It worked!!

Yay!! I finally figured out this picture stuff! Now, on to conquer Flickr. First, the FO and it's apparent use. Gratuitous cute little girl picture. My daughter, my pride, my love.

It must be spring.

I am so craving colour!! I have been looking around on line and some of the yarn out there ... I feel yearnings. I see a Paypal account in my future! I think the fever has hit and is going to go from dormant to high pitch in no time. Sigh. Hang on, it's going to be a rough ride.

I hope this picture shows up! I'm not really sure which one it will be, I just chose one at random.

Secret Pal 8

I love this idea!! Imagine, presents going to and from your house and it's not Christmas!! I can't wait to get started. I've already been gelling some ideas in my head for knit games and now I know who to send them to! I'm going to get knitting first thing in the morning! I think I'll start on the Checkerboard tomorrow. I see felting in my future!

I am on a roll for Warming Grace! I may be able to surprise Cynthia with a little gift just for her! Don't tell any one though 'kay?! Now, to get to the mail and have it there by May 4th!

How can this still be happening?!

I'm watching Oprah right now and I can't believe what I am seeing and hearing!! Children in Uganda kidnapped, used as sex slaves and trained as soldiers in the rebel armies. Children as young as two forced to walk for miles in the dark so they can be locked up in cages and cells just so they can be safe from the rebel kidnappers. That's right, LOCKED UP, EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. Children. 2 - 13 years old. In jail. Guarded by soldiers. Every night.
Please go to [www.oprah.com] to see what you can do to help. Don't delay. Just look at the next 2 year old that you see, imagine that child forced to walk for miles in the dark, getting locked in a cage with hundreds of other children for the entire night so he/she will not be kidnapped. Some don't make it. Imagine being a parent in Uganda. Never reading your child a bedtime story. No good night kisses or bathtime rituals. No standing in their darkened room just watching them sleep. Never knowing until late morning if your child is still alive and has not been kidnapped. Imagine your child/niece/nephew as a sex slave or a soldier. Now, go do something. As the [Yarn Harlot] has said, "If you can afford yarn, you can afford to help." I would like to add this, if you have time to knit, you have time to help. Even if it's just passing on the message.

Don't you just love firsts?

Today, we had our first something stuck up the nose that required tweezers to get it out. You see, I have some sunflowers starting on my kitchen table and some beautiful little child decided that since mommy was in the potty, that it would be a good time to see if she could "blow" her nose with them. So, she ripped off half of three leaves, rolled them up and in they went. Well, let me tell you, they did not want to come out. Shaking with laughter while trying not to laugh and thus encourage said child to do it again, did not help with the tweezer part of it. Fortunately, all is well, leaf bits are in the garbage and little nose is clean and clear. She says she'll ask for a kleenex next time. I suspect that those tweezers will be kept at the ready at home and a pair will find it's way into my purse/toy box/knitting bag too.
My squares for Warming Grace are finished and now for the needles. So far one down, two to go.
I bought nylon twine and o-rings for a dog collar too. I got the idea from a pattern in Mag Knits last issue (#3), but I think I'm going to adapt the pattern to suit me. Plus, I don't think the mister wants Apollo to wear rainbow colours. I don't think that rainbows go with being named for Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies.

Surfin' blogland

Well, I just returned from a trip all over blogland. Wow, there are a lot of them! Some good, some not so much (like mine, comparatively). The one thing most have in common are pictures. Which means, I need to get off my duff and larn me sum new tings.
If only I could figure out where the first picture I tried to send went.

I can KNIT!!

I think (dare I say it...) things are finally starting to gel for me! Today, I finished off the basket part of my first designed project. I am now working on the I-cord handles and I am feeling it. The yarn is beginning to glide through my fingers and the projects are actually taking shape right before my eyes! For the first time I feel like saying I AM A KNITTER! I didn't have to frog any part of this basket yet! I didn't have to put it down six times before making myself finish it. It hasn't take over three hours to finish one sixty row, three stitch I-cord. So far I haven't found any mistakes in the pattern. I have one more basket to do before I can say one ball will actually make two whole baskets that are exactly the same. I don't think this one is going to take as long as the first two I did. Knock on wooden knitting needles!

I finally feel like the worst part of the learning process is over. I hope. I know my stitches. I hope. Now it is just a matter of learning to read a complicated pattern and taking those first steps beyond increase/decrease and into colour changes, stranding, lace, felting more than a one colour swatch, all that fun stuff that can take a knitter into realms of frustration and glee not yet known or experienced.

Victory number one in the process, many more to come!! Ah, Nirvana! I think I will just bask for a little while. After all there is one more I-cord to do.

Warming Grace.

There's a wonderful project going on right now, check out www.twowoodensticks.blogspot.com posts of April 5th and 11th for all the details and the story.

Basically, there is little girl (there's a beautiful picture of her) who has cancer and the owner of the blog is requesting donations of knit squares 5" x 5" in pink of any shade. Only soft natural fibres (soft wools or cottons) please as the child has developed sensitivities because of the chemo. Cynthia (the blogger) is using the squares sent to her to make one blanket for Grace to keep her warm on her way to Chemo and at home afterward. She will use any remaining squares to make blankets for other girls who are also going through similar ordeals.

Please, go through your stash and do what you can to help. Every child should believe that people are basically good and generous and what better way to tell a child she matters than to take a little time to help care for them even if by proxy.

God Bless!

It's his birthday!!

Well, it's Duane's birthday today and I have to make a cake, make icing, ice the aforementioned cake, do dishes, fold the laundry, sweep and mop and finish it all in 1 1/2 hours or else I'll have two year old "help". Now I love those little crazies. I even like letting them help knead bread, stir stuff, scrunch laundry, or splash spoons in the dishwater, but, that doesn't get me very far in actually completing anything. Sometimes the tantrums when I decide that it doesn't need to be stirred or kneaded anymore can really set me back a pace or two!!
Well, better quit procrastinating and go "giterdun"!!

Dare you to try this!!

Using a cloth measuring tape with little metal bits at the end, in a sunny room, measure your cat. Make sure the other one who, incidentally loves chasing sun spots, is in the same room. Picturing it? Now, you try it on yours. I dare you. Make sure you're wearing gloves though!!
I still don't have an accurate measure so I can't go get the harness for him. No, I don't intend to walk him, I just need to be able to put his tags on him and he's figured out how to undo his collar. I think he's working on Jezzy's too, the little bugger!

Learn Math!!

So there I was yesterday morning, making pizza dough. I had gotten the water temperature right because my yeast was foaming and everything was all good. so I thought, until I added my flour and salt. Now, I must say here that when doubling a recipe, you should always read the whole thing twice. Maybe even write down all the amounts doubled in the margins or something like that. My dough looked more like thick lumpy paste than dough. I reread the recipe and discovered that I had put in SIX times the amount of water!!! Holy crap! I only wanted to make two pizzas! On the plus side I learned how to make toutons a favourite Newfoundland side dish. Fried bread dough. Melt butter in a pan, put in small flatten rounds of bread dough and fry. The operative word being small. So they cook through.

Success!

I sold my first batch of handmade knitting needles! Yay! I sold them to the LYS for her to resell. Of course I wound of spending most of my earnings on yarn! I think she really likes me. :)
I just finished making my first set of circulars (9mm 16") and am now gelling an idea for a knit knitting basket and hanging circular holder. Now, I just have to find the time to make up the patterns!

Is seal hunt a valid protest?

I know the seal hunt protest in Newfoundland and Labrador has been going on for quite some time now, but, I've been wondering, how come big name celebrities don't protest the slaughter of lambs, calfs or the boiling alive of shellfish and the suffocation of all fish? Now don't get me wrong, I eat meat. I like it and don't intend to stop. I'm just thinking if no big names are jumping on those soapboxes, is the current protest valid? How can you defend one "baby" (whitecoats are illegal to hunt) and not all the others? How can you say you are against the inhumane treatment of one creature but not protest shellfish being boiled alive and fish suffocating to death. We break the necks of any fish we catch so they don't suffocate, but, that is an impossiblity for a commercial fisherperson.
My conclusion is that Newfoundland and Labrador's seal hunt is relatively small in the grand scheme of the meat industry and so it is (rightly) assumed they don't have the money and resources certain other groups do. These other groups assume that they'll win due to sheer volume of money thrown out in protests and publicity. So sad that they demand things done their way, but, at the same time insist on freedom to choose their lifestyles and opinions at the expense of other people's freedoms and opinions!
If these militant groups have their way, they will in effect be dictators of our lives. No thanks! I like being able to choose my own dinner, thank you very much!!!

Knitting some more.

Well, I finally finished the little bag by Joelle Hoverson in her book titled, "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". I dare say, last minute huh?! Only if you don't have any distractions and can knit a mile a minute!!
Love the book, great ideas, time lines are a little skewed for us average stay-at-home Moms!
To be fair though, I did use a smaller yarn [Paton's Katrina (excellent yarn, nice feel, stretchy, and beautiful drape. I may do a tank top with it next.)] so that may have been part of the problem, but, a month of knitting here and there (I am a little slow and unfortunately, hyper on the tension) means her time lines are based on the fact that she's really fast and not distracted.
I've finished two little baskets (my pattern) and have two more to do before Easter. I've found one little gitch and made a few small adjustments so I can get two baskets out of one ball. Happy, happy, happy!
I think I'll try for patterns that don't use a lot of yarn or very expensive brands. That way poor knitters like me won't have to save up for very long to make them.