If I can avoid both games of fetch and the cat walking on my keyboard I might get a post finished before tomorrow ...



Proving, once again, that I'm a sucker for cute groceries.


I finished Rob's new neck warmer ... for the second time. The first one was much too big. Why did I cast on so many stitches? Now I have a lovely little ball of leftovers. I've got quite a few of these and I'm thinking of starting something like this.


Everything was in shades of grey outside. Not dark, gloomy greys but soft, clear, calm greys. Sky, roads, trees, everything ... all white and grey. This is my inspiration palette for repainting our bedroom.


Embroidery hoops and my blue wall.


We watched the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver at Rob's parent's house. My favourite part was the fiddling. It makes me want to dance. I worked on the heel for my current sock instead.


Tea time in the middle of the afternoon and I have leftover fruitcake from my sister. There is something about food wrapped in cheesecloth that I find so homey and cozy.


A slice of sunshine coming into my studio.

- I'm almost finished cutting out all the pieces for my new purse. There are so many! I got out a roll of painter's tape and labelled rectangles as I cut them out. I've still got one pocket to cut but I'm a little undecided about how big it should be. I think I'll start sewing first and make my decision when I get to that pocket.

- We got Abby a new chew toy today. It says it is best for dogs over 60 pounds ... our 25 lb. pup is a powerful chewer. Fortunately she pretty much sticks to her toys.

- My blog was listed in a post on Canadian Living's Make+Do Blog last month. I can't express how utterly cool I found that. I highly recommend looking through the list; there are a lot of other fun spots to visit.

- I'm debating whether or not to participate in the Knitting Olympics. It would be pretty fun to participate and I think Christina's pattern in my Rockin' Sock Club kit would be a good entry - it involves several new techniques for me. Under normal circumstances I think those socks would be a good challenge for me to finish completely in 17 days but we'll be on vacation for most of those days so I'll probably have way more knitting time than usual and that doesn't seem quite fair.

- If I don't participate in the Knitting Olympics I'm still planning to make those socks as my vacation project. "Happy go Lucky" is a pretty good motto for a February vacation the whole point of which is to relax and bum around a different city for a week.

- I spent part of this evening over at my sister's house. We dreamed up our summer gardens and ordered some seeds. I loved doing carrots last year and want to add tomatoes (that actually produce something), peas, beets and maybe spinach, beans and strawberries this year. I'll need to figure out where everything will go and probably build at least one raised bed in the back yard.

- I took pictures of me in my new blouse at lunch time today and will try to share them this weekend.

A whole new month this week. How exciting!

I can't believe we're already into February. It usually feels like an unnaturally long month given its twenty-eight days but this year it is going pretty quickly; we're having a spell of unusually warm weather this weekend and into next week and then Rob and I are taking off at the end of the month for a bit of vacation. But first, last week:



We ran out of our French Granola and I had to make more (there really wasn't an option - I don't think I'll ever be able to go without this stuff again). Rob got me a wonderful large, high sided baking sheet especially for making granola in. It made stirring it around so much easier.


I was home by myself for lunch on Tuesday and went over my new purse design while making and eating pizza. Both turned out well: the pizza was finished with salt and pepper (wonderful if you haven't tried it) and I caught a mistake in my purse math and corrected it.


I was feeling the need for some more sock needles (more on that later) so Rob and I scooted over to the Arctic Farmer shop so I could get a set of Knit Picks needles. They're so pretty. I've decided there is no way I could possibly have too many sock needles: I break or loose them far too often and there are so many more socks I could knit if I didn't have to wait for the right needles to be free.








My first missed day of 2010. I'd intended to take a picture of machine stitching the binding onto our new quilt but Abby was being funny and needed someone to sit on the couch with her. I did some knitting for a while (that Endpaper Mitt is slowly moving along) but after a difficult day at work a puppy dozing on your lap has special powers and I was asleep before 9 PM.


Snowflakes on my mitten. To really appreciate their tiny beauty you'll have to look at the full size version over on Flickr.


Gratuitous puppy shot.

The binding was sewn onto the quilt on Friday night and I spent bits of Saturday sewing it down by hand. Almost any time I wasn't working on it (and sometimes when I was) Abby was curled up on top of it.


Some more hand sewing today. I've got 3/4 of a long side left and then there is just the label and a little bit of applique for the back.