In this post, I’m participating in three WIP Wednesdays; Freshly Pieced, Tami’s Amis and Musings from the Fishbowl.

This is my 5th Work in Progress Wednesday and while we all know I post other weeklies (Marriage Monday has been going on since last summer), this weekly specifically really calls attention to what you managed to (not) get done in a week. I mean, yes I have three kids that I enjoy spending a lot of time with, and yes my husband has turned me into such a serious neat freak I can’t knit or sew or…well anything, until the house is clean, and yes, I cook everyday and bake almost everyday, but I’m not really thinking about any of that when Wednesday rolls around and I am posting about a single 3/4 done sock – that I started LAST Wednesday.

Anyhoo, let’s show some love to these socks, for my Uncle Peter’s birthday, called Jules. They’re actually a pretty quick knit. Pretty much all of this knitting was done over three short sessions while watching Law and Order at night. 😉

This is a close up of the waffley pattern in the leg of the sock. I think they’ll be extra warm because they look like thermal underwear!

So! I’ve carved out a piece of my nightly schedule to get more done around here, craft-wise. If I don’t, Wee One #1’s curtains will never be sewn and I will not get this amazing blanket done by July. I haven’t even touched it again yet because there are birthday socks in the way!

This is the heel of the sock. I adore socks with a slightly patterned heel. Especially if it’s not painful to knit!

My goal this week is to have at least finished these socks, if not finished these socks and started on the next ones. I need some pressure lol. I’m always a fast knitter in December!

In this post, I’m participating in three WIP Wednesdays; Freshly Pieced, Tami’s Amis and Musings from the Fishbowl.

I’m really loving this whole WIP Wednesday thing. It’s been a month now that I’ve been participating in these three link ups and it’s been a fun and motivating way to keep up with my ideas.

Work in Progress Wednesday is supposed to be just that, works in progress! However, since this is generally the only day I post about my projects, I’m posting my finished objects too! You’ll live, right? Great!

My No Tears Socks (pattern on Posh Yarn) are finally finished!!! Just in time too! Wee One #2’s Godparents will be here this weekend. I think he’ll really like the cable and that it’s not too fussy for a man’s sock but it’s not so boring either because he appreciates the work that goes into a nice sock. 🙂 We’re all really excited to see them and I’m excited to show you what we’ve cooking and baking for their visit. Fun!!

Since I just finished his sock last night, I’ve only just cast on today for my new sock, Knit Picks’ Palette in Navy.

My new Knit Picks order came in at the end of last week and I’m so excited to dive into it. Wanna see? Of course you do!!

I piled it onto the kid’s easel to show it off! This pile (3 balls of Knit Picks Palette in Navy for the socks I just mentioned are not pictured) will be knitted into; 3 pairs of socks, 1 hat, 12 facecloths, and a pair of mittens! I can hardly wait to get them all knitted up.

There is one other work in progress I don’t have good photos of! Hopefully by July, it’ll look like this! My sister made one for our parents and I looooove it. I’m making it as a wedding turned happy first anniversary gift! Mine is coming together in a green apple colour. Its made in triangles, you need 49 squares to make a decent blanket, and there are four triangles per square (duh) – so yes that’s 196 triangles! Whaaaaat?! My first triangle took a whole day (it’s pathetic I know, but I’ve got three wee ones running around and a kitchen calling my name lol), and my first triangle had a glaring error in it. Awful, glaring, beacon of light style error. I trucked on with the next triangle and made the same error – always towards the end where the bigger leaves are. Originally, I thought of just making smaller triangles, up to the point where I wasn’t messing up, but then my dear friend Talea (who I can’t link to because she is ‘between blogs’ right now) pointed out that the smaller triangles wont make a perfect square (sigh) and I’d need approximately eleventy million more triangles to complete the blanket (double sigh).

Sooooo, after I’ve finished a few months of birthday knitting, I’m going to attack this blanket head on and find the error in the pattern (maybe I wrote it down wrong??). If I want it finished for the middle of July (let’s set a July 15 deadline), and it takes me a day per triangle, that’s July 15 minus 196 days is 19 days ago. Hmm. Hahaha, so maybe I’ll make a smaller blanket! I will do some math and try to bend the time-space continuum and get back to you next Wednesday!

I know they’ll love it though, and my husband spent a lot of time with this cousin growing up and I’m especially fond of her parents so we do spend a lot of time together. 🙂

I’m still waiting on the skully fabric to make curtains for Wee One #1, and since his room is currently green and white with a weird brown border I have no doubt those curtains are going to set off a desire to paint the room. We’ve been here for 4 and a half months and while everything has a place and our routines are pretty firm in this new life, other things (like decor) are still coming together!

In this post, I’m participating in three WIP Wednesdays; Freshly Pieced, Tami’s Amis and Musings from the Fishbowl.

I have something that isn’t being knitted this week!! Do you need a moment?

It’s hard to believe that I haven’t knitted at all this week, but I have been sewing! So far, I’ve stuck to very small items, like baby dresses and bags. Technically, curtains should be incredibly easy after making cute little baby dresses that actually fit and were totally wearable. So I figured instead of potentially ruining new fabric, I did just what I did with the baby dresses – I used sheets!

Hilariously, even after measuring the window, I cut my panels too short. Of course. They cover the window…mostly. Also, it really looks like I used the wrong stitch for my hems too, doesn’t it? Like it was too tight because it almost looks like it’s puckering. I think. I dunno, but it looks ‘weird’. I definitely need a do over, but after having made that mistake with practice sheets, next time I’ll do them properly, with more fabric.

These curtains are as plain as humanly possible – to try to minimize the mishaps lol! I made a little folded over sleeve from the wide hem at the top of the sheet, then I hemmed the edges. They’re a WIP, not a FO because (if I was going to keep them, but I’m not) they’d need a backing before they could be officially finished and some kind of trim would be nice. However, I’m not keeping them so they’ll serve their purpose while I find more fabric and and try again.

I also ordered some fabric from Fabric Closet for Wee One #1’s bedroom. No pink princesses here. I know I ordered enough and hopefully this time, I wont find a different way to muck it up. 😉

In this post, I’m participating in three WIP Wednesdays; Freshly Pieced, Tami’s Amis and Musings from the Fishbowl.

As usual, I am knitting. Socks. What else is new? These socks are wonderfully unisex and they’re being knit up for a very dear friend as a late Christmas gift. He is Wee One #2’s Godfather, and I’m technically not late because he and his darling wife have not crossed the border for their Christmas visit yet!

I came across the pattern on Ravelry, and then hopped over to Posh Yarn for all the deets. The only thing I don’t love about these socks is the weird jog from the rib on the cuff to the rib in the leg – you can’t even see it unless you know it’s there – but *I* know it’s there!

The rest of the sock? I love. It’s amazing. It knits up super fast even though it’s got a cable, and it’s not boring because there is a cable in the front and the back! I find that if I’m lucky enough to come across a fun pattern, like say the really cute polka dot socks in Paton’s Socks in the City, there is a serious gauge problem. Or if I come across a pattern that has little to it there’s no chance of a sizing issue, but it’s a total snooze and I don’t want to finish it!

I think I’ve finally stopped being wobbily with my cables. Pretty!!

I am knitting these in my hands down most favourite yarn ever – Malabrigo Sock, in Azules which is a really deep blue with little bursts of lighter blue and white. Delicious.

I have a knitting resolution this year. I’m going to try a few new sock knitting techniques. I’m going to properly knit toe up socks, perhaps Leyburns, and for sure I will try to knit up socks two at a time too! That would be nice! I don’t know if it will actually save time, but when I’m done – I’ll really be done!

I ordered a new box of yarn from Knit Picks last night, and I really want to finish this pair and my Dad’s birthday socks before the new stuff gets here. Fingers crossed next week I’ve got a new project to show off – and eventually I’ll have one that hasn’t been knitted. Maybe. 😛

There is so much going on here for the blog I hardly know where to start. Tomorrow is my first proper post of the year but I thought I’d outline a little of what I’m cooking up!

With my Uncle Bob passing last spring, my Granny last summer and then our big move in the fall, Cake Year 2010 did not go down as I had hoped. The official count for 2010 was 45 different cakes or cupcakes, but I did not do as well as Pie Year 2009 – when I made 57 different pies or tarts. Now that we’re settled into our new house and I’ve gotten comfortable in my new kitchen, I’m taking on two cookbooks, one with the kids help, and declaring 2011 to be Cookie Year. All of my long distance friends just got really excited because they know I’ll totally mail cookies.

I’m also going to make a separate gallery for my handmades because I knit more socks than I can keep track of!!

The first cookbook I’ll be baking from with the kids, the oldest two anyway. It’s called Baking With Kids and I’ll supervise them baking one thing from it every week – there are 53 recipes so we’ll double up one week. They’re really excited about this so I’m super looking forward to it!

Last year for Christmas my dear friend Brigitte got me Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, the cookbook about hiding veggies in unusual places (like french toast and brownies). I’d see it on my counter and flip through it and think about cooking from it and now it’s been a year! This year, my aunt got me the next book, Double Delicious!: Good, Simple Food for Busy, Complicated Lives and getting this second book was the kick in the butt I needed to really get into the first one! I’ll be making something from Deceptively Delicious slightly more often than once a week. Thankfully my husband is on board to try out these new recipes! He is getting a lot more adventurous in the kitchen (ever since I really mastered some recipes he’s been asking me to figure out), so that’s a win for us as a team for sure!

My adorable friend Sammie has asked me to help her pull together a little DIY cookbook for a good friend of hers who has had gestational diabetes in the past and is blessed with another wee one on the way! Good thinking on her part, to be proactive about it before it becomes a problem!

Between these two books, Cookie Year 2011, our light on the sugar project and all the random seasonal and holiday themed baking that is sure to fill in the gaps, this promises to be a busy year for my kitchen and I could not possibly be more excited!

I’ll leave you with that as I made a mad dash to my kitchen to get baking!!

2. January 19 – No Tears Socks

1. January 12 – Princess Curtains

In this post, I’m participating in three WIP Wednesdays; Freshly Pieced, Tami’s Amis and Musings from the Fishbowl.

I am aware that it’s already well into the evening on Wednesday, but I really wanted to check in with my Christmas knitting progress and still blog about some tasty creations in the morning. 🙂

This morning was Wee One #2’s last day of school before Christmas vacation, so I packed up her teacher’s Socks of Kindness, that I blogged about earlier. I also packed up a few of the mini stars and tree cookies I made last weekend for her kids (she has three also), but she wasn’t there today! Bummer!! Hopefully she checks in before the school is officially closed for two weeks (kindergarten is only a few days a week out here). Anyhoo, here’s her little package!

Since my last knitting post a few days ago, I’ve finished a stack of facecloths and one mitten. I posted about the first two facecloths here. They’re all knit from the same pattern, Mock Cable Facecloths, in three colours of Shine Worsted. Clementine is pretty obviously the orange pair, Wisteria is the light purple and Green Apple, of course is the green. I really adore this yarn and will be using it for more facecloths for the fam and for gifts!

I’m on a serious Knit Picks bender lately, this time using Wool of the Andes Worsted in Dune Twist. These mitts are for the kids’ school bus driver. He’s a new addition to our list of gift recipients since we have moved out to the woods! He’s a very nice guy and the kids always say that he’s not a yeller! I’ve never taken the school bus to school personally, but I always heard about mean school bus drivers. Glad to know he isn’t one! Also, wee one #2 tends to move slowly in the snow and he never gives her a hard time about waiting for her so he deserves something special. He’ll get a tin of treats too of course!

I will be baking a whole lotta cakes and cupcakes in the next three weeks to catch up on my self-inflicted cake challenge. Which may prove extra tricky since we’re away for 5 days, but I can do this! I made a little dent tonight with cake #45, Candy Cane Cake. No adult could stomach this. Maybe Andrew. Maybe. Don’t take that as a challenge, I even tried it in milk and the peppermint still knocked me on my butt.

I wish I could crank out knitting as quickly as baking! Ha! I tend to let baking get in the way of my knitting, which at this time of the year is as hard to avoid as it is necessary to avoid! Between that dilemma and being on Time of Use pricing for our hydro consumption, I only bake on the weekends now, so knitting should pick up. I’m posting these finished objects knowing that the recipients may be reading this so I wont say who they’re for!

First up are these Wickerware Socks. They’re knit in Knit Picks Palette in Delta, two skeins and a bit and while my official time on them is November 9 to November 15, if I hadn’t taken two nights off for sketching up Christmas lists and baking brownies they would have come together even faster. Lovely!

The person I made them for had commented on my knitted socks last time we hung out and I know he really wants a pair. He’s the sort of person knitters love to knit for. He’ll be careful with them, he’ll wear them often and when he does, he’ll tell people I made them for him. I know they wont end up at the back of his closet. I never knit for people like that anymore, that’s one of the forces behind the sweater curse, dontcha know. 😉

Now, I couldn’t possibly knit up a paid of socks for this man and not knit up a pair for his wife, who is equally delightful. Really. We are so lucky to have these people in our life. This sounds like Gill and Andrew doesn’t it (minus the wife part)? It’s not you guys, even though you are delightful! Just FYI, I’m not knitting anyone a second pair of socks until everyone I love has a single pair – they got socks for Christmas last year!

These lovelies were knit in Knit Picks Stroll in Sprinkle Heather and I adore them. When Talea saw how fast they were coming together for me (I did the entire leg of the first one in a single day), she casted on immediately too! The pattern is called Duckies, and according to my Ravelry queue, I’ve wanted to knit them since Christmas two years ago!

My official time on these socks was horrible (November 16 – December 8) because I hosted a Gothy Tea Party for my sister’s 22nd birthday, and then I got obsessed with Christmas baking. Ahem. This yarn is delicious. Delicious. I loooooooved knitting with it and I will buy more in as many colours as possible this coming year. It’s my new go-to sock yarn. Ok, maybe Lorna’s Laces is still my top, but this is right up there.

Then this week, I’ve been dividing my time between Christmas crafts with the kids, baking, knitting and the usual to do’s of daily life. Facecloths are the perfect way to feel like you’re accomplishing a whole lot in a short time! Hooray!

I wanted to get as much as I could out of the yarn I bought from Knit Picks, so instead of the size 6s the pattern calls for, I used size 4s and squeezed out two facecloths from a single skein of Knit Picks Shine in Worsted – these green ones in Green Apple. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself until my husband pointed out that they look ‘mini’. Hmm. I can either block them and pray they’ll grow a little OR I can leave them as is and call them makeup remover cloths. Yes? You don’t need a whole facecloth to do the job, but you do need more than those little pads from the drug store. I haven’t decided yet, but they are lovely and fast and look great in green! Four more to go! Two in Clementine and two in Wisteria!

I will, at least, be posting my knitting on Wednesdays and just found these WIP Wednesday link ups at – Freshly Pieced, Tami Amis and Musings From The Fishbowl. Fun!

In this post, I am participating in Making Your Home a Haven, and Marriage Mondays.

I skipped a Marriage Monday post last week and there was so much I wanted to say about the challenge being over and what I’ll be doing in the coming weeks! I am very happy to read recently on Courtney’s blog that she has a December challenge coming up to remind us to stay close to the true meaning of Christmas during that incredibly busy time!

Lighting my kitchen candle every morning has reminded me to start each day with kindness and saying a little prayer for peace every time I saw it burning throughout the day has kept me focused. I keep burning my candle and I will get a new one when this one is gone and will continue this practice. It’s been a quick and simple reminder to be kind to those around me and to make my home the haven I have always aimed for it to be.

I’m looking forward to the December challenge because it’s coming at a time when I have decided to make myself sleep 7 or 8 hours a night. I usually get about 5 hours, sometimes 4 and last week I was going on about 3 hours a night – every night. Why do I do this to myself? I have a long history of wanting to do so much that I fill my plate till it’s overflowing and there is no time for sleep. Many of my friends could argue that I manage my time well, but just like the cute girl in a size 5 dress, I think I can do so much better. 😉

Yesterday, I plunked down and made a schedule of all the things that need to get done for my sister’s birthday weekend here in the woods, and whatever I couldn’t fit in the schedule (that obviously included my regular life stuff), I dropped. I still want to try those things (like making croissants from scratch) but I can do that for next month’s girl’s weekend. Usually, I’d just cram those other things into the wee hours of the morning, but I am refusing to let myself get stressed out by things that should be fun. So now I know what I’m going to do for her birthday weekend, I know when I’m going to do it all and I know that there is time to get it done without losing my head. And last night? I got 7 hours of sleep AND I got the garbage out on time this morning!

Plus, we just moved from the biggest, busiest city in the country to a cute house in cottage country so shouldn’t my life be more laid back? Which also goes back to the Making Your Home a Haven challenge, a laid back house is always a more inviting house. I have always been a pretty laid back parent – with very clear lines drawn in the sand, but I need to learn to be a lot more laid back with myself. I have found that the flurry of Christmas knitting has actually helped me a lot in this, and actually the last time I felt nice and laid back was when I was at the end of my pregnancy with Wee One #3, and my husband was terrified that I was going to go into labor early like I had with our first two kids, so I was stuck in the house. So I knitted for three months – and it was wonderful!

It slows me down because knitting isn’t something you can rush! You can get faster over time (we call my sister a ‘turbo knitter’) but it is a process that just takes as long as it takes and there isn’t much you can do about it. So now, I get my chores done early, usually before the kids have even gotten on the school bus in the morning, get in a blog post, get in a workout and then off to the living room I go with the littlest one to watch Christmas shows and knit!

Tomorrow I’m posting about Snickerdoodle cupcakes and cookies!

Next up on the list of Christmas baking was Ooey Gooey Chewy S’more Bars from the same magazine as the treats I posted about yesterday. There is a batch of these babies in the basement freezer right now, though I think I may take them out before Christmas to see how they froze (the recipe says they’re good in the freezer for 3 months). I had a tiny nibble of a piece that broke off and man these are so good. Essentially, you bake a spongey cake-like loaf with oatmeal and graham crackers. After it’s baked you add the marshmallows and chocolate on top and pop it back in the oven for those to melt!

Ooey, Gooey, Chewy S’more Bars – from Christmas Cookies Magazine (Better Homes And Gardens, 2009)

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 1/2 cups tiny marshmallows
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate baking chunks

Preheat to 350, line your pan (13×9 was called for, but I used one more like 12×10) with aluminum foil and lightly grease the foil. I thought I was smart in using a silicone pan and skipped the foil – and my bottoms burned! Use foil, and butter it!

Beat butter on high for 30 seconds, add the brown sugar until combined scraping the sides of the bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined, then beat in the flour. Now stir in your oats and graham cracker crumbs.

Set aside 1 cup of the mixture, and spread the rest of it in the pan (using the back of a wet spoon makes this eleventy billion times easier). Bake this for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned (mine was more like 10 minutes).

Now for the fun part! When you take it out, sprinkle the marshmallows and chocolate chunks over the top of it! Then take the 1 cup of the mixture you set aside and dot that over top of the marshmallows and chocolate. Now pop it back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so – just till the marshmallows are browned campfire-style.

You’ll have to let them cool completely on a wire rack before you cut them or you’ll have a seriously gooey mess on your hands (ask me how I know lol). According to the recipe store them at room temp for up to 3 days or freeze for up to three months.

I was going to post my list of Christmas baking, but it’s a little insane and full of surprises for other people. I’ll post recipes as I bake them and do a recap as I thaw and package them all.

Switching gears, but keeping with the Christmas to do, are these men’s socks. Men’s socks are tricky because if there’s too much detail in the pattern they end up looking too feminine but if there’s not enough you’re just knitting a plain tube and I literally fall asleep while knitting when I knit patterns like that.

These socks are the cure for that! A very simple 6 row repeat that keeps you focused on the knitting, but lets you carry on a conversation and are clearly GUY socks. 🙂

Back to knitting now, the countdown to Christmas is only 42 days and stay tuned for preparations for my sister’s birthday weekend!