Uli's Creative Corner

I love sunny Fridays.  I love being at work early in the morning.  It's a great day when I get here by 7:30 am.  Why???? Because it's quiet and because it means that I didn't have a rushed morning.  It's a day when I didn't have to struggle with Erika by waking her much before her "natural" waking time, getting her ready and getting her to daycare.  It's a nice day.  Evan is having a daughter and Daddy day with her today.  So, they are still sleeping in.  And along with all of that......... I got a whole hour of extra sleep.

You know............. if I was a single Mom, I'd get no knitting done.  I once again was thinking last night how lucky I am that I have someone very special to share the parenting with.  We share getting Erika ready in the morning and we share and work with each other in the evenings so that each one of us gets a bit of personal time.  Yesterday Evan left for work at 5:30 am and didn't come home until almost 11 pm.  Wow....... what a day.  Erika and I had a fun evening but I sure didn't get a chance to pick up the knitting needles.  I did a little bit on a little surprise for someone special but that's about it.

It's my Mom's birthday today.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!  I made the Fleece Artist Shawl for her because she told me some time before Christmas that she was looking for a shawl for when her and Dad go to the German Club to meet their friends and go dancing (every Friday night).  She likes to wear short sleeves for dancing but then she gets cold when they are sitting down.  So she did go out and buy herself a shawl but I still decided I would make her one as well.  I really hope she likes it.  We're having a BBQ for them tomorrow afternoon so hopefully it will all turn out well.  I was supposed to go out and get the groceries last night but I didn't want to go out with Erika by myself.  It was a big grocery shop that needed to be done and I wanted to do that without chasing after a 2-year old.

I'm hoping for some good knitting time this weekend.  This week so far feels like it's been a bit of a write-off.  As for my weekly goals........ I'm halfway through the second Fixation sock.  The heel is turned.  I didn't touch the sleeve for the Tiny Tots shirt yet.  I'm within about 4-5" of the armhole shaping for Blue Hawaii and I did work on the body of the T-shirt just a little bit.  I also turned the heel on my Opal socks.

I'm also going to be a bottom up bucket girl soon.  Erika needs some hats.  I've got some cotton.  Now I've got the pattern.  So I think I'm ready to roll. 

Have a lovely Friday and a great weekend.

Morning all................ it's pretty boring around here.

I could tell about rounds and rounds of stocking stitch on my V-neck t-shirt but that's really boring and the blue does not photograph well, so I continue having a blob of blue, except it's getting bigger without any interesting pictures to show.

I did receive a lovely little package from Knit-n-Tyme containing 1 lovely ball of the new Opal Cotton sock yarn in colour 1100.  It has a really nice feel to it.  Can't wait to grow it into a sock but I first want to complete my pink magic Opal sock and my first pair of Fixation socks.

Since I worked on the t-shirt last night I'll be going back to Blue Hawaii tonight to get closer to determining how much extra yarn I will need.  I also have to go grocery shopping though and I'm not sure when I will see Evan next......... that sounds weird, I know but he was called from work at 11 pm last night asking him to show up at 6 am and be potentially prepared for a 24 hour shift.  So who knows what's going to happen.  He might get off by noon today, or by 3 pm this afternoon or later tonight or not until 6 am tomorrow morning.  I won't get into details but this is not normal for the job that he's in so it's tiring and stressful.  I'm pretty sure he'll be done by early this afternoon though.........  But don't you just hate those phone calls that happen just as you're drifting off to sleep.  My first though always is: "Oh my God, what's wrong"..... and I get the adrenaline going and the heart pumping and then I can never get back to sleep very easily.  And then I ended up getting up at 5 am with hubby this morning and now I'm already tired.

And to end off on a knitting note, my 2nd Fixation sock is getting its heel turned and I hope to finish that and start on the foot during lunch today.

It's great weather so I hope I can find a sunny spot outdoors where it's not windy to knit a bit at lunch time.

Have a good one.

It's a sunny Wednesday.  Whether it's a happy Wednesday..... we'll see.  I'm dragging myself around a bit so far this morning.  I just feel kind of tired.

When Evan came home from work yesterday at around 5 pm, he opened the garage door.  Then it closed again.  Then it opened again.  I went to check out what was going on........... the garage door had jumped off its track.  Was it a freak accident, a conspiracy or a garage door suicide attempt?  Who knows....... but I'm going with the conspiracy theory.  Our one year total building coverage for our new home just expired 3 days ago.  So why would something break 3 days after we can't claim it under the warranty any longer?  Murphy's law, I guess.....  So Erika and I did our thing........ we had our Mommy and Erika time on the couch that we have every day when she comes home from daycare while Evan was trying to fix the garage door.  By the time he had it fixed, I was too lazy to cook dinner (I was too lazy in the first place) so we went out for dinner.  That was okay with me.  Go figure though........... I tried to pick something fairly healthy from a fat laden menu and I ordered what I read as a grilled chicken style sandwich and a salad.  Out it comes and it's a totally breaded, very deep fried piece of chicken breast on some bread that was covered in cheese and had been fried up in a pan to make it nice and crispy, too.  It was yummy but where was my mind when I ordered it.  I actually had them bring the specials sheet back so I could see and indeed............ it did say "crispy breaded chicken breast".  No idea why I didn't notice the crispy breaded part.  Ah well........... so I enjoyed my crispy, deep fried chicken breast.  I ate it all up.  Back to salads today................... and go figure I had Ceasar salad instead of fries.  I love the croutons in Ceasar salad....... I had one crouton in my entire salad. :-))  But, I didn't have to cook so I still enjoyed myself. 

In knitting news........... not too much is new.  It seems right now I'm just plugging away.  Not making major inroads on any one project but getting ahead a little bit at a time.  I'm starting to think I want to have a bit more focus on one project at a time.  Just to get some stuff into wearable condition soon before spring is over and summer is really here......... because you know how it goes.  Summer starts, you blink, summer is over and we're back to knitting the warm, wooly mittens.  This has nothing to do with guilt at all but I'm going to focus on finishing a few things.  Blue Hawaii for one.  This won't be a hot summer thing so I'd like to wear it before it gets too hot and then I'm sure I'll wear it lots in the fall.  I'm almost at the armshaping - only 4-5 more inches.  And my V-neck T-shirt.  I'm working on the body with about 6-7" left to work on the body.  The sleeves will go fast.  Phil'Onde and the Magical Mitered Vest are outsiders right now, although I'd like to start Phil'Onde over and knit at least one piece to help me determine whether I need to buy more of the light blue solid colour before it's all sold out.  Then I'll start my tank top (using that LaPlaya yarn I mentioned in last Friday's post).  That leaves 3 other summery projects for myself that are just sitting there waiting for my attention.  That's about all I can handle this summer.  Plus all of Erika's projects.  So one at a time, I will go chipping away at these.  My Cables and Lace cardigan is on the starting block once I get the tank top going. 

Oh, those were some nice indulging moments just for me to think about what's to come............ so much fun.  Erika is going to get her Sunshine Ruffles finished as her next project and then I'll try and get her Phil'Onde tank top going.  I still want to finish her Tiny Tots shirt soon so that it's not there to bug me any longer.  As cute as the Spring Fling cotton sweater is, I can't really get motivated to do it.  I changed the pattern because the rib and lace pattern didn't quite work out for me.  Switching from knit to a yarn over created a different size hole then when going from a purl to a yarn over.  I tried different ways to do it but none gave me the result I wanted.  So I started on the second sleeve and I changed the pattern so that I'm only doing a rib where there are no holes and my yarn overs are always surrounded by a knit stitch.  It's working.  I just can't get into it.  And then there's a little cotton summer dress for Erika to make that I want to convert to being knit in the round rather than with side seams and her Garden Path sweater which will be a bigger project as it's all colour work.  That will take me into the fall with projects for her.

So here it goes......... my knitting summer is booked right up.  I have some cute fabric for a sun dress for Erika, too.  I want to sew that soon.  And then there are all my quilts.

Never enough hours in a day.  But that's okay.  It keeps me happy and it keeps me focused.

Have a beautiful day and enjoy thinking about your stash.  It's fun. 

 

Not much is new at our house but I do have the same nagging worry that travels through the blogs here and there:  Do I have enough yarn for this project?  I've been working on my Blue Hawaii in Araucania Cotton and even after knitting the first ball, I started questioning.  Now I'm halfway through ball #3 and I have 9" of the body (back and two sides in one piece) done.  I figure I'll be on ball #5 by the time I divide for the armholes.  Ball #5 will take me partway up the back once I divide for the armholes.  That leaves me with 4 balls to finish the back, knit two V-neck shaped (ie. less yarn) fronts and two 3/4 length sleeves.  I think I'm in trouble but I also don't want to buy yarn that I may not need.  So I'm knitting really, really fast so that I can figure out whether I need to buy more or not before the LYS sells it all.  I might go there at lunch today and see if they'll hold a couple of hanks for me for a week or so.

Working on Blue Hawaii was my knitting excitement last night.  As I was preparing dinner and waiting for things to cook, I just took a few minutes - finally - to finish the heel flap on my pink Opal Magic socks and turn the heel.  Now all the instep stitches are picked up and I'm ready to go with the foot of the sock.  I've been enjoying my socks lately.  The Fixation yarn got me hooked on my socks again.  And I'm certainly not lacking in sock yarn.  I've got lots of it.  Evan even asked me if I would knit him a pair.  That was a surprise.

After a gorgeous day yesterday it's a bit dark and grey out today.  It's supposed to go back to nice weather by tomorrow though.

Have a lovely Tuesday!!!

It's already Monday again but I can't complain......... I had a really nice weekend. I got the first of the Fixation socks done........... see, aren't they awesome:

I started the second one right away so it wouldn't suffer from second sock syndrome. I like the Fixation for socks. I like the springiness of the yarn. It gives the socks a nice elasticity. I liked it enough to pick up another two balls of it while I was out yesterday.

I also finished my tote. This was an awesome pattern and I love how it turned out. Here it is pre-felting:

And here it is all felted and happy:

I really enjoyed this project a whole lot. The details are in my Knitting Gallery 2004. It's an awesome pattern by Amy at IndiKnits I think it turned out very well and I know I will use it. I already carried my knitting in it to a really nice relaxing afternoon of knitting with Sarah. I had a lovely afternoon sitting at a little sidewalk cafe and knitting. Thanks Sarah!!! The weather was just perfect and I made some progress on my neck down T-shirt.

I just could not get myself ot work on the Tiny Tots Shirt sleeve. I just want this project to be finished but since Erika won't be wearing it until the fall, I have no motivation to finish it. If I don't finish it now, it will still be lingering in the fall. So I will continue to leave it as a goal for the week and maybe bit by bit, it will be finished.

I dove into my Blue Hawaii and have knitted up two hanks already. I am highly doubtful that I have enough yarn. The body is worked in one pice to the arms. The length to the armhole shapping is 15 1/2". I now barely have 6" after the second ball. I figure I'll be on my fifth ball by the time I reach the armhole shaping and that leaves me only 4 balls to finish the upper body, back and front and do two sleeves and some finishing. I'm highly doubtful. So I'm going to have to wind some more skeins and keep pushing forward so that I have half of a chance to buy more if I need to. I hate to buy more until I'm at least at the armhole shaping.

I'm pretty sure I don't have enough for my Phil'Onde but I hesitate buying more right now, too. I need to get working on it again. I just don't want to be in a position where I can't get anymore of it at the end of the season.

I also did a bit of sewing, bright and early yesterday morning, and I got all my squares pieced into rows and about 4 rows put together to form the quilt top. It's turning out really cute.

This week has the potential to be a strange week as Evan might have funny shifts to work, not doing his own job as a Finacial Analyst but anything they might need him to do around the hospital such as delivering meal trays or washing dishes etc.

And Erika says............. smile, it's a sunny Monday.

It's a great Saturday..............

We had Erika's music class, then we both got haircuts........ my cool new style will only look new today.  Once I wash it and apply my own hair skills (or no skills) to my wet hair, it will probably just look exactly the same as it always has even though my hairdresser tried to put a new "spin" on it.  I am so not good with doing my own hair.  I can make it look decent but it always looks the same.  I just don't have the patience for messing with it.

It's a good day though.  I don't feel like housework so I'm not doing any.  I baked mini M&M cookies a little while ago and Evan is getting dinner ready.  He's trying to do a chicken on our new BBQ using the rotisserie so I'm even off the hook for cooking.  Erika is watching DVDs (yes, I'm a bad Mommy....... not really.  I don't always just let her watch DVDs). 

I felted my tote.  I think it turned out well.  It's drying now.  Hopefully I can show some pictures tomorrow.

Now, I'm going back downstairs to knit on something - don't know what yet.  Probably my Blue Hawaii Araucania Nature Cotton cardigan or my Fixation sock.  One sock is almost finished.

Better run and get that little one to sit on the potty before we have an accident.

Oh yea, it's Friday.

To add another cute toddler story........ 'caus my little darling just comes up with them non-stop:  Look Mommy, watch Erika......... I'm knittin'.......... She had grabbed one of my yellow leftover balls of Cascade 220 and wrapped it all around her fingers and made knitting motions with her hands pretending to use her fingers for knitting needles.  Oh, how my heart melted......... and oh how Evan thought he was in trouble already......... more yarn yet to buy.

I almost finished the knitting of all the i-chords on my tote last night.  I have only a few more inches left to go.  And I will weave in all the ends right away so that I can felt it this weekend.  If I don't weave in all the ends right away, it will sit there forever.  I can't wait to show you some pictures.  I hope that the felting will turn out well.

I saw the prettiest cotton/rayon blend at my LYS yesterday.  I can't even remember the brand or the name of the yarn.  It wasn't very expensive either.  No, I didn't buy it but I'm very tempted.  I think it would make a very pretty tank top.  I think I would make this with it.

I'm still really after this cardigan  and I love the colour that it's shown in.  Please, oh please, oh please........ let our work lotto pool win the Super 7 draw this weekend.

I did pick up a couple of balls of Cascade Fixation  in colour 9936 for a pair of socks yesterday.  I wanted to try the yarn just to see how the elasticity of it would transpose into some ribbed socks.  And I started one sock.  I've got a couple of inches of the cuff done.  It's fun to work with but takes a bit of getting used to.

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  I might get out on a little knitting escape on Sunday, I might not........ it depends on Evan's schedule.  I'm ready for a break away from home though.

Have a good one!!!

I found the yarn I was talking about.  It's called LaPlaya by Nova Yarn.  It's not a cotton/rayon blend but a cotton/viscose blend.  And here's the shade card for it.  I think it would make just a very pretty tank.  There are a few colours I quite like.  What do you think?  Pretty?

All my controls in Motime are back.......... I'll be able to link and to show pictures and change my font and all that fun stuff the easy way again. 

Not that I have any interesting pictures to show off today.  Sorry.

My 2 1/2 year old comes home yesterday and at dinner declares that "Kisses are for Mommy and Daddy only".  I know this is a phrase they use at daycare when the little ones get a little to close and personal.  So I asked: "Who else did you kiss today".  And I get this little smaile and the words: "Travis".  Unfortunately, I can't get the tone of her voice down in writing but you can only imagine.  As I roll my eyes and have a good laugh.  These two are just the best of buds.  Apparently they are always hanging out together.

What happens when your daughter insists on watching her Lion King DVD when Mommy wants to watch the American Idol results show?  What else but perfect quilting time.  How did I manage to do that you may think?  Well, I have a tiny 14" TV that took me all through university and grad school and years thereafter until our wedding in my sewing room.  So I flicked it on to American Idol, left Evan and Erika to watch Lion King for the umteenth time and I sewed more squares together.  Easy sewing, mindless show......... perfect combination.  And as a result, I only have one more row of squares to assemble before I can assemble the quilt top.  But, shall I even talk about the American Idol results?  I have no idea what happened there yesterday.  I can't believe some people are still there and I think Jennifer had real talent and should not have been voted off nor should the other two "Diva's" have been in the bottom 3. 

Between that and going to the park I didn't get a lot of knitting done.  But I did learn how to do applied I-chord last night.  Not so tough.  I'm getting really, really close to getting that tote finished.  I think it will be really nice and definitely unique.  Maybe I can finish tonight.  That would be great.  Then I could felt it maybe tomorrow night.  I'm just not sure how to block it yet and I better figure that one out before actually doing the felting.

I set up a new blog: Uli on WW.  I haven't added any entries or anything like that yet so it's not worth even stopping by yet.  I'm really trying to recommit to the wellness in my life through eating healthy and being fit and I want to track how I'm doing and have a bit of an outlet.  So that's why.  I don't think I'll be able to post there as often as here but we'll see how it goes.

The weekend is coming up soon.  I'm looking forward to it.  Hopefully the weekend will mean another project will be finished (the Tiny Tots shirt).

Have a nice Thursday.

I'm seeing some talking about "guilty knitting" around the blog world. I thought I'd add my 2 cents to that discussion. I feel guilty easily.... good old catholic guilt has been with me through the years. :-)) But my knitting, I try not to feel guilty about. It's MY knitting after all. So what if I have 9 projects on the go..... and yes, I do feel a bit guilty about that.... but when I really analyze that feeling, I come to the conclusion that it's more a feeling of being overwhelmed. What to work on next and what to leave in the basket. I'd like to have the time to finish all nine of them next week.... But you know what....... your knitting projects won't feel it. They are quite content sitting in that knitting basket. They are very patient, waiting quietly for you to pick them up. And once in a while you might hear one screaming your name..... well, that's your choice then to pick it up or not. Even just this morning as I was driving to work I was thinking about how to deal with projects to get a more quick completion.... should I only tackle one of the projects in my basket at a time until it's finished. That would work.... but that would be boring, wouldn't it? Boring for me. I like to pick and choose to knit on whatever my mood tells me to work on. But that way, my projects will all take longer. I think over the long run, I'll still knit about the same number of projects in the same amount of time. Out in the cross stitch world, when I was really active in the on line cross stitching community, I read a lot about rotation systems. People would describe their rotation systems with quite some complexity about what project exactly needed to be worked on what day or for how long. 10 hours at a time on each project etc. I found that fascinating but I could never do that. I don't track things down to the day or the minute. It works wonderfully for people that are that structured - more power to them. Does anyone in the knitting world live by a roation system like that? I'd love to hear about it.

So I continue working on whatever I feel like at any given time and I find that towards the conclusion of a project, I usually end up focusing most of my energies on the one project. So with my tote, except for casting on for Blue Hawaii, I haven't worked on anything else since the weekend. It's been tote world everwhere since I'm so close to being finished. I finished the second base last night and now I have the edging at the top of the tote and the handles left to do. I have never done an attached I-chord so I'd better get my Book of Finishing Techniques out and study how to do that. I'm sure I can figure it out. Oh and lots of ends to weave in, too. Then it'll be the Tiny Tots shirt for Erika because I'm so close to that and after that, it's back to an open playing field as nothing else is quite that close to finishing.

Now what I do feel guilty about is buying yarn. I have so much yarn and so many pretty projects that I really don't need more right now. Most of the pretty projects I see are total impulse purchases. I can't get the pattern that was shown on the Elann site yesterday with their yarn release yesterday out of my head. I showed it to Evan, I fondled the yarn in the newsletter over and over last night. But I just can't do it. We only have so much money to go around and I already put a lot of money towards buying yarn this year. We want other things in life..... we just bought a new BBQ, we would like to finish our basement, we would like to take a vacation in the summer, I would like to buy a new sewing machine some time etc. etc..... all the money that went to the new yarn has taken money away from all these other things that we're aspiring to as a family so I do feel guilty. That's why I'm trying to cut back but it is very difficult. It's that impulse......... oh, I love that and oh, I need to try and work with that and oh, that's so pretty and oh, that will really make me happy. Will it really make me happy when it's sitting in my closet and I don't have the time to work on it because I have so many other projects? Yes and no..... I love to feel it and I love to look at it but at the same time, how about that other pretty project that's calling my name. There will always be more pretty projects calling my name. More than I can ever handle.

But in the end, it's my hobby and I wouldn't give it up for the world. So I will keep buying yarn and I will keep knitting it. But for now, I'm going to try and keep our other priorities in mind when I try and decide whether I really, really, really need something in particular.

Oh wow............ should I even post this post? I was on a real soap box.

Nothing much else is new in my knitting world. With it being light out later and other things going on, I seem to have not made much progress quickly these days on any of my projects. I don't get a lot of hours each night to work on stuff. But that's okay as long as I'm still making progress.

Better go and tackle the day. Have a great Wednesday. Tomorrow is Jeans Day and I get to wear jeans even though it's only Thursday so that's a big bonus. Jeans Day is a fundraiser for BC Children's Hospital. We can buy buttons for $5 to wear on jeans day and that entitles us to take off the suits and dress clothes and put on the jeans and t-shirts. And then I get to dress casual every Friday anyways so that's a good thing. Two days of no dressing up.... works for me and BC Children's is such a good cause. My little munchkin was in the Special Care Nursery (not at Children's) for a few days when she was first born and I got to see what that small world was all about and so I feel quite strongly about that cause.

Have a great sunny day - and don't worry.... tomorrow I'll be back to my easy going knitting self. And now I'm going to go and order 1 ball of Opal Cotton sock yarn from Knit'N'Tyme just because I really need to try knitting a pair of socks with that new yarn. :-))

PS: one very last comment.... I still haven't resolved one issue on Motime yet and it's specific to this particular computer I use.... so when I post from here, you're probably not seeing any links to any blogs or web sites I mention and it's mostly my own laziness. I'm a little lazy to write all the html tags to create a link or insert a picture (not that I have taken any pictures this week). There's a tool bar that makes that easy but for some reason, I can't get it to work on this computer. It works fine on my other computer. So please bear with my boring posts for now.