Uli's Creative Corner

Did I say TGIF earlier?  What a day...........  remember how I had to take the car in for servicing?  The routine service turned into a $1200 car repair bill because my head gasket was just about to blow.  I guess I can thank my lucky stars for not getting stranded on the road somewhere, especially on a day when I have Erika in the car.  It's also been pouring rain all day and the roads are flooded.  Evan left the office at 4 pm.  It's now 5 pm and he has barely moved 5 blocks.  So I'm hanging out and waiting at the office, on a Friday night.  I figure it'll be another hour before he gets here.  Fortunately, (someone looking out for us again), Erika is at her Nana's house.  That way there's no worry about picking her up at daycare.  Nana could come and get me from work but she's worried about getting out in the awful weather and traffic with Erika in the car so I'm still going to be stuck here.

But you know what................ I've got my knitting. :-))  I already ran out of yarn on Evan's sleeve today (I knitted at lunch time).  Now I'm working a bit on the Sandess Fantasy Raglan but I'm low on yarn there but don't worry, I have Mom's scarf to work on as well.  Evan though I'm low on yarn on all these projects, they should keep me going until I get rescued.

Have a beautiful, sunny weekend.  It's got to stop raining.  The Christmas lights are going up tomorrow - rain, snow, sleet or sunshine.

TGIF............

Today could have been the perfect sick day.  I feel pretty crummy.  My head hurts and I'm all stuffed up but I had so many other things arranged that it just wasn't really possible to re-arrange everything so I went to work.  First of all, Nana wanted a visit with Erika so I took her over there this morning instead of daycare.  Then Evan had made arrangements to get my car serviced and I didn't want to postpone that.  So I dropped off my car at the dealership and waited for my ride to work.  I appreciate the ride to work but unfortunately, there were 2 other gentlemen who also needed a ride and they got dropped off first so I got a round-trip all over town before I got to my office.  They are coming to pick me up again after work is over so I'm really stuck here today.  I didn't bring a lunch because I didn't want to haul my lunch bag, my knitting bag and my purse around in the hopes that we'd order Chinese Food in (we always do on pay day Fridays) but today it seems like we may not.......  And, the weather is just crappy.  In a nutshell, I feel too crappy to hold my head up high and work at a computer all day but I'd be okay with hot tea, a blanket, the TV and my knitting and some extra sleep.

Off my soapbox.  That was a good whine, wasn't it?

I am really, really pleased with how my Christmas gifts are coming along.  The one I know I'm going to have troubles with is the Feel Good Quilt.  It's a quick quilt because it's a big fabric panel and I only have to add some borders and then sandwich it and quilt a square grid across it and then bind it but I'm just not having a lot of time to sit at the sewing machine these days.  I really don't like seperating myself from the family in the evenings to go up to my sewing room.  I like to be with them - that's how I get lots of knitting done and no sewing.

The sleeve on Evan's sweater is a royal pain.  I usually don't mind sleeves but this one seems to be going on and on and on.  It's all seed stitch so it has no excitement to it.  So that's why I'm really just pushing along with it.  I'm well over halfway done on the first sleeve now though.  I want this sweater done and finished as soon as I can and then I can finish some of the smaller things.  They are all going pretty well though. 

I have two Booga bags knitted up.  Almost one I-cord finished.  I'm going to start the third bag this weekend so that I can decide on colours - one of them I get to keep.  Two I'm giving away.  I'm thinking of making a couple of mini bags with some of the scraps I have for my nieces.  I think that would be kind of cute. My first attempt at felting will happen this weekend.  Wish me luck.

More yarn and more patterns are trying to draw me in to break that yarn diet.  Will I make it????

This weekend we're decorating the house.  I'm looking forward to that.  Hopefully I can also finish the advent calendar.  To finish that, knitting might be a bit limited this weekend.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends down south of me............. may you enjoy a day with friends and family and lots of good food and not forget the things we really need to be thankful for.  There are so many little things.  I just heard some sad news this morning.  The news don't affect me personally but thinking about what happened makes me realize that you have to give your loved ones a hug and a kiss every morning because something may happen to them during the day.  We can't take anything or anyone for granted.

But now................ for the smile of the day:

Isn't it worth knitting all kinds of cute things for that little face?

Not too much in knitting news.  The second Booga J bag is almost finished, except for the I-cord.  I made my first attempt at the I-cord for the first bag last night.  I've knitted all my life and never done an I-cord before.  Go figure.  I think it's okay.  I hope any imperfections will just disappear in the felting process.

Evan's sweater's sleeve only grew by about 6 rows.  But I did knit up one dishcloth to add to the 5 dishcloths I need for the gifts for Erika's daycare teachers.  2 down, 3 to go.  I needed easy, simple, stupid work last night.

Then I held a real ugly ball of cheap sock yarn in my hand at Walmart yesterday.  Why......... don't ask me.  Just because it was a ball of yarn.  I almost bought it but I put it back.  That was really silly............ buy an ugly ball of yarn that I'll never use while I'm on my yarn diet.  That would have been a stupid way to cheat on my diet.  I would rather cheat with the yarn for the cables and lace cardigan or something crazy like that.  But, I'm not going to cheat................  I asked Evan yesterday to look at the cardigan pattern link and comment on it and he says: "It's nice...." No more than that.  Once I'd like him to just say: "That's a great pattern, I think that would look really nice on you.  You should go buy the yarn".  It's always just "it's nice.".  Now he isn't a man of many words most of the time anyways so a "it's nice" is probably already more than I should expect but come on............. I guess he knows better than to feed my obsession even more.

Last night was Survivor night so I'll be lost in TV land tonight.  We'll probably watch Bob the Builder......  and besides that, I should really finish that Advent calendar.  It's the first Sunday in Advent this Sunday and Monday she could look under door #1 - if I get my act together this weekend.

Enjoy your day.

It's middle of the week already and they are forecasting a fairly dry weekend - that means we'll be able to finish putting the rest of the Christmas lights up.  The only thing we're still missing is a tall enough ladder to get them all up there.

I'm starting to get to the point where I want the Christmas presents all finished up so I can get back to the list.  The yarn diet is already starting to feel a little difficult and I'm only 1 1/2 weeks into it.  I came across this nice cardigan pattern yesterday: Cables and Lace Cardigan  I'm allowed patterns so I'm thinking of getting the pattern only but the cotton advertised with it seems like a pretty good deal, too. Slap my fingers............. I need none of this right now.

But..... I was looking ahead to 2004 last night.  Just thinking about a new year coming soon.  Okay so we're more than a month away but I'm a real planner.  I'm thinking 2004 will be "MY" year.  I need to sparkle up my wardrobe and I think some knitted pieces need to be a part of that wardrobe.  I've knitted for Erika and other little people for a few years now and always put my own projects aside.  I think it's time I work on some of those pretty patterns for me.  Mind you, I'll keep knitting for Erika because she's just so cute and because little projects alongside some of the big ones help keep me going when you just need that satisfaction of finishing.  That's from a knitting perspective............ from a quilting perspective, it will be a finishing first part of the year.  I want to finish all of those quilts that I started in my courses and that I have kits for.  They are all so pretty.

That's a look ahead to next year.  Wait a few weeks and I'll be sure to have lists galore about what I want to achieve and what my goals are.............. call me crazy.

Booga Bag #2 is about 1/3 done.  The colour #131 is quite a wicked combination of colours.  I'll try and get some pictures tonight.  It's funky.  I could actually see a cardigan or a sweater with it if you want something to make a statement and to stand out.

Yesterday, when I cam home I was a little maniac.  I have about 1/2 hour, maybe 40 minutes of peace before Erika and Evan come home from daycare and work.  I wanted to knit but that advent calendar needs to be ready next week.  So I spent about 20 minutes doing some more machine quilting on the advent calendar.  I think I'm almost done.  Just a few more details to put in and then I have to bind it.  Then I went downstairs and picked up Evan's sweater.  I finished the front.... yeah!!!!  I moved right along to cast on for the sleeves but didn't get very far.  However, Erika decided that bed time was before 8 pm last night (if you've been reading here for a while you will know that Erika isn't a fan of early bed times).  It was odd freedom that I had once she went to bed.  So I worked my way up the sleeve and have at least 5 inches done.  These sleeves seem like a lot of work though.  Now I think I need to find a similarly shaped sweater to try and measure the sleeves so that I get the right length.  There's not really any fake excuse I can do to measure his real arms or hold the sleeves up to his arm without giving away the secret.

With thoughts of all the pretty yarns and all the pretty patterns that are out there......

Were you ever just so close, you could taste it....................

Last night, the planets seemed to align just perfectly so that I could get the second side of the V-neck finished for Evan's sweater.  Even Erika went to bed at a reasonable hour.  So it was just after 9 pm and I thought I had it made in terms of getting the front all finished.  But, I guess I overestimated my speed or underestimated how much was left to do.  10 pm rolls around and since I'm a real creature of habit, I felt I needed to pack it in for the night and get lunches packed and off to bed.  So here I am this morning with about 5 or 6 rows of knitting with about 40 stitches on the needle.  I can't believe I didn't just quickly finish it.

I finished the body of the first Booga bag and I started the base of the second bag.  The second bag is made from colour131which is an orange mix of colours with some blue, green and pink thrown in.  I think it will be a challenge to decide who to give which colour to and which colour to keep for myself.  So I'm trying to make up all three bags by December 14th (felted, finished and all) and then decide.  All my gifts for California are heading to San Jose leaving Canada on December 15th in my in-laws' van.

I'm not going to bitch and complain about government bureaucracy but I was frustrated yesterday evening by some forms I needed to complete and mail off.  I just couldn't get anything right including the correct envelope size.  One of the forms I had to submit was an 8 1/2 by 14 sheet of paper and I had brought home an 9X 12 envelope.  Then I read that I wasn't allowed to fold anything so the envelope wouldn't work.  In a very grumbly mood, I went down to the post office to buy another envelope and to put my package together in the middle of the post office.  Ah, no big deal............nonetheless, frustrating.  Mind you, in the mean time, I found a bunch of pretty Christmas lights and window decorations on sale and those cheered me up again.

I fell like I'm coming down with something.  Yuck.  Sore throat, the start of a runny nose.

Big meeting at work this afternoon.  I hope it goes well.

Tonight I will finish that V-neck front of the sweater and I am going to push right along and start the first sleeve.

Have a beautiful day.

Another week has started......

We had a really nice weekend and I have to thank Evan for that in a big way. While Erika and I were out on Saturday morning to go to baby music class and to pick up a Christmas present for our niece, he did all the major clean-up downstairs. I came home and everything was tidy and vaccumed. Made me get off to a great start for the weekend. He had even started on the laundry. It was such a treat - not that he doesn't usually help out a lot but it was so nice to come home to it all being done already. Then we went out Christmas shopping and I would say that we're basically 98% done. Now if I could just get all my other presents that I'm making finished then I'd be so happy.

With all of that, Saturday was kind of shot for getting lots of knitting or sewing done but I got a bit done.

Friday night I started my first Booga J Bag. Here is my progress so far: It's done in Colour #52. I've never felted anything before so I'm curious to see how it will turn out. We have a front loading washing machine so I'm a little worried about the level of agitation because those washers are supposed to be really easy on the agitation. However, I can get really hot water - my washer even heats up water beyond the hot water from the tap. Anyone out there have any suggestions for felting with a front loading machine. Does it work the same? Or would I just be better off going to my mother-in-law's house or my Mom's house and using the old traditional standard top loader washing machine?

I like this colour. I'm not sure whether this one is for myself or one of the presents I'm making.

I knitted on Evan's sweater, too. I have no pictures. I really don't like how this yarn and colour photographs. It's so light and the pictures always seem to not even show up the pattern very well. I have one side of the V-neck knitted up and finished and I'm at least 3/4 of the way up the second side of the V-neck. I should be able to finish that tonight and I should be able to start the sleeves soon. I think I'll be able to get this one finished for Christmas.

Yesterday I spent some time sandwiching the Advent Calendar and I started quilting it at random. I'm just following some of the outlines of the pictures and the little advent doors for some detail and to hold it together. I don't think I have to make it quilted too tightly.

Speaking of quilting, before I return to my knitting ventures, here is a picture of the stained glass angel quilt. I still need to find some fabric for the borders, sandwich it and then zig-zag stitch with tiny stitches along all the black stained glass web lines. Not a small job......... The pictures looks funny. I took it at a really funny angle, lying down and then I rotated it up. Forgive me............. I'm not the world's greatest photographer.

I think she looks pretty good already. There's still lots of work to do though.

Now back to my knitting attempts this weekend.

The second Boa scarf I'm working on as a Christmas present is a grey/black/white colour. I've just got it started. My dilemma is that this one was intended for my Mom but I think it might make my Mom look older. I think she might look better in a brighter colour. Gurdeep likes the grey colour and I had intended the aqua one for her. Actually, when she saw the grey colour yarn, she offered to buy it off me after Christmas if my Mom didn't like it. Ha.......... little does she know that she's getting one for Christmas. Makes me feel like I made a good choice for a Christmas gift. So, I'm thinking of switching them and giving my Mom the brighter coloured scarf and Gurdeep the grey coloured one. But then the yarn I bought for my Mom for some gloves won't really match the scarf.... go figure.

I started a pair of gloves for myself using some Socka Denim sock yarn. I'm working on glove #1 and only have the pinky done so far.

I did the ribbing in Knit one into the back, purl one. I like the effect that gives for a simple rib on a glove. I think for my Mom's gloves I might try tiny little cables. For some reason I had a mental block yesterday when I was trying to divide my stitches up for the fingers. And I still have one mistake in my stitch count but it's only off by 1 stitch so I can fudge it a bit. When I was working this through, I felt like I had never knit before.

Here is a quick progress on the Sisu Raglan - I'm down to 12 rounds (or less) before starting the division for the front neck opening. It's kind of waiting to be finished over all the other Christmas knitting I'm doing but I'd like to get it finished quickly. I think it will be cute on Erika. My tension is off a bit which is unusual. I knitted with Addi Natura (bamboo circulars - I think it's bamboo) for the first time and I found my stitches aren't as even than when I knit with metal needles. A bit annoying on an all stocking stitch garment but I still like it and I know it will turn into a daycare sweater so I'm not too fuzzy about it.

And last but not least, my last yarn before my yarn diet arrived in the mail on Friday:

And here is proof why I need to be on a yarn diet (and there's more in the closet):

May this serve as my constant reminder why I don't need to look for or order more yarn or even fabric.

Last but not least............ For a long time, I've wanted to donate my time and my energy to create something for charity. Be it making a quilt for a Special Care Nursery (Erika had to spend some time in a special care nursery when she was born so that's dear to me - fortunately she was probably the healthiest baby in there and only there for observation) or be it knitting for the less fortunate. Making hats, blankets, gloves, mittens etc. I have to admit that I have not translated that internal desire to do something like that into action. I've been very selfish that way. There are so many projects for "us" that I always "need" to get done first that it never happens. It is no different this season and it disturbs me a little bit. A long time ago, I discovered an ad for a local organization who take donations of knitted or sewn items for the less fortunate, especially children. I don't know all the details but I was reading their ad again and they state that they also accept donations of yarn, fabric, etc. So since I'm already running out of time with all my "selfish" projects, I think it's time for me to tackle my yarn stash and pull out some yarns that I know I will never knit with. There is nothing wrong with those yarns but I know I will never touch them. I think I will bundle them up, phone them and hope that they will find their way to a knitter who will make something warm for someone who is having a tough time out there this winter. Maybe it's a cop out but maybe it's a way to find a better use for some of this stuff that's sitting there in my closet. And maybe during next year (only my second or third resolution for 2004 already) I can carve out some time to knit or sew for some specific causes.

A local radio station has started playing Christmas music, all day, all the time from now until Christmas......... I'm listening.

I say it once again........... TGIF.

It's a cool, very crisp, kind of icy, clear morning here.  A very refreshing morning.

I'm walking around the office with my Koigu Painter's Palette yarn this morning.  I'm feeling it, touching it and wanting to start my shawl so badly.  But, it has to wait.  At least until the end of the work day but more realistically until after Christmas.  One of my colleagues at the office is also a knitter and so I bring her my special finds to show them off and she was quite impressed, too.

We went grocery shopping last night so it wasn't a big knitting night.  Erika wanted out of her cart so we let her.  Evan went to chase her around the store.  She became my little shopper and things were thrown into the cart at will - and then Evan had to go and put those items back on the shelves.  What an evening.

I'm pleased to say that I divided for the V-neck for Evan's sweater and made it a little ways up the one side of the front.  I think the rest of the front is going to progress quickly now.  I really quite like it.  I think it will be a good sweater.

I also finished one whole dishcloth.  Those are for Erika's daycare teachers and I'm going to tie them with ribbon and put little goodies inside.  It looks cute and they'll get a useful dishcloth when they're finished with the goodies. 5 more to go.

I won an auction on E-bay yesterday for a Debbie Bliss Noro 2 Collection book.  I can't wait to see it.  The pattern that really attracted me about it was a Noro Entrelac sweater.   I placed the bid before my yarn diet and I've been debating whether the yarn diet includes patterns also???  What do my fellow dieters think?

This weekend we are trying to get most of the rest of our Christmas shopping out of the way.  I'd also like to sandwich and quilt the Advent calendar for Erika.  December 1st is coming up mighty fast.  As for knitting, I think I'll focus on Evan's sweater.  I'd like to get that out of the way as soon as possible.

And then there's the usual house cleaning, laundry, ironing and all that other fun stuff.

More pictures are due soon!!!!!!

Have a good weekend.

I wish it was Friday today.  I'm feeling quite tired and I have that feeling that I'm coming down with something.  I've had that tickle in my throat for a couple of days now and I woke up with a big headache today.  As long as I keep my knitting fingers nimble, I'll be okay.

Quilting class last night was really neat.  We fused all of our angel fabric pieces to the stained glass web we had created the previous week.  I was slow.... I don't know why.  I hardly talked (unusual for me) and I just worked away.  I think I was maybe a bit tired and didn't go as fast as usual.  Most of the other ladies got all their angel fabrics fused to the web.  I have 6 more pieces to go.  I'll try to fuse them tonight so I can take a picture and show you.  I really have loved this project so far.  Once I get that fusing finished, I have to find some fabric borders (and buying a piece of fabric to finish a project is not on my yarn/fabric diet) and then it's time to sandwich it.  The finishing and quilting all get done in one, final step.  I think I'll need to practice on some scraps first to get the stitch just right.

So now, my quilting classes are all finished for this year.  There are two more classes on the country sampler coming up in the new year.  I have already heard some of the plans for new classes for next year and the class list is coming out next week or so but I think I have to take a break so I can catch up with some of this finishing stuff.  And, as I said, I want to save for a sewing machine and these courses are expensive when you consider the course fee and then all the fabrics and supplies.  So the next few months are finishing, finishing, finishing.

I started Mom's Boa scarf and knitted a few rows.  I might still switch the colours between Mom's and Gurdeep's.  We'll see.  I also made a bit of progress on the gloves.  I'm just past the thumb gusset now.  I have 12 more rounds to go on the raglan to get to the neck shaping and about 8 more rows on Evan's sweater to get to the arms.  I hope this weekend will be a fairly quiet, at home kind of a weekend.

Have a good one.

Wow......... I don't think I can top yesterday.  All the pictures, the finished products, my excitement about all my new purchases.  Today is just kind of a ho-hum day.

There was a big power outage just around rush hour last night in the area where we live - right between my office and my home on my commuter route.  It affected part of Evan's commuting route, too.  So instead of being stuck for hours, we decided to meet at his parents' house and to go out for some dinner.  We did that and then we drove home.  We still got stuck in traffic a bit.  One major intersection was still affected with no lights working but it wasn't too long of a line-up to get through.  We never lost our power at home even though the news reports all said that we were in the gride that was affected.

This little event really put a stop to my plans to come home right after work and to get the rest of my prep work finished for my quilting course tonight.  I have the second and last class for my Stained Glass Angel.  I hope to get some good pictures of that soon.  I did the work on that after we came home and I think I've got it all put together and organized now.  I'm looking forward to class tonight.

In the knitting world........ while I was waiting for Evan and Erika to make it over to my MIL's house (I work very close to their house so I was there in a few minutes), I pulled out the raglan for Erika and worked on that for a bit.  I need to count my stitches but I'm not too far away from doing the neck line.  Maybe 20 more rounds or something like that.

After I finished the quilting prep work, I was tired and Erika needed to have some attention, too, I didn't do a whole lot more.  I played around with some yarn.  I knitted a few rounds of ribbing on the glove I started and I started one of my 6 dishcloths that I'm making for Christmas knick-knacks for Erika's daycare teachers.  So really nothing major to report.

I'm still mostly on track with meeting my self-imposed goals for Evan's sweater.  I think I will really start to push it though.  Once that's out of my hair, the other little Christmas gifts will go really fast.

I think we'll have some interesting times around our house before Christmas.  With our busy lifestyles, we've really got so much into internet shopping as a way of getting our Christmas presents. Evan's family will all be down in California this Christmas and so we need to be done with our gift shopping (and/or gift knitting) by December 14th so that his parents can take all the goodies down, south of the border.  They are leaving on the 15th and as many years before, we'll be having an early Christmas dinner with them on December 14th.  But now, we've got this whole thing going about who can pick up mail and who can open boxes etc. etc. etc.  Evan asked me yesterday if I had any presents coming in the mail and I haven't ordered anything as far as gifts on line so I told him I wasn't waiting for any gift shipments.  So he wanted me to not open the box storage in our mail box (when there is a small parcel delivered, we get a little key in our personal mailbox that opens a slot in the communal mailbox where they can store a parcel - if it's not too big).  He figures if I saw the box, I'd know what he bought me.  Later on, he made the mistake of saying that it had to come through customs etc so I know he got it from the U.S. and the only U.S. things on my list were from Patternworks.  So now I'm nosy.  What complicates it though, because I don't want to spoil his surprise for me, is that I do have a couple of things coming in the mail that aren't present orders but some yarn and some needles that I ordered before my yarn diet.  So we're both waiting for shipments and I don't really want to share that I ordered some more yarn!!!!  I guess it'll be an interesting run for the mailboxes every day.   To be honest, I can't believe we're almost done with our shopping.  I do think that will actually have to go into a mall for a few things though and I still have lots of presents to make and finish.  I'd rather do the shopping sooner than later so that in December I can focus on enjoying the spirit of the season with cookie making, decorating and of course, cuddling up and knitting.

Better get rolling.  With thoughts of Christmas on my mind I now need to sort out some fun issues at work.

I'm back!!!!!  I thought I would take some time to update while I was off but I was off having too much fun (she says with an evil grin ).  I shall give a thorough update today though.  I'm a little sad right now because Cheryl had to leave again and it was great to have a live-in knitting buddy.  It was also great to see how much fun Erika had meeting her godmother now that she has more understanding than she had at 10 weeks of age.

I came back to work and immediately I had some emergency meeting about a matter that arose this morning that is not making me a very happy camper.  I don't want to go into any details but the whole scenario sucks big time.  If the resolution of the issue is not in my favour, I probably feel strongly enough that I may need to consider other options.  Fortunately, this won't happen immediately and with a well worked out plan, it should all be resolved favourably.  Other people in my office are affected as well - it's not just me.  It just means a whole bunch more work - just as things were settling down for me a little bit.

But now to my fun few days of frolic....... and knitting.

Let's talk about finished projects first.  I finally finished the aqua cardie.

It's only just missing the buttons now.  I had a set of buttons but I only had 3 on the card but there is a project I used the other buttons on that I never finished so I will cut out the buttons.  They are just too perfect.

I also finished one Christmas present.  The Boa scarf for my colleague at the office.

I made good progress on Evan's Christmas sweater.  I'm almost at the armholes for the front and as I said before with the V-neck shaping, the rest of the front should just be a breeze.  And then........ neverending sleeves.  Fortunately my husband isn'a a monkey with really long arms.

I also made a bit of progress on the raglan for Erika and I started knitting a pair of gloves but I only started those last night and you can barely even measure my progress.

Friday night just involved getting Cheryl from the airport and just getting caught up on all the old times but good times.  Erika was a bit shy at first but it didn't take her long and she was in love with her auntie.  Gave me a nice break since Erika decided that Cheryl had to take her potty every single time all weekend long.

On Saturday we went to one LYS in the morning.  I ended up with some Noro Kureyon. 

I was good there.......... just 3 balls of Noro.  You know for what.

I had planned on stopping at 2 other LYSs on the way over to my Mom and Dad's house in the afternoon but it turned out that Cheryl was meeting her two brothers in the afternoon and was going to stop by at my Mom and Dad's house once their visit was finished.  So, I asked Evan to drop me off at this one LYS store that I'd never been to before just to see whether it was worth going for a drive on Monday that included that store as well.  It was a nice store.  Maybe not as much selection as I had expected.  I like them filled with yarn from floor to rafters..............  I ended up buying a package of 6 balls of self patterning Regia sock yarn.  The deal was that you paid for 5 balls and got the 6th one for free. 

Here is a picture: it's a bad picture but you may be able to see the insert in the package is not in English.  I didn't even notice that.  The insert contains two sock patterns - two different heel versions.  Although I know how to make socks, the one heel version was exactly how I was taught by my Mom many years ago and I never had it written down anywhere so I thought it was great.  I showed Cheryl in my excitement when I saw her later that evening and she looked at me and said "I can't read that".  Well, being German, I speak English and German fluently and perfectly exchangably - sometimes all in the same sentence to my husband's dismay.  So, I never noticed that the language I was reading was German.  This leads me to jump ahead to Monday very quickly.  On Monday, after we noticed that one of the LYS stores we had planned on going to was closed on Mondays, I decided I would take Cheryl to the store I visited on Saturday after all.  We showed up bright and early and as it was quiet in the store we had a nice look around and I told the owner the story of the German instructions.  We had a good laugh about that but it turns out other people were disappointed because they had expected to get an English written sock pattern with the socks.  Well, in the conversation, she asked me if I was a good sock knitter and I said that I'd done quite a few in my life.  So then she asked me if I wanted to hold a workshop on sock knitting at some point.  I kind of stumbled over that one - my shyness coming right through.  It's something I would totally love to do but I'm not sure how good I'd be at it.  I'm not sure if she was really serious but I told her I'd knit up some more socks, show them to her and then she could tell me if she thought they were good enough for a workshop.  And my mind started going.......... hmm, what other workshops could I teach.  Go figure. 

Back to Saturday:  the rest of Saturday was spent with my parents over a lovely, lovely dinner.

On Sunday we just had a mellow day.  We knitted a bit, we played with Erika, we went out to the library and the fabric store and the mall...... the mall to go get Erika another Bob the Builder DVD because we were getting super tired of listening to the same one over and over again.  She loves that guy!!!

Yesterday, was our big yarn day.  We had planned to go to 3 LYS (with a 2-year old) but because one was closed we ended up with 2 stores to visit.  Our last store we went to visit is quickly becoming one of my favourite stores (doesn't help that I can drive there during my lunch hour).  I picked up some Koigu Painter's Pallette for this shawl: Isn't it pretty?  I'm a purple/violet kind of a person.

I also bought a couple more balls of sock yarn now that my brain is absorbed with dreams of socks:

Then I found this perfect yarn to work an adult top-down raglan I'd been wanting to make.  Beautiful Phildar yarn that wasn't too expensive.  They had a purple mottled shade and they didn't have enough of that colour.  Then I found another shade I liked and no luck.  Then I gave up on it.  Then I saw that there was a bag of the same yarn in navy in their stock room so I looked because the girl had said that they had none of it in the stock room.  I would have bought the navy but then I saw another blue - much more like a mottled denim and that was great.  Unfortunately we could only come up with 15 balls and I needed 18 so I finally gave up.  I probably wasn't meant to have it at that time.  I almost felt desperate because it was so perfect and my yarn diet has now started.  I'm sad over that one.......

But that was it for our shopping experience.  When we came home and sat down to knit - or run after Erika.... the door bell rang and the postman came.  And he brought this:

My first e-bay yarn purchase.  More Noro Kureyon.  Remember how I was belly aching about not having any Noro.  I'm still expecting the postman to ring one more time for another shipment of 3 balls of Noro.  After that one experience at the store about a week and a half ago, I got mad and I ordered Noro, then I bought some on e-bay and then I got some more this weekend.  But 3 bags was my goal anyways.  One for me, one for my SIL and one for my MIL.

What do you think?  Crazy weekend or what?  The yarn diet is on.  I put one bid on a book on e-bay and I have one pattern to come that I tentatively ordered last week.  I'm only ordering the pattern though.  That's all.  No more yarn for quite some time.  The one that's bugging me is that Phildar yarn.  That feels like a missed opportunity.

Now I can go and catch up with everyone else.