(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.

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.

I’m sorry for not updating sooner, life is so hectic sometimes! You think you have everything under control, then BAM! something comes out of nowhere.

The movie we saw Saturday night, The Terminal, was very cute. I had been afraid it was too much of a love story and was happy to see that it truly wasn’t, in the end. I enjoyed it even though I’m not a Tom Hanks fan. Oh, I’ve seen almost all of his movies, I just don’t think he’s attractive and won’t go out of my way for him.

Sunday was very busy. Frank, my computer guy who was over Wednesday, came back to finalize everything. He was here from around 11:00 to 1:00, then we had to pick up some stuff for my sister from the pharmacy. God forbid she use my mom’s hairspray and not the specific Salon Selectives one in the pink container that smells like berries. Or she’ll die. Just die. Oh, to be 17 again.

From the pharmacy we were off to my parents’ house. Because Aaron came back last night my mom hosted an open house so all the family and friends who hadn’t seen him all year could come by. There was so much food, I should have taken a picture. Skor truffle, caramel apple pie, brownies, cookies, coffee cake, cheese cake, millefeuille…and more, and all but 2 or 3 things home-made. Yum! So much for the diet that day! Ah well, it was Superbowl Sunday, who diets on the Day God Created For Snacking?

From my parents’ house we were off to Wal-Mart. I decided that I would join the trend and make some beaded stitch markers. I want to keep some for myself, and send some off as RAOKs for the group I’m a member of. I had the small stash I’d taken from my dad Saturday night, but I needed more so we were off to Wal-Mart’s beading section. Voila my loot:

I know you can’t see all the beads but I wasn’t going to start opening all the compartments. But what did I get? The plastic container that has 5 side compartments each with 5 sections, and a top compartment with 5 sections. It spins and the side compartments come off for use. Inside are all the beads I bought plus the ones from my dad. I still need to go through the stash I already had and add any that are pretty enough. To the right is a 3-in-1 tool, needlenose pliers that cut wires, curl little ends and bend for right angles. Below that is a card with 4 types of bead cord- white elastic, 1mm clear stretch, 1mm white stretch and .5mm clear stretch, 4 yards of each. Moving clockwise from that is a card with 6 beading needles and a needle threader, and finally there’s a packet of 22 gauge heavy wire in 12 colors (pink, gold, silver, purple, red, mauve, navy, green, dk purple, black, aqua, blue). I wasn’t going to buy the wire, I had wanted to buy metal stitch markers to use as the “marker” part of them, but Wal-Mart only had the thick white plastic markers, not exactly what I’d envisioned for my masterpieces. I bought the wire so I could make my own rings to use as stitch markers, plus the bunch of other uses I’m sure I could come up with.

From Wal-Mart we were off to Pat and Gina’s for a Superbowl Party. I had a good time, plus Martine had brought her 8 month old daughter so I got plenty of baby-holding time in. She’s at the age where she just smiles and coos at everyone, and she has the largest eyes with the darkest lashes I’ve ever seen. Absolutely adorable. Once she was napping I got some knitting time in, and finished the back of the first of the 2 commissioned pink dog sweaters. I can’t believe it’s been over 2 weeks and I haven’t given them in yet. If only I hadn’t gotten sick for 11 days…ugh. I HATE feeling behind schedule.

Monday morning I had my knitting class, and it was lots of fun. We learned how to knit with two colors in two hands, and we’ll be making headbands for practice. We were supposed to start with an easy repeat, but I chose the harder snowflake design. I want something I know I’ll wear, plus, when have I EVER started with something easy?

While at the LYS I found some black rubber stitch markers, so I’ll be using those instead of making my own with wire for the bases of my beaded ones. I’ll just have to find another use for the colored wire. Also, while at my class, my teacher Nicole told me she visited my blog…(if you’re reading this, Hi Nicole!) She asked for a picture of Yannick so people can know what he looks like. Well, this picture looks a little funny ‘cus I cropped out the part where you can tell why he’s making a funny face, but I think it’s cute. So here’s Yannick’s debut (I think) on my blog:

Ok, the pic came out a little huge! 🙂 Oh well, the better to see his face.

Where was I? Oh yeah, two color knitting. I took the needle out ‘cus I needed it, and ‘cus I’d only made a quick swatch to figure out how many repeats I’d need to fit around my head, but if you look close you can see that I did it! I knitted in two colors!

After the class I came home and finished the turtleneck part of the dog sweater. Here’s a pic of that too:

I really like the pattern. It looks like a cable, but it’s not. At first I was annoyed ‘cus I thought, “why don’t I just cable so I can take the credit for cabling?” But, this pattern is really easy. It’s a 4 row repeat and I’d memorized it after the first one.

Oh, something cool also happened on Monday: I read the Montreal Knitting Guild’s February newsletter and found out that on Saturday the 19th they’re doing an all-day event just to get together and knit my Vegas scarves! I think that’s so cool! I can’t go ‘cus I only get a few Saturdays off and I’m saving the next one for the lace workshop with Suzanne Atkinson coming up on March 12th, but how neat is that? A bunch of people getting together for the sole purpose of hanging out to knit a pattern I came up with? I feel flattered. I really hope they give me pictures once they’re done so I can create a gallery.

Something else cool happened: Yannick came home early enough to watch CSI: Miami with me. 🙂 He’s not usually home, so it was nice.

And why did I only get a turtleneck’s worth of knitting done yesterday? I spent the afternoon and evening updating my finished items gallery. It’s not complete, and I’m starting from the oldest stuff and moving forwards, but if you go take a look you can see some older crafts I’ve done.

Now for today. After work I raced home to change into pjs ‘cus tonights meeting of the Montreal Knitting Guild was a pyjama party. By wearing pjs I was entered in a draw, although I didn’t win. We watched a video on how to turn silk “hankies” into silk yarn, and were each given a “hanky” so we could play along. This pic sucks ‘cus you can’t see the beautiful, glossy, almost opalescent shades of silver, blue, pink, aqua, etc… but you can see the tiny ball I wound of my silk yarn:

I should have included something in for scale. Just trust me when I say it fits perfectly on a Canadian dime. During my drive home I was thinking about what to do with it…I think I’ll knit up a tiny heart and use my new colored wire to weave through to hold it stretched…it will make a cute Valentine’s Day pin, no?

And last, but not least, for today’s pictures…while at the meeting I managed to finish my mitten. This means mine and Yannick’s are both done.

Now I have to start and finish the two-cuffed thumbless mitten by Valentine’s Day next Monday (or by this Saturday when we’ll be celebrating). I also have to finish the first dog sweater and start and finish the second. Then I have to do about 5″ on my lace sock by Monday so I can be ready to turn the heel with the rest of the class. Oh, and I also wanted to have something done on my Fair Isle headband to show in class.

Think I’ll make it? Think I’ll find time to breathe?

My brother Aaron is home! It’s strange ‘cus he’s been gone a year. We’re four kids, and it’s remarkable how quiet the house is when I’d go visit and there would be only the three of us (I don’t live at home but I go by often).

We went to the airport after work to pick him up, he looks really good. His hair’s shorter, but in that cool faux-hawk (fake mohawk) thing that seems popular on celebrities. He spent more time with his friends and Yannick then with me, but I’m glad he’s home. It makes things seem back to normal. And Mike (my other brother) is back too, they’d spent the last week together in LA. And Laura (my sister), lest she feel left out, is home too, as she never left. 🙂

I took the plunge earlier and committed to a “yes” RSVP on the meetup.com website for the Montreal Knitting Meetup. I always wanted to go to the West Island one which is closer to my home, but it’s on Thursdays at 7pm, and I work until 8 half an hour away. But today I realized that the one in town is on Wednesdays at 7pm, and I work until 6 around the corner. So I could go over early to get a seat and not feel as nervous walking in once people are already there, and it’s really, really close to my work. So I RSVP’d that I’d go. I’m nervous, but excited too, since it’s my first meetup. I’ve been to Knitting Guild meetings, but this is more “hanging out”.

My dad let me go through his bead collection (yes, he has a bead collection. he was going to have my mom make necklaces and sell them, years ago) and he let me take a whole bunch of beads. So I’ll be heading to Wal-Mart tomorrow for rings and will be making stitch markers with them. Maybe even send some as RAOKs…

Now we’re going to watch The Terminal and go to bed. ‘Night!

My brother Aaron is home! It’s strange ‘cus he’s been gone a year. We’re four kids, and it’s remarkable how quiet the house is when I’d go visit and there would be only the three of us (I don’t live at home but I go by often).

We went to the airport after work to pick him up, he looks really good. His hair’s shorter, but in that cool faux-hawk (fake mohawk) thing that seems popular on celebrities. He spent more time with his friends and Yannick then with me, but I’m glad he’s home. It makes things seem back to normal. And Mike (my other brother) is back too, they’d spent the last week together in LA. And Laura (my sister), lest she feel left out, is home too, as she never left. 🙂

I took the plunge earlier and committed to a “yes” RSVP on the meetup.com website for the Montreal Knitting Meetup. I always wanted to go to the West Island one which is closer to my home, but it’s on Thursdays at 7pm, and I work until 8 half an hour away. But today I realized that the one in town is on Wednesdays at 7pm, and I work until 6 around the corner. So I could go over early to get a seat and not feel as nervous walking in once people are already there, and it’s really, really close to my work. So I RSVP’d that I’d go. I’m nervous, but excited too, since it’s my first meetup. I’ve been to Knitting Guild meetings, but this is more “hanging out”.

My dad let me go through his bead collection (yes, he has a bead collection. he was going to have my mom make necklaces and sell them, years ago) and he let me take a whole bunch of beads. So I’ll be heading to Wal-Mart tomorrow for rings and will be making stitch markers with them. Maybe even send some as RAOKs…

Now we’re going to watch The Terminal and go to bed. ‘Night!