I thought it was Wednesday!

Seriously, I have no concept of time or day anymore. Both fly by without me noticing!

I made a couple more squares for my Noro blanket. It's shaping up nicely.

I saw some yarn at Joann's last weekend while I was doing a knitting demo to try and promote my classes. It is Lion Brand Glitterspun and was on sale for $1.97 a ball. I snagged the last 5 black balls thinking they'd make a sparkly shawl for the wedding in New York in a couple of weeks.

Then I went shopping for my dress for the wedding (as opposed to my wedding dress!). Well, I tried on lots of strappy, summery, pretty, chiffony, little things. But the one that suited me best was a little black number (of course) with spaghetti straps, but a little chiffony shirt over the shoulders. It is cute as all heck, but now I don't need a shawl to cover my upper arms.

So, what to do with the sparkly yarn that might go with my new Little Black Dress? Make a Little Black Bag for my cellphone, lipstick, credit card and obligitary $20. And what's prettier on a Little Black Bag than roses?

Here she is, the beginnings of my Little Black (Roses) Bag.

Let's see how she turns out. If she's also cute as all heck, then I'll write out the pattern here.

Have a great day (whichever one it is!).

:0)

My mosaic

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

The rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:
1. What is your first name? (Deborah)
2. What is your favorite food? (Curry)
3. What high school did you go to? (Westoe - the school is long gone, but the local pub remains ;0))
4. What is your favorite color? (green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (erm, guess)
6. Favorite drink? (pinot noir - right now, anyway)
7. Dream vacation? (New York - only 10 days to go)
8. Favorite dessert? (raspberry cheesecake ice-cream)
9. What you want to be when you grow up? (happy)
10. What do you love most in life? (family)
11. One Word to describe you. (trying - but which one?)
12. Your flickr name. (disco knits - had to put a space in between or there would've been NO photo here!)

Kureyon Addict!

I started knitting the squares for my Kureyon Paintbox blanket. They are addictive, that's all there is to it. Watching the colours develop and shift is quite incredible. What a fascinating project. Who knew garter stitch could be so fun?!

Here's the first square I knit, colour 150. Quite subtle, yet beautiful altogether. I started and finished this in one go.Now, put your sunglasses on for this next one.

Subtle is not a word to describe Colour 154. Magenta, turquoise, orange. Along with blues, greens and yellows. Fabulous......

The latest garden wip is a real live tomato. See how she grows?

And, it's official. A week and a half after his first declaration of being a big boy, Matt has consistently pee'd and poop'd on the toiletl. Hurrah! Now, if only they'd learn to wipe their own bottoms!

Happy Wednesday.....

New Projects

I cast on the Chevron Scarf yesterday. What a simple pattern to remember. I managed the first six inches no problem, so at this rate I could be finished by Christmas (right!?).I absolutely love how the colour combo is working. Rainforest Jasper and a mill end (do you recognise the colour?).

The past few weeks I've been drooling over this blanket. Last Saturday night I found some Noro Kureyon on sale at Littleknits and decided it was meant to be. So here are the first six colours for my very own Paintbox Blanket. I'm excited to start this, so will probably cast on tonight.

I have always coveted Irishgirlie's Rockin' Blankets and have started a collection of STR Heavyweight in green shades so I can one day make my own. I'm thinking that I actually like the paintbox blanket format so much, that I may start on that too. Thoughts anyone?

Happy Fathers Day weekend everyone :0)

Scarves.....

Scarf no. 1 The mesh scarf. Done and dusted. It turned out great. Very drapy and soft. I added loooooong fringe.

A close-up of the stitches. Well spotted Bezzie, it's a very simple yo, k2tog pattern. Alternate with k2tog, yo every other row.

Scarf no.2 the chevron scarf to be. I've been itching to make one of these since I saw Irishgirlie's at Stitches West. She gifted me this gorgeous pink millend a while ago and I fell in love with the Rainforest Jasper when I was drooling over the BMFA website recently. I love how they are highly contrasting, yet they both share hues of brown. Honestly, they do. The pink kind of turns ginger round the back of this skein. Just gorgeous.

And so, to cast on........

Oh, please indulge me in a proud mommy moment. On Sunday Matt 'went to the toilet' on the toilet and announced he wasn't a baby anymore and "don't wear nappies, mommy, only underpants". Two days later and he's still in the underpants - go Matt :0)

Garden Update...

So, here's the pot garden in its entirety. I couldn't bear to take a closeup of the corn - it's officially deceased. Eaten by caterpillars. I hope we at least get a butterfly from that failed crop ;0) At least it can be composted.Now, the tomatoes have been fairing a lot better. However (if there's not a but, there's always a however, eh!), once the flowers have bloomed and started shriveling, they fall off completely. You can see in this next picture exactly what I mean. Another caterpillar victim, I wonder......

But look what popped up at the bottom of the tomatoes. No, not the worm. Mushrooms. I expect they are non-edible, but an alive thing none-the-less.

In the next pot over, we have another spontaneous grower. I have no idea what this ferny thing is, but it's growing almost better than anything else in that pot - and that seems to be a whole lot.

So, gardening update over, I must tell all about my new 'gig'. On Monday, the boys and I went to Joann's in search of some balls, so we could paint them and make a mobile of the planets of our universe. I say "we", what I mean is "Tommy and the boys". So, we chose a bunch of different sized paintable foam balls and continued down the aisle. At the end, I almost jumped with joy. A KIT, with balls, instructions and everything we'd need for just the job.

Who's going to turn down a ready-made kit (if a kit can ever be ready made, that is)? So here we have one of their summer projects. My little Einsteins.....

Anyway, I digress from the gig, but, give a proud mama a break, will ya.

On the way into Joann's, there was a huge sign saying they needed X, Y and Z teachers. One of the teachers needed was for knitting classes. It's been a few months since I jacked in the noble Booksellers and I've kind of been missing a little working challenge in my life since then, so I decided to apply.

I completed an application, brought in some samples of my work, which they loved, and the education co-ordinator put me on their roster starting mid-June.

Gasp! I'm going to be a knitting teacher. I'm really excited about it, but also nervous. I don't really like talking in group settings. But I DO love knitting and I want others to learn about what I love, so I'm just going to take the plunge. Oh, crikey, what have I done. I know, I know. I just have to get over myself and get on with it.

Other job news. Or more like training news. In September, when both boys will be in school for decent amounts of time, I'm going to take an H&R Block tax training course. Yes, I shall be a bean-counter once more. I girl's gotta make a buck, right. And we don't want the years I spent training in the UK to go to waste, huh.

So, I leave you on that note and (im)patiently wait for Tommy to get back home with the boys and my Friday night wine. Chin-chin, old chaps, here's to the weekend. Bottoms up!

In Between Days

Trying to think of a title for this post, one of my favourite songs and groups when I was growing up in the eighties, popped into my head.

And while we're at it, this was a favourite too.

Matthew (who should be in bed!) is grooving beside me to these videos. He's such a music dude. He loves the Black Eyed Peas too :0)

Of course, these were the guys I had the biggest crush on during that decade. And Matt just ran away from that video. I said he was a total music dude, right ;0)

So what have I been knitting in my in between big project days?

A teacher gift for the lovely Ms Nicki whose classroom I've been volunteering in this past year. Excuse me if I'm repeating myself, but she teaches the lowest reading level kids in grade two of her elementary school. These are the 'immigrant' type kids whose parents have no money and no time to read to them. It has been a pleasure to listen to these kids improve over the year - they are all sweethearts.

So, I know Ms Nicki won't be being showered with end of year gifts, so I made her a little hairband (do you call them hairbands, or headbands?). The yarn is Rowan's Bamboo Soft (from stash) in a lovely soft purple.

I didn't want to make another dreamswatch, so I searched the Vogue Stitchionary for a neat little, easy lace pattern and came up with no.86 the Diagonal Cluster Lace. I made it just long enough to fit around her head, then did a three needle bind-off. I made a matching hairband for her daughter, who just graduated from Kindergarten :0)

So, loving the simple lace, and wanting to knit from stash some more, I figured a bamboo scarf might suit these balmy Florida nights. I do get one date night a week, after all ;0)

The yarn was gifted to me last year by Knittyboard's One Skein Wonder (where did she go?) and has been waiting for some disco inspiration. It is Madil Yarn's Eden Print in blues and greys. I have 3 balls which I will completely use up.
Turn the page in the Vogue Stitchionary for the pattern. It's no.91 Mesh Pattern 2. Hello, can it get any easier.

Another big happening in disco's life this week. Clue: I joined a new group in Ravelry. Can you guess what happened to me? Eeek, knitting excitement :0)