So these are the mittens I scrapped the Jaywalkers to work on (not that I've gotten a lot of knitting done in the last few days). In any case, it's a fun pattern and there's a good chance I'll do another pair. Though I think I would like them better with a more subtle change in colour than the black and yellow (which is supposed to be gold, but gold is awfully hard to find) that I picked.

In the background of the pictures is a new table cloth. I went to a "Women's Show" today and was pleasantly surprised at the variety of displays (though not a single knitting related booth!). There was something for everyone - from the woman who works outside the home, to the stay at home mom/wife. Booths for weight loss products stood shoulder to shoulder with "empowering" displays which were lined up with those that showed you how to decorate your home and be a good hostess (which is where I got the tablecloth). If this is what the women's movement has accomplished - I'm good with that.

The tablecloth is stain repellent (not just resistant - repellent!) and though it was a little spendy, I like it well enough and I did need one for the dining room. The only irritant is that I was a little pressured into buying it by my mother. She does that frequently; finds something and tells me how much I should buy it, how perfect it is, yada yada yada. I know she means the best, but honestly, sometimes I just want to tell her to buy it herself. I never do tell her that - most often we just move on or, less often, I tell her why I don't want whatever the something is. But sometimes, I cave and buy it.

I guess I should have stopped at that "empowerment" booth for a bit longer.

I don't usually post from work - this is in fact a first - but I want to get this down before I forget. I was telling a co-worker about the "Newfoundland mittens" that I started (I scrapped the socks and switched projects, but that's a story for another post). She was interested to see the work in progress so I brought it in after lunch and showed it to her.

Another co-worker was present. She looked at me incredulously and said "You have time to knit? I have so much to do, I don't have time for that!" And, she followed it up with, "Besides, my husband saw me knitting once and told me I was too young to knit."

Oh. My. God.

I believe my right eye imploded as I kept my temper in control. How dare, how dare, she question the amount of time I work and what I do with the time I have left over. And "I'm too young to knit"? Aaarrggghhhh.....I can't even type an answer to that.

This is one of my all time favourite songs, "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers.



I gotta admit, though, I like Club Nouveau's version as well:

Despite my absolutely abysmal record at completing two socks (I do well with one, but number two...not so much), and ignoring all rational arguments with myself about the folly of casting on another project, I've started a pair (yeah, right) of Jaywalkers. I'm using Socks that Rock "Spring Fling". I gotta say I love the yarn. I am using a larger variation of the original pattern - my feet passed dainty a long time ago - so I'm not going to make the socks as high. We'll see how that goes.

And I swear I'm not going to cast on the Newfoundland mittens, the pattern for which Maggie was so kind to send (picture here). Though I do have the yarn already selected.....

I found Katy's site while blog hopping...I don't want to lose the link...I love the purses she's going to try to recreate!

I was wandering the web, looking for a quick knit -- needing a completed project fix! -- and I came across this page. The hat is adorable, and it going to be my quickie...but is that baby not the most adorable thing ever?

As for the hat, I'm going to grab a ball of something and just knit until it's done.

Well, it's not knitted, but it is a finished project. Actually, it had been finished for years. Literally. And then languished forgotten in the back of a closet...and not just a closet, but a closet in three different houses! Finally, my mother pulled it out and reminded me that it even existed asking, "Why don't you get this framed?"

And so I did. It wasn't exactly inexpensive to have it done, but they did a lovely job on the stretching, and the mat is just about perfect. And there was another reason for having it done well. I didn't do the whole picture myself (it's needlepoint by the way - people who haven't seen it up close have thought it was a painting). I had started it and completed about 2/3's when I lost interest. It sat untouched for quite some time until a friend offered to complete it for me. She did and returned it to me for framing, which I put off until this past spring.

Her name was Allison. Nearly three years ago, she committed suicide. She never understood the high regard people, myself included, held her in. Maybe more precisely, she never felt worthy of it. She was a lovely person, and had a tremendous skill for needlepoint and cross stitch -- the work she produced was extraordinary. I'm happy that I have this shared project as a remembrance of her.

Well, it looks right, but what a major pain. I've reknit the same 4-6 rows so many times now. Finally, I ended up writing down what I did on every row -- that at least helped me sort out where I needed to go. I'm still liking the result, though I have to not look at the lace pattern too long...I start seeing a kind of Jack'o'Lantern grin repeated throughout. Not quite evil, but....

I did go to work for a few hours - I have a quarterly report due on Wednesday. All I've been doing so far is the prep work, hoping that all the work I've done in the last two years will all fall into place and make the final report relatively simple. It has gotten easier every quarter, but I'm really pushing the envelope this month on getting it "officially" started.

By the way, yesterday's meal turned out pretty much perfectly. I always enjoy having my brother and his family over. He's about 18 months younger than me, and as I kid I couldn't imagine a more horrible person. That's not true, there was my sister. So I couldn't imagine two more horrible people. But they improved with age and I'm happy to count them not only as my siblings, but as two of my best friends as well. I have an older brother as well, but he and I never fought. He was always, and still is, cool.

I figure my options for today are:

- go into the office and probably have to work very late Tuesday & Wednesday evenings.
- not go into the office and definitely have to work very late Tuesday & Wednesday evenings.

Note the complete lack of knitting in either option.

I appear to have upgraded my blog to....well....another version of Blogger? Something that works with Google...somehow or another. I was lured by the promise of "dozens of new template designs". By dozens, I assume now they mean the same ones with different titles.

I've moved along on the pink cardigan and have reached the point for dividing for the armholes. In theory, this isn't a difficult task. Knit X stitches for right front, move to holder, cast off Y stitches for armhole, knit Z stitches for back, move to holder, cast off Y stitches for other armhole, knit remaining X stitches for left front, and continue on those X stitches. Not so hard.

The difficulty is the lace pattern. When dividing for the arms, one continues to knit in pattern - fair ball so far. However, the divides for the armholes end up with me having a yo at the end of a section - as in the last stitch is yarn over. At this point, though I've kept with the lace pattern I'm more than a little puzzled about how well this is going to look when I sew it up. For now, I'm going on faith and sticking with the pattern, but I'm going on record as a skeptic!

The table is set. I debated using paper plates, but decided on the china (actually, it was my mother-in-law's) at my husband's urging. He pointed out that if we continue to save it for a special occasion, and if Thanksgiving doesn't qualify as that, then what occasion possibly would? Plus, with only six of us, it's not like we'll be doing dishes forever. And I do love my dining room, so any excuse to use it works for me.



The turkey is cooking. I always seem to make far too much stuffing - but this year, it was exactly perfect. I'm not sure if that's an omen...but I know it's smelling awfully damned good in here right now...and there's still 3 more hours of cooking to go!


And the last dozen Cob's Bakery dinner buns, fresh baked this morning, are waiting. If you know the Lower Mainland, then you probably know Cob's Bakery...and you know why my husband had to get there by 9 am today to get the rolls. Yum.

Time for me to have a shower and then maybe squeeze in a bit of knitting on the pink cardigan before it's time to peel the potatoes and prep the brussel sprouts.

Technically, Thanksgiving is tomorrow but I'll be cooking a turkey dinner today for my husband, and my brother and his family. Just the six of us, but I'm sure it will be a lovely meal. All in all, a turkey dinner is an easy thing to cook - so it should be just a nice relaxing afternoon/evening. A little Canadian Thanksgiving trivia for you:

"The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay."

Source: Twilight Bridge

I've updated a few things on the blog, not the least of which is finally adding Tammy to my blog links. Long, long overdue. And I picked up her Library Thing link. I'll be spending more time poking around there!

I added a few things to my project section, and sadly only moved one to the completed section. I did delete one that I've abandoned completely...that counts as progress doesn't it? I console myself by remembering that I haven't added all the projects I did complete this year. Maybe not so much console as rationalize why those damned cabled mittens are sitting at the bottom of my basket. /sigh

So, here I am, back again. One might think back from the dead, but nothing nearly so dramatic. It's been a busy summer with work, squeezing in a week's vacation (the photo is from our trip down the Oregon coast), and spending far too much time playing World of Warcraft. While I still like playing the game, I've recently come to realize that although it doesn't make me feel as old as I am, it makes me realize how young I'm not. Which can be more than a little depressing. So I'm making a huge effort to break that particular addiction -- and focus more time on the addiction that matters...knitting!


To that end, I give you a little cardigan that's in the works. Ideally, it will be completed for Christmas for Anna, and since I like knitting it so well, there might well be a second coming for Lisa -- though there's another cardigan already well underway for her (an update on that later). The yarn is nothing fancy, a simple worsted acrylic. I know, acrylic is a four letter word -- but really, this is going to a busy household for a two year old. It just seems so much more practical versus a high mainteance fiber.

The cardigan is knit in one piece, save for the sleeves - so hurrah for not much making up in the end - and the pattern is included in the Fall/2006 issue of "Knit It".