Jo Knits!

07.31

It's Brenda's birthday today, so please drop by her blog and leave her a note. I love birthdays and wish everyone enjoys them as much as I do! :) Here, grab a cupcake on your way to her blog!

Be careful what you wish for.... As annoying as that saying is, things that you wish do come true from time to time. LOL! So Brenda use your wish wisely! ;)

Yesterday I had a great time ending two projects! The handles for Daypack and Suki are done and both bags are ready to hop into the washing machine. :) The kids played all afternoon in the backyard and I was knitting with my two feet in the chilly water of their kiddie pool. LOL! They thought I was so funny. ;) Zoe insisted I needed to wear my bathing suit even just to put my feet in the pool but I won, I did promise her to wear my suit everyday on our holidays! At least I'll be wearing in front of people other than my neighbours! ;)

I've said this many times already but I am eager to check out the new Interweave Knits issue, sure I want to see what Veronik Avery's design will be about. Hey! It's always good to root for a new friend! :) I did find a sneek peak of the issue here: Fall 2003 Projects, don't you just love the Tipsy Sailor sweater and hat (at the very buttom of the page), pretty neat, hun? :) Of course I actually love those hats and could care less about hat hair in the winter, also the sweater is pretty cute, I'd go with blues or reds! ;) She also has another pattern in this issue but not my style. I'm too non-stylish to wear a Chinchilla Capelet. LOL! Just wouldn't go well with my old jeans and t-shirt! ;)

I'm starting to stress about what yarn to bring on our vacation, I don't know what project would go well with being knit on the beach. It will be my first on the road knitting project, never did vacation knitting before. Carl has been warned that he will be playng with the kids TONS and I will relax for once! Hey, it's a family camp, activities, crafting mornings and all that jazz, beach and big bon fires at night, those are our vacations. Very CHEAP vacations might I add, that's the oh so lucky bonus. We are only paying 10% of what this place costs, other people going there will pay the full price, we got a special deal with the kids daycare. The camp 'sponsors' a few organizations to make the place available to those who wouldn't never get to go. We were lucky enough to be one of the families to go this year. I'm on the daycare's administration board, I'm even the vice-president! WOOHOO! Nothing like having a title to your name to make a day brighter! LOL! So...... I'm nervous, excited, getting all busy trying to get everything done by the time we leave in 10 days. Thing is we need to have some things already 'shipped' there because our transportation to the camp will have minimal space for our stuff. So now I need to have to bulk of your clothes, sleeping gears, dry food ready by monday morning! ACK! I'm freaking out, Carl can't help he's either working, sleeping and by tomorrow out of the province! LOL!

Expect more and more flipping out entries until I leave! ;)

hugs, hey it's payday!!!

p/s: ~*~Happy Birthday Johnny!~*~, even though you most likely don't read my blog...

07.30

I LOVE fixation yarn! :) At first I did a swatch, it did NOT meet the gauge I needed. So what does Jo do? She knits herself socks anyway 'cause she is a courageous knitter! :P She KNOWS it might not fit but she did not want to make 5 swatches just to knit up socks. The gauge needed is 28st/50rows over 4", my needles decided it was 32st/50row over 4". Hey I will not tell my needles that is wrong, they might do something crazy like DROP a stitch! ACK! The horror... teehee!

Today is my mommy&coffee group, for the 1st time in ages, I am quite excited to go, the lame non-knit liking moms might not be there and those who are think felting and kool aid dying is SO cool! Hey that makes me cool, right? Oh yes, these little things can me make so happy in a day.

On a sad note, I have decided that I will not go to TO for the weekend, it's making me sick to my stomach. I REALLY wanted to go but too many things are happening at once. It would have been our 1st weekend away since...... forever. There will just be too much action in TO though, there is the Caribana festival, the huge Rolling Stones event starting today but many will probably spend their weekend there too. If I had more than a week to plan everything it would have been easier too. I now know some great places to check for cheaper travelling. Toronto even has weekend specials, how neat is that? :) So Toronto might be out of the picture for me this weekend but I will get there by the fall I tell ya! :) I want my weekend away! LOL! I will go to Toronto and feast my eyes and hands to their great yarn stores, oh and I WILL buy some too! 'Cause that is what makes me happy! :)

Until then, I'll be looking more into how to go to TO in a frugal way! LOL! ;)

07.29

Yesterday was a great day! Lucas and I went shopping for 4 hours and he walked the whole time too!!! He's got some energy my 2yo, I tell ya! ;) Of course by the time we got home, he was beat and.... so was I. We bought took an hour long nap! LOL!

At Walmart I did resist buying some yarn. They have some Bernat Lulu that I really like touching each time we go. It feels just like fleece and I bet they would make nice soft and warm hats, mittens, scarves. They only have pastel-ish colors though.

In the good news though I found a bathing suit!!! WOOHOO! :) I couldn't be happier, I need one for in two weeks and was starting to stress about it. It has the look of a tankini but it's a one-piece, I didn't like how the tankini made me look like a sausage. LOL! Hibiscus are my favorite flowers so the flower print is an added bonus! ;)

The 1st Broadripple sock is slowly coming along, I only knitted a few rows after the kids went to bed last night. By that time I was eager to jump in bed too but want to knit a bit.

Dh did spend an hour with us yesterday, he got home at 7PM, we ate supper and he was off to sleep by 8PM. He is now working his 9th day in a row. He already knows that in TO, they have a brunch meeting on the saturday, so he will be working 13 days in a row before having next sunday off. He is quite exhausted but did get a small joy today, he's getting business cards printed to his name! LOL! Warehouse manager will be written under his name, he's so proud! :)

On the Daypack front: I will be making I-cords for the handles of the bag, I don't get why the handles would be so much stronger just because I am sewing them up. The handles will be felted afterwards so I am chancing it. :)

hugs,

07.28

Another week starts and I wish you all a great one. :) Carl already knows this will be a very hectic one. On friday he goes to Toronto to meet clients, they are having supper at an expensive 100$/person restaurant and they'll go to a lounge. Now here's the kicker... I could go if I want to. I am not the kind of person that would entertain the clients well though. I'd be mostly smiling and eating! LOL! Then at the lounge well, you don't want to look drunk before clients right? ;)

I do have a tiny dilema, what if I went to TO but didn't go to supper with dh and the clients? Say, I stayed at the hotel and ordered in or maybe found a little restaurant close by. Dh will ask his boss if it would be possible that would stay an extra day there. Then come back home by our own means. A 5 hour car ride with dh's boss just isn't in my repertoire of fun activities! ;) Also I don't do to well in long car rides, I don't mind the bus though, nor the train. Hey, Via Rail now has the option of sleeping in the cars from Toronto to Montreal. Isn't that neat? LOL! ;)

Oh and how about yarns stores on TO! I hear a few are pretty, ah well, we'll see how the week goes. It is fun to think I might but at the same time, I know I might not. Dreaming doesn't hurt anyone though! ;)

Ok, how about knitting? Humm... I had to restart the Broadripple socks 4 times yesterday BUT by the time I went to bed, I had knitting a BIG 4 rounds! See the colorsway I'm using in the zebra-like pic above. LOL! ;) I finished the ties on my daypack and will knit the handles today, I hope to have it done by wednesday to show it off to the moms and the mommy&coffee group. We were only 3 last week but they were genuinely interested to know about felting and kool aid dying. I'd love to show them the bag all felted and well..... I am eager to start wear it! LOL! I can't wait to dye again, it was so much fun. Mittens, hats and scarves would look pretty fun in cool aid colors! :)

UGH! Last rant of the day, yesterday I was taking the subway and it stopped, everyone had to come out, they were interrupting the service. I had to walk 5 stops and by the time I go to the "fun" place I wanted to go, I was beat! LOL! It was nice to walk around the One of a kind show, it was an artisan exhibit with 150 booths, though I did 'resist' buying a 36$ jar of salt scrub and an 85$ necklace! HA! It was kinda nice to see what artisans from all over Canada are making. Thank goodness I had a rebate because it was not worth paying 5$ in my opinion. In less than 30 minutes I had seen everything. I was moslty interested in kids clothes, necklaces and bath products but at the prices they were selling there stuff it was not worth it for me. Ok, I know it was suppose to be expensive! LOL! ;)

Have a great day, I'm off to Walmart with Lucas, his my little day for the day. WOOHOO!

p/s: Oh I forgot to say... THIS came with the ball winder last week! LOL!

pp/s: Kerstin has moved, her new house looks exactly like the last one BUT the addy changed. Here is the new addy: http://www.crazydaisy.us

07.27

/rant: begin

I am SO thankful yesterday I went out on a girly trip with Zoe. Usually when Carl works on saturdays I'll stay home waiting for him to come back and be all mad that it takes a few extra hours then expected. Yesterday he was to be done at noon, I came back home at 5PM and he had just arrived from work. We ate supper while Lucas was napping, at 06:30pm dh was off to bed for the night...

How exciting does that make my saturday night! LOL! So my mom sat together on the couch and each did some crafting 'stuff'. She was making Zoe a beaded belt and I was knitting a swatch. My swatch didn't come out perfect but since I'm too lazy to start another one I'll just use these needles for my newest project.

Oh yeah..... GUESS who left for work at 6am this morning... I tell ya, sure we are lucky that he has a job but the kids had not seen him in the last 5 days. Then when they finally see him yesterday he was a zombie, couldn't tak right, he was just starring blankly at the tv. He had to go to sleep, it was absolutely no use to the kids to keep his eyes open every 3 seconds. So he's been working every day for the past 7 days, not once has he been home more than 8 hours. Oh and as a surprise he had turned off his cell phone before going to sleep, that thing rings constantly. This morning he had 10 messages, his boss had really needed him to go back to work and do a night shift in this last night. WTF??? He slept 4 hours from friday to saturday and then worked 9 hours on saturday, they expect him to stay awake all night too!? They are crazy, I tell ya! Who knows how many hours he'll work today, of course he'll be dead tired tonight and will go back to sleep as soon as he gets here.

Now today I was SURE he'd be off of work, right? Of course not, so now do I do what I had planned or just stay home in a funk. UGH!

YES, I know we are lucky that he has a job but I don't think he ever expected being at work so much. They better let him take his holidays in 2 weeks 'cause if they don't *I* WILL call them and have dh taken off the payroll. We aren't even going to be in the city, they can not make us miss our holidays.

/rant: over

Off to knit away all my anger! ;)

07.26

Today is saturday! I went to bed at midnight and dh was still at work, woke up at 8am and he was already gone back to work. Proof he was home? The dirty clothes in the hamper. So for once him not being home will not dampen my fun. I will still go out as planned with Zoe. Nothing too extravagant, just a subway trip, some sight seeing and a little shopping. ;) It might rain though today and if we're walking outside I hope it doesn't get cold.

Finally about my daypack backpack! :) Chris has waiting long enough to see it! LOL! I just need to knit the ties and handles and I am DONE! So pleased with this project, it just goes round and round, decrease every few rows and then oh, almost done! :) Click on the little print below to see the bag. I want to make some for everyone I know! LOL! I had such fun dying with kool aid and winding this new yarn with my ball winder.

Today I'm swatching fixation yarn for my own pair of Brodripple socks! We'll see how that goes! ;)

I tell ya, this has been a great week! :) I will be back monday with a little scoop to share...

07.25

Happiness is...

- having spent a great week and hoping for a nice weekend

- sending the kids to daycare a few mornings this week

- kitting a very fun project and understanding the pattern mostly on my own

- talking on the phone for 2.5 hours and having a blast

- ordering chinese food for last night's supper and having enough leftover for lunch

- being healthy and knowing that I am loved

- making new friends

- waking up with no pimples

- knowing a new issue of Interweave Knits is coming out on August 4th.

- learning new knitting tricks and starting new projects.

Wishing you all a great weekend!!! :)

p/s: Note the new button on the right (Are you Kind?), it think it's important that we remember to play nice in the blogging world. Real people are writting the words you read and sometimes others can say hurtful things. I tend to stay away from drama but I do support people in my own way. :)

pp/s: Both graphics (happiness and kindness) come from an open heart, their mission is to inspire acts of kindness. It's really a lovely site! :)

07.23

Update 5:00 PM: It's here, it's here! ;) Surprise, yup! a ball winder, nothing much but something that makes my day! Hey, I'm easily pleased! ;) The picture is proof that even a 2 year old can master ball winding.

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Another boring entry, hopefully soon I'll get back to trying to post something interesting! ;) Slow week, slow knitting, a few secrets I won't share right now. I am having a BLAST knitting the Daypack pattern though! It is truely a dumb-proof pattern aka one that even *I* can understand without asking too many questions to my knitting friends! ;) I can't wait to show it off but I like it so much I want to make you wait! LOL!

Last night we had the yummiest birthday cake for my mom. It had chocolate dipped strawberries all over the cake and inside what chocolate! :) Sure I chose a cake that I would enjoy when I bought it but my mom did say it was one of the best she has eaten in a while. It was just like those 'black forest'(does that exist 'cause it sure does in french) cake but not cherries, all strawberries between the cake layers and on it. YUMMY! :) Both my mom and I decided that her birthday was really worth blowing our calorie intake for a day! Tomorrow we'll get back on track, I'll make her do the 2 mile tape from our Walk away the pounds serie! ;) I need to power yoga this week, I feel all in bad shape for skipping a few exercise days last week.

Also we will be off for a week long vacation in a few weeks! ACK! I don't know how I'll survive a week from any computer access. OYE! I better bring a few knitting projects, especially for those no-TV evenings! That will be tough but there will be so much to do in the day with the kids that hopefully we won't miss all of our commodities from home. ;)

hugs,

p/s: I am SOOOOOOOOO happy this morning! Gotta LOVE UPS tracking numbers! ;)

07.22

~*~Happy Birthday MOM!!!~*~
Yup! Today is my mom's birthday, I love birthdays. :) This morning the kids will go to daycare for a nice 3 hours. It'll give me a chance to take out my mom for breakfast! :) My mom is one of my many heros, by age 21, she had lost both of her parents and when I was 9, I lost my own dad. She's been my rock for many years and I suspect I may have been hers. ;) She is one of my bestest of friends, I don't see her as a mom but mostly as a friend. Living so closely makes us fight sometimes but in the end we have a great relationship. I know I am lucky to have such a special bond with my mooooom! ;)

I'm having a blast knitting the daypack. [photo still to come!] The baby sweater in not on track though. I'm WAY behind for that. Tomorrow morning, I'll go to the mommy & coffee group and knit like crazy while the other moms talk, talk, talk. I usually don't have much to say to them, which is ironic if you know me in real life! LOL! I talk all the time! ;)

Have a great rainy day. ;)

07.21

I still haven't done a reformat of our computer, so sometimes it works and others it doesn't. Don't be surprise if one day I don't post! ;) I'm so chicken about doing this.

Slow weekend for us, it was nice though, only a few rain showers but nothing to make us stay inside. ;) Frizzy hair and all, I don't mind when it is so nice. I actually love rain, you might remember a few weeks back when the rain didn't stop me from walking and I ended up soaking wet and in desperate need to buy new clothes! LOL!

Saturday I met Cleo and Veronik, two local knitters, dh came along (of course) and we went shopping and had lunch together. :) I even called both of them that day! LOL! I sure wanted to make the meeting happen, hun? I NEVER call anyone and make dh do it most of the time. lol! We had a great time, Veronik knows all the little neat boutiques and used books stores. ;) I even got a deal at an office supplies store, 4 kid "educational" cd-roms for 5$, that was 75% less the regular price. I'm so lucky with sales these days! ;)

Then in the evening dh got called to work. :( Luckily he didn't know he was expected to go in the morning, I would have been bummed. So my little saturday evening was pretty quite, knitting and chatting on the computer resumes it well. He worked for 10pm-2am, of course sunday morning he wasn't in too much shape. We stayed home most of the day just hanging around with the kids.

I started my Daypack pattern, the cherry kool aid yarn I dyed looks really nice. I'm totally hooked on this. Saturday morning I tried handpainting two colors and am really pleased with the result. :) Yeah sure, I could wear gloves when handpainting but hey, it made for a nice conversation starter at our little local meetup. ;)

Wishing everyone a great monday! :)

p/s: tomorrow is my mom's birthday! ACK! Can't we push it for it to be next week? I'm not ready! ;)

07.18

I love sales! Yesterday my mom and I bought 252.59$ worth of clothes for the kids. Pants, pj's, a few outfits and a fall/winter coat for Lucas!!! :) We left the store with 21 new pieces/sets of clothes and a very big grin on our faces. LOL! We paid only 16,5% of the total of what the clothes are worth! :)

Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to find kool aid for me! Your generosity in time and money really means alot. I finally tried kool aid dyeing for the first time this after using 8 packets of cherry flavor for 8 onces of Fisherman's wool. Let's say it was a good first time! ;) The color isn't all even and I'm sure next time by wetting the wool before plunging it in the dye would help. I have a mottled finish, some places are pale and others dark cherry. If I had used more kool aid it would have helped but this will be for a felted project after all, the color variations won't show that much by the end. Today we shall try handpainting enough yarn to knit Lucas a wool soaker. :) Oh, I forget... I will not use the Ice Blue flavor in my Daypack project (yes I know, what's up with me and my color changes. Hey, I'm a Gemini!) LOL! The accent color for my stripes will be plain ol'undyed wool. I think the red and beige color will look nice! :) I did have a blast "coloring" my yarn and will have to find an undyed wool source because I want to do tons more dyeing! Zoe had so much fun helping mommy with the yarn in red soup experiment! LOL! ;)

It's friday already, this week has flown by so quickly! I didn't even see it go by. I love beeing busy and have the days move on quickly. For the last two days, we've been playing alot outside, also that afternoon escapade with Zoe on wednesday was alot of fun. :) Here's a pic of the kids showing in their new clothes:

Hope this weekend is a sunny one, I feel like having a BBQ in the backyard! :)

Have a great weekend, I'll be back on monday!

P/S: My computer is not behaving, I have a registry system problem and making my life not so pleasant right now. If I'm not back monday, I'll try to update from somewhere else.

07.17

I had SUCH a great day yesterday! :) Now let me tell you all about it too! LOL! If you are coming here to read knitting content, please move on but do come back tomorrow, when it will be back to our regular knitting blog content.

So the plan was to find Ice blue kool aid. Took the bus with Zoe (my mom graciously offered to keep Lucas at home.), went to a 1st grocery store. BIG WINNER!!!!!!!! found Ice Blue and it was on sale, how cool is that! LOL! They did not have grape though. Oh, I did get the worst ever customer service from the cashier, guess she thought I bought all the packets to drink... We continue our little route, Walmart it is, found a how-to crochet cd and I spluged. ;) (/begin rant) Of course this said cd does NOT take for account that some left-handed people would be willing to learn crochet! How silly would that be, RIGHT? UGH! Coats & Clark people you are not nice Sure they also sell a crochet booklet and suggest lefties to look at the images with a mirror reflecting them. SHEESH! Anything else I can do to make your big corporate life easier? again (/end rant.)

Went to three more supermarkets hunting for grape kool aid. Still nothing, in fact most of them don't even sell the little packets anymore. Then there was Value Village (hi Anna, yes I shop there too!) LOL! Did NOT find any kool aid there either! LOL! (oh dear, yes I crack myself over silly thoughts like that!) ROFL! I did find six books for the kids, YES, even THE Barbie party cookbook! Woohoo! ;) Zoe is learning a few syllables and is really motivated to read. She's only four so I am in no way pushing her. She keeps picking up books and reading them to her little brother, it is really cute to see her invent those stories from the images in the books! I found a board game too it's called Maestria, I love board games, don't everyone? I'm such a boring person, could play cards or board games all evening with the tv off or knit while watching a movie. I am a party animal, can't you tell? ;)

So my little escapade continues, need to pick up some food for our supper, yummy chicken fajitas. Bought blueberries at the fresh produce market and finally got home. Later in the evening, I go out with Lucas to find grape kool aid, well... it did not happen, so I chose the cherry flavor. You never saw someone so dedicated to find a particular kool aid flavor. LOL! Lucky me, there was a HUGE kids clothing sale at the store!!! I bought both Zoe and Lucas some new clothes and since they were begging us to leave as it was closing time, first thing today I'm going back to find more clothes for the kids. Oh yeah, they were 1,99$ each outfit or jeans, that's in Canadian dollars too! ;) Just got a call that woke me up, dh calling to let me know the store is about to open! LOL! Guess dh thought the prices were good and I shouldn't miss out! ;)

What a great day I had! :) Hope today is even better! ;)

07.16

I did my round of blog reading before typing my entry, such a lazy morning! I did go to bed earlier! LOL! ;)

Today I'm hunting for Ice blue raspberry lemonade kool aid! I went to five stores last night and did not find one single packet. So later I'll go visit three more stores and hope to get lucky. If not, I'll just dye my yarn another color, I wanted purple and pale blue but might go with orange, that's an easy color to find! ;)

The baby sweater is coming along slowly, I haven't had the time to knit last night. I'm hoping to have it completed this weekend and have a "finish all projects" weekend. Dh's 2nd HotSox sock is only a few rounds from beeing done, then Zoe's miami "belly top" has one strap done, only needs the other strap and part of the back to be ready to wear. Then there's a 5-hour baby sweater I started ages ago that is about three rows from being completed. I can't seem to find the excitment in finishing projects. I love to start them though! ;)

So that's my day, nothing too exciting but you never know what I might bring back once I go at WalMart's! LOL! ;)

Have a great day, rainy clouds here.

p/s: Wishing a great evening for everyone that has a knitting.meetup tonight, our local meeting has been cancelled. If you recall lst month I was all alone at my own meetup and sadly blogged about it! ;)

07.15

Last night, I tried to act like a teenager and went to bed way pst my bed time. OYE! This morning is hard! LOL! I'm on coffee and have a splitting headache.

Yesterday I got to meet a 3 days old baby boy! aaaaaaawww! He was too precious but happily he was not mine! LOL! ;) Baby was due in only 3 weeks so I freaked out, I had nothing to give the happy mother. Off I went running to the closest Zellers and bought some yarn. Then I knit, knit, knit all evening. Got 6 inches into the pattern I'm following and just started the arms. I have until next week since her oldest child goes to the same part-time as the kids. I'll give it to her then.

I'm doing the Fran’s Hooded Baby Sweater, not using the recommended yarn (as usual!) and am I little worried because the sweater seems so tiny. I've substituted the yarn with one that is with a similar gauge though there is more yarn per grammes in the balls I bought. Oh well, the kids might inherite a sweater for there dolls! ;)

Here's a little progress pic, not much but it's a start! :) The yarn is Bernat's Baby Boucle in Rain Drops colors.

hugs,

07.14

All knitting projects have been on hold this weekend. I was playing with another kind of neeedle and made.....

I made yoga pants!!!! Yeah! :) I haven't sewed anything in the last 10 months, ever since I learned knitting. I have missed it though and finally got back to it this weeksnd. I have enough fabric to make another pair in an oatmeal color. These pants come out at half price to those I saw on special at the store! I'm really please! :)

Maybe I'll finally sew myself a knitting needle case! LOL! I can't stop thinking of other projects to sew, like shorts for the kids, that can't take too much fabric! LOL! ;)

You'll still see knitting pics as I can only sew when the kids are sleeping, they don't mix well with a sewing machine or a serger!

Have a great week! :)

07.12

Lost 4lb this week! :) Still need to loose about an inch at the waist so my jeans fit! LOL! I am loving this exercising and healthy eating, can't wait to go back at the produce market and buy more veggies.

Dh is working today, by 7am he was already gone, that's after coming home from work at 11pm last night. :( What a wonderful weekend... He'll be dead tired when he finally gets home who knows at what time and then tomorrow he'll sleep most of the day. So this just a perfectly ruined weekend for us. Bummer too, since I had planned some fun activities for us outside but nooooo it's raining! ARGH! His paycheck hasn't been deposited so we can't go shopping and see all the summer clothes sales at the stores.

Man, this is a crapy day. Oh wait! I did just inherite a box of 50-60 granny squares from a neighbor! ;) Oh and I'm planning on buying a sewing pattern this weekend! I haven't seen since I started knitting. ACK!I've been missing it alot these days. I'm still a newbie sewer but I did make
Lucas some reversible pants, Zoe a stripe skirt and a pillowcase dress last summer! :) This time I'd love to try making some yoga pants for myself, I heard they were EASY and could be made in an hour, which I will guess 2 hours for me! ;)

So that's how my weekend begins, wishing yours is better! ;)

07.11

Shhh! I haven't told anyone yet but I've been tempted to the dark side. I keep hearing about this thing and since I am always eager to learn something new and I keep being tempted, it is hard to resist. It's not particularly hard and I could do it whever I want but I wonder if this is like cheating!? Will my needles get jealous if I try 'hooking'? Off I go and try to learn... to crochet! Oh dear... yes, I know! ;)

I always thought that crochet was faster than knitting, not sure if I am right though. It seems easier too but someone late last night told me it wasn't. I'm a left-handed and usually instructions are geared towards 'righties'. Not sure I'll make anything out of it but I'll at least try a few single and double crochets. ;)

Not much happening on the knitting front, I'm doing some stockinette in the flat which is going very slowly as I try to not twist the 'ribbon yarn' I'm using. Dh's sock is coming along also, starting to get tired of knitting it! LOL! Good thing I'm at the leg already, only 2-3 inches more and it will be done.

Then another problem will happen...... what to start next? ;) I have so many projects I want to work on, just need to find which one I want to start first. A few projects need to be done by a certain date and then there's the fun factor, I want to knit a few things for good plain FUN! So hummm.... think I'll go with the selfish ME first projects!

p/s: Well after trying to understand crochet abbreviations my mom and I spent an hour last night following a granny square pattern. We didn't crochet much but I laughed so hard I cried and she talked about her mother to me (by age 20, she has lost both of her parents). It was really a very special moment we shared. Think I'm gonna like crochet for a while! ;) Also my mom learned that she'd be doing granny squares wrong for the last 30..... :cough: 40 some years! LOL! God, I love my mom! :) For anyone who cares, my itty bitty square is on the left and my mom's on the right.

07.01 Canada day

Canada Day, one of Canada's most important holidays, it is celebrated on July 1st each year. It honors the day that the British colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada became united as one country, called the Dominion of Canada.

Canada Day is very much a Family Day with outings, picnics and celebrations of the birth of the nation. Lots of flags waving, fireworks, parades, patriotic singing, and especially family picnics.

Happy 136th Birthday Canada!!!!
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I am proud to sew a maple leaf on my backpack and have Canada as my homeland. This is VERY unpopular to say when you live in Quebec though. People here are more patriotic about their province than the country. I think english speaking people from this country are really proud to be Canadians though. :)

So I frogged the whole heel on dh's sock last night! UGH! It just wasn't going well. Man, I have the fact that just a simple project like a sock is taking so much time to complete. I just want it DONE!

Oh and Zoe's "belly top" swatch is telling me I need to up the size of the needles. I think I might work on that today, the yarn so soooo soooooft! :)

Have a great day and why not wear something red today, I love red! ;)

07.09

After a crapy morning yesterday the rest of my day was quite a good one. :)

My mom took the kids to the kiddy pool at the park and gave me the afternoon "off". So off I went to deposit the GST refund check we had just received and went on a spending spree. 1st finally got the findings I needed to make beaded stitch markers. Then got caught by heavy showers while walking for half an hour. Did I stop and go in a store while it rained? Nooooo...... Jo isn't scared of the rain, the result was a soaked Jo needing new clothes! LOL! Went to the Bay and found some cargo pants on sale!!! Went to four stores to look for a plain t-shirt. Why is it so hard to find a PLAIN t-shirt? Finally found one with Nike printed on it. I didn't cared, I was still soaked and wet and getting cold. Changing into new and dry clothes was great! :)

The best part of my shopping spree was stumbling across some yoga mats on reduction. I was just about to go to a book store where I had seen an orange mat that I wanted. Good thing I got caught in the rain, it made me go shopping at Winners (a store that sale brand name clothes at a reduced price). I bought my hibiscus print yoga mat half-priced. Then got a call from dh, he just finished work and we made plans for him to join me downtown. My mom was all for it when I called her to let her know the change of plans. Once dh and I met we went out to eat at Wendy's (there's only one Wendy in our area) also I decided that tuesday was my official "unhealthy" day. I can eat what I want and don't exercise. Ok, so I did walk like 4 hours shopping! lol! Before going back home I bought a 2nd yoga mat for my 4 year old yoga partner! She loves doing it with me and I even splurged on a satin mat bag. I tell ya, shopping can cure any blues! ;)

Today I'm alot more patient with the kids, we spent all morning gardening outside and right before lunch we all tried out th;e new "walk away the pounds" tape I bought yesterday. I love all this exercising I've been doing, I feel great, sore.... but great! ;)

07.08

Two days into my "getting healthy" mode and I'm surviving! LOL! ;) I wrote a new post in my JoLives blog. It's not really interesting but it gives me 'pressure' to do well when I write about it online. ;)

Not much knitting being done with all the nice days we are having, my wrist is doing much better too. :)

I was to go downton today and buy the things I need to make stitch markers, well seems that the kids don't feel like taking a long ride in the subway. Oh well, guess mommy just has to wait another day. Sheesh! Some days it feels like life was easier when they didn't talk much! :P I wish I could just leave and go for a fun day by myself but nah! had some kids and now they decide what mommy gets to do in a day...

Got into a fight with my mom today (we live with her), I don't feel so good today.

hugs,

07.07

Well hello there and happy monday to you! LOL!

Saturday, Carl and I went to the 2nd "knitters break from the kids" meeting! We had a blast, this time we had lunch at a mexican restaurant (NOT McD's for once!). It was really good and gave us an opportunity to talk about anything. In fact we almost didn't even talk about knitting. Good thing Cleo brought us back to the subject by trying on her Paulina top, which was a beauty once on her. We even found a way for her to salvage the project!!! :) Even dh had a few comments on how to improve it! LOL! (He's such a closet knitter) I was really pleased to get answers to a few questions I had. Meeting knitters in real life really does make a difference. We all comment books we see, talk about the blogs we read, it's so much fun. :)

I took most of the weekend off from the computer and my wrist is doing much better, in fact I'll be scarce this week, so hopefully my wrist will feel at it's best. I did however knit today and should finish dh's 2nd sock soon. We rented How to lose a guy in 10 days, sweet movie, great for mindless knitting, it was nice and light and funny, all the basic requirements for a sunday evening rental were met! :) Kate Hudson makes me think alot about her mother (Goldie Hawn) in her expressions, sometimes it was eerie. Kate is so beautiful too, did you see on a magazine this week, they just announced she was pregnant! Go Kate! :)

Oh, I started getting healthy! LOL! Nope not a diet, just gonna do better at eating and exercising! ;) If you saw the fajitas I ate saturday, you would understand! LOL! Gotta love that guacamole! ;) Today I ate really well, did get a sunday though but I've been craving once for the last week. I did an hour of bicycling, luckily we had errands to run so we went by bicycle. Tomorrow, I'll go buy that french Power Yoga tape I want and do that. I'm so happy, I'm gonna get healthy. Oh and I better fit in my favorite pair of jeans soon too!

Have a great week!

I'm seriously thinking I'll start a sweater some time soon... maybe for Lucas though! ;) Something with cables, with undyed yarn, aran-like or ..... we'll see! First a sweater for Lucas than..... perhaps..... ME!!! :)

p/s: Ginny is back and her son's health is now A1!!! Yay for you both!!! :)

07.04

wishing all our American friends a happy and safe 4th of july! :) (to celebrate here's one of my 1st PSP creations)

Beauty,

Each and everyone of us has it's own definition of beauty. I, for one, never thought I was beautiful but then again I did get signed up by a major modelling agency in Montreal at one time. Still at that time I didn't think I was cuter than the next, I sure never got the free drinks my friends got in clubs and no one was whistling as I walked by! LOL! ;) I was teased most of my high school and truely it traumatised me, I cried going to school and woul skip school to stay home and watch General Hospital or Cheers! ;)

When I met Carl a few years ago, he still had pimples in his face and looked more like a teen then a man. Maybe love does this but everyday I seem to think he is cuter and cuter. He's not the knockdead handsome guy you see in magazines but he is the most handsome guy that won my heart. When I first met him, I can't say beauty was a reason I noticed him, actually it was his tattoos but that's a whole other story. Today though, just one of his smiles and seeing the love in his eyes make me feel so loved. :)

So why am I talking about this beauty stuff? Well...... yesterday I went bathing suit shopping! HA! Now no beauty came out of that! LOL! ;) It was not a pretty sight and god knows it could have depressed me alot but oh well, I think I can just live another year without one. I tried on those tankini model, ha! not too cute on me. Maybe I should just loose weight? LOL! This is from the person who ate 5 Krispy Kreme donuts yesterday! :-P I never did a diet before but I'm not getting any slimmer either. LOL! Guess this is just an excuse so I can buy the new power yoga tape I saw at the bookstore. ;)

Ok, nothing to report about knitting, my wrist has been killing me immensly. Today I plan on having a picnic on the McGill University grounds (it's beautiful) and then attend the mini-school of Jazz with the kids. We'll see if we even make it out the door today though! LOL! Usually when I make grand plans something happens..... you know like rain! Ah well..... there's always the mall! LOL!

Hey, go check out Cleo's account of the knitting meeting we improvised two weeks ago. Proof that I'm not a weirdo or whatever! LOL! ;) Even more fun is that we are meeting again tomorrow! :)

Last but not least, this might not be a picture of me but hey it's supposed to look just like me! LOL! ;) Click on the graphic to go play yourself.

hugs,

07.03

Not much to say.

Yesterday went shopping, bought nothing. Went out for lunch at Casey's, it was incredibly good. :) I had fish and chips, my friend ordered Sangria for us both. Our afternoon was pretty funny after that. ;) Before coming home we each bought 2 douzens of doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. Oh my, I'm in LOVE, they are SO good. You get a hot doughnut for free right when you come in the door. Yummy! :) I ordered a douzen of glazed doughnuts and a douzen of assorted ones. I prefer the simple glazed ones. SO gooooooooood, I can't stand it. I can feel I am fattening up from eating them. LOL! Good thing I can't go to Krispy Kremes anytime soon, it's really too far from us and I don't think I'd have any doughnuts left if I came back home in a bus and subway. LOL! Next time I go though, I might buy a sweatshirt or baseball cap! I thought they were so neat and with only 1 Krispy Kreme in the whole province, I know not everyone will be wearing 'my' shirt. ;)

I see that no one could offer help about the stitch markers. Ah well, guess that project with be on hold. I just want to know what size of wire I need. I tried to make a few markers but they broke, so that's no good.

One little small request, please keep Connor and mom Ginny in your thoughts today. Her son is having surgery and she needs as many good thoughts and hugs as possible. :)

My links have been updated using the blogrolling links management. Also today my blog will get it's 10,000 view. Woohoo! That's pretty neat for having installed the counter 6 months ago. :) Of course, you know that half of those views are from me! LOL! ;)

07.02

Yesterday I cast on the Miami top for Zoe and then........ I frogged the whole thing. I can't knit flat, who I am kidding? LOL! So I asked around and got an easy way to convert the pattern in the round. Now I can finally cast on again and knit some plain stockinette rounds over and over and .... you get the idea! Now that's what I call easy knitting! ;) Then I'll get to the armholes and freak out because I don't understand but that will only happen in a few days! LOL! ;)

A small update on the sock, I restarted the heel, it is halfway done.

Last night we rented a movie and I tried making a few beaded stitch markers. Well some were cute but then one broke! ACK! Now something you want while knitting, I only have some crafting wire and I guess the gauge of the metal isn't strong enough. Anyone care to help me here? What size should I get? I really want to send a few to a special friend I've been having wait long enough. LOL! Good thing she's too busy to knit at the moment but still I'd like to send these asap.

Then I started making a necklace for myself. Gosh! I have all these beads in every color. I'm at the end and just need to knot, crimp and voila! Well nooooooo....... the nylon crap, I mean thread broke and once more, I end up with nothing! ARGH!

So off I went to bed, today I'm going shopping with some gift money I got at my birthday, I should visit a few outlet stores and the only Krispy Kreme in our province! WOOHOO!!!!! :)

Oh, dh got a promotion at work! Yay!!!! :) Which means he starts just as early but gets the privilege to stay late at work! Boo!!! :( Oh well, he now gets to boss around the whole department he works in! OH! He did promise to bring me home more yarn from work by the end of the week! Stay tuned!!! ;)

hugs,