Jo Knits!

Fear Isle no more,

Why, oh why, did I wait so long to even try fair isle! It's been a total blast to knit the mitten in a 3 day period. One could knit this in two days for sure, one day would be pushing it but I bet it is possible. lol! I have been so busy with the school's library that I haven't started the second one yet. I already have my eyes set on fair isle socks, hats, may I be tempted to say sweater!? Oh I see fair isle everywhere from now on...

Here's the little improv I did, it took way too long to chart and I even miscounted my rows but oh well, at least everyone will know whom this mitten belongs too.

I was tagged by Caroline for a meme so here I go:

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the 6 weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. I can't drink cold water, it freezes my teeth each time. I do love tepid water though.

2. I compulsively search anything and everything I can think about on Google. It's worst when I plan to go somewhere or read a magazine.

3. When I was a baby my parents worried I wouldn't talk because of ankyloglossia commonly known as tongue tie. Boy were they wrong.

4. I don't drink alcohol nor does Carl for health reasons. We both had enough in the past to last a lifetime anyway.

5. I stress over what project to start next in a big way. I can spend a day feeling blue because I can't decide what to knit. It happens each time I finish a project. I look through all my knitting books, patterns and online sites each time.

6. I am surprised when people think I'm witty 'cause I consider myself a complete dork but I hope people will like me nonetheless. I am verrry shy and still have difficulty going up to people to talk even after years of knowing them.

If you have not done this meme yet, please consider yourselves tagged and let me know when you post your answers. :)

Ugh!

It figures that as soon as we get a new internet service our computers go crazy!

I have been knitting but can't resize the pics I took at the moment. So imagine 4 socks: a sock to frog, a sock for Lucas that I'm about to start the heel, one for Zoe with the toe to be finish and a sock for me with the toe to redo. I have decided that the Bayerisch socks will wait, I have lost the mojo to knit them and will use the yarn to knit solid monkey socks, well, maybe.

After freezing my fingers for a few hours these past weeks, I decided I should knit some fingerless mitts. So off to Knitty to check two patterns, Fetching and Knucks look nice. Then I started to look at the current issue and decided to try my hand at fair isle knitting. Who knows if I will ever get past the first row on the Corazon pattern but hey, at least I'm going try! Eventually I will still need fingerless mittens but I won't go into knitting Eunny's Endpaper mitts, those look way too scary to knit. Well to me, they do! ;-)

On a last note, Zoe has started her dance lessons (I just adore her new tote bag) and is having a great time! So much so, that I want to start too. LOL! If you know me, you know I have ZERO rhythm and am stiff as a board, I just can't dance! I even had to drop out from the latino dance/exercise class at my gym, I am SO not into salsa movements! LOL!

p/s: special thanks to PicResize who made this entry with pics possible! Great tool for when blogging from work... teehee!

Is it 2007 yet?

The holidays have come and went and the kids are excited to start school again soon. We had a wonderfully quiet family celebration. It was nice to have everyone together for the last two weeks. I have been keeping busy though, first I lost 11lb in six weeks at the gym, plus I lost 1 kilogram over the holidays.

Also I have been asked to take charge of the school's library and that was just a big ol'shock, I am already Mrs Jo the 'librarian' for the two kindergarden classes (one of which includes Lucas). The principal wanted to talk to me and I kept wondering what I did wrong. LOL! Let's just say I have seen more than my share of school principals in my student days... He then proposed that I would be the best person for the library gig, I couldn't jump high enough to show my excitement. LOL! The next day, I celebrated by joining Zoe's class on an outing to the Centre des Sciences. It was really fun, especially since I had never gone before.

Knitting-wise, I made my gym trainer some socks in camouflage colors (her hubby is in the army) and she just flipped. I gave her hubby the frog as a joke (they are growing as a family in the new year). I made an Odessa hat for the girl at the reception at the gym, she's just so nice, always smiling and remembering my name in the morning. Carl and the kids all received balls of yarn in their Christmas loot. No need to worry about finishing their gifts at a set date. Carl received some really sooooft Malabrigo yarn in black and I started him an irish hiking scarf. The kids are very excited to finally get some much wanted handknit socks!!!

On Christmas day we had no snow at all on the ground, so on Boxing day when it snowed the kids ran outside to build a snowman. Sadly it melted away within days but at least we had one for a short time. :) To continue with our tradition, now in it's 4th year, we had chinese food on Christmas eve and on paper plates too. LOL! No way were we going to mess with dishes that night. The next day, I made my 'famous' breakfast sticky buns as soon as everyone got up, (thanks to Pillsbury caramel rolls!). We mostly spent these two weeks spending time together, taking walks around the neighbourhood, looking at all the lights and decorations everyone has put up. Let's not forget that Carl got some sushi to start the year and I even enjoyed a piece or two California style!

This is my 3-D snowflake, isn't it just beautiful. It's VERY easy to make and takes just a few minutes to complete. I use 4-inch origami papers and the snowflake came out really big, I would be curious how small one can make it. :)

Well that's pretty much it, as you can see from the kids showing off their gifts, we will have an artistic and loud year.

I will try to post once a week this year. I have missed blogging but at the same time I have been really busy and not knitting as much. Oh and this year, I WILL learn to use my spinning wheel! woohoo!