Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Good morning and Happy Family Day! Today is also the start of Tim Horton's annual Roll up the Rim to Win. If you're anything like me you rolled the r's in roll and rim. I don't drink Timmies coffee often, but when I do and it's Roll up the Rim time it's very likely I will win a donut (which I won't eat).

Dozer says "yawn, stretch"
A Photo A Day #47

So I won! I finished my Ravellenic Winter Games knit, ahead of schedule. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I got it finished, but I'm sort of disappointed too, because now I feel kind of naked and need to find a new project to cast on ... naked and idle. Never a good thing for a knitter.

It's finished!
A Photo A Day #48

I used four skeins of Wandering Cat Yarns Big Cat. The colour is a custom order called Sprout. The pictures don't do the colour justice. Maybe later I will get ambitious and go outside (in the freezing cold - 16C temps) to see if I can get a better picture of the colour.

The big picture. :)

Finished dimensions are 38" x 30" so it's a really good sized blanket. The pattern called for 158 stitches to be cast on and to use 5mm needles, but I cast on 122 stitches and used 5.5mm needles. I think the 5.5mm needles worked well with the yarn. I love how it turned out. There were variations in the skeins, two skiens were brighter and two were slightly darker. I started with the brighter one, did two darker ones and ended with the final brighter one. It gives it sort of a gradual look. I had thought about switching skiens every two rows to make it blend better but, honestly, couldn't be bothered. The difference in the yarns is so slight.

Waffle Blanket - Ta Da!

I think I may have to make another one of these ... perhaps a larger one for myself. I'm thinking 8 skeins of Big Cat would do it ... Hmmm.  Maybe a colour graduation from cream to dark blue or oooh crimson and back to cream again.  Hmmm.

Plugging Along

Hello and happy Monday!! Yay!

Right now I'm watching hockey. Team Canada's Women ... it's a TOUGH game. We're in the 3rd period against Finland and the score is 0-0 ... TOUGH. COME ON LADIES! It's intense. Lucky my dogs are used to hearing me shout at the TV so it's not bothering their nap time at all.

My Ravellenic knit is coming along well. Today I have to wind two skeins into balls. I should have done it beforehand, but I didn't. It's not going to put me behind schedule at least. :)

Yesterday I couldn't find Moose ANYWHERE. I walked by Dozer laying on their bed 3 or 4 times ... yeah, I know. I think I need to get them a different coloured bed.

Moose is blendy.
A Photo A Day #40

Today is laundry day ... well, I started yesterday but got distracted by knitting. So today I'm getting it all finished up. Dozer is helping.

Laundry Helper
A Photo A Day #41

I never did get a picture of Owen's hat up. Today I finally took a picture of it. It's not a great picture, but it's a picture. LOL

Owen's Gryffindor Hat

I have more to say, but this hockey game is super distracting, so you're going to have to wait. :)

Cheers!

GO TEAM CANADA!

Early Morning Hockey

This morning I was up bright and early. I had no alarm going off, yet I was was awake at the same time my alarm normally would go off. Why? Because there was a tweenaged girl sleepover here last night and Lily and her friend were awake early, as was Ethan due to the result of the tweenaged chatter.

At first I was moaning and groaning about not having a sleepover. Then I realised they did me a favour. The Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey team was going to be in their first game (starting at 8am Ontario time; I don't know what that is in Sochi) and because of the tweenaged chatter I wasn't going to miss any of it. The ladies of Team Canada won their game against Switzerland with a SHUT OUT score of 5-0. Go team!! :)

Knitting and Olympic Hockey
A Photo A Day #39

My knitting is coming along really well. I'm about 10% done. The pattern is easy to remember and it looks fabulous in the Big Cat yarn. The stitches really pop.

About 10% done!

I'm really liking this knit. It's simple yet on the pattern row I have to pay just enough attention that it keeps it interesting, but not so interesting that I have to give it more focus than what's happening in the Olympic events. It's perfect. :)

Sochi 2014

Today is the official start of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. GO TEAM CANADA!! I'm so proud of our athletes. I LOVE the Olympics. It's a time where the world comes together in competition, in a positive way. It's a time where Canadians come together to cheer on our athletes. It's great! 

It's also the official start of the Ravellenic Winter Games! Officially at the start of the Opening Ceremonies -- which I heard was 11am (Ontario time) but it's actually 11:14 because it's 8:14pm in Russia (20:14) and the year is 2014 ... so I've got two minutes.

I'm ready to go!!

Ravellenic Winter Games 2014 Project
A Photo A Day #38

Biscotte Booties

I've been a slacker in the knitting department over the last week or so ... the actual knitting bit, I've been hanging out on Ravelry a lot ... and I've actually narrowed down my Ravellenic Winter Games project to ONE thing. That's right folks, I've decided.

I'm going to be knitting Waffle Blanket for the Ravellenic Games. I will be using Wandering Cat Yarns Big Cat in Sprout (which is as green as the name depicts). I got the yarn waaaay back when my sister was pregnant with her 2nd son and started knitting a leafy lace blanket for him. However, I saw something shiny, got distracted, totally forgot about it, lost my pattern (thus my place) and it had to be frogged. Now I have the opportunity to knit it into a blanket for another baby boy (he's due in April, coincidentally my nephew was born in April 2013).

I don't know the baby or the parents and in all likeliness won't meet them. The dad is Michael's co-worker in Saskatchewan. I just like knitting baby stuff. :)

Today I knit a little pair of booties. I just have to seam them up into shape. I think they're adorable. I will probably add these to my booty rotation. Too cute. The pattern is Biscotte Booties. I used Patons Decor on 4mm needles, the colours are Rich Grey Heather (dark) and Grey Heather (light).

Biscotte Booties
A Photo A Day #35

They don't look like much right now, but soon they will be super cute, I promise. :)

Speaking of super ... here's a picture of Jenny, Michael and I as we crossed the finish line at the race on January 26th. I bought this from the photographing company who was at the event ... I'm getting prints made. I especially love it because none of us is touching the ground, it looks like we were flying. :)

Robbie Burns 8km - Jan 26/14
Finish Line Photo

Michael headed off to Saskatchewan this morning. His flight left super early, so we had to be up and out of the house by 5:30am. It's been a long day. Thankfully I don't have much to do, so I watched the Season 6 finale of Sons of Anarchy and knitted booties. :)

Alone Time

Yesterday it was late in the day and I realised I hadn't yet taken a photo for my Photo A Day collection, so I grabbed my phone, pointed it towards Michael and took his picture.

Say cheese!
A Photo A Day #27

I guess he didn't want his picture taken. LOL

Today after the kids headed off to school and I was done my morning meeting we headed out for a lunch date and a delicious burger joint in town. It's called The Works. The menu is super creative and cool. I have to be careful what I order, because of a garlic allergy, but there is still tonnes there I can eat. It's a great place for a once in awhile treat, but I couldn't imagine eating there very often ... omg the calories! It's all so tasty though. I love that they use glass measuring cups for drinks. Super neat.

The Works
A Photo A Day #28

The next stop was the tattoo parlour. At Christmas I bought Michael a gift certificate for a new tattoo. After some careful planning and pouring over a zillion fonts we took his idea to our tattoo artist and they worked out the last couple of kinks and then it was time for pain. *insert evil laugh* I have two tattoos and they didn't hurt to get, but the area Michael was getting his was a little more sensitive. On his inner forearm.

Michael and our tattoo artist Allan
Today we found out they're birthday buddies!

His tattoo is a tally of his long distance and ultra running races. The ones he has done are already on it and in May he is running an 80km race. It will be a lifetime of tally marks on it. I love this idea. Very cool. Very Michael. He had it tattooed on so he can read it when he looks at it so he will always have the motivation of pain adding another check when he's running.

New Tattoo

I don't have any knitting on the needles right now. I have to buy some yarn so I can get prepared for the Ravellenic Winter Games. Hopefully I'll make it to the yarn store later this week. :)

Something Something Something Title

Isn't it a beautiful day outside? The sun is shining so bright the snow is sparkling. It almost makes you forget how bloomin' cold it is out there ... until the dogs want out and the door gets opened and a gust of freezing hits you. However, with faces as sweet as Dozer and Moose have, how can you say no to anything they are asking for? Outside, treats, attention ... especially when they want attention it's impossible to say no, they get right in the way. For example ...

Dozer clearly needed my attention for something,
he put his face right on my laptop.
A Photo A Day #21

I finished Lily's hat on the weekend. She picked both colours. She LOVES it. But she lost it already. It's somewhere in her classroom, so hopefully she'll get it today. I know she's 10 and it happens, but geeze Louise. Anyway ... she designed the stripe pattern. She drew a picture for me and everything. Cute.

**EDITED TO ADD** She found it. Under her bed. Seriously, my daughter would lose her head (in a very obvious spot) should it ever become unattached. More good news, she found her old one (at school) that she had lost last week or something. Now she's all set to be warm.

Doesn't she look cute?!

Vintage Rose Earflat Hat
4.5mm needles
Bernat Satin Teal & Maitai

I still haven't got Pagona Too blocked. I'm a horrible blocker. It will be done by the end of this week because I have to deliver it to it's happy new home. :)

Pagona Too

I've joined up for Team Canada in the Ravellenic Winter Games (formerly known as the Knitting Olympics). If you don't know about it, you should totally check it out. There are a zillion different teams you can join, theme based teams, country based teams, etc. etc. Basically you pick a project, cast on when the flame is lit at the opening ceremonies and knit like crazy until the flame is put out at the closing ceremonies. Woot.

Choosing a project is the hard part.

Wish me luck.