Category: the days of my little life

I took a few pictures of my WIP’s.  The light is not great and I hate to use flash.  But, when it’s all you got, it’s all you got.

I love, love, love the green of these mittens.  This is the color I’ll use for mine when I get to them.

This is a better picture of the tunic I’ll start today – maybe – if I can tear myself away from the mittens.

Anyone? 

I using a copy so I could scribble all over it.   I found a “knitting terms translated” website and I “fave-ed” it.  We’ll see how I make out. 

I went to see little Patty last night after work.  I didn’t think it would be possible for him to be cuter but, he is.  I would have taken a picture but my camera was at home and my phone-with-camera was in my purse, in the car.  Next time.

It’s been a really busy past week. 

Jacob jointed MMA (mixed martial arts) so he could be cooler.

Soccer in the rain on Wednesday.

Scott got his new house on Thursday but then he worked all weekend.  The boxes were driving me crazy so, I unpacked for him.  Then I went home and thought to myself  “Man, this place is a mess!  There’s shit everywhere!”  I need to purge.  I have a garage full of furniture I don’t have room for and boxes I haven’t unpacked yet.  I’ve been in my house for three years!  If it’s in a box, I probably don’t need it. 

I worked at the Station on Sunday.  It was a good day but long due to lack of sleep.  I thought you were supposed to need less  sleep as you get older?

At least I got Claire’s socks finished.  They’re pretty nice if I do say so myself.  They’re a secret though and I don’t want to put up any pics just in case she sees them.  AND, I’m thinking of submitting my pattern to www.knitty.com.  I’ll have to sit down and write the actual pattern.  That’s my downfall:  I make all these things just out of my head but never write stuff down.  Will I ever learn?

Yesterday, I started another pair of Bella’s Mittens.  I just love those.  It’s the first thing I make more than one of and don’t get so sick of it I want to stick it in my coffee grinder.

I was dying to start my February Lady but something came up. 

A friend Christina went to Germany for a few weeks and came back with a kit for me for this really cute tunic that you wear with a belt.   We have matching kits but with different color yarns.  The pattern is in German – yikes.  She started hers while she was there and I managed to have a look at it before she undid it (too small) and think I figured out the stitch pattern.  Numbers are the same in German so, *something I don’t understand* 102/###/### *more stuff I don’t understand* 4-4 1/2  *again, words I don’t understand* and 103/###/###.  I’m guessing that means cast on 102 stitches.  I managed to figure out Knit and Purl so, I have to work K2,P2 for  4-4 1/2 inches and increase one so that when I start my stitch pattern, I have 103 stitches.  This should keep me busy for a few hours until I see her again at knitting on Wednesday.  Here’s a picture.  It’ actually pretty long and you wear it with a belt.  She has a belt on under her hand.

I’m blogging on my lunch.  I should be knitting.  When I left the house this morning, I was evaluating my day – trying to figure out if I should bring my knitting or not.  I decided NOT.  Now I’m kicking myself in the arse because I could have been knitting right now.  C’est la vie!

I’ll post pictures next time.

Literally… the yarn I’m using to make Claire’s socks is coloring my hands and my needles. 

Meet the culprit:

Words cannot express how much I love this yearn.  It’s soft and light and it knits up like butter – even stitches too (well, maybe that part is me).  So, I don’t mind so much that it’s doing this:

Isn’t that funny?  I can’t say it’s the first time this happens to me but, I’ve never had the needles change color.  I’m using bamboo.  Maybe last time I used metal or plastic.

I think they turned out kind of cool!  Either way, I better make sure I give Claire’s socks a good wash before I give them to her so that she’s not blue too.  Hahah.

I finished another pair of Bella’s Mittens (for my sister).

This is Shelby with her Bella’s Mittens.  You think she likes them?

I finally finished the Noro socks (they’re a little itchy – but moocho pretty).

The hat I made at Michelle’s last weekend is going to get a re-do.  I wanted a floppy tuque.  It’s not that floppy and the ribbing stretched ’cause I wore it a lot.

Not a great picture… I like the stitch so I’ll keep that the same.  I’ll use smaller needles for the ribbing and make the tuque part floppier.  I wanted it to look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It didn’t work out like that so, I’m going to frogg it and start over.  I still have a little yarn left to make it bigger.

I’m off to do family things today.  Maybe cut the grass, pull some weeds and dinner at my mother’s.

I’m back from my weekend at Michelle’s.  It was wonderful to spend time with them and to go gallivanting with Michelle on Saturday.

I got there late on Friday, naturally.  We stayed up until 2:00 a.m. while I attempted to knit so I could finish my Noro socks before the weekend was up.  I wasn’t quite successful.  Only a toe left.  I was a little miffed at these socks because I made one a while ago and only started the second.  Then I worked on “the gown” and the tension in the second sock isn’t the same as the first.  I would imagine all this will come out in the wash (literally).

Up bright and early Saturday morning to go to the market.  I met the new addition to the family:  Botine (it means bootie – like a boot – in English).

It was really hard to get a picture of him because he moves really really fast!  Isn’t he the cutest?

We hit Len’s Mills first.  It’s a strange store but they have lots of yarn and it’s usually priced lower than other shops/stores.  I found tones of colors of the Paton’s Shetland Chunky that I’ve been using for the “Bella’s Mittens”.  I bought a little.  (What?  I’m making them for other people – for money!  So, technically, it cost me nothing and doesn’t count.)

I also found bamboo needles for my mother (which I totally forgot to give her last night).  Come to think of it, maybe she already found some.  I can’t remember.

After Len’s Mills, we went to the market.  I saw so much cheap stuff.  Can you imagine a bouquetof gerbera daisies for $6???   They cost $4.00 a flower here!  

They had pig’s feet – honest to God pig’s feet.  They were right there next to the sausages in the meat case. 

They had a guy playing the violin and another playing the cello.  There were big people, little people and a lot of German people.  I didn’t understand what most of them were saying. 

There were veggies as far as the eyes could see. 

There was also a yarn booth, where I found some lovely Louet to make my February Lady sweater.  I’m dying to make this sweater!!!!

I’m also dying to make the Cobblestone Pullover.  But, that’s for another day.

We drove around downtown Waterloo.  Michelle’s not used to being in a car (she walks or bikes everywhere which makes things go by slower) so, she wasn’t quick on the directions.  I drove slow and looked at the houses.  There are a lot of nice, old houses down there.  People seem to take pride in their homes and they really care for them.  I also saw this old building and stopped dead in my tracks, pulled the car over and took some pictures.

We also went to the Asian market.  (It smells bad in there!!!)  I saw actual chicken feet, right there in the bin with other strange stuff.  They had lots of fish.  There we some live ones – big ones – in aquariums that they picked out, clubbed on the head, scaled and put in a baggie for people.  Yuck! 

We hit a few little shops downtown.  At Ten Thousand Villages, there were beautiful rugs.  I watched the video on how they’re made.  I was in complete awe.  Now I know why Persian rugs are so expensive.  It takes an average of one year and two months for a Pakistani family to make one rug!!!.  Can you imagine how many knots are in a rug?

Then we went to Wellington Fibres.   The owner, Lorne, showed us how the mill works.  All the machines were fascinating – how they make the roving; how they die the wool; how they get a tweed coloring.  I was in wool-heaven.  I got some wool and made a tuque when I got back to Michelle’s.

Sunday we did nothing but sit outside and knit.  Michelle went through a fleece and took the yucky stuff out. 

Monday I drove home.  When I got here, my Mom and Gerry were building a bridge (sort of) so that we could get across the little stream to get to the garlic.  Then they were too tired to pick garlic so we went in and ate.   Gerry had cleaned up some stuff from the yard and my mother had weeded my flower bed.  Youpi.  Thanks guys!

After dinner, Scott and I went out looking for the garlic.  The bridge was great.  It works!  Woohoo.  And, we found some!  It took a while but I found it.  It was Scott’s first time garlic picking.  I think he had more fun watching me squating in the dirt, digging with my little stick. 

I got to wear my rubber boots again.  I think they make my clumsy though.  I walked right into a thorn bush and got a big scratch over my right eye.  BUT, I didn’t get a soaker!  Haha.

It was a great end to a great weekend.

To top it all off, I got a book on CD from the library to make the drive less boaring.  It was a wonderful/touching/inspiring book.  It’s called The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans.  I think I’ll buy it hard-copy.