Update!

Thanks for the well wishes for my son. He's doing well. His swelling is 95% gone and his knee is feeling better. We see the specialist on March 18th. On Monday he gets to go back to school so he's pretty excited about that. :)

I finished Magpie. It's blocking. I will take some pictures tomorrow when it's lovely and bright outside.

Moose comes home in 12 days.

My first half marathon is in 9 days.

I'm ready - I think - for both of those events. :)

Cheers!

No Knitting

There has been no knitting here.

To make a long story short my son was admitted to the pediatric unit at the local hospital on the weekend. He has a broken patella (knee cap) from a fall on the ice earlier in the week and he had swelling in some of his knuckle joints which indicates he has some form of arthritis. We're hoping it is reactive arthritis from a cold virus (which means it's a one time deal and won't be recurring) but we see a rheumatologist later this week for more tests and hopefully some answers. The good news is he has no infection of any type (blood tests were done) and his fingers are not broken (xrays were done of his hands and knees).

He is home now, on bed rest, which is oh.so.boring for an active kid.

I'm hoping to get some knitting done today -- after I clean the house. LOL

Lace Knitting

As frustrating as knitting lace is I am super determined to be good at it. I've been dabbling in it for about 10 years, but I have never been great at it so I just stick to simple projects. Now though I'm determined to knit beautiful things; shawls and sweaters, whatever my heart fancies.

The only way to get better at it is to practice, right? So practice I have been and will continue to do. Last week I knit the ever so simple, yet pretty, Autumn Leaves baby cardigan. I also started a shawl, Magpie. It's a little more complex, but I've only made two small errors and I don't think the recipient will notice. Last but not least I've been working on the baby blanket for my sister's bun in the oven; Baby Chalice Blanket.

Autumn Leaves Baby Cardi - Bernat Baby Sport (Orchid)

I think my children believe I can only count to six, because when I'm knitting the lace rows on Magpie I always count the lace repeat -- 1,2,3,4,5,6 -- so I know which stitch I'm on. 

Magpie - Wandering Cat Yarns Twinkle Cat (fingering) - Emerald City

My sister's baby is due on April 12th. I have a feeling she's going to have the baby a few days early, so I better get working on this and get it done asap!

Baby Chalice Blanket - Wandering Cat Yarns Big Cat - Sprout

That's it for today ... I really should stop blogging (for today) so I can get some of this knitting finished! Cheers!

V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope Cupid shoots you in the bum. ;)

Snowball o' Fun

Yesterday during the storm Dozer and the kids headed outside for some winter fun. Dozer was being HILARIOUS so I took some pictures.

Butt tuck front view ... ha ha ha ... I love his face.

Butt tuck rear view ...

Dozer says "That was fun!"

The snow is deep -- passed his elbows!

Snowy Labrador.

Happy Saturday!

Snow Day!

It's a snowy day here in Southern Ontario. We're being hit by an Alberta Clipper and there is a tonne of snow falling. Currently there is close to a foot of fresh snow on the ground and it's still coming. It took me over half an hour to shovel just the end of my driveway - which is a priority because when the snow plough goes by to clear the road if the end of the driveway isn't done it will be filled with heaps and heaps of hard to move snow. I haven't done the rest of my driveway yet. It'll get done later. Usually during a regular sized snow fall it only takes me about 40 minutes to do the entire thing, including the sidewalk (which I'm grateful my neighbour with a snowblower did for me today).

This picture is deceiving. The "wall" of snow where the garage door was is about 15" deep, but it's mostly drift. However, by the car it doesn't look very deep at all. Both are inaccurate for the rest of the driveway ... like I said it's deep.

Snow!

The kids' school is closed today, as are all other schools in this and surrounding areas. Yay! Long weekend. It will be filled with playing outside in the snow (for the kids) and knitting! WOOHOO!

Have a great Friday folks!

Amuse Bouche

The other night I noticed Dozer was sleeping with his tongue sticking out and I just had to take a picture. There were no two ways about it.

The Tongue!

I took two pictures (the one posted and a close up) of him sleeping he was awakened by the flash. I had tried to get a picture without the flash, but the lighting was just not right.

Yaaaaaaaawn ...

I'm not sure, do you think he was amused?

"Did you seriously just wake me up for THAT?"

It's all good though, he's quite forgiving and after a scratch behind the ears and a snuggle he was back to sleep once again.

An Important Message From ...

... Moose!!

He says "I'm so cute!"

1 month 2 days old
Taken Feb 4/13

The breeder sent us some updated pictures yesterday. Squeee! He's so friggin' cute! I can't wait to bring him home. This week I have to pick up some puppy supplies and order a crate for him. Yay! Only four weeks until we get to bring him home. :)

As it turns out I didn't have enough yarn left from Webfoot to knit myself fingerless mittens. C'est la vie! Now the leftovers are being turned into baby booties. Cuteness surrounds us! LOL

Telemark FO

I finished the Telemark Pullover. I knit the smallest size and I think it'll fit around a 3 month old baby. I thought it seemed smaller than the pattern said it should be (6 month size) and then I read other knitters' comments saying they had the same outcome. Oh well. It's cute, that's for sure! Definitely a pattern will use again.

Telemark Pullover: Sirdar Country Style DK

Two words: YARN PORN!

Wandering Cat Yarns Twinkle Cat: Fingering Weight
Emerald City (left) and Ruby Slippers (right)
75% SW Merino 20% Nylon 5% Stellina

Wandering Cat Yarns Solo Cat: Fingering Weight
Lagoon
100% SW Merino

The three yarns above are the ones I purchased. The next one, however, was gifted to me by the lovely Valerie. She dyed it with Icarus in mind. I love Icarus and started one when my daughter was a toddler, but I wasn't affluent in lace at that point in time so I gave up on it. It's now a barbie shawl. LOL

Wandering Cat Yarns Twisted Slinky Cat: Fingering Weight
Icicles
80% SW Merino 20% Silk

Have a great Monday, folks!

Webfoot FO

Good morning! It's a wonderfully sunny day outside. Cold as can be (-15°C) but gorgeously sunny. It's one of those days that looks deceiving ... it looks a lot warmer than it is, but when you go out (or let the dog out) the cold hits you like a tonne of bricks and freezes your nose hairs instantly.

Good thing I have a new scarf to keep me warm!

That's right folks, Webfoot is finished! The Wandering Cat Yarns Twinkle Cat DK worked up beautifully and is super soft and not itchy against my neck. I love it. I love it so much I bought two skeins of the Twinkle Cat Fingering weight. I also bought a couple other skeins of WCY and was gifted one too (thanks Valerie!). I will take and post pictures of my new yarn soon, I promise. :) My stash is growing! Yay!

Without further ado ...

Webfoot - Wandering Cat Yarns Twinkle Cat DK (Orion)

Snowy!

I've got just enough of the Twinkle Cat DK left over to make myself a pair of fingerless mitts. I will be using Valerie's pattern Turner for this. It's a nice simple pattern and uses about the same amount of yarn as I have left, so it will work out well. :)

After frogging the baby sweater I decided I needed to start a new baby boy sweater for the June-Boy. I chose another top down pattern (my favourite kind of baby sweater) - Telemark - and am using Sirdar Country Style DK (vintage) yarn in a dark denim-ey blue colour. It's very cute and should be done today or tomorrow; I only have the sleeves left to do.

Have a great day!!

Gone!

I have been pondering the fate of the blue baby sweater with the too short sleeve for a day and a half and as it turns out my happiness with the project is just non-existent.

So ...

Frogged!!

It's gone. Never to been seen again ... well the yarn will manifest into something else eventually, I'm sure, but for now it's tucked away safely in a ziplock bag with the ball band.

I knitted a little hat for L's Monster High dolls. She's been bugging me to knit stuff for them so I did. It's not much, but it makes her happy.

Monster High Kitty

Oh, one more thing!! I finished Webfoot and it turned out wonderfully. I will post pictures of it when it's finished blocking.

Due to the recent turn of knitting events -- one FO and one frogged WIP -- I only have one WIP on the go now. I should have it done in no time. You know, if I can stay focused. ;)

Happy Groundhog's Day!! 

More Baby Knits

Just a quickie post today. Somehow I ended up with four WIPs and need to turn them all into FO's. My knitting goal of the year is to finish what I've started before starting a new project. So far my goal is busted.

I finished a little pink hat ... it was an in-the-truck and late-night-tv knit.

Pink Baby Hat

And I finished most of the little blue sweater I started last week. The sleeve looks really short ... or the body looks long. I followed the pattern and my gauge is right ... weird. Or maybe it's just my imagination.

Garter Raglan Baby Cardigan

The other two WIPs are Webfoot, of course and Baby Chalice Blanket. Both, coincidentally, are being knit with yarns from Wandering Cat Yarns. Both of which I hope to have finished by mid-February.