Ok, so Sunday started not enjoyable as the rest of the week. Sometime around 3:30AM the smoke alarm started to let off these quiet little blips. About six. Just enough to ruin was little sleep I was getting between tossing and turning in a strange bed. We rolled over, and discovered we had no power. I opened the door, and the hallway had no power either and the fire doors are closed.

I went to the lobby, and discovered the only 3 people had bothered to get up. Out of a whole hotel. That shocked me. It turned out that a drunk driver had hit a pole and took out the… what’s it called?...generator?… and the whole side of the street was out. But that was the funny part. It came back in weird chunks. Our hall got light. Some didn’t. some people had power and no TV. Some had nothing. Some people lost power, but their smoke alarms never went off. I think the only thing in common, was everyone’s alarm clocks went out, (I thought we should all be giving late check out ;) ). Then I t all came back at about 5:00. I was just getting back to sleep. And the smoke alarm went off again. *sigh*

We were back up again at about 7 for continental breakfast, and more knitting. We checked out about 10 and shortly after I finished this…



It my set of write warmers! Can I hear a whoo hoo? I have been waiting for them for ever, but making them for everybody else. You know how that goes. So now that my sister, SIL, and DH have theirs, this weekend was about finishing mine. Good job I live in Calgary, so I’m guarantee at least one more good snow storm this year to wear them! They are 100% alpaca, and the pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts Obviously this is one I love. The only thing I would change is that I ‘lost’ the pattern in the green, and I might even go down a needle size on this one for a slightly more closed fabric.

While we were out at the car, I looked around and saw it was fairly clear, so I was able to get this…



Now to just take a moment to look at that, take a deep breath, and relax. That is what it is all about, isn’t it?

It was not long until we had a buffet lunch of pasta, and all the yummies that go along with that! (Salads, garlic toast, sweets)

Then alas, it was time to get in the car, find a station with a working air hose (that is another story for another entry) and get on the highway, to missed family members.

Now that I’m back and rested, I can’t believe I have to wait another 6 months to do it again.

It was a thoroughly productive weekend. On top of my FO’s, I managed to get in a couple pattern repeats on my Branching Out scarf,a couple of inches on my sock, 7 more inches on my sweater, and a good start on another secret project, that have replaced at least one of the one from previous entries.

The only thing I didn’t mange to find, was postcards of the area at a reasonable price.

I loved walking around and seeing what everybody else was doing, and now want to try shadow knitting, wire knitting, and bead knitting (again). Maybe I need the break to get some of these things done…

Reading: A corner of the Universe- Ann Martin
Watching: Things I taped over the weekend.

This weekend was amazing! I don’t know if it was because it was my first, or if it is always like this, but I could easily get use to these retreats! The more the better! LOL

My friend S and I left town about 1:00 on Friday, and after a quick stop at Starbucks for a treat for the car, we got out of the city quickly. We drove for about an hour, and found the hotel fairly easily. It was a little foggy, so we couldn’t see the mountains till we were right in them, but a nice drive none the less.

We went in the hotel and it was too early to check in, so we went down to the conference room and meet some of the ladies (there were about 25 of us in total, that is a quarter for the guild!), and got right down to knitting for a couple of hours.

We checked in, and had a wonderful room with a fireplace and a Jacuzzi tub, and I would recommend staying at the green gables to anyone, and wish I had more time to spend in the room!

We went back to the conference room, and knit till supper. All our paid for meals were in the French restaurant, and they served us a great 3 course turkey dinner. Then you know what we did? We knit till about 10:00 when it was time for bed.

Saturday we got up and had a nice continental break fast at about 7:30, and went to the room to discover, there were already some of the ladies, hard at work knitting. We were sure if they went to bed or not ;)

We went back to knitting (are you surprised?) and were talking about what we were going to do with our day. A couple of the other ladies at the same table had about the same plan, and best yet, they knew where the yarn store (Jen by the Fjord (sorry, I couldn’t find a link)) so we went together.

About 11:00 we hit the yarn store, and spent about an hour there, touching, and dreaming, and flipping through books, and talking to a lovely lady who turned out to be the owner. When we finally wandered off, this is what I had acquired…



4 skeins of sock yarn (I know I’m obsessed, and I had actually thought I could make it through the weekend without…) 2 sets of casein needles, and 2 sets of bamboo needles. There was also a stitch holder. I realize that this picture is missing some of this, but I’m afraid that it is already in use.

Then we had a light lunch of soup and sandwiches in a coffee shop we found. We went on to wander in to stores like the lavender store, the kitchen gadget store, the hardware store, the fudge store, and anything else that tickled our fancy along the way.

We were back to the hotel by 2:00, to knit for a couple hours, before birthday cake at 4:00 and a 3 course roast beef dinner at 6:30.

After dinner, I finished my hat…



…and that was about all I could take before my eyes closed. S went to walk on the treadmill in the exercise room for half an hour and I went to soak in the Jacuzzi. I manage to hurt a muscle in my shoulder getting in to the tub. I think I was tight from so much knitting.

We were probably in bed but 10:30, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open to even read a couple pages.

This is getting a little long, so I think I’ll tell you all about Sunday tomorrow…

Finished last night...

Ok, I’m just about off for my first retreat this weekend with the guild, but I couldn’t go without showing you my finished Regia socks!



This pattern was the bull’s eye pattern out of the Not Just Socks book. (Yes, I see the irony) I used Regia sock yarn and scraps for the toes. Quick knit and a fun pattern, but when I do this pattern again, I think I’m going to try to do a short row heel. I have done one when I made Wendy’s toe up socks, so I think I should be able to make it fit here.

I started a pink pair of sock of the month socks last night, cause most of my other knitting was packed. I think it will be a fairly quick knit too, as the yarn is rather thick. Third attempt at getting the tension right on the cuff, so I hope it the charm! (fourth month and I’m already a month behind (GAH!), we got cool dye your owns this month… must catch up!)

Any how, hope it is a good productive (or relaxing…) weekend for all. I’m gonna go throw a couple more things in my bag, and I’m outta here! Full report (maybe with pictures, I remembered the camera) on Monday!

Ok, so I knit up my bag (from second treasury of mobius knits) and it didn’t look bad. I mean, for a pre-felted bag. I always think these look a little loose and wonky.



I’m not sure what happened. The blue part went a little smaller then I had thought, but I can live with the. The grey part is still long and barely felted.



So now I have a dilemma. Do I leave it a little funky? And would I use it if I did? Do I try and felt it more, and stretch out the blue part after? Do I try and felt only the strap? Is that possible?

I have my guild knitting retreat this weekend. I might just take it and see if I can get some input there… or I might just leave it for a while and see if anything else comes to me…

I dont' know if that's good or bad...

...so i'm going with good... ;)

My influence

[219.8]

try it and let me know what you get!

I was actually a busy gal this weekend…

Friday night was for movies. Hubby convinced me to rent Star Trek Enterprise, first season, and sit through it. It is a long process, but I have to admit it’s creative, and it’s something new to watch (I get so tired of repeats). And I’m not finding it hard to look at Archer and Trip, as we watch episode after episode after episode…

Saturday we got up and went to see a presentation of Ryan’s dream. Ryan is a fried of the family and he made this documentary. The sort version is he rode his bike from the top of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina to raise money for make a wish foundation. It is amazing. I left in awe, as well as feeling a little like I needed to get off my butt and make more of a contribution to something. He is an inspiration, and I have a feeling we are still gonna see some pretty amazing things from this guy!

After we left the theater, my family came over for coffee. They had never seen my home or my home based business, and I think they were impressed. I had my grandfather, aunt, uncle, uncle, his girlfriend and her son, as well as my hubby and myself. I think it was the most people that have ever been in my house at one time! Mondo fun though…

Then the afternoon was for mailing packages, and knitting! And the evening was for…knitting! (And a little movie watching of course…)

Sunday was spent groceries shopping, wandering around chapters, and knitting!

Now I know someone out there is going to say, “Hey Lissa, show us your knitting!” Well, no. I will, but not till after I felt it :-P

For today though, I leave you with a picture of my felted basket that I made in the class I have taken for the past couple of weeks.



Reading: The Big Over Easy- Jasper Fford
Watching: never ending episodes of Star Trek (and Notting Hill I snuck in on Monday)

I’m sick, so this is short.

Had my guild meeting last night, paid for my room at the retreat. A week and a bit! I’m so excited! Canmore, here I come! (Would it be weird to take 2 bags of knitting, but only one bag of clothes?)

Last night was fun as I already knew a lady there that I took the mobius class with last week! And we talked about buttons!



Here is the name tag I finally made for myself.

I have been knitting. More pictures to come when I’m well and feel like setting things up to take pictures of. Going to lie on the couch now…

Tally is in...

Ok, so here it is. The verdict…



Yes, we had a tie, between red and blue. So I think what I am going to do is this. I decided that the main color really lends itself to being funky, so funky it will be. This one has a blue heel and red toe, and the next one I plan on reversing these.

For anyone who is interested, here are the results…

Red-37.5%
Blue- 37.5%
Green-25%
Same as sock- 0%

Thanks for all of you who played along and participated, it was fun! I hope you all have a good weekend!

really need to play some catch up...

scroll to bottom to copy the html

IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) Finished It 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Finished It 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) Finished It 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Started It 6 Casablanca (1942) Finished It 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) Finished It 9 Shichinin No Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954) 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 14 Rear Window (1954) 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) Started It 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) 20 North by Northwest (1959) Finished It 21 12 Angry Men (1957) Finished It 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le [Amelie] (2001) 23 Psycho (1960) 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il [The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly] (1966) 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Hated It! 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) 29 American Beauty (1999) Hated It! 30 Vertigo (1958) Finished It 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Started It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) 34 Pianist, The (2002) 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Finished It 36 C'era una volta il West [Once Upon a Time in the West] (1968) 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) Finished It 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) 43 Boot, Das (1981) 44 Double Indemnity (1944) 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) 46 Chinatown (1974) 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) Finished It 49 M (1931) 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) Finished It 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Started It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 56 Cidade de Deus [City of God] (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) 58 Rashômon (1950) 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) 61 Alien (1979) 62 American History X (1998) 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 64 Léon (1994) 65 Vita è bella, La [Life is Beautiful] (1997) 66 Touch of Evil (1958) 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) Finished It 70 Great Escape, The (1963) 71 Wo hu cang long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] (2000) 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) 74 Amadeus (1984) 75 Modern Times (1936) 76 Ran (1985) 77 Annie Hall (1977) 78 Jaws (1975) Finished It 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) Started It 81 High Noon (1952) 82 Apartment, The (1960) 83 Fargo (1996) Finished It 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) Finished It 85 Aliens (1986) Finished It 86 Shining, The (1980) Finished It 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) 88 Blade Runner (1982) Finished It 89 Metropolis (1927) 90 Duck Soup (1933) 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Finished It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) 93 General, The (1927) 94 City Lights (1931) 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Finished It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det [The Seventh Seal] (1957) 100 Lola rennt [Run Lola Run] (1998)
Which movies have you seen?

I have finished my first jay walker sock!



It is done with knitpicks Cape Cod, and I like the yarn, but not sure about the fit yet. I reserve judgment until there are two.

As far as the poll result go, the result are in, and I’ll have them for you hopeful tomorrow, Monday at he latest (because I know everyone is on the edge of there seats!)

Have a good weekend y’all!

Reading: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis
1984- Orwell (yes, I know, still...it's good though...)

Watching: Maltese Falcon, Batman Begins, Treasure of Sierra Madre

Time to Vote...

Ok, all you silent lurkers who never have anything to say, here is your chance to have an opinion and stay anonymous. I need some help deciding what to do with this sock, and I’m hoping you can tell me what is what…

I have this sock that I have to build a heel (and toe) in to, and I’m not sure what to do. I found a few options.



So based on the picture, do I add a heel in blue, red, green, or try and do something funky with the striped yarn I’m using?

what colour should i use?
	red
	blue
	green
	same as sock
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Vote now! And check back in a few days to see what was chosen!

(Man, this is too fun! I always wanted to do one of these things!)

V-Day...

I don’t think I ever shared this so I’m going to now. This is my valentine’s day present. From me, to me. (Don’t feel bad, hubby got himself a whiskey bible. It was just easier that way.)



It’s great right? Yarn storage! (Yarn not included) Might as well use that space under there right? (Besides, maybe if I fill it with yarn, the dog will stop hiding under there.) only problem. I’d say it’s about an eighth of an inch to tall. It won’t fit under my bed. So there it sits, taking up a bunch of room in the spare room/ book room/ craft room. I’m debating how much of a pain it would be to jack up the bed…

Any how, I leave you with a picture of my many socks in progress…

I finished my Mobius bowl…



I have my class tonight and should finish my handled basket, then I will felt them together and post pictures…

Working on my sock today, when I need a break. I find that he short row heel is appealing, and although I did the after thought heel in this one, I might try the short row in the second, and see which I prefer. That way it’s not hard to take out the heel and put in the waist yarn if I like it better. And I think it’s similar enough that only I would notice the difference. (?) I’ll have to try to see…

Watched the awards last night, and I have to say, I thought they were mediocre. No super ugly dresses, no stand out speeches, no huge surprises, even the music was ok. No huge break out hits like other years. I don’t think I had heard any of the songs before last night. But maybe I’m sheltered. There were a couple laughs, and I do like seeing all those famous people dressed up. A good reason to sit around and knit for a few hours ;) …

Hubby is at work AGAIN today, so this is what I am doing…

Knitting…



Reading…



Playing with my new knitting machine… (kid testing of course ;) )



There is also a brownie mix in the cupboard that may come out, as I think that maybe DH has earned himself a treat…

Then of course I’m crawling in my jammies and watching the academies…

Gina and I met at the LYS yesterday for some tea and sock knitting. It had been a while since I had seen her, and it was time for a good visit. I had made a titbit for her, and it was a good excuse to meet for a chat. Besides, do we need excuses for stash enhancement? I think not!

Wanna see what I bought? Part of it is exciting, part of it is not, and part you can’t see, cause it’s for a secret pal needle exchange. Sorry.

Here is the exciting part…



It is Noro Silk, and I have wound it in to balls. Don’t you love the way that the colors make yummy looking layers? It going to be one of the five-sided (pinwheel) purses. I think the colors will look neat when they are striped in to triangles…

Side note: I have caught myself saying the word ‘neat’ a lot lately. Now, as far as words to say go, it’s not that bad. I don’t think it’s irritating any one else but me, or even that any one else has noticed, but I think in the not too distant future, it could drive me crazy. So, if you hear me saying it, could you poke me with your DPN? Please? Maybe that will help…

I also bought bamboo dpns and other needles, but one wasn’t exciting enough to take a picture of, and the other is a secret. When my pal gets her package, maybe I’ll post a link.

Also hit Michael’s and bought some cotton, probably for a dish towel and a couple things for a name tag. I’m still on my quest for something creative, but a little more complicated then a child would make. If you have any ideas…

Going to Vertigo Theater tonight… think I can get away with taking my knitting? ;)

Watching: Godfather, Batman Begins, maybe the Maltese Falcon

Reading: Vinegar Hill (Ansay), 1984 (Orwell)

Listening:Road to Oz

ok, i know this isn't knitting, but i had to share, and no one is home...

i got my first postcard today!




i will be putting a link up on the side bar this weeknd to photo bucket, and that is where i will be keeping all my cards...if anyone is intrested...

yeah, i know, going to do some work now...*sigh*

I think it's important...

I believe in blind access…

Do you?

Then go here and sign this petition…

Thank you for brining this to my attention fiber cast…

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