I got it, I got it!!!

Finally, after much twisting and ripping and cussing and cramping, I got it!


There are a couple of glitches here and there - this is not a pattern that lends itself to dropped stitches, and since we got back from Mexico the dogs have been a little less understanding of my knitting than usual, hence the dropped stitches...

however, I am inordinately pleased with the fact that I figured it out, and it fits! I was up till 12:30 a couple of nights ago figuring it out, but still...

The yarn, STR 'Silkie', is a silk/merino blend which feels completely decadent on the toes, and I absolutely LOVE the colour... the problem was with my YO technique, as was suggested by Riggwelter and Lv2Knit in the comments, which brings me to another thing I love about knitting - no matter how much you think you know, you don't, and there will always be a humbling kick in the arse when you get cocky... so I turned to Eunny Jang's fabulous arsenal of knitting techniques, and discovered I have been doing my YO's wrong forever... always something new to learn...

Yesterday's mail brought a couple more sock kits, which also look totally yummy:


On the left, the latest from Pick Up Sticks, with merino/bamboo/nylon yarn from Seacoast Handpainted Yarn, and on the right, this month's offering from The Loopy Ewe, with another merino/bamboo yarn from All Things Heather...

We've had a scorching couple of days here in Southern Ontario, but the temps are much cooler today, with mondo-thunderstorms expected tomorrow... which means I will be getting myself out to a couple of garden centres today to buy flowers - I am SO EXCITED!! I'll be buying annuals to jazz up the front of my house a little (it's way too GREEN and so far the only thing with colour I've been able to grow is a hockey net), and hopefully some new, exotic but yet low maintenance and dog-proof perennials for the back (yes, I ask a lot of my plants).

and this? Well, this is what I was looking at 2 short weeks ago...

sigh...

the dock from our resort, with Isla Mujeres in the distance, and ocean, ocean everywhere... there's no place like home, though... right?????

Happy Victoria Day!

It's the first LONG WEEKEND of the year, which means summer isn't too far off, which means... well, YAY! Kids are playing road hockey right now, then off to their dad's for the afternoon, which leaves me to, oh, I don't know, check out a garden centre or winery or two... I always miss the boys when they're not with me, but I have learned to appreciate my time alone...

Anyhow, I finished the twins' socks in time for the party on Saturday - with about an hour to spare - , and the good news is, they like them and they fit!

Funny how, after all these years of knitting - 38, I guess? Oh, that's right, I actually learned to knit while still in the womb - I am still completely panicked over the fit of things I make for other people... hmm, might be a sign that I need to work on that? D'yathink?

Earlier on Saturday, we had our first meal of the year outside, which always tickles me - even though the grass is long and the shrubs are shabby right now, I would rather be nowhere else than out in my yard...
We took advantage of the gorgeous sunlight for a small photo shoot:
the dogs watching a french fry fly by:
Ben and Maggie having a moment
and Tanner and me:
I HATE pictures of myself, but thought it might be nice for y'all to have a face to go with the stories... to clarify, I would be the wrinkly, crepey-necked one in the front...

I was so excited to start my Grasshopper Socks, pictured in the previous post - made the toe, love the yarn and the needles are great, perfect weight - I cannot get the pattern to work. I can do the first two rows, but have tried 4 times and am so far unable to get further along. The first row is YO, P2tog, then row 2 is P2tog, YO. Easy, peasey... my ass...

I'm going to try a few more times before giving up, but I cannot adequately express how very PISSED OFF I am with these damned socks right now - and lots of other people are making them, are FINISHED them even - I am thinking it might be something with my YO technique, so will have to investigate further.

I shall go and vent my frustrations on my plant pots, which are still being scraped and sanded, and will return soon with memes a-plenty... I'm not avoiding them, really, but they seem to take a lot of thought, and I am in short supply of thought at the moment...

Enjoy the weekend, my fellow Canadians, and, oh yes - GO SENS!!

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...

Hola, Amigos!

Well, I was going to do this way back at the beginning of the week, but I don't even remember the beginning of the week! We had a wonderful trip, even under somewhat, um, awkward circumstances - 'nother post

Weather was perfect - 90's during the day, low 70's at night (sorry, I will always be farenheit at heart), and the toughest decisions were things like: which bathing suit should I wear today? Should we start with the beach, or the pool? Margarita or colada?

So, a few pictures to pique your interest:




(probably the most exercise we got - this or playing water football)


A little homework...

A day spent across the bay on Isla Mujeres, checking beaches and

dolphins, and

signs... oh, my

No, we didn't stop there to see if it really did hurt our teeth - took all my willpower not to... and we actually swam with the dolphins, which was totally amazing!!



This is what we saw from our balcony, and while I realize it looks fake, this is actually how it looks...



We were stalked one afternoon by this guy, who came after us when we dropped some food on the ground - we were told they only eat flowers, which they do

but I know, deep down, he wanted a french fry...

and now that we are home, my decisions include do I need socks, or can I put up with freezing feet? Which sweatshirt or JACKET should I put on?

Am I glad to be back? Any guesses??

Knitting content to follow in the next post, as well as my first meme (thanks, Michelle, I'm so excited - I DO want to play!)

Sunshine, here I come!

I am off this morning - it's now almost 4 a.m. and my shuttle arrives in 20 minutes - to sunnier, warmer, more margarita-ish climes...

Two Bemidjis are done and in the mail, and if my camera wasn't packed I'd show you - hope the suspense doesn't kill y'all... the navy bamboo is slogging along, the twins' socks are travelling with me, the pair with metal needles in my checked bag, and another with bamboo needles in my carry-on - hopefully there will be no problems bringing them with me...

so, I will see you all in a week's time, hopefully tanned, relaxed, and... well... tanned...

Frolic-ing through fields of...

well, yarn, of course...

Just in from the DKC Knitters' Frolic, and my goodness, how it has grown! I last went maybe 6 - 7 years ago? And it was in a church, I think, downtown, maybe 15 - 20 vendors, some workshops - just a nice, small, local-feeling kind of event.

Today's yarn-stravaganza was held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, with over 70 vendors selling all manner of yarns and tools and books and just STUFF - way overwhelming! And of course I forgot my camera, so you will have to rely on others' reports for the visuals...

But I started off with a 9a.m. drop spindling class, taught by Lorraine Smith, who was just wonderful (the link takes you to a recent article she wrote for Knitty)!
I have tried this before with absolutely no success, but for some reason this time there was a little more clicking happening. Maybe it was the new drop spindle I had to buy for the class, made from cocobolo wood:.

Maybe it was the myriad of fibres we were invited to play with, ranging from shetland wool to merino to alpaca to silk/wool hand carded rolags...

or maybe it was finally explained to me in such a way that I GOT IT... yes, I made some kaka yarn:


Actually, there are some patches in the second attempt, the bicolour, that look like real yarn - very exciting!

So a very satisfying morning - and then, of course, there were the vendors...

and I was SO GOOD - so well behaved, so restrained...

I HAD to get this - the colours are just too rich, too wonderful, and the jacket will be the perfect thing with my 'uniform' of jeans and t's:


I think this is the jacket that Tanya was working on in a KAL at her LYS...
And, of course, the mandatory sock yarn purchase... because, as we all know, sock yarn doesn't count as stash... and this is one I don't see in shops, so it was totally okay:
The yarn is from Seacoast Handpainted Yarns, and the colourway is Sea/Sky/Sand - how summery is that?

You know, for someone with only two feet, I seem to have an awful lot of potential socks...

The other thought that crossed my mind was how much smaller the world seems because of blogs. They seem to create an overfamiliarity which strikes me as kind of funny. I poked around the Lettuce Knit booth, saw some scrumptious yarn which I did NOT buy (although it pained me physically to put it down) after asking the price - I then realized that I was speaking to Laura Chau of Cosmicpluto Knits! fame and was all set to start chatting with her when I thought for a second, hell, I don't really know her, I just read her blog faithfully, but I feel like I know her. She doesn't know me. I wonder how many well-known bloggers find themselves facing people who think they know them so well, and how they feel about it. This sort of instant comfort must be nice on some level, but maybe a little unnerving, too... I don't know, just wondering...

so there's my Saturday morning - came home to find that Maggie had eaten a WHOLE loaf of bread and an ENTIRE package of hot dogs buns, while foregoing the cookies and chocolate on the same counter - she is the Carb Queen, and unfortunately, on her hind legs, is tall enough to reach right to the back of the counter... naughty girl...

one Bemidji done for Artisan Knitworks, another blocking and the third of this batch about to be cast on - pics tomorrow - I must go and spindle... I'm so afraid I'll forget, and it won't work anymore!

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...

Finally.... SPRING!! and other observations

It's gorgeous out here - 18 degrees Celsius by my thermometer - just think, two days ago I had the heater on in the car because I was chilled... and in another two days it will probably be hot enough for people to complain about it -

welcome to Spring in southern Ontario!

I have lilac buds: - I swear they weren't there yesterday! And I'll bet that by Sunday they will be out in bloom... any takers?

So, in keeping with Wendy and Julie of Samurai Knitter fame, I am going to share a shot of my fridge, in all it's chaotic glory:
, with a couple of close-ups of things that always make me laugh out loud:
(either the card or the screwy pic of my kids)


Please note that the white cupboards and Holly Hobby wallpaper in the kitchen were here when I moved in - they are NOT my choice, and are, in fact, the bane of my existence... dogs? boys? WHITE and CUTESY? Please...


Julie also pointed out on her blog that CNN is running a poll about preferred leisure activities, and knitting is one of them. When I voted this morning, it wasn't even in the top ten, so let's see if we can change that - go here, and let's see if we can't mess with their statistics, shall we?

Another observation - when Maggie had her now infamous "this is SO NOT a retriever" haircut recently, the gal who trimmed her asked if I wanted to get her nails painted. I almost fell over laughing, then realized she was serious and was struck speechless. She assured me that everyone gets it done, Maggie has nicely shaped nails (???!!!!), and she had a shade of red that would work well with her colouring.

She's a DOG, for God's sake - I don't get my own nails done, never mind my dog - but she had filed Maggie's nails in preparation for colouring:

is it me, or are things just getting too weird?

And in response to your comments, there is a birthday coming up here this weekend - Kelly very kindly sent a box with a big note on it telling me not to open it until the actual day. So Ben took it and hid it somewhere. And I don't know where. And I know there's yarn in there. And really, it's killing me.

Miss Scarlett, the bamboo is developing a wonderful drape, but is fairly splitty to knit, so I have to pay a little more attention while working. Given that it's navy blue stockinette for 11", this is quite a challenge.

And yes, my passport picture was almost exactly as I described - my mother saw it and laughed hysterically - my own mother - so you know it's bad... and I'm stuck with the thing for 5 years.

And finally - Sanjaya is gone!!! I have NEVER watched a reality show, have actually prided myself on being 'above that', until this year when the boys begged me to watch American Idol with them. I am hooked, utterly hooked, and Sanjaya has become a thorn in my side... hmm, maybe I'm a little overinvolved.

But he's gone, and the sun is shining, and it's the weekend, and it's going to be beautiful - so all is right with the world...