January 29, 2006

We all need socks,


The perfect socks are done! I call them perfect as they fit great and snug but not too much that the stitches are stretch out like crazy. The colours match up to the toes, though I did help that happen on the last toe when an odd colour repeat appeared at the wrong time. I love these socks, really happy about them! :) The short version of this pattern is: 7,5st/inch, cast on 64sts, K2,P2 X 1inch, eye of patridge heel and round toes. I wear size 10US shoes and needed the bulk of the 150grams of yarn I had. The leg is longer than usual for a total of 7inches though but oh so comfy!!! Procratination being my middle name, I've been meaning to kitchener the toes for the past two days now.


So off I start yet another pair o'socks. :) I just realised these well be the third pair I have started in 2006. Whoever named 2006 the year of the socks aka 200Sox wasn't kidding in my case. LOL! This Regia yarn is from my precious Toronto stash, I can't knit too much from this stash as I don't know yet the next time I'll be going. Although, you just never know when the urge to go might come up...


I have officially joined the Knitting Olympics craziness!!! I wonder if we'll hit 2000 kniters by the opening ceremony. I've ordered my yarn online as the colorway I'm wanting isn't available at local stores. Call my kid crazy but he's insisted on having a brown colored sweater. Can't wait to see the yarn with my very own eyes though, keeping fingers crossed he'll like it once it's at our door step. For now he is just excited that the mailman will bring him a package of yarn. Silly kid!

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 10:45 AM | Comments (5)

January 23, 2006

Win, lose


You win some and then, you lose some. This is war my friends, this yarn just won't let me knit it into socks. See, after ripping it out twice now for pattern incompatibilities and also finding an error in a pattern, I started over once again. Just to find ANOTHER pattern error in yet another designer's work. Now I do not blame anyone and truely enjoy the generosity of people sharing their own designs for free over the internet. It's just shocking that it keeps happening with this yarn I so want to knit into socks. LOL! Never fear, I WILL get my revenge but until then, let's knit with another yarn.


Now this is such a quick knit, all of this was done in barely more than a day but I bet it could be knit within 24 hours though. I am using Regia 6-ply and I really like the feel, see something special about this sock? NO pattern, ha! now who's the boss of this yarn! This sock is taking more than one ball to make, luckily I have three and expected this to happen. The leg is a tad longer compared to the length I make them usually but I am loving the very long colour repeats, I kept knitting and knitting just to see where the 1st repeat would finish. LOL!

Knitting is still the "in" thing for the media, last weekend there was an article about knitting in the big format of our local newspaper. That attracted many new knitters to join knitting groups online. Then yesterday I went to a big knitting meeting where more than half were new to the group. It was VERRRY exciting but I think the person I have enjoyed the most was yet another new member. Perhaps it was her calmness, perhaps her cuteness. All I know is that holding a barely 8-weeks old little girl made me grin like crazy. She smelled baby, you know!? It TOTALLY made my day, her mom got to knit and I didn't share the baby with anyone else. I had my moment and luckily I didn't make baby cry.

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 03:11 PM | Comments (6)

January 21, 2006

Same old,


After finding an error in the Maple Leaf sock pattern and contacting the designer to share my find, I started the sock all over. Second time around I adjusted the ribbing that I had did wrong the 1st time also and kept on knitting. More then half way through the leg I am fed up, I really don't enjoy this sock much. I find it's a lot of work for what the leaf looks like in the end. Perhaps they'd look better in a single color yarn, maybe they'd pop up more. So I started looking at sock patterns online, luckily Amy just posted a page full of sock patterns. Sadly only two patterns out of more than a hundred caught my eye. SockBug's Negative Bricks (I SO wish I had a pink yarn like that too) and Ann Budd's Diagonal Ribs. The diagonal ribs, I have the recommended yarn for so I'll knit those whenever... that leaves me with the negative bricks for now.


Last week after Zoe's school, I surprised her by announcing we were going skating!!! You should have seen her eyes just light up with sparkles, the smile was as big as mine in front of buttercream frosted cake. HA! We went and all got our skates sharpened and even got a free sharpening . The guy working on our skates, asked if Zoe was still figure skating, as his own daughter just started this fall. Awe! This has been such a touchy subject for me since fall. It was Zoe's decision not to take skating lessons anymore and I accepted it but it's been hard. I loved watching her skate and freeze myself at the rink. It was great knitting time twice a week too. LOL!

So we all hop on the ice and it just happened. The magic of skating swept her into everything she used to do last season. Zoe went into a spiral, then a jump, she was having a blast, no care about anyone else, she was skating for her very own self. It was beautiful, I mean a 10yo girl came and told me, "you must be proud of her". I smiled and did tell her she used to take lessons. Then the girl went up to Zoe and told her she skated very well. For one, I thought the girl was very sweet to go up to Zoe and compliment her like that and two, Zoe was just happy, you know!? H-A-P-P-Y on the ice! She then went into teaching a small toddler how to skate and Lucas kept helping another get back up on her two skates. LOL! Lucas wasn't into doing anything fancy, he just enjoyed gliding on the ice and hanging around the small toddlers that were skating for the 1st time.

MAN, I missed this, I have missed the ice, we ended up skating for an hour and it went by too fast! I think I could have skated another hour, although once I sat down to take off my skates, I wasn't sure how I'd get the energy to walk back home. LOL! It's been asked that we go skating again next week, I think it's a great idea (did you doubt it!?), it's free and even my mom had fun. :)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 01:16 PM | Comments (4)

January 18, 2006

New day and new socks!


When Men Knit's 2nd issue came out, I noticed the Maple Leaf socks quickly. I would have prefered to knit the socks in a reddish color but I use what I have. As always the hot pink lifeline thread is doing it's job, I find it easier to pick up stitches from a lifeline than not having any safety when I rip out a few rows. ;) I did make a mistake on the 1st leaves but am doing better on the 2nd row of leaves. This is just like a basic sock pattern with the added bonus of not being all that boring to knit. The small leaves are fun and like my mom says, in green and purple, my leaves look exotic! LOL!


This morning Zoe got to ride in the big yellow bus to school. We don't live far enough to have access to the bus every day but the driver who likes us does stop sometimes when it is really ugly out. Just like today!!! It is just ice on the ground and it's raining on top of it, can you say slippery!? I can't believe my luck, yesterday I spent most of the afternoon away from home to get papers for Lucas and I kept saying oh I'll go tomorrow aka today. Let's just say I am happy not to be one of those slipping and sliding on the sidewalks. Cars and trucks aren't able to break, they just slide along the roads, it is so dangerous that I am just staying safe at home today. LOL! Luckily the school bus will be bringing Zoe home and she'll be so happy to have been on it for once. ;)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 01:09 PM | Comments (1)

January 16, 2006

Life is short.

It feels like time passes more and more between each entry. Frankly I start a post, then let it sit a few days before clicking publish. I started a post a few days ago but now it's just not quite as revelant as it seemed to be when I wrote it.


Today one of our neighbours died and well... it puts life in perspective, you know? I wasn't close to this person but it was odd how we saw the evolution of it this morning. An ambulance hurried to a house close to ours, people ran in, an ambulance supervisor/doctor car came and then we knew. Around here people that are working in ambulances can't pronounce you dead, it has to be a 'real' doctor to do so. A few hours later a funeral home truck came by to that house. It's sad, I still recall seeing this in his kitchen window washing dishes a few days ago. Oddly enough his Christmas decorations were taken down yesterday. I feel odd/numb at the moment, trying to figure out what life has in store for me. Although I do not need to grieve this person's passing I still feel 'odd' (for lack of a better word), knowing that I have met someone who has passed away today. I mean, just a few days ago he was taking a walk and know... I don't know what to say.


Carl's socks are done, he is wearing them tomorrow for a job interview, let's hope it brings him luck. I need to get Lucas his birth certificate, seems that kindergarden registrations are upon us. I can not believe my "baby" is starting school next year!!! I feel like such an 'old' mom. LOL! More like a mom of older kids, they just aren't babies, toddlers, preschoolers anymore. I must say that those were my favorites years though, sure there were some hard times but just seeing them grow from newborn to toddlers and then having them talk more and more each day. Do they EVER talk too! LOL! I am amazed at how much progress goes into such a small time frame, once kids start school they just aren't the same. The freedom of just waking up when you want, playing being the top priority and just having no worries in the world must be the best. Sure school helps them learn to write and read, teaches them all sorts of things I could never but still, I find a child looses a bit of himself once he goes into that big building of education.

For what little progress it did, I changed the about me info at the top of the left column. It's been almost a year since I worked in inventories so it was about time to change that info. I'll keep my other post for another day, it just doesn't make sense to write about it today.

Posted by Jo at 11:14 PM | Comments (2)

January 10, 2006

Back to normal,

Today is Zoe's 1st day back to school, of course she is pretty excited to go see her teacher and class pals again. We are happy to start our old routine again, mostly because I am still home and it's fun to walk her to school.


Here's my latest knitting project, socks! Hopefully I will finish these as they are for Carl, he chose the color and I'm using the Thuja pattern from the latest Knitty issue. The yarn is Tuffy by Briggs & Little, it's similar to those rugged wool socks, I'm all for durable when it comes to handknits. ;)


Last week we finally survived the last of the chicken pox in the household. To celebrate we all went for a game... or three of bowling, what a great activity for a family. We had 2 hours of laughs, fun and great time for under 20$/CAN/US. Lucas finally was back to his true self, he's not a happy camper when sick let me tell ya. LOL! Above you see Zoe's reaction to her 1st strike and Lucas doing his own technique of throwing the ball.

I will add though a big THANK YOU to those who have left me comments in the past few weeks, they truely do, brighten up my days.

Posted by Jo at 11:22 PM | Comments (6)

January 05, 2006

Eat this!


Although the Eat Local challenge has been over for quite a while, we are doing it more than ever. Usually in the summer we go to the market alot, it's pretty far from home and the hot weather helps talk way up to there. Recently we've been walking there for the fun of it, for fresh produces, for saving $$$, for the goodness of the food we get at the market. Let me tell you that even though we have no revenues coming in at the moment we are eating more than ever. I almost took a picture of our fridge two days ago, 3/4 of it was empty! Then, we hit the market, it is now filled with the greatest yummiest of foods. You have no idea how good we've been eating.

See, at Christmas, I didn't get the usual knitter's gifts of books, yarn and all that. I got a handwritten cookbook and personal cooking lessons, the kids pitched in and got me a few baking accessories. It's all about the food in this household! So we've been cooking wonderful new creations and although we've shaved off 20$/month on our tv bill, Food TV is still ours to watch. It's a toss between cartoons and cooking shows when it comes to watch my kids prefer to watch but boy do they get excited when we hear Michael Smith's voice. LOL! It's all about who gets to see Gabe on the show. (If you don't know who Gabe is that's ok, he's a cute 3yo!)


Off to go rip out a few work in progress projets that will never be finished. LOL! Some things never change but hopefully in 2006 there will be more finished items than frogged projects. Oh well, I save on yarn when I knit and frog it over and over. It's still a toss as too if I "love" the sweater or not yet...

Wishing you a lovely day as our's is filled with big beautiful snowflakes falling from the sky.

Posted by Jo at 11:38 AM | Comments (2)

January 01, 2006

Hello 2006!


Good morning 2006! May this year bring us health, happiness and a JOB! Never did I expect to go back to school in 2005 but I did, I even toughed it out and graduated. It just didn't bring on what I was expecting but oh well, time to go forward anyways.


I am really happy to show off the progress of the sweater, sure it is slow but it is getting there. I am not sure how to knit the sleeves yet. Either to decrease throughout the whole length, decrease until the elbow and the straight to the wrist or straight to the elbow, then decrease until the wrist. I have no clue down to how many stitches I need/want to decrease, oh the joys of not following a precise pattern.


Our little sickie boy is still fighting with chicken pox, last night he fell asleep just ten minutes before we celebrated the new year. He was so miserable and itchy is his condition, it was hard to see him like that. Luckily this morning he woke up as happy as can be! Hopefully it will get better from now on, he's had about double the pox his siter got. The weather has been really chilly so Lucas is housebond for a few days now. We all just want to go play outside, mittens make it tough to scratch too. LOL!

Here's to wishing everyone a happy new year, may you be inspired to knit new things, drop less stitches and knit more yarn from stash than previous years. LOL!

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 11:23 AM | Comments (7)