Under Pressure/ Have you heard?

Well September is coming VERY quickly now. As all the commercials tell us it is back to school time and along with back to school is back to fall knitting. You can't tell me you haven't found a few nights this week cool and a few brisk mornings. This is of course good news to a knitter.

Just in case you hadn't heard by now....

So in honour of the fall and for all of us out there that like to shop online but like to fondle yarn in person too......Pick up sticks is almost ready! Connie is getting very excited and let me tell you. I have seen it. I have unpacked yarn....and it is beautiful. My fiance will know where to find me when I'm not home.

It is very exciting. Connie has wanted this for a long time. I'm so happy for her.

I'm happy for me too because my first sock pattern is going out with the sock club this month. I am very proud but I feel a certain amount of pressure to please all those sock club members. It is my first pattern and I'm sure it is not perfect so take it easy on me ok!

I have also put all my personal knitting aside because I have samples to knit for the store. This is the first time I have knit with Tapestry. I like the colour blending very much. The pattern is making me a little sick of the purl rows but other than that I can't wait to see what the pattern looks like when it is done.

The two boys are being very crazy. They run around the house and the yard and the gardens. This is one of their quiet moments.

Say hello to Oscar

Here he is... The long awaited and much debated baby boy. Makes you wonder how there was ever any question about whether we should or should not be getting this puppy. He is so sweet ( so far ) and loves everyone he meets.

Friday we went up to Tanoak Boxer is Barrie to pick him up and I loved him right away. He cuddled with me to get home and was very well behaved in the crate when we put him in for a nap. We took him to the vet and then I went to Lettuce Knit for the spinning class which was very good.

*Aaron told me he had a really crappy sleep because the puppy was up all night except for about 2 hours

Saturday my bridesmaid from Kingston came with her husband to look at dresses. I was so glad to see her. It has been over a year. We found the dresses so that is one more thing to check off the list. We had a very nice dinner and then I went back to Aaron's house to see my Oscar baby. (Oh yeah and to spend time with Aaron too )

I told Aaron to go to bed and that I would spend the night on the couch for the pup and of course the puppy slept through the night. A mothers touch right? Hehehe.

Sunday we just had a relaxing day and then brought the baby to my parents house to play with Tucker and to get used to being here too. (because Aaron and I have shared custody for now).

Most of the time he was here Oscar and Tucker were going after each other and ripping around the back yard. I didn't like it one bit. They were so vicious (or I thought they were) My mom wanted me to let them because Tucker was being a little nasty and she wanted Oscar to put him in his place. I just didn't like the way Tucker used his short stature to nip at Oscars heels while they were running.

Then in the end they were so tired and they curled up like this.

Oh my goodness

My life is feeling very overwhelming. There are all sorts of great things happening but they are happening faster than I expected and all at once.

I think I should change this blog from a knitting blog to a dog blog. My fiance decided to surprise be by getting the dog we had been talking about for a while now. The unfortunate part is that we are not in our house yet and he is going to have the dog at his place for a month. That worries me a little bit because I want to be a part of our puppy's early time with us. US not just him and his family. He hasn't had puppies before they have always adopted/rescued dogs. So I hope he understands what we are in for and not just letting his excitement take over.

On the other hand I am very excited too. He kept me in mind when he went to look at the dogs and knew what I was looking for in a family pet. Our 11 week old boxer pup will be coming home with us (well to his house ) on Friday this week.

On top of that Friday night Connie and I have a spinning class at Lettuce Knit and then my bridesmaid from Kingston is coming with her husband to look at dresses and I wonder when I will get time to just play with our pup.

I am thinking about arranging with the breeder to go up sometime this week and to meet the mom and dad and see our new addition. I know Aaron has been given a lot of info but I want to hear first hand too. I have some questions as well.

I just hope our house isn't delayed again. I want this dog but I'm worried about money. We were thinking it would be a lot for the house and the wedding now add a young puppy who needs fairly frequent visits to the vet and it just about ready to start dog obedience classes.

I am feeling very excited and a little overwhelmed. WOW!

A week of puppy love

I am just starting to get my knitting time back up because Tucker has been taking a lot of the time and energy in the family. He has been so good so far. He goes outside to do his business and sleeps through the night. He doesn't mind being handled and he loves to be cuddled and loves his MANY toys.

He has had a bath and a visit with the vet.

He is getting a little more comfortable in the house and in the yard. By that I mean that he is starting to get into things ....EVERYTHING. It has been 13 years since we had a puppy in the house so it is hard to remember just how much energy they take.

He is a sweetie and I really enjoy having animals in the house again.

With all the doggy excitement I didn't blog about my cousin Sandra's wedding. It was the weekend that we got Tucker. I love having a chance to dress up a bit and to get Aaron to dress up. We danced like idiots and got some ideas of what to do and not to do for our own wedding.

Here is a couple pics of us at the party.

I am so excited to be getting married to him! The plans are falling into place. Tonight mom and I go and look at a photographer.

No knitting pictures because my main project right is a secret until the middle to end of August. I've cast on the sleeves for Thermal but that is about it. I have most of the secret project done and have a sample to knit for Connie at Pick up Sticks.

Introducing.........

Tucker.

This is my parent's new dog. Yes the dog they weren't going to get. When we were dog-and-cat sitting for friends and we were getting ready for them to go home I said to my mom "it is going to be lonely with no animals around" She said "Yeah your dad said that too". Then I knew that we would be getting a new friend soon.

And here he is. He is an 8 week old Miniature Schnauzer and he is too cute. So I am back to protecting the yarn. I'm just sad that in two months I will be without a pet again because he is my parents dog and when we more he will stay with them.

Deathly Hollows/Renewed love of Thermal

I have discovered the secret to knitting thermal for long periods of time. READ. Specifically read this!

I haven't been able to put the book down. I read it until the wee hours of the morning. And to be productive while I was reading I started to work on Thermal.

Connie has often asked me how I can read and knit and there are a few secrets. One is to be working on something that you don't have to pay attention to. A good example is plain stockinette socks or parts of sweaters that go forever back and forth or round and round with minimal stitch pattern or shaping.

My other secret is this:

In order to keep the book open I use one of my hair clips. This little one holds at least 150 pages no problem. And well that is about it. That's how I do it. I think Wendy Knits wrote about reading and knitting a while ago too actually so I know it is not just me and that you can do it too if you don't already.

P.S. The brick is done on the house and the NEW maple stringers and stairs are up. So tell me why it was a big hastle to replace them because it would take so long to order them and for the builder to get them and now...... they already are installed. Hmmm this is fishy. I think they just wanted to delay us because I was mad at them and they got mad back. (And yes they have bumped our closing date another two weeks because of the stairs that would take so long to get.)

I made the cat sitting cat a kitty bed. It didn't take long and I had some yarn sitting around that I wasn't going to use for anything else so cat bed it is.

I used 3 balls of Patons Classic Wool held in double

It took me about 3 days and then...the cat didn't want to lay in it. *sigh* He sniffed it while I was working on it and would come around and want some lovin' but was all said and done I put him in it and he got right back out and lay down beside it.

On the weekend when I was away, my mother decided she would help get the cat to like the bed. She bought some catnip and put the whole package into the bed. She turned my cat bed into a kitty drug lab. But she did catch him laying in it. ONCE! hahaha. Henry doesn't seem to care about catnip but if you look at the picture you can see SOME of the catnip in the bed. He is laying on the rest.

I have been trying to post but the laptop has been shutting off on me for no reason. It isn't hot. It isn't even on for that long sometimes and it will just quit. I hope everything is ok.

I have to go today to sign my mortgage. That is a little scary. I feel like I'm signing my life away. At least all of my money I guess. Better get going though. This working nights thing is good in some ways but I have been on the go everyday during the week this week and then have work at night.

Finally!

Finally we got the problem with the house figured out. It took 4 days and a trip to my lawyer. Because after the talk with the builder the lady from the design centre called me back. Their solution to the problem was that they could replace the stringers and the price would be $1025 plus gst. I said "what is the full price of that upgrade?". That is the full price of the upgrade. " I told her I don't think that we should have to pay for their mistake at all let alone full price and I would need to think about it.

I went to the lawyer and he told me that if we want the upgrade then we should pay for it and the only thing we can do is to try to get that money back after. *sigh* But part of me thinks if there is any chance I would rather give some money to the lawyer than to the builder just on principal. But the bottom line is that I will not have oak stairs and maple handrails.

and

Finally! I'm on Ravelry!!!! I am hooked. I haven't had any time to post on the blog because I can't stop playing with it. I am still in the process of putting all of my me stash in it and pictures. OMG I forgot I had half of this yarn. It is a little crazy but it makes me happy that I have so many pretty things.

The problem is that I have found a lot of things that I don't like and will never knit with probably. I'm debating putting those on a well but I might keep it off because next year I'm hoping to start a kids knitting club at my school and it would be good to have some supplies of acrylic and the like.

If anyone has started a kids club like this please let know (knittingnonsense(at)yahoo(dot)ca )because I am trying to think of the things we would need but I'm sure I will have forgotten something and I'm also thinking of ways I can get supplies donated.

So come find me on ravelry. Send me a message and say hi! I love ravelry!!!!!

What?? or GRRRRRR!

I have animals for two weeks and they are very sweet. I miss having pets. The dog's name is Kelsey and the cat is Henry.

I also started my summer job today and have been doing lots of wedding plans so not much knitting being done. So much for finishing like mad on my week off. I did finally get my order from cafe press.

And I'm a little ticked off today. I don't know if anyone has had experience with this type of thing before any advice would be greatly appreciated.

We have been going out to the house regularly to see what is going on. Our stairs have been in the living room for a while now wrapped up. We looked in the wrap and saw Oak stairs. Aaron and I upgraded the handrails to maple.hmmmm we thought this is strange. I emailed the design centre a.s.a.p. on June 16th and didn't get any response until today! WHAT????

Then what they tell me is that the person we were dealing with upgraded our handrails but not the rest of the stairs. Are we supposed to know that?? Because now our options are to have the handrails downgraded to oak or she will upgrade the side of the stairs to maple at no charge but the "stringer" which is up the side where the wall is has to stay oak. WHAT????? I said "I was there on the weekend and the stairs are not installed so can we get the stairs we wanted?" Apparently no! The stairs have been ordered and manufactured and delivered. WHAT???? "But they are wrong" I said "this is our first house and we really want it to be what we wanted" Sorry the builder reserves the right to make changes. "So do I need to contact the builder about this?" Now she is going to contact the builder for me. I told the very nice lady that I understand that a mistake has been made but it needs to be fixed and that we had no way of knowing that there was a separate upgrade (because it only makes sense to have it as the same upgrade).

I kept my cool even thought I was freaking out. I refrained from the pyrotechnic display of swears that my fiance used. I also didn't threaten a phone call to the lawyer that he suggested. But I am considering a call to the lawyer just to see what options we have if any.

GRRRRR!!! Please any help or suggestions or words of condolence would be appreciated cuz I just don't know what else to do.

I smell like a sheep!

I decided that since I am on vacation I would let myself be really crafty. A few months ago I was given a fleece. I'm not sure if I blogged about it or not but a friend gave it to me. It is a whole fleece straight from the sheep. I don't know why he had it for me but he told me that if I didn't take it then it would just be thrown out. What would any fibre loving human being do I ask.....

Of course I took it. Did I know anything about taking raw fleece and preparing it to spin? NO! But I could not bear to throw it out when I love a new fibre learning experience. I had no idea what I was getting into.

Before you take a project like this on for yourself .... let me give you an insight as to what you would be getting into.

Here is the fleece as I received it. In a big old black garbage bag. It was oily but all it all it was wool and it was free.

And here it is out of the bag and spread out on the grass.

I spent the day outside picking the big pieces of stuff out so I could wash the fleece. You name it and it was there. Grass, hay, burrs, bugs and...poop.

I would put sections of it at a time into some hot soapy water to soak and clean. This was really amazing to me! The first bit that I submerged into the water not knowing just how this would work. It does it all by itself. The water becomes instantly murky with the oily dirty stuff.

This is the colour of the fleece before I put it in the dish soap and water.

And here it is after it has been washed and my first try at carding.

Amazing! This sheep was pretty close to white!

I layed out the washed fleece on my clothes horse to dry in the sun and got into some dying today as well. (I know I'm a busy bee) and then I noticed I had a friend watching.

So I watched her back. All I could think of was the Yarn Harlot's thieving squirrel. Was this duck looking to line her nest with my hard work? She left without touching the fruits of my labour but we were staring each other down for a while. The duck was not at all scared of me. I was walking around the back yard and she was eating the bird seed that had fallen on the ground. If I stopped moving she would start to come closer to me. Or was it just the fibre?

All in all I had a fun and productive day. My hands are very soar though. I'm not sure if it is from dipping them in and out of hot water all day (like doing hundreds of dishes) or the little bit of carding that I did, or a combination.

Knitters are the best!

Knitters really know what to give as gifts don't they! At least to other knitters.

Wednesday was the night I got to celebrate my birthday with my knitting friends. What better way to celebrate than to sit and knit and eat! Boy did we eat! And yes there was more cake.

Thank you so much to Connie, Meghan, Lisa and Angela! They gave me such lovely gifts.

It is a little hard to see in the picture so here is the run down. Some beautiful Louet Gems in the Willow colour and a two sock patterns one of which was this pattern that I almost bought for myself a few times.

There is also a swift so I don't have to prop my knees on the table and hold my arm straight up in the air when winding yarn anymore!!! Yahhoooo. A swift has been on my list for a while now!

And what has turned into my new carry along book. The Knitspiration Journal. I have been thinking about trying my hand at some designing for a while now but there are so many beautiful patterns out there that I want to make why would I spend all that time planning it myself. Well.....because as it turns out that can be frustrating and fun as well! I am working on my own sock design and this journal has the graph paper and lined paper for me to keep my ideas straight. I am very proud I must say.

Again great knitters, enablers and even better friends. Thanks again ladies!

Determination

There is something about me....I hem and haw until I get really set on something and then my determined side sets in. Is this the typical female determination.

Aaron and I had a talk about that today after Electronics guy made me mad again. He sent us the proposal for our upgrades. The email was sent to my account and addressed to Aaron. ONLY Aaron. ( I may not have noticed if I hadn't already had a little rant about it) I (ME) phoned him back and asked him to change a few things and then send the proposal again. This time when he sent it he addressed it to both of us.

Aaron and I started talking about how when a woman is mistreated as a consumer she is more than prepared to boycott whatever company/store is in question. For example, I knew I would not buy my wedding dress at the store where they were rude to me and the other customers. We will not buy from people who rub us the wrong way. Guys I know don't seem to be like that.

Anyway speaking of determined....Here is Thermal!

Let me eat CAKE!

And boy have I ever! Friday was my birthday and I have had cake everyday since Thursday. Yummmmm.

I turned the big 2-6 *gasp* Most of my friends say I'm still the baby. I'm ok with that. If anything I look forward to getting older (a little older) because there are some times when I still don't feel like I am taken seriously. In my job at times and also as a consumer. Is that my age or because I'm a woman?

Aaron and I went to the electronics place for our house to talk about wiring options and upgrades and I noticed that the salesman would look at Aaron at certain times when talking about hooking things up. I have my home theatre set up in my house now. I did that all by little female self!!! Aaron asks me computer questions sometimes. I do all the hooking up for my parents of audio and video equipment and this guy seemed to make the assumption that it would be "the man" in our relationship that would handle it. There is a good chance that we would do it together but if Aaron is working crazy hours I'm not going to wait for him. I will do what I can myself. And trust me Electronics Guy I am capable and I do understand what you are talking about!

Sorry I'm done now. I was just a little annoyed.

I am another year older and one other thing is growing too. Thermal! I finally think we are getting somewhere here.

I want to make sure that it is the right length without stretching at all. Each time I measure it seems to vary a little. I always seem to find that sweaters end up being too short for me. Or at least shorter than I like. The picture shows this sweater as a length I like so I want to make sure it is when it is on me!

For my birthday my parents gave Aaron and I sunscreen and beach stuff for our honeymoon. Including a beach bag that I couldn't help thinking would hold quite a bit of yarn. Aaron also bought me a new purse. At first I have to admit I looked at it and thought, "you thought of me when you saw this?" It is a little flashier than I usually carry but...I do like it a lot.

It helps that inside is lined in PINK! And it is big enough for me to put Thermal in to take on the road. So just think of the possibilities here.

Thermal and a sock actually so I'm all set for the drive to Barrie today for my cousin's wedding shower. And the cottage traffic of the drive back!

Done and Done!

I have finished my work-work-work all ready to hand in to my boss tomorrow and I have finished the Retro Redux Shrug. Please forgive the lighting. It is an evening shot and the batteries are just hanging on.

So two things done....do I get to start something new?

I will try to be strong. But that Louet is still sitting here waiting for me.

Who needs sleep?

I am procrastinating the work that needs to be done because I can't keep my mind off of my knitting.

Here is the Retro Redux Shrug so far. I just have to decrease the needle sizes now and then the seaming and the ribbing. I would like to finish this so I can maybe wear it this weekend.

But wait.....what is that in the background you ask? Well it is this...

10 skeins of Louet Gems in Cherry Red. It is reading and waiting for this.....

I am also attempting to design my own sock. I have an idea and have been attempting to write the pattern. I was curious ...anyone out there that writes their own patterns. What programs do you use to write charts and how do you make patterns into a pdf file.

Any suggestions and helpful tips please leave me a comment or email me at knittingnonsense(at)yahoo(dot)ca

Yarn Crawlin'

What a fun day at the York Region Yarn Crawl. I was sad that I missed a lot of it because I was up meeting the musicians for the wedding. It was worth it because I hired them. Check one more thing from the list.

Speaking of lists...My WIP list has one less item because I finished the Bonsai tunic.

Date Started : May 29 2007.

Date Finished: June 10 2007.

Yarn : Bio Bamboo

Needles: 3mm and 4mm addi turbos

Keep in mind that I have not blocked it yet.

Now here is the problem...Yes there is one less UFO on my list but....for every FO it seems I need to cast on another.

So on the yarn crawl I bought some Blue Sky Cotton in Azul and I am making the Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style.

I am loving the shrug right now. I don't know what it is but I want every one I see and in every colour. When I first started seeing the shrugs I thought they were silly but the more I see them and now that summer is here and I want just that little something for my arm...they make perfect sense.

So there is lots of knitting going on but I will have to slow it down because I have a lot of work for school to do now.

Oh and just before I get to that work here is a pic of the house progress. I have shingles and windows! Yippee!

Well this weekend didn't lend itself to much knitting. I was planning on another night at the drive in with Thermal. That got cancelled in order to help Aaron's mother do some painting. She is selling her house and we had a showing late on Sunday so we painted until about midnight Saturday night and then finished up and cleaned up Sunday.

I did manage to finish this on Friday night. It is the back of the Bonsai Tunic.

I know that this picture doesn't look that different from one in the last post so you will have to take my word for it that it is the front.

Tonight West Side Story (1961) is on T.V. I remember really liking this movie. I haven't seen it in ages and I don't remember all of it. There is one thing I do remember and I can never get over and I have heard it mentioned before. That is that these two tough guy gangs dance around with such wonderful choreography.

I'm settling down with Bonsai tonight. I don't know if I'm going to watch west side story yet but....we will see.

Something to say for both

There is something to say for a project that you can stick with and persevere with. A long term relationship that takes a lot of time or a lot of concentration.... or both. To me this is Thermal. I love Thermal but it is progressing slowly. No matter how much I knit on it I don't feel like those rows of hundreds of small stitches are getting anywhere.


That leads me to turn to the dark side. I start to itch for that new project (not that I don't have enough on the go). That new Quick knit. Something that will be quick to jump onto the needles do what I want and then leave me satisfied. That short term relationship has been found in the Bonsai Tunic.

Here it was Wednesday night when I got home from school.

Here it is before I went to bed last night. (and a close up).


I am knitting it in Bio Bamboo which is 100% bamboo and ooooh soooo good. I bought it when Connie, Lisa and I were in Toronto. I think I got it at the Naked Sheep (Connie will correct me if I'm wrong) I saw it from across the store... it was knit into a tank top. When I brushed the tank top with my palm I was filled with desire. " Where is that yarn?" I had to take it home with me. The yarn does split a little and I have never knit with bamboo before but I do like it so far it is very soft and I enjoy it.

There's more to life than knitting?

That is what my mom tells me because heaven forbid that I sit down for any period of time and knit. I was out shopping all day yesterday in the rain. Looking at a lot of very ugly bridesmaid dresses. Yuck.

We got lost on the way to the place and it was a horrible day. I was glad to be out of the car and just sitting. But no... that is not ok.

That is why I was very excited about our house growing. We have a second floor now!

Click for bigger pics if you are interested.

This is Aaron in our master bathroom.

The view from the master bedroom window.

This is out of one of the spare bedrooms.

And the master bedroom from the door.

Saturday night we went out to see the house, a wonderful dinner and then to the drive in to see Pirates of the Caribbean. We couldn't stay for the second movie because we were both to tired but I did get a lot of work done on Thermal at the drive in. I know there are a few mistakes in the ribbing rows, due to not being able to see, and I fixed some of it but then decided no one will notice.