What? could it be....

Well, if there are flowers, and chocolate (in an edible box, no less!), then it must be Valentine's Day!

Oh, and cupcakes... lots and lots of cupcakes...
I love the little hearts with the cheesey sayings...

I just hope kids in Grade 6 find them as amusing...

and in the midst of this, there is an FO to report - things have been slowly but surely wrapping up on several fronts, nothing major to show yet, but these:
, made from Duets sock yarn which my wonderful friend Kelly picked up on her trip to Seattle last year. I don't think she's made hers yet - we have matching skeins - but let's not pressure the poor girl, shall we?

I have started another pair of socks, which I am utterly infatuated with, but as my camera battery is in need of help, I'll have to post a pic later.

Funny, as I set up the socks for the shot, the dogs were just fascinated with what was hanging in the tree - they had paid no attention to the socks till then - wonder what they were thinking?


and happily, Maggie is well recovered from her surgery, back to being her usual perky self, and loving the white stuff, with which we have been more than amply supplied this year... enough already!!!

So I hope that your Valentine's angels are treating you all well today - I am not a big fan of the day, never really liked the fuss made over what is just a big commercial event... but when there are flowers and chocolate involved, wellllllllllll, I can sacrifice my principles a little...

that doesn't make me a bad person - just a chubby one...

What a ride...

Well, once the gifts were wrapped,
the cookies decorated (with assistance, of course), and the blackmail efforts put forth , we had ourselves a wonderful Christmas! I only hope yours was as much fun - I now find myself the owner of an iTouch, which, for a wannabe-techie like me, is a total blast to play with!

The kids got an XBox 360, with Guitar Hero II, and this has proven to be the hit of the party - I pretty much suck, but get such a kick out of it that I don't care...

Handknitted gifts were finished on time (okay, one with only about 1 hour to spare before being handed over, but it was done, okay?!):
Grinchy socks from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, with my own label, thanks to Carole ;

Loskins socks, made with Dream in Color 'Smooshy', Happy Forest colourway (which I will have to make something from for me because I am totally enamoured with the colour - and I don't usually like green...);

and a Felted Striped Tote from One Skein, using STASH Lion Brand Wool and Paton's Classic Wool (it's functional and virtuous).

Stash enhancement has also occurred, but I'll save it for the next post...

I am still slogging - yes, that's right, it's now a slog - away on my niece's Wallaby - sleeves attached, so just shoulder shaping and the hood and I'm golden, and then comes the hard part - deciding what to cast on for me. Too many ideas, too many possibilities, swirling around in an already overloaded, hormonally kicked-to-shit mind... I am hoping to make a decision soon, and cast something on -

silly, isn't it? To have this much trouble finding something to make for myself? I have the makings for many wonderful things but can't seem to narrow my focus... I may have to ask my sons to help me with this, and then I'll do what my mother has always done - take their suggestions and do the complete opposite... or not... I can't decide...

It's a Puzzler...

Years ago, I made a Seaman's Scarf (I'd link it but I don't remember where the pattern came from) from quiviut yarn (again, no memory, no link) as a gift for a friend (and those are wrinkles from its being rolled up waiting for my attention)
Said scarf was recently returned to me because of this:

It is absolutely riddled with moth holes! Oh, sure, the moths have good taste, but it's just heartbreaking!

And of course, I used every possible bit of the yarn for the scarf, so I have no bits for mending.

After much consideration, I think what I will have to do is frog it, and then reknit something similar, but likely a little smaller.

On the plus side, I had forgotten just how delicious quiviut is - the scarf is virtually weightless, and so warm... I think I've gotten more selfish over the years, because I doubt very much I'd be able to part with it now.

Here is the Ribbon Tied Hoodie from Debbie Bliss for my LYS, after drying:
I posted it on Ravelry, and mistakenly linked it to an incorrect pattern... I was soon corrected by one of the editors for the incorrectly cited book, and the link was removed before I could shamefacedly apologize... my, how information travels!

I am still overwhelmed with Ravelry, but I play with it whenever I can eke out some time - truly astonishing, the work, the information, the people... makes my head spin!

Still slogging - yes, slogging - away on my Toe Up socks (thank you, Wendy) in the Regiment colourway of Twisted Fiber Arts 'Arista' yarn. Love the colours, love the feel of the yarn, hate how long it's taking. I suppose if I were working on them exclusively, they'd be whipping along, but between work knitting, gardening, and amusing the boys, well, you know...

The boys will be off next week on a trip with their dad, so I have BIG plans - house stuff, knitting stuff, maybe some dyeing stuff, maybe even some spinning stuff?

Have I ever mentioned my tendency to think bigger than I can do? Yup, it's a definite puzzler...

Beware - knitting content ahead...

Why, yes, I do still knit, and I have the sticks to prove it...

Beautiful bronze sticks, handcrafted by Molly at Celtic Swan, which were my birthday gift to myself, and which I am chomping at the bit to use on my next socks, the April Kit from Blue Moon Fibers Socks that Rock club:

Sorry for the flash effect - this is a much better representation of the truly edible colours in this wool/silk blend:

But first, I must finish the twins' socks, which are due this Saturday... hmm, sounds like a test or paper or something, doesn't it? Not like the relaxing, satisfying activity we all know knitting to be...
They should be done tomorrow, and I did do the second pair while we were away last week:

Project: My own generic sock pattern, size 7, for the twins
Yarn: KnitPicks "Bare", dyed with orange KoolAid and received in a yarn swap some months ago
Started: May 5, 2007
Finished: May 14, 2007

These are the red and blue Bemidjis, knit for Artisan Knitworks and mailed the week before I left, all cuddled up on the couch:


Hmm, funny how you don't necessarily see the chaos surrounding you until someone comes to visit unexpectedly, or you take a picture of some of it and get an objective look - remind me not to take pictures anywhere else in my house...

Today's project has been to wash and scrape our old plant pots, so that the boys can paint them in their own personally selected colours, and then fill them with their own personally selected flowers - so tired and old looking, huh?


They were here when we moved in, must be older than dirt, but for now, they do the job just fine - and WAIT till you see the colours the kids picked - this will be one glow-in-the-dark kind of garden...

speaking of the kids, Ben had a project a couple of weeks ago wherein he had to build a real structure out of common household items. He chose the Skydome in Toronto:


and opted to make it out of... are you ready?... marshmallows.

BEHOLD! Edible Skydome:


You have to picture, us, sitting around our table, stringing endless amounts of mini-marshmallows ( couldn't use the BIG ones, oh, no) on toothpicks, stranding them together, and then glue-gunning them (and they actually didn't melt like I thought they would). We had a tough time coming up with the dome part, but I had a flash of inspiration at the grocery store and asked if I could buy one of the plastic tops they use on vegetable trays. No, apparently they don't have a code for those and can't sell them. Could they give me one? What, am I NUTS? GIVE something away? For FREE???? So, I paid $15 for a veggie tray, the contents of which I then jammed down the throats of my kids and their friends who were lucky enough to be visiting that day, and we had a dome.

Which was too small.

Saran wrap does, in fact, have a million uses, and I would gladly offer a testimonial to that fact.

All in all, a fun project, and so damn creative - however, it will be a long, LONG time before I can eat another marshmallow.

and now I will leave you with the latest addition to my fridge:


Am I the only one who finds this pee-in-my-pants funny? My girlfriend and I made asses of ourselves in the cardshop with our uncontrollable laughing, but apart from her, no one else really gets it...

sigh

Meme tomorrow, Scarlett, I promise...

Catch up time

Amazing how fast time whips by! I start every day with every intention of writing and updating, and then that day morphs into the next one, and so on, and so on...

so, it was a wonderful, beautiful weekend here, not only because of the stellar weather, but also because of various birthday celebrations:
Charlie turned 6, (hmm, hard to capture the essence of an all-black dog - trust me, he's adorable), and I turned somewhat more than 6... no pics, don't want to scare anyone...

Maggie watched the various festivities as only a true lady would, legs crossed and all - she actually lies like that much of the time, when she's not sprawled with utter abandon all over "her" couch... and praise the lord, her hair is growing back in...

I made a lovely vignette, a la HGTV, in my front foyer with birthday roses:
, and then thought I really should show the whole picture, which is so much more representative of life here:

I mean, hey, where do you keep your goalie pads?

I scored some excellent birthday gifts, including an authentic Montreal Canadiens jersey with Yvan Cournoyer's name and # (12) on it, courtesy of my sons,
and this:

he's RAKING - Ben was raking, and raked for a good hour with me... the weather was so nice I was actually enjoying raking and de-pooping the back yard... well, as much as one can enjoy that sort of thing...

I was FINALLY allowed to open the box from Kelly, which Ben hid in his closet - funny I didn't spot it because I'm the only one who goes in there... look what she picked up on her trip to Seattle:

'Duets' sock yarn, in the most wonderful fallish colours - and of course, yellow and orange and brown are my favourite colours - thanks so much, Kel! I am going to let you select a pattern, okay?

There was a tragedy in the midst of all the sunshine and rainbows. My old barbecue died. It had done well, several years of hard work -I probably use the barbecue more than the oven, all year round, through ice and snow and sleet and hail, etc. - so, after much consideration, I made what I hope will be a long-term investment:
- mine has a copper coloured cover, and is just beautiful! I'll put in a picture of it when it's not raining...

the inaugural grilling was last night:
It will NEVER be this clean again, I fear, so I thought something for posterity would be appropriate...

and look, Ma, no knitting! Well, not true, tons of knitting, as always, but I don't think sweater pieces or an 11" chunk of navy blue bamboo stocking stitch qualify as watchable knitting... but there was some fun stuff in the mail today...

this month's installment from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, which is 85% wool, 15% silk, and just mouthwatering , as well as the monthly selection from the Pick Up Sticks club:

So now I think we're updated - I will put up pictures of my actual knitting next time - oh, and on Saturday I'm off to the Knitters' Frolic, hosted by the Downtown Knitting Collective in Toronto - I am really looking forward to this, as I am taking a drop spindle class in the morning, and checking out the vendors afterwards... think I'll manage to avoid temptation? Think I'll admit I have enough yarn, and just walk on by?

Think again...

The pains of mismatching...

You'd think it would be so easy to mismatch socks - might be my anal-retentiveness rearing it's ugly head again...

Okay, so the first pair of socks for the twins is done - and I got a reprieve on the time, as we are now celebrating their birthdays - and mine - in early May, so I have lots of time to fiddle with these - however, in an attempt to break my usual habit of knitting to (right up to) deadlines, I am going to get started on these now and hopefully avoid the carpal burn...

Project: Basic Toe-Up Socks, my own pattern (not that it's really much of a pattern, just basic)
Yarn: Opal 'Feelings', #1702
Started: March 31, 2007
Finished: April 9, 2007

The socks look sort of crappy in the photo, but they don't fit properly on my sock blockers... but the colours are good, no?

So, now the puzzle of the second pair... must be a superwash wool of some sort because my sister-in-law does not like, nor have the time for, handwashing. Also need the nylon blend because they are 15 year old girls. So I have been thinking Opal or Regia or something similar.

This is what I have come up with:


both are Opal yarns - ballbands not available, unfortunately. I'm thinking that the colourways are similar but the patterning will be vastly different, as well as being totally different from the completed pair - I'll make one sock from each ball, or maybe a pair, and then give them each three socks to mix and match at their leisure. Yeah, I think I'll go for the pair, and then they can play...

finished the sleeves on the current rendition of 'Bemidji', after having to rip out a good 6" worth - I was listening to a good book on my iPod, not really paying attention to the part of the instructions that said to stop increasing on both ends when the sleeve measured 17" across...

it was over 26" across and there was just no easing that puppy into the armholes... then I realized my lapse in knitting judgement, fixed it, and all is right again... so they are now blocking, and I will be casting on another AK sweater this afternoon - that, or picking up doggy doo in the backyard... hmm, such decisions...

Thank you, Tanya!

Wow! Such an unexpected, wonderful surprise from Tanya, former secret pal and now internet friend:


This is one amazingly talented woman, people - this is "the" Tanya, of knit-a-pair-of-socks-in-one-night fame. Not only an amazing knitter, and now spinner, if you peek at her more recent blog entries, but she also made everything you see here:


the stitch markers are just beautiful - don't these look more like jewellery than knitting accessories?

And the cards are made from pictures Tanya took herself, accompanied by her own little business card - wonderful!


I may have to frame these, rather than send them all over the world...

Thank you so, so much, Tanya - I am very lucky, indeed!

Advice needed, please, and I'm not fooling....

Happy April!

So, my nieces are turning GASP! SHOCK! 15 later this month, and are typically hard to buy for. So I thought one of things I would do for them is make them each a pair of socks. They wear only mismatched socks - don't ask, it's just their "thing". And by mismatched, I do mean each sock is from a different pair.

So I have this ball of Opal 'Feelings', which I really like and think would be great for them - or for one of them. Here's my dilemma: are they mismatched enough by having the stripes off kilter, or should I knit two altogether different pairs and give them one of each? And that begs the question of whether the seond sock should be the same for each, or if they should both have one completely different from each other? The latter scenario would leave me with enough yarn for one sock each, of course, and then I could have my own mismatched pair.

Am I making any sense here? The kicker, of course, is that we are probably celebrating their birthdays a week early, on Easter weekend, which is actually NEXT weekend, and this is how far I am on the first pair:

As an aside, the bag is a KnowKnits pouch, an early birthday gift for me from my mom - I love my mom...

Elsewhere in my knitting life, the vest and socks - remember the yellow socks? The colourway was PENGUIN - were well received, and both fit, although I am told the vest does a "Vulcan" thing at the shoulders... hopefully that will be remedied by further blocking...

I am still working on the blue Colore sweater for Artisan Knitworks, but it is coming along quickly...

I finished my Indigo Fire socks, and the little scribble of yarn beside them is all I had left, which absolutely pleases me
what do you guys do with your left-over sock yarn?

Project: Toe-Up Feather and Fan Socks from Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Indigo Fire from Yarn Ahoy!
Started: February 24, 2007
Finished: March 29, 2007

And I got my March installment from Pick Up Sticks' sock club, which is just delicious...


it's rainy and kind of chilly here today, nothing close to the high 50's and sunshine we were enjoying earlier this week (yes, that's Farenheit - I think better in Farenheit - and gallons, I understand gallons better, too, and inches and feet and yards and ounces), and this is dogs' preferred activity when it's rainy and chilly:


Haircuts tomorrow...