Let them eat cake

Chocolate cake even!!
Amanda made this on her own - I set up the oven and gave a couple of hints but this is a work of her own hands. (And it's good ... really, I'm even eating it!)

Amy is bringing her one copy of No Sheep For You to Lettuce Knit tonight!! Yes, I'm totally going to be there. Must see my Jenna's cabled sweater... Amanda is coming with me - I had to actually bribe her away from skating. Kerwyn is going to be home not early (not a newsflash or anything) and I didn't want her walking with Kyle to the arena & back in the dark. Normally she would love to go on an outing with me but the child loves her public skating!! No matter, no price is too high tonight. Don't tell her that though!!

Meet some of My People

They're not knitters but they're family so you love them anyway.

Uncle Grant (my mom's brother)

Aunt Pam (his wife)

Daphne (my sister)

Daphne, Uncle Wayne's head (another brother of my mother), my dad & I playing Solo. This is a great game - I don't know anyone outside of my family who plays it so I try not to forget how to play intelligently in between Gatherings.

There's more relations but Amanda was the Photographeur du Jour and this is what we've got. Amanda had a great time with her cousin Chantal; Kyle solved a wood puzzle that my uncle Wayne had made. It seems simple enough but making a square out of those shapes was a lot harder than it looks. Kyle was doggedly persistent and didn't give up - way to go Kyle!





Here we are in the first few minutes of 2007. This is the first year that we've allowed Amanda to stay up & she had Kaylie over. MMM had the Top 50 Guilty Pleasures videos - mostly 80's stuff. Talk about memory lane - it was great!!








This is Linda Gibbons. She is an advocacy consultant and is helping me work through the IPRC & IEP process so that Kyle can have some consistent help at school so that he can be more than just "full of potential". It's an exhausting dance - you have to give a lot to have a meaningful collaboration and it's reassuring to have someone with experience helping me learn the steps.

I got this lovely package today. I have signed up for Chatelaine's Mystery X - a year long cross stitch mystery. I'm hoping that I will be able to keep up each month. Some keeners already have their January piece stitched; I'm going for a more leisurely pace way slower than that. ECC did a really beautiful job of packaging this up - it's almost a shame to have to break it open. They even put in a set of needles!!

I will take some un-informative pictures of my knitting tomorrow!!

I'm still here ...

I won't tire you with excuses for my absence, but I haven't been sitting idle eating bon bons.

I have the body of Amanda's Stop & Go sweater done. I will not have enough yarn to make 2 long sleeves so I will use 1/2 of what I have for each one and that is the length that they will be. She is not entirely pleased, but I have pointed out that 3/4 sleeves are tres vogue right now.

The Cropped Vero sweater is flowing off of the needles with a life of its own. The sleeves are a k1, p1 rib with a k2 tossed in. I don't know as how it's worth the effort - it hardly makes a difference on the RS of the fabric. Ah well.

I finished the vest for Elise & I'm going to start on a 2nd version with more masculine colours. It's going to be wonderful!! She also gave me this yarn to work into a shawl/scarf. The slightly temperamental nature of these yarns is worth working through for the stunning results. I probably won't have any progress pictures as the construction & shape of the project are simple and yet quite unique. (As soon as I have any details to share about this book you will be the fist to know!)

I'm starting on the 1st sweater for Kristi - it's stockinette so there's not much to see, but I'll try to get a picture up this week.

Kyle is sick. I feel a bit bad for him but he better just keep his icky germs to himself.
Amanda is having a great time - Kerwyn is taking her to all sorts of public skates, many of them sponsored by Tim Hortons. When we lived in Milton it just wasn't worth saving the $7 for a family to go to these sponsored skates - the arenas were so packed it was more like milling about than skating. I swear, skating is such a cheap entertainment it astounds me that so many more people come out when it's free. It wasn't nearly so crowded at the arenas up here and she was given a free Tim Hortons tuque.

I'm Down Like That!

I told Kerwyn that this would happen - the jive talk has finally rubbed off onto me!! Word.
FYI Kyle - I am cool like that. FoShizzle.
Go Gizoogle for yourself.

Thanks Julia - that's the best laugh that I've had in a long time dog!!

Ma Belle Gymnaste

And while she's balancing, cartwheeling & tumbling I'm knitting away.
Debra's jacket is done. The yarn is Schachenmayr's Lusso. Interesting stuff. I believe that it's an older yarn, no longer available, but if you can get it on sale it's worth it. Oh yeah - ignore the fancy safety pin "buttons". I've marked out the exact button positions for Debra as I didn't have buttons to put on. I think that picking out buttons after finishing is the best way. You can make a buttonhole that suits the trim & yarn and then find a button that complements the yarn & style of the garment and that will fit perfectly.

The Naturally Vero (col#11) sweater is coming along. This is a super soft single ply with a long colour change - à la Noro. It's feels wonderful sliding through my fingers and around the needles but I have to pay a bit more than the usual attention as it splits easily, but it's pros outweigh this con. The woven rib/seed stitch pattern is involved but once you get the hang of it you can work without being tied to the pattern. Note to Naturally: A graph would have been nice. The colours are really nice.
Amanda's Stop & Go is going! She wants it a bit longer than the pattern & I think that I'll have enough yarn to do that. She is more optimistic about its completion. Good Mom award here I come!

I'm still waiting on the one colour to finish Elise's vest, but she's sent me more colours to do up another one so I'll swatch that out. The yarn is slightly lighter in weight so we may have to tweak the pattern.
Chic Knits. See the sweater in the top right-hand corner? Yup, I knit that!! It's wonderful yarn to work with & the variegation works out in a pleasing manner. I don't think that I knew the name of the company that produced it - I'm sure that Bonne will let us know.