Enabling Behaviour

Friday I took the day off work I went to the Victoria Sewing and Craft Show
and I got some great yarns, some threads for dollmaking, a nifty new thimble which is basically a piece of leather sewn onto a glove finger :), some rosewood dpns, wool needles, and finally a olfa mat for my rotary cutter. See, I have pics - mmmmm, this arauacania yarn is a nice little pet (sitting in my arms)...this picture does NOT do it justice... I want soooo badly to start knitting with it, but I have 7 baby hats to finish sewing up, Keiran's sweater, Keiran's socks, Sarah's very past due Christmas Sweater...

My pass is good for 2 days, so today, being the 2nd day, I'm trying my damnest to figure out why I feel the need to go back. The needle felting workshop was sold out yesterday morning when I arrived, so I'm not after a workshop; I don't need a sewing machine although a serger would be 'nice to have'; I am trying to stay away from buying more books until I get more space (or get rid of some)....the only reason I can think of going, is to buy more yarn...I didn't manage to buy anything from Indigo Moon Yarns, and there were just sooooo many good things at Fun Knit's booth. I petted the malabrigo lace yarn, but didn't give in to buying it...now all I've done is think about it, how nice and soft, the lovely scarf Shelley was knitting with it....I think I know where I'm going today...

Nature Tables

On Wednesday, the Victoria Waldorf Society had its monthly craft night and we made a lovely daffodil child - so it became the start of our Nature table.

I don't have a copy of the book that much of this would relate to "The Story of the Root Children", but my 3 yr old
was quite taken with the flower child and enquired where the rest of the root children were. With my limited knowledge of the story, I told him they were still painting their clothes to come out as flowers

So, our nature table evolved over the last few days - first I put a playsilk (koolaid dyed) as background along with the log and pinecone seen above. Then I made a flower child from carded wool; a root child from a felted sweater, and crocheted a root 'baby'.

Finally, I had to start making more flower children, because when spring arrives with the crocuses, tulips, and daffodils, that is the root children with their brightly painted clothing... and then of course Easter comes so we needed bunnies...so as a result, each night this week I've been making items for our nature table...

The little boy's contribution has been in telling me what is missing and he's now added a carrot for the bunnies and easter eggs...

More Candle Making

I didn't have the camera for Candlemas (last Saturday) when we made our first set of beeswax candles.
So now today (Saturday a week later), we are making some more and surprise, surprise we have a camera!
Here's the canning pot I'm using for my heat, I set a coffee can on the 'jar lifter' since I found putting a coffee can directly on the bottom will tend to tip the can when water bubbles try to 'escape' from under neath it.
Last week I hung the holders on wooden spoons, but didn't like that idea much. So I contrapted something on the ladder -the 'holders' are the tops of hangers based upon instructions I got from
here (http://www.essortment.com/hobbies/candlemakingdip_sxhl.htm)
And at the bottom are my finished candles from last week - a little 'lumpy' but for my first try, I'm fine with it - hubby calls them 'corrugated candles'. I think we got some water into the wax accidentally last week, and that's what caused the corrugation.

Cravings

On Monday, I had an overwhelming craving for these yummy, soft, chewy ginger cookies that I get from the little piggy bakery down the road from my office. But I was trying to overcome my craving (since I tend to go buy these on a near daily basis).

After getting a disgruntled toddler to bed, I ended up surfing the net to find a recipe to make my own. They were yummy! Not as good as the little piggy version (they have pieces of candied ginger in theirs!).

Anyhow, I'm watching Good Eats (my fave!), and what do ya know, he mentions keeping fish sauce in the fridge for things like pad thai, etc.... He wasn't making Pad Thai, but the mere mention of the word, and boom, craving. Now I don't just 'get' cravings, there are certain foods I crave, and Pad Thai tends to rear its head every couple of months, and will stick around for weeks on end if I don't satisfy it. Generally that means a trip to the Noodle Box (we go to the Fisgard location as it's easier to park!)

Now, I decided to google to see what I could find for possibly making 'something' that would satisfy the craving (knowing that I am NOT going to make authentic Pad Thai, and I have yet to find a grocery store version that doesn't taste like gooey mush). Well, I've found something extremely interesting and will be exploring my options tomorrow...
http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/pad_thai_for_be.html


Wish me luck!

PS. I know there isn't the words Pad Thai on the Noodle Box menu, I order the Spicy Peanut Noodle Box...mmmmm
And yes, I do have other options, but with a toddler, it's easier to do take-out - without toddler, we like the My Thai Cafe - mmmmmm, now I want some red curry...

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Three years ago today, I had some tummy pains, had a great lunch/chat with a friend, although all I could eat was soup since I knew a little person was on his way (and supposedly once labour is started, you shouldn't eat solid foods - can't recall why exactly, but I did have tea and soup for lunch because of that). Wasn't all that annoying until hubby decided to call me a few times that day to check how far apart contractions were - I really didn't know 'cause I wasn't paying attention. So once I timed them (10 minutes apart at that point), I realized they hurt, kinda, and was not overly pleased with hubby for bringing those 10 minute experiences into the forefront of my attention span! So I chose to ignore them again. Then around 4:30, the water broke, and all hell broke loose then, those little annoying pains that actually did hurt before when I paid attention, ended up REALLY hurting (little did I know that wasn't the painful part!) Now the rest is really a blur, but suffice it to say I had a little person in my arms by 8:35, and I had no idea what I was in for!

After that, I've come to realize that my mother should have had all the birthday wishes/day off each year on Jan 29th instead of me...considering all I did was 'showup' that day... I now think I'll celebrate Feb 7th for me...Happy Birthday Keiran, momma is going to celebrate with a pedicure and massage!

It's got to be happy hour!

What a day - not including the toddler escapades this morning at 6:10am, and between 7-8am attempting to get ready for work...this has been the major events of my day so far...

1) had a meeting today scheduled for 1pm, received copy of contract (discussion topic for meeting) at 8:24am via email

2) Said document kept crashing word, emailed to find out if there was an issue for anyone else

3) put memory stick into computer, computer shut down immediately

4) restarted computer, supposedly Windows had experienced a critical error - virus definitions updated, scan conducted, outlook took 30 minutes to process because personal folders were not shut down properly, etc....nada, seemed to be fine, although I lost some critical time preparing for meeting.

5) in the midst of all this, zipper on pants broke, found this out when attempting to go to bathroom and pants would not unzip. Said zipper came flying off after repeated attempts to undo it (on a good note, I hadn't waited until the last possible minute to go to the bathroom, so I had my bladder control throughout this process!)

6) had gift card from Christmas in my purse (yippeee), figured I had time to go shopping for new pants before 1pm meeting.

7) tried on 7 pairs of pants, finally decided on a pair - gulp, 15 minutes until I had to be at meeting.

8) got to meeting with 5 minutes to spare, changed pants in bathroom before meeting start.

9) walked back to office in torrential downpour, feet are soaked....should have bought new socks and shoes too I guess...

It's 2:38pm, I think it's time to call it a day!?

It's a new year...

Okay, so it's been a new year for 10 days already, and this is my first post of the year. Geez, and now I don't know what to say, but that I've been busy and have barely knit in the last 10 days. I've done alot of ravelry surfing, adding more items to my queue. My 'wish list' for knitting is growing larger and larger, and my time for knitting is shrinking and shrinking! However, Knit Nights are starting up again, so I think I'll get to do some more again. Plus, I have a toddler that is choosing sock colours now. I managed to find a crazy sock yarn with all the colours he said he wanted in his sock...now I just have to sort out what I want to do in terms of a sock (ie plain or patterned). We'll see, for now I'm supposed to be working...at 8:41pm, because I didn't get things finished during the day Such is the life of self-employment...yes, we have flexible hours, but procrastination sets in due to that flexibility and then our flexibility has us driving into our office after putting the toddler to bed to finish writing a document one should have finished weeks ago!

I guess I'll go work now...

Knitting is a Sport!?

Lil k was at gma's for the weekend, so hubby & I did all sorts of things we wouldn't otherwise - like shopping, watching loud action movies, eating dinner out, knitting without interruption, etc. In the midst of this, I think I got a knitting-related injury yesterday...I'm knitting a sweater for lil k (Accordion from Fall 2003 Knitty.com) while watching The Bourne Ultimatum, in the end I was knitting so furiously (all caught up in the action), that I had to get a heat pack for my shoulder and my forearm was all hot and achy...D laughed and said knitting must be a sport now if I can get a related injury!

This morning I'm finding my back behind my left shoulder blade feels bruised...guess I didn't "train" for all the knitting I was doing this weekend...I guess toddler interruptions are necessary "breaks" to prevent knitting injuries

Happy Holidays

It's been a long busy day, and an overly excited toddler is overtired and cranky...but, in his overtiredness, he still realizes that I have finally finished uncle jeff's socks, and now can knit him a new pair of socks. Supposedly he wants red, black, white, brown and purple socks...I can't seem to find all those colours in my stash of yarn, so either I have to mix sock yarns, or go shopping tomorrow :)

And yes, the stocking is bigger than the boy....for now...

All the best for the holidays, and hope you and yours had a wonderful time!

Eggnog and socks

I'm sitting beside the fire, sipping rum and eggnog, knitting socks while waiting for my traditional shortbread to finish baking...is this Christmas or what? Finally got back to these socks, hope to finish the second sock tomorrow so I have Christmas Eve 'free'.

Managed to get whipped shortbread done before breakfast, now the traditional shortbread tonight, I just might skip making anything else, although I really, really, really love the caramel shortbread bars...hmmm, I sense a theme here...we seem to like the buttery stuff!

Back to knitting these socks - the recipient doesn't read my blog (to my knowledge, and it would seem out of character for him anyhow), so that's why I have no issue posting it as is for now!

5 more nights...

My grand plans for the holidays did not pan out, I missed every single craft show I planned to attend, I didn't complete my shopping yet, I gave up knitting a gift for David, and I'm now realizing I have tripled what my budget was for Keiran's gifts, so I will not worry myself about knitting him a sweater to open on Christmas morning. Although he does need a new sweater since he's outgrown one and Daddy lost the other, it'll be a 'just because I love you' sweater...those are the best kind :)

Still working on socks, surprisingly thought I'd have them finished last weekend, but somehow didn't get to knitting them! I now realize planning knitting time is impossible with a toddler, so knitting will have to revert back to 'whenever I can' and I not set deadlines .

But then I said that last year when I didn't complete 5 knitted holiday gifts...Sad to admit this, but only one got mailed in January, and three others just went out with this year's gifts...I still have one sitting in my knitting basket. Unfortunately, being the size it is now, it is not a portable project, and not one I can easily do while a toddler is running around. So the only time I could work on this is
1) if the toddler was not in the house, but if he's out of the house, I'd take the opportunity to get a really good cleaning done on the house! or
2) once dear toddler is in bed. But after a day of work and toddler wrangling for bath/bedtime, I just want to go to bed and knit socks or something 'light'.
I think I'll have to apply the "Flylady" 15 minute rule - you can do anything in 15 minutes! at a time...

Knitting Envy...

It's the time of year knitters' are at a frenzy either trying to finish their holiday gift projects, or if they are 'normal' knitters, frantically coming up with gift ideas to knit in the dwindling days we have before the day arrives...

I have one gift done! and I swore I wouldn't do knitted gifts this year due to last year's fiasco (3 gifts of which still haven't been mailed and have been travelling in the back seat of our car for a couple of months now...)
However, I've now since read YH's blog, and seeing that she has a very good and organized friend who has created a schedule for her to follow to get her gifts done, I'm now in the 'mood' to knit gifts again...but alas, I have no friend who can schedule me, and for some strange reason, this year my work is busier than ever!!! I thought people slack off in December or go on holiday so I'd have a 'slow' period...not that I want things to be slow, but being so busy means working extra hours and losing valuable knitting time for the busiest knitting month of the year (well busiest if you don't think ahead of time and plan the knitting earlier!)

I have knitting envy...

SNOW!!!

It's snowing here in Victoria...it's beautiful. I've never been able to TRULY be ready for the holiday season without some snowfall. That's likely why I was always ready for Christmas in November when I lived in Ontario. My son is sitting in his room, looking out the back window at the neighbour's yard, snow falling and singing Wassail, Wassail. Is it wrong that a toddler knows the words to two verses of the Gloucester Wassail song, Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, yet his song of choice right now is the Wassail song?

I'm knitting by the fire looking out the window at the snow :)

Roll Top or Straight Up

My socks have options I happily knitted along until I got itchy to start a new sweater for Keiran....I knew I shouldn't have been looking at patterns on Ravelry today, but I saw a sweater for Keiran that I have exactly the perfect yarn for (and the exact amounts required too!!!) so I believe it was meant to be....but I am knitting socks, and a sweater, and a shrug, and facecloths and had already started a sweater for Keiran. So instead of knitting the socks until I ran out of wool, I knit, tried them on, knit, tried them on, and finally decided to bind them off - now I need to get the 2nd one done so I can start that sweater!!!!

On a happy note, the socks have a dual personality, they can be straight up, or rolled down, and I actually like them either way :)

Socking along...

My celebration on the progress on my socks was a little premature...being that this is my first time doing short-row heels, and that I was not only sick when knitting, I was also attempting to do so while looking after a sick toddler. So, I wasn't sure what to make of the heel...then I read Yarn Harlot's blog, and after looking at the photograph of her 'horrible, horrible' sock heels I realized they looked EXACTLY like what I had done, so had to frog the thing back and redo the heel. I wondered why it looked so odd, being that I've done short rows on soakers, and never had that ugly pucker along the side, let alone a 'line'. Anyhow, redid the heel, fits my foot better, and am progressing along up the leg of the sock until I decide either it's long enough or I run out of wool. I'm thinking I'll stop short of using the full ball since I think I'll make matching socks for the lil dude...not that a boy should have matching socks to his mama, but it'll make for great photographs at his future wedding or even earlier, when he brings dates home to meet the mama

Still sick btw, and attempting to knit instead of working...

Sickies

Our household has been sick. Dear lil k had not just one, but TWO ear infections (poor little guy) and full sinuses. He's on mega-antibiotics now.
I, on the otherhand, have a sinusitus, with my ears bothering me, but not necessarily infected. I'm desperate to get some work done (too many deadlines come/gone and I'm not done!), but with a sick toddler in the house, and my head feeling like it is a 50lb deadweight on my shoulders, writing any sort of document is beyond hope (I'm just hoping this blog isn't something I need to fix later!)

So, on a good note, I got more of my sock done :)

And, my 2.5+ year old wants to knit 'for real' - so he now can recite the poem "under the fence, around the sheep, bring it on through and off it leaps"...AND he's attempted finger knitting as well, although he seems to have more success knitting with needles (with my helping). It was cute at first, but now anytime I want to knit, he wants me to help him knit...so now I no longer can knit in front of him??? :(

Evil, Evil, Evil

Okay, maybe not evil, but Ravelry is an enabler...I was so pumped when I first got on there, having to post photos of my stash, listing projects completed, listing projects in progress, that I felt I needed to complete those WIPs and got myself down to 2 projects not yet completed.

Then I started filling out the 'queue' portion of my 'notebook' - ie what projects I want to do....and then got sidetracked by patterns and other people's projects.

Needless to say, I now have 15 projects queued, and 5 WIPs and dangerously close to adding more
AND I have NOT added the projects I saw in YH's blog/Ravelry list...nope, not gonna make it worse...it'll be too disheartening to have more queue'd than I've completed in the last 2+years...

Although....I don't think I put ALL my projects in there... so if I add projects, I can add more into the queue, right?

Ravelry Rocks!

I'm just getting all my stash, etc up on Ravelry - I've had good intentions for logging my needles, patterns, yarn, etc - but never got around to completing it - now with the fun I'm having with Ravelry, I'm actually getting organized!!! :)

I'm also amazed at the projects other's have (not to mention the stash envy I have!!!) I'm itching to get knitting! So, short blog post, then off to knit (I've spent enough time photographing stash yarns today!)

Sept 30th, 2007

Little Brother got married! Here's the Groom's side of the family - tartans galore!
Lovely day at Arbutus Ridge, the wee kilted one was very well behaved for the most part, and quite enjoyed himself! The socks seemed to garner alot of attention as well!
Lil k even attempted golfing! Pics to follow!

Wee Kilty

I picked up the lil man's kilt today! Photo taken by daddy with socks and a bottle of wine for 'scale' (we couldn't use something more relevant than a bottle of wine????)

I had forgotten to show how the socks looked on the lil man's feet, so here's a photo captured while he giggled and kicked his nice new 'soft' socks...I think he likes the socks.

I can't wait to see how this outfit pulls together for the wedding :) Is it wrong to keep a toddler up later than normal bedtime to try on an outfit????