Jamiaca Mon

On my way to Calgary at noon today and then to Jamaica tomarow, I will try to post a bit from there if I can. I need to go shower and finish packing.

Vancouver

Here are some Vancouver pictures like I promised you last night. I may be a little more on my game today and give you a post that is at least readable. The picture above is on the way there, it is about a 4 or 5 hour drive through the mountains to get there. I am not sure but this might be around Chilliwack, which is about 45 minutes or an hour before Vancouver.



Vancouver city hall. I just liked the building and we were stuck in traffic so out came the camera. You see that wonderful blue sky in the background, we had wonderful weather the whole day. That was a blessing, this time of year snow can make the drive a bit of nail biter.



Here are the washrooms at the toll booth on the Coquihalla, this is almost the top of the pass. You can see there is tons of snow up here, but the roads were dry and clear. It was -13C at the washrooms.



It seems odd that I would post a picture of the inside of the washroom. Odder yet is the sign posted above every toilet. Need a close up??



The sign was only posted above the toilets, not the sinks. Apparently this is a problem??? People getting up here and being so parched they dip right into the toilets for a drink?

I did not...

Fall off the earth. I was waiting until I had a quiet moment so I could post and tell you what I have been up to. I wanted to have a few minutes to post some photos for you.

As it turns Blogger seems to be on the fritz and will not let me post photos at this time. I will save the pictures for tomorrow.

Thursday I went to Vancouver to help out a patient of mine, she had a couple of appointments with a specialist on the coast and asked me if I would come along with her for moral support and to ask any questions she may not think of herself.

It was a good, fast trip and we both had fun. She had good news at her doctor appointment.

I did not get back until late Thursday night.

Friday night we took the kids to see Curious George, it was a great movie to take young kids too, we all loved it! Saturday I worked and then raced home so Paul could get Sebastian to hockey on time.

Saturday night we went to a Surprise Birthday party for Filet, he turns 40 while we are in Jamaica. Sunday Paul patrolled and I played with the kids all day.

I did not even find time to start my Olympic socks until Sunday evening, I am starting the race two days behind. That is okay with me, I am a tortoise kind of girl, I will win the race in the long run. I finished the cape for Sebastian last night too, I wanted to get that done before the trip.

I am rambling here aren't I??? I am tired and my mind is humming a hundred miles an hour. Judy gets here Wednesday morning and we leave Friday afternoon. My mind is full of all the things I need to get done in the next few days. I am looking forward to the sun and warmth, there is an arctic front coming into Kamloops and it is supposed to be -30C by Wednesday. Our timing could not be better.

I will post some photos for you tomorrow and I will try to settle my mind and write a post that makes some sense!

Short Row Heel??

Two knitting posts in one week? It is almost like this is a knitting blog, weird.

I am working on PJ's toe up socks and I have made it to the short row heel. I am a bit confused by the directions at this point.

I find most of the time when I am confused about a pattern it is because I don't really understand the shaping and I just need to have faith and follow the directions without questioning to much and see what evolves. Unless of course my project begins to look like a mess.

I think I have a mess. The pattern tells me to place a stitch marker at the end of each short row to help me keep track of where I am at. The stitch markers are only adding to my confusion, they are just one more thing to juggle while try to learn a new technique. Secondly they are short rows on the heel of a sock, as I understand it that would one less stitch on every row until I reach the desired length and then I need to make the rows gradually longer to shape a sort of cup for the heel to fit into. I need markers for this? In between every stitch??

I will tink back to the start of the heel, remove all the stitch markers (they aren't helping me at this point) and then I will google 'short row heel', I will come up with a site (like This One) and fry to figure it out using different directions. The same pattern, just different wording and some photos. I already tried a great book that Shannon gave me for Christmas, I helped a bit, but I think I need more pictures for this one.

If surfing doesn't do the trick, then I pull the Ace out my sleeve. I call the knitting guru, the needle master, the woman who is changing the world one knitter at a time; I will call...MOM. She has magic powers, she can see through the holes in the phone, she seems to know how my mind works and exactly what I am doing wrong and somehow talks this visual learner through the fix.

I am not sure how she does it but I think I am on to her. I think she has made every knitting mistake in the book and therefore has figured out how to fix them all herself. I think she remembers being a knitting beginner and when I read her my pattern, she nods her head and knows exactly what this knitting greenhorne has done to get all tied up. She rocks. Thank you mom ahead of time for the phone call you may be receiving this afternoon.

I am in a hurry to figure out this heel, I want to use the technique on my Olympic Socks. It would not be an Olympic challenge if I did not pick a pattern I was new too would it? I also need to swatch the yarn I want to use and do some math. My Olympic socks are Debbles birthday gift, so I need to figure the measurements for a size 7 1/2 sock.

A Foot Long

Here are my finished socks. I finished them a while ago but never posted the pictures. I enjoyed making the socks but I am not all that happy with the results. They are a bit to big for me. They fit length wise but they are to loose around the ankles and the feet. I think this was just the pattern. I used the free pattern that came with the sock yarn.

I enjoyed making the socks so much that I wanted to learn more about them and learn more about shaping and making them custom sizes. I bought the book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in sock knitting. You could knit a 1,000 socks out of this book and not have 2 alike and you can figure out how many stitches you need for any size foot. I wanted a book that would enable me to make socks for the kids and for adults. This book fit the bill quite nicely.



Here is PJ's sock with the book. I am trying a toe up sock, which I like so far because I can try it on her as I go. I am going to attempt a short row heel with this sock too, I will let you know how that goes.



Birthday gifts:

Shannon the gifts your ordered from Toy's R Us arrived already. Sebastian was very happy about the legos, he loves them. PJ has played with the tea set every day since it arrived. Toys R Us cracks me up, they send small gifts in these huge boxes with tons of packing paper. They must only have one size box they ship in. When PJ's gift from mom comes I will take a picture and show you how silly they are.

Knitty Gritty...We don't get the DIY station here in BC. I can't even add it to my satellite package. I wish I could get it, I understand the show is quite good. I will try to remember to bring the book with me so Shannon can have a look at it and see if there is anything she might want to make for Taylor or Morgan.

Am I Clean Yet??

I am on day 8 of the Wild Rose cleanse. If you are looking for a quick way to drop 10 pounds this would do the trick for you. It is not to hard to stay on, but I am getting tired of it. Mostly I am tired of taking the supplements you have to take with it. You take 6 herbal pills with breakfast and with dinner, one is an herbal laxative, one increases your bile production and I don't know what the third one does.

Basically you eat no dairy, no sugar, no flour products of any kind and no tropical fruit. You can eat brown rice, so I eat brown rice cakes instead of bread. Tonight for dinner I am cooking baked potatoes, steak and salad. So I am not suffering or anything. I have lost 6 pounds in 8 days, weight loss was not my goal, and I was worried about losing anymore than that. But I figure I will put the weight right back on once I begin to add some of the foods I usually eat.

I miss cheese the most. I often eat cheese and apples for a snack and an apple without the cheese just is not as filling for me. I also miss cream in my morning coffee. I feel good on the cleanse except when I work out. I find running to be a big challenge, we did a 6 mile run on Saturday and it wore me right out. I would like to do a speed work out with the running group on Wednesday, but I don't know if I can go fast enough to push my group into a good workout.

Friday is the last day and then I will slowly add foods back in. I am afraid if I just start right back at eating like I usually eat it might upset my stomach after so long without flour and sugar. I will add cheese first and then a dab of cream in my coffee. After a day or two of light dairy I will add other stuff.

Shutter Bug

Here is the picture that came back on my camera. My mental image of an electronics repair shop was much messier than that. Where are all the parts, and the tools? Where is all the mess? I am very happy to have my camera back and working fine. I did not really realize how much I use it until I did not have it.



Here is a picture of the front of the baby blanket. I am very happy with the way it turned out and I had a great time learning the color work. After that piece I would not be afraid to try just about anything on the needles. It surprises me how much I enjoy learning new things.



A picture of the back after I covered up the mess with flannel. Angie I wish I could take credit for 'craptastic' it is one of my favorites, but that one was coined by Norma, you can click her link there on the right side of my blog. She curses like a sailor, knits up a storm and often makes me laugh out loud while reading her blog.



I have started a few small projects to mix it up a bit after the blanket. This one is for Sebastian. He wants to dress up like a prince and fight dragons. I thought this might do the trick for him, it is from Vickie Howell's book New Knits on the Block, a guide to knitting what kids really want. The book has some really great ideas. It has a crown pattern in it as well, which I will use for a guideline to make one for Sebastian, every prince needs a crown.

I am knitting this out of the yarn mom sent Sebastian for Christmas. I am going to leave the lighting bolt off the back, I have another idea in mind. I thought I might cut some different shapes our of felt and he could put different things on it depending on what he wanted to dress up as. I was thinking I could cut the shapes out of felt and they might stay on, or I could put a small piece of velcro on the pieces and that would stick to the yarn. I thought we could cut out the shape of a crown, a shield, dragon, lightening bolt and Sebastian could decorate the pieces of felt with some glitter glue.

I am working on a pair of socks I will show you tomorrow (I have to same some pictures for later!) and I am thinking about what kind of socks I am going to knit for the Knitting Olympics 2006 . I don't know if I want to make a pair for myself or for someone else and I am not sure if I want to do a plain pair or something with a pattern. I will be in Jamaica for a lot of the time and I don't know how much knitting I will be there. I was thinking of a simple self striping pair that would keep me busy on the plane, but would not take to much brain power. What do you think? Shannon and Mom are you going to join??

P.S. On the spell check velcro=vulgar and craptastic=craftsman. Heheheh, I love the Blogger spell check program.

Picture Attempt

I know it is a craptastic picture but you get the idea. It is the back of the blanket, I could not get the one of the front of the blanket to post on the blog.

The good news is my camera is repaired and they are shipping it back to me overnight mail. It should make to the office tomorrow. If that is the case I will post a better picture Friday night.