January 29, 2005

ACK!

So I was hoping to have finished the left front of my cardi but I'm stomped. I checked the KAL site and still I don't get it. So if anyone feels like helping me and slowly walk me through the neck shaping of size 40/41 of the ribbi cardi, please go ahead! I want to get the right front done by the end of the weekend and start both sleeves at the same time this week.

We are working tonight in a clothing store, the office was VERY polite and nice when they called us, quite surprisingly if you ask me. Our week at Walmart was pretty nice, I got to take care of a team of 4 and then 6 auditors. I did some lab inventory (which was my 1st time and I had a blast). I got to help out in many ways this week but then my last day sucked counting watches and carfting 'crap'. So many things to count in a craft section. Oh well I survived and can't wait to see what the next week will bring us. :) We have 4 stores to work at, I'll be starting at 6am from now on, not easy to wake up prior to 4 am though we will get to sleep in our own bed every night. :)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 08:34 AM | Comments (1)

January 23, 2005

Week 2,

This week will bring us to Ontario cities, Cornwall and Smith Falls, we will end our week in Quebec at Valleyfield's. Sadly some days we will finish late and have to travel 90 minutes from one city to the next. Luckily though I am starting my week in a hotel with a pool! I will try to jump in and NOT exercise but just float for quite some time. I really enjoy swimming (or in my case 'floating') in a pool and just relax. It's also a great way to get tired and have a great night of sleep. :) As we left the office we got the news we weren't staying at the hotel with a pool. ACK! :(


This is where I am up to for the sweater.

Posted by Jo at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)

Week 1,

We survived! First week on the road was... special. We are six in our truck and there is no heat in it. It's been freezing your nose off cold in the area, so next week I am packing along a warm blanket to tote in the truck. Work was ok, though it was tough getting back into the beat. We are standing up most of out 10 to 12 hour days and only have a one hour lunch break a day.

I did some knitting from Montreal to Ottawa but after that I was too tired at night to knit. Since arriving home though I've knitted as much in one day than I did all week. I'm working on a sweater for myself and will soon start on socks too, that was I can change projects from time to time. :)

We leave again tomorrow and I'll be a pretty absent blogger for the next few weeks. I've been bored out of my mind all weekend so not much to say, well ok not bored, more like exhausted, tired, not able to recuperate the sleep I didn't get all week. Also on friday we got into a "problem" with Zoe's coach at her private lessons of figure skating so that's been quite a thing to deal with. Let's just say we won't be dealing with her anymore, which totally sucks. Luckily one of the teen coaches will take an hour a week one-on-one with Zoe to coach her on the regular skating lesson time. Carl and I talked about it and we will pay her half the price of the private coach, I think the teen will appreciate the money 'cause god knows we appreciate her so much. :)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2005

The Walmart tour begins!

I lost my previously nicely written post and I'm quite in a hurry so here I go:
-worked this morning and left early so we could eat lunch with the kids
-packing as soon as I finish this post.
-leaving for an hour ride in the subway in 30 minutes
-packed 2 yarn projects and there's yarn stores in Ottawa.

Biggest news though is that Zoe was invited to participate at Recrute Quebec. It is a special event to celebrate young talents in figure skating;. She will go have to perform elements in front of a judge from the skating federation. The five best skaters (out of 20) in each level will receive a medal, certficate and sweatshirt, we don't get to know the final standing but this not the purpose for that day. There's also a seminar for parents too. We will know more next friday but it's quite exciting don't you think? :)


This might be my next project, it's the diamond-seed baby jacket from the winter 04 IK issue. It's cute and my yarn substitution is right on. It'll be my 1st time knitting with Rowan cotton, hope it goes well! LOL! I ripped out the Mariah sweater I had started and will use the alpace/wool yarn for a new project instead. :)

hugs, have a great week! Ottawa here we come! :)

Posted by Jo at 11:48 AM | Comments (3)

January 16, 2005

On the road again,.


What better way to relax! My own handmade socks in my own handmade clogs! Pure relaxation I tell you. I wore my socks to work yesterday and they made my evening, I was so proud to wear them, I have to knit myself a few more. I was comfy, I was happy and we finished early so all is good. :) I haven't look into sock patterns yet, I mostly prefer the basic stockinette sock pattern but they are some what boring to knit, I think they still show off nicely printed yarns to best though. Carl has requested some clogs of his own, luckily I have just enough wool left to knit him some in the same color as mine, well, that by ripping out the hat I had started though. LOL! Also I'm knitting the same size I did my own pair so I already know the numbers to work with.


Here's a picture to show off the heel from the toe up pattern I used to knit the socks. I will up the stitches count next time I knit socks though, you can see on top of the foot that the stitches are all stretched out. I could add ribbing also, we'll see how I feel once I start them. :) I may cast on today and knit up the toe part on both socks so that tomorrow I can do some mindless knitting once we ride for 2 hours in a truck. I'm packing my cd player, needles & yarn, a book and hope that time will fly by quickly.

As we leave tomorrow for the Ottawa area, I am quite nervous. The last Walmart we have inventoried was back in june, this year I am working another position in the stores. I always get queasy/nauseous/nervous before we work. On top of that I get motion sickness so when you have to get in a truck for an hour before getting to the store I take some Gravol, this causes one to be sleepy. Can you see how hard it is for me to smile at work at 7am every morning? Still I try my best! ;)

hugs, have a great week, we are coming back thursday night.

Posted by Jo at 02:53 PM | Comments (2)

January 13, 2005

Clogs & Socks!

Ever felt like your out of the loop when it comes to gossip? LOL! Actually it's not really gossip more like news but anyway. I'm stunned at two things I learned today and sheesh! I could have known for over a week and no one told me! :-P So anyway, there's a blog I enjoy reading and this person seems to have such a lovely life, happiness and all. I like to read her blog only once in a while and read a bunch of entries at a time. Today I learn that she broke up with her boyfriend of four years. I was stunned, shocked, sad for her. Then I learn that figure skating couple Jamie Sale and David Pelletier got engaged on Christmas. Who knew and didn't tell me? I'm so happy for them, Jamie is my age, it's always weird to see how different lives can be for people my age. A friend is expecting a baby for the end of march, by then my own youngest child will be four, four years old. WOW!


While at the kids skating lesson last night I brought my sock along and got that finished, it was about time too. How long can you go with a sock needing only .5 inch before it's done? Well I'm not one to talk, I still have two pairs that only need 2 inches or less on the 2nd sock to be done. Oh well, at least I got one pair finished that I can wear proudly. Now should I wear them tomorrow or wait for a special day? LOL! ;)


To my knitting friends I didn't get to see the other night, here's what I knitted while staying home. The other half of my new pair of clogs is almost completed. These will go in the wash tomorrow if all goes well. LOL! First I'll try to find some zippered pillowcases or else my mom's going to strangle me if she finds out I messed with the washing machine. LOL! We have a new washer and I'm not going to risk clugging it up. ;)

I should get back to working on my Mariah sweater but it's really not practical to bring along as a project, it's pretty demanding as a pattern. At least too me, I need to concentrate when working on it. Also I don't know all the cable chart symbols yet so it's tedious to continually look each symbol up. LOL! ;)

Nothing much to add, been working alot, not sleeping enough so we usually are on automatic for a few days until we recuperate our sleep.Saturday we work in a huge hardware store and then monday morning we will be at Winners/TJ Maxx, then we leave for the Ottawa area around lunch time.

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 04:17 PM | Comments (5)

January 10, 2005

Clogging along...


Meet clog #1 and one of my work shoes, they scare my boss, he thinks they're steel toe, they ain't but I won't tell him. ;) Finished my 1st clog, all ends weaved in too. I knitted the 1st one in a morning but it took me more hours knitting and assembling the 2nd sole on that clog, so that was surprising. Maybe it was because of all the distractions I had and wasn't knitting that much after all though. LOL! I'm still hoping to have these done, felted and dryed by next monday so they can be packed and brought with me on the road. :)

The socks are still not done, haven't touched the 2nd socks since knitted the clog. LOL! I will be working on it tomorrow (tuesday) morning while I take the subway at 6am for an hour. UGH! That's just to make to my pick up spot for a ride out of the island to work. Luckily this doesn't happen too often. At least on wednesday we will be working a half-hour away from home then we can enjoy a few days off. We have the luxury to decide if we want to work or not until the end of the week. Of course the office always begs us to work more hours than not but we are leaving for the road next week so we'll see how tired we are after working the next two days. Thing is you never know what to expect, some inventories can take a whole day and you expect them to only take up a few hours. It's always a surprise!

Knock on wood to whole family is healthy at the moment, after being sick throughout the whole holiday vacations. Zoe goes back to school tuesday and she is eager to stay and eat her lunch there too. Silly how little things like that excite her. She'll start eating twice a week at school to relieve my mom from having to get her at lunch-time while we're not home.

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 10:40 PM | Comments (4)

January 07, 2005

Whine, whine, whine.


Yet another whine post for poor old little me. Still sick, socks still not done, actually one is, the other is just lying there waiting for me to finish up the ribbing to cast off. These are the never ending socks I tell ya.


We have a nice snowfall yesterday, about 20cm/8", the kids couldn't be happier, just like any other kid I'm sure. Right away they got dressed climb the big mountain of snow in the yard and played king of the mountain and slided down only to redo it over and over and over again. They were happy, Carl joined in and everyone got a good night's sleep. lol!

Today we got our official Walmart schedule and it is very scary, the schedule, the new team, everything is quite frightening. Most likely I felt the same way last year, the thing is this year I know what to expect so I know it'll be very tough. The maritimes are wonderful to work/travel/stay in but it'll be a very bumpy ride until we get to that point.

We were supposed to have the whole weekend off but sadly we have to work sunday, what a great way to screw up the weekend. Oh well, it'll help pay the bills as usual.

Saturday morning is the kids skating lesson, last wednesday was the 1st lesson since their 2 week break. Sadly Zoe "didin't feel like skating" that day. It was a shock and she still had to come and sit at the rink while we encouraged Lucas. Nobody believed me when I told them about Zoe, they were so surprised, just as I was. Let's just say that I hope it doesn't happen too often, not that I force her to skate (far from that) but I don't think she had a good reason for missing the lesson. Let's just say we will not be going to private lessons for a while, it pains me as I just bought her a skating dress for the private lessons too. UGH! It's really hard being a parent some days.


I'm thinking of knitting and felting some clogs from that famed Fiber Trends pattern. I hope they last longer than my old FuzzyFeet as the sole is quite thicker. We will be staying in hotels soon for work and I prefer to be wearing something else than my work shoes in the evening. Since I'm the resident knitter on the team, what better than to wear knitted clogs, you know Carl would get some too. ;)
hugs,

Posted by Jo at 08:48 PM | Comments (2)

January 04, 2005

Tuesday,

Just another day in the week, this is one of the only morning we don't need to wake up early. We are working tonight instead. Woke up with a tired, bloodshot eye, can we ever get over the sickies here or what?


I need a warm hat, extra warm in fact. I am ready to knit up my beloved, bought in October when we went to Toronto for the Knit Wit book launch, Naturwolle/Black Forest soft 07 yarn. I know I sadly don't have enough to knit matching mittens though and I am completely un-inspired. Got any idea? This hat has to hide my ears completely.


The socks keep on growing, I am planning on knitting them until I ran out of yarn, then on subsequent pairs, I'll know more what to expect. Also while trying them on I noticed that the stitches are all stretched out around my ankle. Oh well... maybe next time I'll A- increase stitch count B- add ribbing to the socks.


Now I authorize you to slap me behind the head next time I whine about my yarn stash.... I started getting out sock yarns to take a picture and I kept finding more and more. It is all Regia yarns except for the bottom left yarn which is Sisu from Toronto bought in November 2003 though. (I LOVE my TO yarn! LOL!) ;) In that box there are four pairs worth of Regia that Carl had brought back from work one day, he used to work in an import/export company, they'd receive/ship yarn and this was overstock. Lucky me! ;)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 12:23 PM | Comments (4)

January 02, 2005

Two questions!

1- Does anyone still have that link where you could write in a knitting sequence and it would produce a neat chart to follow!?

2- What is superwash wool, what are the good and bag things about it? I know it means you can wash it but I feel like most don't like it, why?

My hand still hurts alot from stabbing it with a dpn, so the socks are coming along slowly. Everyones sick so sprits are low,we are just hanging low trying to recuperate from the sickies.

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 09:07 AM | Comments (6)

January 01, 2005

2005!

As the ball was dropping to announced the arrival of 2005, the kids, CArl, my mom and I were following the countdown on tv. We screamed bonne année!!! (happy new year, in french), cracked open a bottle of sparkling crisp apple juice and celebrated with sushi for the adults. That was a special treat for Carl, I'm still on the learning curve about sushi. ;) The kids went to bed without saying a word, they had stayed up until midnight with a bit of difficulty but it was fun to have them around to watch the show from New York. I hope everyone had a fun new year's arrival.

Now as we were patiently awaiting 2005, I had my 1st knitting-related accident. I was knitting away on my socks and a dpn slipped from my hand, it got stuck standing on my chair and in reflex I tried to catch it. Let's just say it caught me, when I moved my hand back up the needle was stuck on me, it took a split-second to realize that I wasn't holding the dpn though it was in my hand. I grabbed the needle by the other hand, yanked it out and ran to the washroom (didn't want to freak out the kids) well they both followed me and asked what the 1st aid kit was for... I smiled and simply suggested they go play, mommy was hurt, just at that moment, Carl arrived home. Oh yeah, I was home alone with the kids for like 30 seconds when this happen. Carl made my booboo all better and I was laughing through the tears trying to explain what had happened. He warned me to better not knit while he had to go out again. LOL! Now what does this main, will I be accident prone in 2005? teehee!

I am now at the leg part on both socks, I am going to keep these socks as the model socks for any future sock knitting. I can't wait to wear them, I'm loving this project and quite frankly I have let any other project aside for now. The Mariah sweater can wait, socks.... well they are fun to do now, best to knit as many as I feel like before moving onto something else after. ;)

This morning we went out for the traditional brunch at the restaurant event. Came home and watched part of the Rose Bowl Parade, that is something I remember watching with my grandmother ages ago each New Year's day. Oh and there was figure skating on the television, what more can I ask for? :)

Tonight we are celebrating over PEI lobsters we bought back when we were in the maritimes. I am wearing my original PEI dirt shirt to boot. Pure pleasure I tell ya, it's happiness all around here. Hope you are hving a lovely day too. :)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 05:32 PM | Comments (1)