Mommy, can I go again

Yesterday my hubby had to work again. (Probably every Saturday until the new year but....) So I decided it would be a great time to try out the Louet Hand Dyed Sock kit that I won at Serenity Knits Christmas Open house last weekend.

I chose a green dye kit and was a little nervous when the first colour I mixed up looked very far from green. It is hard to see in this picture but it was a rich blue/purple.

The second colour looked like what the label said" olive and then the third colour looked like this.

I was really feeling unsure. As a first timer of this method (I've died some fleece before that I never spun to find out how it looked) and I made my stripes of colour a little thicker than what the directions suggested.

When I wrapped the skeins up it looked like the colour would sorta squish which I guess was the point of the small stripes. Because when I unwrapped everything I couldn't help but think...Hmmm there is still a lot of blue in there.

But after hanging them to set and dry last night and washing them again this morning this is what I am left with.

I had a lot of fun doing this and want to do it again. I have some more dye with my spinning stuff and I wonder if I have more plain yarn upstairs in my stash to play with. I really don't know what I'm doing so I am interested to see how this knits up but I want to learn some more about hand dying.

Then last night I went to a hockey game. We got tickets through my nephew's school. It was a great idea for a fundraiser. They raised over $3000 dollars in ticket sales. The kiddies got to sing O'Canada on the ice too.

My only thought would have been that they should have put the tickets that the families were able to purchase closer to the side of the rink that the kids were on. This was the closest I could zoom in.

I just can't stop.

I am addicted to mittens. (not a bad thing to be addicted to considering how scary close Christmas is) However I was not going to do much Christmas knitting and now I want everyone to have mittens but not just any old st st mittens they must be Fiddlehead Mittens.

Well they could be another pattern but I am into the colour work right now. I can't believe that I am saying that because I was never interested in colour work in any way. I didn't mind doing the odd little motif (like the biker baby sweater) but a whole project was not something that caught my eye. I must eat my words because it is all I want to do right now. I also have cast on (A while ago and never touched) the Ivy League vest (after Christmas I will pick it up again).

This pair of Fiddleheads is my first. The yarn is Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label that I purchased in a kit with the pattern at Pick up Sticks (have you been to the new location yet?) I have since purchased more yarn, almost the same colour combination, to make more mittens and downloaded more mitten patterns too.

They are a gift for my friend Mindy. She was one of my bridesmaids and I have been missing her. I'm not great at picking up the phone and calling. I feel like I have been so busy with work and tutoring and "life" that when I get home the last thing I want to do is sit on the phone. I think the whole way home in the car some days about calling her but then when I get home and start making dinner I end up putting the idea out of my head. It has been a while since we talked. I don't think she reads my blog but I hope she knows that even if we haven't chatted in a bit she is still very important to me and when she gets her Christmas gift she will realize how much I have been thinking about her.

She is a teacher and I know how cold yard duty can be some days so a warm, lined pair of mittens will come in handy ( haha mittens... handy). I also know that mittens sometimes like to grow legs and get lost so I knit her initials into the lining.

I wanted to knit these so much that I was knitting them in the truck on the way to the hockey game Saturday night. We drove part of the way in my hubbies truck with his friend but there are only three seats so I got the pleasure of sitting in the cramped middle seat. I worked away quietly balancing two colours on my lap hoping the balls didn't roll away onto the floor. I didn't take them into the ACC with me for the game but it was temping.

The game was a lot of fun even if the Leafs lost :( I haven't been to a game since I was kid. It was a date with my husband. We don't tend to go out that much because we are trying to save money. He called me one day before I got home from work last week and asked me what I was doing on Saturday. I said I didn't think there was anything we needed to do. "I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me" he said. How cute. My husband asking me on a date. "like out of the house? " I asked surprised. Our dates generally consist of renting a movie and popping a frozen pizza in the oven. It was a nice time.

Ok enough for now....I think I can get a few rows in before I have to get ready to go to work.

Honey where are my needles?

I just finished another tulip sweater for the baby shower I'm going to this weekend. I never get tired of this sweater. I even use the shape for this sweater to make other baby sweaters.
So I was wanting to start another similar sweater and need the same needles. The same needles I was just using a few sleeves ago. I can't seem to find them (of course all my other sets of needles that are the same size are somewhere in my unfinished project tub).

My husband walked in the house and I was looking around for these needles. I looked up and said to him "Honey have you seen a set of needles around here?"

I wish I could find the words to describe the look on his face as he told me "There's needles all over this house, what kind of question is that to ask me"