Trick or Treat!

The candy is mine! Mine I tell you! Mwah ha ha!

Is it Easter?

There seems to be a theme going on around here. It is decidedly not Halloween-y, though. It appears to be more Easter-y. What makes me say that? Why, this!

I told you that I had bunnies in the backyard!

Actually, this is the bunny pattern that I cribbed the ears for my slippers from. I used some stash yarn. Cheap-o Red Heart to be exact. That way the bunny can be washed if need be. I may or may not have a very young cousin coming over at Christmas, so I figured that I would whip this up so as to be prepared. If the cousin doesn't show, I can always donate it to one of the women's shelters here in town for one of the kids that they have. They are always looking for presents around Christmas time, so this way, someone will enjoy the bunny!

Ciao

Cecisions, Decisions!

I have made a decision! I know, shocking. Okay, maybe not. But enough dithering, here is the final product, warts and all:

My "embroidery" is enough to make a cat laugh, but the idea is there, and since they are intended to be worn around the house, I say they are cute!

I got the idea for the bunny ears from here.

Ciao

Eye candy Friday

To Pom..or not to Pom?

That is the question...I whipped up a pair of slippers since my little feetie were cold. However, I can't decide, should I put pom-poms on? Or not? Leave them plain or add an i-cord bow? Or something else entirely? I'm waffling here. Any opinions?

Ciao

As the Heel Turns

I have been busily knitting up my Socktoberfest socks. Silly me. I should have decided to make socks for myself, not the hubby. My foot is size 6 ladies, HIS is size 10.5 mens! Needless to say, it is taking a while....

That's my foot modeling the sock. Wouldn't want you to think I'm misleading you on how close to completion it is. However, this is the first one! I still have another ginormous sock to knit. Sigh.

I DO have an F.O. to show you, though. Ta Da!

A knitted beer cozy. Embellished with cables. I'm rather pleased with how this turned out. It's knit in Sugar & Cream cotton on size 6 dpn's. It's a quick knit. I'm going to put it in my "long-range" planning box for emergency Christmas gifts.

Ciao

Small progress

I went to Toronto this weekend for the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. It wasn't bad. I did score a couple of things that I wanted. However, it was more geared to crapbooking (I'm not sure how "needle" applies to that!) and quilting. Still, it was a nice afternoon looking at things and doing a little shopping. Plus they had some great lemonade at a stand in there!

I did get some knitting done. To whit:



















On the left, we have my serviceman sock. Done up to the end of the heel-flap. I think it's an eye-of-partridge. For those of you who want to know, one row is k, the next row is sl1,p1.
On the right we have my new cable project....a beer cozy. I would have had this done, but I was at my sister's house and she only had Corona beer. Which has a slightly different shaped bottle than most beer. So I wasn't sure how tall to knit it before I started the neck decreases. I should be able to get this done, now that I am at home and have normal beer bottles to compare it to!

The other nice thing about this break from knitting my cardi is that my wrists have recovered! So I should be able to make some progress on that too. Although I plan on breaking up my cardi knitting time a bit more than I was, so as to give my wrists a break from the huge yarn and needles.....

Ciao

Cardi Continued..

I have made it off Sleeve Island! I am now knitting up the back of my cardi.

Yippee!

I am going to take a break from it, though. My wrists hurt from knitting with such thick wool and big needles. Besides I am going to The Creative Festival in Toronto. That's right, I am leaving the hubby home and going to the big smoke. (alas, it is not Rhinebeck, but we take our fun where we can...) I will meet my sister and we will both proceed to peruse the show! Should be fun. The brochure lists crafts I have never heard of. So exploring should be entertaining and possibly very expensive *grin*

See you at the show!

Eye candy

My attempt at artistic flower pics. This is a pic of my Christmas cactus. It flowers from now until spring, usually.

Tag! You're it!

Somewhere in Blogland, I read about an idea someone had. The idea was to go to a blog you usually read, check out their comments and then go to the blog of the person who left the comment. *Then read THEIR comments, pick one and go to THEIR blog. Repeat from * I tried it and it is a very interesting way to find new blogs and see new content etc. Naturally this doesn't work if you don't leave a comment on the new blog. If you are reading this and think "hey, that's my idea", let me know and I will give you your props!

So, everyone explore Blogland!

TAG, YOU'RE IT!

Time out

Quite a while ago I read about "sleeve island". I didn't quite get it then. I do now! I knit and knit yesterday. I'm even using a chunky weight yarn. 10 stitches to the 4 inch. And yet, I'm still on sleeve island.

I would have more to show you, but the yarn was bad and I had to put it in time-out. After a short dunk in the frog pond.

I was tooling along, getting what looked like lots of progress. I even thought I might have 2 sleeves to show you today, that's how good a progress I was making. Until I finshed the increase section. Whereupon I counted stitches and found.....31! NOT 32. Dammit. Checked my knitting. Yup. Missed an increase. Naturally, at the very beginning. Sigh. Quick dip into the frog pond. I then put the yarn into time-out, since it didn't feel like behaving. Hopefully today it will have reflected on it's naughtiness and will behave better.

Even if the yarn doesn't there is hope that I will be more patient after a night's sleep. I can wish, right....?

Ciao

Forging Onwards

In an effort to recover from my disastrous friday the 13th, I am going to show you what I am working on!

First up, the Soctoberfest sock:

Sorry about the crappy pic, it's raining and icky roday. Besides, my photo skills have never been wonderful...

Up next, the sleeve for my new cardi:

Yup, this is the one I was having trouble with last night. I, er, figured out the problem with the increases I was having. The directions read "increase 1 stitch on each side". I missed that on my first go around. However, caught it before I had to frog too much-only 4 rows, so it could have been worse! It's the cardi out of Vogue Knitting Fall '06:

You may notice I am not using the same yarn they are. (Hmmm, hard not to..) But I decided to use the yarn that was this and knit something I would actually wear!

I have no plans for today, other than sitting and knitting! Okay, maybe a little cooking, I do like to eat, on occasion!

Ciao

Why Bother?

Why bother getting out of bed on friday the 13th? I did and the whole fucking day sucked! It started out early when I got out of bed earlier than usual in order to get to the esthetician's on time for my leg waxing. I got there and was told the esthetician was "a few minutes behind". 40 fucking minutes later I was still sitting there. I thought I would just re-book at that point. Do you think I could find the receptionist? Anyone? Nope. So I walked out and left them a message on their answering machine. They called me back all apologetic. Like it makes any goddam difference. My schedule is full for the next week. The next time I can get in is next wednesday. The irritating part is that I just bought a 3 month wax membership there, so I'm stuck for 3 months! After that, I'm outta there!

Then I got to go to the dentist for a cleaning. Both my teeth and my wallet.

Went to the grocery store where they tried to tell me that pastrami was the same as corned beef. Right. Didn't buy that. Had to re-work plans for lunch at that point. Went to the meat counter. Couldn't find a clerk. Left the counter, went to get sour cream. Dropped it on the floor and busted open the tub. Decided I'd had enough and paid for what I had My hubby decided I needed a treat, so he took me to Arby's for lunch. That actually went well. The sky did not fall or anything.

Got home and decided to start my cardigan. Got to the increasing part on the sleeves. Read ahead a bit and found that, although the instructions said to increase by 6 stitches, I was expected to have increased by 12 stitches somehow. Looked up the errata online. Nothing. Decided to feed the cats.

Found that, although I had enough for tonight, I forgot to buy more, even though it was on the damned list! So now we (read hubby) has to get to the vet's before noon on saturday to buy more. Kitty needs a special food or else she gets diarrhea. That would just be lovely wouldn't it?

So I am going to go back to the sweater and increase till I have 32 stitches, since I did the math and that makes a sleeve of the correct diameter. Screw the world. I'm going to hibernate and knit for the next 2 days.

ciao

FOAD Thursday

Okay, if you were an employer and the person you were interviewing took a week to get back to you about an appointment date, then cancelled due to a death in the family, the took 2 weeks to call you back, would you be impressed? I have an employer who has done this to me. THEY approachedME. Then gave me the run around. Finally got everyone together for an interview, told me "we are prepared to give you X dollars and X vacation pay etc". So i said I would mull it over for the weekend and get back to them. (the interview was on friday) I visited the store and spoke to the manager who tells me that his district manager (the one doing the run around) said he was"investigating" it. What's to investigate? Besides, during the interview he sounded definite. If it was an exploratory interview, he should have said that.

So I am seriously considering telling them to FOAD even if they offer me a job. I'm getting work without them, they can stand in line with everyone else!

Bonehead left a message on my cellphone asking me to call him back. We'll see what his excuse is.....

ciao

EDIT

Just to add the capper to the day....it's SNOWING!

A little advice....

If you have a paper cut on your finger and need to chop up some fresh garlic....make sure that the fresh garlic doesn't come into contact with the cut! Or you will be sorry! Ask me how I know. Go ahead. Ask.

Maybe a finished object....

So, I finished knitting my second pair of Fetching gloves. However, one of them is a titch smaller than the other. Hmmm, maybe I can block it out bigger.....

So, there I was at work, with 2 knitted up fingerless gloves, and no needle to weave in the ends with! What's a knitter to do? I know, go online and find another project to cast on for! Wait, there are limitations. It must be small, it must be something I can knit on DPN's (cause that's all I had with me) and it must be a pattern I can get from the internet! Here we go! A toy for a little girl for Christmas.

Doesn't look like much yet. Hopefully it will in a while.

Last, but not least, my Socktoberfest contribution:

Servicemen socks! My husband is really excited about getting new, vintage socks.

Ciao

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Yes, for those of you wondering, here in
Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend! The relatives came over for dinner. There was turkey. There was gravy. There was cranberry sauce. And potatoes. And corn.....

There was also....knitting!


MIL with her "travelling kit"!








I'm off to sleep off the tryptophan from the turkey and the wine. Oh yes, I forgot! There was wine!

Ciao!

I've Got The Clap!

Get yer mind out of the gutter! My Clapotis is finally done!

I'm showing it to you like it was a shawl because I am still unravelling all the drop stitches. The other side isn't quite unravelled yet, and I still have to weave in the 2 ends. But the knitting is done! Yippee!

Now to cast on my hubby's socks.......

ciao

The End is Near!

I have almost finished! I have finished the knitting part. However, I have NOT finished the, er, crafting part. In addition, taking pictures at night with a flash is a pain. Besides, my sister is coming tomorrow and she can help me with the picture part. However, I simply have to give you something to look at in celebration of my finally almost finishing. This project has been going on forever! At least, it feels that way. Which project you ask? Well, I'm not gonna tell. I will show you this:



THIS is the amount of yarn I have left!
And I thought I would run out. That'll teach me.










Tune in tomorrow for more pics!

Ciao

Way less stressful!

Today I worked at a store at least as busy as the store from hell job that I quit in July. Somehow, even with 2 less people working, the work got done. Smoothly, with no stress. Amazing. I'm not sure what was wrong with the losers at that other place, but clearly something was wrong with them!

However, since the store was busy, there was no knitting! *gasp* I know, I'm lucky that sometimes there IS time for knitting. so, I shall suck it up this time and see what happens in the future.

Inclosing, a cute kitty picture. It was from my "artsy" phase...

Ciao