of course once I had finished dying it I found another ball of the skacel merino that I should have dyed, so hopefully I have enough in what is there otherwise I will be trying to dye a single ball the same as the skein!!!!

Anyway, in the time it took me to write this I could have been finished the flippin sock.

Can't wait to see the footie tomorrow, England's first match, and then the following day the British Formula one from Silverstone England. A good weekend. Hopefully I will get to go shooting too, haven't been in a few weeks, got itchy fingers to blow away a target, my Ruger 10/22 is good for that as it is a semi automatic with a scope. I have a magazine that holds 25 though so I can blow away the target.
I usually use the Bruno though for target shooting, I feel much better with that gun for accuracy. Ronnie loves the Ruger for accuracy. I haven't fired a gun in three weeks, and was told I could use the club directors hand guns if I was there the next week, last time I was there, so I hope he brings them tomorrow. I really loved his 22 revolver, but he sold that. I am very tempted to get my restricted license just so that I can get a 22 revolver, it was a very clean smooth gun, have to find out what it is for when I get one. Knowing the director it is a colt.

Hmm, I am also going to be participating in a small way in the executive committee for my spinning guild, the Burr house spinners and weavers. I think I am like first or second assistant to the VP. Nothing terribly exciting, which is exactly what I wanted. I am looking forward to a very exciting year with the guild, we hope to turn things around this year, and make things work better again. It was a rough year last year. We will be getting a website soon, a member is setting it up for us, and we should be online in a few months.

Karen, a relatively new member ( 2years,I have been there 3 years) of the guild is going to be the president, thankfully lots of members have stepped forward to offer assistance in many varying forms. All the executive positions are filled now, and some have assistants. We really need this level of help to get things moving again I think. Our President this year had two other members helping out, a shame really, I don't know why others wouldn't take the postitions a help out a little.

Anyway, happy weekend everybody.

Rip....

2006-06-07T09:07:00.001-04:00

Pomatomus is off the needles:(
Too small, mistake after mistake.

This was not the way I intended to get a project off the needles by friday.
Things aren't going my way, one other project close to completetion that I ran out of wool, now this, I seem to be going backwards.

FIFA

2006-06-04T21:40:00.000-04:00

Well, the world cup is coming up rapidly, this week see's the beginning of the show. I am not a huge football fan, but always watch the FIFA world cup.
I have no intentions of joining any knit along for it, I just plain and simple don't want to this time. A month is a long time, I may have many changes of minds in that time, a bit like wurzel gummidge changes his head.

Given my British heritage, the fact that I was born in Britain and lived there for 21 years, football is pretty much in my blood, as is cheering for England if Scotland doesn't qualify, or as usual doesn't get very far.

So instead of joining a KAL I will just decide on two shawls to knit, already decided actually. The peacock shawl and a fibre trends shawl, I think it is garden of eden, have to check though. I have dyed some skacel merino peacock feather colours, and have some Misti alpaca for the fibre trends.

I decided I will bust a gut trying to finish up some things leading up to this, I want to cast off two before I cast on these two. I thought the mystery Pi would be one, but I ran out of yarn close to finishing, I am currently negotiating getting more of the knitpicks merino needed.
The fair isle cardigan could be cast off if I get back to working on that today, I also started a pair of pomatomus on friday, about half way through one already. They stand a chance of being finished. I will get around to posting piccies later, haven't got time right now, so will be back soon, or later at least anyway.

Yarn store review too!!!!!

Ann

2006-05-26T14:48:00.000-04:00

A good friend died on Wednesday.
Ann had courageously fought ovarian cancer for a long time.

Ann was the kind of woman you wanted on your side, she may have seemed harsh sometimes, but she was a no nonsense woman that told you like it was.
Ann was a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, knitter, weaver, spinner, great cook. With her passing I am learning more about her.

I last saw Ann in January at a guild work night, busy knitting away, having a laugh with everyone.

As a guild member she was an inspiration to everyone, as a person she was also inspirational. Her zest for life, the encouragement she offered everyone, her Rowan jelly..... Yummmmmm

Her Son kept a carepage for Ann while she was in hospital, it was a way for everyone to get updates and to send well wishes to her without having to inundate the family with visitors and phonecalls. I truely appreciate the effort that he made doing this, as I never felt that I was one of the immediate friends that should be visiting her.
I would have loved to, but she had so many other people that were closer.

I met Ann less than three years ago, when I joined Burr house spinners and weavers.
As part of the guild membership, we work a few shifts in the store that is run by the guilds, Ann's work was always the stuff I picked up at the store, her work was simply amazing.

I will miss her very much.

Long time... Again!!

2006-05-23T13:43:00.000-04:00

I may well have been busy, but does that really mean I couldn't have blogged quickly in a month, shame on me.

I have been busy though, and I don't have many pictures to prove it.

DH has been getting allergies up the wazoo, one of his reactions we were very concerned about and he ended up at the hospital, got prednizone, and epipens amongst other things. The search for the culprit continues, although he does think it might be the Kevlar gloves he wears at work.

I have of course been busy knitting. I finished Daffodil a long time ago, but here, finally is a piccie of it blocked!!!!

I have been plugging away furiously on both of my Pi shawls, which are notoriously bad for photographing in the state they are at right now, which is exactly when I would want to photograph them. So here is one attempt.

I haven't actually worked much on the Pi's since the 14th, that is when all my wool arrived from knitpicks. The wool is for this

I also found a nice little basket in Loblaws the other day, I had actually seen them before, and quite liked the look of them, all the time thinking what a nice knitting basket.
I had decided to get one on saturday only to discover that they were all gone. Bummer. So off I went on my merry way, randomly filling up my shopping cart, when what do I see in the clearance bins, my basket!!! Sure, it's got a handle missing, I was planning on cutting the handles off anyway, but it was reduced, which was a big bonus, it was $3.99 from $6.99 only I am sure it was actually $14.99 last week.

Anyway, it fits all the pallette yarn colours in quite nicely.

Here is where I got to with the cardi anyway.

It is sewn up ready to be cut at both sleeves and the front. Don't ask about the photo, for some reason photobucket is playing silly buggers.

One sleeve is now cut and the sleeve is in progress.

I also had a craving to make some little socks the other day, so I went yarn shopping and came back with this.

Some yarn to make a top and some socks for the wee one! Of course the moment passed once the yarn was home, I am sure it will appear again soon.

I forgot one more picture. This is from the fireworks that we had last night on may 2-4. Victoria day for those unaware of the significance of the holiday here in Canada.

We had visitors up from the US. Frank and Jeff are visiting canada every few weeks for work related training, they are in Milton, so not far from us, DH met both in Maryland when we lived there, they worked for the same company, He has maintained a friendship with Frank ever since, and they go to the Mopar Nats yearly together. We don't get many visitors, so the kids get all wound up when we do, they were just here for the night, having to return to Milton for schooling!
They went and bought a box of fireworks as we had missed the big fireworks display the day before.
The box of about 15 fireworks of course cost a small fortune, but was worth it. Katherine got scared so we got earmuffs for her, actually it was my range ear protectors. I carried her down the stairs of the deck, missed the last step, and of course in the nature of trying to protect my young, fell, onto my knees, and the little one got away scratch free. My knees are sore. Skin is completely off one of them. I swear men don't take these kinds of bumps for their kids.

Anyway, the photo, I tried but the delay on the digital is way too slow, so I missed most of them, got a few trails of one, and this one, I think it looks like a light bulb exploding.

2006-04-28T12:36:00.000-04:00

I was amazed to read this story, The dying sea it disturbs me, I am not a religious person, but for some reason recently I have been drawn to books about the early years of Jesus, and first century AD Israel. I don't think I am getting all religious or anything, I went through an Egyptian phase prior to that, and a Japanese phase before that. I love historical fiction. One book I just finished was Kathy Reichs cross bones, awesome book, I really want to read more of hers now. I am currently reading Lamb

Don't ask me why I ended up here, it seems strange, not really in my line of reading, but I love Christopher Moore books. I have read Fluke, The island of the Squined love Nun and The lust lizard of Melancholy cove. I didn't totally love the love nun, but the lust lizard was hilarious, fluke took me a while to get into purely I think because it was the first time I had read a Moore book. Lamb, well, it's simply brilliant. I have laughed so hard through a lot of it, and I am not yet half way through.

I also ended up reading the Jesus Christ book by Anne Rice. I am a huge fan of Rice, I have read all of the Vampire/witches books. I didn't see how Rice could go from the ghoulish to the religious without losing her charm, but she did, I loved the Christ the Lord I simply wanted more, I would love for there to be another part, her style of writing in the book is beautiful, actually it always is, I still can't quite grasp how I fell for the charms of Lestat in the Vampire books, but I did, and I think the less said about that the better!

I have become good friends with a Lady in my local bookstore, we did a book trade recently, she read all my Sano Ichiro books by Laura Joh Rowland She also got a few other books and read them. I think it's funny how we both like the same kind of books. Our friendship started out when I just couldn't decide what to buy at the store, I was sick of the completely mainstream stuff I had been reading, I wanted something different. Rebecca found lots of books for me to read, I loved all of them.

Anyway, enough about books for now.

The new mystery clues are up, and I can't decide what to use for the green shawl. I might use a pattern from one or two, because nothing pops out at me from the new clues, but I have decided what to use for my purple shawl, so I should go and do some, it won't knit itself!!!

More blabbering

2006-04-27T16:28:00.000-04:00

Not really anything exciting to post again, I just feel like blabbering some, had an odd week, not much of anything though, so whatever...

First I wanted to show the pretty yarns I got a few weeks ago.

Knitpicks merino sweetpeas, paint your own, three yellows from the pallette line and a box of DMC #80 cotton for Princess.

I started two Pi shawls in the mystery Pi KAL, one is using the sweetpeas yarn the other I dyed the paint your own.

This is the sweet peas at clue two.

This is the paint your own at clue two.

The green is being knit on 3mm needles, the purple on 3.75. Here is a comparison piccie of the two together, there is going to be a good difference in size when finished.

Finally a picture of the Princess shawl, here is a close up of a pattern repeat, there is eleven repeats, it's going to be big!

I still haven't got around to blocking Daffodil, but it has to get done by next wednesday.

Pictures coming soon.

I am almost, like 15 rows, done my socks, I can't wait to finish them.

Last week I popped up to gemini fibres in Mount Albert Ontario. What a lovely shop, I so enjoyed my trip up there. Bought some bits and pieces, but most importantly I got The opinionated knitter by EZ.

I finally got around to sitting down and looking through the book yesterday. I started my first surprise baby jacket yesterday, and today it will be finished. I have no doubt I will start another one very soon. I love so much in the book, I am sure I will make many things over and over again from the book. Well worth the money.

Well, it's getting close to dinner time, so I guess I should make some.
More later, the next clue on the mystery KAL is out late tonight/early tomorrow, so I will be busy knitting for the next few days, don't expect to hear anything from me!

Too long

2006-04-17T12:11:00.000-04:00

You would think I had something to say after so long between posts. Well I don't really have much to say, which is actually why I haven't been posting.

I finished the Daffodil, but haven't blocked it. The teen top is finished but needs adjusting. The Unst hasn't been worked on much at all, and I finally got some new yarns, which I have been using, I am making two knit your own mystery Pi shawls on the EZasPi yahoo list. The knit along started on friday, so we only have one clue up so far. I am making a regular Pi, and a PiR2.
Some yarn I ordered was from the UK, 9 balls of #80 DMC cotton thread, it arrived very promptly, but the colour is so far out from the little balls I am currently using for the Princess shawl that I still have to use the wee little 5 gram balls until I get to the laurel leaf break along the top end of the border, which by my reckoning means I need to buy another 5 gram ball, possibly two. I have made progress with that shawl, putting a grand total of 16 rows on it in less than a week. This is progress as there is about 865 stitches per row. There is a total of 220 rows in the border, so I am getting close to the half way point on it. I wish I could remember how many rows to a ball I have been getting.
Anyway, my 20 gram balls arrived, and I really want to get to using them, so have been furiously plugging away at the Princess it is so slow a progress though that it feels that I am getting nowhere. It is very difficult to get a picture of the work in progress as well since it is so large and on straight needles, the longer it gets though, the easier it will be to get a somewhere near decent picture.

I got some paint your own knit picks yarn for the Pi KAL, I dyed it some lovely spring like colours, and can't wait to get to use it on the Pi, I am using a green right now, but will add in the multi colour in the third pattern ring I think. Elizabeth wants the shawl to be hers, so I can't make it too big since she is just a little squid still. Little isn't quite accurate, she is over 4 feet tall, but a Pi shawl can be very big, so I have to keep an eye on how big it is getting.

I also ordered some of the Pallette yarns from knitpicks, I am tempted to do the fairisle pallette cardigan that uses all but the white and cream colours from the pallette line, I got the pattern and a few balls, just to check out the yarn, and it is lovely. So I think I might just order up the rest of the colours, get a start on the cardi early.

I haven't done much spinning recently, the Princess took over, but I plan to get some spinning done this week, I am trying to spin up stuff to put in the guilds shop for the big spring pottery sale, sales are high that weekend. Since our dear friend Ann has been ill the weaving stuff has been severely lacking in the shop. We all need to add in a bit more to fill the empty spaces.

What have I been up to?

2006-03-24T12:58:00.000-05:00

This is a top I am making for Elizabeth for her 8th birthday. It's a teen top, a free pattern from kertzer

I am almost done, half of one strap, all of the other, top and bottom edge on the front, and sewing. Should be done by tuesday, right!

Here is the Unst, it finally has edging on it, only 6 points, but it is edging none the less.

This is a stole I am making in drops Alpaca, I just love this yarn, the pattern is one I am making up as I go along, it's a simple razor shell pattern, all the stole will be this pattern, very simple, but the yarn will show up wonderfully. This yarn is a deep turquoise colour, but has flecks of lighter turquoise in it, I just love it. I plan to go buy more in different colours, soon.....

This is a toe up pair of socks I am making, almost done the foot of both socks now. I am using the Wendy's generic toe up sock pattern.

This is a pair of Estonian mittens I am making for Ron, the yarn is handspun, navajo plied. I am very proud of this yarn, it is really my plying I am proud of, I had only ever tried out navajo plying once before, I still have it, so was amazed at the comparison, the first is all lumpy, this isn't. I know that means my spinning is getting better too, but I think I managed to control the plying a little better too.

Here is Daffodil, by Marianne Kinzel, I am slowly working my way backwards through the modern lace knitting book, I did Rose of England first, then Balmoral, now Daffodil. I love this pattern, and I found some yummy yellow cotton, perfect!

This was it a few days ago.

This was it last night.

I still have 64 rows to go, and already I think I am up at 708 stitches in the round.

We had to take Baby doll to the sick kids hospital yesterday for some tests on her eyes, Not fun at all. I hate hospitals. Katherine was a trooper of course. She always is, makes the doctor work for their money.

While we were in Toronto though I made sure I visited Lettuce knit Well of course I left with something, they have lots of fine yarn there, and the store was only two blocks away from the sick kids hospital, so I didn't have to twist Ron's arm to drive through T.O much. It is in Kensington market as well, I have never been there before, I found it very charming. The lady in the store was super nice. My daughter also found the shop cat Brad I think it's name was. My girls find cats everywhere they go!

This is what I left with though, I got two skeins of Misti Alpaca, wow is this stuff ever nice, I am developing a major soft spot for Alaca. I get very stressed out about Kat's eye condition and all the tests and appointments she has to go to. I am just waiting for the "she needs surgery" before I really break down, but everytime she has an appointment I cry. Poor honey. Now she has to patch for two hours a day, there is only so long I can get her to do puzzles for. She takes about 6 minutes for a 24 piece puzzle, for a three year old I think that's pretty quick, but there is only so many times I can get her to do a puzzle, certainly not enough to fill two hours. Anyone know tricks to get a kid to sit still and watch tv for two hours? She is supposed to use the eye that isn't covered, this will get the muscles working.

All the stress of the day though was soothed over the moment I touched the Misti yarn, ahhhh, better than a coffee and chocolate. Seriously!

Olympic generated knitting funk

2006-03-12T12:13:00.000-05:00

It appears that many people suffered a sort of low, or funk after the olympics ended. I was part of that group. The day it all ended I cast on a shawl, ripped it out, next day, a doily, ripped it out. So I started a pair of socks, which are now finished. I also started a top for Elizabeth, who will be 8 this month, it is almost finished too, just knitting on edges and straps.
No photoies for today though.

I have been doing a lot of spinning, I spun up some lovely black, natural and orange corriedale for some estonian mittens for Ron, his dad was Estonian, so I get to knit him a traditional pair. I am using a pattern from Nancy Bush's book. I will get around to a post about them and fill in the details then.
I am also spinning a lot of mystery fibre, all I know is that it is wool. No idea what kind, so far I have 5 oz's spun, I tried a natural dye from the Spectrum book of dying, this book is a book about dye plants of ontario. My guild has produced the book. Sales have gone well, but there is more.

I dyed with Parsley, and while I was dying I noticed in the footnotes that it was a poor dye. Gee, now I see it...!!!!!%&$^#
Well I agreed about the poor dye, but had to have a stab at an afterbath. I used vinegar as I just can't seem to locate neat ammonia anywhere. Vinegar sharpened up the colour a little but not really much of a change. Next on the hit list is lettuce, spinach and onion skins. I expect more from them after Parsleys poor showing!

My Mom and sister went to Rome last week, I have yet to hear how there trip was, needless so say I was jealous, stuck here in Ontario.

We have a sock!!!!!

2006-02-22T16:54:00.000-05:00

Sock one is finished, will kitchener later when I have two to do...
It looks as if I could get to the Unst after all, maybe a bit of knitting on it anyway.

Full Olympic update.

2006-02-20T23:20:00.000-05:00

I admit it! I took on too much, I won't get all of my projects finished in time, but I will have completed a lot.

To start with I started the Stor rund dug.

This is it on cast on day.

This was it yesterday.

This is it today, in it's final resting place.

I was also to finish the flirty ruffles shawl, I wasn't too far in in the grand scheme of things, I will have to check back as to what row I was on, I know I was mid chart 4, probably row 130 or something like that.

This is what it looked like on cast on day.

This is what it looks like today.

Next up is the jaywalker socks.

Cast on day...

Today

Ok, so it appears I don't have an upto date on them, but here is one from a few days ago, the I just liked the glowing cheerleader, how cool is that!

Finally, a picture of the Unst stole, in its same condition as cast on day.

In a bit of non Olympic news, I finally finsihed the cast off edge on my Anniversary Pi skirt.

Here it is blocking earlier on today.

Quick olympic update

2006-02-16T01:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, no photo's today. I will tell you what is happening with my olympic challenge though. Due to no yarn arriving on cast on day I started the stor rund dug doily, and said I would finish my Jaywalker socks, my flirty ruffles shawl and my Unst stole.

All but one have progressed, infact the stor rund dug is almost finished, the shawl is at about 69% done, and the socks, well still a long way to go.

Back to knitting, Photo's when I feel like I have more time to play at that than knitting.

P.S My yarn arrived on Monday.

I must stop thinking....

2006-02-09T00:53:00.000-05:00

Geez, one day to the big Olympic knit off, and I am stil humming and hawwing over if I should join, what I should knit, my email to Jen at team Canada bounced back, so I didn't get signed up yet, that left me wondering if I should.
No yarn for peacock yet, and I still think I should use the yarn that is on my wheel.
Then I thought..... Geez, I just shouldn't have thought, now I have another idea.

Daffodil, by Marianne Kinzel. I have the yarn, it isn't started, I have the pattern, all I don't have is time. I don't think it is a 16 day do-able. It took me a month to do the Balmoral. I am pretty sure that was a one project piece as well, nothing as filler, no socks, no scarfs, no lace, no other anything!

What would be the point of the challenge if I actually thought it was easily do-able. I think Peacock may be that easy. Daffodil definitely isn't.

I must think more.....

Second sock syndrome begone!

2006-02-07T23:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally managed to get going on my jaywalker socks, determined to make myself a pair of socks, I found a pattern I like, and even more determinedly started both at the same time, cuff for cuff, ankle for ankle, heel for heel, and now turned both heels. It is actually far less tedious this way, and it looks like I will finally complete a pair of socks.
Zellers has been selling off their sock yarn for $1 a ball, so I naturally bought up lots, I think I got 7 or 9 balls, I got some single balls, they will do to make sockies for Baby Doll, she still has wee enough feet to get two socks from one ball, Eliz has monster feet though, she is a size 4 already, she is still 7! I think her feet may end up being biggerer than my boats.

I succumbed to peer pressure, and today signed up for team Canada! My plan is to knit the Peacock shawl by Fiddlesticks. One major problemo though, I only ordered my yarn on sunday, I can't see it arriving in time. My way round this though, is one of two ideas. I don't think I will decide until cast on day though.
First stupid idea, carry on knitting flirty ruffles which I obviously won't have finished before the big day. Cast on as soon as the yarn arrives.
Second stupid idea, I have some singles on the wheel right now, not fine enough if I ply, so would have to stay as singles, and use that for peacock, I think it is do-able with this yarn, only problem with this stupid idea is that there is some very thin spots, and this yarn was destined to finish my Pi shawl.

I have a lot of thinking to do before Friday.

There is one other option, but this is so not going to happen (probably will end being what does happen) I have lots of this acrylic yarn, very fine, that I plied to make the ruffles shawl, very nice blue, but really I don't want to make two from the same stuff, the only reason ruffles is being made of it is because I want something to throw into the car, a carry around shawl, and with two little girls that love to dress up in my shawls, that usually climb all over my poor car in messy shoes, that eat and spill a lot of food in my car, I figured something that could get thrown into the machine was OK! Can't say I am loving the process so much with this yarn, but I love Ruffles so much I have about three other yarns and colourways picked out for it that I will (not) end up doing it in.

Yesterday we got snow, Wierton willy has a lot to answer for. Early spring my bum!

And doesn't baby Doll look happy!!!!!!!!!

She had actually been outside for a long time at that point. Her face was bright red and she just couldn't keep her mitts on anymore.

We actually got about 8 inches of snow, this is the first snow we have had really stay for more than a day since december, in Ontario, that's just freaky.
We of course went out and played in the snow for about two hours, it was fun, alas it wasn't sticky, so no snowmen.

Here are some more pictures from the big event!

This is a picture of the creek at the side of our property. I could hear the water rushing, but could barely see where the water was.

This is the swing set that Daddy built for his two little girls last year, boy was that ever a good build. We already have plans for an extension in the spring.

This is the deck that Daddy built. Isn't he a genius~~~~~~

It just looked so lovely covered in snow.

And finally for today, here is a picture of our latest pet, Maggie, the monster cat!
She came to us the week before christmas, she is 12-14 years old, her previous owner was an elderly lady that had passed on. Maggie is huge, she weighed 21 pounds when she arrived here, and is now at 18-19 pounds. Katherine is only 38 pounds!

As you can see in the picture Maggie is almost the same size as Katherine. Poor baby doll couldn't even pick her up! She is still trying.

A sad weekend

2006-02-05T22:52:00.000-05:00

Ty lost his battle on Friday. Elizabeth had gone to see him in the afternoon, I checked in on them, and found what I thought was my baby girl holding a dead hamster, but he choked out another few breathes, and passed peacefully in my hands.

My sister in law also lost a bird on Friday.

Rest in peace little ones, I hope that the rainbow bridge is all they say it is.

Knitting news, Pi is almost done, and I still haven't figured out how to put up the button! Duh..... I am so dense, I tried once, and got it, then screwed something up and lost it all, then tried again, didn't even get close!

LOL.... one day I will manage it, maybe within the time frame of the KAL.

I started a pair of jaywalker socks yesterday, I am not a sock lover, or a sock knitter, so these bright red socks are definitely for me. I don't mind low ankle socks so much so that is what they will be.

I ordered some yarn from knit picks today, yarn for the peacock, and some sock yarn, I am determined to get into sock knitting, god knows why, maybe to distract me from lace? Won't work, but I will try, and if it fails, well I will have to add it to the stash.

The family have all come down with a lousy cold this weekend, mine is finally starting to clear up, hopefully back to normal tomorrow, but this just capped off what started as a crap weekend!

Balmoral Lives!!!!!!!!

2006-01-30T22:34:00.000-05:00

Balmoral lives!!!!!!!
I took Balmoral off the blocking bed, and it truly is gorgeous, I couldn't be prouder!

And there, look at that, beautiful. Is that not a wonderously beatiful piece of art. I just love the work of Marianne Kinzel. We have been talking about her work on the EZasPi list, and now I have itchy fingers to do another. The daffodil is next up. First though I want to finish my EZ skirt, the Ariel sweater and get to the edging on the Unst stole. I did well finishing up my ufo's and wips before the KAL for EZ started, but I still have quite a way to go before I start many more new ones. Like that will last long........... Maybe tomorrow I will start the Daffodil!

Here is a picture of Ty the hammie, he is such a sweet dude, I feel like I should talk more about him while he is still with us.
He is very young in this picture, maybe 4 months old.

Here is a picture of him from last night, he has changed so much since we first got him. He is very long haired now, but isn't grooming himself much at all now, I have never seen such a long haired hamster.

He fell asleep in my hands a few minutes after I had taken the picture.

Seeking Lace

2006-01-29T22:46:00.000-05:00

Today I went looking for a piece of lace that I knitted a year ago, yesterday I discovered that it wasn't where I thought it was, I ransacked everything looking for it, and had one place left to look, I was very worried, this piece was my Balmoral tea cloth by Marianne Kinzel. I knew I had never blocked it, and thinking I had lost it before I ever saw it's true beauty was disturbing me. So I finally plucked up the courage to look in that one last place. It was there, big sigh of relief!!!!!!!!!! It is now quite happily blocking out on the spare bed.

Ty, one of my Syrian hamsters, is fading slowly, he has very shallow breathing, and he has a clicking noise going on while he breathes, very worrying. He is about 2 years and 3 months old, so quite the old codger. Elizabeth is very attatched to him though, and I know this one going will be very painful for her. I only hope it is quick for him. He is a beautiful tender old man, and always has been a sweet little dude. He was named after Ty the tasmanian tiger, Elizabeth's favourite gamecube game. I took some pictures of him earlier, after I realized that he hadn't had his photo taken in a long time. I had been looking at his baby pictures, I barely recognized him, as a baby his hair was quite short and we never expected his hair to grow to the lengths it did, he now looks like one of those big fuzzy slippers. I have a weakness for sable syrians, and Ty is a banded sable, my only other hamster Woody is also a sable, but not banded so the difference in their colour is quite extreme. Woody is getting quite tufty, but is also getting on to being well past the baby stage, so I don't think he will be a long haired beastie quite like Ty.

I am also finally getting into book 5 of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. The fiery cross is dragging a little, infact most of the books have a little through the first half of the book, but Claire and Jamie are becoming like family, and I just want to know how their story ends. There is a 6th book but still in hardback only I think, so I will wait for the paperback, I already have Digital fortress by Dan Brown lined up next for me to read, I still have about 700 pages of Fiery cross left to read.

Tomorrow I will make an attempt to post pictures of my knitting and of Ty, maybe even woody and the guinea pigs Smudge and Rosco will make an appearance here sometime, and I am sure Maggie and Mini the cats will appear time to time. For now, it is very late, and I need sleep.

I'm getting there.......

2006-01-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

Ok, finally got around to trying some editing on the template of the blog. I was successful to a small degree. Got some blogs I read up. What an achievement! Now I just need to figure out posting buttons, there is a new EZasPi button for the KAL starting tomorrow, and I wanted to add that.

Now, knitting news, well I finished my needle cozy in double knitting, and discovered a major error, about 1/6th into it I must have knitted and purled into one row, and got a solid row, no opening. I think I know how to fix it though, I will be felting the cozy anyway, so any little error won't be too bad, I will just rip out from the bottom and refinish it back from the bottom end. I am going to crochet a chain for a wrap onto it. As usual photo's may follow, but I promise nothing with this one, I am not sure it is going to work out yet.

The Ella shawl is almost finished, just a few more rows to go, and I want to dye it after it is finished. Will post piccie's once it is finished though, pre dying, then post dying.

Right, to photo's, I am going to try posting Piccie's today! Yay!!!!!

I guess I should start with the Lotus blossum shawl. I don't have any fandabidozy pic's yet, but if I get this right I will go outside into the fresh snow, where the sun is shining and try to get some nice pictures, the colours in the shawl only really show in true light.

So here it is, the Lotus Blossum shawl.

Like I said, bad piccie, but it is there non the less, so that is two achievements today!!!! Now to finish my shawl, and I will have a great day.

Got a party to go to tonight, a surprise for a friend, so no knitting tonight, but I will be wearing my sweater girl sweater that I finished last week, it looks great on, and is actually quite warm. The weather is so screwy here in ontario this winter that I never know what to wear if I am going out. Ok, now the sun has gone in, I should have taken the opportunity while it was there. Oh well.

Dear Diary

2006-01-17T20:38:00.000-05:00

I suck at blogging, how lame is that, two weeks since my last half hearted effort.
So Ron had a birthday on the 11th, the dear guy turned 33, he got a lovely sweater hand made by moi, of course, it came out perfect, a better fit couldn't have been found.
Since then I have also finished my Lily Chin Sweater girl sweater, a curly scarf, and am almost finished my second attempt sweater, I wanted this big bulky thing for all the bad weather we get here in the winter, only this year we really aren't getting a bad winter, I am determined to finish it though, it's all in acrylic *shrieks* but if it comes out good this time, I may well make a wool one. I love the pattern though and hope it is worth makiing a 3rd time.

So I have looked around the blogger site for info on stuff for the blog, must say I am at a loss as to what to do exactly, I think I have figured out how to post pictures, which I will do later tonight, maybe, but I am not so sure about editing sidebars. I don't really want to change the template, but I think I might have to just to get a links side bar. My goodness, computer idiocy can be a real pain in the bum.

Talking of bums, I just went to the store to get a loaf of bread, on my first attempt to get to the car I started sliding, and yes, fell flat on my arse!!!!

Well, bum is ok, but I grazed the tips of the fingers on my left hand, they are still throbbing.
We had freezing rain earlier, and while it is now 3 degrees C outside, it is raining which only served to make the ground slippier than snot.....

Anyway, must try to get some knitting done today, so will go now, and try to return with photo's later.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

2006-01-01T16:49:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a fantastic time last night, had fun wherever they were and that this year will be a joy filled year.

On knitting news, I finished the Lotus blossom shawl yesterday and blocked it, it is absolutely gorgeous, when I get around to figuring out how to post pictures here I will do just that.

I have plenty of knitting to get on with now, so that is exactly what I shall do. I have a sweater to make for Ron by the 11th, his birthday, and a sweater for myself, then the Pi KAL starts on 22nd of January. Lots to do......

Again with the blog

2005-12-21T15:14:00.000-05:00

I am so crap at keeping up at blogs I thought I should just start another, try again, this time with a resolution to stick to it.
Yeah, I am kidding myself, but I may aswell try.

I tried the MSN blog, didn't really like it, and most blogs I read are on blogspot anyway, so I thought I would try this.

Back in a while to post something a bit more interesting (a while in myspeak means anywhere between an hour and two months).