Winter Wonderland

Ok, so it's not really a winter wonderland here. We don't have snow (yet), and the weather, albeit a little wet at times, has been quite mild and very West Coast-y lately. Which is nice. Really nice. But I've still been wearing long johns underneath everything. Well, I've stopped wearing long john pants, as they were starting to bunch up in weird random places under my jeans. But long john shirts? Oh yes, a definite must! I even stopped by MEC yesterday on our way home to pick up some new ones. Ones with a Polartec layering (I have no idea what my current ones are made of) and I can tell you right now I'm absolutely loving it!

Other news since I last posted? Not much. At all. Sorry. Brett's brother was visiting for the weekend so it was more about entertaining (and cleaning up after them!) than anything else. Yesterday I didn't even knit a single stitch! Pure craziness, I know! I just didn't get the chance. From the moment we woke up it was go, go, GO! We took the Munchkin on a stroll throughout the downtown core, sans stroller, and it took us forever to get anywhere. Not that we were in a hurry to be anywhere in particular. We finally made it to our end destination goal, which was the outdoor skating rink at Centennial Square. We all rented skates (and a helmet for the Munchkin) and had a blast skating the afternoon away! This was the first time the Munchkin has ever gone ice skating and he looked so darn cute in his little bobsled skates! Sadly I was so lost in the moment that I didn't take any photos. I'm sure we'll go skating a few more times before the rink closes for the season. Neither Brett nor his brother could remember the last time they laced up a pair of skates. I think the last time I was on ice like that, it was probably when I was in middle school when one of my closest friend's made me go with her to the Nelson hockey team's "skate & meet" (her family was a billet for the team for as long as I could remember and I think they stopped once we hit grade 10...I think having too many teenagers in the house was making them crazy).

I haven't had the energy to do any sewing either, but am hoping to get some bags made this week for a possible Boxing Day sale. Don't quote me on that though. It's a goal to have more items in the shop for Boxing Day, but not sure if sewing is in the cards for me this week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe I can fight the fatigue and get the chance to spent some QT (um, that's quality time...sorry, I've been in abbreviating everything lately) with my lovely sewing machine.

In the meantime, on the knitting front, I'm still plugging away on Brett's sweater. I haven't been project monogamous in ages and I think it's making me go a little crazy. I've been eyeing patterns left and right on Ravelry, staring longingly at the skeins of yarn that I have on my nightstand (I know, I'm weird like that...most people have books or magazines on their nightstand, I have yarn) that are patiently waiting for me to wind up and knit with, and I've been prepping projects for the new year. Brett thinks I'm crazy, but I got such a kick out of doing the 12 in 2011 where I made myself knit the patterns that have been in my queue forever (but had always been sidetracked with newer, shinier patterns) and had knit the yarns that had been sitting in my stash for longer than a year, that I decided to do it again next year. So I've been going through my queue and printing up patterns, diving into my stash and finding yarns for each of those patterns, and then very Martha Stewart-like been putting them into large Ziplock bags...all labeled and ready to go. I've even contemplated putting all the bags into a bin and then blindly grab a bag when I'm ready to knit a new project. Kinda like a surprise kit....

I told you I was going a little crazy! I really need to get Brett's sweater finished...for the sake of my sanity!

PS: Sorry for the random photos of skates...they were the only photos I took of our day of skating...all taken on my iPhone. But I couldn't have a photo-less post!