Happy New Year....and knitting all the things! :)

Good morning peeps...and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Yes, it's been a while since I wrote on my blog but since we're starting a new year....I thought I'd start it up again.  I will be changing the theme a little this year though.  It will mostly be about the knitting! :)  I will also throw a few tidbits in here and there about the everyday stuff, but mostly....I just want a place to share my love of YARN! :) 

So what have I been up to you ask?? Well,  I have now made a corporate decision to step away from my Etsy store and their exhorborant fees and start my own Yarn Makes Me Happy site.  For the past few weeks, I have built a website (shopping cart really) and have started adding a few yarn related items to it.  I should have that up and running in about a week or so, but it is not quite ready yet! :)  I will probably still use my Etsy store to sell my hand knit items, but I won't have my yarn on there anymore.  Another reason for this is that I have also been asked if I was interested in having my yarn sold commercially.  Of course I said yes, so having a site will make it easier for my clients to view my site and pick and choose the yarns and bases that they want to carry in their retail establishments.  It will be easy to send them discount codes and I won't have to be raked over the coals with the Etsy fees.  Exciting stuff ahead!!! :)

So as it is January 1st, it is time to cast on a few new items.  I am going to be knitting up the Dark & Stormy Cardigan by Thea Colman but I do have to wait until my yarn gets here.  I have ordered a tweed yarn so I'm hoping it will be okay for all the cabley goodness and not too overwhelming.  Whilst I wait for that to arrive - I am joining a KAL where we knit two squares a month from the Great American Aran Afghan book.  This month, we are starting with Julie H. Levy and Hanna Burns.  I intend to get those cast on today and I'm using some 100% BFL superwash yarn.  We'll see how long I keep it up but if all goes well, I should have a completed afghan sometime in early 2014! :)

The only thing I am finishing up right now is the Hitchhiker Shawlette in my handspun yarn.  It is turning out really pretty and I only have a little ways left to go.  Currently I have 38 points and I believe there are 42 in the pattern.   It has something to do with the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and the answer to the question about the universe or something.  Clearly I'm not a geek and could care less about that reference...I just like the shawlette and the mindless knitting! :)

 

I've also been making a few of these characture hats.....I really love how quickly they whip up and EVERYONE seems to love them!! Here's one I finished a few days ago - my little lion.

 

 

I've done a couple of sock monkey hats, and a kangaroo hat and I think next on the needles will be a little pig for my girlfriends daughter (she picked out the pattern and the yarn is on the way).  I have also had a request for a panda...so that will be coming soon as well.  They're super quick and super fun and oooooh so cute, dontcha think? 

 

I also have a couple of other projects in mind for January but we'll see how things go.  I have joined a sock club this year but won't receive my first shipment until February for that.  Last year I joined the 12 in 2012 club and I did knit 7 pair so that wasn't too bad.  This year, I have joined the 13 for 2013 but I may just be counting the individual socks this year as 13 pairs is really quite overwhelming! LOL!! :)

 

Well, I hope you're all safe and warm in your cozy homes after the New Year's Eve celebrations last night!! You can expect to see a weekly blog post from me this year - not sure if it will be on Tuesdays, but hey...that seems to be just as good a day as any, right?!! :) 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 

Ahhhh...summer holidays!

Good Monday morning everyone! :)  Hope y'all had a great weekend!  We took it pretty easy around here.  Wayne was home so he worked on fencing (whew - no more electric fence and me panicking about power outages).  He also fixed the lawn mower and he mowed and mowed and mowed.  After three weeks of heavy rain and then hotness, the grass was insanely high and quite a job to get wrangled back into decentness!  Now it looks amazing again - so nice when its all trimmed and the weed whacking has been done.  Melissa came up on Saturday for one of her last visits before she heads to China.  It was nice to spend some time with her.  She's nervously excited and getting lots of last minute things accomplished.  I cannot imagine getting ready to embark on that kind of journey - knowing you'll be in another country for at least a year. However, that said - most of the teachers abroad love it over there and she's got lots of support and has already found a roommate.  I'm excited for her - but terrified at the same time! :)  I also spent the weekend hanging with some friends who were here from Prince George.  They are planning a move to the area and so I tagged along whilst they looked at potential new homes.  It was great to see them and I can't wait until they are here permanently.   They have kids around Brayden's age so we're looking forward to having some new playdate friends in town! :)

I have been knitting as per usual.  I finished up this:

...and have been working on a couple of other test knits for designers.  It feels a little strange to be knitting hats and mittens in the middle of this heat wave...but hey, I guess I'll be ready for all those craft fairs later in the year! :)

On a spinning note, the Tour de France has started, which always means the Tour de Fleece has started too!! I have a few goals this year and can't believe we're already on Day 10 today.  Crazy!!  My biggest goal was to spin 12 oz. this year and so far, I've only done 4! UGH!!!

This is one of two bobbins I have completed so today I will be plying them together - Polworth/Silk - can't wait to see how this turns out.  :)  Then I'll be pulling out some more fiber and gettin' busy on the wheel.  So happy that my job lets me spin between tasks! :)  Life is GOOD!! :)

Well, that's about it for now!  Hope you have a great week....not much on the agenda this week for B and I but that's the beauty of summer holidaze!! :)  Thanks for stopping by......

Happy Canada Day - Happy July!

Hello everyone - hope you all had a GREAT long weekend and were able to celebrate Canada Day with your families!  :)  We were lucky enough to spend the weekend up at the cabin at Oyama Lake!

Isn't it just beautiful?!!!  The water was really high, which made for easy access and we enjoyed fishing and relaxing.  I spun on my drop spindle and even started reading a couple of books! :)   The kids enjoyed throwing sticks off the dock for Cubby to retrieve........

...and they were even brave enough to go for a swim!!!  I can tell you that the water was COLD as Caroline and I washed our hair in the lake by bending over the dock.  There is no WAY you would have gotten my entire body in that water...it was FREEZING!!! They loved it though and stayed in for quite a while!! :)

You can see in the bottom picture that Cubby is anxious to join them!! LOL!! :)  We did a bit of geocaching - Caroline and Mary discovered my two caches and I restocked them with new goodies for 2012.  Overall, we had a perfect weekend.....and I think we even managed to catch 6 or 7 fish between downpours!  It was GREAT to be up there again - can't wait until next time! 

No more lunches....

Yep, that's right....I made my last school lunch for this Grade 4 year! Yahoooo!! :)  ...and to boot, my kid almost forgot it so I had to sprint through the pasture to bring it to him as he ran for the bus!!! Sheesh - KIDS!!!!

So the past couple of weeks have been busy....I've completed this:

and spun up a little bit of this:

and this:

Then I test knit one of these (yeah, just ask him how thrilled he was to model a PINK beret!!!) :

and I test knit one of these:

I joined a few knitters at the local art gallery for our regular stitch and bitch on Friday afternoons and on my way out the door, I spied these (yarn bombing courtesy of my friend Gudie):

I think they're just lovely......great use for all those doilys our Grandmas used to make!! Don't you think it just makes everything a little more cheery????

Anyway - on this last full day of school, I am going to enjoy it - having coffee with a girlfriend this morning and then packing this afternoon for our trip to the cabin.  I am taking Brayden fishing for the long weekend - so hope to have some more pics for you soon.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with my view this morning:

Yes, I AM a lucky girl!! Nice to see the sunshine this morning...hope it sticks around - we could use a little drying out around here!!

Hope you all have a great weekend and here's a little cartoon that just struck me as super funny the other night!!  It must have been late - but I howled when I saw it!! Cracked me right up!! Bye for now!!

Cheers!!!

Knit Knit Knit ...and knit some more!! :)

What have I been up to you ask??? Well, knitting my fool head off!! Here's a couple of things I've been working on:

The first is a test knit for the shawl pattern Dinner in the Eiffel Tower.  I love how this one turned out.  A beautiful pattern and one I wouldn't mind doing again in a worsted weight yarn - perhaps some Cascade 220 - Superwash. 

This one took about 450 yards of yarn...approximately one skein. 

The next one is my Color Affection Shawl and this baby is HUGE!! This one took about 1100 yards of yarn or the better part of 3 skeins.  I used my own yarn that I hand dyed and just tried to pick three colors that I thought would work.  I love how it turned out - and it is HUGE!!! Tons and tons of mindless knitting on this one. 

Anyway - that's what I've been up to - knitting while it rained.  Now that we're back to some decent weather - perhaps I'll bring out my wheel and do some spinning! :)

Thanks for stopping by....

Between the Dentist and Soccer

So we had some time to kill today.  My tooth has been bothering me for a few days (I think this is day 4).  Usually I'll have a twinge of pain for a day or two but then it subsides.  This has been lasting for far too long and the heat/cold sensitivity is enough to drive me around the bend.  It also has been getting progressively worse and since we were heading into the weekend (read - no dental office open), I decided to see if they could squeeze me in today to see what was up.  Well, the long and short of it is a 2 1/2 hour root canal that will be done the first week of July - unless they can squeeze me in sooner.  So for now, antibiotics and Advil to take care of the inflammation.  Oye Vey!!! I just hope the temperature sensation dissapates cuz that's just a real PITA!!! :(

Anyway - we had soccer at 6:30 so with only an hour to kill, we weren't going to go all the way home.  We decided to grab a picnic supper and head to McGuire Lake for a bit.  The sun was shining so we spent an hour or so walking around the lake and enjoying our dinner.  I cast on for another shawl and we took in the sites.  So lucky to live here...it's really just sooooo beautiful.  Here's some shots of our afternoon! :)

On the crafty front - I purchased one of these today.....a Kromski Harp!  It is coming from Littleton, CO.  I cannot wait till it gets here and I really hope the gal fills out the papers correctly so that I don't have to pay duty on the sucker!! :(  She's only used it twice and I didn't get a screaming deal but cheaper than I could have purchased it buying retail.  I've had my eye on them for a while now and finally decided to take the plunge when I saw this resale come up on Ravelry.  I have some yarn already so I can't wait to give it a whirl.  I am in awe of what some of our guild ladies do, so I'm hoping to learn a few tricks.  I just like simple weaving - so hence the rigid heddle loom.  I'm not into a whole bunch of colorwork - just plain simple towels, scarves, etc.  Anyway, we'll see where this goes.  It's not like I need ANOTHER hobby - but I have wanted to try this for quite some time.  This one also comes with a built in warping board - which will be handy for warping my sock yarns before dyeing.  Who knows - perhaps I'll get into the self-striping yarns next!! They're all the rage!

Well, as always - thanks for stopping by.  I hope you've got a fun-filled weekend planned!  You know what I'll be doing!! :)

Changes to Blogger....

Sheesh - sometimes I don't know why the powers that be need to fix things that aren't broken.  They've taken a simple, easy-to-use product and made it all very confusing!! Good grief ...leave things ALONE!!!

Okay - rant over!!

So...what's been happening??  Well, I've been working on this:

This was a test knit for a gal in Germany!  I was a little late getting it in but it was actually a lot larger than I thought it would be.  It turned out really nicely and I absolutely love it! :)  The other item I worked on was this:

Yes, another shawl.  I love these little shawls - they're really more like shawlettes - I wear them more like a scarf!  They just dress up a turtleneck and do keep you warm.  Not maybe so perfect for the hot summer weather that's on the way but for spring and fall - they're just perfect.  I have started a new shawl so I'll throw some pics up once it's done.  It is a LARGE shawl though - so it might be awhile.

On another note, my Scentsy business is really taking off and this month I'll jump from Escential consultant, which is where you start out, right up to Lead consultant.  I skipped right over Certified and now I have a TEAM!! Sooo exciting - who would have thought that l'il ole me would have a "TEAM"!!! Anyway - I'm really enjoying the direction of this company and am excited to hear what's next.

Brayden has finally finished hockey (yes, by April...I'm DONE!) and has started soccer and flag football.  Football is new to him this year and he is really enjoying it.  He was also invited on a team of boys to play ball hockey in a tournament this weekend.  It looks to be quite the event!  Hopefully the boys will do well - but regardless, I know they'll have fun.

I started a new job last week - doing some administrative work for a real estate team based in Vernon.  I am super excited and so far am really loving the work.  It is only a few hours a day but just PERFECT for my lifestyle.  I get to work from home and other than always being a slave to my email to see if new work has arrived...it is pretty cool! :)  Real estate... oh yeah....right up my alley!! :)

Anyway - that's about all for updates!! Thanks for stopping by......