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

I got a whole bunch of knitting done! My Sunday was spent lying around on my parents’ bed with my mom, watching her tapes of Joey, Will & Grace and The Apprentice from Thursday night. She read the paper and ate a bagel with butter and candy sprinkles on it (Yes, the sprinkles you put on ice cream. I know. I don’t try to understand it any more) and I knitted. The 1st Mock Cable sweater should have been finished had I been strictly following the pattern, but besides making it to a custom fit, the client also wanted sleeves. So I picked up 36 sts around each opening and did 5 rows in 1×1 rib for each sleeve. Then I was free to work on my sock!

By the time The Apprentice finished I had finished 1 full repeat of the lace pattern (48 rows) after my 2 cm of ribbing. The pattern calls for 2 repeats before turning the heel, but I accidentally made my cast on too tight and was afraid it wouldn’t fit over my calf, so I’m making shorty socks. That meant I was done!

I would have started my fair isle headband since we learned the 2-handed fair isle technique in class last Monday, but the bag I threw into my overnight bag, which I thought contained my yarn for the headband, actually contained my Vegas Scarf. So I was out of knitting.

It didn’t matter though, ‘cus Yannick came by around 4:00pm anyways to pick me up and spend the afternoon/evening with me. He’d wanted to take me to see Neverland but it wasn’t playing anywhere local any more, so we went to see Hitch. My dilemma: go for dinner then see the late show but risk not being hungry for popcorn, or go to the movie first and have popcorn and risk not being hungry for a real dinner. Choice #2 won. Popcorn is my comfort food. I will gladly give up chocolate for the rest of my life, but popcorn and potato chips will be my true loves forever.

The movie was much better than the reviews I read gave it credit for. Then again, we could have been biased ‘cus a feel-good, make-you-smile, everything-works-out-in-the-end, true-love-works-and-relationships-are-worth-working-on kinda movie was exactly what we needed that night. But it was good. And I got my popcorn with lots of butter on it, so I was very happy. Plus, after the movie we went to Chenoy’s for supper and I had a plate of nachos so I was really happy. I think the way to my heart really is through my stomach.

Yannick still really wanted me to come home but I still thought it was best to stay at my parents’ so I went back, but knew it would probably be the last night.

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

Yannick called during the day and really wanted me to come home tonight. This is the first time I’ve ever left. I wasn’t sure if I could stay, but I told him I’d come home for supper.

I had about an hour and a half to kill after work before the time supper was called for, so I went to another coffee shop (Java U this time) to sit and knit for a bit. I was able to finish the underpanel, and seam it to the back/neck piece.

I don’t want to get into the whole Yannick thing too much at this point, because by now (over a week later in reality) things are fixed and working and solid. I’ll leave it by saying that when I got home he had a really great supper made special, and we did a lot of talking (and crying) and a lot of things were set forth to change. I didn’t know at the time if those changes would actually happen (they since have) but I had faith.

After supper Yannick wanted to work on his knitting swatch because he needed to finish practicing the knit stitch and then learn the purl stitch before he could begin my anniversary gift, so we went downstairs and watched about 3 hours of The Food Network (my favorite channel) while each knitting. I worked on my lace sock because I needed to be ready to turn the heel by Monday’s class, and he worked on his swatch. He did 10 knit rows then started on 10 purl rows. He’s done about 6 so far. After that I’m going to have him do 10 rows in 1×1 rib then 10 rows in seed stitch, then he’ll have practiced all the stitch combinations he’ll be using in the little blankie he’s making for me.

I ultimately decided it was better for us if I went back to my parents’ house to sleep, so I left again, but it was already almost 2:00am so it’s not like we didn’t spend time together.

Oh, and to Orris from the comments:
Thanks for the Michael’s offer. I might take you up on it one day! It’s not so bad for my friend to go for me though, ‘cus she and her husband drive in to Montreal every Friday night and we see them almost every weekend, so it’s not like she’s running to the post office to ship things off to me. I get things hand-delivered LOL!

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

I was exhausted because I only got 15 minutes of sleep all night. Yannick got home very late and I’d been worried and the whole anxiety thing kept me up all night. At least I didn’t have to worry about him catching me knitting his Valentine’s Day mittens though.

After work I was too upset about last night to go right home, so I changed my plans for the evening and went to a local Cafe Depot and tried to get some knitting in before friends came to meet me. I did manage to do 1 repeat on the Mock Cable dog sweater even though it wasn’t as much as I would have liked. The evening wasn’t a total bust, though, because it had been a long time since I’d played either Liverpool or A$$h0le (card games) so that was fun. I also got to discover that a Soda Europa (Sprite soda with flavored syrups) is pretty good when you mix Banana and Mandarin Orange.

Once the night was over I was still too upset to go home, so I had a friend grab a bag of clothes for me and I stayed at my parents’ place. My sister was at a friend’s place I stayed in her room. Now I know why she sleeps in until 5pm every day- her bed is SO comfortable! She sleeps on like 9 pillows and under 2 blankets in duvet covers…it was like sleeping in a cloud.

I’m trying to post this very quickly ‘cus Yannick should be home from work any minute. I’m rushing to finish the Sweetheart Mittens before either a)Valentine’s Day on Monday, or b)Saturday night when we’ll be celebrating. That was the only thing I worked on today at lunch and tonight once I got home. I finished the 2 cuffs, and did about 4 rows after joining them. It was a bit fiddly at first, but I joined by doing a 3-needle bind off on 10 sts of each cuff, then continuing from where I was around until I got back to my starting place. Kinda like closing off the middle bar of a figure 8, starting at the middle of one side and going around until starting back at the same middle. It will take a few rows before it loosens up a bit, and I will need to seam a few holes shut after, but I think it will work. Not bad for no pattern, eh?

Oh, and I got a cool call from my friend Julie today! She moved to Brockville and was at the Michael’s in Ottawa today. We don’t have one here. When I went down in August I’d bought 2 bracelet kits that are 6 mini picture frames that you string together yourself. I put family photos in both and gave one to my mom for her birthday and kept the other. The only problem is that because we are so many in the family, I didn’t have room for Yannick in mine! I told Julie that if she were ever to stop by there and see the kits, I would love to have another bracelet so I could put the photos of Yannick and my best friends, so she called me to see which color I wanted. What a great friend! She’s even picking me up some crimp beads that I can use for my beaded stitch markers, and even called me back long distance from her cell, just to check the bracelet color. Thanks Julie! I’ll make sure I put your picture in first! 🙂

To Tracy from the comments: Thanks for mentioning the Dogosaurus Rex pattern from Paton’s! I hadn’t heard of it before, but now it looks like I have another pattern book to order! I thank you. My wallet doesn’t! 🙂

To Alison from the comments: There was absolutely no rush. Thanks again, so much. I’m trying to save the candy for Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t help that I have it next to the computer right now!

Now I have to jump back into bed and make it look like I’ve been working on the Mock Cable dog sweater all night. Luckily Yannick doesn’t read this blog!

For Christy from the comments:

I debated replying privately or here, but then I realized that even if you are a Montreal knitter, you really wouldn’t hurt my business ‘cus you’d knit your own dog sweaters anyways. 🙂

The pattern you like is from FiberTrends, pattern no. 211x. I believe the pattern sheet is called “Dandy Dog Sweaters” and there are 3 styles to choose from: Beaded Rib, Heart’s Rib and Mock Cable. The beaded rib is the previous pink one I showed in my blog, and the mock cable is the one you admire. I tried the heart’s rib, but didn’t like it as much as the other two.

Hope this helps!

So normally I like to be the one to check the mail. Even if it’s just a letter from Reader’s Digest (I might already be a winner….), I get excited to see what’s arrived.

Today I didn’t come home from work right away. I had my dad pick me up to drive me to work (we work together) so I wouldn’t be stuck with my car, and that way my boyfriend could come pick me up from work so we could go see my friend’s production of “Into The Woods”. After the show (which was great btw) we get home and right away I open the mailbox. Empty. Odd, not even junk mail. Then I remember that Yannick went home to shower before picking me up. I asked him if there was any mail today. He says yes. He had a slight smile on his face. We go into the house, and there, right on the kitchen counter, IT is. The manilla-colored bubble mailer with the sweetest 4 letters on the top: RAOK.

My eyes lit up and I could feel the grin spread on my face. I actually exclaimed “it’s here!”. Yannick started laughing and said he put it right there so it would be the first thing I saw.

(As an aside, we had just been talking about the quartz this morning. I had mentioned that people in the states had gotten theirs already, and he said that maybe customs wouldn’t let it through, so that was the note I’d left for work on.)

Inside is the promised piece of quartz, 2 photos that show where the quartz was from (how thoughtful, my very own “certificate of authenticity”), a letter detailing the location, and some candy. Yay!

And who sent me this bright spot to end my day? Alison, from http://couldbefun.blogspot.com/. Thank you so much Alison! You don’t know how you made my day!

Not only is this my first not-so-random RAOK, but it’s the very first anything that comes close to a RAOK I’ve received since joining this group (not counting those cute ecards that were sent to the group).

Alison, thank you again for taking the time to send out these little packages and for thinking about everyone in the first place to bring back some extra quartz. It’s going right into my collection of rough and tumbled stones.

Thank you.

So normally I like to be the one to check the mail. Even if it’s just a letter from Reader’s Digest (I might already be a winner….), I get excited to see what’s arrived.

Today I didn’t come home from work right away. I had my dad pick me up to drive me to work (we work together) so I wouldn’t be stuck with my car, and that way my boyfriend could come pick me up from work so we could go see my friend’s production of “Into The Woods”. After the show (which was great btw) we get home and right away I open the mailbox. Empty. Odd, not even junk mail. Then I remember that Yannick went home to shower before picking me up. I asked him if there was any mail today. He says yes. He had a slight smile on his face. We go into the house, and there, right on the kitchen counter, IT is. The manilla-colored bubble mailer with the sweetest 4 letters on the top: RAOK.

My eyes lit up and I could feel the grin spread on my face. I actually exclaimed “it’s here!”. Yannick started laughing and said he put it right there so it would be the first thing I saw.

(As an aside, we had just been talking about the quartz this morning. I had mentioned that people in the states had gotten theirs already, and he said that maybe customs wouldn’t let it through, so that was the note I’d left for work on.)

Inside is the promised piece of quartz, 2 photos that show where the quartz was from (how thoughtful, my very own “certificate of authenticity”), a letter detailing the location, and some candy. Yay!

And who sent me this bright spot to end my day? Alison, from http://couldbefun.blogspot.com/. Thank you so much Alison! You don’t know how you made my day!

Not only is this my first not-so-random RAOK, but it’s the very first anything that comes close to a RAOK I’ve received since joining this group (not counting those cute ecards that were sent to the group).

Alison, thank you again for taking the time to send out these little packages and for thinking about everyone in the first place to bring back some extra quartz. It’s going right into my collection of rough and tumbled stones.

Thank you.

So normally I like to be the one to check the mail. Even if it’s just a letter from Reader’s Digest (I might already be a winner….), I get excited to see what’s arrived.

Today I didn’t come home from work right away. I had my dad pick me up to drive me to work (we work together) so I wouldn’t be stuck with my car, and that way my boyfriend could come pick me up from work so we could go see my friend’s production of “Into The Woods”. After the show (which was great btw) we get home and right away I open the mailbox. Empty. Odd, not even junk mail. Then I remember that Yannick went home to shower before picking me up. I asked him if there was any mail today. He says yes. He had a slight smile on his face. We go into the house, and there, right on the kitchen counter, IT is. The manilla-colored bubble mailer with the sweetest 4 letters on the top: RAOK.

My eyes lit up and I could feel the grin spread on my face. I actually exclaimed “it’s here!”. Yannick started laughing and said he put it right there so it would be the first thing I saw.

(As an aside, we had just been talking about the quartz this morning. I had mentioned that people in the states had gotten theirs already, and he said that maybe customs wouldn’t let it through, so that was the note I’d left for work on.)

Inside is the promised piece of quartz, 2 photos that show where the quartz was from (how thoughtful, my very own “certificate of authenticity”), a letter detailing the location, and some candy. Yay!

And who sent me this bright spot to end my day? Alison, from http://couldbefun.blogspot.com/. Thank you so much Alison! You don’t know how you made my day!

Not only is this my first not-so-random RAOK, but it’s the very first anything that comes close to a RAOK I’ve received since joining this group (not counting those cute ecards that were sent to the group).

Alison, thank you again for taking the time to send out these little packages and for thinking about everyone in the first place to bring back some extra quartz. It’s going right into my collection of rough and tumbled stones.

Thank you.