Happy Halloween!

 

It’s raining outside so we’ve decided not to go trick or treating tonight. The kids are a bit disappointed but it’s pouring outside and as I type this the lights are flickering. I promised them tomorrow we’ll go out and pick up candies/chocolates to fill their pumpkin bucket that all year round, providing they finish their entire dinner, they can choose something for dessert from their bucket. (During the year when it runs low, I replenish it with treats anyhow). I managed to get a picture of Quentin in his costume before school today, and Mackenzie’s class party was photographed by my sister today (I cannot wait to get the DVD of pictures from her to see what I missed while at work). I did not get a picture of Sean in his costume, as he only got into his costume after lunch for his class party and he refused this evening to put it on for me to take a picture. I feel like there was no Halloween spirit today.

Mackenzie is in love. He’s known this cutie since  he was 18 months old, as he’s been in daycare with her for 4 years before starting Kindergarten, and now they’re in the same class again this year. It’s sooooo cute the way he is with her.

Cameo Ruffle Scarf

This scarf yarn is popular with the clientele at my shop. Out of curiosity I knit one up for my grandmother for her upcoming 85th birthday. It’s totally something she would wear. Quick project, took no time at all to knit up. I used 10mm needles and you cast on 3 stitches and it’s pretty cool the way you knit this up.

The yarn is Estelle Frill Seeker Cameo in Colorway Q51808.

The pattern is for free on Estelle’s website here.

Neckwarmer for Coreen

I know I’ve been awol for a while. This is my 6th week owning a yarn shop and the time is flying. I am really enjoying work, being at work, I honestly can say that I love my job. I enjoy waking up in the morning and knowing that I will be going to a yarn shop to talk knitting and crochet and fondle yarn all day. I do have to admit, that I don’t actually knit at work. Maybe one day I’ll get to… but not right now. Too much other work to be doing. I do have some finished projects to show you. I’ve been re-working my cowl pattern for an upcoming class that we will have at my shop.

So the first one I knit up was in this amazing yarn called Punta MeriTwist, which is no longer available. Unfortunately the mill burned down and they tried to get funding to re-build the mill but their request was turned down. The MeriTwist is so nice to work with, it’s so unfortunate. Since I cannot get this yarn in anymore, I had to re-knit the pattern in a yarn that we carry in the shop, since I’d like to display my pattern in a yarn available in the shop. So I decided to go with the absolutely soft Diamond Luxury Collection Baby Alpaca Sport. It’s so nice to work with.

This is my store sample on Ravelry.

I absolutely love this pattern, these are my 5th & 6th ones I’ve knit up over the last few years. It’s such a great knit for a quick gift, it doesn’t really don’t take long at all to knit up. Here are some other ones that I’ve knit up: The Original for Coreen herself, Lisa’s, My mom’s, and one for me.

Big News!

 

Things have been super busy around here. I started working again – full time! I had been looking for a job since June, something full time, but couldn’t find work. I sent my CV everywhere, went on plenty of interviews, but nothing was quite the right fit. So instead of going out and finding a job, I decided to buy a business instead. Owning a business is a lot more work than working for someone else, but I think this job will be much more rewarding that anything else out there.

I think it was karma that I couldn’t find a job. A local yarn shop went on the market over the summer and I looked into it, and placed an offer my offer was accepted. I did my due diligence period and today, the deal was finalized and I am now the owner of Les Lainages du Petit Mouton (aka The Wool Shop), a local yarn shop near my house. (The website is a work in progress, I’ll let you know when I launch a proper site). You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and join our Ravelry Group.

I am very excited for this new venture, and it couldn’t be a better fit for me. I have so many ideas and have already started to order new stock to come into the shop. Owning a yarn shop was my dream back in 2007 when I started Robyn’s Nest (2007-2010) and finally I made this dream a reality. It really is a dream job.

If you ever find yourself in Montreal, feel free to stop in the shop & say hello as I’ll be working at the shop.

Oh wow…

There are no words…

8 Years

Today I celebrate 8 years of marriage. Feels like just yesterday but as well, feels like forever. 8 years, 3 beautiful children, life is busy yet fulfilled at the same time. Here’s to many many more years!

Fave Cardigan

I finally sewed on my buttons & weaved in the ends last night, for my Favorite Cardigan. Now that the weather has significantly dropped, I am excited to be wearing my new sweater. (I wore it all day today). I used about 5.5 skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts Aran weight Green Label in We Wear Red that I picked up at Pick Up Sticks in Newmarket, Ontario. I made some changes to the pattern by making the sleeves full length and widening the front panel to compensate for my bust size. I made it on a 4.5 mm needle. It was seamless, which was great, the sleeves were done by putting the stitches on hold until I was done with the body, and then the stitches are put back on the needles and finished.

I am absolutely in love with it, and I plan to wear it to death.

Nearing the End with Progress

I’m nearing the end now on my Color Affection Shawl with the progress that I made over the weekend. It’s a little bit more narrow than I expected it to be, but it’s still on the needles, so maybe once I finish it, and lay it out and also block it, that it’ll be a bit bigger than I think it is? I am not sure why I find it a bit small. I’m using Colinette Jitterbug which is a bit thicker than regular sock yarn and the appropriate needles for the yarn called for, so I actually thought it would turn out a bit bigger than expected. I’ll let you know what I think of the size once it’s actually completed, which should be soon, I hope. I can say that I am loving the colors together. I should be back with a finished object post soon!

Demolition Derby

This past weekend we took the kids to visit family about 4 hours away from home. We had beautiful weather on Sunday so we took the kids to a demolition derby about 30 minutes from where we were staying. We had never been to one before, and it was pretty neat. It was a little loud for Mackenzie so he wore earplugs, but the rest of us didn’t mind the noise.

At one point, this blue car (above) backed itself up onto the car behind it. It was pretty crazy what these cars were able to do! And the damage they caused!

One car had us ducking for cover (from dirt!) – check it out!
(Luckily I didn’t have my knitting out yet).

First Day of School

 

Today was the first day of school! Not sure if the kids were truly excited to go to school or just excited to see their friends. Sean had a full first day with bus service and everything and Mackenzie has a slow integration over today & tomorrow. His first full day of Kindergarten is Tuesday (since Monday is a holiday). In tradition of my 1st day of school photos, I took the same this year as last year. Sean still wants to be an NHL goalie when he grows up, and Mack wants to be a player so that he can score on Sean.

 

I can’t wait for Sean to get off the school bus so I can learn all about his 1st day. Who his teacher is, who is in his class, and all that jazz! Looking at Sean’s picture from last year, I can’t believe how big he’s gotten in a year.

For Mack’s 1st day parents stayed, so I got to spend some time with him in the class. It was a 45 minute session today and we sang some songs, colored and he met his teacher (same teacher Sean had last year, whom I love!)

Funny, I wore the exact same outfit a year ago on Sean’s first day!

Here’s to a great 2013-2014 school year!

A Color Affliction

7 of us in my weekly knitting group (of about 15 of us), decided to do a knit-a-long this summer. We had all fallen in love with the gorgeous Color Affection Shawl, and after planning out what yarn we would all use (I settled on 3 nearly solid Colinette Jitterbug colors and most of our knit-a-long gals going with Knit Picks Palette), we started the knit-a-long in mid July. I had another project I had to finish first, the blanket which I showed you yesterday, so I kind of casted on with the group, but then put it aside until I was done with my deadline. Then when I finally picked up this pattern, I think I started & frogged it about 8 times until I finally got it right, and got it going. Here’s my Ravelry project page.

I am breezing through this pattern now that I’m on a roll.

I am loving the way the colors are coming together. I started with Lobster Pinch, then I added in Elephant’s Dream and then next color that will go in will be Ginger Cinnebar. (I just love the names of the yarn).

Twilight Shells Throw

  

For the past month I’ve been working like mad on this Twilight Shells Throw. I used 12.5 skeins of yarn, in different shades of blue in Cascade 220. This was a wedding present that I made for my sister & her husband to keep them warm in winter. I absolutely love the shell pattern. I got a request (upon completing this one) to make one for our house. This one’s finished size is: 43” x 70” (unblocked). I used a 6.0 mm (J) crochet hook. I started the blanket on July 3rd, 2013 and finished it on August 9th, 2013, working on it obsessively. I was able to give the blanket in a cute basket (see the last picture in this post) to my sister the day before the wedding. I finished it just in the knick of time. It was a close call, but I got it done! After seeing how long it took me to make two rows, which was color set, (about an episode and a half of Criminal Minds – I watched it in marathon mode this summer), I think I had put about 65-70 hours into this blanket. Going back through all my projects on Ravelry, I think this is the largest project I’ve done so far, with the most amount of yarn. I know that crochet uses up more yarn to make a stitch than knitting does, but I think this takes the cake for the largest project/most amount of yarn.

I went with a grey single crochet border (2 rows of single crochet) around the blanket, so that it would show the blues in the blanket, rather than using a blue around and the border getting drowned out.

A special thanks to my knitting friend Eugenie who sat & helped me weave in all the ends in this blanket. There were a LOT of them!

I started a new project, come back tomorrow to see what I am working on now!

Wedding Bells

My sister got married on Sunday, which happened to be her 11th “dating” anniversary with her now husband. They got engaged about a year or has it been 2 years now, and I can’t believe how fast time flew. The entire day flew by in a blur. A few pictures I wanted to get, I totally forgot to take (like one alone (full length) with just hubby & I….)

The kids were adorable, Mackenzie wouldn't walk down the aisle once he saw how many people were sitting watching, Quentin and Sean ended up walking with me down the aisle. Mack hid and after we were all down in positions, my step-mother-in-law who was sitting front row, went back (it was an outside ceremony), to get him.

The music was loud, so Sean & Mack wanted to be outside the entire time during the reception, and it’s too late now, but we should have hired a babysitter, as Jamie spent the entire time outside with them (watching them on their iPods). I was inside with Quentin, who was either eating at the table, using his iPod at the table or dancing with me on the dance floor. I didn't get to eat the main meal, but had the salad and entrees before that. By the time I got back to the table, the meal (salmon) was ice cold and hard as a rock).

We got home late and the kids went to bed around midnight and slept past 1030 am the next morning so I kept them home the next day from camp & daycare.

Now I know why I don’t bring my kids to weddings. We got invited to one in May where the kids were actually invited, but we opted to get a babysitter and go without them. I’ll do this one more time when my brother gets married one day, but depending on the ages of the kids, I might hire a babysitter to come along to the wedding so that I can actually enjoy the wedding and not have to chase around or keep an eye on my kids. I guess it’s also different when you’re in the wedding party and you have to be around for pictures, etc. I was the Matron of Honor (my sister had her best friend as her Maid of Honor as well, and 2 friends as bridesmaids) and Jamie was one of the groomsmen.

Alright, so you want to see pictures! I know that’s why you came to this post… Here they are!

The boys were excellent during the picture taking before the ceremony.

My dress fit me nicely, and was very elegant looking. I love this portrait of my family.

I managed to get a photo with each of my boys.

My handsome 4 boys!

A silly shot the photography took. I have no idea what I was doing.

And the 1st dance.

That Time of Year Again

It’s that time of the year again, when new school supplies are acquired and labeled and the kids moan that summer flew by too fast and they don’t want school to start yet. I love back to school. I love shopping for school supplies, finding the best deal on any given item. I have managed to get every last item on their supply lists, school bags approved by the boys, lunch boxes too, and now begins the tedious job of putting their names on everything.Tedious yet fun at the same time! (Shhh! I enjoy doing it). Too bad these pencils don’t come pre-sharpened, I have to go sharpen these above 40 for Sean & another 12 for Mackenzie. (I’m super happy the coloured pencils came sharpened!) Sean will be starting the 1st grade & Mackenzie will be starting Kindergarten. I must also get their uniform in order – making sure I have everything they need for the school year. Do you like back to school? Do your kids too? Or do they dread going back to school as there is homework/tests, etc?

Quebec City Aquarium

This past weekend we visited my Sister-in-Law, her fiancé and my nephew. They live about 45 minutes south-east of Quebec City. On Saturday we were looking for something to do and ended up at the Quebec City Aquarium. My nephew apparently has been there about 15 times and absolutely loves it there. We bought a family pass (as Quentin got in free) and it cost about 58$ with taxes. That’s not bad at all.

My fave thing at the aquarium was this cutie. I’m not even sure what it was but he was pressed up against the glass window of the tank and had the cutest little face!

Quentin was super excited to see “finding nemo” as he called them (above left) and I love the jellyfish – don’t they look like buttons?!

The shade of this green is one of my fave shades of green (above left). Whatever that was too, it was stunning to look at. The kids called this (above right) a sea mushroom. I thought it was cool to look at as well.

The polar bear we saw was doing laps in his pool and the seals were lounging by their pool.

There was awesome sand castles.

And awesome se creatures as well. How neat are these?

I tried to get a picture of all 3 boys. Mackenzie had no interest in smiling. It’s so difficult these days to get a picture of all 3 of them. I hope it’s just a phase and hopefully we’ll get to a point where I can take a nice picture of all 3 of them smiling at the same time. Maybe one day soon….