Thursday, July 13, 2006

kenya dig-it????

it's here it's here it's here.
it's kenya time!!
i'm so excited i could...well, i'm having mixed emotions.
monday i was weepy about leaving the kids, tuesday i started thinking i was fine.
wednesday i started getting stressed about packing, getting the house clean etc etc.
thursday i was almost in panic mode and now..
it's 2:15am and i'm still up...still packing..still freaking and thinking it's not here yet...
it's here.
sigh..
so on the knitting front, look what i finished and mailed off:


the baby pumpkin and tomato hats. (that's our pool in the background)
i love the little tomato hat.
lookie here at the top detail:

and i'm almost able to say that the wool pumpkin hat feels soft. i have a bit of a fear of wool.
something about having some plaid wool pants as a kid. wearing 2 pairs of tights and i could still feel the prickly, itchy-ness of the wool.
yucky.
but i'm learning that there are nice wools. wools that are soft.
i also like felting, so wool is becoming my friend.
mr postman is also my friend these days.
look what came today:
it's my free i-pod. it's so little and so cute...
i so wanted to play with it today, but since i had more laundry, more packing, more cleaning than i ever thought possible, i didn't play.
i won't be taking it to kenya, as i dont' want it lost or damaged.
i will be taking some knitting.
i am part of the summer of socks, and i haven't even done any posting about it.
i am not going for the "i can knit many socks" approach, more like
"my vacation socks are going to be the coolest".
i'm going to pull a yarn harlot and have the socks with me on safari.
yes, i get to go on safari:
here and here
sigh--i so can't wait.
maybe the socks will meet a giraffe!!
so..there will be no posting for a few weeks.
we get back on august 6th and then i will have pictures to share.
i am nervous about packing my knitting needles, for fear they will be confiscated.
air canada says to pack in your checked baggage but i want them with me.
i am planning to take some plastic dp's in my backpack and check the rest...
so help me i will cry if they take away my knitting.
when i get over tired i cry at the drop of a hat..or the drop of a needle.
i so need sleep..and one of the babies is crying, so that's my cue...
bye y'all---see you next month!!!

note to self: do not stab yourself through the palm of your hand with a double pointed needle, the day you are leaving for kenya...ouch!
i hope it's okay. i had to yank it out and then sit down for fear of fainting....
oh, so that's why you can't have them on a plane...

Monday, July 10, 2006

argggg we be pirates..

yeah this really has nothing to do with knitting, but it's a break for my brain.
we leave for kenya in 4 days!!! so what did I do??
I took the family to McDonald's...I wanted to spend some time doing something fun with princess b before the real craziness of packing begins.
the happy meal is a pirates of the Caribbean, so I was showing her a pirate face.
I think she needs some practice looking scary:

and as for kenya?
aaaah-i'm stressed!!!!

I spent the day shopping for things we need and got that all finished.
I am trying to do "mount washmore" (too much laundry), pack, clean, get my bedroom ready for 3 weeks of company, finish knitting the fruit and veggie hats for the harlots request, figure out what knitting to take to kenya.
there is a woman who went last year who taught the little girls to knit--so there will be knitting in kenya.
oh yes, there will be knitting.
i'm interested to see what they knit and if I can show them anything. they were going to learn to knit in order to sell little projects to make money for the orphanage.
I think that some little dishclothes with a heart or something on them would be cute.

I don't' have any fo's to share.
i'm haven't worked on the baby jays since Friday or so.
the orange tank? here's what became of it:

I realized that you can't rip back a dropped stitch tank, re-knit it, and expect the dropped stitches to be in the same place. just. doesn't. work.
sigh--I don't have the energy to think about knitting it again--all that stockinette with cotton??? also, i e-mailed lionbrand about the missing rows in the pattern. they claim there's nothing wrong with the pattern. i e-mailed them again to let them know that they e-mailed pattern corrections to my sister--they say there's nothing wrong with the pattern. i remind them there are 3 missing rows from the pattern. they say there's nothing wrong with the pattern, maybe my gauge is off.

um..yeah, my gauge is off, but only for the front of the tank where the missing 3 rows are??

blah.

so, instead of doing work, i'm sitting here blogging. actually I am sorting and recycling a mound of paperwork that is sitting beside me. that's something, right?


Thursday, July 06, 2006

oops i did it again...

sorry to all reading this, now you have that awful brittney song in your head.
ha ha.
okay--so what did i do again??
went to rosehaven!!!

my sister is here for the week camping and we stole my cousin to come with us. (i say steal because she has 5 children ranging in age from 6-15 so she is need of some girl time and some "yarning").
it's funny--didn't really know that she was such a knitter. her mom doesn't knit, my mom only knit once in a blue moon (i still have the sweater she started for me when i was 5--not finished).
yet, the 3 of us went to yarn shops and spent the morning and then the evening talking knitting.
she reads some of the same blogs i do, she knows some of the same techniques i know.
we all worked on our different projects and admired eachothers handiworks.

she knits fair isle--with two hands!! okay, for those of you who do fair isle, it's not a big deal--but to watch someone knit with right and left hands at the same time, is amazing for me.
she taught herself to knit continental from a book and then just started doing fair isle.
i actually own one of the first fair isle projects she ever did--a baby hat and booties that she made for princess b, 3 years ago!
amazing.

i went home tuesday night and googled some stuff and found this video on the philosopher's wool site. the video makes it look so easy!
i have been admiring, ogling the sweater kits from philosophers wool, and might get one someday to do a sweater. they are going to be at bingemans in september and i want to go. tried to go last year, but my sister couldn't meet up with me, and it's no fun to go on your own.

my cousin started with using fine gauge yarn (dale baby ull and sisu) and has made sweaters, socks, hats and is now working on a gorgeous hat for one of her sons.
wow...

so, we went to rosehaven and i got to see "studly" again--the ram who donated his fleece for the Toronto spiders to use for the back to back wool challenge.
saw some gorgeous sheep. friends of our help w/ the farm and their kids have sheep for 4-H club that they "work". saw a gorgeous brown sheep named "Olivia".

as i mentioned before, the owner is selling the farm and will open a yarn store, likely in the fall. she is looking at a location that already has counter space, so she could serve coffee. she actually said "knit cafe" and i almost hugged her.
my sister found some nice wool to make a hat and a kit for a sweater. the owner is such a dear and didn't' make her pay PST since she doesn't live in Ontario. even knocked some $$ of the kit because it was "dusty". what??

okay, enough writing, time for some pictures.
since i already have a stash that my sister calls "obscene" i didn't want to buy much.
so i bought some nice mission falls yarn to make baby hats, that the harlot asked for.



i think they are going to be an apple hat and a pumpkin hat.
i think i can get them done before kenya (t-minus 8 days!!!)
wohoo.

so, back to knitting. my sister is working on an entrelac blanket, she started with some boucle, but it was yucky. i now loathe boucle after my knitting Olympics project.
we bought some more yarn in nice baby girl colours and she's just zipping along making a beautiful blanket.
i have done some more work on little mans' baby-jays. they have taken me this long because i don't' work on them much. my yarn (of course) was tangled and i messed up the heel a few times.
i'm back on track now:


sorry about the nasty lighting in the picture, the weather can't decide what it wants to do. it started raining then the sun chases the rain away, then it's dark. so, my house is sunny on one side and dark on the other. i hope i get these socks done before he grows again.
since he is better from his Easter sickness fiasco, we are back to him having feet so fat we can't find shoes to fit..

oh, and i bought some cheap yarn and cast on for this:
The Mason-Dixon Ball Band Washrag

and closer:



the colours are "hot green" and "hot blue". the store we went to apparently is supposed to carry sugar n creme, but doesn't, so i got some handicrafters cotton instead. i quite like it. i had to cast one to try out the pattern.
then i remembered that i didn't need to buy more cotton as i have a sweater sitting in the frog pile, made of handicrafters cotton. yes, i made a whole sweater in handicrafters cotton. no wonder my wrists hate me.
i have only worn the sweater in public twice and that was one time too many.
it's completely shapeless and screams of "my first sweater". yucky--it is destined to become washrags or kimono's or something else from the Mason Dixon book.

whew, long post. need to go and maybe actually finish something!!!

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

it's here it's really here.

my first knitpicks order!!
my sister brought the package to me on saturday when she came!
i opened it up and look what peeked out....


it's my mason dixon knitting book!!!!
i was so excited to get this book, and so excited to look through it. my sister tried to nab it before i could even crack the cover.

when i get a new book or magazine i'm kinda weird about it. i love to read magazines, but the first time i just look at it, i just flip through--then i go back and actually read articles and look closer at things. it's weird, i know, but i love magazines.

i'm loving this book and i know why everyone at the KAL is doing washrags. i will have to go looking for some sugar n creme.

i also got the andean silk for my hourglass sweater.


yes, it's orange. i love orange and i really really want to knit this sweater, like NOW!!!
i so want to cast on, but since i want to finish the tank, the baby-jaywalkers, and i'm leaving for kenya next friday...i don't' think i should start another project.
yes, kenya in less than 2 weeks.
read more about it here: