A Small Update

This week I got a bit of knitting done.

I made some red and black fingerless mittens for my knitting friend. For some reason the strips didnt match up as well as the other ones I made but it didnt look too bad. I also sent her 2 sets of stitchmarkers that I made. I just got a message from her that she received and loves her present so thats a good thing.

I have been working on my mother in laws blanket whenever it takes my fancy and its growing pretty nicely. I think this week I am going to lay it out and try and figure out how long I actually want it to be so Im not just crocheting without a clue when I am stopping hehehe. I think it will be big enough to put on a bed so I will have to figure out how long it should be from that.

I finally got Victoria's pink and purple mittens made. She loves them. On Friday morning when she got up she got to try them on with the purple fluffy cuff attached and all done. She didnt want to take them off and even ate her cereal while wearing them. That was funny to watch. She did have to take them off to drink the milk in the bowl otherwise she would be wearing it hehe. She likes that when she claps it doesnt make a loud sound. She wants to be able to put them on herself so I have realized that I am going to have to embroider a little L and R inside each mitten so she can know which goes on which hand. It will also help her learn her left and rights. I am now working on a matching hat. The pattern that I am using seemed a little small for her head so I am trying to knit it bigger adjusting the pattern myself. Im hoping I have adjusted it right otherwise I will have to unravel it and start again. Two things I learned making these mittens even though I have made them before is, its a good idea to measure the persons hand before starting and Victoria has really long fingers just like her mummy. Once I am finished with Victoria's matching hat I will post a picture of the set. I think I will end up making another set for her because the cuff turned out not as long as I want because silly me just went by the pattern.

Once I am done with Victoria's set I have to get started on a pair of mittens using the same pattern. These mittens are for Joe's Grandma as requested in black. She wants a pair to use while brushing snow off the car and stuff. She really liked the ones I made for myself. I have the main yarn. I just need to get the fluffy yarn. Every time I go to get some they dont have what I am looking for. Hopefully next weekend I will find what I am looking for. I have also figured out while knitting Victoria's mittens that I can knit this pattern on double pointed needles instead of two needles like the pattern asks. This is excellent because it eliminates the chunky seam that you get with two needles. I may have to make myself another pair after discovering this. There's going to be mittens all over the place hehe.

I still havent had a chance to start the knitted bears but they arent far from my mind. My goal is to have at least one made to give to knitting shop before Christmas. Fingers crossed it will happen.

Megan had her first basketball game on Friday. It was fun to watch. We did learn a big thing by watching this game. Megan needed new sneakers to play basketball in. She was wearing some that she borrowed from a friend and it was like watching Basketball On Ice. She was sliding all over the place. She was playing really well but the sliding was making it hard. She did score a basket though. That was exciting. She has another game tomorrow afternoon and yesterday we went out and found a really good pair of Reeboks on sale for $30 that even have bright orange all over them. She will notice a big difference when she plays tomorrow. I think her coach will be surprised at the difference as well. Much better.

Megan had a good week last week it seems. She won a competition for a short story she wrote for one of her classes. She got tons of prizes. I cant wait to read the whole story. I have only seen the first couple of paragraphs. She also got her report card. Normally when she starts a new year the first quarter is an adjustment period. She still gets honour roll but she struggles. Apart from getting more work, her scores dont suggest any struggling this year. Her average is 96.88. Her two lowest scores are 93 and apart from maths, all her other scores are 99. Maths being 100. She said she would have got 101 for maths but they wouldnt let her teacher put higher than 100 hehe. Oh that Meggy. Always the super student. Cant complain about that.

This week is Thanksgiving. It should be an interesting one. I think I will leave that subject at that until we make it through the day hehehe.

Three Posts In One Night!!!!

This is the knitted teddy bear book that I got from the yarn shop. So many cute patterns. Its a must own book for people who knit toys.


These next two pictures are the yarn that was given to me with the book to make the bears. I just love the colours. I think they are perfect for the teddy bears in this pattern. She chose wisely.



Its so hard to choose which bears I would like to knit the most but these next three photos are the ones that I think are my favourite. The first one here is names Ralph and he is a particular favourite because he is the one that I having made as a gift to myself from the lady that hand spins the alpaca yarn. I cant wait until he is done. He is going to be soooooo cute.


These two characters here are named Christopher and Rosie. I like them for their little smiles and the fact that they kind of remind me of mohair bears that just happen to be knitted.


These two sweet little girls are named Elizabeth and Heidi. I just think they are so cute especially with their little outfits. They look like they are off to a tea party or something. They are definitely on the list of bears to make. How can you resist their little faces?

Some Yarn And Something Finished

These are the fingerless mittens that I made for Megan's friend in red and black as requested. I hope I matched up the striping pretty closely. When using the self striping yarn you have to make sure you try and start at the same place in the striping as you did the first mitten otherwise it wouldnt look like they went together. I discovered that when I started and crossed my fingers it would look close at the end. What do you think?


I finally got a ball of that Vanna's Choice yarn last week. I love the colour. Im not sure what Im going to make with it yet. If I like how it turns out I will definitely buy more of it. I have been wanting to make a flap hat for this winter especially for shovelling. This colour would go with everything and the yarn is really soft so I think I might do that.

Victoria's Room

Here are some shots of Victoria's room that is mostly finished with painting. I wont get to finish all of it because Joe is putting plastic on her window this weekend so I ran out of time. I just have around the window and the closet door but it looks pretty finished. Now we just have to get some carpet, more furniture and some pretty things to decorate and it will look the way I want it to look. Oh she definitely needs a new curtain. These curtains are temporary ones from our old house. If you click on the photo you may make out the black Spiderman photo on her wall better hehe.

Here is the bookshelf that use to be blue but is now purple like the walls. She got the Care Bear poster from Megan's friend for her birthday. It fits in well with the purple I think.



Here is another corner of her room. I cannot tell you how much I hate this floor lamp. In fact everyone hates this floor lamp. It was $10 and happen to go with her old room. It doesnt even stand up straight hehe. I have found two possible replacements for this light. Either a floor lamp that has three shades that are purple, pink and white or a floor lamp that looks like a street lamp that is white. The street lamp one also has 4 pegs so that you can hang coats and stuff on them. I love multipurpose furniture.


Here is the rug that is in Victoria's room. She said she had to have this rug because she is a princess. There were other choices and this is why she picked this one. She loves to sit on it and pretend she is in the castle. We have had tea parties on the castle as well. This was a bargain we got for $30. It was hard to believe the price because most rugs are about $80 and up.


So that is Victoria's room right now. It looks like more of a room and she told me is just like she dreamed it would look like so I guess you cant ask for more than that hehe.

A Post With Some Pictures

Today we had the first snowfall of the season. Joe decided to take a few photos because he thought it looked pretty so I thought I would post them. Victoria was sooooooo excited when she got up this morning to discover snow everywhere. She has been talking about snow for about 6 months now. She decided today was Christmas because why else would we have snow so I had to inform her she had a while to wait until Christmas hehe.


I think Joe did a good job on this photo. It looks very pretty with the snowflakes falling. He must have taken this early this morning. He has switched to working third shift. He just started this week and its an adjustment for everyone but it will be a good one in the long run I think. He is still getting use to working 11pm to 7am. But he gets to be home every night for dinner and sees the girls every day. He is very excited about being able to attend school functions without taking the day off work and also buying McDonalds breakfast when they finish rebuilding the one near his work hehe.


On Saturday I took in the stitchmarkers I have been working on to the yarn shop. I attached them to thick paper so that I could write all the information and maybe help to display them. While I was at the yarn shop the owner gave me some leftover yarn and a knitted teddy bear book. She wants me to make bears for her shop because she lacks the time to do them but wants her shop filled with knitted toys. I said I would love to do it. I have been reading all the pre instructions in the book before I get started to make sure I know everything before starting. The patterns are so cute and its hard to choose which one to make first. Im not sure if the book is on loan but Im pretty sure it is. I am going to buy it off her and keep it because I can see myself making many of these bears over and over again once I get the hang of it. The one thing I see that could be tricky is all the seaming that seems to be involved with it. I will be freaking out about getting that right because if you sew things like this up wrong then it can ruin the project. The yarn colours that she gave me are just perfect for bears. I am dying to get started.

This week I have been working on a little bit of the crocheted blanket which seems to be growing before my eyes and doesnt look like it will take all that long to do. I have also been making a pair of fingerless mittens for Megan's friend for her birthday. She saw the ones that I made Megan for her birthday and requested that I make her a red and black pair for her birthday which is today. They are all done except for a few ends that need to be sewn in. I managed to find a self striping boucle yarn thats red and black which I think she will really like. I hate knitting with boucle yarn but the end product turns out well so I always end up using it. I asked Megan to try them on to see if they would fit a girl her age and she got that look like she would like a pair the same hehe.

Last week was a crazy week with the painting and the visitors but everything worked out in the end. Victoria's room was painted in time with all her stuff put back in her room in time for the Girl Scout party. I still have to do her window frame and closet door but I can do that with the stuff put back. I think I will start working on those on Thursday. The window has to get finished so that Joe can put plastic up with the cold weather arriving. Victoria's room turned out so cute. Now I want to go out and get all the extra furniture she needs and the carpet just to see the final product but that all takes time especially with Christmas coming up.

I saw Joe's Grandma on Sunday at a family function and she was asking me if I had the kitchen cupboards done yet. I had to admit to her that I had only gotten as far as painting the one side of the door. She said that she had been thinking about me and if I had them done yet. I am feeling the pressure hehe. I think she might ground me or something if she comes over at Christmas time and sees they still arent done yet. I think not wanting her to be disappointed in me and how much grief she will give me if they're not done by then is enough incentive to just get it over and one with. Do you think? hehe

A Painting Frenzy & A Strange Project

For the past 4 days I have been madly painting Victoria's room to try and get it finished. Tomorrow I have to second coat the base boards on the purple walls so that I can at least put all her things in her room, which are currently scattered around our house. I figure this way I will be able to do the window, closet door and touch ups even with her room back to normal. We have Megan's Girl Scout Troop coming over tomorrow night so I dont really want all this stuff lying around with all these girls here. This is why I have been in a painting frenzy. I am kind of getting sick of painting non stop and Victoria is sick of me painting non stop and hardly playing but it will be worth it when its all done.

This will be a sad little no photo post today because I havent had a chance to load any photos Ive taken this week onto the computer. Next time there will be photos to scope out, I promise.

Joe's dad brought over his mum's yarn that is left over. There was quite alot in there plus tons of crochet hooks and crochet blanket patterns that she has collected. Amongst these things was a blanket that she had started crocheting. There was about 5 stripes done and then apparently thats when she started to get really sick and couldnt work on it anymore. All the yarn is there to finish the blanket so I have taken it upon myself to finish this last blanket that she was working. I am not a crocheter. I can do enough to use it in knitting projects when needed. The strangest thing happened when I I had decided to do this blanket. I thought there would be no way I could figure out how to crochet the pattern she had chosen and was all prepared to call Joe's Grandma in the morning to ask if she would help me. I sat there looking at this blanket for about 5 minutes at all the stitches and all of a sudden I just knew how to do it. So whenever I have had a spare minute since Sunday night have been working on this blanket. You cant even tell where she left off and I started. Isnt that weird. Joe is a little freaked out that I am working on the last blanket his mum was making and seeing all her crochet stuff in our house. I just feel it in my soul that she wants me to finish this blanket for her. I have been meaning to ask Joe's dad if she meant this blanket to be for someone or if she was just making it. If it was meant for someone I will definitely hand it over to them when its done. If not, we will keep it. It doesnt even feel like its my blanket. I didnt pick the colours, or the pattern and I didnt start it so it just feels like I am helping out to finish someone elses work.

There is enough yarn in the stash that could make another blanket. I think she was planning to use it to make a shades of blue blanket because the colours look like they go together. I have a feeling there is more yarn at their house. This just looks like to piles set aside for 2 different projects. I think she has more yarn sitting around that are leftovers from other projects. Being a knitter I know you always have a big stash of leftovers sitting around somewhere.