Category Archives: Uncategorized


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girls from my past

I can’t make this a long post, ‘cus Henri has been crying for most of the day and I want to get back upstairs where I can hear him.  I just wanted to share a recent find with you.

We were at my parents’ house yesterday and I came across a bin of figurines they’d put aside for my boys.  I couldn’t believe it- it was all the toys from when I was a kid!  My brothers and I used to play for HOURS with He-Man, She-Ra and Golden Girl figures, Ninja Turtles (the originals), the Justice League, Thunder Cats, Voltron, etc.  (My sister is 10 years younger than me so she skipped most of that stuff and was weaned on Pound Puppies and Popples).  Finding the bin was such a blast from the past that I couldn’t pass up the chance to bring home my old friends.

This first pic has all the “fighter” figures.

Top Row: Sorceress (He-Man), April O’Neil (TMNT)

Bottom Row: Teela (He-Man), Allura (Voltron), Catra (She-Ra), WilyKat & WilyKit (Thundercats)

This one has all the “girly” figures I found: a mix of Cabbage Patch, Raggedy Ann, Daisy Duck, Barbie, and assorted Strawberry Shortcake characters (with the Purple Pieman in there for kicks).

So apparently when I was a kid I thought it was cool to fight crime, dress sexy, have babies and smell good.  Who says we didn’t empower our girls long before the Spice Girls came around?  🙂

Since I only have boys, and my siblings don’t have kids (yet) I claimed “my girls”.  My boys are welcome to play with them when they’re a bit older, but in the meantime they will live in my office and remind me of who I used to be.


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first post of the year

Happy New Year! Anyone make any resolutions?

I will be trying something this year- sticking to “moderation”. I think limitations (like diets, yarn or otherwise) are set up to fail. They either have expiration dates, or set you up for a lifetime of sacrifice. With moderation, though, you can have it all. Just maybe smaller amounts of it.

In keeping with that faith I kept my knitting to moderation today. I didn’t stress about my late deadline project, nor get frustrated about taking on these challenged but then never having time to knit for myself. Instead I divvied up my time. I know I need to focus and make notes on my deadline project, but can knit stockinette with my eyes closed. So while my boys napped I made sure to spend the 3.5hrs working where I could pay attention, then at night catching up on Fringe with Yannick I was able to take 2 hrs and comfort knit. This way I got knitting done for myself AND for my project, and I don’t feel guilty or slighted.

And I made progress!

I’ve got 18 more repeats (36 more rows) to go before I divide for the arms and body on the Featherweight Cardigan.


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2010-12-29

Well I completely missed Christmas didn’t I? Merry
Christmas, and happy holidays to everyone who celebrates! I put our
tree up last week after Robyn’s son Quentin’s bris. It’s fiberoptic
and the boys like watching it change colors.

Took the kids to
Santa on Christmas eve day. Had a bit of excitement helping a mom
find her lost child, but it worked out in the end and the day was a
success- the mom found her kid, I got my yearly Santa photo, and
the boys got home in time for their naps. Now that Jakob’s old
enough to “get” the holidays, we were able to start some holiday
traditions. I bought a special cup and saucer set to leave out
cookies for Santa, and we watched Polar Express as a family, then
played a board game with Jakob before bed. – I got an update from
the guy I knit the dog sweaters for. The sweaters fit great but are
a touch long in the underbelly (the one measurement I forgot to ask
for) so I may need to undo the ribbing and shorten them.


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2010-12-21


The title of today’s post should be “abject failure”. Or, for those of you with kids, you can look at it this way- “2, 2 mug cozies, ha ha ha”.

Luckily the Christmas party, though today, isn’t actually on Christmas. And the daycare is still open ’til Thursday.


The teachers won’t get their gifts, but at least the kids will get their pizza and Jell-O oranges!


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2010-12-20

I’m about to enter into sweatshop knitting mode. There are approximately 19.5 hours to go from now to my kids’ daycare Christmas party, and I haven’t finished making the gifts for the teachers.

I scrapped the Fingerless mitts idea and am making a mug cozy for each of the 4 teachers and the daycare owner. I’ll then fill the mug with chocolates and a Tim Horton’s gift card.

The party is tomorrow and I’ve got 1 of 5 knit. Back to work….


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2010-12-10

Here’s another project finished long ago that completely missed the blog.

After a trip to Michael’s (I think) my mom brought me some sock yarn.  I didn’t know that Red Heart had a 70% wool/30% nylon sock yarn, with aloe even, and was eager to try it out.

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Pattern: Toasted Almond Toe-Up Socks (Ravelry link)

Size:  68 sts around

Yarn: Red Heart Heart & Sole in Toasted Almond, 0.75 each of 2 balls (one ball per sock)

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Needles: 2.5 mm

Notions: none

Dates:  March 11 2009 – March 21 2010

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I can’t believe it took me just over a year to knit a pair of socks!  I remember casting on for them right after my mom gave me the yarn, and I remember my struggle to find a matching repeat, only to find out that I’d found the repeat- but upside down.  Oh well- they were meant to be fraternal.

BTW the yarn was lovely to work with.  It felt softer than Regia, and I love my Regia workhorse sock yarn.  It wears beautifully, and all handknit socks in this house are thrown right in the wash along with all the clothes, jeans, etc, into the washer and dryer.  I have put this pair through at least a dozen times so far with no signs of pilling, sagging or stretching.

—

I have been asked to knit 2 dog sweaters.  What started as a “you can knit those?” somehow turned into emailed measurements and chosen patterns, and now, as if I didn’t have enough on my plate, I have 2 dog sweaters to knit.  The pattern I’m using is Icelandic Beauty (Rav link) from the Dogs in Knits (Rav link) book which I had purchased back in ’05 when I was selling dog sweaters to a local boutique.

I’m not sure why the photo has rotated, since my original and the upload were both straight.  Oh well.

I’m doing the sweaters in solid red, as per the request, using Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn.  I had thought of getting a nicer yarn but then realized that I’m knitting dog sweaters.  And these dogs have legs *maybe* 6″ long.  These dogs are tiny, and very close to the ground, which means that these sweaters will be getting snow, slush, road salt, and probably a healthy dose of pee and poop on them.  100% machine wash-and-dryable acrylic is just perfect, I think.

This sweater is for Chopsy and while the chest size is perfect I already changed the neck opening and will be customizing the length, length to leg openings and width between leg openings.  Yay for knitting to gauge!


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2010-12-05

It’s always the same…I fantasize about all the stuff I’ll get done on the weekend…the projects finished, the extra time for little luxuries, etc. And then the reality is never the same. This weekend was no different, though I knew going in that it would be a little hectic.

Saturday I had to finish gift shopping for a family Hanukkah/birthday exchange on Sunday. I wrapped gifts while the boys napped then spent way too long (the rest of their nap time) choosing a project to cast on for an event that night. I was going to see a performance of The Nutcracker with Maaike as her daughter was in it, and I pictured a few hours of mindless knitting time. I couldn’t work on my KP project because I need to make notes and see my work, and I’d finished my last stockinette stitch on-the-go sock. I was going to cast on for a sock but I knew I wouldn’t have time to get through the short-row toe before leaving and I wouldn’t be able to pick up the other half of the sts in the dark. In the end I went with the Featherweight Cardigan in some thin crepe-y yarn from stash (photos to come).

I needn’t have bothered- the show was too engrossing to knit beyond the wait at the beginning and intermission. It was the Ballet Ouest performance at Centre Pierre Peladeau and it was wonderful.

Today I finished getting the gifts and diaper bag ready while Yannick took Jakob to swimming. (I had to keep Henri home so we could get a credit for next session…don’t ask). Then we all went to my patent’s house for a LONG game of “guess which present is yours”. We put the boys down for their naps there so it would be easier on us, because the birthday party we had that after noon was closer to my patent’s house and started in the middle of nap time.

We woke the kids early for the party and had fun playing with friends we don’t see very often. Out of everyone there, though, my boys preferred playing with each other and kept calling for one another, which was really cute.

(I don’t know why Jakob was pulling his shirt down).

I think it’s really funny that when Jakob pulled Henri around he needed two hands…

…but Henri pulled Jakob with only one.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and Mazal Tov to my cousin Robyn on getting home with her new baby Quentin!