(actually being posted on Feb 21 ‘cus I was too busy/lazy to post on time)

Saturday I worked all day, then got home and rushed to throw stuff into a bag ‘cus we were leaving to drive up north to go spend the night at Yannick’s parents’ place. I was a little upset ‘cus I really wanted to get some knitting done, but it was already dark out and I knew I wouldn’t be able to see. Then I remembered a little something I’d picked up on ebay a year or so ago when I was doing a lot of cross stitch in very low lighting conditions….

So there I was, riding along on our way up north through nasty blowing snow and 0 visability…wearing this on my head:

I don’t think I could have been any more attractive! (Especially since it left a nice square red mark on my forehead the rest of the night!).

Because I’d prepared I was able to knit away on my sock during the car ride. I finished the 32 rows for the heel (remarking often to Yannick about how much I loved the reinforced heel- he kept nodding and saying “I know, you told me already”) and then was ready to move on to turning the heel. I got out my pattern and- Wait! Where’s my pattern? I’m on my way up north for a whole day and deliberately brought the sock so I’d get tons done…where the *&%##*! is my pattern? At home. My pattern was at home where I’d taken it out to fit something else in my bag, and never put it back. And why was this the ONLY pattern I hadn’t entered into my Palm? Because I hadn’t gotten around to entering the new heel version yet. I’d figured I’d do it then enter it afterwards to be ready for the second sock. So I couldn’t do ANYTHING on it!

I was annoyed but luckily we were almost there and once there I had Yannick’s 4 nephews to keep me occupied. Or rather, I had avoiding Yannick’s 4 nephews to keep me occupied. See, when the all slept over last time a few were sick, and that’s when I caught my wonderful virus that screwed me up for a few weeks. This time I arrive to find out they have been passing a gastro back and forth. The baby had it, then when we arrived I found out B (Yannick’s sister) and Justin had it, but Matthew and the 2 oldest kids didn’t have it yet. Go figure that right away Justin (the one I made the striped sweater for) comes to sit with me and lean on me to look at a toy camera. He’s being playful…he’s leaning on my shoulder….next thing you know he has his hands over his mouth and B’s yelling to Matthew to grab something, ANYTHING for him to puke in. He managed to make it about 5 feet to a bucket. Luckily they were in the middle of renovations so there WAS a bucket. Oy vey.

Of course B and Justin were sick all night, and by morning Matthew had it, and you know I was just picturing my father forbidding me to ever see them again because if I was sick and had to miss work…. *sigh*. No sick here so far. *knock on wood*

The rest of us had a really nice supper together. It was my first time having a…well, in French I think it’s called a “raquelette”. It’s almost like a grill in the middle of the table with a broiler underneath and we each had 2 little triangular “plates” that slide in under the broiler, and you cook your own food like a Chinese fondu. So on top on the grill part we cooked beef, veal, shrimp, scallops, chicken and sausage (it sounds like a lot but picture the meat in cubes about 1.5″ square, only 3 cubes of each thing) and then in the plates we’d put little baby onions, baby sweet gherkin pickles, some dried meats and salami and some slices of baby potato, then put a slice or two of cheese over it and let that broil for a while. Or we also had an omelet mixture that we’d pour into the plate and let that cook up and put some cheese on that. It makes for a long meal but it was REALLY good! And that cheese was delicious! We have one of those “raquelette” things at home without the grill part on top so I’m looking forwards to making that for supper one night here.

Then it was off to bed ‘cus you just know that 4 boys under 9 will not be sleeping in very late tomorrow!

(actually being posted on Feb 21 ‘cus I was too busy/lazy to post on time)

Today was fun! On my lunch break I went over to the pet accessories store to bring in the 2 commissioned dog sweaters. I was very proud of my work, had made them exactly custom to size to fit the dogs’ measurements, and had even prepared a little pattern and price list. I gave in the sweaters and she seemed to really like them! She paid me for them and even gave me another order! I went back to work very happy. I’ve sold the crocheted pig, but this was my first knitting sale, and I got exactly the price I asked for them.

We weren’t supposed to be seeing Julie and Rich tonight because we got together (well, with Julie anyways) last Friday, but they called on their way in and asked if we’d like to join them for supper, so we went. I was able to squeeze in a few rows of reinforced heel before leaving, none afterwards ‘cus we got home too late.

I LOVE the reinforced heel! When I’d done Yannick’s socks I just did stockinette st for the heel, which looks nice but can wear out faster. The reinforced heel is so easy, just doing k1, sl1 for the k row and still purling the p row, but it creates such a nice, almost quilted fabric! I will definately be doing this from now on, all thanks to Nicole (my knitting teacher) who showed it to us on Monday.

And to “Creative Genius?” from the comments (sorry I don’t know your name):
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who plays with time! The way I see it, not many people probably read my blog on a daily basis, so I’m not really messing anyone up! 🙂

And to Michelle from the comments:
Thanks for the cyberhug! It was really appreciated! :]

I probably shouldn’t do this, but I’m going to be altering time tomorrow. I’m too far behind in my week to try and sum it all up in one quick post, and if I tried to go in-depth it would be way too long. So, tomorrow night I will be creating one post per day for each day since last Friday, and altering the date-stamp to reflect that day’s date, so the posts will appear as if they were posted that day. It might screw up anyone reading this on a regular basis, but everyone else will just get confused when they hit this post. ;p

(actually being posted on Feb 21 ‘cus I was too busy/lazy to post on time)

I knit through lunch again today, but I didn’t mind so much because it is Thursday and what is Thursday at work? Sushi Thursday! Every Thursday for over a year I’ve ordered sushi for dinner, for 3 reasons. 1- it’s the only night I work late enough to have a supper break, and 2- the place we order from is the Best Sushi I’ve Ever Eaten and 3- The Most Inexpensive Sushi I’ve Ever Bought.

I did knit like mad when I got home though, and finished the 2nd Mock Cable dog sweater!

the sweater on the right is the 1st (the bigger one). The 2nd was the smaller one.

Once that was done I quickly knit up a little “scarf” with all of my fun-fur type yarns. I did 15 sts wide (although I later realized I should only have used about 5 sts) and did about an inch of each color. This was to give to the pet accessories store as well so they could choose the accent colors for the Snazzy Jacket w/Faux Fur. Remember? This one: I didn’t want to get a call saying “Make it with purple” and then look at the 3 different purples I have wondering which one, so I made up this scarf. Tomorrow I will attach little price-tag labels to each color and letter them A through O, which will correspond with the list I made for myself of which color refers to which skein.

(actually being posted on Feb 21 ‘cus I was too busy/lazy to post on time)
I worked on the 2nd Mock Cable sweater through lunch again. I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to knit tonight.

After work Yannick and I went out for a bit, then stopped at Jack Astor’s for supper. I had really wanted to go to the knitting meet-up that was going on near my work tonight, but something came up that I just couldn’t miss. In any case, it was late and we were feeling nibbly, so what did we have? C’mon, guess! Nachos! We shared a plate of fajita beef nachos and a plate of calamari. Yum! Ok, I know I have to fit into a dress this summer for his cousin’s wedding, and then a bridesmaid’s dress this September for my cousin’s wedding, but still…so yummy.

(actually being posted on Feb 21 ‘cus I was too busy/lazy to post on time)

I brought my knitting with me to work and worked on the 2nd Mock Cable sweater all through my lunch hour. That way once I got home I had a “head start”. I worked on it all evening too, until around midnight when I went to bed.

That’s really all I have to post for Tuesday, ‘cus that’s all that happened. I got home, I knit, I went to bed.

(actually being posted on Feb 21 ‘cus I was too busy/lazy to post on time)

I went to my knitting class in the morning and learned a new heel technique. The one I’d done on Yannick’s socks was a rectangular “flap” heel, and this one comes to more of a triangle at the top, so it makes more of a smooth transition from body to foot of the sock.

When I got home I immediately cast on for the 2nd Mock Cable sweater. I feel so bad, it’s been about 3 weeks since these were requested of me. I’ve been working on them as fast as I can, but being sick for 2 weeks really knocked me out! I’m hoping to bring these to the store no later than Friday because I feel really awful it’s taking so long. I managed to do the ribbing and a really good chunk of the body before I had to stop.

In the evening Yannick came home to spend Valentine’s Day with me. He brought sushi for supper (another one of my absolute favorites) and we made a fire and ate on the floor in front of it. We had a really wonderful time, just talking and relaxing. He said some things to me, about me and about us, that he has never said to me before. Ever. And we’ve been together over 6 years. It really was a wonderful night. Finally we went up to bed and I read for a bit from our next book.

Ok, don’t laugh but Yannick and I read to each other. Usually me to him, but we occassionaly take turns. It started with a book I’d read that I knew he’d love but I wanted to read it again too, and we’ve done a couple since. It’s nice because we both get to share the story at the same time, and we have similar senses of humor so we really enjoy it. We started a new book tonight, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. I LOVE science fiction. I also love warped humor. My favorite authors are Isaac Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, Piers Anthony and Douglas Adams. I have a big book, the 5 books of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy all in 1 volume. Yannick and I started it at least 4 years ago. I’d already read it, but I knew he’d enjoy it too, so I started over at the beginning. We’re somewhere in the 4th book, I believe. Because of how much he liked that one, I knew he’d enjoy the Dirk Gently books. I think I prefer The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul but I wanted to start at the beginning.

And no, I didn’t leave tonight.

Sighting 1: The Dallas Hand Knitter’s Guild January 2005 newsletter

Sighting 2: The Montreal Knitting Guild January 2005 newsletter

Sighting 3: A few weeks ago my knitting teacher at my LYS told me that people had come in to buy yarn just for making the Vegas scarf.

Sighting 4: The Montreal Knitting Guild February 2005 newsletter announces that Saturday February 19th will be the Vegas Valentine Pizza Party, a day of pizza and knitting so bring your 6 skeins, a die and a coin!

Sighting 5: My knitting teacher at my LYS tells me someone came in for yarn for a scarf, and when she (the teacher) mentioned using a coin and die for randomness, the customer said “Oh yeah, that’s Jennifer’s Vegas scarf game!”

Sighting 6: I get an email today from Garnet with pictures of her Vegas scarf and the story behind it! I will be putting up a gallery this weekend for the pictures.

:] this is so cool!