UPDATE (August 2006): I am adding this review of the Knit Picks Options set, which I’ve owned and used for the past month: Cables are very thin. Can be a good or bad thing. I’ve had two cable failures, where they pull out of the metal piece that attaches them to the needles. Knit Picks…

First off, thanks to Kimberly for her RAOK card Weds morning. A really cute Motown Thanksgiving turkey singing a version of "I Will Survive." The song was in my head all day. I’m travelling to Ottawa for work over the next week, with a stop in Edmonton to see Elina, and after I return, will…

A few days after his attempt at knitting, Chuck asked me if there was some other yarn he could try. I figured he could handle the Moonlight Mohair and the shaped scarf form Sally Melville’s Knit Stitch book. Here’s how it went: He: Can’t you just get it started for me? I knit the first…

And we knit and we shopped and that’s about it. An excellent girls’ weekend; the two students, Mari, my friend Lynn and me. We also watched the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants – the perfect chick flick for a girls’ weekend. Shopping included an outfit for Chuck’s Christmas Party – hand picked by Mar. I…

I was taken totally by surprise when Bryant posted earlier this week. I was reading my comments and thought "What’s going on here? I don’t remember a post called Uh-Oh." Commandeered indeed! That’s my kid. So here are the victims of my brain washing techniques: Betty from Germany, Carolina from Mexico, and that’s Grace attempting…

Hey everyone, it’s Bry, Li’s son… And I am afraid that the family is going mad: Everyone has begun knitting! My mother shall now be dubbed the missionary of knitting. She is always converting her friends, family, friends children, etc, to this cult that you all refer to as "knitting". Even my exchange students are…

We had a record low number of trick or treaters this year – five in all. We live in a  very hilly community and the parents are known for driving their kids to where the houses are closer together and the roads are flat. I know of people who turn off their lights after 300…

I have some Manos del Uruguay in my stash just waiting to be knit up into a scarf. I’ve admired Stacey’s Manos scarf pattern from, I believe, a yarn shop in CA (pattern link on my sidebar), and I like the way the Herringbone stitch enhances the variegations in the yarn, but I find the…

Why am I attracted to things that sparkle? And why are things that sparkle so expensive? I have always loved sparklies – when I was seven, on a trip to the Museum of Natural History, the rest of the Brownies oohed and aahhed over the dino bones. Me? I couldn’t wait to go up to…

Saturday, my 15 year old son started his first job. Why is this so incredible? He had to be there at 7:15 AM meaning he had to set an alarm and not turn it off and roll over as he does on every school morning.  It means he had to put in eight hours of…