Anniversary Update

My husband is the best! He bought me this to help celebrate our anniversary:

Yup, that's Dom Perignon! Talk about a man with class. That's MY man!

The glass is also cool. That was a Christmas present a few years ago. Here's a close-up:

The stem is the really cool part:

Ciao

My 14th Anniversary!

Yes folks, yours truly has been married for 14 years as of today! My wonderful husband got me a present:

CHOCOLATE!!!!!

Hand made victoria creme to be exact. From Rogers Chocolate. Mmmmmmm...

Ciao!

Ha! Another Christmas giftie done! This is destined for my hairdresser. A "Season's Greetings" if you will.....















I'm off to make another pair in mint green. These are great little gifts. It takes almost no time at all to churn one out. And they look impressive. I say again, HA!

Ciao

Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

*elevator muzac stops*

We interrupt our regular programming to ask you: Do you find some television commercials to be completely stupid or icky?

The first one I find that grates on my nerves is this one: Close-up of a woman's face. She then says "As a mom, I find (product x breakfast spread) to be a tasty and healthy part of breakfast"

Or something very close to that. The irritating part is the "as a mom" part. Ummm, shouldn't a nutritionist be giving me nutritional advice? My pardons to all good moms out there, but I have seen plenty of bad mothering choices over the years. For example: A mother approached my pharmacy counter and asked me " Is there an easier way to get my kid to take Vick's Vaporub?" I asked her what she meant. Turns out that she was giving her kids the stuff on a spoon. To eat!!!!! I am sure that she did this with the best of intentions, but the stuff can actually kill small children!!!

Or the "I'm a (insert cold product here) mom!" Umm do you mean that product got you pregnant???? Bad writing there, eh?

The creepy one is the cough syrup ad that has a person coughing in a bed/classroom etc and their mom just magically appears with the product in hand. My mom might just appear in my vicinity? With no warning? Eww!

And just disturbing is the chocolate bar ad that is set to Beach Boys music and ends "and if a shark should try to bite you, I invite you" while wiggling a chocolate ass in front of said shark. This one I find completely disquieting. On several levels.

Okay, I had to get that off my chest.

I now return to your regularly scheduled programming....
*elevator musac starts*

It's the WEEKEND!

I'm not sure if it's eye candy or "just" a finished object.. But since it's friday, I figure beer is appropriate. This is another little Christmas giftie (the cozy, not the empty beers, silly). Unfortunately, the weather around here has sucked for the last week, so the pic is flash-photography. It makes for difficult pictue taking. Oh well, it's still finished!

Ciao

Re-enactment

Is anyone else waiting for Noah and the Ark to show up soon? So far, in the last 7 days, we have gotten 1 sunny day, 1 mostly overcast/partly sunny day and 5 pouring rain days. Not drizzle, kinda damp days. POURING RAIN. Pretty soon the whole province is going to float away. I find all this rain fairly onerous, since I can't get my hearing aids wet. (electronics and water just don't mix!) This means I have to carry an umbrella, or wear my "paddington bear" hat everywhere. Real fashion statement I tell ya.

As you can see, because of the lack of daylight, I've had to use the flash, resulting in my lovely, porcelain skintone. (otherwise known as pasty white)

sigh

Ciao

Boring and then Delicious

I haven't been boring all of you with my hearing-aid saga. However, my patient,eternally suffering husband has heard enough whining, so you, my gentle readers are stepping up to the plate. If you really don't want to, then skip to the picture at the bottom for the "fun" content.

Lets review: Last June I went to start the process of getting new aids. The first set were analog. They sucked. The second set were digital, wicked expensive and also sucked. The third set were still wicked expensive and worked better than the previous 2 sets, but not as good as my old ones. So now we are on to set number 4. These are Widex Inteo. The fitting process gives me a little (a very little hope). Instead of just programming in your hearing loss as the audiologist tested it, the aids are put in your ears and sounds are piped in through the aids (they call it a sonogram) and you respond if you can hear it or not. Your responses are then used to adjust the sound. These aids also have a number of programs to choose from. To start out, I am going with the all purpose program and one that supposedly makes music better to listen to. The reasoning is that the music program allows more base sounds through the filter. Since most of my hearing loss is in the high pitches, the hope is that this might give me better hearing even if it isn't music.

A funny thing emerged through the sonogram process. My hearing in between some of the traditional pitches used for testing is better than the traditional pitches themselves. This leads to a wonky curve with respect to the amplification of sound. Perhaps this is why the other hearing aids didn't work as well. They assumed a smooth curve of hearing loss. Clearly not the case here.My old set were programmed though a similar program to the sonogram done here.

Here's hoping....

Since this is a fairly boring, dry post, I will now show you a pic of something moist and delicious:

BANANA BREAD!

Ciao

Warning: Too cute, Non-Knitting pics!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled knitting blog to bring you this special announcement:


Cute kittie pictures! Although, there is some knitting content in both. Micha (1st pic) is pretending to sleep on the floor under my orange knitting project bag. Pagan is sleeping on the afghan my MIL gave us a few years ago. If I dare to move the afghan, I get into trouble. Pagan will stand on the floor in front of the chair and meow for hours on end until the blankie is restored to it's place. Makes washing it a bit of a challenge. (yes, I know, I'm being bullied by my cat, what of it???)

It's Magic.

Magic Loop that is.

Last night I was starting another cabled beer cozy for a Christmas present and my dpn's were being a pain in the butt. So I decided to see if I could figure out magic loop knitting. I haven't wanted to try it on socks, since there is a defined front and back and I haven't figured out how to distinguish them. However, the beer cozy is round, no front or back. So I whipped out my Denise kit and started. The beginning is a pain, just like it is on dpn's. But once there was a few rounds done, the knitting stablized and I was just whipping through it. Most excellent. Now I can add Magic Loop to my arsenal.

I didn't feel up to posting yesterday. I had a whopper of a migraine. Mostly because on Friday the day was a beautiful, sunny, blue sky day. I got up Saturday to this:

I find that whenever the weather does a really fast 180, my head hurts. By yesterday evening I was nauseous from the pain. (yes, I was taking pain pills. They just weren't strong enough) Hmmm, maybe the pain pills were making me nauseous. Could be. Either way, my head hurt, my stomach ached and I was not a happy knitter. I went to bed early. Today seems to be better. The head hurts a little, but it's waaaayy better. I'm off to finish the beer cozy before my head decides to explode. (again)

Ciao

It's a Mystery.

Mystery mysterious....

I AM working on something, I promise. But I'm only going to show you a little piece of it right now. I'm not sure if it's going to stay in it's current form. This is the 3rd form tried.....

Ciao

It's back!

For those of you wondering what was happening with the cardigan I was knitting up, I am still working on it. I am pleased to present you this:

The back of the cardi is finished! Not blocked or anything, but done. All that's left (all??!!) is the front. Progress feels like it is glacial though. Mostly due to the fact that I can only work on this for a couple of hours at a time. Max. More than that and my wrists start to complain. Strangely, working with thick yarn is harder on my wrists than knitting with cotton string. Ah well, c'est la vie!

Ciao

What a flap!

Woo hoo! Do I see a heel flap? Yup, I do! Yippee! Okay, not a whole heel flap, but a good start on one. In my mind, that means I am halfway done! I don't know if it's actually true, but it feels like it.

In other news, my 14 year old cat decided last night that she was a kitten and made a mess. You see, I was having a bit of a treat and made myself a strawberry daquiri. I like it more like a slushy, so I need a straw to drink it. I walked across the room to where the hubby was sitting to look at something on the computer he wanted to show me, and the minute I had my back turned, Pagan went after the straw. Naturally this knocked over the drink, spreading sticky pink stuff all over the carpet. AAARRRGGGHHH! I spent half an hour blotting and rinsing, but it looks like I got the pink out of the carpet. That'll teach me to leave a cat toy unattended!

c

A Twofer!

A twofer-one post. Yup, I am the model of efficiency today.

This is a cute kitty pic that my current kitty calender is displaying. For more cute siamese kitty pics, go see Wendy. However, that is not the twofer I referred to. The twofer is this:

1. Friday eye candy!

2. Chappy's Mom wants those of us in the vast, fibery Blogland to post pics of our November calender picture. So this is mine. I am always up for easy memes!

Ciao

Alas and Alack!

Oh woe is me! I have failed in my Socktoberfest quest! Hmmmm, a bit melodramatic, eh? Really, though. I wanted to finish at least 1 pair of socks in Soctober. Never mind that it has heretofore taken weeks for me to finish a pair. I made a HUGE tactical error. I decided my Soctoberfest socks would be for my husband. My, giant-footed husband. *sigh* Lesson learned. This is as far as I got:

I will persevere and hopefully theses will be finished in time for our anniversary. (November 21 if you're curious) (14 years for you curiouser ones..) (remember what curiousity did to the cat)

Ciao

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