Done and Done

It's the last day of January. This month has flown by. Zoom zoom.

To celebrate I give you two FOs!

Surpris is finished. All it needs is a couple buttons. I haven't decided on colour yet. Ideas?

Last week I knit up this little boy bonnet. It needed the ties, so I did that this afternoon after weaving in all the ends of Surpris. 

Later this week I'm going to work on Cloud City (the test knit for Valerie). I have not made any progress on it, but it's going to have to wait until the kids aren't around because I will need to concentrate. So until then I'll work on another baby hat. Probably just a simple rib knit hat. :) That ought to keep my hands busy enough while I watch American Horror Story (Season 4) and not so busy that I'll be inclined to screw it up. :)

A Little Progress & A Race

After a week of meds kicking my butt, last night I finally felt well enough to do some knitting. Nothing complicated, but I fully completed a sleeve on Surpris and I'm hoping to get the second sleeve done today after I get the laundry taken care of. Though I haven't decided if I'm going to wash/dry/fold or flick a lit match on it. ;)

This morning I took my last pill. Hooray. They taste as evil as they look. I don't chew them (or taste them for long) but they have a horrible bitter casing on them. Eew.

This morning I registered Michael and I for our first race of the season. We're doing the Grimsby Half and 10km (respectively) on February 16th. I don't know why I volunteer myself to get up so early in the morning for a race ... in the winter ... races should start later. I am now registered for three races so far this year. The Grimsby 10km, Around the Bay Relay (3 Person) in March, and the Hazel 5km in May. I'm sure there will be more, they're kind of addicting.

Not Knitting

My big plans of lots of knitting time came to a sudden halt when on Friday I was put on some pretty strong antibiotics. Antibiotics which have knocked me on my arse. I was warned they'd cause havoc on my system and in that regard they haven't disappointed. On the plus side the symptoms of my infection have died down and now I'm on the road to repair. On the down side I still have four days of arse kicking antibiotics to take.

On the weekend we did make it to the Hamilton RV Expo to look for a new travel trailer for camping. We found one we absolutely love and it will be perfect for our family. There are about three trailers we're deciding between, but this is the one we like the most ... so we'll see what happens.

I've been spending a lot of time on the couch, so I've been picking out accessories for the trailer and looking up running events. A girl can spend a lot of time hunting down a good race ... I now have about a half dozen picked out for the year. That ought to keep me busy.

Hubby Out Knitting In

Last night Michael went to karate by himself and afterwards hung out for some guy time with our Sensei (who has also become a friend in the last almost-year). He was out late, and while I was in bed quite awhile before he got home I was able to make some excellent progress on the Surpris cardi. :) 

I know I had planned to work on the test knit, but I needed something to knit something I didn't really have to think about, so I opted for garter stitch rather than lace. :) I was binge watching Friends on Netflix. Can't giggle and knit lace at the same time.

Surpris!

The other night I was enjoying my evening sipping wine and browsing knitting patterns on Ravelry. I found quite a few adorable and lovely patterns. One I couldn't wait to cast on for. It's Surpris by Yarn-Madness. She has a lot of patterns I could get excited about knitting, but for now I'm just doing this one.

I'm using a smaller needle (4mm) with a DK yarn for this little sweater, though the pattern calls for 4.5mm needles and worsted yarn, so while aiming for a 3 month size I knit the 6 month size. I'll let you know how accurate my guess was on this. So far it seems good.

Lily picked the colours. :)

Tonight while Michael is out at karate I'm going to work on my test knit of Cygnus. I can't wait to get it knit up. :)

2FOs

It happened.

Finally.

I'd say at long last, but in the grand scheme of things it really didn't take that long. I began on November 25th, took a short hiatus to knit a couple smaller items, and yesterday (Jan 18th) I finished the final square on Owen's blanket. I still need to weave in the ends, but for all intents and purposes I'm officially labelling this as DONE. Stick a fork in it.

11x11 Square Pattern

Hip to Be Square

I also have another FO to share. I started weaving in the ends on the blanket, but got bored and wanted to do something I didn't have to actually look at so I cast on for a Fuzzy Brim Baby Bonnet. Less than a movie later it was finished. :)

Fuzzy Brim Baby Bonnet

Next up is a test knit for the lovely Valerie. I'm going to wind my skeins into balls later today. Michael is fascinated with winding yarn so I'll let him help. It's a job I'm not overly fond of so that's win win.

Happy Monday!

Hand Cramp!

I had thirteen squares to go when I posted yesterday, and by the time I headed to bed I had six to go. I made good progress and if I stick with it while I'm up late tonight (waiting for Michael's limo to bring him home from the airport) I think I should be able to get the last six finished.

I would have knit more before bed last night, but I got the worst hand cramp. Has that ever happened to you? OMG, it was horrible. It feels better now though ... a good night's sleep did it wonders. 

Here's a picture of Moose to distract you from the fact I have no new knitting pictures. When the blanket is fully knit I promise to get a good shot of it. :)

I was eating a snack and I think he may have believed he would get some if he sat real sweet and cute. He was wrong.

Nutshell!

My day in a nutshell ... I'm doing housework in a mask ... I can't wait to wash it off because it's so itchy and I can't move my face. Thankfully it's almost dry.

The things we do to stay beautiful!

There are thirteen squares I have left to knit. I had high hopes of getting them all knit by tomorrow night, but I don't think that's going to happen. It might if I really push it, but I'll really have to push.

13 to go.

Right now I have no time to knit. I'm in the middle of getting the laundry done. I have two loads to go and then I'll be finished ... and then I have to clean the bathroom and sweep and and and ...

... and then I'll be able to sit down and get some squares cookin'.

Have a good one!

A First

I intended to take a bunch of pictures while running at the local indoor track with my sister today, but I totally forgot, and my post for today would be pretty boring without them, so a bit of a subject change was needed.

It would look something like this: Today I ran 5.8km, my sister ran 4.3km. It was fun. The end.

Soooo ...

The writing prompts for Mama's Losing It's Writer's Workshop are up and one of them caught my eye.

1. Find a photo of yourself taken 10 years ago and display it on your blog along with a current photo. How have you changed since the day that photo was taken?

This is something I have not done before. Two reasons. #1 My body 10 years ago was something I was not proud of or comfortable with. #2 You'd be hard pressed to find a picture of me from 10 years ago (due to #1).

Here goes.

Ten years ago I was somewhere in and around the 210 pound mark (95.25kg for the metric folk). I could blame the fact that I'd had two babies relatively close together, but the fact of the matter is, while I did have two babies close together, those babies did not make me sedentary or make me eat too much. I did that myself. I eventually made my way to around the 195lb mark and stayed there for a couple years.

About eight and a half years ago (2006), before I got (surprise!) pregnant with Ethan, I decided to lose weight, to get healthy. I lost around 30lbs and then when I got pregnant and gained it all back. Lucky for me after Ethan was born I lost all those 30lbs pretty much right away.

I sat at 165lbs, give or take, until January 2013. Even though I was actively running I couldn't drop any more weight. So I joined Weight Watchers, got support, started eating not only the right foods, but the right portions. In May 2013 I hit my goal weight and there I've stayed since.

Losing the weight has made me healthier, physically and mentally, it has enabled me to move forward in my athletic endeavours and shopping is so much fun now.

I feel great and I no longer shy away from the camera. :)

UnCable Hat

The gorgeous black WCY Stray Cat yarn has been transformed. I think Mom is going to love it, dog hair and all. :)

Cables That Don't Cable Hat
aka The UnCable Hat
WCY Stray Cat in Coal
3.75mm needles

I finished the hat up last night (while binge watching Friends on Netflix) but had to wait until the sun was shining to get a decent picture of it. Ethan was sweet enough to model it for me. Yes, he is wearing an Iron Man costume. That's just how we roll in our house. Lucky me, I even have enough yarn left to knit myself a hat. Yay!

I'm feeling productive today, house is tidy, cabbage soup is in the slow cooker and I've only got 22 squares left to knit on Owen's blanket. Well, 21.5 to be technical. I'm thinking by the time hubby gets home from work Friday night I should be 100% done. 

Later I plan on getting a run in. But for now I knit! 

Touching

The other day Valerie and I were having a conversation about how our animals (her cats, my dogs) like to cuddle up, so I decided to take pictures at different times to document the constant touching and snuggling of my two labrador retrievers throughout the day.

Oh hi mom.

Does something smell?

Frog legs. Barely touching, but still touching.

My big brudder makes a good pillow.

Dozer isn't THAT much bigger, it just looks like it here.

Big spoon, little spoon.

As you can see, they're pretty much stuck together like glue on glue. 

Adorable, right?

Mail Call

Yesterday morning I got the crap scared out of me, but it was worth it ...

Whoa. What?

Yeah. You heard me right.

I received a package in the mail, however, the postal worker who does deliveries in my area knocks really loud and exuberantly. I get it, she wants and needs to be heard and doesn't want to be hanging around all day waiting and re-knocking, but MAN, I could do without the heart attack.

And yes, totally worth it.

Lookie what I got!

That's right! It's a package from Wandering Cat Yarns. SQUEEEE!!

The black Stray Cat (Coal) on the left is for a hat for my Mom. She put in a request. I made her a hat last year to keep her sexy bald head warm and she loved it so much she asked for another one in a different colour. I'm such a good daughter. ;)

The grey House Cat (Cloud) on the right is for a test knit I'm doing for Valerie. I don't have the pattern yet, but I know what I'm in store for and I'm looking forward to it. 

Thirty-One

Good morning! Today I will be hibernating and staying indoors. It's bloody cold. I know I keep talking about this, but you have to understand, it has only been since January 1st that we've been subjected to real winter temperatures. Before January, heck, before 2015, we had lows of -1*C and highs of 11*C ... Now, however, it is lows of -18*C and highs of -7*C. To be precise, at this very moment, it is -15*C with a wind chill making it -28*C. Brr.

Luckily I've got lots to keep me busy. There's housework to be done, dogs to be snuggled and when all that is done, there is knitting.

Owen's blanket is nearly finished. There are 121 squares in total. I have knitted 90, which makes only 31 left to knit. Woohoo, I'm 2/3 of the way! The rows are getting shorter so it won't be long until it's finished. It's cosy, that's for sure. It keeps me nice and warm while I'm knitting it. I think he's really going to like it.

31 squares to go!

So many ends to weave in ...

Also, Mother Nature ruined my artwork.

Falling Snow

The first snow fall of 2015 has happened. It's not a lot, though I've heard more is coming. While my children cheer (and one of them is out tobogganing with friends right now), I groan ...

Though I did have a little fun with it today. I drove the truck so I didn't clear the snow off the car.

So pretty. 

Baby It's Cold Outside

The kids are back to school today ... bundled up so much they can barely move ... because damn it's cold outside today. It's windy too, which makes it worse. It's garbage day, but it is so windy I opted to not put my garbage out this week and will just double up on it next week. I'd rather not chase my recycling bins down the street.

Oh, it looks pretty, and sunshiny, but looks are deceiving.

I'm sure this is just a taste of what Old Man Winter is going to throw our way. I'm glad I have a down coat and snow pants. I'm also glad I have a treadmill and this city has an indoor running track. 

Last Day

Today is the last day of the kids' winter holidays from school. Back to the grind tomorrow. Two out of three kids are thrilled by this. The other one? Already plotting a way to stay home. "What if I'm sick?" "What if I don't sleep well tonight?" "My throat feels funny *fake cough*" ... that sort of thing ... it's total BS. Lucky for me I have a sense of humour and a sense of adventure. I can hardly wait to see what the creative imagination will bring as the day goes on.

So while they're relaxing, tv watching and playing video games, I'm playing catch-up on laundry; aka making sure the kids don't go to school naked.

After a short hiatus of not running, I'm back at it again, and as crazy as this sounds I am only signed up for one race so far this year. I'll be running the 3 person relay of the Around the Bay Road Race. My team mates are my sister, Vickey, and my BRF, Jenny. Jenny is running the first leg, Vickey is running the second leg, I'll be running the third and final leg. Each leg is 10km.

I officially started my training yesterday. My goal is to run my 10km stretch in approximately 58 minutes, which is a pace of 5:48/km. I'd love to run as fast as Michael, and man oh man he is fast so this will be a huge challenge. He will be running the 30km race. He ran the 30km last year in 2:45:19 which put him at a pace of 5:31/km and this year he plans to do it faster. So good luck to me. I know, right?

6km in 41:12 = 6:42/km

My run yesterday was a nice easy (read: fairly slow for me) pace. I plan to do some speed training later in the week. Hopefully I can break the sound barrier by the time Around the Bay gets here. LOL

I need to get my ass signed up for more races.

First FO of 2015

I'm on a roll already this year; right on track with my finished knits. Last night I completed Lily's scarf. It does still need buttons, but for all intents and purposes it's done and officially the first FO of 2015. 

Going My Way
WCY Alley Cat Sock

Now that I'm done with the scarf I'm plugging along on Owen's blanket. So far today I've done three squares. I'm hoping to get a few more done today ... I've got American Horror Story (season 3) to keep me company while I knit, so I should be able to get quite a bit accomplished. 

Hip to be Square
Patons Decor 5mm needles

Michael flew out to Saskatchewan last night, so it's been a lazy quiet day. I headed to the pet food and grocery stores this morning before the storm (and I use that term loosely, because while it's cruddy out, it's not really storming) hit. I left the house at 10:30am and by the time I was in the line up at the grocery store (11am) the roads were covered with the white fluffy stuff. The snow seems to have stopped and has been replaced with slushy rain. I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere else today or tomorrow, and hopefully the icy stuff stops before we get the snow we're supposed to get Monday night into Tuesday. It'll be messy driving otherwise, and while I'm sure I'll manage just fine, there are a lot of people out there who didn't believe that winter was actually going to get here and still don't have their vehicles prepared ... anyway ... 

Knitting and Netflix (and later the treadmill) are calling to me ... cheers!

Good News and a Birthday

This morning I was only going to blog to say Happy Birthday to Mister Mooser. He's two today. It's hard to believe my little monkey is already two. But he is. And while this is super exciting for our family (the kids sang happy birthday, asked if there would be cake -- there won't be) and Moose is being spoiled with love, something else has come up that I also need to mention.

If you can believe it, it's even more exciting that Moose's birthday

Mom's post on facebook this morning ...

I cannot even begin to tell you how overjoyed I am ... it's another big step in the right direction in her battle against cancer. YAY!

Happy Birthday Moose. :)

2015 Knits

My first two knits of 2015 will be finishing my 2014 knits for the kids. Right now (and I mean, right now, I've only paused to blog) I'm working on Lily's scarf. The pattern is Going My Way and the yarn is Wandering Cat Yarns Alley Cat Sock. I will likely be done later today or early tomorrow.

Once I'm done the scarf I will be putting my focus on the blanket I started in November for Owen. I am hoping to have it done by the end of January. I have more done than what shows in the picture, but I'm too lazy to get it out to take a new picture. LOL

Once I'm finished both of those I don't know what I'm going to knit. Currently I don't feel the inspiration for anything spectacular, but I have a large queue so I'm sure I can figure it out. I do have to knit my mom a hat (requested) and I will at some point be doing a test knit cardigan. 

I'm thinking 2015 should be about trying new things and upping my knit-skill-level. So that's the plan. 

Back to knitting!