End of an Era

So today was my last day as a LYS worker. What started in their home over 28 years ago has come to and end, Memory Lane officially closed its doors at 5pm today. It was a really busy day. There was food. The Boss Man made chili, a customer and owner of another business in town brought us cinnamon buns, carrot cake squares, and peanut butter cookies from the local bakery. Then one of our good yarn customers who T picks on relentlessly brought us a cake. This was delicious! I saw her going by after lunch when we cut it, and I ran outside to tell her how awesome it was. Home made is the best! As the day progressed we were also brought donuts and boxes of chocolates (as if we needed it!).

As you can see there wasn't much yarn left. All those empty holes on the right were once filled with sock yarn. We didn't have one skein of any kind of sock yarn left at all this morning, it all sold yesterday.

These used to be totally filled as well.

From left to right T, Boss Man, me, M (our casual printer/computer guy - he's a full time paramedic but started here a few months after I did 12 years ago), and Boss Lady. Photo taken by Heddy, who happened to be our last Ball & Skein customer, I believe.

So the bosses were going to give me a photo printer, but I already have one. So she asked me to pick out something else that I'd want. Boss Man made a swift awhile back, she said she didn't want it, so I said they could give me that. So now finally after all these years I have a swift to go with my ball winder! I am a happy camper. I also got a nice wicker basket that used to house sock yarn, now it's by my fireplace and is holding one of my WIPs. I was also the final framing customer for the store. Poor T, I had him out back working too long today. I had one piece that had several openings, and one of the pictures had fallen ages and ages ago, so I took that down to get fixed. Then I had a poster in a metal frame that needed to be fixed up, one corner started to let go. Hubs had two hockey posters that were down there for about two years, I was getting them laminated, but the big press broke, so they never got done. T had a big frame with glass that a customer left, so he cut a mat and framed those up for me. And yesterday he did this painting that the Littlest One did of the dogs and a little poem he wrote. It was just too cute, he spells things how they sound. I'm going to put it in his bedroom. You might not be able to see it, but it says:

Jewel and Maggy

Rambunkshish and funny

Loving dogs to me

Golden retriever dogs

Beautiful dogs

Playful and rambunkshish!

And I do have a FO to share, a pair of socks for Hubs in a plain 3x2 rib. The yarn is Selection Socken-Effekt Strickgarn, gifted from Smoking Hot Needles, Ravelry details here.

So that's the scoop for now. No other jobs for me as of this point in time. Lots of knitting time, I guess.

Happy knitting!

A Girl Named Sue

I finished the baby blanket for my impending new nephew. I thought we were down to a couple of weeks, but I guess it's really still about four more weeks to go. This is Reversible Basketweave Blanket knit with three full skeins of Kertzer Northern Worsted in navy tweed on 5mm needles. Finished size is 34x30, I would have preferred one more skein, but we didn't have any left. In retrospect if I knit it again I'd take off 16sts and cast on 124sts instead of 140sts OR have a fourth skein of yarn. I'd lean towards the fourth skein if possible cuz I like the width, I just would have liked it to be a bit longer. Oh, well, it'll serve its purpose. The first picture is pretty darned close to the true color. Ravelry details here.

Last weekend it was the third year in a row that we went to the city for the Nova Scotia Little Rocks Curling Tournament. It was the first year that the Littlest One took part. He's the monkey in the middle with his eyes closed and hands up in the air, lol. The Oldest One is in the back.

Look at the excellent form the mate, K, has coming out of the hack, she always looks just like the pros on television. Her grandfather runs the curling club in town (he has for as long as I can remember). Her mother is one of the coaches. She's going to be an awesome curler when she gets older, I can tell you.

The boys on the team, however, all squat back on their knees and end up giving the rock a big old push to get it going instead of the nice, controlled release that K has, the way it should be. This is the Littlest One...

...and this is the Oldest One. They curled three games on Friday, and he ended up hurting his leg and couldn't curl on Saturday. The Littlest One and the two other boys were taking turns, four end games, one would do the first half and change during the two minute break between the second and third ends. So with the skip out of commission he had to curl two whole games on Saturday. (And let me tell you Saturday was a looonnnnggg day, especially the night. His leg was bothering him a lot, he has no threshold for pain, a splinter is the end of the world for him, lol. He had an extremely uncomfortable night which meant that I got very little sleep. He ended up not getting to school til Tuesday, but he's all better now.)

The Oldest One's leg didn't bother him til he got up Saturday morning. It wasn't too bad at first, he said he didn't think he could curl, he had a bit of a limp, so we went to the Museum of Natural History. The first curling game wasn't until 2:45. They have had Sue for several months now, so we went to see her. She's the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found, she's 90% complete. She died at age 28 and weighed 7 tons. She's been the star attraction there since January. It's really cool, I love stuff like that. Back in 2007 when we visited my BFF in Alberta we went to Drumheller and visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum. That was super cool, I can't wait to go back again the next time we're in that area.

This picture reminds me of Jurassic Park when the T-Rex gets out of its compound and is chasing Jeff Goldblum.

Lastly in my picture heavy post -- this is my co-worker, T (who I will probably miss more than anything else when the store closes, but I'm sure we'll hang out together til he moves to the city this summer). He turned 46 in January and has never ever had a license, not even a beginners permit. A few weeks ago a friend of his was going to write his beginners test, so they all talked T into writing his test, too. He didn't study, he guessed at a bunch of the questions, and he scored 100! (And the other guy failed, poor guy. He changed two answers, had he left them he would have passed cuz he had them right the first time! He has since rewritten the test and passed.) This was the first time he's driven since getting his beginners. (I just happened to have my camera with me, I had taken it to work to print a couple of pictures. And if I've got camera in hand I'm snapping pictures!)

And he's off and in the correct lane, lol. I think he said he ended up driving 31kms that night.

Happy knitting!

The Blues

By the look of my two current knitting projects I've got the blues! First up is a baby blanket for my soon-to-be-born nephew. It's Reversible Basketweave Blanket by Chrissy O'Malley. I've got three skeins of Kertzer Northern Worsted in navy tweed, and I'm using 5mm needles. I've just started the second skein. I have to go to the city tomorrow, and we're going back in Friday, too, for the boys' curling tournament this weekend, so I'll have lots of knitting time. I'll be taking this, it's nice and easy to work on in the car.

I'm also working on some simple 3x2 ribbed socks in yarn gifted from Smoking Hot Needles. The yarn is Socken-Effekt Strickgarn. I'm using 2.25mm needles, it's really fine yarn, and it's my own pattern. I'll be taking these with me tomorrow as well. I'll take these in the hospital with me (the boys each have an appointment at the children's hospital in the morning). I'll save the blanket for car knitting.

We have to leave early both mornings, earlier than I like. I'll be packing the car up tomorrow night so there is no messing around Friday morning. Their first game is at 10am! And they want them there by nine. I'll be taking other things to work on as well, most likely just socks.

The store is getting pretty picked over, only 13 more shopping days left til we close. This little mousey guy has been on the cash register for as long as I can remember, and I've been there 12 years as of yesterday. He was at the old store, too (we used to be located in another spot in town til we moved to a bigger spot in December 2000) for probably a long time before I got there. The Boss Lady was cleaning stuff up the other day and was probably going to chuck him, but I rescued him. He's not the cutest, but he's sentimental, so now he has a home on the fireplace mantle where the dogs won't eat him.

I say he's holding cheese, but the Oldest One says it's a piece of corn.

Happy knitting!

Wasabi

Wasabi Vanillas

Patons Kroy in Wasabi Jacquards

Started February 25, finished March 4

2.5mm needles

Ravelry details here.

Luckily the second skein of yarn didn't have knots like the first one did. Here's an inside out shot of the first sock so you can see the three knots. At least it didn't mess up my stripes!

Today I'm working my last Saturday ever at the store. Technically I was supposed to work one more on the 19th, but the boys have a curling tournament in the city, so I had to switch it. I have one final yarn order coming that should be here on Monday or Tuesday, all sock yarn except for two special orders for people. The entire store is looking very picked over and empty, especially the yarn room. I will have to try and remember to bring my camera on Monday and take a picture of it. On a positive note, though, a paint shop in town closed yesterday, but today there is a sign in the window saying Seams Sew Simple opening March 14. That was the former sewing shop in town, the owner has been running it out of her house for quite awhile now, but she was going to quit that, too. So it will be interesting to see what is going on, who is opening it up. I really think they should have yarn in there as well! The best of both worlds.

Pumba doesn't really care about any of it, not as long as he gets his treats.

As long as nothing interferes with the treats then all is well in the world.

Happy knitting!

Knots & Cake

I started making the boys some Newfoundland mittens the other day. I also started some socks for the Oldest One, I needed some mindless knitting, and also I need a break from the Briggs & Little once in awhile. I don't have bamboo needles the size I need for the mittens, and I find knitting with B&L on steel needles hard on my hands.

The socks I'm making are Kroy Jacquards in the wasabi colorway, just plain old vanillas. I always pull the yarn from the middle of the skein, and this first skein had a funky patch right at the beginning, almost like it wasn't spun correctly. So I broke that part off, losing a yard or more right from the start. I wasn't very far into the sock, and lo and behold there's a knot. I'm thinking that's really odd for Kroy, I can't remember every having a knot in any of the Kroy I've used before. Maybe, but I really don't recall. Anyhoo, last night I get the gusset decreases done on the first sock, and there's another knot! Then I got almost to the toe, and there's another knot! Three knots and a funkily-spun spot, all in one skein, what a tick off. I'm hoping the next skein is trouble free. Luckily the knots haven't seemed to interfere with the stripe pattern, I hate it when it messes up the stripes. However, I'm kind of nervous that I'm going to run out of yarn on the toe. Kroy is skimpy on yardage in the first place, and losing yarn to knots and funkily-spun spots is not nice. And the kid has big feet, so I figured I'd use up pretty much every bit of yarn in the first place. I do have some leftover Kroy in the flax colorway that I can use for the toes if I have to.

From here on out I am going to count backwards. I have a feeling that next year will be themed, "It's My Party, And I'll Cry If I Want To". My last birthday cake from the store, the last birthday cake the store will buy any of us.

Happy knitting!