Knittingupastorm: July 2007

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Ever have one of those weekends that are really good and really bad all at the same time? If you have no idea what I am talking about, let me tell you a little story. On Friday, I went to pick up Chris from work to head up to a friend's cottage. While waiting for him, the girls and I went to see my mom (who works down the street from him) to show the kids where Granny works. During my visit, some idiot or idiots broke into my car. Actually they didn't break in, they just opened the door and took what they wanted. I am the idiot - I didn't lock the van. Stupid eh? They took Chris' wallet from the glove compartment (it only had his driver's license, boat license and health card), about $2.00 bucks in dimes and nickels and Julianna's game boy case. Sucks eh? You betcha!

On the brighter side, at least they didn't steal the wakeboard, two kneeboards, two sets of water skiis, a three man tube or the camera. All this stuff was in the back of the van and a bit harder to take quickly, but never the less, they could have taken it.

BTW - the silver game boy case was found, empty of course, but at least we got something back.

The weekend, however did get better once we were over the shock of it all. I have been water skiing, kneeboarding and tubing for over 20 years now and couldn't wait until my kids were old enough to give it a go. We have tried unsuccessfully to get Julianna to try water skiing, until this weekend. J and her friend went to a water skiing lesson on Saturday morning and apparantly she got up quite a few times, but didn't stay up all that long. That is okay, it is a start. It isn't always easy for everyone, believe me, I've taught my fair share of adults and kids.

So on Sunday, she wanted to try and again, and instead of words, I will let these pictures give you the story:

Getting some last minute instructions from Joe:

Getting ready to say 'hit it!"

And we are up:

I thought I took a pretty damn good picture of her once she was fully up, but this is what I took. Nice, eh?

Because this picture is so great, here is the teenage boy that drove the boat at the lesson, Julianna is the one sitting in front:

Knitting? Yep, got that too. Here is my finished Ribby Shell:

I used 3 balls and a bit of Cotton Fleece, size 4mm needles and I made the 40" size. I should have made the 39" size, but it fits and feels good, so I won't complain.

I started Maddie's hedgehog toy and I am about half way done the body. I also finished another ball of yarn for the log cabin blanket. Yeah! Only 8.5 balls left to go.

posted by Lisa @ 6:00 p.m.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

I have so many projects on the what to knit next list, that I am finding it hard to decide which one to start. I'm almost finished the ribby shell (I am saving the knitting of the front for the 2 and 1/2 hour drive to a friend's cottage this weekend) but I don't feel the urge to knit anything in particular. I wish I could bring the log cabin blanket, but it is SO freaking huge, that I find it difficult to knit even at home. I have about 9 more balls of that thing to knit, which sounds like a lot, but it isn't. The strips are so long now, that each one takes over a half a ball. So that means that it will not be as big as I wanted it to be. Oh well.

Back to my dilema - even during my blog reading, I can't find anything that screams "knit me next! I don't care if you have to buy more yarn, just knit me!"

If we all had these problems eh? This is my last post until next week, unless of course I have something exciting to share with you, but I won't, so have a good one!

posted by Lisa @ 9:50 a.m.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

I was tryting to finish up J's hedgehog last night and ran out of yarn. As I was debating with myself what to use to finish the bottom of the toy, I thought to my self, I think it would fit over my head. So, of course I tested out my theory, and lo and behold, I was right. Chris started to laugh and said, lets take a picture:

Another one:

Makes for a good post, plus you get to see a really good pre-felted shot of the toy!

posted by Lisa @ 7:24 a.m.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Having a bit of trouble understanding the construction of the hedgehog's furry back. When I am doing the short row sections, am I working only one side of the back and then have to seam it together when done? Or is the first section worked on one side, then the 2nd short row section on the other? Then the third short row section decreases.

Am I right?

posted by Lisa @ 11:33 a.m.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Here is the hedgehog from the front - notice anything weird? Looks like my pre-felted animal has boobs! Hee hee...

I would have gotten a huge chunk of the back knit last night, IF I didn't fall asleep at 9:30pm. Man, that is pretty pathetic eh? Yep, I know. I did however knit while the girls were skating and split the front and back of the ribby shell. Looks like someone is on her way to a FO soon. I can say this confidently because J is playing baseball tonight and I have a long drive to Afrian Lion Safari on Saturday, SOOOOOOOOOOOO, lots of knitting time baby.

Here is a picture of my 2 and 1/2 old nephew jumping off my rocks into the pool. What a cutie:

That is my head at the bottom of the picture waiting to catch him in case he was scared. BTW - he must have jumped about 20 times - my nephew isn't scared! Look how happy he looks. I love it.

posted by Lisa @ 9:27 a.m.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Here is a picture of a frame my lovely sister in law gave me a few weeks ago:

(BIGGER)

My SIL has a great little canon camera that we borrow every once in awhile to substitute using our larger one. On the way to return it to her, I turned to the kids and asked them to give me a funny face. Then, I took a picture of my funny face. I asked Chris to do it too, but as you can tell by the look on his face we were not amusing him, only ourselves.

I thought it would be funny when she looked at the pictures. Well, to upstage me, she printed them, put them in a photo and added a cute little bubbly stating "And they call me crazy?". This was Chris' father's day gift from his sister.

Classic.

posted by Lisa @ 9:21 a.m.

Monday, July 09, 2007

My weekend was so freaking relaxing and enjoyable I could just stand up and scream woo freaking hoo! Saturday was spent under the gazebo with my husband and friend while the girls and their friends swam all day. I really do mean all day because they started at 9:45am and didn't finish until about 6pm in the evening. My youngest slept for 12 hours - that is how tired she was.

Once everyone was gone, Chris and I went to see Oceans 13 - not bad, but certainly would have enjoyed it at home for about 1/2 the cost. Oh well. I do love Brad Pitt, so it was some what worth it.

Sunday was spent at a local food/music/games/rides festival with Chris and the kids. Some swimming and then I took the kids to Ratatouille in the evening. What a great movie. I truly loved it.

Nice and relaxing weekend eh? I will pay for it today because I have about two weeks of laundry to put away. Most of it is folded, but even so, it is quite a pain in the ass to find stuff to wear. As I was going through my camera's memory card on the weekend to see which pictures I might be able to post, I came across these two:

See - this is what happens when you give two young girls the camera! NICE.

Knitting news - the 2nd ball of cotton fleece has been joined, because during my Saturday afternoon sitting on my ass doing nothing, I knit a lot. I've also picked up the stitches for the hedge hog furry back and knit more on the log cabin blanket. NICE!

Have a good one.

posted by Lisa @ 10:14 a.m.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Yesterday at Romni's I found what I was looking for - yarn for a 2nd hedge hog and fun fur yarn for both toys. All at 20% off, YEAH!

What I found interesting, yet disturbing was how many bins of novelty yarn Romni carries. There must have been over 20 bins of this stuff, at really expensive prices for little yardage per ball. I really, really thought this novelty yarn craze was over, but apprently it isn't. I don't see it being used through blogland so I wonder who is using it and what the hell are they making?

Thankfully I found some in the basement sale room for 5 bucks a ball, and each one has 142 yards - more than I need to complete each toy. I was getting a bit worried I would have to spend 16 bucks or more to complete one toy, but whew - I didn't! Lucky me!

At my daughter's baseball game last night, I cast on for the Ribby Shell in Cotton Fleece, colour black. I have about 6 rounds done so no pictures to show of it - yet! I want to wear this shell with a few summer skirts I have, so I better get knitting.

Have a good weekend everyone.

posted by Lisa @ 9:55 a.m.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Today I am heading off to Romni to take advantage of their 20% of sale with Brenda. I really have no business buying more yarn, but I do need some fun fur to finish J's felted hedgehog. Now that it is 20% off, I feel better about buying this icky stuff. I have knitted the front and paws, and only need to knit the 'fur' of this little toy. I can not believe how cute it is. I can't wait to see the finished product.

At Romni, I hope to find a few Elizabeth Zimmerman's books to add to my collection - The Opinionated Knitter and Knitters Workshop. I recently bought Knitting without Tears and Knitter's Almanac. I've heard so many people praise the words of EZ and wanted to check it out myself. I like what I've read so far, so I would like to have the rest of her books.

During my daily blog reading, I clicked on my of my feeds - mochimochiland and was shocked when I saw a picture of her MIL's stash room. I felt jealous, curious and sick all at the same time. I think if I had that much yarn, I would pass out from the stress of trying to knit it all up. It would be awesome to walk through it but hmmm....I don't know.

In other news, my friend Katherine started a blog - the knitted tool box. Katherine is one of those knitters that knows everything about knitting and is the go to person if you have questions, issues or whatever. Her knitting is amazing. She can do anything. She should post some pics of her FOs, because they are truly spectacular. I think her skill could rival the best that is out there - shame she doesn't write a book on techniques. Hey Katherine - there is an idea for you...Like it?

Anyway, off to spend some dough. Have a good one.

posted by Lisa @ 9:26 a.m.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Finally, after some rough starts, Ariann is done like dinner! Because I was a bit of a donut knitting this . I re-knit from the armholes up three times, and the collar was knit twice. They were all my mistakes, because frankly, Bonne Marie's patterns are so well written, I have only myself to blame.

When the collar was done, I did the happy dance, then I tried it on and noticed the edging of the collar looked really wonky. As I stood there looking at it in the mirror, with a WTF look on my face, the lightbulb went on over my head and I realized I didn't slip the first stitch purlwise. Duh'isa! So, 4" of garter stitch went flying off the needles and I re-knit it, slipping the first stitch. Wow, what a difference it makes when you slip it!

I took pictures of me finishing this lovely sweater. The last end to weave in:

The final cut:

Me trying to put my sweater on quickly, as Chris keeps snapping the pictures:

Finally, a decent shot:

Some buttons, a bit of blocking and I will have a nice fitting sweater come winter! yeah Lisa!

Thanks Bonne Marie - you are so fab and creative - keep the excellent patterns coming!

posted by Lisa @ 8:24 p.m.

PSST...Ariann is done, she needs a good blocking and some buttons. I love her.

Pictures soon...I promise.

posted by Lisa @ 1:51 p.m.

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Knitting Up A Storm!