Here a yarn, there a yarn, everywhere a yarny yarn!

So...my happy place, I mean favourite local yarn store Tangled Skeins had it's annual boxing day sale this past weekend. Gift certificates in hand, I jumped into the knitmobile and picked up Ann and Steph. Despite our best stalling efforts we were still there before the store opened, but we waited until a couple of other early shoppers went in so it wouldn't look like we were panting at the door, lol!

As we walked in I saw the most glorious sign:

"All yarns 40% off"

I swooned.

Then I spent a lot of time running around the shop, picking stuff up, and putting it back, deciding on cashmere, and some other stuff, changing my mind, then changing it back and after agonizing over and over again, finally decided on my purchases and got in line with my gift certificates, confident that I had spent it all.

Nope. I still had leftovers. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I chose two more things and finally had accomplished spending every dime of my certificates, and no dimes of my own.

My loot:

On top there is a wee ladybug tape measure from lantern moon. My beloved sheep from lantern moon stopped measuring properly a while ago, and I had replaced it but with a far less cute tape. This one fills that void nicely, and now I have tape measures for both knitting tool kits (I have a small one that Steph made me for my birthday that I keep a few necessities in, and carry that in my purse. Cause you never know when you're going to need to measure something or require a darning needle)


This is malabrigo merino silky. I picked it up to make cowl out of it, since I had misplaced my old shale smokering, only to discover Sunday that I actually left it at mom and dad's. So now I'm thinking a headband and mitts? I have more than enough for that. But look at that colour! Isn't it pretty? So pretty in fact that...

I bought the same colourway in malabrigo sock!

It looks like something off of Monet's paint pallet, doesn't it? This is actually going to be a (maybe beaded) wrap of some sort. It's so yummy!

Then I grabbed this skein of fibranatura Yummy (who can resist a sock yarn called "yummy"? Apparently I can't, since I now have two)

The last few times I've been in the yarn shop I've picked up this skein and put it back, so I decided enough was enough, it was coming home with me.

I also snagged this skein of Cadenza (a merino/silk blend)

I'm thinking tights for Grace. She really loves the tall socks my pal C made, but they slouch and I'm thinking I'll go toe-up until I run out of yarn and then continue up and make the seat with a plain yarn. She's excited about the idea.

Finally, my precious skein of handmaiden cashmere and silk

I have no clue what to make with this. It's so soft and so pretty...this might just be pet yarn, kept close by to fondle and snuggle with.

But it hasn't been all stash enhancement around here...

I finished mom's sweater

And she loves it. It's so soft! I have like 5 skeins left over, so I'm thinking I might give the baby surpise jacket a go, in a size for little man.

And I finished these

The colour is called "Apple" and the yarn is Yarn Pirate's merino/tencel blend (my favourite blend). I got it for a great price in a destash from a fellow raveller, and as a bonus it came already wound into a nice center-pull ball. Since I was a little girl I loved pink and green together, so this makes me really happy. I cast these on when the deadline knits started getting to me. And while it's a total logic fail on my part to cast on something new when I had deadlines to reach, well, it ended up mostly working since I could use it as a reward...do so many inches on deadline knit, get to put in a few repeats on socks. Plus none of my other knits were very portable, so this got me through the madness of waiting in holiday line ups.

That's it for show and tell, and likely my last post for 2008. I cannot wait to see what 2009 will bring...so far it's shaping up to be one heck of a year!

Holidaze

Ah. Christmas.

You'll have to excuse this post, as I've been running on very little sleep so it might not be all that coherent. I slept well last night, crashing while putting the little man to sleep, and sleeping most of the night, waking once to realize I was on his bed while my husband and the two little ones were on our bed (Gabriel has a twin size bed that is between our double and the wall. Frequently, there are 6 of us in there, if you count the two cats. But the wee ones always gravitate onto the double, I apparently escaped off to sleep alone).

We started our celebrating by heading out to my parent's place for dinner. Family and friends gathered around a delicious ham (mmmmm...hammmm) and other tasty festive foods. At some point Santa dropped a bag of early presents for the kids onto the deck, Cam was quite excited to get to be the one to retrieve it, but the dogs were the most excited to open them

That's Sam with her head in the bag. She's an old girl (10 yrs old now) and she was so excited to get a new tennis ball she ran laps around the coffee table. Haven't seen her move like that in months, it was great!

Shortly after this we all got into our new Christmas jammies and headed home (Dad laughed and said he hoped we didn't get pulled over...I thought my green striped pants were pretty stylish).

Once home we settled 3 tired kiddos into bed and finished up a few things (why oh why do I wait until Christmas eve to wrap stuff for Phil and the kids? You'd think I'd learn by now) went to bed and waited for Santa to come.

He did not disappoint!


Cameron got a big surprise with a Nintendo DS game system, and FIVE games to go with it for his "big gift". He hadn't considered it for his wish list (all he wanted was Star Wars figures) but seeing as he hasn't stopped playing it since he opened it I'm assuming he loves it


All Grace asked for was a "Nected Barbie", meaning a barbie from the Diamond Castle movie who sings "I feel Connected" when you hold her hand. She got that, as well as the diamond castle horse and carriage and a gigantic doll house to play in

Add to that two Disney Princess baby dolls and a Wall-E toy, she's one happy kid.

Gabriel's "big gift" is a fisher-price train set, as well as a big plush Wall-E toy...and his favourite thing (besides getting into his siblings stuff of course)

His mop and broom set. Kid loves to run a mop!

Phil found a Superhero kit in his stocking


While for me, it was the year of the calendar

(now I have no excuse for not knowing what day it is, lol!)

I also received $90 (between my husband and my parents) in Tangled Skeins gift certificates, and I plan to be at the boxing day sale when the doors open :)

This year I decided that I was not going to knit any gifts. None whatsoever. Not gonna happen.

Then I participated in a mystery knit-a-long for a beret by Wooly Wormhead and as I knit it I realized it would be good for my niece. I made it with my hand spun, and once it was finished I dyed it a funky blue colour (neon food colouring) and added a ribbon

She loves it. And it looks great with her pink hair :)

Then I thought that my mom and dad deserved knits too...

So for Dad a pair of felted clogs

Pattern is the Fibre Trends Felted Clogs. Yarn is KP's Wool of the Andes, and the original colour was Pampas Heather, but it was a bit light, so once they were done I over dyed them (again, with food dye, I'm having a lot of fun with food dye), then I had LK yarns order me in a set of full soles and sewed them on. He was wearing them when we arrived for Christmas dinner, so I can safely assume he likes them.

For Mom I cast on the February Lady Sweater in KP's Comfy Yarn, which is a Pima Cotton blend, in a colour called Cashew. Sort of looks like coffee with milk. It's very very soft, and will likely be my go-to yarn for my wool-sensitive mom.

However...I also had two test knits for Unique Sheep, a couple (OK, 4) afghan squares for the sexy ladies swap, a pair of thrummed mitts commissioned by a family friend and a baby sweater commissioned by one of mom's co-workers. You can see why I didn't want to add a lot of Christmas knitting to that pile, right? I got the other stuff done (except the baby sweater, I ran out of yarn and since it wasn't going to be done in time for Christmas since I had to wait to get said yarn, I gave up on it and now it's just waiting for sleeves), but Mom's sweater was getting close to deadline.

Finally I was down to 16 repeats and the garter border on the second sleeve. It was the 23rd, Phil was working night shift so I wasn't going to sleep anyway, I thought I'm gonna make it. Then...Gabriel woke up. At 11:30. And stayed up, until 3:30am. And he would not let me knit no way no how (even said "NO! NO KNIT!").

So Mom got a mostly done sweater for Christmas

She thought it was pretty funny, and it still beats last year's Christmas sweater, which wasn't so much a sweater as it was a ball of yarn and a pattern...more of an intention to knit a sweater, lol. I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend so she can wear it to work next week.

We had Christmas dinner at mom and dad's, which was great (and so was the big bowl of leftovers she sent me home with...mmmmm). Today we spent with my cousin and her family, who have recently moved back to Nova Scotia, and we enjoyed a delicious (if I do say so myself) maple glazed salmon dinner. We also had SIX kids around the table, so it was an entertaining meal as well, lol.

Well, that was my Christmas. How was yours?

Shameless Self-Promotion

About a week ago, I opened an etsy!

lulubelle knits...and is easily distracted by pretty things.

(if the link does not work, try www.lulubelleknits.etsy.com)

I'm carrying project bags and stitch markers at the moment, with more of both of those to come as well as some bracelets and other jewellery. Also, I'm working on a row counter bracelet design.

And tell your friends:)

Baby gets us back.

For a few years now I've been saying that next year I won't take the kids for their annual visit to see Santa on a Saturday. When I looked at the family schedule this year, it became quite obvious that I was either going to take them on Saturday, or we would have to skip it.

So, last Saturday after swimming lessons, lunch, and haircuts for all 3 offspring...to the Santa line we went.

The kids were great in the line, playing nicely with each other and meeting with other kids. I have a love/hate relationship with these lines...on the one hand it sucks to have to wait in that line, but at the same time I love that Santa is visiting with each child and not just getting a picture and sending them on their way.

Finally we were at the front of the line and kids were wiggly with excitement, even Gabriel was cheerily waving to Santa. Then it was our turn...and well, Gabriel was not as excited once he was in place...

(side note: initially I thought this was cute, and I went ahead with the order because, well, this is what happened and I wanted to preserve that memory. But now it's our desktop background and everytime I look at it I feel guilty. I swear he was only there for 30seconds, just long enough to get that one shot.)

I pulled him off Santa's lap and gave him snuggles...the Santa gave him crayons and all was right with the world (to Mic Mac Mall staff...sorry about the drawing on the floor).

It's all good now though, because payback can be really funny. Last night, while the kids were supposed to be playing nicely in Grace's room, I found this:


And since Grace and Cameron really were playing in her room (you could hear them the whole time) and Phil and I were relaxing in the livingroom (big mistake there), there was only one possible suspect


Yep. And look how proud of himself he is. Monkey.

Friends, food and yarn!

I don't think it gets any better than that!

Last night the Dartmouth Knitters and Brave Travellers group (my Thursday night knit group. Not to be confused with KOL, my Tuesday night knit group, although there is some overlap) had it's Christmas Party. Hopefully it will be an annual thing, because man that was fun!

The idea was simple enough, one thursday before Christmas we'd do a secret yarn swap of some sort. We decided on socks, since sock yarn is full of awesome. Instead of a secret santa type deal, we'd each just bring the yarn wrapped up and play a baby shower game with cards to determine who ends up with what package. Everyone went home with new yarn, and no one got stabby when the package they coveted went to another knitter.

Originally we thought we'd potluck it, then I had the idea of asking my cousin Richard, who is the amazing talent behind ChefLIVE!. And my oh my, did Chef Richard hook us up with some awesome food. I'm still mmmm-ing about the bacon and carmelized onion french custard tartlets...and the phyllo with spinich, feta and garlic...oh and the meatballs with pineapple, and the curry chicken skewers with peanut sauce....dammit, now I'm hungry.

And desserts, mini eclairs and little cheesecakes....and Melly was good enough to make cookies, someone (Shanna?) brought chocolates, there was nog....

Oh yes, a very good way to celebrate Christmas!

All at once.

I swear, weeks will go by and nothing remotely interesting happens. Then suddenly, BAM! Everything comes up at once.

Friday we sent the kids off to Nana and Grampy land so we could have a double date with another couple and get some late-night Christmas shopping done (tip: If you have to go to Wal-Mart in the Christmas season, go midnight-ish. It's not as busy and they are re-stocking the shelves). Our first and second choice for restaurants were crazy busy and in a moment of group insanity we went...to Hooters.

I'm still not sure why we went, or more importanly why the heck we stayed, but trust me, don't go to Hooters. The rumours about the food being good are not true. $8 nachos made with freakin cheese whiz. Gross. And we think the food at Hooters was why Phil was really sick over the weekend. Do not go to Hooters.

Then we hit the mall for quick shop, then to see Four Christmases. Then to WalMart where we shopped until 1am. Wal-Mart until 1am is becoming a habit of mine and Ann's, as it's a great place to hide out until you're 100% sure your husband has gotten your kids to bed.

Saturday was an early morning, as we picked up the kids (Gabriel did very well on his first overnight at his grandparents) and headed out to a certain designer's house in Truro. Her baby girl is definitely a Big Girl now, and let me tell you not only does Deb make a wicked good coffee, she knows how to throw a party. There was a magician who had the kids completely enthralled with his tricks and live animals while the adults were totally free to drink coffee and munch on snacks and chat. For some reason I left the camera out in the car, so I have no photographic evidence of this fun time.

While there I learned the the Fabricville out that way was closing and having a sale. Not one to pass on a sale I went and bought

Buttons. 40% off. Is it weird that I saw buttons and just bought a bunch even though I only have 2 projects in the works which require buttons? And now I'm planning what to knit that would compliment the ones with the flowers.

After the party we drove clear across the province to the South Shore to visit with my friend Jamie and her family. Who I haven't seen since May, and frankly I had forgotten how much fun it is to hang out with Jamie. Jamie is one of those friends with whom I can completely be myself, and be totally silly with. At one point we were both in tears we were laughing so hard. Must make resolution to not let 7 months pass again without a visit. Or any months really.

Saturday night I had hoped to go out to Hamachi House with my cousin for their Happy Maki hour (cheap and delicious sushi!), but I dozed off putting the kids to bed and when she called I was out cold.

Sunday morning dawned and we realized that Gabriel was sort of wheezy sounding and had a squeaky barky cough. Packed him up and headed over to emerg. Turns out he has croup, and they gave him an oral steriod which worked so well he didn't have any symptoms until last night. It's not bad at the moment, but I'm told he'll get worse before he gets better.

While there I worked on my Sock Memories blanket, and completed this square, to comemorate Beth's dancin socks.

Another mom there with a sick toddler commented on my blanket, saying "That's really pretty, but please tell me you haven't knit all of that while you were waiting" We laughed and I assured her I had only just gotten there.

But I realized that the majority of my blanket squares have been knit right there in that waiting room. That tends to be the project I grab if I need to take one of the kids in, since it's portable (for now, I imagine once it gets bigger I won't be able to tote it everywhere), requires no pattern and it's pretty mindless knitting (meaning I can supervise the children easily while knitting it). Plus it's easy to pick back up when we move from waiting room to waiting in the exam room. However...I do hope that I don't have many more emergency room opportunities.

Sunday afternoon was a Very Important Event. So important that we dropped off the youngers at Nana and Grampy Land again (Gabriel was not so impressed at being left behind again, but I'm told he stopped screeching once we were out of the driveway).

Cameron earned his yellow belt

He'd been nervous all weekend about the upcoming test, and he said he felt sort of nauseous until the moment he heard that he had earned the belt. He's doing so well with the martial arts classes, I'm really proud of him.

Monday turned out to be a snow day and Phil was still sick from the weekend so we decided to get our new tree up late that afternoon.

I set the kids up at the table with mini trees to decorate in the hopes it would keep them out of the way while we set it up.

It worked (after Christmas sales at Micheal's. Those trees cost $16.99 originally, I picked them up in January for less than a buck each. Mini ornaments all 60% off right now. I'm going to pick up more after Christmas for next year).

And Phil put it together, fluffed the branches and made the connections for the lights

I'm not sure why we didn't toss the old tree and buy a pre-lit one years ago, would have saved a lot of hassle.

I love the end result.


So today, we're recovering from our busy weekend and getting caught up with the laundry. And listening to the rockin new Christmas playlist on my ipod.

Happiest time of the month :)

Is when my club packages arrive!

For whatever reason the mail delivery for yarn clubs is ridiculously slow. They are usually shipped around the 15th of each month, and get to me the first week of the next month. It's torture, since all I can see in the rav groups for those clubs is Spoiler threads and while it is desperately tempting to peek, I know I will enjoy the surprise much more when I open the parcel.

Just in case though that you're waiting on these parcels and have not received them, Caution: Spoiler Alert. I'm not too worried though, 'cause I'm pretty sure I'm the last person in the clubs to get my packages.

That all said, here is my newest shipment from the Seven Deadly S(p)ins Club:


This month's shipment is "Greed". The colourway is called Precious Metals, and it's in my favourite base yarn from Unique Sheep, Tinsel Toes! I can't say enough good things about this base yarn, it's soft, pretty as all get out, and wears like iron. My Dove socks, done in the Doctors Without Borders colourway, still look new despite all the wash and wear. Awesome yarn. The project is a little clutch purse, beaded. Clear beads are included, as well as silk to line the bag with. Also included were chocolate coins, a cute little money stitch marker and a money magnetic bookmark (as cool as that is though, I must admit I think Canadian money is prettier than American money). While I'm not crazy about the idea of doing the bag in this particular colour, I have almost a full skein of merino/silk leftover from my clapotis that I think would look better. I'm thinking this yarn needs to be a pair of socks with a coin stitch pattern.

The fact that this one is all about money made me laugh, because I scored this one for free! After the last shipment the club held a contest looking for picture representations of one of the seven deadly sins. I had intended to enter, had several ideas, but procrastinated and didn't get it done. But part two of the contest was to caption the photo, and I won that :) (Photo here. My winning entry here).

To date we've had Pride (a stunning gradiated shawl, which I didn't blog for some reason), Sloth (a hat) Wrath (which was "spun" into Peace, with a nice washcloth & soapsack pattern, plus homemade soap and bath stuff), and the first package was Gluttony (those gorgeous multi-coloured socks). Which leaves Lust and Envy to come. I cannot wait to see what they have in store for us there!

Now that I've already secured my spot(lol!), I'm going to promote the next club that Unique Sheep is doing...it's called The Six Kingdoms club, and it's based on the 6 kingdoms of life. It's looks really interesting and I couldn't pass it up. I've signed up through Eat.Sleep.Knit, since my retailer for this club, Woolgirl is not participating. She's not doing it because she's doing those really cool kits (my Wicked Witch of the West kit, and my Sanrio and Friends kit was from her) and she's got her own sock clubs plus her newest which is called Embrace the Lace(pdf) and I gotta say I am so tempted!!!

Today my November Booty Club shipment finally made it's way to my mailbox. Every time I get a new one I think "ooh, this one is my favourite!" but seriously, this time I think this one really and truly is my favourite!

It's called Herron and it's in that merino/tencel base I'm so fond of. Loves me some booty club, and pretty much everything else Yarn Pirate does. Seriously, not one colourway I don't like. Maybe some are more favourite than others, but none that I can say "No I would never ever add that to my stash." I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Georgia, you are a true artist!

Alrighty, that's enough blogging for one day. Off to get some actual knitting done.

Fitting Toppers

2/3 of my kids needed new hats this year, 1 because he has outgrown last year's whale tail hat and the other because she feels that she has just become too much a Big Girl to wear her fishy hat (I don't think I can begin to describe how sad that makes me).

I pulled out the very last of my green malabrigo (from the co-op ages ago, I've really made that stuff stretch) and whipped up this little hat for my boy


I have already forgotten how many stitches I used or what needle size, but essentially all I did was figure out my stitch-per-inch, then the size of my boy's ginormous head and cast on. A little ribbing, then stockingette until I felt it was long enough, then I did the decreases similar to a sock toe to get that froggy-esque shape. Then I kitchener'd it closed, and picked up for the ear flaps.

For the Monster look I made bulbous eyes and used the clear toy eyes I bought at the Creativ Festival in Toronto. I used shimmery nail polish for the colour.


Then I stitched on the mouth and teeth, added i-cord antennae and then hair and ta da! Monster Hat for my Monster Boy!

Since Grace had decided she needed a Big Girl hat, and had been borrowing my odessa for the time being, I decided I'd knit her an odessa. I took her to Micheal's and let her choose her own beads, and the colour that I would dye a skein of the dk weight I bought from YarnPirate. I used Neon food colouring and I am very pleased with how the colour set.

I cast on last week actually, and decided to take out a few repeats for a better fit. I took out too many, and when the hat was half knit I realized that it was snug enough to cause brain damage with prolonged wearing. Riiiiiippppppp.

Cast on again Saturday night and worked on it most of Sunday. I gave it to her this morning



And, well, she must like it 'cause she's still wearing it. We're calling it her "Princess Hat", as in "fit for a Princess". I have enough leftover (ok, I have most of the skein left) that I'm thinking matching mittens (maybe not beaded, but we'll see. There are still a lot of beads on the yarn and more in the vial) and possibly a cowl to keep her neck warm.

The other mod I made was to knit through the back of my yarn overs, so that they wouldn't gap. This is also likely why the number of repeats I took out ended up being too many...lol.

In other news...we bought Wall-E on Friday. Since then we've watched it 6 times. Good thing it's a really cute movie.

Soothing blues

What is this? What is this pretty liquid?

Is it dye? Is there a tropical lagoon-coloured yarn on the horizon?


No...no those are Lesley's feet. In the water. Since she's not likely to colour herself blue, we can surmise it's not dye. But where is she? She didn't mention a getaway...is she at the spa?


Um...nope. Not unless the spa used Dora in it's decor...

My mini-retreat, an attempt to relieve this ache in my back.

Need a retreat of your own? Get thee to Lush. This bath was using the Magic Bath Bomb. Which made the pretty blue colour (much darker in person), and surprisingly was not over-powering in its smell. Think Pink is nice too, and you get pretty flower floaties. I've also tried Waving-Not Drowning which I highly recommend but be warned...I fell asleep and freaked my husband right out. Also if you're pregnant, not this one for you, lavendar is not safe in pregnancy.

My hands down favourite is the Avocado Bath Bomb. Soothing scent, makes my skin soft. Ahhhh.

Just keep in mind however, some of them have floaties. As in, rose petals, bits of herbs, and this one...lots of seaweed. Lots.

And nope, I'm not working for Lush or being paid to promote them. Just letting ya'll know where to find some cheap stress relief this hectic holiday season. Also it's not hurtin at all to let anyone who might have me on their list where to find my happy (Phil...I'm lookin at you).

Blowing Smoke

Last month's shipment of YarnPirate's booty club was a delightful colourway called "Smokerings". It was grey with muted blues and purples and made from a yummy bamboo/merino blend.

On the thread about October's booty someone said that the yarn needed to be made into a "smokering", also known as a cowl. And listed a pattern called "Old Shale Smokering". I loved it instantly, and as luck would have it my 4.5mm needles had just been liberated from a project, so I cast on.

The pattern itself is pretty mindless...3 rows are just knit and the lace row is simple. This was a great tv knitting project, or knit night project because the motion became very automatic. I knit until the ball of remaining yarn got small enough for me to wonder if I'd have enough to cast off, and voila!

I finished late tuesday night (ok, technically it was real early Wednesday morning). Washed it and blocked it, and it was ready to wear today. Which is good because see that white crap on the ground?

It's everywhere


Winter has arrived.

On why you really need a sense of humour to be a parent

Because you really have to be able to laugh at shit like this. Or you'll start drinking hard liquer to get through your day.

Gabriel came to the dinner table covered in white powder


Which we quickly determined was the cornstarch baby powder. But that was on top of the dresser, right?

A quick check in Grace's room, and we see how he did it


(how cute are those little footprints!)

Yep, you have to have a sense of humour to be a parent

Fun never stops 'round here!

Yet another busy weekend sped past us here at Chez Yep-I'm-a-knitter.

The kids started the next round of swimming lessons on Saturday, and by some miracle I managed to have them scheduled to all be in the pool at the same time. Whoot! Though there is some residual sadness that Grace no longer needs a parent in the pool with her. I kept sneaking peeks at her group while I was taking Gabriel through his lesson, and while I'm pleased she's doing well with these no-mommy activities I was not quite ready for them to happen so soon.

As a side note, I have to say....I don't get these women who show up to swimming lessons wearing full make-up and their hair done. Then they spent most of the lesson trying to keep their face from getting wet. I've always approached these lessons with a If I'm not willing to do it why would my kid try it sort of attitude, and come prepared to blow bubbles and dip my ears in. So I don't get why the make-up is on in the pool. 'Course, I can't count how many times I changed into my bathing suit and realized that I had forgotten to shave my legs. Again. I think I am destined to be the sort of mother that will make my children roll their eyes and beg me not to walk near them at the mall.

Anyhoo.....

Sunday when Phil arrived home from his night shift we packed up the kiddies and headed to Windsor.

Where we waited in line for roughly an hour for our turn to stand with

Lord Stanley's Cup. I am not sure why it was there, but there was a celebration the cup being in the birthplace of hockey and being Good Hockey Fans we went. And we pointed out the years Montreal was stamped on there for winning to the children. At this point Gabriel had lost all patience for the outing and this is the shot the professional photographer got (so much for it being our Christmas Card this year).

We returned home just in time for me to head out to Ann's place where we had a baby shower. She got lots of goodies for her incubating baby girl, but the best part for me was making her cry.

Oh yes, I made a pregnant woman cry...by giving her yarn.


To be fair, it's pretty spectacular yarn. I made her a sock project bag, some stitch markers spelling her name. And the yarn is Yarn Pirate, in the colourway Permanent Mistake. I bought some for myself back in August, which Ann coveted and I made sure to order with my last YP shop order. Honestly, if you're going to cry over yarn...it might as well be this fantastic yarn.

Oh, and I've been knitting!

I finished up these gorgeous Lenore socks in the Blue Moon Fibre Arts socks that rock lightweight, "Rook-y" from the "Raven" series.

I'm going to be totally honest here...I was mildly disappointed by the texture of the BMFA yarn when it arrived. While the colours were stunning, I actually the yarn sort of stiff and not fun. And while I made up these socks and loved them, they almost felt rough on my feet. Then...I washed them. Holy crap people, what a difference. Soft and luxurious, like a cloud hugging my toes. I thought my budget was safe from more BMFA yarns, but no. The desire to go online and buy one of each colourway is even stronger now.

I also knit up a sweet little baby sweater for a sweet little baby girl I posted about before my trip. I was able to present her mama with it last night at KOL, so I can finally show you all...


It's the Seamless baby kimono , knit in Mirasol's Hacho. I love the colour, it's feminine without being really really girly and soft to the touch. I almost had a hard time handing it over, even though if I had kept it there is a very good chance it would have just been purely decorative, since there is no plans for more babies 'round these parts.

I've also been spinning. The fibre I picked up at Pacafiesta to be exact. I decided to test out Wooly Wormhead's patterns by joining her Mystery Beret knit along on Ravelry. But I didn't want to buy new yarn, nor did I have anything is the stash that spoke to me. Ok, I didn't know what colour I wanted to make, ok? Anyway, I decided to spin the yarn myself and knit that then I'll dye it once I decide what colour hat I want. I finished just in time a mere moments before writing this post completed the first clue in the KAL. Which is good, since clue #2 is released tomorrow (I am so determined to not fall behind on this KAL, like I did on the Mystic Waters shawl-started last year and stalled out on clue 3, or Mystery Stole 3-so behind I never cast on or got around to downloading the last 2 clues).


It's far from perfect yarn, and someday I'll look at this and chuckle at my inexperience, but I'm pretty pleased with how it looks right now.

Well, it's time to catch my youngest monkey and convince him that he wants to sleep (really baby, you do!) and hopefully manage to watch some TV before dozing off myself.

About to add 10 lbs to my hips

Because I am completely helpless in the face of small packaged candy. Small bags of chips....well that's hardly a serving is it? I'll have to eat 4. Bite-size candy bars? Oh, let's eat a dozen. My self-control is found severely lacking every Hallowe'en.

Meh. Frankly, I think I totally deserve it since my Thursday sucked ass.

Phil had booked us in for the Pumpkin Social Thursday evening, so we had not bought pumpkins since we were getting 3 that night. And hotdogs. I arrive with the kids (Phil was working) to discover that since Phil had not sent in money with the order form (which he swears didn't say that the money had to be in before hand. The form, and any other notes we got about the event didn't have the start time either) they had nothing for us. No pumpkins, no hotdogs.

Off we went in search of pumpkins and supper.

Not suprising, there were no pumpkins (at least, not ones that were rotten) to be had on the night before Hallowe'en. After looking at the 5th place, we improvised

Which worked well, Cam and Grace really enjoyed painting. Gabriel was not so interested. The major flaw with this of course is Mama doesn't get any roasted pumpkin seeds. Which makes Mama sad.

When we got home we discovered one of our tires had gotten punctured somewhere along the way. So I missed my knitter mommies hallowe'en party Friday morning while Phil took the tire to be repaired. Thankfully it didn't cost much to fix, and should last for a while.

Friday morning, while Phil was off getting the tire fixed I took the youngers in their costumes (and was made to wear a costume myself) on the bus to a puppet show at the library. The kids enjoyed it, and I enjoyed chatting with Ann. Who makes a pretty awesome apple crisp, as it happens. We had a playdate in the afternoon and we knit while the girls played. Then we ate ice cream and apple crisp. Frankly, I can't think of a better way to waste an afternoon (yarn, chat, and baked goods...mmmmm).

Then it was home, an early supper, back into costumes

We have Grace, who is dressed as Odette, the lead character from Swan Lake

One person recognized. The look on Grace's face was priceless, and she quicky said "Yes! Yes! I'm Odette!!" By that point she had given up explaining it at every house when the homeowner would say "Look at the pretty princess!"

Next up is Gabriel, a most adorable frog

He really got into the trick or treating thing. He used his cuteness to get extra treats from homeowners, managing to convince one gentleman to give him 5 candy bars by pointing and nodding his head. When the man's hands were empty Gabriel said "Thanks! Byeeee!"

Finally we have Cam the Clone Trooper

I can't tell you how many times I was corrected when I called him a "Storm Trooper" (Sorry, I still don't see a big difference, but apparently it's there and it's important).

Once costumed we piled in the van to hit up our family members for candy, and as is tradition the first house we stop at is my mom and dad's.

Where Gabriel ran right at his uncle and coerced him into opening some candy. Not the stuff that Nana put in his bucket...no no, my child is no fool. He had Evan give him new stuff from the bowl.

Then it was off to my grandmother's, then to my sister in law's, then back home to meet Ann and her family to start the trick or treating in the neighbourhood.

As usual, we brought the wagon and a garbage bag to dump the buckets into. Dumping the buckets caused some issue with the younger ones who felt that they didn't need to. This resulted in some arguments with Grace, and full on "NOOOOOO! MINE!!!! MINE!!" from Gabriel (solved by leaving one thing in his bucket each time it was dumped).

Cam isn't really all that into trick or treating anymore. He's more about the costume. So it was sort of nice that we were out with Ann and her family and Phil was able to run Cam home when he had enough (rather than having to listen to him complain). The little ones did a full street and a half after Cam's departure, which turned out to be just enough. We planned our route perfectly as the last house led us directly to where Phil parked the van...just in too, as the small ones were feeling sort of moody as the novelty wore off and tiredness set in.


"mmmm....chips!"

This was my favourite pumpkin of the night:


And so the madness of Hallowe'en is over for another year. Let the madness of Christmas begin!