So my cold is still hanging on, back to having a sore throat again - that's a tough one as it's being irritated by the post-nasal drip (sorry, I had to say it) from my cold. I'm thinking positive though and hope to be better soon.

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I was poking around the blogs, and found this one called Bare Maked, and she posted some quizzes, so for fun I thought I'd also include them:


I scored 20 out of 23 on this Craft Trivia, and the 3 I missed where on crafts I don't know anything about, so I don't feel too bad about it. And in this Craft Quiz, I got 7 out of 8, so I'm "all sewn up" . Did you try? How well did you do?


Oh, and if you're like Blythe Dolls check out the gorgeous dress from her November 7th post. It's very pretty.

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It's getting close to the time I need to pack up and ship off the Christmas presents, so I'll need to finish the last few items to get them out of here - "get 'er done!" as Larry the Cable Guy says....for a break I listen to Blue Collar Comedy on Sirius. After travelling through different parts of the US, it's fun to here the Southern accents again and yes, the comedy's pretty good too.

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The sweater I knitted for my mom is coming back, but just for the collar, which she had told me to make 4" long but now that she has it on, she would like it to be the 8" per the pattern so it can be folded over as a turtle neck. Since the collar was knitted on the sweater, I am hoping I can pick up my cast off edge to add on. I'm waiting for it to come back to me so I can solve this 'problem' - a fun challenge!

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I've been trying to work on the clutter in my office, but the problem mainly relates to all little stuff that comes in that needs to be maintained, like bills and papers etc. It doesn't help that I work from home and that there is a ton of paper generated for my job. And it all needs to be saved because every now and again someone demands that you prove yourself regarding work from 6 months ago or more. We are currently in the middle of one job that was 'completed' in May, but the rep just looked at the paperwork now and deemed the field work wasn't good enough. I had to refer to that binder of papers about 10 times, and glad it was still on a shelf near my desk. However, there are 10 more binders like that, that will probably never be touched again, but still I must hold onto them and have some of them close at hand. .

Yesterday I picked up a box of printer paper. My rule is that when that box comes in, the old box that held the reams, must go out, so that's what I'll be working on today - filling up the old box to make room in my filing drawers etc.

Have a good weekend. Do you think Vancouver will get snow as forecast?

JP's son turns 9 today and wanted a pink Nintendo DS lite for his birthday. Since his mom already got him the actually game unit, we thought it would funny if dad gave him 7 in cookie form. I haven't piped icing in about 10 years, so forgive my crude icing job.

Gettin' better all the time

My voice came back later Saturday, just gone for one day. I think JP really liked the silence! Silly man! I sounded like a squeaky toy when I finally could make some noise. I was surprised that with my crazy voice, my dogs still listened to the commands I gave them. But, I couldn't sleep on Saturday night because every time I laid down, I'd start coughing...so I was a grumpy girl on Sunday and was between craft projects so besides not feeling well, I also felt very unproductive. I did start a quicky knitting project on Sunday night though so I felt a bit better about that. So basically I was in bed all weekend. I did shower and get dressed on Saturday but the rest of the time, I was pretty much in my PJs.


I left dinner up to JP, so we had Chinese food on Friday night, Pizza on Saturday night, and a combination of both for Sunday.

Here are some of my projects:

1. My little ducky

This is from the Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Amigurmi book.

2. some embroidery from Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching and the Stitch-it Kit

This rocket turned out the best of all the work I've done recently:

3. finished my mom's sweater, which I'll mail today:

The big, bad cold

Well it got me - finally after a full year the big, bad cold found me and hit me so hard, I have lost my voice. Thank goodness I have the family curse of being able to whisper really loud, which for the first time in my life is not causing me to get in trouble. It is surprising people who phone me though. I was afraid my mom would think I was a crank caller when she called me! If I try to yell, I just sound like a squeaky toy - I'd probably drive cats crazy. Otherwise, the cold symptoms are not so bad too deal with, as long as I take my trusty Tylenol Cold Medicine!

Yesterday, I did some embroidery which I'll post as soon as I've completed. I did get to listen to about 10 podcasts though since I find daytime TV just doesn't do it for me - other than Fashion Friday on Cityline.

And now I think I"ll go back to bed.

Scary crafts

Ok, you know how every now and again someone finds some freaky craft from the 70's or beyond and scares us with the past and asks "what were they thinking"?

Well, here's a current craft that's a bit scary to me. This is on the cover of the Mary Maxim catalog that just arrived today - what is it? It looks like a cross between A.L.F. (Alien Life Form - the TV Show from the 80's) and reindeer. I think we're looking at it now and wondering about it.... and in 20 years I am positive someone will have a blog post about this creation.

Meet "Ryan and Rosie Reindeer" a crochet kit that costs $39.99 and doesn't include the stuffing!

Do you like it? Please let me know, and educate me. Maybe I don't know what "cute" is.

Where have I been?

And where has the time gone? Wowza. What have I been doing? Well first I've been fighting a sore throat, which for me usually means antibiotics, but I think I've won the battle this time. If you count not having a sore throat but a cold - a win. Well, the cold's not that bad - especially with some Daytime Tylenol Cold Medicine . But you know, my head's still somewhere else, and my body is cold. All day long I'm cold. In fact, I've been wearing my boots and a knitted hat in the house all day today! I guess I should try the age-old remedy of " a hot toddy and a warm body". Now, I gotta wait for JP to come home.

I'm going to make a loaf of bread (well the bread machine will make it) and we'll have soup and sandwiches for dinner tonight. That sounds like good food for a cold doesn't it?

I have been on a book buying binge, mostly for presents but here are two of my favorites that I am keeping for myself: Mary Jane's Stitching Room by Maryjane Butters includes embroidery and tatting and applique and crochet in a wonderful warm and cozy format. I think I bought it more for the old-fashioned down home goodness it seemed to emit.

Pet Heaven by Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne - This has wonderful ideas for pets - not just dogs and cats, but hamsters, birds and turtles too. Like a little hut for your hamster and a bird cage cover (which I've been wanting to do for a while for my canary but just haven't gotten to it) and a knitted wire feeder for the birds outside too, plus lots of dog and cat clothes and accessories including collars and toys. And this is the first project I will make - the Anti-Firework Dog Balaclava: I'm gonna make it really thick, so my goofy dog can't hear anything! Then we can all have peace at last.

Right after I finish making my mum's sweater - just got the top of one sleeve left to knit, the blocking and the sewing together left to do - all the hard stuff remains.

Yarn things - WIPs and FOs

After I finished the Fat Bottom Purse, JP suggested I should make it a Christmas Bag by adding a poinsettia. I saw the pattern for a crocheted one by Planet June, so I started to make one. But my first problem was that I couldn't get the petals as pointy as she had them. Even after sticking the end of my crocheted hook and pulling on the petals, they still stayed rounded as you can see. Anyway, I pinned it onto the bag, but I didn't like the crochet flower on the crochet bag. Too me, for this one, I wanted more contrast. So I went to the dollar store and searched until I found some "silk" poinsettias and then took the flower apart and hot glued it to a brooch clip. Here's the purse dressed for Christmas. I think I might try to paint the yellow bracts though - they are actually the flowers and aren't really noticeable and would add some nice colour - don't you think?





The next project I finished was my neck warmer, I just had to sew on some buttons. I dumped out my button jar and had lots of options, too many, so I asked JP to help me out, he picked these large white ones. (He's my unofficial creative director.) And there was finally some good light yesterday so I took this picture of the final project outside - quite a difference in the colours from the inside photo and the outside photo, isn't there?

I have always loved these types of colours - I call them Renaissance Browns (but that's not what Berroco called them). It's nice with the buttons because the warmer stays put and I don't have to worry about re-tying or having the ends flop out of my winter coat like I do with a scarf. I saw that a boutique in Vancouver was selling something similar for $150! It only took 1.2 skeins of yarn! Some one's getting a huge profit some where.

Below is what the neck warm looks like laid flat- a short wide scarf, except just before the end opposite the buttons is a row of loops (for button holes) so you have lots of options of how you'll button it up - in the front, on the side, one button or two.









Yesterday I started on the little piggy in my new Amigurumi book (see yesterday's post) except the pink that I used for the head and body is a very different gauge than the grey I used for the arms - I may have to frog it if the proportion is too far off. But first I'll continue to make a few more body parts to see how it looks.

I just need to finish the raglan cap of the sleeve for the sweater I'm making for my mom - I'm not using the merino as suggested I'm using an Oatmeal coloured Peruvian Highland Wool. She picked it out, so I'm sure she'll like it. We're getting close to getting done, but I'm not sure how many Christmas projects I'll be doing so I may have to interrupt my progress for gift making. You know how it is.

Squee!

Yay! A new book arrived today - Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi . I just love it. It is written by Tomoko Takamori and the bio says "as a researcher of knitting and crochet, Tomoko Takamori started her career in amigurumi creation in 1993." The book has very good technical diagrams and step-by-step instructions. I'm looking forward to finishing work today so I can start a project. All the patterns are so adorable! And the photographs are very lovely too. I got mine from Amazon.

The back cover reads:

Kyuuto! = Cute!

Amigurumi = adorable crocheted animals

So lucky

Yesterday we had quite the storm in the Vancouver and surrounding areas with winds gusting up to 90km/hr and heavy rains. I was awake from around 4:30 am yesterday listening to the wind and worrying about things on my property that might get ruined (namely losing shingles from the roof). I started work (because my employer doesn't consider Remembrance Day a stat - long story) but by around 8:00am the lights started to flicker and I had heard the power was out in some areas already, so I turned off my computer and within about 10 minutes we lost our power. Dang, I just wish I had the foresight to boil the kettle as well!
For me, it wasn't so bad. First of all we have a gas fireplace so we can get heat from it and although it was blustery, there were times when it wasn't that dark outside so by opening the curtains and with a few candles it wasn't so bad. I read a novel, listened to some podcasts and knit. Jp made us some drinks using the hot water from the water cooler but it's not boiling so you know, your tea just doesn't taste the same.
By mid-afternoon we were hungry. The night before we had gone out for Chinese food and thank goodness Jp had ordered two extra dishes to go - so we had a full container of Chicken Chow Mein and a full container of Black Beans and Beef. Hmm, some intuition at play here!
We have a butane stove which has 1 burner, so first he boiled us some water for tea and coffee and then with a cast iron skillet, he cooked up the best chow mein EVER! He looked so cute outside "roughin' it"
We had a small radio that's battery powered so we listened to the news and found out that around 200,000 homes in the Metro Vancouver area were without power, and that they advised people to stay indoors - to not drive or even walk as so many trees and power lines had come down.
We played 100 questions - that's were I asked him questions about anything - and he answers. Okay, I just made up the game and it wasn't well thought out, but it did keep us both busy for about an hour.
Then my mom called and after about 45 minutes, the power came back on! So I hung up so I could turn things back on (like the filter for my fish tank - poor fish, I don't think they liked having to get their air from the surface all day)
So for me, it wasn't a bad day. Neither of us had to go anywhere so that was good. I appreciate all the police and firefighters and Hydro staff etc that had to work in the horrible weather yesterday - thank you.
And we were some of the lucky ones again because apparently some people won't get their power back for another day or two, and some don't have cable TV yet; and some people had trees that fell on their houses or cars. Whew! Let's hope that was our only storm for this winter.

I Remember

We must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those one hundred thousand Canadian lives will be meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and families and friends, for a collection of traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for Canada. The meaning of their sacrifice rests with our collective national consciousness; our future is their monument. (from the Veteran's Affairs website)

Remembrance Day is upon us and I remember, and I thank all who sacrificed for our freedom.

Lest we forget.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

John McCrae

That's Cool!

Check this out: the USPS has holiday stamps honoring knitting - That's cool!

Oh I wish Canada had knitting stamps!

New issue of CRAFT:

Yay! The new issue of Craft arrived in my mail today! I've been viewing it on line for the last several days as I waited for the physical copy to arrive. You know, I think this is their best issue yet. Do you have it? Do you agree?

If you don't have it and you're a crafter, I strongly recommend it. It has a little bit of everything and it's all presented so well. I haven't been this excited about an issue of anything for quite some time - there are so many projects I'd like to try.

-I haven't seen Marzipan decorations (pg 25) since I was a kid. My mom used to sculpt amazing replicas in miniature fruit and often a little creature for her little girl (me!), like a mouse or other cute animal. I don't know if I dare to try this one - but the good thing is that the supplies are all readily available and if you don't like what you've made - you just eat your mistakes!

- the Origami master (pg 50) is also something that caught my eye. I am often folding something up. Nothing as wonderful as he can create though (check out the moose!) - I just follow the directions for a crane, or a duck or a frog, maybe now I'll try something else.

- I will definitely use the package wrapping article at Christmas (pg 58)

- I have made paper in the past and maybe I'll make some again thanks to their extremely detailed article (pg 133)

There are also felted slippers and crochet hats.

Okay, I won't review the whole magazine, but let me just say, you won't be disappointed. I am sure of it!

Mr. C - My canary

This is my canary who is 11 1/2 years old.

Last year on November 3rd, he had some sort of stroke that rendered him blind in his right eye and caused him to lose the ability to fly. He also doesn't sing anymore(and he was an amazing singer with great volume) - he occasionally chirps though. I am not sure how good his left eye is as he often flails his head around perhaps trying to get his bearings.

He spends most of his day on his perch, which is now only an inch off the floor and is always facing the same way. He eats quite voraciously at times, but often eats in the middle of the night. He sleeps and eats in about 4 hour cycles .

His cage no longer hangs from the ceiling and is on a stool so I can keep an eye on him and I change the paper towel on his cage bottom daily because he walks around the floor sometimes pecking at seeds. I moved him to a smaller cage as he used to "roll" quite a bit. His motor skills and balance have improved in the past year. His perch feet have adapted to being flat footed (like a chicken) His door has been open for the past 11 months. The dogs ignore him but sometimes their tail hits the cage which scares the little guy (don't blame him!)

I can't believe this little guy is still going!

Sweater progress: Here is the back piece (unblocked-sorry), it is a raglan sweater, hence the odd shape. It is an oatmeal coloured wool:

I have started on the front but still have about 60 rows left to go in stockinette before I start the pattern, so nothing much to show you yet.

Other things seem to be going on right now, so I don't think I'm progressing as quickly as I should. I get maybe an hour or so done each night - not as much as I'd like to do. However, this time of year is also present making time so I have been working on some other things as well, many still in progress.

Monday's episode of She's Crafty was okay. The headboard was a good idea, but the golf-shirt computer cover was horrid. She redeemed herself in the end by showing the felted purse though, and so I didn't feel so bad for wasting the 10 minutes in the middle of the show. I think it would do a whole lot better with a different host - surely Vancouver has a large enough talent pool that we can find someone with more charisma. Even my husband doesn't like her and he's only seen the show once or twice when he's walked into the room.

Yesterday it was nice enough for me to take the dogs for a walk. I should've had mitts on, but I didn't think to bring them. I like to be warm. While out, I saw a guy walking in shorts and a short sleeved shirt - either he is is one of those people who's never cold, or he thought because the sun was out that it would be warm, or he left the house in a hurry and didn't plan to be outside. All I know is that I had a hat and a polar fleece on, and should've had on my mitts. I think I have a low cold threshold - hence the reason I love summer!

This weekend...

I watched 2 movies - The Freedom Writers and The Last King of Scotland both of which I thought were very good - so good that I didn't even knit through either of them so I could pay full attention.

Friday night was rough because there were still firecrackers going off and a neighbour who was using a pneumatic hammer until 10pm! Both scare the bejesus out of Jazz so she was barking and growling in her carrier, despite being fed 4 Valiums. The problem was that the kid was here this weekend, so before the whole house was woken up I had to sleep on the concrete floor in the laundry room where the dogs sleep - well until at least 2:30am when the streets get quieter. Not a good night.

Saturday was all right, cleaned up my office and then we went for lunch, except for some reason the restaurant that always served awesome food, wasn't so awesome. I'm wondering if we built up our memories too much or if it's only the first time that's so good because you don't have any expectations?

Sunday we went to Vancouver to pick up some awesome chairs that JP found via the internet; they match his 60's office desk and credenza. He got them at a very good price too - certainly way better than if he found them in a store.

I did cast on for the front of the sweater, but didn't really get much crafting time in this weekend. Although last night I worked on an embroidery project while listening to Lime and Violet's podcast. But I have to be one of those people that has to say, "I can't show you because it's a present and the recipient reads my blog". I understand of course when people post that, but I'm so curious I just MUST know! Sorry, if you're like me, but I don't want to ruin a Christmas surprise.

And here we are, back at Monday again, and time for another grueling work week.

Crafty TV and Canada

Just out of curiousity my fellow crafty Canadians, have you been watching the show She's Crafty on HGTV (Canada)? What do you think of it?

Here's my opinion: although I am happy that Canada has finally caught on and given us one show, I am a bit disappointed with it. Have you seen all the crafty shows in the US? Why there's a whole DIY network that has lots of fabulous shows. I had the opportunity when I was in Texas last April to watch some of them and they were great. Whole shows devoted to knitting like Vicki Howell's, Knitty Gritty, and many other amazing craft shows. We have one 1/2 hour mediocre show. Very disappointing. When is Canadian broadcasting going to catch on?

I am pleased that She's Crafty is filmed in Vancouver, but I'm not liking the host all that much - still it's a start. I'm hoping that if the ratings are good, perhaps more shows will be created here.

You know, I am sorry to say but I have grown to dislike HGTV - it's only home renovation or decoration shows and 95% of the content is about Toronto. I have grown tired of seeing only Toronto on TV. Same with Canadian fashion magazines - too much Toronto content! There is more to Canada than Toronto. I think that it's time that Vancouver and Calgary, and other great cities are included. I've heard Americans similarly complain though saying the US is not just New York and Los Angeles, which is the basis for many TV shows, but not to the same extent as our Toronto domination.

If we can't produce our own shows, then let's at least bring the US shows to Canada, what do you think? I wonder how that can be done.

Well it wasn't an easy night... Jazz had lots of drugs and the stereo was turned up loud to cover some of the firecrackers and fireworks, but still she was a pretty scared dog. And to top it off, I wasn't feeling well. I think the build-up from 6 days of stress has finally gotten to me and I'm very tired. Next year I will definitely board her somewhere.

I think I managed about 6 rows on the sweater last night - that was all the energy I could muster.

You know, about 1/2 the kids didn't even say 'trick or treat', although I was pleasantly surprised that the majority of them did say 'thank you'. One kid even said it before I put the candies in his bag. I was giving away handfuls and then suddenly I thought I was going to run out, so I cut back and then it seemed to end, so we have some left over. Maybe I'll give it to some kids on my street.

I'm very glad October is over and am relieved it's November 1st. Except that I'd better start thinking of Christmas presents!