a trip to the yarn store...

Yay me. Today is my birthday and I decided to treat myself to a trip to River City Yarns. I had a nice time browsing, had lots of help in terms of customer service trying to find the correct needles etc. It is an ok shop. I have yet to check out any of the other stores in town. Some day.

Anyways, not to leave empty handed with bday money unspent, I picked up a few things

Inset picture here soon

I grabbed a skien of undyed trekking, a bag of gorgeous superwash roving, a drop spindle, 1 cheapo circular needle and 1 addy turbo circular needle. Yay! I would have bought 2 turbos but I couldn't afford it right now.

Also I got a copy of Knitting Circles Around Socks from Amazon. I plan on trying to knit 2 at once with a quickie no frills pair (or is it a quad?) or dog socks. My dog has cold feet lol. 2 days in a row I have had to carry him home from Livia's bus stop because his feet were so cold. I plan on knitting a wool ribbed tube, sew in a thick felt liner circle bottom then glue a piece of suede to prevent slipping. I hope they will stay on by themselves.

The poor dog is going to rip out my throat when I am sleeping some night for all of the abuse I inflict on him with the flannel maxi pad lined girlie belly bands, silly santa coats and now socks lol.

Wonder if he needs a hat?

Ok. It is finally snowing and actually staying on the ground. I have donned the Canadian Military crazy gynormous white boots and 25 lb parka and my new mitts (did I mention that I made new mitts?) and have shoveled the front walk twice thus far. Obviously I am a true Canadian. I don't care how stupid I look, I am W-A-R-M. That is all that matters.

Now picture this.... Standing on the corner, waiting for the school bus is Me, snug and warm in said crazy outfit, standing next to my 7 year old, in a skirt and tights, winter coat, no hat, no scarf, NO SNOWPANTS! She is complaining that she is cold.

WTF! I just spent a half hour arguing with her about the virtues of her snowpants and hats and scarves and frostbite and blackened dead ears and noses etc. It isn't cool to wear these things. She wants to be cool. She will be cool all right but in a different way. Dumbass. It's bad enough the kid will not wear pants under any circumstances but to now boycott her snowpants! Maybe I need to find some yummy frostbite pictures online to show her.

Oh ya. Also this... my dog is annoying.

Super Low Fat Cookies. Diabetes and weight watchers friendly recipe

I spent the morning racking my brain, scouring the internet and my cookbooks looking for some cookie recipes for my Xmas baking that would agree with the entire family's circumstances, be it Type 2 diabetes (my husband), Weight watchers (Me) or sweet junkies (my kids). I found none. I decided to invent a low fat, no sugar cookie recipe that Is weight watchers, kid and diabetes friendly. They turned out great! I like them, my kids like them and my husband likes and can actually eat them . :) I am calling them Happy cookies because they made us all happy.

Brown Sugar Happy Cookies

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 Tbsp. margarine or butter
1 egg & 2 egg whites
3/4 cup Splenda Brown sugar mix, packed
1 Tbsp cinnamon
3 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. cream together margarine, applesauce and brown sugar. Add in cinnamon and eggs. Mix well.

In a large bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder. Slowly add the wet mixture to the dry mixture. Using hands, form into 2 equal balls.

Roll out to approximately 1 cm thickness. for maximum amount of cookies, I used mini cookie cutters. place on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 9-11 minutes. Test back one cookie to determine the exact time.

This recipe makes 120 mini cookies.

Lucy Neatby workshop and more...

So I was mixing up some gingerbread yesterday morning (the xmas baking has begun) when I recieved a phonecall from a fellow Edmonton Stitchers yahoo group member, Anita. She had paid for many workshops being held at River City Yarns and apparently did not feel she was far enough along in her knitting to be able to attend the workshop being held in 45 minutes. She asked me if I would like to be her pitch hitter and attend in her place.

Who me? Of course! So I throw the half mixed gingerbread into the fridge, throw socks on my daughter, wake the husband, run a brush through my hair and in about 10 minutes am on my way to RCY.

I was very delighted to have been able to go to the workshop. It was taught by Lucy Neatby who is a very cool british woman fron Nova Scotia. I learned all type of nifty finishing techniques I had not known previously. We touched on blocking, grafting (also known as kitchner stitch by some), mattress stitching, japanese short rows (awesome for smooth sleeve shaping!), button holes, 3 needle casting off, and a very fast cast off method called modified conventional bind off.

So needless to say, I learnt a ton, chatted with a bunch of felow yarn obsessed peoples, had a yummy lunch and had a great time.

I was also asked if I wanted to take someone elses place in todays workshop which is advanced sock techniques, but only if the weather was terrible because she would have to drive in from Devon. As much as I would love to take that one as well and even though I lay in bed last night wishing for snow and freezing rain....It didn't happen and I sit here blogging instead of getting ready to go. :( Oh well. I should just count my blessings I was able to attend yesterdays.

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here are a few more wee bits i managed this past weekend



you can't really see in the puctures but I did machine stitching lines on the argyle, so it is true argyle, not just diamond patterns :)


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Not alot of knitting or sewing has been done lately. I havd to finish making a polly pocket sized dollhouse for Livia's bday. Here she is in all her post bday party glory (and mess)


Did I mention my first ever experience with decorating a 3d bear bday cake? Here it is. Damn I look bad in this picture lol

She wanted a "fancy" teddy bear party. So I accomplished this with faux silver and crystal bought at the dollar store. No way was I going to let them use the real thing lol. We went to Build-a-Bear workshop, made bears, brought them home and had our party. Livia had a blast, claimed it was the best day of her life. I guess I did good :) She is pictured here with her new Princess Kitty build a bear.

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NOTE: as I was writing this, I got a call from Anita, asking if I would go to the sock workshop in her place because her stitching is still too tight etc etc. I managed to convince her to go. I think she would learn alot and get a ton of help on her learn to knit quest.

DAMN! I should have been selfish and went lol Stoopid morals!

* oh ya. My embroidery machine should be repaired soon! I can't wait to get it back. Xmas gift making needs to begin soon~

Oh boy!!!

You are #10759 on the list.
43 people are ahead of you in line.
19027 people are behind you in line.
35% of the list has been invited so far


Tommorow is my Ravelry day! Yeah!

still haven't signed up or even looked at the details: Go now!

https://www.ravelry.com

Updates on many fronts

635 people are ahead of you in line.


Wow! I am getting so close to Ravelry I can taste it!


On another note. I attended my first stitch & bitch last night. We met up at Boston Pizza, Ate, stitched ans most definately bitched (just a tad). I had a great time and look forward to the next gathering (hopefully on a weekend).


Haven't had anything to blog about. Working on the same stuff. I cast on my second primary colored sock and and up to the heel back. The hello kitty sweater is what I need to concentrate on now as I want it ready for Sept 28, my daughters 3rd bday. I might do a matching set of leg warmers if I have time.


Hubby bought me a new laptop for a 10th anniversary gift. I am laptopping away! Also, the embroidery machine has been in the shop for 2 weeks getting repaired (finally). I just put annthegran's catalog Xpress on Malice (the laptop) and and trying to slowly organize my overly vast amount og embroidery designs (damn internet! Making me collect too many!)

Thats all for now!

where are you on the Ravelry List?

I decided to check my status as to how llong it will be before I get my invite.

You signed up on June 23, 2007
You are #10759 on the list.
4732 people are ahead of you in line.
7520 people are behind you in line.
32% of the list has been invited so far

I'm sad. It will still be awhile. I wonder how many invites they send out every day?

You can check the status on your place in line here: http://www.ravelry.com/antsy/check