Sunday, April 30, 2006

Weekend Update

Well I finally got the laundry caught up! I just have to do the rugs. Thank goodness! House got vacuumed, Sparks stuff got sorted (sort off), and I bought some more yarn.

Shhh!! Don't tell my hubby! hehe Zellers had there Bernat Soft Boucle (bag of yarn ) 300 yard for $9.97, well....what's a girl to do. I grab one and will make the poncho that is on the band.

Also, while I was there I picked up some Bernat Matrix - three had three balls, plus a pattern book with 4 patterns for $ 9.97 grabbed one of those as well! Going to do the Lacey poncho that's on the cover. Also, went back today and picked up another package plus one extra ball for the "clubbing" shirt. I think its cool or I will do the shawl on the back cover. Picked up earth shades for both though the second time I wanted to switch the yarn in the bag for some of the green on the shelf. Didn't think that was right so I didn't.

When I was at Walmart and browsing I saw a cool beach bag and thought WOW that would make a great yarn bag and the price was right too. Got it home and put the 2 sweaters I have been working on in it, with the extra yarn plus the front of Miki's sweater. Holds alot of stuff!! Quite impressed with it. And I could still use it for the beach of holidays.

Worked some more on the 3 crosses dishcloth not done yet but within the next few days. The next KAL dishcloth starts tomorrow and I can't wait. And on the 2nd I will find out who I will be sending a dishcloth too. Also, the tea exchange will be starting shortly too. Can't wait to do that one too.

Well its getting late and I have to be up early in the morning.

Have a great night!

Leigh

what kind of icecream are you?

You Are Chocolate Ice Cream
Dramatic. Powerful. Flirty.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Who's Your Inner European?

">Link
Your Inner European is Irish!



Sprited and boisterous!
You drink everyone under the table.




Sunday, April 23, 2006

Monthly dishcloth knit along

Now to figure out how to get these posted on the side bar. A few people have tried to tell me and I'm not getting it. Hopefully one of these days!

Bunny dishcloth

This is so cool! Was on knit pattern depot and saw the cute bunny dishcloth. Will definitely have to make this one! Post is dated Feb 11/06

Tea swap


Here's the knitter's tea swap emblem that I got form Suzie's blog.

Knitter's tea swap

Just signed up to be apart of the knitter's tea swap. This is what it all intails.

It's a one time swap.

You will mail your secret swap partner three-ish things:

1. A box/tin/container of your favorite tea. It can be hot, iced, green, black, herbal, just as long as it's your favorite!***Edited 4/21 I will try to match prefs as much as possible. Some people don't do caffeine, etc... Thanks!!****
2. A treat to accompany the tea. Cookies, candy, petit fours, etc...
3. 1-2 skeins of yarn from your stash. Must be enough for a small project or socks.

For example, you could send a 100gr skein of sock yarn or 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. Let's say yarn should retail around $15.00.--Plus a note about your tea and treat choices and suggestions for the yarn.

Interested? I hope so! If you want in, grab a button and then email me at purlygates -AT- gmail -DOT- com with the following info:Name:Blog Address:Mailing Address:Restrictions on type of tea? Only green, black, herbal etc? Yarn color preferences?Sock knitter? Will you take an international pal?Sign-ups end on May 1 and you must mail your package by June 1.Thanks for participating!

A couple of photos of Harleigh

Harleigh begging for a cookie in the summer of 2004
Hey! What do you want. I'm snoozin' here. 2005

Hi mom! At Miki's 7th birthday this past February, 2006.

A few photos of Harleigh

This one was taken Feb 2, 2006 at my daughter's 7th birthday party. She was very photogentic.
Sitting up for a cookie at the farm in 2005.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Dishcloth patterns

I just joined the Monthly Dishcloth Kal group. (knit-a-long) and I am very excited about it. I love to do dishcloths as they are relatively simple, don't require alot of thought (especially with kids yelling in the back ground and they make great gifts!


Theses patterns are from http://www.thingsstitched3.blogspot.com/ blog. She has some other great links for dishcloths as well. I believe that they were apart of the Monthly dishcloth KAL ( so do not print for selling).

Little Shells Dishcloth PatternYarn: small ball of cotton yarnNeedle: 7 US = 4.5 mmCast on 43Knit

4 rows
Row 1: Knit across
Row 2: K3, P37, K3
Row 3: K5 *YO, P1, P3tog, P1, YO, K2* repeat until last 3 stitches, K3
Row 4: K3, P37, K3
Repeat these rows until desired lenght stopping on Row 3.
Knit 4 rows
Bind off. Weave in ends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little Fountain Dishcloth PatternYarn: small ball of cotton yarnNeedle: 7 US = 4.5 mmCast on 39

Knit 5 rows
Row 1: K4 *YO, K3, YO, K1* repeat until 3 stitches are left, K3
Row 2: K3, P49, K3
Row 3: K5, S1, K2tog, PSSO *K3, S1, K2tog, PSSO* repeat until 5 stitches are left, K5
Row 4: K3, P33, K3
Repeat all 4 rows 11 more times ending on row 3.
Knit 5 rows
Bind off. Weave in ends.

In memory of Harleigh (Octobre 18, 1994 to April 18, 2006)

This has been a bad week. I had to put my best friend down. Last week (around Apri 12th) she started shaking and wouldn't stop and she had this frightful/fearful look in her eye. Really bugged eye. I kept calling her name and holding and petting her but she didn't snap out of it. She did this a few times that week and was peeing on the carpets. She wouldn't bark when someone came to the door, or jump up on the couch. Just basically not herself.

Harleigh would walk right off of the couch, fall down the stairs, get stuck behind the door and not know how to get out. She would get and then go and pee on the carpet. She even let the kids hold her! We took her to the vets on the 17th and they said she had cateracts and thought possibly she had arthitis and diabetes - she was weighing 25 lb. She's a lapapoo. They wanted us to get a urine sample and they would test it. $134. dollars later we went home. She was actually pretty fine when we took her. She could walk on her own and not fall over and perky.

We decided that night that Brian would take her in and have her go to doggie heaven. At 4:50am on Tuesday morning I heard her downstairs and she was going in circles and falling on the floor. I sat with her for 20 minutes and talked to her and held her and kissed her and telling her she was a great dog and thanked her for the 11 1/2 years that she was with me. Called hubby down at 5:15 to sit with her so I could get my shower and go to work. So he laid on the couch with her. I went to work (why??? had to do something) and he got the kids ready for school. She went outside for a # 1 and 2, fell down the stairs, walked between the rails and the steps and my daughter caught her, my son had to help her out from under the computer wires as she couldn't figure it out. This was all by 8 am.

We believe that she had a stroke or several strokes. Brian took her to the vets and let her with the receptionist. Harleigh had been going there since she was 1 years old. She was put down around noon.

I went in after work and got to say good bye to her. I kissed her and petted her and cried on her She looked so peaceful and at rest. I got the kids and they said good bye to her too. I didn't want to do it but I knew she wouldn't be in pain and wouldn't want to suffer. I know I wouldn't want to suffer neither if it was me.

Its been a helluva week. The kids keep saying they see her by the door or on the couch with me. Especially in the first few days. She was my first baby and my life line that first year of marriage. She always knew when I need a kiss or cuddle from her. She was a great dog!

Harleigh I hope you are having a wonderful time up in Heaven and we will be together one day my friend.

Love always,

Mommy

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Yard work day

Well after shopping for 3 hours and being among the masses I made it home. Thank goodness! I love to shop - don't get me wrong. But when the whole population of the city is shopping to make Easter special for their family too its not a pretty site.

After unloading the car and putting everything away I got two of my rose bushes planted! yeah!! I've put them in my veggie garden for now and will move them to the other bed after I get it clean out. Will also plant the third bush tomorrow. Then! I helped hubby unload a truck load of dirt onto the front load. He went back for a second and I said I'd clean the inside of the house. Not getting to far but its getting colder out! Hope my babies are doing okay.

Harleigh is doing better. Her shakes are going down and she's perking up. I cleaned her ears out really good this afternoon. I hope that's all it is as I do not want to take her to the vets.

Well brake time is almost over. Happy Easter everyone!

Leigh

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Name 5 places you knit

From Kat-knits blog - Name 5 places other than your house or a knitting store where you have knit...Post your list on your blog & put a link to it in the comments of this entry. Whomever has the most original place as picked by my DB will get a little knitting gift packages from me. We'll pick a winner on Friday, April 21.

Here's my list..

1. around a camp fire at our farm
2. in the car during a snow storm ( I don't want to watch my husband drive during it or to watch him drive!)
3. sons baseball game
4. on a bench in the mall while on a break ( when I worked in the mall)
5. in the staff room at work. I get lots of complements on what I make!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Secretpa8

Here's the link to secrepal8. I've never been on one. Though I have read a bunch of blogs of people who have and they have really enjoyed there secret pals.


">Link http://secretpal8.blogspot.com/

Miki's sweater

This is Miki's sweater I started last night. Not sure if I will get any done on it today. Going down to see my parents and sister today. I hope you enjoyed the UFO's and stash. Go to Feb 20th to see more of the stash. This is what I had won from a craft store.

Have a great day

More UFO's and things

Here are some projects that I have finished and ends need to be tucked in.



The scarf on the left was made from 2 strands of Roxy yars, the two in the middle from Homespun and the last with 2 strands of Berella.


This was a baby afghan I started ohhhhhhh 7 years ago??? All the babies I decided to give it too are old enough to walk and talk and go to school. I am ripping it out and using the yarn for other things. Great pattern and has a cute dress that matches it.


My moose dishcloth is finished and it has a mate now!
These dish towels only need a button to sewn on. Can you tell I don't like to sew? hehe Hey I do have to find the right button too! lol

UFO"S

Here are some of the UFO's that I haven't completed yet.


This is the sweater I keep talking about. I started it back in 1992. I did work on it a few years ago. Ripped the sleeves out and restarted it. The second photo has the picture of what it is suppose to look like. What do you think if I did a smaller colar and not the big one that they have on it??



My purse that I have started. I may have to start over on this side as some stitches fell of and do not equal the row that my row counter says I should have.
Was going to do a purse for my neice but haven't started it yet.
This sweater was made in two days in 1996. All it needs is a button. I was making it for the baby we were going to have. I miscarried and never finished. No child will ever wear this one. Good news I did have two big and healthy babies after in 1997 and 1999. Miscarried again in 2003.



Flashin' the Stash part Deux!

For some reason it didn't want to add the other photos so I am going to do it this way. I'll post the UFO's separate.


Oh the embrassment! In this tote (160L) I have shetland chunky, alot of knitted worsted and odds and ends. Just didn't have time to lay it all out. Not sure what I will make out of the 2 big bags of knitted worsted. Was think of a sweater. Hmm... it may just go back to Walmart. Impulse buying at its best.



I bought two great big balls of green yarn to do an afghan. Well I started it and realized 10 inches in that I was using the wrong needles! Ugh!! Lesson: Never take kids shopping when you are looking for knitting needles. Apparently I bought the US size and not the MM's. I have since gotten the right size but haven't started it again. Also took 2 other big balls back last year.



The blue ball is just a leftover and the yellow and green shetland chunky are new purchases this year.

Flashin' the Stash!

Thanks to the person for suggesting flashing your stash as I just found a whole bunch of my needles in a tote! Thank you!!! I have taken photos of some of my stash and UFO's. I think I will do like Isabelle and say I will NOT add to my stash this month. Okay now on to the photos!





Well I guess I don't need to buy any more dishcloth yarn! And that's after donating 12 balls of Christmas colours to my CWL for dishclothes for our Christmas bizzars.













Baby yarn I bought in June of 1997 (I had the receipt and it had the date on it) to make 2 sweaters for my son who was born Dec of 1997. Got far on them didn't I. Baby yarn is NOT my favourite to work with as I find it too fine.












My scarf stash yarn. Not a whole heck of lot of it left now. But I think I will make my neice a scarf out of either the purple or Rocky pink.











I bought this yarn 2-3 years ago from Country yarns. I went back a year after and was able to fine 4 more of the same dye lot and it was still on sale! Jeanne, the owner is awesome and very knowledgable. I'll have to go and visit here again soon. Not this month.

Was thinking of making a cable sweater for my son. Hmmm.. maybe a vest for me. Its Polar yarn. Nice and heavy and thick.











Not sure where I bought this. I think I may make a sweater for one of my kids out of the Patons Aran.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

April already. WOW!

I can't believe that March has flown by. Wow! I had a busy day today. Six loads of laundry later and I still have 4 left to do. I guess I shouldn't leave it for awhile eh. lol

I did finish my moose dishcloth off. I finally found it in the front closet where I thought it was but couldn't find it. NOW I am working on my daughter's sweater and its looking pretty good. NO! I haven't finished Matt's but I wanted to get part of Miki's down. Will try and post pics later. I linked up to TissueTunicKal for a lovely lacey top. Have to find the pattern if not will order it and do with the others. Gotta get the kids sweaters done or they will have my head. Or maybe hands! hehe

Well off to work on the sweater. Don't forget to set the clocks ahead 1 hour tonight.

Tissue Tunic KAL: Tissue Tunic....here's what it's about

Tissue Tunic KAL: Tissue Tunic....here's what it's about