growing...

it's approx. 27" square now.

what's not growing is my Christmas gift knitting. i'm going to have to force myself to put down the Log Cabin throw and finish the gift knitting... or i'll have to give away the log cabin and tell my brother, mother and father they have to share it.

i like getting mail...

and i like sending it just the same!

i joined a secret santa on a message board i've been chatting on since being pregnant with Jake. i did it last year and it was fun :) so i joined again this year... i had a blast shopping for my pal. i hope my choices make good gifts for her :)

i have been a bad gift knitter...

it's about 18" square already.

the yarn is my NY Yarns Gypsy. needles are size US 11 Addis.

it's addictive!

i feel guilty about not touching my the socks for my dad and brother and my mom's shawl/scarf and felted bag in two days...

not knitting...

but exciting just the same...

i'm not usually a handbag person. but when i first saw this handbag a few months back at the local Hallmark Gold Crown store i fell in love. it's just so adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun!

but when i looked at the price i just couldn't justify $44.99 (plus tax) on adorable, ruffly, cute, girly and fun.

a week ago, my parents told me about a temporary Ganz outlet in the city and they went on about how great it is... and mentioned something quietly about buying Juliet a skirt shaped purse. hrmmmm... the wheels in my head started turning a little. *could* it possibly be the same purse?

nah.

fast forward to today. John and i have to go down to the city to pick up the kids from my parents' house. hrmm... while we're in the area, might as well stop by the Ganz outlet, right? i was looking for some photo frames for a gift exchange and thought there might be a chance i'd find what i was hoping to find there. (i did... and now wish i had bought a couple more for my house because they're so great!)

first thing we see when we walk in the door... Maggi B bags. LOADS of them. CHEAP!! i don't think any of them were over $10 (but don't quote me on that, i didn't pick up every one and check the price). there were totes, purses, eyeglass cases, makeup cases, satchels, coin purses, diaper bags... you name it, it was there in a Maggi B bag. but no adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun handbag.

until i rounded the corner into more Maggi B bags... beaded ones, bohemian ones, grass ones... and... *the* adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun handbag!!! John just laughed at my enthusiasm. i immediately picked out my bag, checked the price and nearly fell over, just like the first time i checked the price in Hallmark... except this time the difference was $37.49.

yep. i bought the adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun handbag for $7.50. $7.50!!!

the only bummer is that i think i might have to hide it until after Christmas as Juliet is getting the same bag (with a pink bow instead).


(i wonder if i'll be able to make it back there before Christmas - before the temporary outlet closes... hindsight is 20/20 and i think i should have picked up a few extra bags/gifts to save for birthdays/etc next year!)

pictures

brand new yarn... oh so pretty in it's plastic just waiting to be used:


i'm making a shawl/scarf type garment for my mother for her birthday (January 2nd)...the yarn is Gedifra Crystal. it's a really funky yarn... slinky and shiny. i got 6 balls of the green and 7 of red on eBay last year.


Austermann Step socks in progress for my brother for Christmas. i'm not sure he's going to like them all that much... but money is pretty tight and i'm not sure what else to make him:




and a peek into life here. this is pretty usual behaviour when my dad visits... he just loves goofing around with the kids (he's stolen one of Jake's hats and the kids are trying to get it off his head here) :)

gosh darn batteries

i got yarn in the mail today! ten balls of NY Yarns Gypsy from YarnSupply.com. shipping from Michigan was only $5.30 and the yarn itself was inexpensive ($4.24 a ball). i did see the yarn cheaper, but by the time the shipping to Canada was added... ouch! i'm pretty darn happy with this buy :D

now i have 16 balls of this yarn to play with - i got 6 balls at a craft fair a while back. woooot! i was making a log cabin blanket with this yarn, but frogged it in favour of making a comfy cardigan. and i'm not sure if the striping in this yarn works for me for a garment. the striping and the chunkiness, that is, might make me look like a colourful Michelin man.

but 16 balls... and it's fun to work with, it's washable and i love the colour changes. could become either a cardigan or a log cabin throw.

i'll post some pics soon. the batteries in my camera *just* died... 8 hours to recharge them.

more socks in progress...

socks on the go. wooot! what would life be without socks in progress? these are coming along rather slowly though. they were all part of my Socktoberfest knitting and still aren't finished. i generally use size US1 for my socks, sometimes size US2. the small stitches and needles and repetitive actions start to make my wrists hurt. so as bummed as i am about it, i must put down the socks and give my hands a break.

the rainbow ones are Trekking XXL, colour 100 being worked in the infamous Jaywalker pattern. the red ones are Regia, being worked in a plain rib pattern of my own; they're for my dad for Christmas. and the green ones... oh the green ones... they are Fleece Artist in plain stockinette... and they are heaven!!

if only i had more money and could knit faster. PickUpSticks.ca has added some really marvelous new VvS handpainted sock yarns i'm coveting in a bad bad way.

and cuz i can, a gratuitous Fleece Artist shot:

felted handbags... getting there

before...

after...

now i just have to sew them all up, get their handles on, clean up a few edges...

the parenting adventure continues...

hrmm... can't see it?





...now? look closely.


so here i am, about 15 minutes ago, messing around a bit with my Flickr account... and i hear it. that soft yet high pitch 'oh no' from Jake that can only mean one thing. something has been added to the floor/carpet/wall/bed that probably shouldn't be there and he's upset about it.

no worries... how bad could it possibly be? i mean, between John and i, we've cleaned up some pretty awful kid-induced messes.

i go upstairs and find Jake at the top landing looking forlorn. as i'm walking up i hear "turn off the light, we'll be able to see it better".

ermmm... WHAT?!

i cannot possibly imagine what this mess could be that in order to see it better it would have to be dark. i'm a little nervous as i approach Jake.

"Hey Buddy, what happened?"

"One of my glow sticks sprung a leak!!!"... and he points toward my bedroom.

*my* bedroom. my *carpeted* bedroom. my RENTED *carpeted* bedroom.

crap. and there it is...

and the stuff SUNK right through the carpet fibers and is sitting right at the bottom in nice little droplets, out of reach. but that's okay, it's impossible to clean it. wipe it and it just spreads into a bigger glowing spot.

i guess i should count my lucky stars that they are dollar store glow sticks... the glow wears out of them fairly fast, it should be invisible by tomorrow night. i'll just have to remember it's there tonight and hopefully i won't get freaked out by the stripe of ominous green glowing dots when i wake up to pee at 4am. (believe me, it is brighter than it seems in the photos).

the adventures of having kids just never ends.

a rose by any other name...

Tracy... please email me and i'll send you my home address and details of where we'll be meeting in the future. artsyz(at)sympatico.ca i'm pretty sad, i have the feeling our group is a bit split by things. i think some of us will be moving out and some of us will be staying.

does anyone have Theresa's email address or phone number? i had her phone number, but with my incredible organizing capabilities (hah) i've lost it. i don't know if the invite to meet elsewhere has been extended to her yet (if she's interested).

a noni flower

pre-felt. it's funny and floppy and measures approx. 8 inches across. i'm trying to resist the temptation to felt until everything i intend to felt is finished. i have wool leftover from my mom's bag and the green toxic sausage bag, AND some left over Twilleys of Stamford Freedom... i think i'll use it up in a couple more bags. as soon as that's done i can felt :D but now that the noni flower is awaiting a hot agitating bath, i'm not sure i'll be able to resist until all of the to-be-felted knitting is done.

i think i'll put a couple of the finished bags on Etsy... what the heck am i going to do with a bunch of felted handbags?

SnBers

Thursday night girlies... my email address is artsyz(at)sympatico.ca if you can't get a hold of me by phone.

the batteries are charged...

i have pictures! wooot!

here's my Musa yarn scarf/shawl with the Freedom wool edging (modeled by my lovely daughter who said she felt like a dork posing like that):


this is going to be a felted handbag for my mom for Christmas (good thing she doesn't read my blog huh):


and here's my first attempt at colour/intarsia knitting all done and waiting to be felted... it kind of looks like a sausage on crack... or a sausage that's been exposed to toxic waste:


and last but not least i HAVE to share this handbag i got on Etsy... isn't it ADORABLE!? here is the seller i bought it from, she's got loads of fun candy-theme handbags :)

i think i've found my next pullover...

isn't this just LOVELY? i've gotta get some $ into my paypal so i can order that pattern when it's available. :D i have some cotton that would probably work in place of the Tilli Tomas. i love Wendy's blog, but i haven't ordered any of her patterns yet. Sahara, though, is absolutely irresistible!

i missed SnB on Thursday night, but it's probably a good thing i didn't go for two reasons. my throat is SO sore and i sound like a toad croaking every time i try to talk... which is funny to the kids. meh... as long as they're still laughing life is good :D

i won't be going to SnB on Thursday anymore because of the owners of the store we meet in. suffice it to say, after my recent experience, i will NEVER set foot in a Headwater Wool store again.

i'm sorry girls (my Thursday night friends). i never intended to start problems with our LYS. if you all decide to meet somewhere else, please let me know. i posted a few days ago about the option of meeting in the common room here in my complex if any of you are interested. it'll be $2 each to use the room, but if you don't have the $2 you're still welcome to come, nobody is going to tell you you can't join us if you don't always have the $.

simple knitting and halloween

we had fun trick or treating this year. my parents came up from Etobicoke to join in the fun.


and i've started a log cabin blanket. i'm not following any pattern, the size of the strips are random. the yarn is NY Yarns Gypsy.


i finished a shawl/scarf out of the Musa yarn below, but the batteries on my camera just died, so i'll have to take some photos of that later when they're recharged :) i'm really happy with how it turned out. i used some Twilleys of Stamford Freedom wool in colour 412 (burgundy) to add a ruffle to the bottom and it really adds a funky-ness to the shawl. i think i'll make a pair of mittens in Freedom to match the shawl.

tonight is SnB, but i'm not entirely sure i'm going to go because the kids are sick and i'm beginning to feel rather odd too (sore throat, stuffy-ish nose, headache)... i don't want to risk making the other girls there sick. bleh. i'm gonna miss 'em tonight.