Creative Juices

First, I must start out with that today I'm very proud of myself. About 2 weeks ago I was at the mall (or at least I think it was the mall, I can't quite remember) I saw a watch that was made out of shells and I instantly fell in love with it. Now since I can't remember where I even saw this watch, the ideas started spinning, I needed to have this watch or one just like it. We took a trip out to the dollar store bright and early this morning (since Paisley had me up at 6am) and I got myself some shell beads which were apparently "genuine" and some beading elastic as well as numerous other things that you end up getting when you go to the dollar store that you did not intend on purchasing. After we got home, I went through my jewelry to see if I had any old watches that may be suitable for my little project and this is what I came up with. I'm so thrilled with how it came out looking. I wish I could show you the one I saw originally.

We also stopped off at Shopper's Drugmart on our little trip this morning and Paisley decided on the lunch bag that she wants for school. Now...I am not often sucked in to gimmicky stuff like Bratz, but this little bag was just too cute to pass up on. *LOL* I think it was the little skulls with the red bows in their hair that did it for me so I immediately had to say yes to my darling little girl. Spoiled...I think?
I'm so lame, I actually had to take a picture of the thing.

One more thing. I had to return stuff to the Hamilton Public Library today and on my way out I find an old beehive knitting booklet with patterns in it, so for 25 cents I bought it just to have in my collection.

The blanket is coming along, I should be finished it within the next day or 2. I ran into a few minor problems, but Rhonda bailed me out and got me back on track yet again. Thanks again!!

Well, I guess that's it for me. We're off to Owen Sound for the weekend. hopefully we can hit the beach this year (unlike last month, last year or the year before that). We also have a family reunion on Sunday for Ron's family in Fergus, so it should be a pretty busy weekend. I really looking forward to getting away though because I worked 7 days in a row straight right over this long weekend past and then today was my only day off and then I'm back in tomorrow night. Pheeeeww, I need a break. Lately, there's been a lot of drama at work too so I want to get away from all that.

Okay..I'm off now... off to bed that is.

zzz zzz zzz

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A sneak peak!

At last! Some knitting to share. I have been working on a blanket by Marie Grace Designs. Rhonda just finished this blanket for Samantha, it's the one that starts at the center on four needles and eventually you change to circulars. It's knit around in a circle and you end up with a square at the end, amazing!!! :-)

I haven't be able to work on it for a few days because I'm still trying to figure out why I have 100 stitches in between one set markers and all the rest have 101 (which is what they all should have), maybe I missed an increase or something. It's frustrating though because I just want to work on the damn thing, the pattern is one of those addictive ones.

There's something about knitting in the round that seems to make it progress quicker too....

I have some good news to share....

Remember back in January when I posted about my DH getting permanently laid off from his job of 5 years? Well, all these months he's been on EI, trying to get government help to go back to school. The process of it all is quite a lengthy one (some may get frustrated during) because he started his mission back in March and it stuck with it. He finally got a call last week saying they will cover the cost of the program he wants to take, yay!!!! He's going to get his A-Z truck license and no, this does not necessarily mean he will be on the road all the time, there is alot of option available in this field because there is such a demand for drivers. I'm so proud of him, all I wanted him to do was find a job that he could enjoy instead of going back to some stinky factory to be miserable for a lifetime or to get laid off again the way manufacturing is going these days. If all goes well, he should be starting school on Monday or the next Monday after. It's a 6 week program and he should be working by September (hopefully). :-)

If you're a Canadian citizen, unemployed, on EI and going through the motions of trying to get help to go back to school, my advise to you it to just stick with it. It does happen for some so just tough it out, even when you're frustrated and it is not looking hopeful. It just takes time, unfortunately a long time.

Well, that's it for now. Everyone enjoy the rest of your day!

Wow Samantha, I have been a slacker. Geeezz!! It's been over a month since I've posted anything. My excuse is ligit, I've been working ALOT these days (5 days a week) and spending alot of time outdoors and we also bought a pool pass for the family.

I have no fun knitting content as of late to show, so instead I'll post some fun pictures from our long weekend in Owen Sound. Most of these pictures were taken a place called Story Book Park just outside of Owen Sound. Ahh, childhood nostalgia

My sister is expecting again in January, so I will have baby knits to show for very shortly. I'm very excited about this news because I have never knit a blanket before, so oohh boy is it ever gonna happen. At the end of July, early August we should know the gender and that's when the fun is really going to begin. (I want a niece, girls are fun to knit for).

Rockin' with my socks out!

Just a quick post to say that I finally found a pattern to knit my friend Becky's socks. The yarn and pattern look just freakin' awesome together, I'm so impressed! I've also finished a pair for my sister (the not-so secret birthday socks) in the same yarn but a different colour and both suited this pattern really well! I don't want to ruin the surprise too much for my sister so I will hold back from putting a picture of them up until after I give them to her. The pattern is one that I borrowed from Rhonda called Horcrux Socks. The yarn I'm using is Invicta Extra by Scheepjes (on 2.5mm needles) and I'm finding it really nice yarn to work with.

Still Knitting!

Wow!! It's been a while since my last post. :-) I'm still here and still knitting!!

I'm working on secret birthday socks. I have one of them completled and almost to the heel on the next. The pattern's a breeze! I think my friend Bex will be getting her socks sooner then she thinks now. I'm still working on the sweater too!!

My parents finally came for a visit about 2 weeks ago. They brought a birthday present(btw,lol my b-days in March) from my Grandma (she mailed it to my parent's place because she lives in Quebec). It was a box full of yarn, all differnt colours. I also got a really nice gift from my brother's girlfriend's Mom, it had a teapot, tea and chocolates in a really nice, BIG basket. I know a few weeks ago on Rhonda's blog, she was asking to see everyone's baskets. Now I know it's late, but I'm posting mine. I also got myself a little purse at work and guess what???? It's a basket too, I thought it was so cute and summery and perfect for socks!!

Paisley's been getting right into summer these days with sidewalk chalk and rocking out on the guitar just like her daddy. We've also been eating outside alot on my new patio set that I got for mother's day. I've been knitting there too. :-)

I've got new Stitchmarkers!!!!!

First off, I would love to thank the ladies who made my stitch markers.

Robyn (letters) and Leigh (b&w ones) made these ones, aren't they lovely??

Barb made these ones! The tea was a nice touch. Thanks!!! :-)

Karine made these beautiful markers!

I'm still waiting on one more set coming from someone out there! Hopefully I will get them soon.

As for the one's I made and sent out, here they are! I was pretty happy with they way they turned out because this was my first time making stitch markers. I did have a tiny bit of help though (credit where credit is due), Ron helped me twist the wire just right. What a nice husband! :-)

I currently have another pair of jaywalkers on the needles, actually they're almost done. Ohh, I can't wait to wear another new pair of socks. Mmm mmm!! Two very different socks, yet the same, gotta love it. After the socks are completed, I'm going to get back to the sweater and finish those arms. :-)

A few weeks ago Paisley asked for (more like demanded) slippers, so I went surfed the net in search of a pattern for slippers. Finally I found a pattern from Knitting at Knoon and this is what I came up with. The pattern is family of slippers. Of course now that I knit her slippers, she doesn't want to wear them! I still think they're cute. :-)

Fudge.

Have you ever experienced failure in everything you've casted-on for?? Lately that seems to be the case for me! Arrrg.

Tierra was going along beautifully! I have the front and back finished and I think it looks fabulous, but unfortunately I've cast-on for my sleeves 3 times now and it doesn't seem to be working. I don't know what to do now because I really want to finish the sweater. I've already come so far! The sleeve just seems like it's going to be waaaay to big even on the smallest size given (unless I'm just not understanding the pattern quite right, but it seems like it's knit up from the cuff and then it decreases at the top to fit the shoulders).

Being anxious to knit SOMETHING for now, I got my sock needles out, my green birthday sock yarn that I got from Rhonda and the Embossed Leaves pattern and started to cast on for them. I don't think I even knit 3 rounds and Riiiiippp, and I did that about 3 times until I finally called it quits for the night and came over the computer to vent it all out on my blog!!!!!!!

What's a woman to do??

Unto something a little less melancholy.

I hope everyone had a great Easter/long weekend!!

On Saturday we finally painted the ceramic eggs that Ron made out of poly-fill, it was a really great family event. Ron even painted a golden egg with the year painted on it, too funny. The multi-coloured ones are Paisley's eggs.
Later that night, Ron and I enjoyed some not so child friendly television. We watched the 1/2 of seasons 3 & 4 of Viva la Bam. Quality tv if you enjoy laughing so much you may have to pee. It's not for everyone though. :-)
Paisley was so excited Sunday morning. because the Easter bunny left her a trail of chocolate eggs all the way downstairs to her basket, he also left things at Gramma's house and her Auntie Valerie's place. Come to think of it, I think she even has some stuff that he left up at her Grandma's in Owen Sound too. What a lucky girl!!

I'm almost done the my stitch markers for the exhange too, I have until sunday to get them all mailed out, so I guess I better get cracking.

P.S. I did have links on everything in here that required them, but then netscape just randomly closed on me and I lost everything except for an early draft I saved, but I'm too lazy to go and get the links for everything!!! Double fudge I guess.... :-)

Oh yeah...my new members of the family that I've been meaning to show off :

Weight and such...

First I'm going to start off with "YAAAYYY" because I haven't been able to log into blogger for days. Internet Explorer was being a pain in the arse so Ron got us Nescape to use instead of IE and ever since we got Netscape I couldn't log in. Still trying to figure out why it's just shutting down on the main blogger page. Hummm!

Not too much progess on the knitting this week, but I am on day 5 of my Healthy Eating Diet. I want to loose some weight by the summer, this winter has me feeling a little frumpy. I'm charting my progress through ticker factory (bottom of blog). I even bought myself a scale with a wal-mart gift card I got for my birthday last weekend from my DH. He laughed and said he wouldn't dare buy me a scale, but was impressed that I bought myself one. This is actually the first time ever that I feel motivated to do this. I would love to loose 40 lbs eventually.

Oooohhh, I almost forgot to mention my MIL Rhonda gave me a wonderful birthday gift. I got a set of bamboo circular needles. The really cool part about them is that the cable part is all flexible and bendable which means you don't have to straighten it out in boiling hot water. HOW cool is that??? I also got lime green Cherry Tree sock yarn with it, which I thought was such an appropriate colour for me since my birthday's on St. Patty's Day. My my SIL Valerie, I got a yarn kit in really cute colours. I will have to post a picture on here soon of my new stuff. :-) Thanks Rhonda & Valerie, loved it!!!

Well, I'm off to bed. Itl will be a long day at work tomorrow since it's 20x the points day at Shopper's Drugmart and we're having wicked, mad Saturday Only special deals. EEAkkk! :-)

I love cables!

It's been a while since my last post, but it's been productive time away. I started the sweater for myself and I've already knit 16". At 19" I get to start the decreasing for the armholes, so I'm moving right along.

I was also going through my patterns and I found Irish Hiking Scarf and started it on the Fleece Artist that I won from Cynthia's contest last year for Warming Grace. It is beeeeaaautifuul. The bad part is that I think I'm going to run out of yarn before the scarf is finished and I already love it sooo much that I don't want to frog it and use the yarn for something else. So now I'm on the hunt for another skein of yarn in similar colourway. If someone out there has some and would like to sell it to me, please, please let me know. I'm on a mission to find the yarn!! I'm looking for the ball band because I think it has the colour on it and I know it was a Favourite fleece socks/mittens kit. Hopefully I will find something close. :-)

Onto other non-knitting things! We've decided that we are going to take Paisley to Disney on Ice on Thursday. They will be at Copps Coliseum here in Hamilton Mar 14-18. She's very excited. We thought instead of going out for dinner for my birthday (which is Sat. 17th) we would do this instead, so it should be fun. Paisley's all ready for it because Peter Pan and Little Mermaid were advertised on the commercial.

Oh, two more things, I also join the Stitchmarker Exchange. I can't seem to access the sit to post a link, but I will. If you are interested you could also visit Robyn's blog (from knitmamaknit), she's the host for the event. You have until Thurs to sign up! :-)

I did the quiz "what kind of sock yarn are you" from Samantha's blog, apparently I'm "Fruity".

As of Friday morning the Broadripple socks that I did on the Cherry Tree Hill yarn that Rhonda gave me are finally done! I got my lovely Mom to model them for me since I have a hard time taking a nice shot of my socks on my feet. I also finally got a chance to photograph the socks that I made Paisley with the same yarn. I just cast on 44 sts and did a K2P2 to rib for the kiddie socks. The only way I could get that my dear daughter to model the socks for me on Friday was to keep her tights on and also model with her Grandma.

Awwe..look at my hardworking ladies below:





I had a busy weekend beginning on Friday. My parents came from Owen Sound for an overnight visit. My brother had a hockey playoff game against Niagara-on-the-Lake in Virgil, ON and they needed a place to stay and since we live fairly close to Niagara we welcomed them. :-) We all went on Friday night to see the game and it was a victorious win for the Owen Sound Jr. Attack(midget team). Unfortunately because my brother's a goaltender, it wasn't his night in net so we didn't get to see him play, but it was an excellent game and now they get to enter the semi-finals and I got to try out my new socks at the arena too and they kept my toes toasty. They all left on Saturday morning before I had to go to work and boy did I ever have a busy day in the photo lab, it just seemed like everyone in Hamilton wanted to get their pictures done but it was well rewarded afterwards because Ron and I had an evening to ourselves! My MIL Rhonda took Paisley for one of their "Saturday Night Specials". On the spur of the moments we decided to use our theatre coupons that we got in boxes of Lipton tea and went to the movies and it cost us a whole $1.90, can't beat that! We went to see Night At the Museum. It was a fun movie, a little unrealistic, but very cute, I recommend it for a great family movie!! On the way home, we stopped for some Swiss Chalet take-out and headed for home for a night of knitting/online game playing. Yep, *LOL* that's what we do, our computer's in the living room so he plays his World of Warcraft and I do my knitting and we talk. I started playing around with the sweater I want to knit, but haven't quite started it yet. I will post progress pictures one I actually get started!

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Friday night while my mom and I watched a movie I managed to knit a barbie dress for Paisley. It wasn't from a pattern or anything, I just started knitting and knitting and knitting and came up with this:
I had fun knitting it because I had no idea how it was going to turn out or if it was even going to work out, but it fit. I even glitter glued a little heart on the dress as an added touch.

Well..that's about it for my weekend. It's always over so fast! I hope everyone else had a good one. Tomorrow Paisley has her very first visit to the dentist. I am so excited and very curious to see how it goes. I (unlike many) love going to the dentist, I love have my teeth poked and prodded at and love that feeling of have my teeth cleaned. It always feels so awesome afterwards! I am hoping she takes after me and enjoys dentist visits.

A New Pattern = A Fresh Start ?

As you may or may not have noticed, my progress bar for my 4-ways cardi hasn't moved for months. This is because I am no longer feeling the love for this project. I really do want to complete an entire sweater for myself but I got really bored with the pattern. :-(

I am excited to say that I have been inspired once again to knit a sweater for me!! I fell in love with a pattern the other day as I was flipping through a magazine. It happens to be a free pattern courtesy of Berroco called Tierra. They are using berroco softwist, which is coincidentally the same yarn used for the 4-ways cardi. I'm not sure if any of you will remember but, for my birthday last year, Rhonda bought me all the yarn to do the cardi, but in Paton's Decor. I was stoked to find out that I could probably use the yarn for this pattern as well so I started to do a gauge, I completed it on the 5mm needles used in the pattern and it didn't work out, so I casted on for a 2nd gauge on 4.5mm, completed it and it still didn't measure up. Hummm, the whole time I was thinking, could this be why my 4-ways cardi was way off from the measurements that the back and the arms were supposed to be? It was also done on 5mm needles. I quickly emailed Rhonda for some advice and she replied back to me telling me not to drop down any lower then a 4mm needle. So again, I got out the 4mm and started another gauge (20 sts=4mm 28 Rows=4mm), finished it in a flash and lucky for me this time it was bang on. Friggin' eh!!! :-) So, I will be attempting this project really, really soon....I'm mega excited about it. I even did a swatch of the 18 st cable pattern!

On to some more exciting knitting news for me!! My hubby took me over to Ikea on Monday and bought me some storage for my out of control knitting. I had knitting stored in 4 different boxes and 5 different bags around the house and he was tired of always running into it. Today I finally got to organizing it all. I HATE organizing, but it was actually kind of fun seeing everything I had. We only had one incident, my little helper Paisley spilled a margarine container of beads all over the entire spare room. Arrrggg, *LOL* it's hard to find good help these days.

I bet your wondering what else I've been up to......

Well, I completed another scarf for my friend at work (pictured gold). I can't wait to see Nabila again, so she can try it on, I picked gold (odd colour) because I thought it would go good with her complexion, it will be interesting to see if I was right. The other scarf is one of the first of the 7 scarves I made and it was for myself (blue).

(Don't mind my self-modelling, I was bumming around the house)

Wow, all that I have on the needles right now is the last Cherry Tree Hill sock, I'm onto the heel flap right now and should be done it soon. I think I'm done with scarves for this year, but more sock are in order! I've got to cast on for Becky's socks soon too, she's still waiting...what a patient woman.

Bad blogger!

It's been quite a while since my last post, eeek! So much has been going on for me lately, but I guess that shouldn't excuse for my lack of blogging these days. I'll blame it partly on my dh and his silly online game World of Warcraft (he's a computer hog).

A few weeks ago, my hubby got permanently laid off from his job of nearly 5 years. On a whim after our weekend to Owen Sound (see last post), we decided that we would like a change and decided that we were going to move to Owen Sound (that is where my family is from and where Ron's always wanted to live). It is a nice city and we made several trips back there since that weekend to try and find a place to live. The first time we went back we got caught in that huge snow storm and got snow-stayed there for 3 days, it even took us 7 hours to get there when it only should have been a 2.5 hour drive. We couldn't really get out to do much house hunting either but we did call some places. We finally got a few calls a week later and we drove back up on Monday morning again only to get stood up by this guy that was going to show us a few places he had. Bahh, so on the way home we talked about it and we're going to take this as a sign not to move there right now, we're going to stay in Hamilton...at least for now. :-)
So I guess we better register Miss Paisley for Jr. Kindergarten for September, she's very excited and has a friend 2 doors down that will be going with her.

With all of this going on, I still managed to knit 6 scarfs with some dollar store eyelash yarn and gave them away to people, I even made one for myself. :-) Made Paisley a pair of Cherry Tree socks to match mine and I'm working the way down the cuff of my second sock (which, lol should be done by now but I got sidetracked by scarves). I will get some pictures of all of this asap!!!! :-) I even have one more scarf left to make but I'm going to make sure my sock is done first because they'd be sure nice to wear in these frigid temperatures we are having in Southern Ontario.

Hope every one's staying warm and cozy out there if you're having this cold weather that we're having here, if so..perhaps we will see alot of blogging and new knits! :-)

cher·ry

When I looked up the word Cherry in the dictionary today, I particularly liked definition:

"7. Slang.
a.
something new or unused."


I've got something new!! Last week Rhonda gave me some of her Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn that she wound wound using her new yarn meter she bought herself from all her hard work. I've never used Cherry Tree yarn before, but it felt so nice and sat in my bag all week taunting while I worked on the hat. Well, it certainly got the best of me be because as soon as I was done the hat (haven't even tied my ends in yet) I just had to cast on for some silly socks. I'm using the Broadripple pattern again, but I've modified the pattern slightly so that I can use sock yarn instead of a double knitting yarn. The actual pattern calls for 56 sts and I'm using 64, so really there's only 2 extra stitches on each needle which I don't think makes too much of a difference at all. I'm making wicked progress so far because as I've mentioned before, the Broadripple pattern is addictive (and easy). The yarn did not disappoint either, it knits up wonderfully and feels nice on my feet when I tried them on. The colours are all over the place, but it doesn't seem too overwhelming for the pattern. I just can't wait until they are done and I can wear them. :-)





I'm almost done sock number one, so I guess I've popped the proverbial cherry.

When I was trying to take a picture for my blog, Paisley had to get in on the action. She named this pose her "Grandma Face" (I'm not kidding). As much as she has been rotten lately, this kid makes me laugh. Where do they come up with this stuff???

We're off to Owen Sound this weekend for a little winter fun. We're going to take Paisley & Lucas skating and quite possibly some tobogganing. It will be Paisley's first time doing both. I will definitely be posting some pictures when I'm back. It's going to be fun times, ohhh I can't wait!! :-)

One more thing before I go...
I don't think I mentioned that Paisley saw The Needle Emporium on CH Morning Live yesterday. She had to inform Ron and I that she goes to "Julie's house" with Gramma all the time and she also has too dogs. What a girl, I just thought it was so cute. :-)

Have a good weekend everyone!

That Darn Hat!

The Army Girl Ear flap Hat is nearing completion and it's a very, very good thing because I really did not like this pattern. It started out a little rough, got a little better and then once I got to the crown, I was lost again. It's kind of like knitting blind and I'm sure you all know what I mean by that. I felt as though the pattern was a little vague in explaining things and the way it was written was a little confusing. I'm not even so sure I like how it turned out! There is a positive to this whole thing... I learned two new techniques!!! On Saturday night Rhonda taught me the cable cast-on method and I also learned how to do an attached i-cord.

That's it for me today, just a short little post. Going out to one of our Ontario Early Years Centres very shortly (Paisley calls it playgroup). For any parents (in Ontario) who have never heard of OEYC, you should check out their link to find a centre in your area, it's a great place to take your kiddies. They have all kinds of fun and activities for them there as wells as it allows them to interact with children in their own age group. Did I mention that it's free too? I believe it's for children 0-6 years old.

Back in Blogland

I have been without internet access since the wee hours of Friday morning and going nuts. It's just amazing how much we use the net getting through our day to day. When you don't have it...you realize just how much it is used. Really...lol how could we ever have lived without this invention years and years ago (kind of sad??). On the upside to lack of interent, we apparently have the fastest highspeed in the city. We had sympatico before but I think it was dsl light so the cable is alot faster (so far, we'll see how it goes). Unfortunately I don't have any exciting knitting content to talk about (and you'd think with less computer time I would have something crazy knit up). The Army Girl hat is still on the needles and needs to be frogged and restarted. What really sucks is that it's like -50 degrees out in Manitoba right now so it would be nice to have it all finished so I can send the hat, mitts (which could probably really be used right now) and the rest of the Christmas parcel out to my best friend Kerri. Soon..soon...soon...

In the meantime...I've been tagged with a meme by Samantha and since it's been a while since I've done one here we go:

Alphabet Meme

A- Available or single? The equivalent to being married(I'm entitled to 1/2, j/k).
B- Best Friend? Ron, Paisley, Kerri, Bex, Berns {I guess that's friend(s)}
C- Cake or Pie? Apple pie (warm with ice cream)
D- Drink of Choice? Tea(pref. Earl Grey)
E- Essential Item? Computer(w/Internet), knitting, music
F- Favorite Color? mauvey purple (can't really describe it)
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? Not a big fan of either
H- Hometown? Owen Sound, ON, Canada
I- Indulgence? Fudgeo Cookies (Damn them)
J- January or February? February, one step closer to spring
K- Kids and names? Paisley May Johnson (3 years old)
L- Life is incomplete without? Ron and Paisley
M- Marriage Date? We've been together since Sept.20th,2002 (that's what really counts!)
N- Number of Siblings? Sister (2 years younger) and brother (8 years younger).
O- Oranges or apples? Both, just depends on the day.
P- Phobias/Fears? dying, fires,tornadoes.
Q- Favorite Quote? BooooUrns! Can't really think of any
R- Reason to Smile? I'm back online and Paisley's sleeping.
S- Season? Summer
T- Tag three people! (If any of my facebook friends are reading) Kerri, Genna, Christa
U- Unknown Fact About Me? I used to be afraid of the dark and had a night light until I was 16.
V- Vegetable you hate? brussel sprouts.
W- Worst habit? Repeating myself when I'm talking.
X- X-Rays you’ve had? When I was 12, I broke my nose while playing baseball and then again when I was 18, I sprained my ankle really bad sliding into 2nd.
Y- Your favorite food? Pasta.
Z- Zodiac? Pisces.

That's it for me tonight! Knit on Knitters Knit on!!

A Perfect Gauge (hopefully)

Now that the camo mittens are all done, I'm onto the hat I've been wanting to make for Kerri. It's called Army Girl Earflap hat from Interweave Knits (winter 2005) about 1/2 way down the page on the link. When I was out visiting her in October, she saw a knitted hat that her hubby's bestfriend had and she asked me if I could make her a similar one and I've been on the hunt for a pattern ever since. Now I've finally found one that's perfect (with a little help from my MIL Rhonda) and I'm itching to get started on it. I'm taking a short hiatus from socks because I need to mail this gift out (along with Christmas stuff for Kerri & family) before it's too warm for knit wear. So, Bex...if your reading, I have to pause on your socks temporarily. Becky will eventually be receiving a pair of Emobssed Leaves socks (also a pattern from Interweave Knits), more on the socks a little later and back to the hat!! Keeping with the "Knit from your Stash" project, I took two odd balls of yarn from my stash, one was worsted and one was fingering weight, I thought I'd try and get a tweedy look and put them together, did up a gauge (16sts and 25 rows = 4")and sucess, it seemed to work. I don't always do a swatch before I start a project, but I thought this time I didn't really want to be effing around and I really want to use up my stash yarn, because alot of it was stuff that I got or that was given to me when I first started knitting (almost 3 years ago) and I would love to buy something nice for myself when it's all gone. :)

Today I started the hat. I've done about 10 rows on the pattern and something doesn't seem right. I'm going to rip it all out and try it again tomorrow. I just can't seem to maintain the ribbed garter stitch pattern (R.S. k1, p1, WS purl). I think the m1's are throwing me off, not too sure. I may have to consult a professional knitter about this.....

Camouflage Mittens

Yes...you read it correctly, I am making camo mitts. The yarn is from my stash, woot woot! It doesn't even have the ball band on it anymore, but my guess is bernat because I think they have the camouflage shades. Now, you're probably wondering why I'm making camo mitts? The mitts are for my best friend Kerri's hubby, he's in the military and I thought Kerri and him would get a kick out of them. They are cute though, even if he's not a mitt guy. I thought he could wear them outside with their boys or something since it is freezing in Manitoba. I am contemplating making an ear flap had to match, I just haven't decided yet because I still have to knit Kerri the hat she wanted. :-) I'm busting in on the stash with this project, how sweet is that? This is also my first time knitting mitts in the round and I'm loving it. It's also been over a year since I've made mitts and I have to live up to the title of my name. As far as patterns go, I'm not really using one. I just looked at a few patterns for men so I could get the correct number of stitches on the needles and steps for the gusset and top shaping. I'm using my new dpns I got for Christmas (3.5mm) as well. One mitt done and another on the needles, I'm almost done the ribbed cuff on the 2nd mitt. Mittens are such a quick knit, gotta love it! :-)

Well, I'm off to bake banana bread, Paisley wants to bake and I have 3 bananas that are really yellow and have brown spots on them (I will NOT eat banana's like that, they have to be slightly green for me to eat them).

Christmas Madness and a Quiet New Year!

Christmas flew by like a whirlwind! Christmas Eve was spent at work (what a crazy day but there was lots of good food from our potluck) followed by Christmas out at Ron's parents house in Smithville. We did everything but "Santa" stuff on the 24th and by 7am Christmas Day, Paisley was out in the livingroom slightly disappointed that she missed Santa but excited about more gifts. We let her tear through her stocking first so we could wake up a bit and let Gramma & Grampa get up too. This was a very exciting Christmas for us because it's the first year that Paisley really understands what's going on and she was very impressed with her stocking (Yes that is Opal sock yarn in the picture to your left, I got it from my wonderful MIL and I also got some new dpns from Paisley). My only real disappoinent was our lack of snow on Christmas this year. Although I'd rather drive on snowless roads, it just doesn't feel like Christmas without a little snow on the gound. Boxing Day was spent looking for a new keyboard because our wireless decided to die on us that moring and then we were heading out to Ancaster for more Christmas at Ron's Grandma's. We also had to pick up 2 gifts on our way, one for a man and one for a woman, so we could swap gifts. A quick stop at Shoppers and Canadian Tire did the trick and we were on our way for more Christmas madness. Afther that was all said and done, we had one more day to clean up our house and find homes for the new stuff before my parents came on the 27th. We did our Christmas with them shortly after they arrived and the next day we did our big dinner and just look at our poor tree after they arrived!! I think we are in need of a larger tree next year. :-)

Onto the Christmas socks:

The Broadripple Socks (yellow) that I made were gifted to my mom and the 2nd pair of Jaywalkers (pink) I made were for my brother's girlfriend Genna. My mom wore her's the whole time they were at my place, I had to wash them for her. There's nothing more gratifying then watching something you made getting a work out, I bet my mom's even wearing them right now. Ha ha!

What a crazy week eh??? On Saturday the 30th we got my parents to babysit Paisley so I could go to my friend Becky's birthday party. It was good times and nice to get out for an evening (something we don't do very often). It was at a steakhouse in Niagara Falls called Wildfire, the food was good and so was the Carlsberg, MMmm Beer! New Years Eve I had to work 8-4pm and my parents were heading back to Owen Sound so I was up at 6am. Ron and I had planed to stay up and bring in the new year, but by 10:30 I feel asleep on the couch.

Can you blame me???? ha ha. We certainly had fun though!

Happy New Years and Blogoversary!

Just wanted to post a quick Happy New Years to everyone, also a few days ago was my 1st Blogoversary. I see every one's slowly changing to the new blogger, all of your blogs are looking good!
It was a very busy Christmas for us (hence my lack of posts lately), I will fill you in on all of our fun soon, but I have to go now! The socks were love by their recipients too, I have pictures to show. :-)

It wouldn't let me post the picture in my post, so here she is!

Her new Christmas dress is from my good friend Becky and her mom Liz, so if either you are reading this, I hope you got your picture in the mail and thank you both again, she looked adorable!