All Fixed?

I've been battling with my Blog for a few months now. It looked all wonky and the photo's weren't showing. I think it's all fixed now? If anyone still has trouble with it please let me know.

I've been tagged... quite some time ago, but just now found it :)

09 June 2008

I've been tagged...

... by Patti Blaine who is such a talented knitter that I am honored that she has looked at my blog.

Here are the rules of the game which are to be posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

10 Years ago? WOW! That was 1998. I was fairly new to cross stitching then and was on the hunt for OOP Teresa Wentzler designs. I had discovered E-bay and was avidly buying and selling...see the buying part comes first because I did more of that. I might even have been starting to plan my wedding...must have at least booked the venue.

10 years ago I still able to curl and was on 3 teams, 1 mixed team from work, 1 mixed team from the legion we belong to, and one ladies team, which was a bit more serious than the other two. I started curling fairly late in life, I was in my mid 20's before I did more than just bonspiel (another way of saying we partied more than we thru rocks). Sadly curling ended for me about 7 years ago when my knees go so bad I could no longer be guaranteed that I'd be able to get back up out of the hack without tears.

10 years ago I was still in the same job. 10 years ago we lived in a tiny little house that we were renovating.

What are the 5 things on my to do list for today (in no particular order)
1. Stitching on a UFO RR piece that was supposed to be in the mail on August 11th, but I asked for an extension.
2. Laundry
3. finish covering the garden in newspaper and black poly.
4. Excercise
5. make a to do list?

Snacks I enjoy
My latest snack passion is sliced apple with peanut butter spread on it. My guilty pleasure is Taco Chips.... and chocolate... but not at the same time... and I'm not fussy about what type of chocolate, whatever is available will do ;)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire
I would buy land and build a waterfront home in Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba (cottage country). I'd build "Safe Haven" for street kids/runaways in Winnipeg. This has been something I've been thinking about for years. To have the funds to just dive in and do it my way would be fabulous.
Leaving enough in an endowment fund so that Safe Haven would always have it's financial needs met would take a good chunk of money. I'd also set up endowment funds for scholarships for kids that live at Safe Haven.

Places I’ve lived
I was born in Ayr, Scotland. Lived in Ayr, Troon, Kilmarnock and Cumnock and London, England in the first 4 years of my life. Moved to Winnipeg when I was 4. Lived in Stonewall Manitoba for a year. I spent 15 years in Gillam, Manitoba from age 18 to 33, then back to Winnipeg.

People I want to know more about
I'm not going to tag anyone else right now because I'm not sure who all has been tagged already.

Our Yard

Basement Renovations

We've been renovating the basement of our 1970's bungalow since shortly after Christmas. I just now realized that I don't have any 'before pictures'. It was wood panelling painted yellow, 1970's geometric brown and orange rubber backed carpet, and hanging ceiling...you know, those ugly ceiling tiles. Really dark and dingy.

We pulled all the panelling off, upgraded the insulation, ripped down a closet that was in the middle of the space, tore down a wall that was used to create a 'storage' room. Moved shelving into the furnace/water heater room to use as shelving. Ripped out the wall that was used to create a 'cold' room off the laundry room. Insulated and drywalled, painted and put shelves in the space for more storage.

The old storage room became an space for my excercise equipment. We used laminate floor in this space to make it easier to clean and move the equipment around if I want. In the pictures below I put a black chair as reference. The main space is 15' x 30'. Tonight we'll be moving furniture down there. I'll take more pictures when it's furnished.

The Left Twist stitch

The Left Twist is really a two stitch left leaning cable. You can put the first stitch on a cable needle and hold it in front, knit the second stitch, then knit the one from the cable needle. Or, you can knit into the back of the second stitch, pull the loop thru, but do not take the original stitch off the needle. Knit the first stitch, then remove them both from the left needle.

how I Knit

There's a thread on Ravelry asking 'I'll show you mine if....' well it's all about the many different ways people knit. This is a bad video of How I Knit. First the Purl stitch, then the Knit stitch.

Two-Colour Lever style knitting

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This is a bad video of how I knit with two colours. I suggest you turn off your sound as my husband, the not-so-professional photographer has a bit of a cold and coughs part way through the video. I don't speak, so I don't know why he had the sound on....

Anyway, I hold both strands in my right hand, one in front of my index finger and one behind. I do both knit and purl this way. I am now humbled at how hard it is to knit when someone has a camera trained on your every motion! I can't believe how nervous it made me!

Casting On

I just found a 'new to me' cast on that I think may quickly become my favourite!

I found it on You Tube It has a definite purl bump on one side and a nice neat chain on the other. It seems to be very stretchy. I'm going to have to play with it a bit more to confirm the stretchiness.