Why George, Why?

I watch Grey's Anatomy each week, religiously. And I'm not one to talk about tv shows on my blog. But the past two episodes have each disappointed me in the last 5 minutes.

Last week, they had to have that bomb squad hero blow up. Why? Why something so morbid? And how is it that this week Meredith isn't traumatized by it? I mean, yeah, she went through a terrible thing by holding on to a bomb inside a person's thoracic cavity that could've gone off at any time, but shouldn't witnessing a guy blow up in front of you leave you with some sort of trauma?

Now this week. I've always liked George. He's one of my favourite characters...mind you almost all of them have a hinkering of my appreciation. But why would they have him splurt his true feelings to Meredith tonight when he full well knows that she's still in love with Derek? I always felt sorry for him but... And she's no better...hurting inside only to rebound on her friend/room-mate/admirer who's just spilled everything to her? AAAAHHHH I hope next week makes up for it.

Lots done, lots more to go!

Boy, have I been a busy bee lately!

1) Finished the London Beanie for the Knitting Olympics.



What did I learn during this challenge?

a) knitting in the round, using a circ
b) using 2 circs for the smaller diameter as I got near the top
c) changing colours in knitting -- although I have to learn to how to avoid colour jogs when knitting in the round (next time)
d) long-tail cast on, one hand only (I used to use the thumb method which requires two hands....I've nixed doing that again as I seem to cast on too tightly this way -- see prev post for details)


2) Finished a promised 12" square for a comfortghan.


What did I learn with this project? That not all 50g balls of ww yarn are enough for a 12" square. I had to fudge the last row and did a row of hdc's instead of dc's. But, it made my measurements perfect!


3) Started my Crochet Olympics project
(called Weekend Wonder by FCEC)


I'm using Shetland Chunky in a very dark green, which happens to be the same as the pic in the magazine!

AND, once I've finished this sweater, I'll be making another three London Beanies: one for my BIL Jamie and one each for the kids' godfathers who happen to both be named John. (Yes, it sometimes does get confusing.)

To the Frog Pond we go

Here's my progess of the London Beanie as of midnight last night. I finally changed from literally throwing my yarn to being able to knit in one fluid motion by keeping my thumb on the work/needle (I knit American style.) I can finally knit quickly and so much more evenly. I hardly saw any uneven stitches this time! Pretty good, huh? Well, no. The body of the hat fits Gus' head just fine, but the bottom edge is way too tight. (I guess he's got a big head). So, I have to frog the whole flipping thing and start again.

I have trouble with casting on too tight but I could've sworn I was ok this time. I usually use the thumb method of the long tail cast-on. I've got my mom's knitting handbook, The Handknitter's Handbook by British author & knitter, Montse Stanley , which has tons of cast-on methods and charts of which method to use for each type of knitting. So, I'll try something new or try casting on with a larger needle. This is what confuses me though. I'm using a circ. So, if I cast on a larger needle, do I transfer the stitches to the new needle or keep the cast-on stitches on the smaller needle and work the knitting onto the larger one? Sherri! Help!


And now for the token child picture. I've posted enough pics of Lucas so I thought to show my sweet Demetri all by himself. This was taken a few weeks ago during my stash bust. Demetri's doing homework. HOMEWORK. In KINDERGARTEN. (Do I sound frustrated? Naw....) He's smiling for the picture but let me tell you, he's never smiling when I sit him down every Saturday to do two pages of writing and colouring for school. Then on Sundays we do another two pages for Greek School which he goes to every Tuesday afternoon. And that's Kindergarted too! Four pages of homework weekly, at minimum, for a 5 year-old. For the Christmas holidays he got a page of homework per day. In my opinion, this is too much. I think we're pushing our kids to learn to much too soon. We don't let them just be kids anymore.

"Weu-zic" (Music, in Lucas' language). Oh, I've just been requested to play "Ba-yee" (Barney) again on the CD player, which is in the same room as the computer. Done. Now, gotta go and get out of this room, heat up my soup (I got Lucas' cold, lucky me) and Gus' dinner. Or else I'll go nuts with this music before long.

Sick baby

Poor little Lucas has another cold and is a runny-nosed congested little mess.

Just a little darling while sleeping isn't he? Too bad those naps don't last too long....I thought to capture the moment while I could. Lately the only place where he will sleep peacefully & for a longer span is on my bed. I guess it smells like mommy. He also doesn't like it when I prop up the top of his mattress with a pillow to ease the congestion, so the best solution for now is this. Anything to give me a few moments peace.

I know....red sheets...but they're flannel and oh so soft & cozy for this cold weather. Our place is not well insulated and the windows let in a terrible draft so we bought these sheets around Christmas time. Gus picked the colour....deep red and NO pattern (he doesn't like many patterns, especially flowers).

And the race has begun....

I was working yesterday during the Opening Ceremonies, so casting on had to wait until last night. Plus, I wanted to at least cast off the second footie for little Anthony before beginning another WIP....even one for the Knitting Olympics. And here the are, just waiting to be sewn up:

See the little hole that's been circled in red? Well, that's where I picked up a stich because I realized a bit too late that I had one stitch less than needed. That hole is just bugging me, so I'm contemplating frogging it to the end of the instep in order to figure out where I went wrong. Or maybe I'll do a kf&b increase....but won't that make the row go up? I don't know. Will figure that out later as I have lots of time. These look like they could fit a one-year old and Anthony will be only 3 months old in a couple of days.

As for the Knitting Olympics, here are all my supplies (for now) for the London Beanie. Gus chose the colours himself. Will be black with blue stripes in the middle. I'm trying this new yarn Lewiscraft is carrying...it's Starlette by Mary Maxim. I guess Mary Maxim is helping Lewiscraft out since Spinrite refuses to supply them with more yarn until they pay their huge account. Anyhoo, that's another tangent I don't feel like getting into right now. It's a nice soft yarn and cheap. I have yet to decide if I like working with it. Will figure that out soon. Funny how Gus thought it was ok to go by Lewiscraft last night to pick up yarn for what will be his hat, but when it comes to other projects, I have to use my stash. For the first time in ages, I had no argument from him last night! Figures. I also think I could eventually do him up another hat with the leftovers as well.

So I cast on the required 72 stitches last night and started the first row today. I'm already in trouble. Can't figure out why the first row isn't ending up right. Will check with Sherri and see. TG it's Saturday and I think I may have her all to myself on MSN or by phone unless she's doing laundry or something. ;-)

Lastly, I need to see if I need my head checked. Seriously. Two days ago, on whatever madness I was feeling (work does that to me), I joined the Crochet Olympics. Now, I ask myself: WHY??? But, I think it may all work out. The London Beanie is a nice small project, maybe leaving me with enough time to make this:

It's a lacy zip-up hooded sweater in chunky yarn. Found it in my Family Circle Easy Crochet magazine . It should be ok using some dark green shetland chunky...warm enough for the winter and feminine enough to wear with dress pants to work. I think this should work!

All done (well, at least one project)

I finally finished Demetri's new winter hat & scarf set. He just loves it. I finished adding & trimming the fringe & sewing the ends in the hat yesterday. Demetri doesn't like extremely long scarves or long fringes, so I had to trim the fringe a bit short. The hat pattern comes from the Head Huggers site. I made the main body of the scarf in dc's and the trim on each end was done in the same pattern as the hat (rows 6-8). Turned out pretty cool, I think.

My newest project is a knitted one:

It's from the March 2005 issue of Creative Knitting magazine. The socks/footies are for little Anthony, my friend Joanna's first baby who's almost 3 months old. What's neat is that these might actually fit my Lucas (21 months) so I might make a pair for him in a thicker yarn. (Oops, going off on tangents again...) In four days I worked up the first footie. Not bad for a beginner! I just have to sew the back of the cuff and the bottom of the sole. It was really easy and I learned a few new things: using stitch holders and picking up stitches along the sides of the instep. Below's a close-up of the first footie. I'm already 6 rows into the second and hope to finish it by the end of the week, just in time for the opening ceremonies of the Turin Olympics...I've joined the Knitting Olympics which I'm really looking forward to! I'll be knitting a London Beanie for Gus. My first attempt at circular knitting or using dpn's without the stitch holders on the ends. I think I'll be going the route of a circ to start with though. :-) Yarn yet to be decided. A trip to the newly organized stash is definitely due. Go Team Canada!

Our Home -- to be renamed "Danger Zone"

Well, it's official. I'm just not meant to reorganize, pack or unpack things. I mean, this has been the craziest past month. First, Lucas and his little "adventure" a few weeks ago and now me.

See this box in this pic? Yeah, the kids were having a grand ol' time with it this a.m. Lucas even decided he should undress himself while in it (notice the snaps are all undone on his pj's). Don't you just love the way Demetri poses? And that grin on Lucas....one not only a mother could love. Anyway, back to the subject at hand

Well, I decide to take the box downstairs. I think I must have gone down one step and then I slipped down it and the next five or six steps before I managed to stop my ride. Well, I'm hurt. I mean really hurt. Nothing broken thankfully, but I'm terribly bruised: tip & bottom of right big toe, top of right foot, left ankle, side of left thigh and left arm just above the elbow. It hurts to walk or climb stairs. Extra strength Tylenol is doing the trick for most of the pain, but I tell you, it's not comfortable walking when it feels like you've got gauze packed under your toe (which there isn't). Darned thing must be really inflamed. And what did I slip on? A grey plastic bag that fell out of the bag holder on the wall by the stairs...the wooden stairs are painted a blue grey so of course I didn't notice it.

This type of work really isn't for me.

And the fruits of my packing so far?

That's it. And it all has to be packed and moved temporarily into a storage space by Feb 28. Ech.

Name fun, Google-style

Go to Google.com (or .ca, or whatever), type in your name and the word “needs” beside it (not in quotes, mind you) and list the top 10 things that come up:

Maggie needs:

1.  an alibi

2.  a good home  (coming soon hopefully!)

3.  to be near Mom

4.  your prayers

5.  immediate help with the implementation of organizational tools  (how did they know???)

6.  more exercise

7,  to walk more

8.  help understanding possible future pitfalls that could arise   (oh, boy)

9.  another cheating fiancé  (oh my, I don’t think so…one cheating  boyfriend in the past was enough!)

10.  help fixing a short circuit in her computer  (not yet, hopefully…the new puter’s only a few weeks old!)

Here are some others that came up as well that gave me a good chuckle or at least made me think:

… to be in a more appropriate climate     (ain’t that the truth!)

… more space for all her mp3s    (maybe soon!)

… to learn how to respond to, or not respond to, people, dogs, and other stimuli

… a new home now  (I think someone’s trying to tell me something)

… a quiet home with no other animals or small children   (ah, a young mother’s dream!)

… a home with no previous training experience and no children under 12   (definitely a message is being broadcast)

… a home that is loving, calm and quiet   (I have all the loving…calm & quiet? Heaven!)

… national attention and publicity   (I wonder how that would work for me?)

… a life   (well put)

Disclaimer (and did you know…) Many of the statements above came from sites advocating support of an elephant named Maggie and of dogs who need adoption.  No harm was meant by using these statements.