oh, all right... Happy Halloween

I'm trying to be a team player, but I'm a bit grumpy since I haven't been allowed to sleep through the night since last Thursday, thanks to all those firecrackers. I know one is not supposed to wish time away, however, this time I do wish that I could fast forward through this night and get on with things. Soon I will have to turn the stereo on loud and lock up my dog and load her down with Valium just so she can make it through all the firecracker noise without hurting herself or destroying things. (And the poor thing won't be able to go to the bathroom from about 5:00pm until about midnight because just as she's about to go, a firecracker goes off)

I've been working on a sweater for my mom, but I messed up the eyelet pattern at the top of the back so last night I had to frog back to the arm holes - thank goodness there were markers there. I hope that I will be able to move forward now that I have figured things out. I think the pattern is a little skimpy on instructions - either that or I am not as 'intermediate' as I thought I was.

I will be handing out candies tonight, but I think I will sit outsidefor about an hour and give them out that way instead of running to the door every 2 or 10 or 3 minutes. It's so unpredictable, what do you do at this time? I will just put on lots of clothes and listen to some knitting podcasts and hand out candies. Maybe a hot drink in my hand? At least during the 'rush' which I think is between 6pm and 7:30-ish.

Have a happy night..... I hope everyone stays safe. And good luck to all those poor dogs and cats and other animals out there that suffer because of firecrackers like my dog does. Perhaps one day there will be no more firecrackers for sale.

Yay for rain!

Ok, my apologies to all the good children (because the bad kids are walking on the street lighting firecrackers all weekend) out there and other innocent bystanders, however, rain for me before Halloween means some relief from all the firecrackers. Oh they are still out there, but not as much - I guess some kids can't light them in the rain. Yay!

Anyway, I did manage to mow the back yard yesterday and mulch all the leaves from the big maple tree that I have. I did however, manage to hit the metal spike in a small retaining 'wall' and damage the mower blade. Dang! Now it needs to go to the repair shop. Drat. And I have mowed around that area at least 100 times! Luckily the grass in the front yard isn't that long, so I just raked up the leaves out there and did some pruning and things don't look so bad!

Today, I watched the movie Blood Diamond - which I recommend. And if that story is true, then I hope everyone stops buying diamonds! Yah, like that will ever happen.

I also made a loaf of French Bread. Other than that I haven't done too much. I think I'll do some knitting this afternoon. I'm working on a sweater in oatmeal coloured wool for my mum. Oh yes, and I did put up some more Hallowe'en decorations outside. I might just end up crawling back into bed since I've been up since 5am and it's cold. A cold house always makes me want to crawl into bed to get warm, and then I don't get as much accomplished as I should. That's winter for you.

What did you do this weekend?

Not a good night

Have you ever slept on a linoleum covered concrete floor in your house coat (bath robe? what do we call them these days)? Well that is what I did last night until around 3:00am when my hip bones were sore and I moved back to our bed.

"Why would anyone do that? " you ask. Well because I have an 11 year old dog who is very noise phobic and last night was a gorgeously clear night 6 days before Hallowe'en so it was FIRECRACKER CITY in my neighbourhood. And, despite 5 Valiums (vet prescribed) and a CD of Diana Krall (supposedly soothing) blasting away my dog was still freaking out while penned in her travel kennel (for every one's safety). Oh yes she did. She growled, she whined and then she'd bark and she was as relentless as those kids outside. So my only choice was to be in her view and threaten her with the spray bottle. Not how I'd like to treat my dog, but sadly the only thing that kept her quiet and at the risk of affecting my marriage, my only choice.

So. Now I am grumpy as all get out today and don't want to be near anyone or do anything. And my dog - well, you know animals... they happily start the new day with their tails wagging. No concept of the fact that we'll probably end up doing the exact same thing again tonight and the next 5 nights until Hallowe'en. This is why, for my sake, I am very happy when it rains on October 31st.

And if you've gotten this far..... thanks for reading this, that makes me feel a bit better.

Another purse

This one is made from a felted sweater which I had bought from the thrift store. It was an Anne Klein 100% merino that someone had already shrunk - but when I felted it, it went from a ladies size down to a small child's size and barely large enough for a purse! Well I guess I like my purses to be bigger.

Anyway, the plain grey was nice but, well, plain, so I embellished it with crocheted burgundy fuzzy flowers and added some beads in the centre. Everything was pulled from my stash - except buying that sweater.

I am really liking it now. I think it will look great with my black winter coat... "oh honey...let's go out for dinner tonight... and the next night, and the next night."

I'm loving this website for ReForm School - lots of great products and creative inspiration, don't you think?

In my own little crafty world - I made the Fat-Bottom Bag from Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker this weekend. I just used stuff from my stash, including the handles. The pattern called for a ribbon but below the handle I used a very thick mink coloured 'fur' type yarn, which I really like the effect of. JP suggested instead of this flower, I should put a big poinsettia corsage on it for a Christmas bag - great idea dear! He's one of these people who has a very good eye for fashion and brings up great creative suggestions but doesn't want to create anything. At all. I'm partially jealous, but partially grateful - because he's helped me bring some things I've made up a notch.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

Hello. I'm back from a business trip. We went to Kelowna, BC and enjoyed wine tastings at Cedar Creek, Summerhill Wineries and a full tour and tasting at Mission Hill Winery. We had dinner at the Quail's Gate Estate Winery where they paired food and their wine for a very good experience. Because of where I live, driving to the Vancouver Airport and flying would take almost as long as driving directly to Kelowna, so that's what we did. It was a much more enjoyable trip anyway - my eyes were treated to the glory of autumnal foliage. In fact some of the yellow leafed trees almost seemed to glow. It was gorgeous.

There was a tiny sprinkling of snow just after the toll booth on the Coquihalla Highway on the way home but I heard that 24 hours later there was 20 cms of snow there. Whew! Just missed that one.

I did knit a neckwarmer on the way up and was going to crochet the Fat Bottomed Bag (from Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker book) on the way home but the first few rows required some counting and I decided look at as much of the scenery as possible.

I have lots of paperwork to catch up on,but will get back to my crafts as I recently decided I would spend a minimum of 1 hour per day on crafts. Ideally it should be 2 hours - that was a personal goal and I am keeping a log to follow my commitment. I am disappointed that I had to forfeit this goal for a few days but it's just not possible when there are meetings and group dining events and poor quality sleep as it is.

Life returns back to normal now. It's good to be home even if I have lots of cleaning and decluttering and sooooo many craft projects and other things I want/have to do.

Another FO and one in progress

This is what I did on Saturday:

1. Hippo Kleenex Holder: I had some green vinyl I inherited from my mum's craft room and I've been thinking about what I could do with the scraps. The first thing that came to mind was a hippo (one of my favourite animals-but not in real life because they are MEAN!). I made an overlapping back flap as I was going to make a coin purse and add a snap closure. But after I embroidered the face details and sewed the edges by hand (I couldn't do it neat enough on the machine), it suddenly hit me - it would be perfect to carry those pocket tissues!

Front

Back w/tissues

2. The second project is a purse I made out of a felted sweater which I bought at the thrift store. The pattern is from Altered Knits by Leigh Radford. I find the purse too plain, so I won't use it until I can embroider on it. I'm thinking about adding some flowers in burgundy. I may also try adding some knitted flowers but I haven't come across the materials yet in my knitting stash.

Then I read 1/2 of Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jenn Lancaster. You might like her blog.

Today, I went through my clothes closet and swapped out my summer and winter clothes. Summer gets stored in those shrinking vaccum storage bags in the back of the closet. Except I think I have more winter clothes, it's hard to tell because it's so much more bulkier. It would be nice to be able to get better access to them, they're stacked in plastic boxes in the front of my cupboard - not the best way to have clothes... but I'm not complaining. Oh no I am not.

I was also picking out outfits because I have to go on a business trip this week and needed some corporate looking clothes - I have to try everything on because I work from a home office and don't usually wear heels and skirts there - usually I wear things like yoga pants or jeans and my awesomely comfy Puma runners). I think I've got all the outfits planned. Now I just have to pack. And remember to give my fish a feeder block so they'll be okay while I'm gone. The dogs will go to my neighbour who is nice enough to add my 2 dogs to her 2 dogs and have all 4 of them run around the house togther and sleep in all the people beds!

Another FO

Ta da - I finished the scarf - the one that I invented. It's got a p3,k1 rib, and then a crocheted picot border. I'm still on the fence if I like it or not, but so far I think I will keep it as it is. I'm starting to warm up to it - which is funny, because that's what a scarf is supposed to do.

Look everyone, it's sunny this afternoon. Can you believe it? We've had such crappy fall weather - but today it turned sunny and it's supposed to stay for the weekend. Yessssss!

And here is my impression of a Tim Horton's Smile Cookie.

No really, this is the impression the cookie left on the bag... almost as good as the cookie.

Isn't that just the most fun a food wrapper can give you? Oh, so his smile is a bit crooked - who's isn't?

If at first you don't succeed....

knit, knit again.

This is a one corner of a scarf I have knitted. I made about 6 attempts prior to settling on a purl3, knit 1 rib. I think four of the attempts were with crochet hooks. After I finished knitting, I went around the whole scarf in double crochet and now I'm going around it again in picot crochet and that will be the end.

Of course, after I had done about 8 inches of knitting, I thought "gee, these would make really nice mittens". But I did not start again as you can see. I will just have to buy more yarn if I decide to make mittens. I will just have to.

The Mom Song

A video song for all the moms I have known....

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving and I am thankful for the day off work! Oh yes, I am thankful for lots of other things too.

We don't have a traditional weekend at all - no family dinners, no turkey or cranberry sauce. Yesterday, JP and I had a pot roast and mashed potatoes with gravy and corn on the cob. It's very relaxing and not chaotic at all. If we had gone to his sisters house then one of us would have had a drink spilled on us by one of her kids, we wouldn't be eating until after 7:30 even though dinner was planned for 6:00, we'd watch a kid destroy something of his mothers (even though his mother thinks he's a perfect angel) and we'd sit with people that don't give a crap about you and talk about nothing because they have nothing in common with anyone in the room but some shared DNA. So I am definitely thankful I was spared from a scenario such as that!

~~~~~~

I had two balls of a lovely variegated brown yarn which I wanted to crochet a scarf. However, I think I made 6 attempts. Each time something wasn't right - it either didn't compliment the gorgeous yarn, or it used up too much too fast, or it just wasn't special enough. I ended up scrapping the crochet idea and knitted something instead - a purl 3, knit 1 rib which I believe I'll crochet a small picot edge all the way around. Whew! Glad I settled on something. Although about 3 inches in, I realized that this yarn probably would have made a nice set of mittens....

~~~~~~

I've feeling a bit lazy today. I've got a killer headache and the start of a sore throat, although the rain has finally stopped and the sun is out, so I am crossing my fingers that JP and I can go for the nice long walk he semi-promised yesterday.

Otherwise, today I will work at my desk, but I'll be going through personal papers - although I must get outside and enjoy the sun at some point. I am thankful for every sunny day. I love sunny days.

Except - I like when it rains really hard on Friday and Saturday nights in October. Why? Because my dog Jazz has severe noise phobia and we get a lot of firecrackers before Halloween. But the kids don't seem to like walking around in the rain at night, so it's much quieter for everyone. That, or it's just harder to light their firecrackers in the rain.

Friday night I had two give Jazz 3 Valiums (which don't seem to do anything) and had to lock her in her carrier but she was still quite scared and was growling and barking and kicking up such a fuss. When she gets scared, she wants to escape -that means pulling on any wires/bars where she's confined (if she's not confined then she'll shred whatever is in her way - doors, door jambs, etc0. She is missing a canine tooth (the front "fang") because she broke it one New Year's when we had gone out and I had left her in her outside kennel. I wish we didn't have firecrackers and if only those setting them off knew (or cared) what it was like for some animals.

The Monkey, Part III

The monkey is back. I repeat. The monkey is back. (sounds a bit like a spy code word, doesn't it?)

...and he's being welcomed home by a friend.

Yup. JP's sister handed it to him over in a plastic grocery bag across the table at lunch. Unceremoniously. If it had been me - which it wouldn't because I appreciate hand made gifts - I would have said something, like maybe "thanks but no thanks" I don't know. It's very disappointing and feels like a life lesson you'd when you were a kid. BIG Lesson I learned. I wonder how many other things I've made for people that have been discarded like that?

A couple years ago I made a serving tray. I had used some left over tiles that my dad used when he built the basement fireplace in our childhood home. I had painted a leopard and a tiger on it, positioned like they were a fight, but done so the tray could be either way and either one or the other cat would like like it was winning the fight. The tiles were glued in and grouted and the wooden tray was painted an aged brown. My SIL loved cats and their living room, dining room, hall and bathroom were brown so I thought it was something my brother and SIL would like being all sentimental and all that.


One day my brother and I we were visiting my mum and he started talking about getting things back, so I took the opportunity and I asked my brother for the tray back. I was pretty sure they had thrown it out already. I could tell by his answer that he didn't remember it which was a good indication that his wife had already discarded it.


As we approach Christmas, once again I will be trying really hard to give gifts that people will like and keep. But tell me, is expecting a 100% success rate in gift giving really possible? I really strive to pay attention to what people like, but maybe it's an impossible dream.

I've got a pair

I finished the second fuzzy wrist warmer last night and then stopped so I could pay attention to Mad Men (man I love that show!) and the hour long The Office . Kelly just cracked me up when she was surprised Ryan didn't want to date her anymore when he found out she lied about being pregnant so they could have a date.

Anyway, glad I finished them because today's it started out around 5 degrees Celsius and my computer is right below a single paned window in a room with no heater so after 4 hours of data entry my hands were getting cold and my typing accuracy was diminishing. The fingerless gloves/wrist warmers really did seem to help.

"Don't Panic" (HHGTTG)

I finished one fingerless glove yesterday. I probably could have done more - if I took my contacts out. For some reason the yarn was making my eyes itch, it's a bit fuzzy but it's only acrylic. Anyway Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was on TV last night and I wanted to watch it - even though it was on a channel with commercials. Sadly, I only got about an hour into it, when I fell asleep. Dang! I guess I'll just have to rent it - it's such a good movie.



Here's one fingerless glove from One Skein Wonders:

Did you know it's hard taking pictures of your own arm? I just couldn't get a decent pictures, so this is it....

Yesterday, I had the phone repair company here to fix a fuzzy line which was preventing me from receiving faxes (yes, people still send faxes!). Unfortunately for the repair man, he was up the pole in his cherry picker when the heavy, heavy rain started, then hail and then thunder! I hope he was able to get into his truck and hide out for a bit - I couldn't see him because there are several trees in the way. I offered him a towel and a coffee but he said he was fine. Poor man, he was so cheeful about it all. Bad news was that he could not fix the line and put an order in for the cabling guys to come out to fix them today. It looks like they might not have the weather that this guy worked in! Yikes! That hail hit pretty hard!

Hallowig, Part II

Just completed another Hallowig. This one in a pale grey acrylic/wool. I wound in a silver thread hoping for a medieval chain maille look, but instead I got 70's disco. It's fairly thick and should be warm being that there's some wool in it.

I'll be sending off to my brother and sister-in-law. Any guess who will wear it?

This photo (without flash) might give you a better idea of the yarn used. Still can't really tell can you? (It's hard to get good lighting on a rainy day)

I've already decided on my next project - some wrist warmers out of a fuzzy burgundy acrylic (using up inherited yarns) from One Skein Wonders. I'll start them after work although I'd like to start them sooner. I'll show you once I get started.

A new book

Yay. My Doodle Stitching book arrived today. I love it. I ordered it directly from the author, Aimee Ray, from Etsy (click on the book title) and she sent it really fast and with a couple little treats.
You can't beat that. She signed it too.
So much more fun than buying it from the usual booksellers.

Now, I just need to make time for the projects.

~~~~~~

When I visited my mom, she gave me her bread machine, which I shipped home along with all the craft supplies and other goodies. I made a small loaf yesterday but it was a bit compact (maybe old yeast?) so I bought new, special Bread Machine Flour and new, special Bread Machine Yeast and we'll try again tonight. The sandwiches we had for dinner last night were very filling but very yummy too. I must say that JP is the best sandwich maker I know. He always thinks of some creative ingredient and it's always good. mmmm.

And last night, as hard as I tried, I couldn't get any knitting done. There were a bunch of interruptions and it just wouldn't happen. Tonight, I'm going to try very hard to avoid the interruptions.

Ravelry!

Yay me! I'm in, I've finally been asked to join Ravelry - my username is Wayoutwear. I've been spending the evening inputting. Are you in it? Any tips or tricks? It's all so new and exciting!

Okay, I'm going back to it and some knitting! Ciao!

October is here! October is here!

Wowza, I can't believe it's the first of October. I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that summer is over. Although yesterday's rain did a pretty good job of convincing me that it was going to be like this for the next 6 months - cold and rainy and damp!

Yesterday morning I watched some TV, did some knitting and then we went to downtown Vancouver to Chapters and then to Gotham for dinner where we had a lovely dinner courtesy of my employer (which was a wedding gift). Yup, it's almost our 3 month anniversary and we just managed to get out for dinner now - does that say anything? Well we've been out for dinner in the past 3 months, but just not as nice a place as this one. We ate pretty well and had a good mellow ride home, the rain even held off for part of our trip.

But now it's Monday and back to our regularly scheduled programming.