Brownie Point!

Here are some Brownie Point socks for February for the Sock-A-Month Along. Finally finished a pair of socks for Darren! These are made with cheapy Bernat Sox acrylic yarn in Army Hot using this pattern. We sell this yarn at the store, and this is the best selling color we have. He really likes them, and I guess that's what counts!

Of course, some other little monkey man had to get his hand-knit socks in the picture, too! I already got credit for those in January!

Friday night I picked myself up a pint of Kahlua. Then I found this in my cupboard, which I totally forgot that I had two of them. They are from years back. Petro Canada gas stations gave them out with fill-ups years ago. So I had a couple of drinks Olympic-style!

I think we are going to get the new truck on Friday. Our new driver starts in the yellow truck on Monday, and Travis should be on the road by the end of next week. Oh, yes, did I happen to mention that I looooovvvveee our accountant?! I got back a couple hundred more than what I had figured. Travis owes almost half of what he owed last year, so basically I could take my return, throw a couple of hundred with it and have his paid in full!!! I'm so happy!!! Also the bill was about $50 cheaper than last year, too! No tax installment payments this year!

I must go check on the hoodlums. I see the East Coast Music Awards are on, hosted by this bunch. A lot of people were very unhappy with that idea. They seem pretty tame so far, but also the new Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, is in the audience, so it pays to behave!

Check out this site. We don't get this show on our TV, but my parents do. We watched a couple of episodes yesterday. What Travis wouldn't do for a make-over like that!!! Check out the "Photo Galleries" on the left sidebar. Unreal!

Happy knitting!

Gold -- Finished Pomatomus!

I just finished my Pomatomus socks. All I had left to do this morning was grafting the toe. Here are some pics, though they aren't very good. They need to be washed and blocked yet.

I tried some natural light pictures, but I find this Kodak software absolutely the pitts for balancing color. They could make it a lot easier. I need to get Photoshop back. I was trying to make sure I could get a picture that showed the pattern better. Of course, some little monkey had to try them on, too!

I think today I will start a scarf. I was asked by a friend of mine to make her a pink scarf. I have the yarn, and it's only garter stitch (Eskimo yarn), so it should go quickly. I also have two more pairs of socks to finish.

Must get ready to go grocery shopping.

Happy knitting!

Skating

I took Logan skating today for the first time. I put a pair of bobskates on him. The next time I will put real skates on him. These darned things kept falling off, and it was hard for me to try to bend over to fasten them back on. It hurt my ankles. The skates I have for him are 12-13, and right now he wears 10s, but I can just put an extra pair of socks on him. These ones don't have laces but a strap that comes across and gets tightened. They are also moulded skates and should provide plenty of support. All in all he liked it. He didn't like it when I let go of his hand, but he actually did a little better when he was on his own. There were only six kids altogether, so there was plenty of room to move. There's some free public skates for 17 year olds and older, and I heard they are quite crowded.

He was quite excited this morning and had to wear his helmet for awhile.

I should make it to the heel on my Pomatomus sock tonight. The pictures in yesterday's post are actually more vivid than what the yarn actually looks like in person. The pattern is a lot more visible in person as well. When both socks are finished I will try to take a picture of them in natural light and see if it turns out better. The flash washes so much out. Last night I was working on the sock and watching a movie. I think I K2tbl where I shouldn't have. Anyways, I had a boo-boo and had to back out about five rounds. I'm back on track now, but that set me behind. I am anxious to get these finished so I can finish Darren's socks as well as another pair that are on the go for me.

Got a call from the oil company today apologizing for me running out of oil. They blamed it on miscommunication (really a total lack of) between the sales and delivery departments. They installed an oil-fired hot water tank at the end of November, and the delivery department didn't take into account the extra oil consumption. He said now if you run out on automatic delivery you get a $50 credit. I told him when I signed up 7-8 years ago it was a 200L credit which I calculated out to be $150. He said the most he could credit was $75 without going to a superior. I told him give me the $75 credit and forward my request for the other $75 to whoever had to deal with that. He agreed with me that any change to the automatic delivery policy should have been mailed out to me. That was the largest oil bill I've ever gotten! When I bought my first house in 1997 I went with this company the following year. I had to get a new furnace and selkirk chimney installed. Oil was only 28 cents/L! Right now it's 75.9 cents/L, and this company is one of the more expensive places to get oil. I'll see what the person has to say - he said I'd get a call tomorrow or Wednesday.

I was just watching a bit of Degrassi the Next Generation. It's a spin-off of the old Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and Degrassi High. Four of the characters are from the orginal shows, playing the same characters. Boy, it makes me feel old. They are my age. Once in awhile if there isn't anything else on we will put it on one of the old shows. BBC Canada still shows them, as well as some other channels. I loved those shows when I was younger. Of course it was a show for teens, and I was a teen back then and could relate. I feel all queasy when I watch it, though. No other old shows make me get that way, it's weird. Of course, all this reminiscing mostly is due to the fact that my birthday is next Wednesday. Six more years, and I'll be turning forty!

Well now that I'm depressed (just kidding - well maybe just a bit) I wish everyone good luck in the final countdown to the end of the Olympics.

The Canadian women won gold in hockey today! Woo-hoo!

Happy knitting!

One Down, One to Go

I have completed one of my Pomatomus socks and have about 15 rounds done on the other one. Here are some pics of it. I think a more solid color would have been better. This one kind of obscures the pattern.

Yesterday morning we ran out of oil. That was the first time I've ever run out. It was only 12C in the house when we got up. I called the company right away, and within two hours the man was here to fill the tank and bleed the lines. We are on automatic delivery and had been dispatched, but they put one of their drivers on early retirement and cut back from three trucks to two. Needless to say they are very far behind in their deliveries. When I signed up for auto-delivery about eight years ago the policy was if you run out they give you 200L free. Got news for them - that's what they're doing! A little bit before supper tonight we were watching the Daytona 500. All of a sudden we heard a loud rumbling noise and the room sort of shook. We both went to the basement, smoke everywhere, oily-burny stink. It was coming out of the motor area of the hot water tank that had just been installed last November. We flicked the switch off and called the company again. About 15 minutes later the service guy arrived. He said that it hadn't been installed quite right and was leaking oil (which is why I got a strong whiff of oil whenever it would start to heat up), the nozzle needed to be replaced, and some other adjustments made to it. He was surprised it worked for us that long. All is fixed now, but the company is definitely on my sh*t list.

Oh yeah, the driver who had our name on his list for a fill-up arrived yesterday afternoon! Where was he on Friday?!

Happy knitting.

New Sock Yarn Arrived!!!

We received most of our shipment of new sock yarns. Some of it was backordered. I will have to try to remember to bring my camera tomorrow and take some pics of it. We can mail it out if anyone is interested! I have too many colors picked out already, but some of it I want to make as Christmas gifts. It's all Regia, some of it is mini ringel, some is self-striping, solids, tweeds, 3 ply, 4 ply...

I ran into a snag with my Pomatomus sock. I am on the gusset of the first sock and was on row 17 of Chart B. I had 2 too many stitches. I backed out a few rounds and think I now have to knit row 16. I don't know if I picked up a stitch too many or what exactly happened. I brought it to work with me today to get Shelly to help me with it. This is only the second time I've worked from a chart, and I find Chart B confusing. I'm anxious to go home and try it again.

Hope to have some pictures posted tomorrow night. We've had beautiful spring-like weather all week. Tomorrow and Sunday are going to be really chilly, only highs of -10C.

Happy knitting!

Got home and tried the sock again. I think I did pick up an extra purl stitch along the way. Everything seems to be going fine now. Think I am on row 9 of Chart B, doing the second repeat on the foot. I just hope I have enough yarn left in the skein to finish the sock. If not I will have to pick up another skein. We only have three of them left at the store.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Hope you all are enjoying it. Hubby and I didn't do anything special today. He was up at 3am to go to work, and tomorrow he's up at the same time again, so he's in bed already. I think we may go out for supper Saturday night, maybe bowling afterwards. Exciting life we live, huh?

Not much done on my Olympic socks today. I did a few rounds, but today I had errands in town and grocery shopping. The boys are watching Spongebob and have to have a bath after it goes off. After Logan goes to sleep I have to dig out last year's files and gather everything up for the lawyer tomorrow. We have an appointment in regards to last summer's accident. I think everything is pretty well organized. I just want to take it to work tomorrow and photocopy it so I can keep the originals and give the copies to the lawyer. When I talked to him yesterday he felt he could probably settle it through correspondence where it isn't a "substantial amount". Had Travis physically been hurt, well that would be a whole different ball game. So back to the socks... Seven more rounds and I start the heel. I should be able to get that much done later, I hope!

I keep bidding on sock yarns on eBay, but I keep getting outbid as well!!! I think it's a sign. We have an order of Regia sock yarn coming in any day at the store. I have a feeling a lot of it will be coming home with me. But if it's a really good buy on eBay, or if it's something we don't carry...

Took some pictures of the Three Amigos this morning on my bed. The two in the front are brother and sister. The one in the back came along a couple of years later. Usually if they're all together he's sorta off by himself.

Hard to believe that Simba and Nala (the top two) will be 10 in April. Pumba will be 7 or 8 in the fall. Can't remember right off hand. My real kids just turned 6 and 3! These were my first babies, and I always worried about what I would do if either boy had been allergic. Thankfully that didn't happen.

Speaking of the real kids, I took these pictures of them helping me fold laundry the other day and forgot to post it. Logan likes to fold socks. I usually just pair 'em up and shove 'em in a drawer.

Happy knitting!

Olympic Progress Report

I'm coming along nicely with my first Pomatomus sock. I didn't get any knit on it yet today, but I should be able to get some done a little later. I am almost through the second pattern repeat. I didn't get much done Saturday. We went to look at the Peterbilt, and I can't follow a chart while driving unless I want to hurl. I ended up making this Fortissima Socka swatch for the store. It was leftovers from Logan's socks and a baby sweater. I also took Darren's sock to work on. It's just 1x1 rib that changes to 3x1 rib. I can't do any knitting in the truck that requires reading patterns or following charts. It has to be so simple that only an occasional glance is required. I get motion sick very easily, always have. Here are some pics of the Pomatomus progress:


End of Day 2:

End of Day 3:

This is an up-close of the pattern and a much better shot of the colors. The top two looks like it's black, but in this pic you can see it's dark green and navy. I'm going to have some colorful tootsies!

We got a bunch of snow yesterday. School was cancelled today. I messed my back up shovelling snow and crazy carpeting with Darren. (Should have known better - too old and out of shape for that!) I called my chiropractor's office to make an appointment and was able to get in today. She said my spine was really tight and got quite a few good cracks out of it. That feels soooo goooood! I will have to see how it feels over the next couple of days. I may need to go back again. Of course, a lot of the time you get really sore for a few days after your visit. She had warned me about that when I first went to her. Right now I can barely move. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I guess we are getting the Peterbilt. He better not change his mind - we put a deposit on it!!! We should find out in the next day or two if the company approves of our driver for the yellow truck. Travis went to the cop shop this morning to drop off his criminal search request. We will get his drivers abstract this week. All he needs after this is a medical. He can't get in to see our doctor til March 9. That's too late. He hopes to be working by then, so he will probably have to pay double and have it done at the medical clinic in the industrial park in Dartmouth.

I was outbid on the Sockotta yarn on eBay. I'm not going to rebid on that, either. I'm now bidding on some Cherry Tree Hill mill ends. There's enough to make two pairs of socks, I think. I will probably get outbid on that, too.

Happy knitting!

It Has Begun

The Knitting Olympics (and the real Olympics) have begun. I had to work today, so I didn't get to cast on until after supper. I've started my Pomatomus socks, and I am on row 6 of the pattern chart. So far, so good. It's not a bad pattern to follow. It's quite easy once you get going. (I say that now but that may change once I get further than 6 rows in!) Tomorrow I think we are off on a road trip to see this:

It's a 2003 Peterbilt, newly painted a few days ago. We have someone who wants to drive our "Nana Big Truck". (We always call Sunbury trucks banana trucks when we see them on the highway. The littlest one calls ours the "Nana Big Truck", so we all call it that.)

This truck was a former Sunbury truck that was owned by a husband and wife team long haul drivers. This truck will remain with the company that it's with now, doing the same thing it's doing now. Hopefully the person will pass the company's screening. I don't think it will be a problem. We are finalizing everything with the other company that the Pete will be on with (provided we decide to go for it). It just wasn't going to pay to trade the International in on another truck, and this way Travis may only have to long haul again for three years-ish. This truck, our Dodge, and the Pete would all be paid off within a few months of each other. Then he should be able to put the Pete on with the International and have two trucks with Atlantic. That accident last June just put us so far in debt, and we've never gotten any compensation from it. We are supposed to know by Wednesday if the company insurance is going to give us anything or not. If it's a no (or if it's not enough) then I will call the lawyer's office again and see what we can do. I hate to do it, but we've got two small kids to look after.

I won't be able to work on Pomatomus on the road trip tomorrow. No way I can follow a chart without hurling. I will take Darren's socks and a swatch of some Fortissima Socka that I am working on for the store. I am using some leftovers from Logan's socks to make it. It's nice to have a sample of how the stripes knit up for customers to see. It's so hard to tell what the yarn looks like knit up just by looking at the skein!

I had been bidding on some Confetti sock yarn on eBay, but I was outbid. I'm not going to rebid. I am bidding on three balls of Sockotta right now. I will see how that turns out. I'm also watching some yarn that I am interested in for making my Sockapalooza socks. I want to start them after the Olympics and have them finished by the end of March.

Happy knitting!

Let the Games Begin!!!

Good luck to all Olympic entrants!

Happy knitting!

I'm So Excited!!!

I'm so excited! The Big Boss Lady let us order our sock yarn order today! It's a whole bunch of Regia sock yarn, some 3 ply, some 4 ply, some solids, some self striping, some new spring 2006 colors, and some cotton sock yarn. We also wanted some more colors of Fortissima Socka but didn't see it listed on the site of the previous supplier we purchased it from. Shelly e-mailed them to see if they still carry it. We also e-mailed Plymouth Yarn to see if there is a Canadian supplier for Sockotta. Our sock yarn definitely needs to be built up. We've had been selling yarn for almost a year now. We only ever got in one big order of Bernat Sox yarn and a couple of "top ups", and we got one order of three different colors of the Fortissima Socka 100g balls once. Think we topped off a couple of Kroy colors once, too. I'll be on cloud nine the day that order comes in! (Broke, too!)

This is a front and back view of the completed baby sweater. It turned out quite nicely. The pattern called for two buttons at the neck opening. I couldn't find any buttons I liked so I didn't bother. The neck isn't too small to fit over a little one's head. It's size 12 months. It's hard to see, but there is a cable running down the middle of the front and back. This was another pattern with inset sleeves! Grrrr! It did sew up well. Everything worked perfectly, no having to rip and re-do anything. It went together more smoothly than the last few things I've made that required the dreaded sewing up.

Logan had a couple of scratches on his hand yesterday and required band-aids. There's one on his thumb and two on the back of his hand. (He's wearing his socks I made him last month!)

What a ham! See that blue Tonka truck in the top two pictures? That's an antique - it was mine when I was little! I got it for Christmas one year. There's a dirt bike that goes on the back of it. I think that is at Nanny's house. The tires come off. Right now I think it has three tires, but the other one is kicking around the house somewhere. I was a tomboy. The boys have a lot of dinky cars that were mine, some Lego, and a bunch of stuffies.

Anyways, working on two small projects right now. I am down to the toes on the first sock of a pair for Darren. Should have that finished tonight. I think I will have enough yarn left to make a matching pair for Logan. I am also working on the surprise object. I hope I will like it when it's finished. I am about half done or a little more. I think I will concentrate on Darren's socks first. He's getting quite excited for them, I think.

Happy Knitting!

Nearly There

I'm nearly there with the baby sweater. I finished the second sleeve tonight while watching the movie, "Are We There Yet?" with Ice Cube and Nia Long. Not bad. Tomorrow I will sew this up and do the neck, so hopefully I'll have a finished pic to show. I don't know if I will start anything else or not. Friday the Olympics start, so I will be able to start Pomatomus. I don't want to get too involved in anything else and neglect my Olympic challenge! I may just work on some mittens, and I did start a pair of socks for Darren. I also started a secret project that I hope to have finished within the next couple of days to share.




It's sorta fuzzy, but this is Darren's sock in progress. It's Bernat Sox in Army Hot. It's the same pattern as the socks I made for myself out of Bernat Sox in Hippi Hot only kid-sized, of course! It's going pretty fast, so I should be able to finish them up before the Olympics.

We went bowling Saturday night. Darren went to Nanny's for the night, and Logan had a sitter. We went with the sitter's mother and her boyfriend. He hadn't bowled in years, but it didn't take him long to get back into the swing of it! Second string he bowled 144! Here we have candlepin bowling, and Saturday nights it's glow bowling. I got a 97 the first string, and it was downhill from there. I think I was in the 70s the next two strings. I did get one strike. Our alley was built in the 60s, I think, and it's all the old equipment from back then. Breaks down a lot of the time. There is talk that it's closing, but then I heard the other day that they are going to close for the summer and do some remodelling. The boys usually have a bowling birthday party. Don't know what I will do next year if it closes for good. Tim, the guy I work with, is the best bowler in town. We have bowled in Scotch Doubles tournaments twice. The first time we won first place, and that was the first time either one of us had played in a SD tournament. The second one we didn't do so well. We finished third or fourth or something. Bowling is a cheap way to kill an hour or two!

Darren did not have a good day in school today. His teacher actually called me around 2pm. She said that it was the worst day yet, and another day like that and I would probably have to take him home. He had been doing really well, but he had three time-outs in the morning and one a lunch (which she said was highly unusual). When he came home I asked what the trouble was. He didn't know, naturally, then said after awhile that he gets bored in school. He wasn't allowed on the computer today. I changed the password to log on to make sure he couldn't use it. We were also supposed to make play-doh today, but I wouldn't let him. I told him if he redeems himself tomorrow we'll make it when he comes home. I do hope tomorrow is a better day. He has skating at 5:30 because it was cancelled yesterday due to a competition.


Well, I really should go put some laundry away. Had to take a pic of my little cutie this morning wearing his robe! This was Darren's that I picked up at a second-hand store when he was a baby, now handed down (along with a lot of other things) to Logan.

Happy knitting!

Stash Additions

Got me some new yarn to add to the stash. The bottom left is called Winter Eclipse and is thinking about being Wyvern when it grows up. It may possibly change its mind to Lava Flow instead. It's being indecisive. The one on the bottom right is called Paint Box and wants to be Pomatomus for the Knitting Olympics that start next week. Lastly, the yarn on the top will be plain old self-striping Fortissima Socka socks when it grows up. All of them are for me! I don't do a lot of knitting, it seems, for me. This will be a start. Plus I also got something else that I will keep as a surprise til it's finished, hopefully by mid-week.


Dig this funky snow drift on the front of my house? It's right over my front door. Good thing we use the side door! I'm waiting to hear a big thud when it hits the steps. It's raining tonight and is to go up to +10Celsius tomorrow. Sunday is rain and +8, and so far next week it's all above 0 temps. All this snow won't last long, and I see flooding happening in the near future!

Got my Sockapalooza pal's name the other day. I can't say anything to give her away - it's top secret, you know. I've been cruising her blog and think I have the color narrowed down to two choices. Think I may have the pattern selected as well. They have to be ready to mail May 2, so I have lots of time to ponder. I would, however, prefer to have them completed and awaiting shipping by the end of March.

Darren had a wee bit of a problem yesterday. One of the other mothers noticed it at the bus stop when we were walking up the road to come home. I am very far-from-gifted when it comes to the sewing world. These posed me a fair bit of trouble. In the end (no pun intended!) I managed to get them fixed, all beit half-assed (pardon the expression!). The seam neatly let go, I was told, as a result of "too much sliding down snowbanks". They seemed to have survived the day. I did notice that they are getting rather worn around the bottoms, too. He didn't really use them much last year but wears them all the time to school. If they don't have snow pants they aren't allowed out at recess or lunchtime if it's cold and/or snow. New ones next year! I know these would never last him another year anyways. Both the jacket and pants are getting a little snug.

Lastly, I've been looking at lots of sock yarn on eBay. I'm determined to get me some Koigu and Cherry Tree Hill. I also found this seller. I haven't purchased any of her yarn yet, but it looks absolutely beautiful. Think I may have to get me some.

Happy knitting!

Heaps and Piles of Snow

We got dumped on majorly last night! Everything is basically paralyzed today. Our store is closed, Travis has no work, no school... We went through town after we got our snow blowing and shovelling done. The only stores that I saw open were Home Hardware, Frenchy's, and the dollar store that is beside Frenchy's. My neighbor said we got 23" of snow, and the winds were so high that it blustered so much. I walked the boys up to my mother's so Travis and I could clear the big truck out together, (I won't let them out when the snow blower is being used - too dangerous.) and on the corner where the plow went by it was up to my shoulder! I was up at 7:30, and there was a poor little sparrow trying to get some birdseed out of the feeder. I made sure I cleaned it off when I shovelled the front walkway. (I have birds that live in both of those bushes you see in front of the house. You can't really see it in this pic, but the feeder is by the bush by the bay window.) The third pic down you can see Travis working on the snowblower out by the front of the Dodge. Something had come unhooked, and only half of the auger was working. This was the first time we used the snow blower this winter. The ground still isn't frozen, so I will have to rake the lawn really well in the spring to get all the rocks off of it!

Today I plan on working more on the baby sweater. I finished the back last night and started the front. I hope to at least get the front done today. Here's a picture of Logan wearing his new mittens and hat. Of course Darren had to get in on the picture, too!

Lastly, Tim had his camera at work on Monday. I hate having my picture taken. I wasn't really co-operating. I wouldn't look at him, but he took it anyways. I do believe that this is the first picture of me posted on my blog (well, besides feet or a hand) and probably maybe the only one (or at least for a long, long time).

Happy Knitting!