Jo Knits!

Montreal knitter wins the GOLD!

Pass the gold medals around, I have finished knitting two kids sweaters during the Knitting Olympics. I DID it and am darn proud of myself! Of course the only person thinking I could not succeed was my very own self. My mom and Carl cheered me on throughout the whole Olympics. I must say thanks to late night tv and a rather large addiction to reality tv that I have which kept me knitting way into the night for the past two weeks.

No more white knuckle yarn clenching hands, no more having the kids wait until I finish just one more row. No need to order pizza again this week either (actually we ate out instead of ordering in, that's my family's attempt to have make take some fresh air and exercise a bit!). I am happy to not have gained any weight after being seated for so long, there is a good thing with production knitting, you don't snack all day. LOL! It was also great to see both sweaters take form so quickly, it really was encouraging knitting a ball a day knowing that the result was so quick to come. I am really happy I toughed it out, I am really PROUD of myself for keeping at it and am really proud to be a winner! :)

It did confirmed one thing though, I really am more of a product knitter than a knitter that knits for pleasure. What I mean is that I need to see progress in what I am doing or else I lose interest pretty quickly.

Now I take a break though! LOL! One week off from knitting will bring me back to the real world, I think. I have so much new stuff to share it's exciting but it will wait. I am off the couch and off the computer for a while, off to go see the sun outside and breathe a bit of fresh air. :)

hugs and congrats to all the athletes that did their best in this great challenge of Knitting Olympics! :)

Still in the run,

With only a 25% of the games left, I am right on track! I am now at the half point of the second sweater, I will knit it longer than the pattern says but I do believe I'll finish it in time. Right now it looks like a bolero, all is left is to knit the lenght of the body. By next week I shall be back to regular blogging, hopefully it will be less boring for those who don't participate in the knitting olympics. For me, it's been a great motivator to knit something other than socks and the kids are very pleased that they are getting something out of it. It's hard having two kids that enjoy handknits, when knitting for one, the other always hopes something will follow. This time they are cheering me on and love to sit and watch a bit of the Olympics while I work on their projects. :)

It's official my little boy is growing up, sure I knew it but he is "5". A student by next fall, it will be hard seeing him go the 1st day but I know he'll love it. Although he will lose some of that sweet innocence I love so much, I think he'll like school. Hopefully he'll get to be with the same teacher Zoe had last year. We love her and she adored Zoe so it would be nice to get to interact with her again. :)

On monday we went to see the movie Curious George and it was amazing, this is truely a movie without bad, mean people, monsters of whatever in it. Before going to the movies with the kids I always check online for opinions of a movie, my favorite site is: Movie Mom's Reviews. Also going to the movies daytime on week days is so much more fun with kids, we were maybe 10 in the whole room and that includes us 4. LOL!

Well back to knitting, it's the last leg of the race before the finish line. :)

Olympic birthday

The second sweater is well under way, it's goin' fast and furious my friends. Once I saw that 50% of the games have passed I got into emergency knitting frenzy. LOL! I cast on friday evening after a fun day of celebrating and all has been going well since. No major errors though I still need help when reading patterns, I must have a gift or something. I'm on ball 3 today but it's going slow after crazily knitting all weekend. I love knitting a project in a week, it's probably my only way to not lose interest in said project.

This happy guy turned 5 and here he is showing off his favorite birthday gifts! A chef's costume with all the cooking accessories he needed to complete the outfit and.... a trampoline!!! Ok, so it's a mini in size but huge in his eyes, he has been bouncing on it since friday. Lucas has always been my little frog or monkey, he just adores jumping around. He jumps on the couch, the beds, the floor, no matter how many times we say to be careful and frankly we do say no just about everyday. The boy likes to JUMP, so the trampoline is the greatest gifts of all. I am so happy to see him grin once he's on it, he couldn't be happier. Money well put if you ask me. :)

Now as we are unconventional, the celebrations pick up again tomorrow! We don't do birthday parties for the kids (who needs all that hassle!?) but we do try to make the day extra special. Lucas gets a 2-day celebration but he doesn't mind. LOL! What kid would!? So tomorrow daddy and Zoe have a day off and we are off to the movies and check out Curious George. Imagine my little monkey watchin' another monkey, can it get any better? It sure can... wait until he opens his last birthday gift. Oh dear...

Back to knitting,

Knitting on the road to gold

After a day of oopsies and a day out on the down, I am back on track for the first sweater. I'm on ball 6 of 7 for this sweater, then I can swatch for Zoe's. :) I received her yarn on Valentine's day and got to see my lovely mail man that brings packages. Always nice and smiling, made my day. teehee! More than 35% of the games have passed (you can see the official countdown on the Harlot's site) and I am doing good. Some days I really think two sweaters is CRAZY but then on others, I think I can do it. We'll see in the end, the best part is that both kids have new mommy knitted sweaters. What else could be better than that?

As a special treat while purchasing yarn for the second sweater, I added a Kacha kacha counter to the order. I've been eyeing those for more than a year but we just don't have any in our local stores. I hate how we don't have many knitting gadgets around here. I love gadgets, they make knitting so much more fun. LOL! Of course now the kids, Carl and I all want to click the counter! Man, I just had to be properly equiped for the knitting Olympics, I mean athletes usually try to have the best equipement while they compete right?

Yesterday Carl had a day off and we went to the big and beautiful library, I love going there, it's just a great place to read and knit. Did some window shopping and I think I even found the place I'll most likely buy the kids beds from. This is really good, it's been a constant thing on my mind for the past year. Changing both beds for the kids is quite the challenge when on a budget but I think I found the perfect thing, also it won't be bunk beds after all. I want to make it a surprise for the kids so that one day the beds magically appear. LOL! So hopefully before summer both will sleep in bigger and better beds. I'm so happy to have found an affordable alternative. It was half price from what I had my mind of from IKEA.

Psst! If anyone still needs chocolate after Valentine's day, gimme a shout. We have a box full of 3$/each chocolates from Zoe's school. Argh! At least we sold half already so it's not like we didn't encourage her. LOL!

hugs,

1st gold!

Both my mom and I watched way too much tv yesterday but it was worth seeing Canada's first gold medal being won by Jennifer Heil. She had such a great smile, we got teery eyed by her win. The Canadian womens hockey team won, then figure skating started, woohoo! I have a complete Olympics schedule stuck on the wall next to the computer. I am addicted to the games, I missed most of the Olympic games since the kids were born but these I am enjoying fully.

Here's my medal shot of the 1st sweater as Heil won. The true color is somewhere between the two pictures. It's really hard getting good lighting while you watch tv. LOL!

This morning I joined the 3rd of 7 balls. I am aiming finishing this 1st sweater by friday for the birthday of Lucas. Then I still have the 2nd sweater to knit. It basically means I have to knit one 50g ball per day but Zoe's yarn isn't here yet and I need to swtach her yarn. So hopefully all will go well, nothing like a little pressure to make this easier. LOL! ;)

hugs,

GAME ON!

GAME ON!!! Good luck to all the knitting athletes, please let's keep it clean. May no one gets hurt while knitting their best!

Am I the only one SO excited to have cast on already. This is such a great knit-along I feel like a kid. LOL!

hugs, off to knit before getting the kids in 30minutes. Must knit, must knit, must knit, my new mantra!

Call me crazy,

Well I've done it, I have added to my knitting Olympics challenge. I had this fear that the project I pledge to knit in 16 days was too easy but now I've doubled my workload. Zoe will also get a sweater before the flame goes out, at least that's the plan. LOL! Both sweaters are from the Top down for toddlers book, I'm not ready for a 'real' sweater with sewing the seams involved. ACK!

The socks are done and I'm taking a sock break until the big Knit-O challenge is over with. I actually have more projects lined up already but will re-evaluate which ones to start once the craziness is over. ;)

I am proud to say that I am now a ring checker for the Knitting Blogs ring. Hey, it might not sound all that glamorous as a job but I think it is pretty fun to get to read new blogs and discover some that I have never seen before. Also if it weren,t for the ring checkers well the ring might crumble so yay me! :)

hugs, 2pm tomorrow I CAST ON!!! Woohoo! :)

Knitting and Turino,

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot talks about the Knitting Olympics on the radio! In this I learned that we are now more knitters participating in the knit along than there are athletes competing in the Turino Olympics. Isn't that just crazy or what!?

Of course, I tried to resist the hard challenge but the country needed me. HA! I proudly joined Team Canada and commit to knit without use of any illegal substances. The project I have signed up myself to knit is for Lucas, he will turn 5yo during the games and I never knit enough for my kids. I have a deathly fear of sweaters so that is the challenge I set myself with.

Of course when I asked him what color I should knit the sweater, he simply replied like the picture, of course. LOL! Locally said color is nt offered anymore but it was online. After a few clicks the waiting game starts, luckily I got speedy delivery within 3 days of ordering. I must say Ram Wools did a great job of sending my yarn and even packed it in a stash bag. Little did they know the yarn is about to magically turn into said sweater.

The great big swatch, I don't usually swatch but anything for my beloved son. I really want to make this as nice as possible, this is somewhat a birthday gift for him also. So precifics are: Emu Superwash Dk in walnut print, using 4,5mm for a 22sts/4" gauge. I had to tuck the needles with the yarn and put it out of sight until the flame is lit. It's hard, I am really excited to start but the wait is worth it.

(edited: those are old pics of my kids taken last year) Did you know there's figure skating almost each and every day of the Olympics, man I love them Winter Olympics! :) Off to find something to knit, anything really to keep my mind off the Texture Time cardi, I am so pumped. I will rock the knitting Olympics, make my boy proud and SEAM those sleeves before the flame is out. Oh yeah, I am pumped!

p/s: For figure skating lovers, a new online show called Ice Time 2006 can be viewed online. Talks about Canadian skaters and the Olympics.
hugs,

Lucky socks,

It's a beautiful morning! First sock is done, I love the colorway.

Carl wore his handknit socks today, to bring him luck. I consider all my handknit socks as lucky socks, I always feel happy to wear them and love to show them off to anyone I see in the day! LOL! So this morning, Carl proudly showed off his socks to me saying these might be lucky for him also.

Well they were... he starts a new job on tuesday!!!! We couldn't be happier, this is great news in the household. Woohoo! :)

hugs,