Thursday, December 27, 2007

Shaking off the holiday blues

Hi all,

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and while enjoying the gifts, also remembered the reason for the season - the birth of Jesus our Lord.

Things have been quiet on my end. Knitting wise, I've cast on for the Adamas shawl, wavy from knitty and am still plugging away on the DSL tank (are you tired of hearing me talk about this yet?). The wavy scarf is for my husband's aunt in New York. She's complaining of the cold and since I had the wavy partially started from last year's attempt for my visit to Canada, I decided I would finish it for her. I'm using the malabrigo in colourway brown sugar. I think I shall make either a hat or a pair of mittens for her daughter who's been so kind to us up to recently, sending in the kids' Christmas gifts that I sent to her address so she could mail them to me. I'm leaning more towards the hat as it's a quicker knit and I might not have enough yarn to do the mittens anyways (I was thinking along the lines of the convertible mittens I saw on knitty).

Looking back on the year, I realised I have not met some of my knitting goals - one of the main ones being learning fair isle/ intarsia. This still remains a goal of mine and will add it back to the list of "must accomplish in 2008". What about you? What are your goals knitting wise for the coming new year? Another one of mine will be to knit faster and to get more than three projects out for the year. I understand this will include letting go of my previous tendencies to knit monogamously and put more projects on the needles at one time - I've already started!

Here's the Adamas shawl. I am enjoying her thus far. I know this may take me more than a month but I'm chugging along faithfully:



And here's Wavy:


And finally, the DSL progress:


There's still what to do with my Rowan Calmer. I think I might wait a bit to cast on something special as I have once again come to the grim reality that is my size. We borrowed my BIL's camera to video record the kids opening their presents. One moment the camera was focused on their little happy faces, the next it panned very unflatteringly to my overweight form. I really need to do something about this. How to do it though when I am stoveless and ovenless? (that's a loooong story but at least the cupboards will be done soon enough for us to get those two coveted items - and you betcha I will be posting pics of them!) It will take a great deal of perseverance and commitment on my part (two things that I have sorely lacked in - up till now I daresay) to prepare our lunches elsewhere, pack em up and reheat them for the next day. But I must try as it will be very veray heartbreaking to knit up my beautiful calmer and it not fit. I guess that's why I'm kinda stuck on shawls for now. One size fits all!

Later!

Friday, December 14, 2007

I've been a bad girl this year...

or so someone thought as all I'm getting for Christmas this year is coal in my stocking. What a year. I'm actually kinda glad it's almost over. Even my knitting has suffered. I think that for the past twelve months I've managed to turn out TWO projects. I really don't know where the year has gone.
Knitting wise, for the new year, I hope to go through my stash and actually churn out more than two projects. I would love to start the new year off with my Rowan Calmer but I'm still looking for the right project for this.
Anyways, I can't think of anything else to say... I feel sucky so maybe saying nothing else is best.
Later.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Knitting and ting

Don't scratch your head too hard about the ting part of this blog post. It's 7:22 p.m. and I'm tired and stuffy and kinda wondering if its the end of the year yet. Right now, instead of sitting in front of the tv with the freshly cast on Jaywalker sock in hand, with my kids curled up at my side and the hubby putting around nearby, I am holed up in my son's bedroom trying to ignore the hammering and the whirring and the banging. In case you're wondering, it's not an easy task! One of these days when I can look back on this whole "building a house" experience without red pooling in my eyes, I just might tell you guys the long long tale. Right now, what I will say is that I'm finally getting kitchen cupboards. No, not replacing the old ones that were there, I'm getting kitchen cupboards - where there were none before. The guys promise it should take a week or so to get them done - not including spray painting them either. Sooo.... there's sawdust everywhere and the chairs are piled on top of one another in front of the tv. I'm not sure how long they will be here till tonight but I'm hoping they leave soon - AFTER they clean up. This coupled with the runny nose and apparent dripping in the back of my throat is not making for a very relaxing night. You know what would make me feel better? My just started jaywalker sock. But I can't get to it. Boo.

I can't think of anything else to write. The workmen are having a chat in between the ruckus.

*whimper*

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Shhhh.... do you hear that?



It's the sound of a "free" woman. If you want to picture how I feel, cast your minds to those cheesy films where a woman is running in slow motion through an open field... hands flung wide, eyes closed and a big stupid grin on her face. Yah, that's me. I feel so free I feel like I should be doing something! (Yes, this is why I usually have so many things going at once - I don't like being un-busy!)See, tonight I sat my MA2 exam. How did I do? I'm not so sure. There's a whole question that got up off the page and smacked me in the face. My head spun and my ears rang. In the end I might have just written - RUBBISH across the page for that one and moved on. Maybe they will give me a few marks for writing my name. Anyways. I think I might be very close to the pass mark. I don't want to imagine the futile feeling of failing by 1 mark. I've heard it to happen.

Another thing that made me very happy today was my receiving my final SP package! Wow, is Ingrid a fab pal or what? Here's a run down of my goodies.

1. The absolutely beautiful Clementine. My pic does not do it justice! She did an awesome job on it and I am touched that she made it for me.

2. Two bars of scrumptious organic chocolate. I don't think I need to tell you folks that I wasted no time in getting to know them better. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

3. Two cute little Korknisse and some candy for my son. I tell you I have never seen anything so cute! He will love them!

4. A hair scrunchie for my daughter and candy. My daughter loves to dress up - I know this will get lots of use!

5. A beautiful handwritten card with a knitted design on the front. This was a really speacial touch.

Ingrid has been a lovely pal. She's been awesome about me being so busy sometimes I couldn't get back to her and she's just been so generous to me! Thank you Ingrid, you've made this a wonderful experience for me!

(PS - I may have to add more pics later - blogger isn't liking me loading so many pics at once!)