Hooray! (Another hooray, it must be my week.) I have two job interviews in the next ten days!

 Hooray! I got to go to the Word on the Street after all. Tim and I decided to take the girls. If they crapped out on us, he would take them to do something kid-friendly and I'd have a little time to wander around on my own. But they were terrific - we stuck together for pretty much the whole day.

It's a different festival when you go with kids, though. I've always gone with my mom - a kid-free day (she's a teacher, so she appreciates those as much as I do). Aside from buying kid's books at the Mabel's Fables tent, we generally ignored the kid's parts of the fair. This time we dove into the kid's stuff with abandon and had a ball. Here are the girls on the way home, in their CBC for Kids bandanas (part of the prize pack from the scavenger hunt).

 Hooray! Belle will now come out of her cat door by herself. We still need to push her in, but we're actually seeing some progress.

The haircut? It's passable, but I've only styled it myself once, and I need to see how it grows out. I'll give the hairdresser another shot at it, but I'm not sure I'll stick with her for the long run.

Word on the Street is on Sunday. If you're near one, go - it's great fun, and let's face it, it's an excellent excuse to buy lots of books - take a sturdy bag. I won't be going this year because (a) we're still paying for the move, and (b) it's more fun with someone else, and I don't know anyone here who I would go with. Next year.

Ribby is done up to the end of the neck shaping. Have to go check out the collar on Accordion so I can rip it off adapt it. I've been trying the sweater on (with the needles in) and it needs some heavy duty blocking. That ribbing just sucks it right in. Hmmm...Tight fitting bulky wool. Sexy. Scratchy. Lumpy.

And, inspired perhaps by Alison's ponch-o-long, I'm sewing ponchos. I don't like knitting big rectangles, and sometimes you just need some instant gratification, so I'm doing ponchos for my nieces. Details to follow, but for now I'll just tell you I was feeling purple that day. Karen, you'll see shortly.

 I miss my hairdresser. This seems like a silly, shallow thing, but when we started talking about moving, one of my first thoughts was, "Oh no, I'll have to find a new hairdresser." But really, I see my hairdresser every six weeks - more frequently than my doctor or dentist or plumber or appliance repairman. It took three years to find Janine - three years of bad haircuts. Then for three years I really liked my hair. I had a place I enjoyed visiting, someone I liked to chat with. Nothing deep, just something to look forward to, and someone I could trust. Let's face it, how we feel about how we look affects our moods in general. Today I have my first appointment with a new hairdresser - the cycle begins again. Wish me luck and good hair today!

(Oh, and the ribby pieces have been united onto one needle!)

 I had all kinds of things to write yesterday, but the sun was shining and the garden was calling, so went outside and got dirty for a while. I've done all the rearranging I want to do out there now. Friends donated a lilac tree that needed a sunny spot, so I've planted it, got rid of both potentillas (can't stand the scruffy-looking things), and have moved two of the Rhododendrons to shadier spots. I've also planted out my herbs, which came in a large container from Ontario. They survived quite well, and are now in my garden, where most of them should survive the winter. (Please note, growing mint in a container with other herbs is not a good idea - I had mint everywhere through the planter. I wouldn't be surprised to see mint coming up from the roots left behind.) The last thing I did was remove the cedar from the planter by my deck. It's out by the shed, where it's set to contribute to disguising the shed a bit.

In knitting news, I've finished the front of the floral cardi. It went quite quickly, and yes, I have tied the ends in knots. I did a swatch and washed it in the washing machine, and it came through just fine. It's just for the floral motifs. Normally, I like to weave the ends into the corresponding colour, particularly on a light background like this. But the coloured blocks are so small - just 3 or 4 stitches in some cases - and I don't want the colours to show through on the white. So, I'm getting the stitches perfectly set, and tying the knots. It feels a bit like cheating.

I've also finshed one ribby cardy sleeve. I'll spare you the photo - it's a ribbed tube. Fits Maggie quite nicely as a long legwarmer. Like Claudia, I plan to borrow the collar from Accordion for my sweater. I prefer the fold-down collar to the mock turtle, and now that I have seen Claudia's, I know it will look great.

I picked up Martha Stewart's new magazine, Everyday Food. (Why does this feel like a confession?) Of course, every recipe has a photo and it looks fabulous, perfectly styled, but the recipes look simple, the ingredients are easily obtainable at the grocery store, and there are several that I plan to try over the next couple of weeks. I even kept the subscription card.

Finally, remember these? I had a loom just like this when I was a kid. My brother and sister-in-law sent one for Amy's birthday. She immediately pulled it open, and made a potholder. It was followed quickly by another, to the accompanying sound of Maggie saying, "Can I make one? Please, can I make one? Mommy, Amy won't let me make a potholder!"

 Eight years! Happy birthday Amy.

 My sister Maggie (We have a tendency to recycyle names in our family.) has posted some lovely pictures of Machu Pichu on her website. You can check them out here, if you are so inclined. She's finally coming home in the next month or so, and what did I do but move across the country? I'll see you as soon as I can, Mag.

Yes, we do recycle names - we have two each of Sarah, Maggie, and Peter. It can be confusing when we all get together. Some are recycled as middle names - Pearl, Susan, Robert, May. Hey, when you have a good name, you might as well stick with it. The Maggies are both actually Margarets, a name which goes back five generations into my mother's family - my great grandmother, great aunt, aunt, sister, and daughter are (or were) all called Margaret. All with assorted nicknames - Mag, Peg, Babe (Maggie outside of the family), and then Maggie and Maggie.

Belle is not at all pleased with her cat flap. We have to pretty much shove her into it, until she'll walk through the door on her own. Then she'll sit inside the closet for ten or fifteen minutes meowing rather than pushing her head into the door to open it. One night she even pushed the closet door open rather than using the flap. Quite often I'll go in and push her through the door from the inside to get her out. We're still working on it, but she is one very stubborn kitty.

Another good knitting day yesterday. I managed a few more inches on my Ribby Cardie. I keep feeling like I'm plodding along so slowly - I have to remind myself that I'm doing the fronts and back all at once. Just another inch or two to the armholes, and then time to start the sleeves. I also made some progress on Amy's floral cardigan. Here's the pocket. I love knit-in pockets (the technique is in the Fall 1990 VK). The colourwork needs a bit of fussing to get the stitches looking even, and I'm toying with just tying the ends in knots and cutting them off short, rather than weaving in. Since it's cotton, I might put some Fray-Chek on the knots for insurance. I'll swatch before I try it, but has anyone else out there had any success with this?

September 11, 2003

 The lace-edge cardie is done. Maggie asked would I please finish it today, but kindly allowed me to take breaks for lunch and supper. Thankfully it didn't take quite that long, and she's very pleased with it, as you can see. She's had it on since arriving home from school. I'm quite pleased with it myself.

Technical stuff: The pattern is from Debbie Bliss' Great Knits for Kids. The yarn is Schoeller Stahl Mamma Mia, 100% cotton, sport weight, from elann. I knit the size 6-8, but my gauge was a little tight, so it's actually the width of the 4-6, but the length of the 6-8. Debbie Bliss patterns are very oversized, so it worked out just fine. In fact I plan to do the same thing with my next Debbie Bliss kid's sweater (which is on the needles already).

September 8, 2003

 A very knitty day yesterday - I finished the back of the lace-edge cardi. Here it its blocking. I also added the button and buttonhole bands to the fronts, and the lace edging to the sleeves, and started the collar. I'd show it off but both camera batteries have died. It's very pink, but what can I say? My kids have minds of their own when it comes to fashion.

Tim was being industrious and getting most of our remaining boxes taken care of, and we are no longer in complete chaos. We're almost in control.

Now a question for you: When you don't have basement, where do you put the cat litter? We settled on the closet under the stairs. We left the door open for a while, but it's just off the kitchen, so we decided to install a cat flap. Belle is definitely not interested in this little door, and has yet to use it independently. I keep having to push her through, but if I push it open with her head, she will step through the rest of the way on her own. Wish us luck - training a 12-year-old cat is no piece of cake.

Finally, This tooth (pictured Friday night) fell out onto the floor on Saturday morning. The tooth fairy did manage to find Amy, even in British Columbia.

September 5, 2003

 I feel like I haven't finished anything in ages, so I think I 'm going to set aside the Ribby Cardie for a few days, and get going on Maggie's pink cardie. I'm so close. Just three more repeats (30 rows) to the shoulders, and then it's on to the lace edging. Nearly there. I want to finish something.

Meanwhile, if you or anyone you know belongs to a CA firm that would like to hire a CA student to do her training, please email me. Really. I'm starting to look for a full time job now that the girls are both in full time school. There's nothing like searching for a job to demoralize you completely. And I'm still somewhat hesitant about going really full time. I know I need to do it, and I will, but I've been able to pick up the girls from school every day for the past few years, and I'll miss having that time with them. So I'm perhaps not quite as eager as I should be. But I'm also bored as sin for most of the day while they're gone. And I really do want to work. It's time. I've been studying through distance ed for about seven years. I have all my courses complete. I need to take the next step. But change is hard. I've undergone one big change in this move, and now I'm working on another big change in looking for work. No wonder I'm dragging my feet a bit.

September 4, 2003

 My tree mystery is solved! I believe it's a Euonymus europaeus, or Spindle tree. This photo looks just like my tree. This website has a photo of the tree when the fruit is open. Aren't the colours gorgeous! I love the pink and orange together in the open fruit. Can't wait to see it happen. The good folks at the UBC Botanical Gardens Forums were able to identify it, despite my poor photos.

September 1, 2003

 Happy Labour Day, and welcome to the first round of Name That Plant. The only prize here is for me, and it's simply the joy of knowing what is planted in my garden. I spent the afternoon wandering around a nursery, and was able to identify several of the plants I wasn't sure of, including Winter Heather, Boxwood, a variant of Japanese Maple I hadn't seen before, and two Andromedas. But no luck with a few others. So, please speak up if you recognize our mystery guest.

This little tree is about 7 feet high now, with a 2" diameter trunk. The new leaves first appear as these little reddish buds, which open into reddish-green leaf clusters, which become the green leaves you see in the photo. If you recognize this tree, please add a comment or a message on my tag-board. The lady at the nursery recognized it from the description, but couldn't remember the name of it.

I haven't done a knitting update for quite a while, so here are couple of WIPs. I didn't do any knitting on our drive across the country - every night I was so exhausted, it was all I could do to get the girls tucked in before falling asleep myself. But since I arrived, I have been working on these two sweaters.

My Ribby Cardie, which I am working all in one piece, just because I can. It all gets united on one needle at the armhole, so I figured, why not do the body in one piece and the sleeves in the round, and when I'm done, I'm pretty much done. I also decided to lenghten the ribbing on the stocking stitch parts of the body. I got about this far into it and decided the ribbing should be longer, so I dropped the stitches down and picked them back up with a crochet hook to extend the ribbing for 6 more rows.

This is the back of Mag's lace-edge cardigan. It's my last piece before assembling and adding the lace edging and the collar. I can't remember why I left the back for last, but here I am, with the biggest, squarest piece of the sweater to get through. I'm trying to do one ten-row pattern repeat each evening (that's one of the cable motifs that look like little flowers). So I guess that's eight more evenings until I reach the shoulders.

Active
Floral Cardigan


Knit-Along
Ribby Cardie


Stalled
Bob (Rowan #17)
Shapely Tank


Finished
Ruffled Tank
Felted Bag
Sitcom Chic
Erin
Lucky

Patterns
Felted Bag

Archives
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
Old Family pages

Home

Links

Email Me

Link me


Knit Blogs I'm Reading

Previous | Next

< ? Mommies # >