Thank you NEredhead!

So, I've been out of commission for a couple of days due to H's dad's 80 b-day party, and a very busy weekend...Sooooo I haven't got a chance to show you this!

I should say up front, that the chocolate is already all gone, so ....sorry, I can't share :-) Really, I'm not joking, the chocolate IS all gone ...and it was TASTY!
This was waiting for me on Friday when I got home from work, how nice is that?!? What a great end to the week! It's from the football swap on Ravelry. My secret swap sender was NEredhead, and she really spoiled me (what a great first swap experience this has been!)
There's a football in Chargers colours (we be Chargers fans in this house). We almost broke a couple of things and so I had to reinstate the no throwing in the house rule,...but we had a lot of fun before things got carried away hahahaha Yes, we are BOTH over 30, but still, we were throwing the football around in the living room!
There was also some dark chocolate M&Ms ..they were tasty...and we ate them too quickly (really you'd think we are both 5 years old!) And there were these really great truffle chocolates called Choxie...yumm! The mint was my favourite, I've never seen them in Canada.
Oh yes! And the yarn! Go figure I've been dying to knit socks lately! And check out this yarn...it is soft...very SOFT...and I love the colours in it! These socks will be for me... :-D I think I will try to pick a pattern and knit them right after I knit the ones for my Christmas gift (and I hope those go well)
Sooo, Here's my sock progress! Thanks for all the suggestions....I decided on Bayerische, because it's beautiful! But, then I got a bit scared by all those charts, and thought perhaps I should try something a weee bit easier for the first pair of socks on tiny needles with tiny yarn, so enter "Mockery" but it's not toe up...... So, I've done the toe of Bayerische, and then started the pattern of Mockery...hopefully I can figure this out..... I definitely want to make Bayerische some day...woo beautiful! But....maybe a couple of pairs from now.
They're maybe a smidge big on me for width, but I do have oddly skinny feet (something on me had to be skinny I guess) so I'm hoping they're not to wide for normal people...also they're not pointy enough on me...but...most people don't have an oddly long second toe turning their foot into some sort of weird arrow...so again...hopefully better on a normal person's foot.
My increases are kinda ugly....but not terrible so I'm keeping them...wish me luck...If I finish these it will be the first pair of fancy socks I've ever made (I've just done thick hiking type socks before)
I can't wait to make some with my new swap sock yarn! Thanks again NEredhead! :-D

Sock Pattern...suggestions?

Ok everyone I bet you’re shocked that I’m posting this much aren’t you. Well, honestly it’s partly because there are no pictures, sometimes it’s the hassle of uploading pictures that stops me from posting (not because it’s difficult, but more because I’m lazy and my pictures are overflowing from this poor laptop). But…whatever…. On to my post

My latest question:

I think I would like to make a pair of socks for a particular person for Christmas. I don’t think she reads my blog but just in case I won’t say who it is. A lady, about 60 years old (I’m totally guessing here, she’ll be really offended if she’s only 57, but rather pleased if she’s actually 65)

I bought some knitpicks essential in the colour African Violet. I also bought some needles size 2.0mm and 2.25mm to try the magic loop method, hopefully one of those sizes will work for me. I’d like to do toe up, and I prefer to do the magic cast on thingy rather than short row (because I had short row hole issues last time I tried…but I’m willing to experiment at bit).

Any pattern suggestions? I’ll look at all suggestions and then hopefully cast on tonight, or sometime this weekend. I would love any input you guys can give me. I’ve never successfully made socks on tiny needles with thin yarn…so this is new for me, but I’d like to do something pretty, that won’t be too boring either.

When do you turn the heat on?

Hi All,

Hope you're all feeling toasty and warm this morning. Things are cooling down here fast!
Actually on the weekend we were wearing t-shirts outside. Now, it's all about the sweaters and jackets. Tuesday was the first really cold day, when we realized that it's officially NOT summer anymore :-( My garden isn't even put to bed yet.

So I ask you all, when do you decide to turn the heat on? Yesterday we came home and it was 65F in the house, we resisted. This morning we woke up and it is 63F.

Edit: I should say...I mean the temperature in the house...outside the house it's been about 38F with a high of a nice balmy 58F. I'm fine with that outside...but...not so much on the inside :-)

So, what is you threshold for flipping the switch? I'm just curious :-D

Happy Friday!

Still at it...

tink, tink, tink, tink

tink, tink, tink,

tink, tink

tink

tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink tink

that's all I have to say today :-p

oh, yeah, and I royally messed up my back on Saturday...thought it was better Sunday, but then today at work I gradually progressed to not being able to move my head...ha! I'm very funny looking....I can't move much...so I'm not going to feel guilty about the pile of dishes in the sink! I'm just going to tink....cuz I can move my arms :-)

Frog!

I don't even have a picture for you, I'm not taking one. I've been working diligently on Harold sweater. I had just started to really see progress, when I realized that the mistake early on that I thought I could live with would bother me forever. I realized this as I was thinking about "the next time I make one of these sweaters I'll do that hem properly, and it will look nice" and "I hope I do the sleeves better" Oh man! I knew I had to rip it, or I just wouldn't be happy with the final product, or the rest of the knitting.

I should have done it before, but it took me so darned long to get through doing that part in the first place that I avoided it. MISTAKE! Now I'm not only redoing it, but I've ripped out hours of work, and I have to try to undo knitting the inside and outside of the them together, and then tink back a row, and then do it all over again. I have 240 stitches a row.

Ok, backup, here's the problem, I knit one of those hems where you do a provisional cast on and then knit 2 inches or whatever, then a purl row, then the front side for 2 inches then unzip the cast on and knit a stitch from the cast on together with a stitch from the outside part. Here's a old picture...before I messed it up:

Anyways, I was right to begin with, I had the two sides even, but then I started knitting the sides together and it seemed like the outside was shorter, and I was afraid that would make the bottom sort of swoop out. So I undid that and knit another row before doing the knitting together part. Well, now that it's a big longer, there is a big pucker on the outside, it's like you can tell there is a seem there, but the inside is beautiful and flat! Grrrrrr. It's the outside that should be beautiful and flat! So, last night I was happily (but not completely happily obviously) knitting along and in one split second I decided I must rip. I yanked the needle out and started pulling.... ugg, you wouldn't believe how long it took me to pull it out....it was just a mean reminder of how long I'd blindly knit refusing to admit the truth because I knew how much work it would be. Oh well, it's not even fully undone yet. I'm so dreading it. I hope I get it done today, but I doubt it. I still have all those k2tog to undo while separating it back onto the 2 separate needles so that I can undo the one side by one row. Did I mention that it's 240 stitches around....

Remind me why I decided I must knit a very large sweater for a man who doesn't wear knits.

Is it winter yet?

I know, you can smack me for saying it if you want to, but really, it seems like summer is completely over, and fall only lasts a week around here, so that means winter will be here before I can blink.

I'm trying to convince myself that it won't be so bad, by thinking of all the comforting things I like to do in winter. For example, this year we have a fireplace. I betcha sitting in front of the fireplace knitting with a hot chocolate will be positively delightful. Annnd, I'm pretty sure this new house actually has insulation in the walls, so hopefully we can afford to keep the house at a nice balmy 69 instead of the 63 we were keeping the old rental place at (65 if it got the point where I couldn't move my hands to knit...67 if we really felt like splurging for an evening, but boy did we pay for it...like stuffing $20 out the window every 10 minutes or so!) So, now if just sprang into my head that I should have knit myself some fingerless gloves (which I was planning on, but never got around to it) ,....now I'm not sure if I'll need the fingerless gloves. Hmmm, maybe just plain old mittens for OUTSIDE, not inside :-)My sweetums turned 38 yesterday. Happy Birthday Harold! (That's a scuba diver on the ice cream cake...what was I thinking...rubbing it in that we haven't got in the water a single time this summer! Grrrr...think Debbie..think! He was very happy anyways...he's good like that :-)

A new home for old yarn....but hubby will still get his socks

OK. So today September 13-08, over a year after I started them. I pulled these (ravelry link) out and started knitting again...

...mostly because I was washing a gauge swatch for H's sweater and had nothing else on the needles....that's right...nothing...not one other project...although I could have taken the time to seam the baby kimono that I finished earlier in the week...I didn't.

I resisted...by trying to cast on a few other things...but in the end, the socks for H are what I'm working on .... I don't like working on them anymore.. I realize that I prefer working with more natural fibers on smaller needles now...hmmm apparently this was not the case before... now..these will be finished, simply so that they are finished.

What am I going to do with all that acrylic yarn that I stashed in the early days?
Well, at knit night on Thursday I asked a few ladies what they thought about doing some knitting for others, we figured if we go for blankets then we know everyone will be at a skill level that they can feel comfortable with the projects, and if we do it in squares then it's not to overwhelming for anyone.

So, I think next night night I'm digging out my box of odd balls of yarn and old afghan acrylic that I don't want for anything and everyone can grab whatever they fancy and knit away. Any old pattern block they choose. Maybe we'll have another night for sewing them all together (because that is not my favourite part :-) I looked up a couple of places that accepts knit donations in our city, I think we decided on one. Woo hoo, we're hoping to have some things to send on time for Christmas.

Drops 95-9 in brown silk

I just realized that I hadn't even blogged this top yet! Well, I think that's because I was hoping to get a picture where I was actually wearing makeup and had not just slept on my hair :P

But whatever, here it is. I've actually worn it several times (and even got some compliments). Harold says it might be his favourite of the things I've knit.It is growing though, which has me a wee bit worried. It's longer now that it was in this picture...but ooohhh soooo comfortable. It's like wearing pyjamas...but it looks more decent in public :-) If I was to knit this again I would go down a needle size...and I was sort of wondering about that as I was knitting, but to be perfectly honest I was just too darned lazy to do anything about it, and well, the result is still pretty pleasing to me...so no harm done.

I'm almost done a little baby kimono, then I think I'll finally cast on for H's sweater, which I was going to do immediately after I got the yarn in the mail...funny...I'm pretty sure I ordered that around March or April...but it's still sitting in a box :-)

Post Number 100!

Betcha it took me waaaay longer than it took Jen :-)

I don't usually post card pictures...but these ones I'm really happy with. They are made using tutorials from Michelle . Seriously..even I can make nice cards following her instructions...so nice of her to help us all don't you think! The one with the flower is supposed to be a leaf floating in water...I don't have a leaf so I used a flower..I still like it :-)
Here's the baby surprise jacket I finished knitting on vacation, I haven't seamed it up yet, or added buttons. I'm sure I get around to that eventually :-)
..but for now..it's much more fun to just keep right on knitting, I'm working on a baby kimono now...and I'm loving it. I really like this cotton, and the colour striping was going so nicely...no pooling even...but then...wait for it....yep...when I started increasing it messed up the colour sequences so there is now pooling in the back of the arms...especially noticeable is the cream coloured patch at the back of the neck...doh! and I was so happy with how it was coming along up until that point....
So, here's a question, what does everyone else do when that happens? I just keep right on knitting an pretend that it's not there...but I'll always see it...oh yes...I will. Do you fix it in some way that I don't know about...are you all very clever..if so...let me know please...there are a lot of babies on the way, and this is a pretty quick and fun knit..so help me ....heeelp meeeeeee!

Ok, must calm down...awww yes...the Muskoka chairs from vacation..remembering reading and relaxing and drinking coffee on the deck...
Oh...and another favourite spot...the hammock...nice for naps..although...a bit of a mosquito buffet if you go there too early in the morning...eek!
Now, I'm off to go soak in a bubble bath, and read my book :-) Goodnight all!

Back from the cottage

I always love going on road trips with Harold. It reminds me of dating him again (hehe). We spent so much time in the truck going to dive sites when we were first together, but not as much in the last year. I think one of my happiest places on earth is in the truck, on the road, doing some knitting while we head off on some trip that will involve hours and hours of driving. This time there was no diving involved...not that we didn't try....but the drive was still fun.We met up with some of the family at Webers on the way. It's a hamburger place on Hwy 11 that they've always stopped at. I hadn't been there until last summer. This year it gave me horrible stomach pain...ugg..I was in pain by the time we got back to the truck....

Strangely enough, when we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some Tums, I found the book I'd been wanting to read..but hadn't managed to get ahold of before we left. It was their last copy...I grabbed it...and some Tums!There was a whole lot of book reading this week. It was great. I also did a lot of swimming, and napping :-) and even some knitting (I can't seem to upload any more photos...so I'll post them later)

Only one campfire the whole week! But it was nice...and I ate some marshmallows :-)
I went for a little canoe around an island and back with Harold. This actually isn't us in the picture....if you notice...most of the pictures with me in them involve me looking rather goofy because I'm trying to hold the camera and take a picture with me in it...That's because I'm the only one who takes billions of pictures...so I usually have lots of pictures of everyone else's fun..but very few pictures of my own! This is Harold's brother, sister in law and neice...I thought I'd just throw it in there...because you really can't tell the difference :-)
By the end of the week, I missed our home soooo much. Today, I'm glad to have had the week with family...but I'm so glad to be at home again. It was a nice trip away.. and ...I have tomorrow off!

pdf sharing...easy!

Well, we just got back from vacation and I have lot's to share :-) I even did some knitting...but mostly reading...

anyways...I just thought I'd share something completely unrelated first. I had a comment come through on the post where I gave my Grandma Telford's slipper pattern, about posting a pdf version. (I didn't publish the comment because it had an email address in it). So, after contacting the commenter...she told me about box.net . You can sign up for a free lite account and upload your files, then just paste a link to them in your blog. Woo hoo! Finally...an actual pdf file, and it was so easy I did it in less than 5 minutes. Thanks Karen!

Yippeeeeeee

Happy almost Vacation!

I'm off next week, we're going up north to a cottage...I can't wait! The whole family is going, (well Harold's whole family).

I've finally finished my brown silk top (no pics yet...silly camera batteries are dead! Must buy more batteries before vacation!), and I'm working on a baby surprise jacket and that is it!!! You know what that means! I get to cast on something new! I'm so excited I really can't narrow down the choices! hehe

I'm thinking...my lacy little top, or a baby kimono, or a tomten jacket, or harold's sweater, or buy a big long circular needle and try to figure out magic loop with some new sock yarn, or a few fun washclothes one of the kit's of baby girl or baby boy sweaters or the tank top that I got at mary maxim. Hmmmm...

any votes?

I've actually finished something

This is another girl guess for my friends who are having a baby in December, and waiting to find out the sex. Both patterns are from a little booklet I picked up in the grocery store a year or so ago. The hat is "Faux fair isle hat" from Lesley Edmondson, and the booties are "Mary Jane Booties" from Lucie Sinkler. They are both very easy and quick patterns.


Lamby was pleased to model them for you :-) She is not part of the gift....oh no....I could never give her up....she is mine :P

Fresh garden salad, and the lonely bootie...

I hadn't planned on taking a picture of part of our dinner. If I had, I would have used the blue bowl (nicer colour contrast) but as I looked at this salad I was rather pleased that it all came from my garden, and that seemed to make it look tastier (ranch dressing helps too!)

Have I ever mentioned my food scale and how much I love it. I use it all the time in the kitchen, but also, occasionally for yarn. Here are the booties I've been working on. Actually I started and finished the one while I was in Philadelphia, but didn't think I had enough yarn left to make the second so I never cast on. Also, I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it's kindof huge. Maybe I'm delusional about the size of baby feet, but seriously this thing looks like it would fit a 2 year old (I made the three to six month old size, and even used suggested yarn weight, although not exact yarn I substituted worsted weight cotton for worsted weight cotton which the pattern says is totally acceptable, and used the suggested needle size...no actual gauge was given). So maybe I am baby size delusional.

Anyways, the weight of the booty and extra yarn is 22g.The finished (but not seamed) booty is 15g....uh-oh...Yes, as suspected, (like I needed the scale when it was this obvious) the remaining yarn is only 6 grams. :-( A forever lonely booty.
Since these little projects are just my "guesses" for a friend who is pregnant, but waiting till birth to find out the sex of the baby, I thought I might just seam up the single booty (or bootie, I couldn't figure out what the correct spelling was of the single form of booties) and maybe fill it with some baby stuff, like maybe a pacifier, or a little washcloth, perhaps a knit washcloth...I already made a hot pink baby bib, that was my "girl" guess, so now this is my "boy" guess. What can I make next? I'm working on a couple of other things, but they're longer term, and I need lot's of super quick, (and inexpensive...dishcloth cotton or stash busters are perfect) little things to make and keep giving every month(ish) I've fallen behind...this is only my second thing and she's almost 1/2 way there!

Our house

I thought I would share a few pictures of our new house...sort of a photo tour...since the knitting is coming along so slowly (but really, I'm only 4cm from the underarms of my brown silk top...then I knit the sleeves and join it all together and should be almost done!...someday :-)

Here is our house from the street. I took this about a month before we moved in, because I wanted a picture with the sold sign on it.So, when you walk in the front door, there is a fairly large entrance with the closet and stairs right in front of you. A little further in and to the left is the small bathroom, another closet and the garage door.
If you keep going straight (don't turn left for the bathroom) then you end up in the open space of the livingroom/kitchen/dining area. Here's the first thing you see. That's our new couch and chair...I looooove them! So comfy, and I've wanted brown leather forever!

While you're standing in the entrance to the living room you can also step left into the kitchen...this view is from the other side, of my sweetie doing the kitchen clean up for us :-). The archway is right beside the fridge.

See it's all sort of open. He was really not enjoying my photographic tour. :PLittle kitchen table area with the patio doors to outside are right "behind" the kitchen and beside the livingroom.
This little area is sort of directly behind the couch and chair. It's a long narrow room, the couch and chair are set to look at the corner fireplace (that's the reason for the strange angle) and the TV is on top of the fireplace. I thought I would make the area by the windows a little reading area. The furniture doesn't quite give that feeling, but someday (a long long time from now) they'll be replaced with something that screams "turn the tv off and come sit and read...or KNIT". My plants by the way, seem to be loving that location, it's such a nice bright room.
I just realized that I only took pictures of the main floor..ha! We DO have bedrooms and an office (3rd bedroom made into office) upstairs.
Anyways, on with the tour! If you look out those windows by the reading chairs, or step out the patio doors from the eating area you end up here, on the back deck. It is shaped the same as the back of the house, and I find it rather interesting in a good way. The previous owner left all sorts of scraps of wood, old garden tools, bags of half saturated concrete sand etc stuffed under the deck. It will take us a while to get everything cleaned up and looking the way we want, but it will happen...one thing at a time. :-)
And lastly, here is a view from the back deck, out into the back yard. It's a decent size, much bigger than most of the houses we looked at. The lots in town now are very small. So, we are right in town, but if you look behind you see all those trees! That's because directly behind our back fence is a paved path that leads to the (mostly) city wide multi-use path system, for biking, walking, running, rollerblading etc. There is a ravine that runs just in behind those trees, and the path meets up the the Thames river and weaves it's way along beside it for much of the distance. (The Thames river unfortunately is so heavily polluted that you wouldn't even want to stick your baby toe in :-( I really miss living by the St.Laurence river back home, where I could just jump in...but, at least the Thames is still pretty to look at)And that concludes my photo tour. We still have to paint almost the whole house, as the previous owners were pretty tough on the paint job, there are marks everywhere, and I'm not hanging pictures until that's done. So it's pretty bare looking...but starting to feel more homey everyday :-)

Counting small successes

Here are some pics of my square foot gardens. I followed the book directions pretty closely, except that I couldn't get vermiculite in anything larger than an itty bitty bag, so I had to substitute perlite. I know, how disappointing but it was that, or forget about the whole thing! I think it's turned out rather well. Except for the pesky earwigs, ewww gross, why oh why are there so many earwigs, and why do they want to eat all our food!?!?!

Here is some lettuce, spinach, panseys (just cuz I like them), and carrots. I have a few extra squares open now because we've harvested the radishes, and I moved the two big tomato plants to separate planters....I've got to get around to planting those extra squares, it would probably only take me 5 minutes..ha!

The cucumbers and sugar snap peas are climbing...
Close up of the sugar snap peas, they are just starting to appear since I got them in a little late.
Some beafsteak tomatoes, these plants I started from seed, so I'm super hopeful for them.

More lettuce, this grand rapids variety has done really well, much better than the iceburg which seems more delicate in the July heat
The start of the green peppers, I've got a lot of little beginnings on the red bell peppers too, these plants were purchased, I tried to start from seed but had no luck.
Some tomato blooms, I'm soon to be overrun by tomatoes I think...I'm ok with that :-)
The first of the cucumbers to be harvested, these are a pickling variety, I picked up the plant for 49 cents, along with an english cucumber plant because I was worried that the ones I started from seed wouldn't survive, turns out, they all did..ha! I don't even know how to make pickles :-)
The first english cucumber, hopefully there will be more where this one came from.

Yes, more cucumber blossoms, I can't begin to tell you how many cucumber blossoms there are!
The first roma tomatoes, and there are lots of them, all green still, but lots of them...these are the ones for sauce, but I'm not sure which type I'm supposed to use for salsa...anybody know?
Here's a view from the back deck, two large roma tomato plants in huge planters, then two square foot garden boxes, complete with supports and chicken wire cages to keep the squirrels out. I have more of a squirrel problem than a bunny problem so far...pesky black squirrels, they've not found their way around the chicken wire thankfully, and we have far less a this house than at the last place.Well, that's my garden tour. :-) I've got a few house pics for you too...but I thought I had better save those for another post :-D

Thank you Jen!

So, when we picked up the mail yesterday there was a key in the mailbox, a key for a different larger parcel box mail box. Imagine my excitement. I love getting mail (good mail...no..no more bills!). We're still getting used to having one of those big mailbox units at the end of the street with everyones little box in it. Anyways, enough ramble!

Inside the box was a birthday and new house gift from Jen, my knitting buddy and literary advisor ;-) She picked two books for me (I've loved all the suggestions so far), along with a letter telling a bit about where she came across them and why she liked them. This is so cool!
And look what else she included! How cute is this bag, I love it, and I have nothing (NOTHING) that is anything like this, and I have really noticed it lately and started searching for just such a thing....spooky almost isn't it...heheheeh now I'm just silly
Just look at the inside fabric, and how similar it is to the new wall colour I painted in the office. The fabric is a bit richer, and a bit more blue... but it's pretty close.
Here is a shot of it done up, I love (love a lot) the bright swirly fabric, what a great gift! Thank you sooo much Jen, you rock! :-D
On a smaller note, I went for a walk with H after dinner tonight, the local multi-use path system runs just behind our house so it's wonderful. Look what I found on the way back. I have never ever seen one that I can remember in my entire life, but here is it, a four leaf clover. I wasn't even looking really, I just sort of glanced through for a few seconds and it caught my eye.
I thought this extremely special, but then a few minutes later, my hubby found a 6 leaf clover..now who's ever heard of that, and what sort of mutating pesticide are they using around here :-)
For the record I still think my four leaf clover is more special, because clearly the six leaf clover is just two that somehow got stuck together at birth :P

We've moved!

Well, we're finally moved...I've found my camera...but not the batteries..oh well.

We've painted one room, the one that was really REALLY bad, it's now a nice extremely bright..or dark...depending on the sunshine teal colour. H actually really likes it. (I'm a little surprised actually...pleasantly surprised...I just kept saying all the time...it's just paint, so if you don't like it we can just paint over it.... phew...no painting over..the bright happy teal is staying!)

I'm actually not that adventurous with colour, the bedrooms are one thing, but the rest of the house will be more neutral...cuz am a colour scaredy cat!

Well, it turns out I can't write much more...hubby wants help putting the new lawn mower together, I told him that if he pulled my car out of the garage (YES, WE HAVE A GARAGE!!!!) then I would meet him in there and help him wrestle it out of the box :-)

...but...between unpacking and setting up..I should actually be able to say hi online, since we now (as of yesterday) have internet and television hooked up ...woo hooo... (I'm far move excited about the internet than I am about the television :-)

Oh yeah, and I actually knit like about 2 rows yesterday...first knitting I've done in I think WEEKS now...uggg..I miss knitting...and I totally broke my one knit at a time thing...so I feel completely unproductive.....so...no more NEW knits until these 3..or maybe 4 projects are done...then ..back to only one or two (max) things at a time :-D let's see how long it holds this time....

I'll be back soon!

:-D