which I really love and really recommend. There are 31 patterns in here! 22 for socks, 5 kids' sweaters, 2 womens' and 2 men's, all really nice (except that they're worked in sock yarn so they take forever lol).

To Jenifer: I'm glad Sam sat still for the pic, although I don't think pink is really his color. I think the jacket will look much better on the Maltese/Bichon Frise it was made for! I'm glad to know I didn't miss an issue of knit.1 though. I really like some of the patterns! There is a sweatshirt in the first one I can't wait to make, plus a whole bunch of other things. I'm looking forwards to the next issue.

To Julie: thanks! I'm glad you like the coat, and when I do have kids one day and torture them, I'll explain to the authorities that you said it was ok. ;) "But officer, I had permission...." LOL Although I can't wait to have kids so I can knit for them one day.

To Chelsea: I will be going to swipe that button tomorrow, I'll do anything if it will encourage people to comment! I upkeep this blog for myself but it's nice to know if anyone actually reads it! And Sam wants to thank you for calling him a "kitten". He'll be 5 April 1st but is really flattered you think he still looks young. I'm not kidding, he's actually preening in the mirror as I type this. :)

To kmckiernan (Keri): Thank you for coming by and posting! (And I won't tell Sam you called him a girl. His ego is fragile- see above comment to Chelsea) :)

A big thank you to you all for posting, and to anyone else who comes by and drops me a line, I promise to write a little something back. I really appreciate this!

As for today, some minor knitting content. I dropped off the jacket at the pet accessories store. They liked it, but I was disappointed to find out the two other custom ones I made didn't fit the intended dogs. I know I triple-checked my work, even to the point of rolling up towels to the required diameters to check the fit, so I doubt it's my work. Either I was given the wrong measurements, or the woman tried them on the wrong dog (I made 2 different sizes) or I don't know what's wrong, but it bugs me. Anyways, I sold the jacket and got orders for 2 more. These won't be custom, just for stock. 1 is an Aran so I'll get to practice my cables, and the other has a kangaroo pocket and some chain-stitch embroidery, so I'll get to work on my lettering skills.

Now off to bed 'cus we went to see the late show of Constantine but I still work tomorrow. The movie was great btw, really, really enjoyed it. Oh, and if anyone goes to see it, stay until the end of the credits, there's a little bit more coming.

*giggle*

*grin*

Can't you just tell I've scarred him for life? He's trying to uphold his masculine dignity, but really, who can be dignified in hot pink fun fur? I know. He'll be in therapy by his teens. God help me when I have real kids to torture!

the lovely outside with the pale blue snowflake pattern on the charcoal background

the lovely inside with all the floats.

The curly-looking borders around the snowflake design are 12 row stockinette sections that will be later turned to the inside against a purl turning row and then grafted together to make a band that hides the floats. That's why the provisional cast on was used and instead of binding off I slipped the sts to waste yarn for now. I might press it before I graft to make it lie more flat.

Now I'm off to bed, thankful this gastro thing only lasts one day, even though tomorrow is my long day at work.

This is as far as I got tonight because my brother came over to talk about his relationship and I got a bit sidetracked. I think tomorrow I will keep picking up until I have 92 sts, hold it around my head and if it's too small I will try to figure out another multiple of the repeat with a different # of sts between.

I chose to work on the lace sock. It "fit" better with my mood, I wanted something fine and precise. After picking up the sts for turning the heel I did the short rows. I really like this heel technique! It's kinda hard to explain how it looks, basically if you looked at the bottom of the foot, the flap technique goes straight across the back of the heel, even though the heel is curved. The technique I used here actually creates a curve that follows the natural shape of the heel. It looks really good.

I was going to stop the sock and work on something else, but then I got caught up in doing the instep decreases. I had 2 things going on at the same time: on the one hand I had my decrease round followed by 2 plain rounds, which I had to repeat until back to 16 sts on each needle. On the other hand I had my lace chart pattern being worked on the center 2 needles, and had to keep track of which row I was on because my odd rows were the pattern (and it's a 48 row repeat!) and my even rows were just k the ks & yos, p the ps. I didn't want to put it away and try to leave myself a note about "start on row 17 of lace chart but 1 row after the dec row" or something, so I just kept going until I was back at 16 sts and able to relax and just do the foot. Well. I made it to 16 sts/needle at 11:00pm once CSI: Miami was over. So I didn't get to work on anything else, but it was a nice chunk of progress on the sock.

To Beth from the comments: Thank you for your kind words about my family's story. I hesitated on sharing, but needed to be able to explain why I chose the Lakeshore Hospital...even though they killed my uncle last year.

To Jo from the comments: *blushing* Thanks! I knew we were born the same year, didn't I mention it in the email I sent you? I didn't know you read my blog...mainly 'cus you never replied to my email LOL. At the time when I made that post about adding entries stuff was wrong, mainly my relationship, but has since been resolved. Which is why I was able to go back and start posting again.

I don't think I could have been any more attractive! (Especially since it left a nice square red mark on my forehead the rest of the night!).

Because I'd prepared I was able to knit away on my sock during the car ride. I finished the 32 rows for the heel (remarking often to Yannick about how much I loved the reinforced heel- he kept nodding and saying "I know, you told me already") and then was ready to move on to turning the heel. I got out my pattern and- Wait! Where's my pattern? I'm on my way up north for a whole day and deliberately brought the sock so I'd get tons done...where the *&%##*! is my pattern? At home. My pattern was at home where I'd taken it out to fit something else in my bag, and never put it back. And why was this the ONLY pattern I hadn't entered into my Palm? Because I hadn't gotten around to entering the new heel version yet. I'd figured I'd do it then enter it afterwards to be ready for the second sock. So I couldn't do ANYTHING on it!

I was annoyed but luckily we were almost there and once there I had Yannick's 4 nephews to keep me occupied. Or rather, I had avoiding Yannick's 4 nephews to keep me occupied. See, when the all slept over last time a few were sick, and that's when I caught my wonderful virus that screwed me up for a few weeks. This time I arrive to find out they have been passing a gastro back and forth. The baby had it, then when we arrived I found out B (Yannick's sister) and Justin had it, but Matthew and the 2 oldest kids didn't have it yet. Go figure that right away Justin (the one I made the striped sweater for) comes to sit with me and lean on me to look at a toy camera. He's being playful...he's leaning on my shoulder....next thing you know he has his hands over his mouth and B's yelling to Matthew to grab something, ANYTHING for him to puke in. He managed to make it about 5 feet to a bucket. Luckily they were in the middle of renovations so there WAS a bucket. Oy vey.

Of course B and Justin were sick all night, and by morning Matthew had it, and you know I was just picturing my father forbidding me to ever see them again because if I was sick and had to miss work.... *sigh*. No sick here so far. *knock on wood*

The rest of us had a really nice supper together. It was my first time having a...well, in French I think it's called a "raquelette". It's almost like a grill in the middle of the table with a broiler underneath and we each had 2 little triangular "plates" that slide in under the broiler, and you cook your own food like a Chinese fondu. So on top on the grill part we cooked beef, veal, shrimp, scallops, chicken and sausage (it sounds like a lot but picture the meat in cubes about 1.5" square, only 3 cubes of each thing) and then in the plates we'd put little baby onions, baby sweet gherkin pickles, some dried meats and salami and some slices of baby potato, then put a slice or two of cheese over it and let that broil for a while. Or we also had an omelet mixture that we'd pour into the plate and let that cook up and put some cheese on that. It makes for a long meal but it was REALLY good! And that cheese was delicious! We have one of those "raquelette" things at home without the grill part on top so I'm looking forwards to making that for supper one night here.

Then it was off to bed 'cus you just know that 4 boys under 9 will not be sleeping in very late tomorrow!

the sweater on the right is the 1st (the bigger one). The 2nd was the smaller one.

Once that was done I quickly knit up a little "scarf" with all of my fun-fur type yarns. I did 15 sts wide (although I later realized I should only have used about 5 sts) and did about an inch of each color. This was to give to the pet accessories store as well so they could choose the accent colors for the Snazzy Jacket w/Faux Fur. Remember? This one: I didn't want to get a call saying "Make it with purple" and then look at the 3 different purples I have wondering which one, so I made up this scarf. Tomorrow I will attach little price-tag labels to each color and letter them A through O, which will correspond with the list I made for myself of which color refers to which skein.

Oh, and I got a cool call from my friend Julie today! She moved to Brockville and was at the Michael's in Ottawa today. We don't have one here. When I went down in August I'd bought 2 bracelet kits that are 6 mini picture frames that you string together yourself. I put family photos in both and gave one to my mom for her birthday and kept the other. The only problem is that because we are so many in the family, I didn't have room for Yannick in mine! I told Julie that if she were ever to stop by there and see the kits, I would love to have another bracelet so I could put the photos of Yannick and my best friends, so she called me to see which color I wanted. What a great friend! She's even picking me up some crimp beads that I can use for my beaded stitch markers, and even called me back long distance from her cell, just to check the bracelet color. Thanks Julie! I'll make sure I put your picture in first! :)

To Tracy from the comments: Thanks for mentioning the Dogosaurus Rex pattern from Paton's! I hadn't heard of it before, but now it looks like I have another pattern book to order! I thank you. My wallet doesn't! :)

To Alison from the comments: There was absolutely no rush. Thanks again, so much. I'm trying to save the candy for Valentine's Day. It doesn't help that I have it next to the computer right now!

Now I have to jump back into bed and make it look like I've been working on the Mock Cable dog sweater all night. Luckily Yannick doesn't read this blog!

Ok, the pic came out a little huge! :) Oh well, the better to see his face.

Where was I? Oh yeah, two color knitting. I took the needle out 'cus I needed it, and 'cus I'd only made a quick swatch to figure out how many repeats I'd need to fit around my head, but if you look close you can see that I did it! I knitted in two colors!