Always look on the bright side of life

So when you are reading this I’ll be long gone on our way to our cabin that means a ferry trip and canoe ride in. I’m so happy that His Tallest and Mini-me are hiking in and leaving Maylee and I at the marina then coming to get us and the packs via canoe. Yay I don’t have to walk it, good thing it’s a 30 hr or longer hike uphill and down on a logging road. The fun!

Yesterday we went to see Spamalot and that’s why we haven’t left yet we got good tickets (row D centerish)! I loved it, Eric Idle did such a fantastic job making the Holy Grail into a musical. There was enough of the old lines mixed with new and music to make it absolutely perfect. If you get a chance to see this musical, go get tickets now! My favourite by far is Sir Robin’s songs and Lancelot. lol loved it! I won’t spoil anything for anyone Well below are pictures of my lastest work-in-progress, it’s my ssssoft slytherin sock and the yarn was from my HSKS pal. It’s super soft and will make nice house socks in house colours, lol. Sorry for the craptatic picture of the sock with the Spamalot set I took the pictures really fast at the end of the show and they were quickly tearing down the set because this was their last show in Vancouver and they open in Edmonton on Tuesday I believe. I need to remember to put the camera on the correct setting when I’m taking sock pictures! Anyway, off I go to catch our ferry to Galiano I can’t wait to get back to island time it’s so much easier to relax. I promise when I get back pictures especially Maylee pictures in the canoe, she loved it last year and it was slightly difficult making sure she didn’t jump out to retrieve stuff like driftwood and birds! Also when I get back I’m sure I’ll have some FOs to show as well. Happy Knitting everyone!

1. Sock in Progress at Spamalot, 2. Spamalot set with sock in progress, 3. Slytherin Socks, 4. It’s a Colourful Life Sweet — custom cotton/lycra yarn in Slytherin

Catching up: The photo version

Been a little busy lately and haven’t had time to share all the FO’s and give updates on my WIP’s, so here’s a wordpress update. Yarn pr0n included

1. Voyager Stole WIP closeup, 2. Sock of Summer pair #4, 3. Pearl’s Lacy Diamond Socks WIP, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Kaylee Socks, 7. Slytherin Mini-sock, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. Untitled, 11. Untitled, 12. Kraemer Yarns Tatamy Tweed Birch, 13. Tatamy Tweed Forest14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

This mosiac was a week or so ago and involved me knitting on the back porch with some tasty juice that my secret pal sent me and Maylee. You see she being a happy dog decided as I was knitting that she would roll on her back for a belly rub because it was nice and sunny out and well she needed a belly rub. One problem her waggy tail knocked over my glass of tasty blueberry pomegranate iced tea!! I am so happy to report that nothing spilt on me nor my knitting and you can tell that she was a proud klutz because she is grinning in the picture I took right after checking to make sure my knitting and everything else was safe. Well off to our knitting meetup we go, (didn’t make it due to a yarn disaster that needed to be fixed) hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather.

Secret Pal Question of the Week #6

I think I missed #5 must get back to that one later.

Questions #6
What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?\

Hmm  can you guessa/  My lasted FO is a huge hint

Bloody News socks or the Bloody Baron socks for me!
Yarn: Crystal Palace Maizy in News colourway
Needles: 2.5 mm (US 1 1/2)
Size: Womens 6 1/2
Started: July 5th
Finished: July 14th
Notes: This is my 4th pair for Socks of Summer sorry if I’m behind on posting FO’s might have missed some! I love this yarn, it’s soft and squishy! Some have complained that it is spiltty and the bright colours tend to run, but I have had neither problems.

I also got some Ravenclaw coloured yarn from my HSKS 4 angel Neila.  She wasn’t informed about my allergies and sent me this awesome package, but I sent her the wool yarn back and she sent me some that I’m not allergic to.  Panda Cotton and Maizy, yum.  Thank you Neila!

Thanks Secret Pal!!

So I got my first SP 12 package yesterday! I love everything and I feel so spoiled. My secret pal knows that I tend to find out the identity of most pals who are secret by clues like e-mail address, given clues etc…, so look what my crafty pal did! It was a wee bit hard to keep my daughter, Mini-me from “borrowing” some of my goodies in the package. I love the theme which is summer, so the package was wrapped in yellow tissue and were all in theme.

Below you will see the picture of the package in it’s glory. My pal sent me three drink mixes: Mango Marg, Lime Marg and Pina Colada to enjoy in the summer sun! Yummy. To keep hydrated there is the tastiest Nestea Pomegranate Blueberry mix, it is soo good. Also there are pretty stitchmarkers, wonderful smelling orange sorbet candles, flower kiss hard candies and a beautiful shade of Handmaiden Sea silk. I almost forgot Honeydew melon soft lips with SP 15 to protect my lips from the hot sun. I’m crossing my fingers that I won’t have issues with it because it smells so good. Thank you so much SP for the wonderfully fantastic package! I can’t wait to find the perfect pattern that the pumpkin sea silk! It is normally not a colour I’d get because I look funny in orange, but I love the deep spiced pumpkin colour that looks good on me! I hope your pal has been good to you as you have been to me. (((hugs)))

Edited to add:  opps I almost forgot the jasmine tea ball.  I love jasmine tea and I love tea balls, once I brew this up I’ll post pictures

It’s meme time!

I decided it’s been awhile since I’ve posted a meme and I’ve seen this meme all over the place.  Since Rochelle tagged anyone reading her journal, so here’s my answers.

1. Where was I 10 years ago?

F/T student to finishing my High School Diploma (it took me a while, but I was raising a baby at a young age with the support of my parents), grieving my best friend’s sudden death, a single parent of a cute little toddler and working under the table occasionally delivering flyers.

2. 5 things on today’s to-do list.

do a 1/2 hr. Pilates workout

Do some baking or crafting with mini-me

Give May her meds and groom her

Make dinner

Do some cleaning around the house

3. Snacks I enjoy.

Oreos

Dried ginger and/or mango

fresh strawberries

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.

Buy a new house with a small house on the property for my mom

Purchase a cabin on the Gulf Islands that doesn’t require an 45 min. hike like my in-laws or just buy a brand-new sailboat and the a new cabin on Philmore Point, maybe even buyout all the annoying neighbours and make my m-in-laws life much easier

Get a cool hybrid car and chauffeur for me & May and a new hybrid car for HIs Tallest

Make a huge lump sum donation to our guide dog school, cancer society and diabetes society in the memory of my dad

Open my own yarn store that specializes in no sheep yarns only

5. Places I have lived.

Surrey, BC, Delta, BC, Richmond, BC, Vancouver, BC, Burnaby, BC

San Rafael, CA (for one month of guide dog school)

6. Jobs I have had.

Flyer delivery girl

Boatswain on cadet yag cruises (volunteer)

(evil) outbound sales rep for local papers

retention rep for local papers (got people to pay their bills over the phone who were overdue as well as renew customers subscriptions)

Inbound Customer Service Rep (included billing, tech support, troubleshooting etc.. for long distance, wireless and internet provider)

File Clerk

Office Temp

Admin. Assistant

Receptionist

Legal Admin. Assistant

SAHM (stay at home mom)
7. Who would I like to know more about?

I’ll leave it open to anyone who wants to play just like Rochelle did.

SP 13 Question #4

So you may notice that I chose not to answer last week’s question about the “perfect size stash”. I don’t have room for my current stash, yet I still add to it and I don’t have room for my dream stash, which is not as big as you think. Once Mini-me eventually moves out of our house or we sell this one and purchase a larger one that will give me a Knitting room, I decided not to think to hard about it. So onto Question #4

The “perfect sized” stash was a tough question for many of you to answer. Maybe these stash related questions will be easier:

1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?
2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

Hmm Let’s see the yarn that I don’t have or haven’t used that would make my stash “complete”  Thanks to some fantastic swap pals a lot of the yarns that I only dreamed of trying is now in my stash (hugs thanks to you all!) Honestly I have been drooling over Misti International’s Pima Silk (rav link) in either Olive Khaki, Khaki,  or Brown to make a hat out of.  I almost bought some online, but came to my senses before I paid for that and a whole bunch more yarn that I don’t have room for!  I have to destash more yarn before I purchase more especially since I made an order last week for two sweaters worth of Tatamy Tweed Worsted (rav link) in Forrest and Birch.  The Tatamy Tweed was on the list of yarns that would make my stash “complete” and now it’s on it’s way to me yay!

As for yarns that I never want to live without that would have to be Panda Cotton Handmaiden Sea Silk, SWTC soysilk (either Oasis or Pure) as well as their Bamboo and Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton (any type!).  Those are always in my stash and even though my Ravelry stash doesn’t show all of my yarn stash you can see all of these yarns there because they are my absolute favourites!

It’s too hot to knit….well almost! Plus the contest winners :-D

Wow is it hot out. I’ve been knitting on my Kaylee socks but not getting too far because my hands are sweating so much that it’s hard to knit! I think after I finish writing this post I’m going to take my knitting outside because I think there is now a bit of a breeze.

Maylee had her rush protocol immunotherapy (where they give her her allergy shot every half hour for a total of 7 hours to get her to the maintenance dose) on Thursday and it went fantastically well! So her next shot is on the 3rd then two weeks after that and then every month. Gee I wish that they had this option for humans, I’m still at every week, however I am on the last bottle and very close to my maintenance dose. It was very strange to be without my guide dog and using my white cane again. I did some knitting in a local coffeeshop J.J. Bean on Commercial Drive then headed to Starbucks to meet Mini-me to give her some money to go to a movie with friends. While at both coffeeshops, I worked on my Kaylee sock and got to the beginning of the heel. Knitting helped a lot to make those hours go a wee bit faster waiting till I got an update from the vet tech on how Miss May was doing.

So I have managed to finished two pairs of socks for SOS 2008 so far. Both following Fleegle’s Toe-up Sock Pattern. (rav link and non-rav link)

Well I’m sure you all have been waiting for this day and post not because of the wonderful socks I managed to knit and complete in one week but today being the day I post the winners of my blogiversary contest! I put all the entries for each prize in a spreadsheet and through the amount of entries in the random number gen and viola we have winners.

• Modern Classics by Louisa Harding is Edina
• Felted Crochet by Jane Davis is Stitchmeup (rav link)
• Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordh is Emily Wow this book is going all the way to France!!!
• and Knitscene Spring 2007 ( have an extra copy) is Julia
• Baby Bobbi Bear Kit is Laurie in Maine

Congrats to all the winners and I’ll be emailing you all sometime this week to get your address to ship you your winnings! Unless you do me a favour it beat me to it

Socks Away!

Socks of Summer 2008 started on June 21 and I casted on two toe up socks. One is Momma Monkey’s Kaylee pattern I wanted to this pattern to be my first completed pair of toe up socks in memory of the wonderful Momma Monkey aka Gigi Silva who lost her battle with Lupus early this year. She is well known for starting Socktopia and her fantastic sock designs. I had the pleasure of ordered one of her sock bags last year after seeing the link on the Socktopia site. I love the bag, I haven’t found another sock bag that I love more. I wanted to order more earlier this year only to find that her etsy store had disappeared. Sadly very shortly after her passing was publicly announced. It’s always so sad when someone so young, talented and vibrant is taken so soon.

I choose my Whimsy Pimsy Summer Cotton Sock Club Panda Cotton in the Black Light series (June colourway). Even though you can’t see the pattern clearly because it is a self-striping yarn I couldn’t bear to frog it. When I first got the yarn in the mail the first thing I said after jumping up and down was ooohhhh shiny! This hank was destined to become secret brown coat socks. This sock qualitfies for both Socks of Summer’08 and Seasons of Lace 2008!

The other toe-up sock I am currently knitting is from my May summer cotton sock club yarn, another Panda Cotton hand-painted dyed by Whimsy Pimsy called Garden Herbs. I’m using Fleegle’s toe-up no-flap, no hassle sock pattern I love this pattern, it is so KISS (keep it simple stupid!).

SP Question of the Week #2

Just quickly popping in to answer this and will put a normal post soon. Before I get to the question, Robyn the hostess with the mostess (my previous and super fab SP hostess) and owner of Robyn’s Nest welcomed another cutie into her family on the 17th, happy belated birthday Mack and congrats Robyn and family!!!

In many parts of the US and abroad, school’s out. Take a walk down memory lane for Week Two’s question:
As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

There was a lot I looked forward to when summer vacation was coming up as a kid. Mainly, reading all the books I wanted to, when I wanted to, spending all day at the pool and camping with my family. As I got older the camping trips lessened, which I truly was not happy about, but we’d try to make it to Alice Lake Harrison Hot Springs or Manning Park for some day trip or short long weekend camping trip at least once a year. There are many places in BC that we’d camp at and they are all beautiful. I’m hoping once my allergy shots start working and the same with Miss Maylee’s (poor girl!) that we will be able to go camping like I used to do when I was young. For now we have my in-laws cabin on Galiano Island to go and veg. Here’s some pictures of our trip at the end of last summer.

WWKIP Day and more

So after trying to figure out what the heck I’m going to name this post the above is all I could come up with! I want to begin with a picture of the non-lactose (ended up not being vegan because there was honey in the crust) chocolate mocha cheezecake I made for my birthday. The drink that is accompanying it is what I call Malibu Mango (it’s 1 part Malibu rum and 2 parts Mango puree shaken with ice) tasty but not as delicious as the cake. OMG it is sooo yummy and a huge hit in my house. I reminded me of a chocolate mousse cheesecake(from the Chocolate Lover’s cookbook I think I made it when I was 13) I made many, many years ago, but lactose free! I spent a nice Friday the 13th b-day with my family eating a tasty dinner and this delicious cake. I like having quiet dinners with my family instead of partying hard all night. I did a lot of partying when I was younger and it seems that I don’t feel the need to throw back lots of alcohol, dance all night and get so embarrassing wasted anymore. It’s good in a way because I don’t have to deal with the nasty hangover the next day. I did enjoy a few of those Mango drinks though, yum!

Yesterday was WWKIP day. I had a blast meeting some of the ladies from Raverly’s Terminal City Yarn Wranglers and we picked up a lovely gentleman (who also shares the same birthday as me! I so sorry I forgot your name!) at Vancouver’s Waterfront Station. He heard about WWKIP day on the CBC and decided to take his beautiful hand towel to knit out in public, so we invited him along. Well Caliope, our hostess of the Skytrain WWKIP group did the inviting and we did the urging her to! Thanks ladies and gentleman (there was six of us in total and one guide dog, my May :-)) it was a blast even if our plans were somewhat ruined by a medical emergency at Metrotown Station that backed up trains, cut off service to downtown Vancouver on the Expo line and killed out 2 pm run! These pictures where taken by Caliope (used with permission and edited by me in Picasa) so she is not in them. I had my camera with me, but didn’t actually take it out oops.

I appreciate all the people who have signed up for my blogiversary/birthday contest I’ve had lots of entries and I apologize if you haven’t gotten a personal reply from me I tried to do so for everyone at first but I found it overwhelming and too much time for me. So thank you everyone who has entered and even if I don’t get back to you if you told me in the comments what you wanted to be entered to win consider yourself entered. Good luck everyone and the winners will be announced at the end of June or slightly later.

Lastly I leave you with a picture of my lasted FO, it’s been a long time coming it’s my Grass Monkeys (Rav link) I’ll post details when I get a chance in the next post!