Remember how I said that I went a little crazy on Knitpicks? Well Mike's brother Ryan came up yesterday from Maine and brought my yarn with him. Wow I forgot how much I ordered. How much did I order?


I know I know. I'm bad. In this order I have enough yarn for a sweater, a bunch of facecloths/dishcloths, a shawl and a ton of socks! The sad thing is that this should be enough yarn to last the rest of the year, but I also got a bunch of new books - all of which have AMAZING sweater ideas and I really want to knit them!! In my knitpicks order I recieved the books LaceStyle, 50 Baby Booties, and Favorite Socks. In addition to this I recently bought Fitted Knits with the gift certificate that Mike gave me.

As if that wasn't enough for my plate I have also been thinking about this a lot lately.
This is a pattern for a Heirloom blanket that my Grandmother's sister mailed me. She said that it belonged to her mother. There was about three blanket patterns in the package but this is my favorite. It's beautiful eh? The pattern is really simple too, here it is:

Now I am pretty sure it's legal for me to share this with you. I have been told that copy right expires on knitting patterns after 50 years or so. If anyone knows any differently please let me know! As you can see the pattern is a little confusing, I am assuming all those "0's" are yarn overs. Anyone else have any ideas?

Sadly though I can't work on any of my new and excited projects though because I am stuck with my knitting for cash that I am doing right now. Although on the bright side, my cash knitting will pay for my fun knitting :) Here's my lace blob now.

34 degrees outside today. Screw knitting I am going to the beach.

As someone who works in nursing homes I found this very interesting:

Oscar the Cat

There was also an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine which was really interesting. I have access to it through being a Dalhousie student but unfortunately I can't publish it here as I would be violating copyright laws. Still very interesting eh?

Almost every nursing home that I work at has at least one resident cat. Many have at least 3 roaming the halls. Still I have yet to encounter another death predicting cat.

In other news it is super hot here today, we are in the middle of a little east coast style heat wave. Well it's not that hot for those of you who live in the prairies or mid west, but for us it's scorching! 32 degrees today, yikes! For me anything over 27 and I start to melt. Like I said I know this isn't that hot for many of you, but the Maritimes have such a temperate climate that we get quite used to moderate temperatures. I am going to go enjoy the sun with a walk with Oliver and then I am going to come home and stick my feet in some ice water.

I have been cheating on my shawl knitting lately. I really should be knitting another Spinner's Lace Shawl, as I have told some customers that I will do that but instead I have been working on this. And can you blame me? I love these Irish/Aran inspired sweaters, and I am way too lazy to make an adult sized one, so I am making one for my cousin's baby. I am really happy with the pattern, it's beautiful yet simple. And it has finally inspired me for what my EZ sweater will look like.

I still don't know if it will be a cardigan, v-neck or pullover but I do know that it will have TWISTS in it. Have you discovered the beauty of the twist? I have done two stitch twists before and simple regarded them as an easier cable, but the four stitch twist is awesome! It is really beautiful like a cable but doesn't stick out as far and you don't have to mess around with a cable needle. Therefore I have decided that the bottom of my sweater will have a 4 stitch twist on it. I am very pleased with this. I will be knitting said sweater in the knitpicks yarn that I ordered earlier this week. Specifically I will be using Merino Style in coal. Wish me luck :)

Speaking of knit picks I also ordered a ton of other yarn and books but can't quite remember what exactly I ordered now that it has been a couple days. So it will be a wonderful surprise when it comes! I won't get it for a while though because I had it sent to Mike's parents house in the states.

Anywho I apologize if this post made no sense whatsoever I have just indulged in a rather large glass of wine and am feeling a little sleepy.

I keep meaning to post but a certain furry animal and a certain lengthy book have been distracting me. I assure you a proper update tomorrow, including details of the breaking of my yarn diet in a huge knit picks binge!

I finished my sock pals socks! Oh how I hope that she likes them :) I really like them and would love to wear them myself, so I think that is a good indication that she will like them too. Now all I have to do is wash them and slightly block them. I don't really usually block my socks, I mean their socks! Your feet will block them! But I do like to wash them to even up the stitches a bit.

In other news my brother Lionel has left for Calgary today until Tuesday. He's visiting his girlfriend and my good friend Julie up there, as well as my other brother Niall. So the great part about all this is I get to have Oliver THE WHOLE TIME. I am very excited about this, so is he as I just gave him a huge bone and he is happily munching away on it as I type. The cat is less than impressed, but I think she will get over it.

The Tall Ships have been in Halifax the past week. I unfortunately did not get any pictures of the pretty ships but I assure you they were quite spectacular. I did make it onto the "tall ship" Silva. It's not really a tall ship, just a bog boat with fake sails designed as a bar on the water. Still it was very fun. I went with "The Student Edge" a conference of student leaders being held in Halifax. I was not part of the conference, but Mike was and I tagged along as a stowaway.

Aren't we cute?

I have been working away on my sock pal's socks. I am almost to the toe on the second sock. I picked up these goodies for her while I was in Mahone Bay today. These are two very Nova Scotia products. Tea from Mahone Bay and homemade chocolates made in Wentworth (near my home). Does anyone have any other ideas for little goodies? I know some people are including things like crochet hooks and stuff, but I would feel silly if I gave my pal a crochet hook in a size she already had.

ugh, I hate blocking. I think the only reason I dislike it so much is that I always think it is going to take about 1/3 the amount of time it actually takes. If I just relax and get into the zen of blocking it's not so bad. I think I have to see blocking as a fun activity in itself and not just an annoying afterthought of knitting. It would also be much easier if I still had that lovely high density Styrofoam that is at my parents house. I used my futon to block my last shawl, and the pins really are not holding well, which is very frustrating. I think I am going to have to check on it every few minutes all day to make sure most of the pins are still in it. Oh and keep the cat out of thereHere is the shawl blocking on the futon. You can see it is pretty much the same as the last one, but it is a little larger and it has beads on the edge.

The beads are pretty eh? They were a bitch to put on though. I think it took two hours just to do the beading.
I finished one of the socks for my sock pal and I have started the ribbing on the second. I was really happy with the yarn for this sock, it is really soft and wonderfully stretchy. My only complaint was that the plys have a tendency to split, which was a little annoying, but worth it for the end product.

Things are going really well for me right now. So well that I have been really busy and have not had much time for knitting. I only knit when I watch TV so I get most of my knitting done when I am sitting on my couch!

I have managed to get the lace border done on my spirit of the southwest shawl. It is also suppose to have an i cord edging, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it! I might just block it as is and see how it looks. I am really happy with how it turned out though. I think the Silver's (the people I am knitting it for) will be really happy with it too.

Know why today was a good day? Here's why!

Today was an Oliver day! Julie is in Calgary doing training for WestJet and Lionel was working a 12 hour shift at the hospital so I took him for the day. We went to the park with Mary and then he spent the rest of the day napping on the couch. It was a great day for both of us.

How was my CAOT exam. Well it is the kind of exam that everyone leaves it having no idea how they did on it and I am no exception. I will just have to wait for my results to come in.

So my CAOT exam is on Saturday, therefore I have been spending a bit of time (although not enough) with my dear friend Trombly. Those of you (which is almost all of you) who are not occupational therapists will not be familiar with this book, but for my fellow Dal Grad OT's Trombly is our bible. It's massive text on Occupational Therapy for Physical Dysfunction.

It's difficult though because it is large book that I like to lay on the couch while I read it. Of course since I have a cat, she then decides to lye on it every time. I guess the cat doesn't care if I pass my CAOT exam.

The CAOT exam by the way is a national exam that all occupational therapists must write upon graduation. You have to pass it in order to practice. Most people pass it without trouble, and a lot of people don't even study for it, but I am terrified at the idea of failing it!

I have also been studying because I start work tomorrow. Eeek! I am shadowing an OT tomorrow in a nursing home, and then on Friday I am going to a home on my own. So I want to make sure I brush up so that I can not look like an idiot on my first day.

I spent last weekend at my friend Alex's cottage. It was amazing! His cabin is right on a lake, we spent three days there eating BBQ, lighting fireworks, swimming in the lake, and having a few beers. It was great, I am sunburned, tired and covered in bug bites, but it was so worth it! Here's the group shot I took - so unfortunately I am missing from it :(


I did manage to do a little bit of knitting on my sock pal's sock. Not very much though. Here's what I have so far, you can't see the stitch definition very well, but it real life it is quite pretty.

Also, I have joined the Mystery Stole Knitalong, but I really don't know if I am going to have time to do it. Here's my material though: