Sloooow goin'

What a crazy person am I?!? I actually thought I could be done this sweater by now!As you can see, I've made very little progress :-( Not that I'm having any problems with it, just that I've had nearly zero time to knit. This whole week I only got one row done...and it was a purl row grrrrrrrr.

Anyways, my sweetums (hehehe) had to go to the doctor yesterday for that pesky hanging on hacking cough, and I got a whole 5 rows or so knit in the doctors waiting room. Can you believe that I thought of 5 rows as some sort of major accomplishment?!?!!?
Oh well, hopefully life will slow down a bit. I do realize that it's summer and I'm knitting a wool cardigan...but...I work in an over air-conditioned atmosphere....so...I think I'll still get the occasional use....or...so I tell myself to make it less painful!

I really want to knit my lacey tank top...which I started nearly two years ago...I think I did one or two lace repeats and that was it....I think I'll rip it out and start again...but I must finish this cardigan first!!!! And there is also that something red summery cardigan from knit and tonic....oh now wouldn't that be nice for summer!

Trouble is...I knit too darned slow...my sweater get done in July, and my tanks get done in February....doh!!!!!!

and we're back!

Wow, that's a lot of water....yep...a lot hmmmm
This was the view from our room in Niagara Falls. It was beautiful! I took this picture this morning when we woke up...at like 6:30am!!!! Yes!!!! On a day that we could have slept in!!! Don't worry though, I was up for about an hour, then declared it time for a nap...8am and I'd already gotten in a 1/2hr nap...how's that for efficient :-P
We ended up taking the whole tour thing, I've never done that before, but it seemed the easiest way to make sure that we didn't waste all our time there deciding what to do. The butterfly conservatory was by far my favourite. Sorry, no picture of that illusive blue butterfly, who knew that they folded up they're wings to reveal plain old brown when they landed....no wonder! I bought a postcard of it on the way out! These are a few of the butterflies that I could ACTUALLY get a picture of....



After the butterfly conservatory we stopped at the aviary. I think this is my favourite picture from there, I did get a few decent bird pictures....but I was actually more impressed with the overall atmosphere and feel of the place than I was with any particular bird...
And here's my sweetums with a gigantic wooden moose at our lunch stop!
After lunch we saw the IMAX, and then went up the Skylon tower....it was winnndy...but a fabulous view of the falls...yup...that's me, being nearly blown right off the edge....ha!
And back in our room after a long day of fun, here's my sweetums doing what he loves most.
And same for me, ....working on my sweater....now...if only I could have figured out how to knit in that hot tub without getting my yarn all soggy :-)

Up to here...

Well, here's my sweater progress up to here. Last night we were out all night, but I really wanted to get those sleeves divided out...so there I was in bed till 1am dividing for the sleeves, (then I had to knit a row of course). I just really wanted to have them separated, in case I actually get a chance to knit in the car on the way to Niagara Falls, I didn't want to be transferring stitches in the car...no no no...bad bad bad...I just want to knit, but there's laundry, and dishes, and showering lol, man, too much to knit.....not enough time to actually sit down and do it...what am I doing typing....I've gotta go knit....no actually...I'm still packing...don't get to knit yet :-(

Off to Niagara Falls

..for our first anniversary. Oh, how I hope the weather improves!!! Right now it's a freezy, sleety, rainy mess!

We both took Thursday and Friday off from work. So, we'll be sleeping in tomorrow morning!!!! Then, we're going to go to Red Lobster to re-create our wedding dinner (sort of....wedding dinner was amazing steak with lobster, in Cuba....I've never been to red lobster...but I hear it's good).

This all has to take place after we actually pack by the way!!! And I still have to do laundry first..hahaha...oh well, it's supposed to be relaxing...so...I'm not going to stress about it!

I must remember to bring my sweater!!!! What could be more relaxing than that?!?!?!!?
I'm addicted to knitting this sweater...I've been at work thinking about it. All I want to do is come home and knit...but...I've got all these other commitments....in the evenings too...ack!!! I just want to kkkkkknitttttttt!!!!

I think I'm back in my "love for knitting stage" would you agree :-)

Looks like spring...but it's frigid!

At church on Sunday my secret sister left me these potted flowers. They're for Easter, and for our anniversary. Can you believe it. If you saw a wedding picture of my bouquet, there are flowers almost exactly like this in the bouquet! What a perfect anniversary gift! :-) My secret sister is just FABULOUS!!! :-)
And this little guy! This was a free plant, that was left over from when I TA'd a first year biology lab course, this thing hasn't stopped blooming since November, I've never had plants bloom for me, I'd never even had a spider plant get those little babies before, now you should see my spider plant, and well, this little primrose speaks for itself....what's happening here?!?!?! Perhaps there's hope for my cold black thumb yet.....

Cardigan - progress, sock - standby...

Well, I've actually made some progress on my sweater. I really love this colour more everytime I work with it. I think it really WILL go with everything.
This was from my yesterday knitting. We had Easter dinner with the fam, and I got to knit some rows between playing with baby Sienna on the floor, she doesn't do much, but boy does she "talk" now. It's so fun, I could just stare at her for hours. It reminds me of when Brooklynn (neice) was that little.
Here is my sock, my first tiny needle short row sock. I made a pair of toe up socks for a friend a while back, and I absolutely LOVE knitting them from the toe up, but, I've never knit something with such small needles and thin yarn, and, I've never done short rows. I'm having trouble with holes again! What's with me and giant holes in my knitting?!?! Anyways, I ripped the sock toe out once, because on one side there were holes everywhere I had turned. One side was fine, one side was full'o'holes. I still haven't figured out what I did. Anyways, I'm about ready for the heal and I'm nervous....what if the holes return?!!? (play scary frightening music here )(I'm using "Wendy's toe-up sock pattern" which I think I found from the knitty website, and "Dancing" sock yarn from knitpicks....I like it ....it's elastic-y)

And here's a pic of branching out (with lot's of mistakes). I finished it early in the winter and wore it almost everyday. The yarn I picked was obviously not the recommended choice, but that's what I wanted. It's a fuzzy alpaca, and it was so soft. I actually bought the yarn first, because I'm obsessed with the idea of actually owning a couple of real alpacas (and seriously, maybe a sheep, couple of goats, perhaps an angora bunny or two, we are, after all, going to build out by the family farm,.....someday.... ) and wanted to make sure I wasn't allergic, I might be mildly so, but don't expect me to admit that to anyone.
It looks all mis-shapen because I actually taped my scarf to the front window in order to see the pattern, lol, and found many more mistakes than I knew about, but, there's the joy of using the wrong yarn, it also hides all my mistakes, the bottom pic is the same scarf, all smushed up on a chair so you can see the colour of the yarn. (It was also from knitpicks).

Whew, 4:30ish on a holiday Saturday....sounds like nap time to me :-) zzzzzzzzzz

Off to a very enjoyable start

Here is my progress, as it sits this morning, not too far, but none-the-less, I'm fairly pleased. I'm finding this sweater relaxing and enjoyable to knit. Almost soothing I dare say! This is a very nice change from anything else that I've done lately. The quilt stressed me out a little. I don't like it when things don't turn out the way they looked in my head. The quilt I'm happy with now, but I had to borrow Harold's mom's sewing machine, because mine does not like thick fabrics, and it chooses to destroy them rather than sew....not relaxing...not in the least..
Oh, how I love this pattern!


I started out using my little stitch marker rings, but they're too thick, and the yarn has to wrap out around them and can't pull very tight, so it leaves a loose part, and I ended up with a hole on all my increase points. See the holes?I really DON'T like those holes, I considered ripping it out and starting again, but, it's only for the first 6 rows or so, plus, I'm supposed to be working on relaxing my craziness, and I think leaving the holes and letting them even out on their own is one of the first steps :-) Now I'm using plain old snippits of yarn tied in loops for my stitch markers, and it works just fine. That'll teach me to try and be fancy!Now there's my pretty nice, but hole inducing stitch markers.....you can't see the holes in this picture but they're there,...oh yes....they're there!
I'm using knit into the front and back of the stitch for all my increases, I wasn't sure if this was the right one to use for this, or if it would make things look all funny and unsymmetrical, but it's definitely my favourite increase, so, I'm trying it...if it looks really crappy, I WILL rip it all out.....but...hopefully sooner rather than later. I'm curious to know what other people use for increases like this. I know how to pair my decreases (kind of...but I usually do it the opposite way accidentally, so I get little feather looking things...does that make sense)...but not my increases I really always use this one...I find it so much easier than anything else. Any suggestions?

It's been a long, long time comin'

Well, Finally I can add a picture!

Here is is....my secret surprise project. I'm so glad it's finally finished. I tied off the last stitch on Tuesday night, waaaay past my bed time, but I really really wanted to finish it. I can't believe I started this quilt in November, when I took a bit of time off before starting my job.And here is one of the BIG reasons that it took me so long, all that blanket stitch. I've never done that before, and I'm pretty sure that the stars will unravel and the embroidery floss will bleed all over on the first washing, and I'll probably cry, BUT.....babies can still puke on quilts with crooked stitches and unravel-y stars and mismatched seams right....RIGHT?!?!?!
I was going to embroider both her name and also her birth date, but I really have no idea how to embroider, and by the time I finished her name, there was just no way I was going to do any more :-)It's almost a little bit irritating, I love this purple bug fabric that I used for the backing so much. I found it in my fabric stash, so it didn't even cost me anything. The annoying part is, that I think it looks a nice as the front....and do you know how much EASIER IT WAS!!! LOL
This is my favourite star background fabric, had to give a close up of a couple of my favs, and you know it's really weird because as I'm typing this sentence the flowers on the snail shell in the picture above are doing a weird optical illusion shifty thing. If this stops making sense or contains too much bad grammar and horrible spelling mistakes, then I'm blaming the shifty snail for messing with me. Hmmmm, shifty snail.....I hopefully will see baby and fam tomorrow and can give them the quilt then, I'm so excited!!! And I really can't believe I thought I would have this done by the time she was born, I'll be giving it to her 2 days before her 3rd month b-day! Yep, I'm speedy....Still going to blame the shifty snail!

(the pattern was from a quilting magazine I bought a few years ago, it's called Stars and Moon, and it's in the March/April 03 No.90 issue of Quiltmaker, I left off the border)

It's been a long, long time comin'

Wow, finally finished.... and I have some lovely (well, I think lovely) pictures to show...but I can't seem to upload them on blogger, my connection just won't stick...is there something happening that I don't know about???