Ive Been Busy Christmas Knitting

You may be wondering where Ive been lately. Ive been busy getting Christmas gifts all knitted up for christmas. Here are a some that are finished.

This black pair of fingerless mittens that have a cable pattern up the centre that you cant see were made for Victoria's bus driver. I gave them to her today. Victoria had fun helping me wrap the present. I hope she likes them.


Last week Megan found out for the end of basketball season they go to Pizza Hut and do a sock exchange. I said why dont I make a pair of socks. I can do a pair for about $2 and they will be different from everyone elses. She really liked that idea and told me to pick out yarn with lots of crazy colours in it. This is what I found. I think this is crazy coloured enough, dont you? It was fun knitting with all those colours. I think Megan wanted to keep them for herself. What she doesnt know is that I am knitting her a pair of socks in the same style but in this cool yarn colour that is called Choco Cherry. I am halfway done with one sock so far. I started them last night. I decided the girls are not getting fleece blankets made by me but socks instead. The reason for this was because Megan found a fleece blanket she really liked while shopping so I scrapped the blanket idea. We went to buy the blanket last weekend only to discover they had sold out. Hmmm back to the drawing board on that one.


The next three photos are of the scarf that I knitted for Victoria's teacher. I love the colours in this yarn. I want to keep it for myself or get more of this colour if I can find it again.




Tonight I am finishing off embellishing the green felted tote bag that is also for Victoria's teacher. I cut out an M from a red felted jumper that I am using for a bag. I appliqued it onto the bag and I just have to put red buttons at the points where the handles meet the bag. I will take a photo of it tomorrow before I wrap it up. I am off to help out for the afternoon at Victoria's class. It should be interesting. The girls and I made cookies to take for the kids as a snack. Peanut Butter cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies. The Chocolate Chip Cookies came out a bit of a disaster but I think I saved the day a bit. I have no idea why but the bottoms burnt on every one of them even though we followed the directions. While they were still soft I got a knife and cut off the tops of them and threw away the burnt part. Not so pretty looking but at least edible.

To finish off my Christmas knitting I have to finish Megan's socks, make Victoria's socks, finish Lindsey's very soft blue scarf and cut and sew a felted bag. Hmm I think thats all I can think of. I also have to get the house all clean and sparkling for the big family Christmas Eve dinner at our house, make the butterscotch popcorn for the people I am giving it to as a gift and make tons of cookies to try and make up for the lack of cookies that arent here this year because Joe's mum isnt here to feed the cookie monsters hehe. Im sure it will all get done in time if I do it all just right. I am holding off on the cleaning until the weekend because if I do it too early it wont look like I did anything and I will have to do it all over again hehe.

I hope everyone else is having fun with their Christmas preparations. This Friday we are hoping to finish up our Christmas shopping. The girls are so easy to shop for. Our only issue is what to pick out of all the things that they would like. Im sure that whatever they get they will love. Im going to try and get at least one more post in before Christmas with finished projects.

Oh yeah we got a package from my sister today with wrapped Christmas presents in it. It was very hard to put them under the tree and have to wait until Christmas day to unwrap them. My Mums package should be here soon and we will have to do the same thing. It will be worth the wait though. Its so much more meaningful to open them up on the day. Its kind of like they are here when we wait for Christmas Day. They would kick our butts if we opened them early anyway hehehe.

Can You Believe it? Its A Post With Pictures!

I sent the hat and bootie set to the customer today and managed to remember to take a photo of it to post on here. Hopefully this is what they had in mind. I was told they wanted it pink and lavender coloured. I wasnt sure if it meant the colours mixed together like this or solid colours put together. I just thought doing it this way would make it have pink and lavender all over and it would look pretty.


These are the black mittens that I made for Joe's Grandma. She hasnt picked them up yet so I dont know if she likes them. It is very hard to photograph black things and see the detail so I apologize for the bad shot hehe.


Now that I have those orders out of the way I can concentrate on the knitting gifts I want to work on. I am half way through knitting the funky fluffy scarf for Victoria's teacher. I like how the colours look. I think I will have to make one for myself hehe. The yarn only cost $2 in total so I think its a bargain. Tomorrow we are finally going to start our Christmas shopping. We dont usually start this late but Joe has been working hours and hours of overtime to have money for bills and presents. Hopefully next week he will be able to slow down a bit because the boy is pooped. It will be nice to feel like we are getting somewhere with present buying. Last year we decided that it would be a good idea to buy the girls presents first and then do everyone after, that way we knew that the most important people on the list definitely had their Christmas wishes fulfilled. It seemed to work really well so we are going to do it this year. They have really easy wish lists this year. Nothing that is really expensive or hard to find. Megan did put down a Nintendo Wii but we already told her that they are hard to find this Christmas and if she got that then she couldnt get anything else. She doesnt care if she gets one for Christmas or not because she knows that eventually we are getting one. All Victoria cares about is if she gets Hungry Hungry Hippos or not hehehe.

Yesterday I started making all the calls inviting all the family to our house for Christmas Eve. So far everyone I asked has said yes. I was very surprised. I still have a few more people to call and then we just have to find out what dish they are bringing. It feels kind of organized. Its a strange feeling hehe.

Well I better get going. Lots of stuff to do and not much time tonight left to do it in.

Yeah I Know, Ive Been Slack

A thousand times I have thought to write on her and havent. Perhaps its all this chilly weather we have been having that makes me want to curl up in a snuggly blanket and not do much. We keep getting weather advisories for bad weather coming but it never gets as bad as they say. One day they will get it right.

Let's see what have I been up to. I think the last time I wrote on her it was close to Thanksgiving. What can you say about Thanksgiving. The food was yummy. I can say that. Joe's dad was very erratic in his moods. One minute he was being all sweet and nice and the next minute he was screaming at children. When we ate dinner he turned the tv off and wouldnt allow any music so we were all sitting there in silence. It was really weird. You could just hear everyones cutlery and chewing. Lindsay, James, Joe and I were trying not to laugh at the end of our table. This was the first Thanksgiving without Joe's mum around so a big difference this year was that before we had even left he was putting on his shoes and getting ready to go visit his girlfriend or one of his girlfriends. We took the hint and went home. We are definitely going to have the family over to our house for Christmas. We dont want to go through that again. Oh one thing was good. I made some of my mums butterscotch popcorn to bring over and everyone loves it. They couldnt get enough. James said I can give him a bucket of that for Christmas and he would be happy.

Knitting wise I have been working on a couple of orders that I got. Yesterday I finished up the mittens for Joe's Grandma. I hope she really likes them. Its pretty chilly so I think she will be over to pick them up pretty soon hehe. I also got an order from the knitted things that I have on Louella's Goodies website. Its just for a baby hat and matching booties but its still an order. The booties are made and Im almost done with the hat. The hat is taking me longer than usual because I am using teeny tiny size 2 double pointed needles to knit them. Once those are done I have Christmas present knitting to do and try to get a bear made for the yarn shop. I am making Victoria's teacher a scarf and giving her the first felted tote I made. Im thinking about putting an apple on it but I dont know if thats too cliche. She is kind of young. Maybe I will put an M on it because her first name starts with an M. I want to knit Victoria's bus driver some fingerless mittens so she can keep her hands warm while driving in this cold weather. I am thinking as well as the fleece blankets that I am making the girls, I am going to make them some socks. Victoria just loves her pink socks that I knit her and I think Megan would love another pair to wear to bed. I was also thinking of making Lindsay a scarf in the extremely soft light blue yarn that Walmart is trying to get rid of. If they have 2 balls of it left in that colour when we go shopping then Im going to make it for her. That girl is always cold. One day I would like to make her a big fuzzy blanket because she needs one hehe.

We are almost done with our Christmas decorating. For those of you who dont know, my husband is Christmas Crazy!! We call him Christmas Elf Joe. He has more Christmas CDs than anyone I have ever known and when we decorate we dont just put up a tree. Its an all out effort but it looks pretty in the end. There are lights all around the celing, things on the walls and shelves and since we moved to our new house, lights outside as well. I will have to take pictures once the extravaganza is completed. Every year Joe and I take turns on picking the lights and tinsel that go on the tree and the lights around the room. This year was my turn. I chose to have clear lights and very sparkly gold tinsel on the tree, multi coloured lights with sparkly white tinsel around the loungeroom and the red/green lights with silver tinsel in the dining room. Its all very shiny. Christmas is always fun with Joe around. He makes you want to be in the Christmas spirit.

Well I guess I better get going. I have some aprons I am suppose to be cutting out right now for the Girl Scout Troop. I promise the next post will have pictures and be written within this week.
I hope everyone is getting into the Christmas craziness like we are.

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.

Autumn On Maple St

I went photo taking on Sunday afternoon because it was sunny and warm outside but there are tons of colourful leaves. Victoria and I decided to go for a walk. Megan wasnt home of course because she is the sleepover queen. It was a good thing a took lots of photos on Sunday because if you go outside right now alot of the pretty leaves arent even there. They have all blown away with the wind.

This first shot was taken halfway up the end of our street so you can see all the trees in the background. Please note that we live in a very small town of less than 700 so its not a bustling city hehe.


I just thought that this shot was a symbol of the season with the corn stalks and the pumpkins that people put out to decorate for the upcoming Halloween. We are off to get our pumpkins to carve on Saturday. I like to save the pumpkin seeds we scoop and bake them up. They are then tossed in the sweet and salty mixture. Victoria just loves them and so does my brother in law. I will have to save some for him. There will definitely be lots. Now lets see if tradition prevails and it is cold, windy and rainy with perhaps even some snowflakes the day we get our pumpkins.


I just loved how this tree was so huge and sprawling with so many golden leaves still on it. It looks like its made of gold. This tree is next to a house that Victoria likes to call The Gingerbread House. I think she calls it that because its kind of like a salmony colour with cream trim and trim is very decorative like a gingerbread house would look. Thats the only thing I can think of hehe.


Up our end of the street there is a tree that has dropped its leaves, it seems, almost instantly because they are piled up everywhere. They are perfect for tossing, kicking and stomping on. Victoria and I often walk up that way just to play in the leaves. I hope the people that have their house next to it arent trying to keep the pathway clear of leaves otherwise we are probably getting dirty looks when we go through hehe.


Last but not least, this is Mandy. She lives in our street and is the sweetest dog you ever met. Whenever we go by there we have to stop and give her pats and love. She almost instantly lays on her back for belly rubs. Her owners tell us she would let you love her all day long if you want to and I believe it. Megan would like to kidnap her and love her forever. She does have a little sidekick thats a mostly white Jack Russell. I took some photos of her and more of Mandy but this was my favourite. Doesnt she look like she is smiling. She always looks like she is smiling. You cant be sad around this puppy.


I went to my knitting group this week thinking that I would be the only one there, knowing Mrs Hadley couldnt make it. I thought maybe someone new would turn up and what a pity if they felt no one cared so I went anyway. To my surprise two other ladies joined me today. One lady was an elderly lady who said her grandmother taught her how to knit when she was 12 so she has been knitting over 50 years. I felt humbled by how much more experience I knew she had more than me by hearing this. She was working on a pair of socks using that self striping yarn in a fuschia colour. They looked very cool. She was telling me some other projects she has at home still waiting to be finished so I think she sees this as an opportunity to get her projects done. The other lady is in her 40s I think. I have seen her around because she is a cleaning lady at the schools and spoken to her a few times before. She apparently use to do alot of knitting for charities and hospitals. I think she just enjoyed the opportunity to sit and knit for a while. She seems like a busy lady. So we sat and talked knitting for an hour and a half and had a good time. Mrs Hadley will be so excited to hear of the new people. I just hope they come back and our group gets bigger and bigger.

I have been working on a baby blanket using yarn from the local church because they requested baby blankets for their mission. Its going kind of slow so I put that aside today to work on some stitchmarkers. I now have 10 sets made. I will have to get a shot. Tomorrow I think I will work on how I should present them for the shop owner to display. I have an idea Im just not sure if it will work yet. I also sat down for a minute today and started knitting my felted knitting bag that I bought the yarn for forever ago and never started it. Fingers crossed that will work the way I want it to.

All Sorts Of Topics

I made Victoria a pair of socks this week. I found a pattern for toddler socks and thought she might like a pair. She just loves them, especially because they are the same colour as mine. She doesnt want to take them off when she has them on. I have noticed that when she wears them it makes her wiggle her toes hehe. She also likes the fact that they slide well on the floor. Always a good thing hehe. They didnt take me long to make at all.


This is the pattern I ordered off Etsy last Friday and received yesterday. Isnt he just the cutest. I am going to have to get the supplies I need to make him and make one as soon as I can. I usually try to make the girls something for Christmas and Victoria saw his photo and really liked him so I think she might have to get one. The pattern is a little strangely written but I think I can figure it out. Its not the steps that are confusing its the construction that seems confusing. I think once I have the pieces in front of me it will make more sense. I need to get some fluffy yarn, Im thinking Sensations Angel Hair because its so so soft, some eyes and some pellets to put in his butt, arms and legs. This will be my first time putting pellets in one of my toys. I have to also make the little pouches to put the pellets in so they dont go everywhere. It should be a real learning experience.


We went to Allegany State Park a couple of weeks ago. We usually go there the first Saturday in October because the weather is still nice but the leaves are all changing to pretty colours. I really wanted to take some photos of the leaves so off we went. I always wish we could stay longer when we go. Victoria was dying to go on the paddle boats but we will have to do that another time. We took a bunch of photos. The leaves werent changed as much as usual because it hasnt been as cool as it normally is this time of year. Some photos I cheated and took while we were driving in the car. Most of them came out better than I thought they would hehe. The full tree picture was taken in the car. Can you tell?



My friend Natalie picked up the two cotton blankets and hat that I had made for her a couple of months ago. She was excited to receive them and I was excited to get the money for them hehe. I am thinking that I am going to use part of my money to buy the can of purple paint that I need finish Victoria's room. She will be happy to have her room finished and I will be happy to have finally completed a whole room. Im not sure what I will do with the rest. All the choices and good use it could be put towards.

Oh also yesterday I received my pink swarovski butterflies I had ordered. They are so cute. A little smaller than I pictured but very pretty. I have now discovered that they arent going to go well on my pink bag because they blend in with the colour too much. I am going to hold onto them for another purpose. I have found some other butterflies that I already owned that look much better. I dont know why I didnt check them first. I also got my 8mm closed jumprings for my stitchmarkers. They are great. I couldnt resist trying them out. I made a set of stitchmarkers with them and they work wonderfully. Much better than the way I was doing it before. I think I will be buying more of them. I want to have a few sets made before I take them into the yarn shop. I still have to figure out how I am going to package them. I havent decided the best way yet.

Well thats all I can think of right now. I should be in bed. I woke up with a massive migraine today that lasted until about 3pm. Just in time to finish up tidying up the house for the visitors we had over today. Now I need some sleep to fully recover from today.

My First Felting Disaster

Today I just finished knitting up the mint green bag that I was planning out all this pretty stuff I was going to to do it. I put it in the washing machine to felt all excited about how it was going to look when it was all done. Well I pulled it out at the end to find that it hadnt felted at all. Thinking maybe it was a slow felting wool I put it back in the machine and started it up again. I decided to get online and look up the brand of wool that I was using to see if it said it was good for felting or not. It says its 100% wool and to hand wash it so I assumed that it was feltable. I found a review page for this wool and all these people had been complaining that it doesnt felt and it wasnt written on the label that it was the type of wool that doesnt felt. I wish I had of read all that before I made it hehe. I know, I know, your suppose to test swatch before you felt but I hate test swatching for felting. It feels like Im wasting precious yarn and whatever it turns out when it comes out is what it is. I had gone out and bought 2 more balls of this stuff to finish up this bag. Oh well, I think I can salvage it all. I stuck the bag in the dryer and I am going to unravel it all and make it into something else. I just found a pattern for the cutest cable stitch bag that I think I am going to modify. Now if I cant unravel it, then I will be annoyed but I think I will be able to. If the cable bag doesnt work out then I will just knit some socks, at least I know they will be washable hehe.


Now here's a bag that I had some success with. This is the Victorian Pink bag that I mentioned before. I just got on Etsy on Friday night and ordered some swarovski crystal butterflies to sew onto it. They are tiny little things but I think they will look cute if I do it right. I am trying to figure out how I want to put my flower design on. I wish I had the tools and more knowledge to needle felt. I think I would needle felt them on for a more solid looking design. My other options are to use wool embroidery thread or cross stitch embroidery thread which is smoother. Im not sure yet. I think Im going to wait until my butterflies get here for inspiration. Didnt this bag turn out so pretty though. Its like the green one but bigger in size.


I also did a little more Etsy shopping on Friday. Its always so hard to choose what to get when I have the chance to buy off Etsy. It takes me forever to decide. Joe always has a good giggle at me when I do. I bought the cutest teddy bear knitting pattern which is coming from England. I asked and the lady doesnt mind if I sell ones that I make so in my head I am planning all sorts of colour combinations and yarn choices for this little guy who's name is Horace. I also bought some silver jumprings for my stitchmarkers and some solid perfume in lavender scent. I use to own some solid perfume a long time ago and loved it. The smell lasted a long time when I wore it. I managed to find some solid perfume made from all natural ingredients and lavender essential oil so it smells like real lavender, not that fake smelling stuff. Real lavender is my favourite smell. Today I checked the mail and to my surprise two of my purchases had already arrived. The jumprings and perfume arrived. The perfume lady also sent me some little handmade soap samples. They smell really good. One is Sandalwood and Vanilla and the other one is Spearmint and Orange. Very good stuff. Its always nice to get extra little things when you order from Etsy.

Last week the girls and I made Halloween cookies. Actually they did most of it. I was just the assistant. I was so nice because they both had alot of fun and didnt argue the whole time. I just stood back and let them do them however they wanted. Joe the cookie monster liked how they turned out too. He says they need to make more of them hehe. The second shot is of Victoria with her cookies. Her photo came out dark but I think if you click on it you might be able to make it out better.

Some Works In Progress

Here is the bag that Im working on at the moment. This is it pre felting. I just felted it in the washing machine last night, its stuffed and drying at the moment. I am trying to think of what I want to do to decorate it. The pink turned out so pretty all felted. I am thinking about embroidering some tulips and buying some pink swarovski crystal butterflies to fly around the tulips. Its just an idea thats floating around.


Here is the moss green felted bag that I just sewed the ribbon to the other day. Its finally all finished. I clipped my Ipod Shuffle to the top to show its size. You can also see the little pouch that goes with this bag. I put two snaps in the top so if you put little things in the pouch they wont fall out. I think I like how this turned out. The bag fits alot more that you would think in it even though its little. I think that is because the wool kind of stretches as you add things which gives you more room. The dimensions of the bag are 7 inches high and 8 inches across. The little pouch is 3.5 inches high and 4 inches across.


Here is the lovely Megan showing off her new Cashmerino knitted hat made by her mummy for her birthday. She says she likes it much better now that its fixed. I think that I wish I could have been able to add even a few more rows but as long as she likes it then I guess its ok.


These are the stitch markers I have been working on. The blue ones are for up to size 8 needles and I think they turned out pretty good. I have been putting my stitch markers on these coilless pins which can also be used as small stitch holders. The green stitch markers are a work in progress. I need to buy some big jumprings that would fit on size 11 needles and adjust the loops on these to fit the jumprings. They are currently sized for size 5 needles and I feel they are too heavy for such skinny needles. I now need to buy more beads and such to make more creations or just play around with the beads that I have.



I spoke the the lady that owns Falconer Yarn Loft today. She was calling me back about the bear that I want that I saw in her store before. She was able to speak with the lady that makes them and she said that she will make me one for $50. I should have bought it when it was $40 hehe. She said that she just sold one for $85 so I guess I am getting it at a bargain price. He is made from handspun alpaca yarn and oh so cute. I asked if she would get her to make me one and I will pay him off bit by bit. Its been years since I got a fancy bear and I miss them. All of mine are sitting in Australia at the moment. Oh except for Buzz who is sitting on the cd cabinet. He was sent to me for my birthday. I would love to start collecting handmade bears again. I have 5 of them at the moment. My most special one is sitting in my sisters house right now. Im not sure if its called Bearnapping or Bearsitting but he has been staying there for a few years now and currently resides in Olivia's room. I should be calling her she because her name is Sugar and she is pink. The lady at the Yarn Loft said that she is going to give me the pattern for the bear that I want and some yarn. I think from what she said she would like it if I made some for the store because she loved it too and wants to sell them. She said she doesnt have the time to make them but would love to have them all over her shop. I just hope that the pattern isnt too hard but I will give it a go.

Finally I Can Blog Something

I have been wanting to type something for days and days but havent had the chance. Last night I finally sat down to type and upload some photos when our internet decided it just didnt want to work. So here I am on Friday night finally able to do a catch up.

Its been a busy week or so now with having two kiddies in school and a Megan birthday had last Saturday, with some painting and knitting on top of that. Whoever kept telling me that I would be able to sit and relax with Victoria at school was telling fibs. I have been trying to get painting done before the weather gets bad and cant paint anymore. I just want to have one room accomplished before its all said and done. If I can get the purple paint for Victoria's room this weekend then I just might accomplish that. All the pink on the two walls and trim for those two walls are done. Give me some purple paint and a week and I will have the other half done. Its looking very pretty and girly. She is very excited. Although the prettiness kind of got tainted last night when Joe bought Victoria a big Spiderman dressed in black poster. Im trying to create a pretty pink and purple with butterflies room and now we have to have Spiderman on the wall. Oh well I guess it definitely shows Victoria's personality.

The first photo that you see are the socks that I made for Megan's birthday. She loves them and thinks they are very soft. I got the feeling she wants more socks and will voice it when the weather gets colder. She loved all the other stuff. I also made her a green cloche hat that I have yet to take a photo of. I made it out of the debbie bliss cashmerino stuff I bought which is oh so soft. To be truthful the hat was going to be for me but when I put it on I didnt like how it looked on me and thought it would look better on Megan. I just happened to finish it the night before Megan's birthday. When she put it on she liked it but wasnt sure about it for one of the reason I wasnt sure about it. It felt like it was too short and didnt cover your ears properly. I was lucky enough to have a little of the ball left over and told her I would undo the hat before the decreasing and add some length. After doing this 3 times before closing up the top I finally got it to the length she liked and its all ready to wear. If I didnt fix it, it would have just got tossed aside and never worn, this way it will get used because its wearable now so I guess the time was worth it. Oh yeah, as I suspected when Megan opened her fingerless mittens all her friends now want a pair. Hailey has requested a red and black pair of the longer cable kind for her birthday in November.


Last weekend I finally got to a yarn shop that I had been dying to check out ever since I found out where it was. We dont usually go shopping in this area so when I knew we were going near there I just had to go. It is actually not just a yarn shop. Its got a little bit of everything and called The Art Trunk. Lots of painting, scrapbooking, beads, stamps, sewing and knitting supplies. Something for everyone. Joe even found something in there he wanted. I got the pink ball of yarn that you see below. The colour is called Victorian Rose so of course I had to get it. Its halfway to being a felted bag right now. Joe got two big pieces of fleece with a deer on it that he asked if I would sew into a blanket for him to snuggle in. I got out my sewing machine the other day and it took me about hour altogether to make his blanket and now he is very happy. He used it last night because he isnt feeling well at the moment. I will have to take a photo of that. I have been trying to catch up on some sewing projects that I have been putting off so my sewing machine and everything has been crowding our kitchen this week. I would love a sewing table. Megan asked me for a gym bag a few weeks ago and we have been buying the stuff for it for a few weeks now. It would have been done a couple of days ago but we discovered we need two more yards of this rope stuff for the other handle and then it will be done. Its black with pink and white polka dots. I will have to take a photo of it in all its glory. I am currently sewing the ribbon trim on the moss green felted bag and mini bag I made a few weeks ago. Its almost done. A few more sewing projects and I can put the sewing away for a while until another day. Sewing is not my strong point.


A few weeks ago I bought this wool yarn from the local craft shop because it was on sale. Its usually $6 a ball and I got it for $2.30. It looks like a more minty green in real life than it does here. Its very soft for wool but its going to have to be a bag of some sort. I have neglected the bag making for a while so I should get back into it.


I dont know how well you can see this photo. Perhaps if you click on it you can see it better. I have been thinking for a long time about teaching myself how to make stitch markers. I have seen them on Etsy so much and think they look so pretty. The lady at the Falconer Yarn Loft thinks that her customers would really like them and suggested that if I do make some to bring them in. I have only ever dabbled in jewelry making so its all very new to me. I just love beads and buttons and all that stuff so it should be fun just trying. I have started to buy things that I will need to create them and add them to the already cool bead collection that my big sis sent me for my birthday this year. The other night I pulled all the stuff out and just thought I would give it a go. Boy working with wire is alot harder than I thought but I think I could get better with lots of practice. I did make two sets of stitch markers. Ones for up to size 5 needles and ones for up to size 8 needles. The ones for the up to size 5 needles I am going to have to adjust because the beads feel too heavy for such a skinny needle. They will have to be for up size 11 or something. I will take a couple of shots to show my first attempts. I have been making 4 stitch markers the same and one stitch marker slightly different to be used to show the start of the row. That is how I have seen people do it and it made sense to me. It was definitely fun trying out different bead and combinations. I can see how you could go crazy buying all sorts of bead and little things to add.


Well this turned out to be alot longer of a post than I thought it would. I guess I had alot to say hehe. I am going to make more of an effort to post on here, about twice a week. I know when I read other peoples blogs that its always exciting when there's a new post added and the more often something is added the better the blog I think. It keeps you interested. Nothing worse than the same old stuff.

Its Spiderman And A Finished Project!

I finally got Victoria to try on her Spiderman costume today. She looks so funny and is very impressed with her muscles hehe. I dont know how long she will wear the mask on Halloween just because its covering her face but at least I have these photos to show her in her full outfit. In the first shot she is shooting her web just like Spiderman.



Here she is with her mask off with all those rippling musles hehe.



I had to include this photo of Victoria reading to Ringo the other day. He sat there for about 10 minutes while she read to him. I dont know if it was the riveting story or the fact that she was sitting right in the sunny spot that kept him there for so long.


Here are the other fingerless mittens that I made for Megan's birthday. I hope they all fit her ok. I just started the socks tonight. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have enough yarn to make a full pair.


Im going to have to post some photos of Megan because Victoria seems to be hogging all the limelight these days. Its hard to believe but Megan doesnt like her photo being taken as much as she use to. Its different when her friends are around but by herself not as much.

Oh did I mention that I finished the Harry Potter book a couple of weeks ago. It was very good. I cant believe there wont be any more. I will now have to eagerly await the movies as they come out. I dont know what I will do once all the movies have come out. I guess I will know how Joe felt when the last Star Wars movie came out. I loved the chapter all about Snape when he was younger because it was full of information that answered alot of questions throughout the whole series. I also loved the final 19 years later chapter. That was just so cute and I cant wait to see that part in the final movie.

I was talking to the librarian today about making the patterns that come out the novels by Debbie Macomber and raffling them off at the library. The library and I would then split the profit from the raffle. She loved the idea. At the start of each book they have the knitting pattern that goes with the story. The first one is a baby blanket, the second one is a pair of socks and the one that I am reading right now is a prayer shawl. The librarian mentioned having them done before Christmas because people would be thinking about Christmas presents at that time. I said that sounded like a good idea and I would see what I could do. Hmm I have some planning to do.

She's A Big Girl Now!

Victoria had her very first day of Preschool today. She was very excited. She only goes for about 3 hours in the afternoon but she cant get enough of it. She told me all about it when she got off the school bus. Yep she rode the bus to and from school all by herself. Luckily they pick her up right outside our house and drop her off outside our house too, which is going to be very good in the winter time. I think she was surprised at how much fun and how much playing she got to do. We went shopping on the weekend and got her a few new outfits. She got this dress and some mary jane shoes for the first day. She doesnt usually wear dresses but loves the twirliness of this one. She doesnt want to take the shoes off which Im surprised because I thought she was a sneaker girl. They remind me of school shoes we had to wear and groaned about. Oh if your wondering why Victoria has a strange look on her face in this photo, its because apparently you have to say 'Cheese Pizza' when someone takes your photo these days. School photos are next week, can you imagine what they are going to look like hehehe.


Here she is with her Spiderman backpack on because SHE IS SPIDERMAN. She cant wait to go back to school which she will have to wait until Thursday. They start going just about every day starting next week. I think we have another school junkie on our hands.


Here are the fingerless mittens all done that I made for myself. I have worn them about three times now. They keep your hands really warm and you can still do things while wearing them. Very excellent.


These are the fingerless mittens that I made for Megan. I like hers better than mine. They are so soft and the colour is great. Its still a secret until her birthday. On the weekend I bought some Caron Simply Soft in Charcoal Heather to make the other fingerless mittens for Megan. I tried the orangey coloured yarn and its too thin for the pattern so I had to find an alternative. I think this colour will go with more outfits. I am hoping to get them started tonight. Only 12 days until Megan's birthday and I still have to knit her some socks. I found a pattern for some sockettes that I could make out of the orangey pink yarn that was too thin for the other project. For some strange reason the pattern doesnt give you a gauge so Im hoping it will still work.


I met a lady who volunteers at the library last week and she is having a baby boy at any time. I have spoken to her a couple of times before but not as much as the other day. She seemed so nice that I thought I would knit her a little gift for her soon to be arriving little boy. It was just a quick little project over the weekend but I hope she likes it. I dropped it off at the library earlier today for the librarian to give to her.