For Christmas I received the Yarn Harlot's 'Never Not Knitting' page a day calendar. Today's date had a weekend chore of culling yarn from the stash - ie that yarn which you KNOW you'll never use, no longer sure why you got it in the first place, etc...
I'm not prepared to venture into the stash and pull things out - I *believe* I need to be able to concentrate on this task, otherwise I may just give up something that I shouldn't (ie If I'm not concentrating, I may forget what the item was for, and accidentally give away something that is scheduled for knitting later in the year!!!) So, instead of culling yarn, I'm on the computer culling emails from my outlook to save some computer space...and ran across the following:
From the excerpt: Types of Automatic Negative Thinking that you need to stop:
Mind reading --- predicting you know that another person is thinking something negative about you without them telling you. I often tell my patients that, "A negative look from someone else may mean nothing more than he or she is constipated. You don't know. You can't read minds. I have 25 years of training in human behavior and I still can't read anyone's mind."
I need to remember everyone is constipated (grin)
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Child of a knitter
Recently a friend/babysitter commented that 'you can tell lil k is the son of a knitter because...' and that has caused me to observe my little man for the last few weeks. Young children learn by observing and imitating. As I was already made aware, I need to be sure I'm worth imitating!! So strangely enough, it is very apparent my son is the child of a knitter, BUT, it is also apparent he's the child of a volleyball guy, grandson of a hockey player, child of music, etc, etc.
However, back to the knitting - here's a growing list of ways my son shows he's a child of a knitter:
1) You mention you made a mistake and need to frog back a few rows - the child (although only 4) goes "awwww" and pats you sympathetically.
2) Temperatures are lower than usual for your climate, you say your hands are cold, and the child tells you to knit some gloves to keep them warm.
3) He received a cotton Hudson Bay blanket for Christmas and asked later if grandma knit it for him.
4) After pulling yet another string off a pair of cheap store-bought gloves, he informs me that I need to knit him some new gloves.
5) After finding me playing with his helicopter, he mentions that the toy is his and I have knitting needles and wool to play with.
However, back to the knitting - here's a growing list of ways my son shows he's a child of a knitter:
1) You mention you made a mistake and need to frog back a few rows - the child (although only 4) goes "awwww" and pats you sympathetically.
2) Temperatures are lower than usual for your climate, you say your hands are cold, and the child tells you to knit some gloves to keep them warm.
3) He received a cotton Hudson Bay blanket for Christmas and asked later if grandma knit it for him.
4) After pulling yet another string off a pair of cheap store-bought gloves, he informs me that I need to knit him some new gloves.
5) After finding me playing with his helicopter, he mentions that the toy is his and I have knitting needles and wool to play with.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Research gets in the way of Knitting!
I've been swept away with alot of 'social networking' tools. It was innocent enough, I was researching social media firms on behalf of a client - I was writing an RFP for something the client had only a casual knowledge about. From this research, I started reading some blogs/websites of these firms, who all unanimously agreed businesses need to be on Twitter and LinkedIn and, and, and...Needless to say I started twittering on January 7th, got myself overwhelmed with more information, friends and followers - I ended up reading a number of articles, and based upon all this information overload, started using google reader to 'manage' it all.
A friend has suggested I just hit 'delete' and leave it all alone. However, I've stepped into something that I want to learn more about. I'm going to take it slow, and will set up parameters to keep it from overwhelming my days (like it did a number of times last week). Strangely enough, I'd really like to try this information for finding more knitters :) Right now, I'll keep it at work, and keep ravelry as my knitting social life.
Speaking of knitting, since starting this social media research, I've only managed to knit a few times, so I promised myself I'd knit at least 3 rows on D's sweater each night before bed. That probably equates to more than I would have done otherwise! I had been putting off this sweater for so long - partially due to the sheer size of it (Men's XL), but also the fact I have to sew it together...it took me nearly 4+ weeks to make myself put lil k's accordion sweater together, I can't imagine how long it'll take to do a Men's XL?
This is why I have multiple projects on the go, (hats, mittens and socks)...I'm an instant gratification knitter!
A friend has suggested I just hit 'delete' and leave it all alone. However, I've stepped into something that I want to learn more about. I'm going to take it slow, and will set up parameters to keep it from overwhelming my days (like it did a number of times last week). Strangely enough, I'd really like to try this information for finding more knitters :) Right now, I'll keep it at work, and keep ravelry as my knitting social life.
Speaking of knitting, since starting this social media research, I've only managed to knit a few times, so I promised myself I'd knit at least 3 rows on D's sweater each night before bed. That probably equates to more than I would have done otherwise! I had been putting off this sweater for so long - partially due to the sheer size of it (Men's XL), but also the fact I have to sew it together...it took me nearly 4+ weeks to make myself put lil k's accordion sweater together, I can't imagine how long it'll take to do a Men's XL?
This is why I have multiple projects on the go, (hats, mittens and socks)...I'm an instant gratification knitter!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Miscellaneous
I don't really know what to talk about first - so I'm doing a miscellaneous post to get all this out of my head, and then I can easily elaborate on a later post.
1) Sandwich heaven - Yesterday, lil K and I made a new bread recipe - it was yummy (as we always think) but today I had a salmon sandwich to DIE FOR...this bread was just sooooo good. Not that heavy, dense whole grain loaf I usually have the day after baking, but a light, fluffy, moist yummy bread. I found I was rather sad I didn't make myself a larger sandwich...I'm thinking this bread recipe is to be bookmarked for futher use! Oatmeal Toasting Bread - my variation didn't use the oat bran, but I was using whole wheat bread flour, so figure that made up for it. I made the 'straight dough' version since it was my first attempt, I didn't want to make extra dough for next time because I wasn't sure I'd like it - next week we'll make it with extra so we can see what happens when you add old dough to the mixture.
2) Rain or Winter Boots for preschool boys - we have been looking, and looking for boots for lil k since before Christmas. I realize with the wild winter weather we had, there would likely be a shortage, but nowhere could we find boots to fit the little man - he's still wearing his size 9s but can't fit bulky socks let alone double socks in them. We could find girl's rubber boots everywhere like Gymboree, Please Mum, Gap Kids - but none of those 3 stores had boy's boots! I got desperate and went to Payless Shoes, and yet again, girls rubber boots and winter boots, but none for boys. We managed to find some at the Bay, but unfortunately, the size 10s were Kidorables which were too large (and we've had 2 problems with Kidorables cracking on the sides and leaking); and another brand with size 9s that were too small :( Grandma went looking at Bubbaloo, and they said this is the wrong time of year for them, but new ones would come out in spring - umm, does that mean I need to tell my son that he chose the wrong time of year for a growth spurt? Luckily grandma found a shop around the corner that when passing by thought it was only a consignment shop but once inside found out they carry new as well as gently used. So here's hoping these fit! Otherwise, we have to wait for the right 'season' to buy new boots :S
1) Sandwich heaven - Yesterday, lil K and I made a new bread recipe - it was yummy (as we always think) but today I had a salmon sandwich to DIE FOR...this bread was just sooooo good. Not that heavy, dense whole grain loaf I usually have the day after baking, but a light, fluffy, moist yummy bread. I found I was rather sad I didn't make myself a larger sandwich...I'm thinking this bread recipe is to be bookmarked for futher use! Oatmeal Toasting Bread - my variation didn't use the oat bran, but I was using whole wheat bread flour, so figure that made up for it. I made the 'straight dough' version since it was my first attempt, I didn't want to make extra dough for next time because I wasn't sure I'd like it - next week we'll make it with extra so we can see what happens when you add old dough to the mixture.
2) Rain or Winter Boots for preschool boys - we have been looking, and looking for boots for lil k since before Christmas. I realize with the wild winter weather we had, there would likely be a shortage, but nowhere could we find boots to fit the little man - he's still wearing his size 9s but can't fit bulky socks let alone double socks in them. We could find girl's rubber boots everywhere like Gymboree, Please Mum, Gap Kids - but none of those 3 stores had boy's boots! I got desperate and went to Payless Shoes, and yet again, girls rubber boots and winter boots, but none for boys. We managed to find some at the Bay, but unfortunately, the size 10s were Kidorables which were too large (and we've had 2 problems with Kidorables cracking on the sides and leaking); and another brand with size 9s that were too small :( Grandma went looking at Bubbaloo, and they said this is the wrong time of year for them, but new ones would come out in spring - umm, does that mean I need to tell my son that he chose the wrong time of year for a growth spurt? Luckily grandma found a shop around the corner that when passing by thought it was only a consignment shop but once inside found out they carry new as well as gently used. So here's hoping these fit! Otherwise, we have to wait for the right 'season' to buy new boots :S
Thursday, January 08, 2009
King Winter Arrived
On the twelfth day, the 3 Kings arrived at the stable, everyone had a wonderful time with the baby, stuck around on January 7th...then vanished and were replaced by white snow, cool blue background, a 'mountain' with King Winter standing there (photo added)
This nearly traumatized lil k...he was afraid King Winter yelled at the baby and sent him away and was crying insolably for nearly 20 minutes about where'd everyone go, he wanted the baby back and the three kings should be travelling around the house somewhere, etc...I had to remind him that at his "old school" King Winter arrived after the three kings...didn't seem to work.
After eating and contemplating, he finally accepted King Winter is here, and we'll watch for the tomten and hedgie (hedgehog) sleeping in their cosy warm homes under the blanket of snow...
Stay tuned - I'll be knitting a sweater for Mother Nature and a cape to have her arrive before King Winter has to leave...maybe I'll transition her in before he leaves so we avoid the breakdown before breakfast....
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Happy New Year
Over the holidays we were getting over a bad flu bug - so I managed to do some knitting, and some 'chatting' on ravelry. Started the Hedgerow socks in a nice green (photo to follow), one sock is finished the second in progress. The pattern is written for a women's average foot size, but the pattern and the colour I chose would look great on a man...I may need to knit these again in a larger size.
As I was perusing the Ravelry forums, I stumbled across a hat of the month group knit-a-long. This might help with my Christmas 2009 knitting :) At midnight, I attempted to cast-on for the Who Hat (one of the January selections of the group), but being the knitting nerd that I am...I had to try a new technique or two instead of just casting on. So I chose to try out the italian tubular cast-on Problem was, this site didn't talk about doing it in the round, and I ended up frogging three different times because it kept twisting. Add to that, I couldn't find my 4mm dpns and was attempting 'magic loop' on this at the same time. Needless to say, by 1:15am, I gave it up and went to sleep.
Now, I've found my dpns, and another site talking about the ITCO in the round...I'm giving it another go.
I've got my plans set for New Year's Day...lil k is at his grandparents, big D is watching the Classic Hockey game...
As I was perusing the Ravelry forums, I stumbled across a hat of the month group knit-a-long. This might help with my Christmas 2009 knitting :) At midnight, I attempted to cast-on for the Who Hat (one of the January selections of the group), but being the knitting nerd that I am...I had to try a new technique or two instead of just casting on. So I chose to try out the italian tubular cast-on Problem was, this site didn't talk about doing it in the round, and I ended up frogging three different times because it kept twisting. Add to that, I couldn't find my 4mm dpns and was attempting 'magic loop' on this at the same time. Needless to say, by 1:15am, I gave it up and went to sleep.
Now, I've found my dpns, and another site talking about the ITCO in the round...I'm giving it another go.
I've got my plans set for New Year's Day...lil k is at his grandparents, big D is watching the Classic Hockey game...
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