Jo Knits!

Sock it to me,

The sock I started is a blend of two things, I am using Alison's tutorial to learn how to knit short row toes & heels using Priscilla Gibson-Roberts yarn-over method. Then from Allison's blog I am knitting the sock pattern she created, though I did change the stitch count and I am knitting from toe up. Let's just say I need some practice in converting patterns, it's not as simple as I thought. The yarn is worth the trouble, it's my first time knitting with Koigu, we will be friends for a looong time!

I am surviving but I do wish I could ask someone if I am doing it correctly, I picked up stitch at each corner for the heel but I didn't need to when I started the toes. It looks a whole lot nicer than any short row heel I made in the past and I find it rather easy to knit too. No wraps for me! I am really thankful to Alison for taking the time to explain her way of knitting the PGR heel, I finally feel that I am comfortable with knitting short rows, at least on socks. Another new thing is that I am knitting one sock at a time, wow! Speed does count for something, I knitted this first sock in 3 days. I will cast on the 2nd today or else I know I never will. I tell ya, I learn something new each time I knit a new sock! :)

I make most of my transit each day by knitting, also on breaks at school I usually knit a row or more. It grounds me, I can relax so much in such little time by just knitting a few stitchs. No one talks to me and the silence is just perfect, I get in my zone and just aaaaaah, relax! :) When I bring something new to knit at school, people are curious to know what it is, it's fun. So this past week I knitted on Zoe's sweater, the fanny shawl and the new sock.

Back to the books, my teacher oh-so politely noted on my research than I still need to add 50% more info to it and have it done by monday. I almost screamed! Instead, I smiled and knitted the whole break, once calm I decided to let it go. Our exam with her is on tuesday, then her class will be over. I will do my best to survive it but I will not go crazy either, I will give what I can and hope to pass!

Tough

Yesterday morning, I left the house to go to school with only one thing in mind. By the end of the day I was going to drop out! Right now I am at the end of my rope, I can't seem to find a balance to find time to study and be with the kids. On sunday I spent the whole afternoon locked up in my room to work on my research. It was awful, I felt bad for not spendng time with the kids and I didn't do half of the work I thought I would.

Although I like my program, I just don't find the time to study, after talking more than 90 minutes with my program supervisor, we came to a conclusion that I may have to accept my lack of time. It is ok to not study as much as the others but my results will show it, the main goal is to pass the course, does it have to be with perfect scores all around? Well knowing this fills me with guilt to no end. I want to do my best and now my best is not needed, it feels odd...

When my school started, I left my knitting group as I knew I wouldn't have time to go to meetings, also since I am easily distracted I knew I'd always want to know what they were up too. Sadly, I also got a lesson in friendships along the way, how easily they end and that saddens me. Once again, I just feel sick by all the pressures and would love to just run away to go knit somewhere. I am guilty with not having time for my kids, my homework, my knitting. I feel pulled in all directions and everyone tells me how hard it is to go back to school, especially when you have kids. NO KIDDING! I can't find time to just be myself. Argh!

Time to start some socks, I need comfort knitting! ;)

Cute Zoe,

I can't help it, the model is too cute to not want to finish this project. This is the color in real light and the sun is barely out. Starting ball 5 of 7, if each arm takes a ball or less than I will have survived this project. LOL! I am really proud as too how it is looking! I don't knit sweaters very often, they intimidate me but Zara is making this really enjoyable. I will knit a similar sweater for Lucas in blue at a later time too, he will look handsome.

Today is road trip day at school, we are visiting Nikon Optical Canada. It's really neat to get to see how lenses are made and to visit places where we could end up working at. This afternoon is an english class and already I know I've learned quite a bit. I try to pay more attention when writting in present perfect and simple past, not easy but fun.

hugs,

Tired

Latest update on her sweater, I started ball #4 of 7 and I am about a repeat away from being done with the body, I should have enough. Oye! I also have so many other projects I'd like to start that keeping at it is hard. I try to stay motivated though as my pile of un-finished project is already high enough. Our A/C is broken and the temps have been so high, we need 3 showers a day just to cool down. Ugh!

As Zoe says, shool takes a lot of energy, especially listening to the teacher. LOL! It is SO true, I am finding myself wanting to go to bed as soon as we get home but instead we have supper, spend time with the kids, relax by knitting and watch tv, in the end I am dead beat and studying is the last thing on my mind.

Luckily my first results are showing that I'm doing good, I got 100% on an exam and all other grades are over 90%, Carl's are also over 90% so we are really proud of each other. I do need to find the time to study but after school the kids are truely my priority. It's hard as most of my classmates do not have kids so they study two hours a night or go out after classes, it's hard not to have that time but hey, I love my kids. ;) I noticed that I can't study home so that's a major problem too.

Friday, the kids and my mom surprised me at school. Lucas came right in the class and I jumped in surprise. What are you doing here? Carl had planned this whole surprise on our morning break and it was great. We went to eat at a park on our lunch break and then joined them once we finished school at a kiddie pool at my favorite park. We finished an hour earlier so the tables were turned and we surprised my mom, who did not expect to see us so early.

The Just for Laugh's festival has started and we walked around there. I really hope to catch a few outdoor shows aka free ones before it ends next weekend.

p/s: If anyone wants to install WordPress for me please give a shout, I'm still hoping to find someone that charges less than an arm.

Just received my 1st finishing techniques book and I sure need it. I avoid seaming projects because I have this fear of seams. Ha! Fear no more, I will try to make up some swatches to practice but frankly that sounds pretty boring. ;)

We started a new class at school, an english class. If you read my blog and it somewhat makes sense, you'll guess that I am pretty good for a francophone to write in english. We had a one-on-one interview with the teacher so she could judge our level. I told her a bit about myself, my blog and knitting. She knits too!!! We ended up talking about Peace Fleece and then I wrote my essay on Elizabeth Zimmemann. LOL! I've been placed as a strong level for english, sadly our class should be divided in three groups but she will stick to two. I will be with the intermediate level, so will Carl. I am so proud of him, he has come a loooon way when it comes to english comprehension. He ever ordered the new Harry Potter in english, well that might have to do with the fact that the french translation will only come out in october too. LOL!

Off to school I go,

Fun in the sun,

First Kelly did it, then Zoe had a special day at school to learn this but now I am the one trying this out. POI, my friends! I just got some lighting poi that change in 7 colors. These are FUN!!! Luckily the Home of Poi has free lessons to give me a clue of what I should be doing. LOL!

I have knitted a bit more on Zoe's sweater but it was a real pain to frog 4 rows of cables though. I didn't want to rip out row after row so I picked up stitches 4 rows below. LOL! Now I'm back on track and starting Zara ball number 3.

I love rain,

Here's my new work-in-progress, this hopefully will become a new sweater for Zoe, it's fun to knit too. Haven't done much in the last two days but that's ok. It's not like Zoe will need to wear this anytime soon. I adore cables and pink is my daughter's favorite color so she's pretty excited about this. :)

So do you think I'm liking school if I say I wish I had classes today? LOL! I can't believe it's the weekend already, I know that after friday the weekend comes along but our school week ended with so much fun that I wasn't ready to not go to school for two days. Friday afternoon we went and visited an optical lab and WOW! it was amazingly fun. The person in charge was a gem of a person, he was passionate about his job and made us all fall in love with it too. Our class had to be split so we could all fit in the lab, so we went in three groups. Carl and I had planned in being in the last group and let me tell ya that we are SO bright! Sure it meant starting our weekend later but what we gained was totally worth it. We even finished more than 30minutes later than if we were at school. See each group got about a 30minutes presentation and visit, we got more than an hour and we even had the chance to see some of the machines do actual work. I got to press buttons and get some lenses cut and all. It was really fun and I can't wait to work!!! :) It also game me a chance to better know a few classmates and one guy is just so funny, I know we will be remembering this day for a long time. Monday morning we are visiting another lab, what a great way to start the week. Friday morning we had a class on lens prescriptions and to visit the lab right after was neat, our 'tour guide' showed and explained things we had just learned in the morning, very motivating to see this in action.

I can't believe how much we have learned in just two small weeks! Let me tell you that the average person doesn't know half of what is good to know to make a good decision when buying new glasses. I hope I can share some knowledge as the weeks go by. :)

I don't know much about Land's End but I just received a bunch of their catalogs and their clothes look pretty nice. I think it's fun to shop via catalogs and just lounge on a couch and shop. I usually don't buy from catalogs but it's still a good way to learn about products. Their website is pretty nice too, so I'm liking this company quite a bit. Might be a good place to stock up on basics, someday. ;) Also I believe everyone needs a My Virtual Model image of themself. It's a great way to "try on" clothes online and also a good way to have an idea of what you look like when loosing or perhaps gaining weight! ;) Let's just say it's easier to try on swimsuits online than in real life. LOL!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Yay summer Knitty!

The new Knitty issue is out! Run and go see what you like, I have a few patterns on my to-do list. I love new issues, can't wait to take the time to slowly read all the articles too.

Yesterday we had a test at school and boy did lunch time seemed long. Both Carl and I ate in a small park and studied out loud by asking each other questions. I was very nervous once school started again in the afternoon. We got 15 minutes to study and then we got our exams with a special notice. Notes are ALLOWED!!! OH my goodness, the pressure I felt all day had just vanished in a second! LOL!

Today at school each student got the chance to choose a pair of used rollerblades for free. Someone had donated a bunch to the school, so I chose a pair with wrist, elbow and knee pads to be on the safe side. I tried them out in the house (yes we allow skating in the house!). I can't wait to go try outside, this is the 1st time I try rollerblading. teehee! We are very lucky that each student got a pair, I feel blessed by the generosity of this one person who donated the skates.

Started a new knitting project, it's Zara yarn, it's fun to knit and it's a sweater for Zoe. :)

hugs,

Silence on the set,

Silence on the set! Our neighborhood was bustling with action today, there's a film crew working on a movie. It was THE thing in the area today and since it was beautiful out there were a lot of on lookers. This is the 2nd time on about a month that there's a crew filming in the area. Around my school there are 2 productions being worked on, Montreal is like a hot spot for movies I guess. I just love seeing those panels that announce a production. Maybe I'll just buy myself a clapboard! LOL!

The weekend went by too quickly, we had friday off and still we ran all weekend. After buying a few school supplies and a lunch box, I got a new alarm clock (best not to arrive to school late!) and chose a Spiderman model. Now I don't really enjoy the hero but he talks instead of buzz to wake me up. It's really neat and I can talk back so the alarm clock can let me snooze a while. LOL! Red 'light as a feather' sandals to complement the new clock, of course. I passed up on the chance to buy Crocs a while back so I got these for now. As a small fun gift Carl got me a mini Sharpie, I couldn't choose from all the colors, I was too excited. LOL! Yes, I love small tokens like that, so I got orange but plan on a few other colors too. I've been writing my name on everything since we got in school. It is SO much fun! Of course the actually studying part is tough though, we only started last week and with two tests this week is really stressful for me. It is really hard to find the time to study with both kids hogging for our undivided attention all weekend. I barely touch the computer now and still find myself dead tired way before my bedtime.

I adore surveys so this was perfect for me, it's fun to know that my blogging is helping in a research, if you have time why not try it out. It's only a few questions long, less than 15 minutes and you are helping out in a study. :)

hugs, more on knitting once the newest Knitty is out! haha!

Enjoying a long weekend

Note Zoe's new haircut and Lucas moving a 'tree'! LOL!
After several days of very HOT and humid weather it is now so much more bearable outside. Yesterday, we heard a loud C-R-A-C-K and I thought all hail was breaking loose. LOL! It sounded like the sky was about to fall on us, instead when I looked out the window a large branch of our tree fell down. Luckily it fell on the street, after calling the city, we learned that someone wasn't as lucky and their tree had actually fallen on the house. Oye! It only rained for 10 minutes or so but finally the humidity is letting go, there's even a breeze this morning, it feels SO nice.

We had fun checking out the branch, measuring and having a small photoshoot. The city should come back soon as the rest of the tree threatens to fall on our house as the weight is now all on one side. It's weird though, this tree has been standing ever since our house has been built at least 50 years ago. For now let's hope we don't get a windy storm. ;)

Showing off the wrong side of the shawl.
School has been fun and I've been learning a lot about life too. One thing I really enjoy is knitting on our breaks, I put on some music and can literally drift away. While others go outside on a smoking break, I'm knitting away and feeling almost zen. I am totally off in my world and it makes me feel so good. :) Many of our teachers came by me to see what I'm knitting, they love it. I feel pride in my knitting and it's nice that it's a part of me that everyone accepts. Of course I don't knit while the class is taking place but my knitting is never too far. I am nearing the end of my 1st ball of 2 so that shawl, I've started this 6 days ago and can see myself finishing it pretty soon. Already I worry about what to start next. LOL! This shawl is so much fun to knit, I worry it will be done soon. I am almost tempted to knit another one in a bright red colorway. As if this blue shawl was water and the red like fire. Red is my favorite color and I notice that you don't often see red/orange/fire colorways in lace knitting. I am liking the Peacock Feathers Shawl but I find that a bright color isn't really for that pattern.

This weekend, I need to study! ACK! Study!!! We have two tests next week and it is stressing me out, luckily one is about stress. LOL! So I will be practicing the ways to relax as said in my school book. Next friday we have a treat at school, it's a road trip and we will be off visitng a university optical laboratory. I am excited to get to visit a place I would never get a chance if it weren't for my program. :)

hugs,