Trying something new...

Since unearthing my stash of knitting needles, I wanted to knit something. I still haven't decided what to do with the green wool so I hauled out a bundle of chunky chenille style yarn, grabbed the last print issue of Craft and looked through my needle stash for 8mm dpns (double pointed needles). I had a 7.5mm set which I decided was close enough if I knit the larger size of the pattern for Knit Gradient Mitts.

I had no idea at all what I was doing with all those needles but the pattern for fingerless gloves is ridiculously straightforward otherwise (just knit stitch) and I further stupid-proofed it by omitting the stripes (mainly because I only had one colour of yarn). I am making some progress, slowly, and regardless of whether my technique is sound, the end product seems to look the way I expected it to look.

I don't think I will ever consider knitting with dpns relaxing (Amy's description of "wrestling an octopus" keeps popping to mind), and I don't think I'll be knitting in public with dpns until I can compare my technique to someone else's.... but it is good to remind myself that I understand enough about knitting to be able to pick up a new tool and make it work by just applying what I do know.

challenging weekend

Kiddo made this weekend... difficult. It was hard to be too grumpy about it because it all stems from her bout with the flu. Still, would like to just leave this experience out of the precious memories file.

The weekend wasn't a total write-off. I found my stash of knitting needles and more yarn among the boxes that came home last weekend so I made a list of the needles I own. I also found four little balls of wool that have been lingering in my stash for ages...

I spent a couple of hours searching through patterns at Ravelry but still don't have any good ideas for how to best use the wool... any input would be welcome! While I was poking around on the site, I realized I hadn't logged in for well over a year and there was a message from a moderator wanting to feature my Ma Cobb Hat photo on the feature page from January... oops. Anyway, while I was there, I also stumbled across the notice for this year's Victoria Fibrefest -- something that has been on the periphery of my radar for a couple of years. I may try to get to some of the events this year... who knows?

The sun was out today and Hubby took advantage of the weather to build another raised bed -- now we need dirt! While he was finishing that off and working on converting a pallet to a new base for Kiddo's tree fort, I worked on turning some of the ground inside the raised beds and pulling out some of the grass and weeds.

Oh, but the most exciting news (and subsequently some of the most frustrating): we made two sales from ThoseDeWolfes' etsy store (yay!) but I suck at estimating postage and Canada Post sucks at making shipping affordable so we lost some of the profit from each sale to shipping costs. Sigh.

Inspiration!

So, Hubby offered me some castoff shirts:

...and after a little thought, I decided I needed a new bag.... and in a little over half an hour...

...I had a nifty new bag for small knitting projects on-the-go:

Now I can keep some CuppaJoe Cozy supplies at work and knit at coffee breaks or cart it back and forth on the bus. The best part about this bag is that I can use the button holes on the handle to keep the yarn tangle-free. WoOO!

Beating stress.

I spent most of the weekend getting more and more stressed out about the project that awaited me Monday morning. Usually, I can leave my work on my desk and walk out the door... but as I mentioned, I'd had a bad day Friday and the dregs of it were still causing knots in my stomach.

So last night, after blogging, I not only started knitting that baby hat, but I finished it in under 90 minutes -- including a test swatch with the yarn I had on hand (some craft acrylic -- definitely not what I would like to use for babies I care about, but for proof of concept it was fine). I was so pleased to finish a new project so fast, I went to bed feeling much better.

This morning, I decided it was time for me to try walking in through the garden. Thanks to my ankle, it's been more than three months since I got off the bus a stop early and walked in through the Finnerty Gardens and the Native Plant Garden, but I did it today. It was chilly (around 3° celcius) and grey this morning, but that was OK by me. It was nice to walk in, clear my head, and take a few photos.

By the time I logged in at my desk, I was much calmer and by coffee time, the whole kerfuffle had sorted itself out. Mostly. I still have work to do, but at least now I have all the information I need to get it done.

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Good day to stay inside

It's a stormy day here in Victoria, the wind has been blowing all night and this morning we woke to heavy rain beating against the windows. Power is out in several areas of the city but so far, we've been spared. It's a good day to be indoors.

Thankfully, our only concrete plans today involved vacuuming the house and that can be done any time. Meanwhile, we watched some episodes of The Office (bought at Kiddo's request, oddly enough) followed by Bruce Almighty and are otherwise relaxing.

Hubby just ordered one of the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptops through the Give One Get One promotion that starts today. Since the XO is designed for kids, we will probably let Kiddo use it most of the time but since it is also durable, it may be our default travel laptop.

I think today I will focus on some crafting... I want to get 50 rows done on the Doctor Who scarf (I've finished over 400 rows so far... only about 150 more 'til it's finished)...

That week flew...

(... and yet it's the coming week that is actually busy -- meaning I have several activities and appointments scheduled that involves leaving the house!)

Ah well. I did get things done this week. Some housework (I figured out how to balance in order to wash dishes; I hopped around the bed to change the linens; I even cooked dinner one night!), some writing (more on Drupal Basic Training, the precursor to the tentative Drupal 101 book, and a game review of PopCap's Chuzzle (I'll let you know when it's published)), did some work on FrugalVictoria.com and the union site, played several games of Scrabble online, watched a lot of Fall TV premieres, and knit! The Dr. Who scarf is now about 25 per cent finished....

A Different day at Home.

Kiddo had the first of her Pro-D days of the school year, so she hung out here for the day rather than going to her Nana's.

She helped her Daddy make breakfast for all of us and then we watched last night's "Star Wars" episode of Family Guy (thankfully, we opted to record it!!) -- gotta love that Fox owns the rights to that franchise.

After that we watched Mars Attacks, and then she made us all lunch! (Nothing 5-star, but she made us all bologna sandwiches without any help aside from directions to find some of the ingredients in the fridge.) We were both very proud of her.

Meanwhile, I made lots of progress on the Dr. Who scarf (version 2.0, on commission). I was worried that I wouldn't get it done by winter/Christmas because until recently I wasn't able to get in and out of my knitting chair. Now that I can, and while my computer is still up in the bedroom, my downstairs time is spent between knitting and reading. I counted the total rows in the pattern and figure that I'll need to knit 50 rows per week to get it done in time. If I spend one day a week knitting like I did today, I'll have it done in half that time... but I'm going to assume there will be a range to my productivity.

After lunch she played Star Wars LEGO on the X-Box for a while, then she and I played with real LEGO.

In "foot" news, I actually set my bare foot down (carefully) on the floor today -- no weight, I was sitting -- and it felt weird. Really weird. A month of "rest" really makes a difference, I guess.

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