searches

people have found me by searching for:
"smell addiction" (what??)
"muscular chicks" or "muscular women"
"chicks with braces" (again, what??)
"canadian chicks"
"pattern books in canada"

and my personal favourite:
"giving shots to alpacas"

nice

no updates for me...

sigh...it's taken me about 5 hours to unravel all the knots in my hank of yarn...it's going very slowly....
i don't know when i'll be knitting again. the sad thing is that the knots came in the beginning...i tried to wind it with the ball winder and there were still knots...
blech....

note to self...

3 years olds do NOT make good babysitters of yarn...
yes, i came back from putting the baby to sleep and my little girl had "found" scissors and cut the sock yarn into pieces. luckily she only cut one section of it..but now i have to figure out all the long pieces so i can keep knitting the socks...argh.....
why is it that i can't' find scissors when i want them (we hide them)...but she can find scissors any time????
so the progress is slow...
i took a picture of the socks and sent them to sister-in-law...but who knows when they'll be finished now..second sock syndrome??? yep, i've got it

progress report

so the birthday is today..but the socks are not finished....just haven't been able to focus on them...
i have one sock finished:


and one about 1/4 of the way done...
i think i'll send and IOU picture and let her know they are coming...
dd asked if she could do "yarning" with me today..she tried on the sock on the needles to see if it would "keep my feet warm"---it passed, glad she approves.

it's official

i have quit my job!!!
yes, after much (much) thought i have decided to stay home with the young-uns.
it's such a strange feeling...weird, happy, strange to know that i won't be going back.
it was my first job out of university and i was there for 7 years!!!
made a lot of great friends, had some great experiences...learned a lot about life, people, myself.
but this is my more important calling right now...
(psst....it also means more time for knitting!!! ha ha ha)

update

i had almost finished the sock and then....yep, you guessed it...i made another mistake.
i repeated 5 rounds of a pattern where i was only supposed to do the last 2 multiple times.
looked okay, but not what the pattern called for. so i frogged the toe and started up again.
i should have it finished today. then we shall see if there's second sock syndrome....

sock update

I was doing well....zipping along on my jaywalkers...did the heel, no problem....
then i hit an "oops"
i'm not sure exactly what happened but i think i got carried away with the decreases and did too many, so i ripped back.
then i couldn't find my place, so i ripped another row, then i REALLY couldn't find my way...so i ripped some more...soon i gone so far back that i ripped out the beautiful heel!! sigh
it was okay though...i managed to fix it, get myself back on count and make up for lost time. i ruined a day of progress, so this is what i have so far:
Oh wait a minute, doesn't that sock look exactly like the sock from two days ago....yes, that's because i'm at the SAME POINT! ...not good since the SIL's birthday is coming up soon...but i'm loving how fast these socks knit up....and i LOVE the pattern...and i'm loving knitting them with one long circular.
i don't think the needles are long enough..they are only 24'' and are pulling a little bit. that's all the LYS had though...i think i need me some addi's.....but that will be after easter, after the "no frivolous shopping for lent" decree.

i will need to make some for me...after i finish these...after i finish my sockapaloooza pals socks...

"Slim muscular women, with bare midriffs, demonstrate kuo shu martial arts, fighting with long sticks in front of sleazy rich men... "

so, like a lot of other people i have a site meter. i like to check to see how many people visit my little blog...i know there are some of you out there.
i like the feature where you can do a keyword analysis to show you how people found your blog.
i've come to realize there is a movie called "chicks with sticks" about a female hockey team and there is a "chicks with sticks" about martial arts.
okay if you are interested in "Slim muscular women, with bare midriffs, demonstrate kuo shu martial arts, fighting with long sticks in front of sleazy rich men... " this is not the blog for you (quote courtesy of IMDB.com)

frog frog and more frog

so i was finished the heel flap, turned the heel and realized i had been making some mistakes on the jaywalkers...so i ripped a few rounds out, then i lost count...so i ripped back a little more..then i REALLY lost count...so basically i lost a whole mornings worth of knitting.
didn't get much done last night as i was feeling ill.


i got my hepatitis A and B shots to go to Kenya in july (yes, Kenya...check out this link to see who we are working with. we are going to work with AIDS orphans..want to help? e-mail me at sprouty25_ca@yahoo.ca and i can send you a link)

so the shots in the arm felt like...well, shots to the arm...i felt like i had been kicked really hard in both arms...it also made me feel like i had the flu, after just coming out of having last weeks cold...hubby was out and all i wanted was for the kids to go to bed so i could lay down and sleep.

hubby had to leave at 4:45am to go to toronto for a training thing and the kid must have heard him get up because the baby woke up at 4:20am and didn't go back to sleep...my brain is mush....

so, i am recovering today and i have already fixed the whole heel flap, heel and am back on track!! but not much more progress....

socks socks and more socks

i need to get rolling on the sockapaloooza socks.
but first, i have to knit some socks for my sister in law.
i will be jumping on the jaywalker bandwagon and trying to knit them on one long circular.
it's practice for my sockapaloooza pal.

lets look at some other socks though...my fist pair. i made them a couple of years ago.

awww...aren't they cute! (dear daughter wanted to be in the picture with the socks too!)
actually, they are not really my first pair, but they are my first pair with actual sock yarn.
i knit some slipper socks in highschool with some really horrible acrylic stuff...
these ones are pretty nice i think.. of course, i have jogs in between the needles...but they've almost all but disappeared with washing.

these are the pair i made for my first sockapalooza pal....

i thought they would be identical since i used two balls and knit from the centre each time, but they weren't....fraternal twins she called them.

these ones came from my sockapalooza pal...

they are so comfortable i wear them ALL THE TIME!
she also sent these little anklets..that are so cute.
she also sent me my first koigu!! i LOVE the colour...
i left it in it's hank for a long time so i could just stare at it.
i wound it and started some of alison's ankle socks...but haven't finished them yet...
i think i'm afraid to finish them because then it will be all gone and i know i'm going to be addicted to koigu buying.

so here's the progress on my sister in law's jaywalkers:

it's hard to get a really good picture of the colours...but i'm loving the way this is knitting up.

for my sockapaloooza pal, i will knit some toe up jaywalkers (to teach myself a new way of doing things). they will be knit with this:

some yarn i got from a LYS. again, it's hard to see the exact colour contrast, but it's very pretty.

socks socks socks....

sick and sock knitting...

i am feeling it...the whatever that has been hitting everyone around me.
the kids are sick (being up all night with a feverish and teething baby is not fun) and i almost passed out in the pharmacy tring to buy them medication....
while baby actually slept this morning (yeah!) i did some jaywalking and i had forgotten how much i love sock yarn!
the pattern is not emerging however, so i fear i may have made some mistake due to my stuffy head delirium...i will have to investigate further...
but for now..it's mint tea and more couch surfing...

I smell a new addiction...

one day I found hubby googling knitting products...this was just before valentines day, but silly me didn't clue in, until I got the ball winder.
he was telling me about knowing-someone-who-knew-someone who took apart sweaters and made other items, who apparenlty lives not too far from me...

longer story short--I ended up googling some yarn products and found that there is a little piece of knitting heaven so close to me.

now--I haven't been to the store yet, but you have to see this website for rosehaven farms.
as well as being a sheep farm, they have a store that sells sheep related items..the also have a knitting store that has cool yarn that I have only dreamed about seeing up close! you see, I live in a little town..which borders on other little cities..none of whom have really cool LYS's that I have found.
so when I read about koigu, manos del Uruguay, rowan I can usually only see it on the internet.
this little shop has it all!!!
and get this...I went for a drive today and found it accidentally---and it's LESS THAN 5 MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE!
the kids were 1/2 asleep in the car, otherwise I think I would have gone in just to drool over the yarn.
that, and I gave up frivolous spending for lent (not that yarn is really frivolous, but I don't need any right now)
they also have local handspun, local silk/alpaca yarn.
and as they are a sheep farm--they have a wool barn full of fleece, and roving for spinners and felters....
read more:
"Our Events component has been expanded this year. The season begins with Shearing Day on April 23, a great day to see sheep sheared and baby lambs. Then in May we offer 2 workshops in Needlefelting and a Knitters Getaway with Mags Kandis of Mission Falls Yarns. In June we offer workshops in Dyeing and also Wet Felting. A registration package is available. Then County Fibrefest is set for July 23. This is a one-day celebration of the fibre arts and fibre animals. Come face to face with alpacas, angora goats, llamas, Angora rabbits and cashmere goats, as well as sheep. Enjoy shearing, vendors, fibre crafts and demos, and marvel as Border Collies outwit the woollies".
(sounds like fun!)

and they have a Knitters Getaway with Mags Kandis of Mission Falls Yarns.
edited to add: i e-mailed Linda to ask about this years event and she let me know that Mags will be involved in a day workshop entitled "The Fun of Embelishment"
the Knitters Getaway in May will take place, but i don't know who will be involved.

didn't know this was here..all in my own backyard..

oooh----I have seen local spinners at the fair and at other events, but now that i'm a knitting blog addict, I am enjoying reading all about all the spinning that others do.
wow...blows my mind...
I am thinking that happy Easter to me will include a trip to this shop...

finally!

okay, here she is blocking a couple of days ago:

and today:

things I've learned:
stockinette stitch is REALLY boring for a sweater
I stink at seaming
I need to learn to block

I usually don't block anything, because all I seem to make are baby hats and sweaters...
didn't really know what blocking was all about before.
I pulled out my vogue knitting book which had some information but I found more here at knitty and a little bit here.
it helped with the wonky sleeves (they still pucker a bit) and the button band..there is still a little bit of wonkiness here:

voila!

my medal

okay, i didn't finish in time...but i tried!! i almost made it.
i feel like the 14 canadians who got 4th place...
well, i'm giving myself a medal.
i did start 4 days late and managed to almost get it done.
okay, maybe i feel like the marathon runner that takes 10+hours to finish--everyone else has gone home the lights are out and they're still running....
here's my medal:

courtesy of:http://knittingolympics.blogspot.com/
they're criteria is a sliver medal if you got 2/3rds done....

i feel successful, and as the harlot says: "It takes a village to freak out non-knitters...and there is strength in numbers."

i think i freaked a few people out...

i finally found enough buttons to finish the sweater....i will post a picture late today...