Daddy-kins..
You may never have been able to give me a pony, but.. you always gave my your heart.
Happy birthday, Mushroom Man!
Kiss...
Monday, April 30, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Change is Good
Hey there,
So what do you think?
I've been toying around with the idea of changing the look of my blog for some time now and decided, today was the day! Pretty exciting, hey?!
Originally, I thought it'd be cool to design my own, but I'm not html savy and was frankly, intimidated by the whole process. I wanted it to reflect "me". A reflection of my career, my hobby (knitting of course), and my interest in digital photography. They're all quite artsy, yet I wasn't sure how I'd meld them together.
THEN, while surfing the www, I ran across this interesty bity thing and it struck my fancy! Who doesn't enjoy doodling every now and then?! I know I do! I'm still tweaking here and there but I think its coming along quite nicely. I just need to separate some links a bit, get my groups on here (sorry, those are missing yet), add my button, and tada! A new me... sorta.
Looking in some of my back posts though, I noticed that some of the pix I have don't exactly "fit" on the page, but, what's a girl to do. Now to reassess where or how I photograph my knitty-pix so they match the new blog! Until then, please bear with me.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Is it easy to read? Too distracting? Too busy, not busy enough? I'm interested in what you have to say. I've also added a Comment Box (cBox) on the right hand side for "insta-comments" on my blog. I can't wait to see what will show up in there! Just please, keep it PG-13, that's all I ask.
Well, talk to ya soon!
Hugs all around...
So what do you think?
I've been toying around with the idea of changing the look of my blog for some time now and decided, today was the day! Pretty exciting, hey?!
Originally, I thought it'd be cool to design my own, but I'm not html savy and was frankly, intimidated by the whole process. I wanted it to reflect "me". A reflection of my career, my hobby (knitting of course), and my interest in digital photography. They're all quite artsy, yet I wasn't sure how I'd meld them together.
THEN, while surfing the www, I ran across this interesty bity thing and it struck my fancy! Who doesn't enjoy doodling every now and then?! I know I do! I'm still tweaking here and there but I think its coming along quite nicely. I just need to separate some links a bit, get my groups on here (sorry, those are missing yet), add my button, and tada! A new me... sorta.
Looking in some of my back posts though, I noticed that some of the pix I have don't exactly "fit" on the page, but, what's a girl to do. Now to reassess where or how I photograph my knitty-pix so they match the new blog! Until then, please bear with me.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Is it easy to read? Too distracting? Too busy, not busy enough? I'm interested in what you have to say. I've also added a Comment Box (cBox) on the right hand side for "insta-comments" on my blog. I can't wait to see what will show up in there! Just please, keep it PG-13, that's all I ask.
Well, talk to ya soon!
Hugs all around...
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Back in the Saddle Again....
Hey there,
Forgive me. Its been a while, a very long while, since my last post. (I feel like I'm in confession...) I've actually been too busy to do much blogging of any kind! Reading writting or otherwise. I even missed my own 1st Blog-birthday.
I have become addicted to Chub Creek, and am listening to just about every Podcast Dave and Gary have done. Some even more than twice. My 45 minute commute to and from work everyday has helped with that. Their music is great and so are their skits, stories and ramblings... I laugh, I giggle, I stop and think. Great job, guys! I feel like you're both long-lost friends somehow...
I've done quite a bit of knitting, which is great, but I've missed alot on everyone's blogs too. Which makes me feel extremely guilty. First, I need to send a big huge world wide apology to Dorothy (I don't know if she has a blog or not) from my Canadian Dishcloth Group. We did our Valentine's cloth exchange and she sent me a beautiful heart lace cloth in blues/greens/whites Cottontots. I know she did a lot of work in it and pushed outside her comfort zone as she told me she had to frog it once and rip back a couple of times to get it right.... Its beautiful. I have to post a photo of it to share. But, the cloths I knit for her are still in my cloth drawer at home... I haven't sent hers out yet and I feel horrible! I banished myself from exchanges for a while as punishment and still intend to send hers out to her along with a plethora of goodies to make up for my misgivings... I'm such a heel.
What have I knit? About half a dozen dishcloths (3 four corners cloths, my extremely tardy exchange cloth, a couple of right anged cloths,) and my piece de-la-resistance, of which I have no photo for... My new baby niece's log cabin baby blanket. I did about 2/3's of it and then gifted it to my SIL telling her I still needed to finish it. Its not quite big enough for me, yet. Its "newborn" size but I want it to be bigger than crib size. The beautiful thing about doing it log cabin is, I can always keep adding stripes to it to make it as big as I envision. Or, start a new ones and stitch them all together for a truly unique blankie. Its in Bernat LuLu - mint green, blue and peach. I double stranded it with white so that it was thicker and easier to knit with. The single strand of Lulu was making me nuts and I fought with it lots! Its so "lashy" I couldn't see through it to find my needles.
Right now I'm working on a teatowel for under my wooden dish rack that I'm making from Eco-fil. Its a dark plum colour. Quite purdy if I do say so myself... Eco-fil is so nice to knit with! The end result is quite soft compared to the Handicrafter I'm used to. Classy stuff, that kitchen cotton! LOL
I'll post the pattern (and photos of this and others) as I go along. I'm mixing up some stitch patterns to get the desired look I wanted. Its going to be lacy, yet solid, mostly stockinette, with a seed stitch border.
The other thing I've been toying around with is updating my blog template. A new blog-year, a new blog-look... There's a couple out there in cyberspace that have turned my crank, but what I'd really like to do is design my own. Unfortunately, I just don't think I have that kind of time right now, so I'll probably just end up with a premade one I find.
Well, I just wanted to pop in, say "hi & wave to everyone". I gotta get back to work now. The boss isn't paying me to blog, afterall! LOL
Hugs all around...
Forgive me. Its been a while, a very long while, since my last post. (I feel like I'm in confession...) I've actually been too busy to do much blogging of any kind! Reading writting or otherwise. I even missed my own 1st Blog-birthday.
I have become addicted to Chub Creek, and am listening to just about every Podcast Dave and Gary have done. Some even more than twice. My 45 minute commute to and from work everyday has helped with that. Their music is great and so are their skits, stories and ramblings... I laugh, I giggle, I stop and think. Great job, guys! I feel like you're both long-lost friends somehow...
I've done quite a bit of knitting, which is great, but I've missed alot on everyone's blogs too. Which makes me feel extremely guilty. First, I need to send a big huge world wide apology to Dorothy (I don't know if she has a blog or not) from my Canadian Dishcloth Group. We did our Valentine's cloth exchange and she sent me a beautiful heart lace cloth in blues/greens/whites Cottontots. I know she did a lot of work in it and pushed outside her comfort zone as she told me she had to frog it once and rip back a couple of times to get it right.... Its beautiful. I have to post a photo of it to share. But, the cloths I knit for her are still in my cloth drawer at home... I haven't sent hers out yet and I feel horrible! I banished myself from exchanges for a while as punishment and still intend to send hers out to her along with a plethora of goodies to make up for my misgivings... I'm such a heel.
What have I knit? About half a dozen dishcloths (3 four corners cloths, my extremely tardy exchange cloth, a couple of right anged cloths,) and my piece de-la-resistance, of which I have no photo for... My new baby niece's log cabin baby blanket. I did about 2/3's of it and then gifted it to my SIL telling her I still needed to finish it. Its not quite big enough for me, yet. Its "newborn" size but I want it to be bigger than crib size. The beautiful thing about doing it log cabin is, I can always keep adding stripes to it to make it as big as I envision. Or, start a new ones and stitch them all together for a truly unique blankie. Its in Bernat LuLu - mint green, blue and peach. I double stranded it with white so that it was thicker and easier to knit with. The single strand of Lulu was making me nuts and I fought with it lots! Its so "lashy" I couldn't see through it to find my needles.
Right now I'm working on a teatowel for under my wooden dish rack that I'm making from Eco-fil. Its a dark plum colour. Quite purdy if I do say so myself... Eco-fil is so nice to knit with! The end result is quite soft compared to the Handicrafter I'm used to. Classy stuff, that kitchen cotton! LOL
I'll post the pattern (and photos of this and others) as I go along. I'm mixing up some stitch patterns to get the desired look I wanted. Its going to be lacy, yet solid, mostly stockinette, with a seed stitch border.
The other thing I've been toying around with is updating my blog template. A new blog-year, a new blog-look... There's a couple out there in cyberspace that have turned my crank, but what I'd really like to do is design my own. Unfortunately, I just don't think I have that kind of time right now, so I'll probably just end up with a premade one I find.
Well, I just wanted to pop in, say "hi & wave to everyone". I gotta get back to work now. The boss isn't paying me to blog, afterall! LOL
Hugs all around...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
My Online Portfolio
I've generated an online portfolio to show off some of my graphic design work.. Hey, it doesn't hurt to advertise, I should know... Its what I do all day.
http://mad-smile-designer.carbonmade.com/
http://mad-smile-designer.carbonmade.com/
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Ode to "Victoria"
I've always wanted to do this cloth but could never get the pattern from Ms. Cote's site. Its hard to get on there even during "non-peak" hours. If only I could read french... Then, I didn't know why I check the files from the Monthly Dishcloth KAL Group. It was there the whole time! I believe she's a member of the group(?) and gave them permission to post it. Anyway, I had to tink a few rows a couple of times as I messed up on the repeats, but it was fun and fairly quick considering the complexity of the lace pattern.
Definitely will do again. It used a whole ball of cotton on 4.5mm needles, I might add with about 3 inches of waste...
Great Minds Think Alike
So, I'm going through the Monthly Dishcloth KAL's messages and saw I was missing out on the 1st KAL for Feb. After reading through the pattern a bit, I thought "that sounds familiar"
It most certainly was. Seems I did the Feb KAL before it started. I always feel so guilty when I miss them, but I'm enjoy a stitch pattern cloth more and they tend to do more "picture" pattern cloths so I have a hard time staying motivated to do them... But because its Valentine's, I couldn't resist this picture pattern.
It most certainly was. Seems I did the Feb KAL before it started. I always feel so guilty when I miss them, but I'm enjoy a stitch pattern cloth more and they tend to do more "picture" pattern cloths so I have a hard time staying motivated to do them... But because its Valentine's, I couldn't resist this picture pattern.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
The Three M's
Moster Jam Sunday.... They sold us the whole seat, but really! We did only need the edge!
The boy has always wanted to go so we figured, what the hey... Thank Gawd for earplugs!
Mother's Day, Already!!!
Naw.. He just wanted to do the dishes after he cleaned the kitchen. The boy has good genes, what can I say :)
Mate for the Fingerless Wristwarmer
Its not as good as the first one. I got excited and casted it off a few rows too early then seamed it backwards... The wrist edge is now in the palm, and the palm is on the wrist, but hey, my hand model liked 'em.
The boy has always wanted to go so we figured, what the hey... Thank Gawd for earplugs!
Mother's Day, Already!!!
Naw.. He just wanted to do the dishes after he cleaned the kitchen. The boy has good genes, what can I say :)
Mate for the Fingerless Wristwarmer
Its not as good as the first one. I got excited and casted it off a few rows too early then seamed it backwards... The wrist edge is now in the palm, and the palm is on the wrist, but hey, my hand model liked 'em.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Sweets for the Sweets
Valentine's Day... What do you and your special someone do for it?
Me, I get presents. Its my birthday. Don't know if I deserve them but, I'd better get presents! LOL
I do love Valentine's day, though. All the pink, red. The hearts, so soft and foofy. Is "foofy" a word? I was never a "pink person" 'til lately. I don't understand why I love it now. Must be some sort of "pink-phase". But now I'm just rambling....
My point is, I am into knitting pink. Case in point, my ponchette and these cloths.
Hey, Isabelle... Notice my Love Day washcloth? I finally got on cast on... Its such a pretty pattern, thanks for posting it.
This one is my own design. I call it "Ice-Cream Sunday". Its based on the nine patch from the Mason Dixon blog. Instead of doing nine, I did three patches. Cast off, picked up 36 stitches along the edge, knit 12 garter ridge rows in Jute. Changed colour to pink, did 6 garter ridge rows and lastly changed to red for the remaining garter ridge rows. Bound it off knitwise and voila! The nice thing about this was, not as may little ends to weave in as on the nine patch.
Like the nine patch, it only took me about 4 hours on a Sunday to do it in, hence the name. Plus, I think its "lickable".
Time to go do my dishes!
Me, I get presents. Its my birthday. Don't know if I deserve them but, I'd better get presents! LOL
I do love Valentine's day, though. All the pink, red. The hearts, so soft and foofy. Is "foofy" a word? I was never a "pink person" 'til lately. I don't understand why I love it now. Must be some sort of "pink-phase". But now I'm just rambling....
My point is, I am into knitting pink. Case in point, my ponchette and these cloths.
Hey, Isabelle... Notice my Love Day washcloth? I finally got on cast on... Its such a pretty pattern, thanks for posting it.
This one is my own design. I call it "Ice-Cream Sunday". Its based on the nine patch from the Mason Dixon blog. Instead of doing nine, I did three patches. Cast off, picked up 36 stitches along the edge, knit 12 garter ridge rows in Jute. Changed colour to pink, did 6 garter ridge rows and lastly changed to red for the remaining garter ridge rows. Bound it off knitwise and voila! The nice thing about this was, not as may little ends to weave in as on the nine patch.
Like the nine patch, it only took me about 4 hours on a Sunday to do it in, hence the name. Plus, I think its "lickable".
Time to go do my dishes!
My Morpheus Möbius
I know, I was always a late bloomer.
The Rubicks cube on my dresser was no where near solved when the majority moved on to Tetris. People were rollerblading while I was still rollerskating. Don't even get me going on Pilates!
I did things when I was ready. Which explains why I just recently discovered Mobius. I love the twist. So, unexpected. Math is cool, when you have to knit it...
I did this with 3 balls of Sean Sheep Yarn in a thick & thin roving wool blend. Its such a rich, delicious, beautiful, red wine colour. I had to have it as soon as I touched it. Its not expensive (which is good) and it is a blend, but I enjoyed it, alot!
Even though my Morpheus Möbius was knit on US 17 needles, it didn't turn out very "lacy" like I thought it might. I cast on 36 stitches and did a simple K2P2 till all three ball were gone. My preferred pattern for scarves because of the rib-factor.
Why did I call it Morpheus? I couldn't believed all that I can do with this ever-looping scarf! After all was said and done, I think I "morphed" it into a shawl, scarf, neck cowl, wrapped hat, face warmer, side-ways sash... Well, you get the idea.
I debated (and sitll might) blocking it, to get it to hold its stretched out width of 17 inches more, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy its warmth.
The Rubicks cube on my dresser was no where near solved when the majority moved on to Tetris. People were rollerblading while I was still rollerskating. Don't even get me going on Pilates!
I did things when I was ready. Which explains why I just recently discovered Mobius. I love the twist. So, unexpected. Math is cool, when you have to knit it...
I did this with 3 balls of Sean Sheep Yarn in a thick & thin roving wool blend. Its such a rich, delicious, beautiful, red wine colour. I had to have it as soon as I touched it. Its not expensive (which is good) and it is a blend, but I enjoyed it, alot!
Even though my Morpheus Möbius was knit on US 17 needles, it didn't turn out very "lacy" like I thought it might. I cast on 36 stitches and did a simple K2P2 till all three ball were gone. My preferred pattern for scarves because of the rib-factor.
Why did I call it Morpheus? I couldn't believed all that I can do with this ever-looping scarf! After all was said and done, I think I "morphed" it into a shawl, scarf, neck cowl, wrapped hat, face warmer, side-ways sash... Well, you get the idea.
I debated (and sitll might) blocking it, to get it to hold its stretched out width of 17 inches more, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy its warmth.
OTC
So, here's my pixys Off The Camera, instead of the needles... LOL
The Christmas coasters I did. Just a simple mitered square in Bernat cotton.
Its a tradition for me to not put everything away like it should be as last year, I had one lone nutcracker out all year. The year before that, one of my Christmas Village houses... Ahhh, traditions...
This one was MIA at the time of "de-decorating" so it'll have to get put in a special place till next year.
The Feather and Fan dishcloth in Bernat cotton - Jute. Its such a traditional, old-world pattern to me. Makes me think of a hand knit afghan that made by Granny. I loved doing it. Inspired by Mary-Anne.
Cute little sweater there, Mary-Anne! Love the buttons... Someday, I might feel comfortable enough to do something like that.... For now, its
Then, my favorite slippers that I decided I'm going to make about 700 pairs of these things!!! LOL - Wow, I'm ambitious.
Again, they were supposed to be Technicolour slippers and have crazy colours throughout and mine are sans-pompoms, but I just don't have that much stash... I still love 'em. Thanks for the link Mary-Anne.
The Christmas coasters I did. Just a simple mitered square in Bernat cotton.
Its a tradition for me to not put everything away like it should be as last year, I had one lone nutcracker out all year. The year before that, one of my Christmas Village houses... Ahhh, traditions...
This one was MIA at the time of "de-decorating" so it'll have to get put in a special place till next year.
The Feather and Fan dishcloth in Bernat cotton - Jute. Its such a traditional, old-world pattern to me. Makes me think of a hand knit afghan that made by Granny. I loved doing it. Inspired by Mary-Anne.
Cute little sweater there, Mary-Anne! Love the buttons... Someday, I might feel comfortable enough to do something like that.... For now, its
Then, my favorite slippers that I decided I'm going to make about 700 pairs of these things!!! LOL - Wow, I'm ambitious.
Again, they were supposed to be Technicolour slippers and have crazy colours throughout and mine are sans-pompoms, but I just don't have that much stash... I still love 'em. Thanks for the link Mary-Anne.
