TIRED

No idea what is the matter with me but I am totally worn out. I can barely struggle through the days this week. Maybe it is winter, cold weather, lack of walks or maybe I am just trying to do too much.

My ex neighbour and her little girl took Jesse to the library for the little ones reading, songs and craft time. I had loads of orders to do, laundry and a floor that needed washing. It was the first time that anybody had taken Jesse for me since the day we adopted him. He just waved bye bye and was as happy as anything. Mum, meanwhile, had tears in her eyes watching her little boy go off. I am so soft.

Anyway, I thought that Jesse would be tired this afternoon. When he came back from the library, he had lunch then we walked to the mailbox. Afterwards he wanted to play outside in the snow. He was pushing snow for 45 minutes. But would he nap? Nope!

So is it just 4.20pm and I feel like I will collapse with exhaustion. I can't work out if this is normal or not. I often get tired but not this badly. I am a bit worried.

Anyway, Jesse had finished watching Max and Ruby so I need to fly.

Almost finished the bag and ran out of yarn. I knew I would. Drat! I have ordered another ball but it will probably be a few days before it arrives. I was so looking forward to felting the bag.

Weather has warmed up to a hot -15c. It really does feel warm compared to the temps that we were getting. I might even go outside (SHOCK, HORROR) and kick a ball around the snow with Jesse. He needs to escape as much as I do.

Weekend was quite nice. Ron took Jesse out on the snowmobile on Saturday and Sunday. Must say I was jealous. We normally squish all 3 of us on. The German Shepherd used to come too but then Jesse took her spot. I need to get my own machine but we never had time to sort one out this winter. It has probably been too cold to have been used much anyway.

Still bitterly cold up here. But warmer than the -51C that we had on Sunday. I don't think I have ever experienced such cold before. Yes, it gets mighty cold up here each winter but Sunday was the worst!

Hold It All Handbag is coming along nicely. It is a wonderfully straightforward pattern. I really like the way "Two Old Bags" patterns are written. My only worry is that I may run out of wool. It seems be disappearing a wee bit fast than anticipated.

Have a bad headache so I don't think I will be on the puter much longer tonight. This is what I call a "Toddler" headache. He screamed all through supper and never ate a thing. We have nightmares at mealtimes. I am trying to train Daddy to ignore the "Monster" outbursts. I don't know who has least self-control - Jesse or his Dad :-)

BRRRRR
-31c (-41c with windchill)
My throat is really dry from lack of humidity. Since contracting Whooping Cough a few years back, my throat and chest have never been quite the same. (Was immunized against that as a kid too). For the past two winters, I had to go to Emergency as I got such a dry cough and couldn't catch my breath. I sure don't need that again this year.

Tried to start a sweater with Sirdar Snowflake but I got pretty frustrated. The yarn is dark so I don't think that helped me see the stitches. One row too many sts, next row too few. I frogged. Tried again. Frogged. Maybe when we have more daylight hours I will attempt it again.

I think I might try to make a Two Old Bags purse. Received stock of these patterns last week and have been eyeing up one pattern in particular. The Hold It All Handbag Need to get Hubby to help me wind some wool though...and he keeps finding reasons to do something else. The link goes to my new website - and, if anybody has any problems with the menus taking up nearly the whole screen, can you let me know? It does that on one of our old computers but not on the new ones. I wondered if it was just that puter....sure hope so.

Design spurt over. The crocheted dog sweater design that I have been working on is complete. Had a few people pattern test it for me as I am not good at typing up instructions with a 2 year old having a terrible two melt down right next to me.



Itsy (my Shiba Inu dog) is the stunning model. She doesn't exactly need a coat as her fur is so thick. And she wasn't too happy being model either. Her tail should be curled up on back but she holds it down when she is depressed. Poor baby!

For any crocheters reading this, the pattern is available to purchase as a pdf file in the Patterns to Dowload area of my website.

At last I remembered to take a photo of my finished Ribby Pullover.
The photo is pretty bad as it was taken at night, with a flash, in a room with bad light. I had hoped to take a better one in the sun and snow this morning but it is cloudy.
The sleeves look really narrow but that is due to the 2x2 rib. It fits well...a bit too well considering the extra pounds I added over the holidays. Oh well - better work that off on the treadmill.


My urge to design something took off again. I have almost finished a crocheted dog sweater design. I thought a crocheted one might be easier to attempt first. Hopefully I can translate the design to knitting eventually.

Finally got my Christmas present working. DH bought me a dishwasher. I had nagged him since I moved here almost 8 years ago. Our kitchen needs remodelling and is not very large (considering how much I like cooking). So we had to buy an extra unit to put it in. Unfortunately the unit didn't arrive until Jan 5. DH has worked every night to install it for me and we finally got it running on Wednesday.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Gott Nytt År!

Bonne année

Gutes Neues Jahr

May you all be healthy and happy in 2004

Worked like crazy on the ribby pullover yesterday. Probably overdid it as my left arm is hurting today. I desperately want to finish this for a couple of reasons.
#1 I am fed up with knitting all this rib. It really does a number on my wrists for some reason.
#2 I am in design mode. Want to design a dog sweater. No idea what is making me want to do this, but I will see if I can. It might take a week..it might take a few months. It might be knitted or I might crochet for the first time in over a year. Lots of "mights".

Christmas was really tiring. I am not used to cooking 3 full meals a day. The in-laws expect cooked breakfast, lunch and supper. I seemed to do nothing else. Ron bought me a dishwasher for Xmas but the cabinet we are putting it in still hasn't arrived from Ikea. It was shipped on Dec 6th so I am getting worried. The dishwasher would have certainly saved me even more time in the kitchen.

We bought Jesse a little keyboard for Christmas. He loves it. That boy is so musical. Grandpa played the accordion and Jesse was bashing away on the keyboard. It was too cute!

Season's Greetings to you all!

Wishing everybody a safe holiday.

Got up this morning and decided I needed a change. Pulled may hair around and thought, "CUT IT!".
Now I am not one that likes going to the hairdressers. I have had long or longish hair nearly all my life and I "taught" boyfriends and husbands (yes there have been more than one) to trim it. So I asked DH if he thought he could cut it how I wanted. He agreed to give it a go. Well I have to say that he did great. So I went from long hair halfway down my back, to hair neatly cut above my shoulders. It hangs really well. I love it and people keep commenting on how nice it looks. Amazing!

Ribby Pullover is now all on one big circular. I just managed to slip all the stitches onto one needle before Jesse woke from his nap. When he has gone to bed for the night, I will get back to it. I found this much ribbing to be really hard on my wrists for some reason. Maybe the yarn was a tad stiff so that wouldn't have helped.

Everybody ready for Christmas? Me neither. Feels like I am going down with a cold too. I had a bad cold last Xmas. Jesse had one the year before.

Gosh was it THAT long since I entered something in the blog. Oops.

We put the tree up on Sunday. Jesse was napping. Got the camcorder and digital camera ready for when he woke. He walked into the living room and literally jumped with glee. He skipped around, he sang. He was so cute that I couldn't hold back the tears....and that was the end of the photographs. All night he just sat next to the tree. Wanted mommy to sit there all night too :-) Christmas has a new meaning now that Jesse is old enough to get involved.

On the knitting front - nearly at the end of the 2nd sleeve of the ribby pullover. Then I have to attach sleeves to body and knit the yoke.
Once I have finished this, I plan on making some felted slippers (Fiber Trends patterns) and a bag. Not sure which bag pattern to use yet. I don't want anything big and bulky. Just need something to hold my wallet and credit cards.

Inlaws are coming for Christmas. Been reading Terri's KnitBlog and now am living in fear of the mother-in-law.

Hubby flew north to Inuvik this morning. Must be dark nearly all day up there. And colder than here...and we are hovering around -25c. BRRR
He is gone all week. I can tell that Jesse has worked out that Daddy has gone away as he is acting up already. "I will survive" - not that I have much choice, of course.

Managed to knit a few rows on my Ribby Pullover. Haven't knitted for days as my right wrist was really hurting. Too much time on the computer last week. Worked on my website a lot. It didn't help with the Google thing but at least I felt like I was doing something.

Want to thank Brooks for letting me sell her lovely Zipple Hat pattern. It is awesome. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. (Support Brooks and help solve her bandwidth problem).

Just wanted to thank so many of your for your wonderful emails and messages. Most businesses are still are affected by the Google search engine problem. No idea if it will ever go back to how it was. Most of us are trying to find other ways to get our businesses noticed. Sadly we don't all have the huge advertising dollars of the big companies. Thankfully I had built up quite a customer base so I am not totally down and out. Will work hard in other directions now.

Things got put into perspective this week. My Dad's wife emailed me to say Dad had fallen out of bed and fractured his hip. He is 74. Not a good age to do something like that. He had to have a plate inserted and can't walk well at all. I feel out of touch as I am in Canada and Dad is in England. It took 8 days for anybody to tell me. My sister didn't even bother emailing me!!!!!!!

Then I read a friend's blog and cried over her brother's cancer worries. Things like this are awful. You can't help. You don't even know if you are saying the right words. You can't hug the friend as they live on the other side of Canada.

So while my business problems are a worry, they are not anything like my Dad's problems or the problems of my friend's brother. I have my health. I have my son.

Well things haven't picked up on the Google/business front. Many small businesses have been affected. Most of us noticed that other search engines are showing much more normal results still. So if you are looking for a good, non filtered, unbiased search engine, here are some.

Altavista
All The Web

Was just swapping emails with a competitor in the USA. She is almost out of business and hasn't seen an order in over a week. What a sad time for the "little man".

Despondent Jackie alert!

Google has just about put me out of business by filtering certain searches for businesses. Last week a search for Crochet Hooks put my little business at #1. Now you can't find me. A search on Crochet Patterns had me at the top of page 3 (pretty good). You can't find me in the top 800 now. Basically Google has done this to generate revenue it seems. I am not a big enough business to pay huge amounts for advertising. I did go on their Google Adwords but it is costing so much and not bringing in any customers. They click, I get charged but nobody buys. I can't afford it for more than a day or so more.

To say that I am depressed is an understatement. I have worked my butt off building up Karp Styles from nothing. It has taken 4 years to get where I am. I was doing OK. Not a big business by any means. Not a high earner. I have worked until 2am some nights. Now it seems to have been taken away by one search engine. Isn't it sad that they have so much power?

You can see the filter in action. Do a search on CROCHET HOOKS. Karp Styles is not there. (I may appear in the sponsored paid ads on the side that are costing me an arm and a leg for nothing). Now do a search on CROCHET HOOKS -googlegoo . Voila! Jackie's business appears again. The -googlegoo takes the filter away. So many small businesses like mine have been affected by this. I had just bought in thousands of dollars of stock ready for Christmas.
Now our family income has been cut in half.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas Google!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning was FUN! We braved the snow and slippery roads and headed off to Tree House. Tree House is a group for parents and kids. It is a fairly new group. We have a Tumbling Tots morning every Tuesday in the Pentecostal Church. Nice big room for the kids to let off all that energy. You SOOOOO need somewhere like that when it is -30 and they can't play outside. Anyway, today we had a party. We were celebrating World Children's Day or International Day of the Child. The reason that I am not sure which is a 2 year old who distracted me :) Shannon (who runs the group) played guitar and we all sang kids songs. Hey what do you know? The words are different in England. So Mommy Jackie was singing one version and the Canadian Moms are singing a different one. It was funny. Then we had a puppet show. Jesse decided he couldn't live without seeing how the puppets were being worked of course. He can't sit still for a minute anyway. Then we had Gingerbread men and snacks. It was a nice morning. I badly needed to get out of the office and house. I have felt like a prisoner lately. That is often I how feel at the beginning of winter. As soon as we get out on the snowmobile, I start to enjoy winter. Not quite enough snow coverage yet...but if it keeps up, as it has all day, we will have enough.

On the knitting front. I am throwing caution to the wind. Began knitting Bonne Marie's Ribby Sweater. Although it is made flat, I have decided to try to make it in the round. So far, so good. Touch Wood. Fingers crossed. etc etc. I am trying to use up some stash so this is being made with RH yarn (don't all groan at once) in a nice dark blue fleck. Will try to take an "in progress" photo later.

Was hoping to update the blog this morning but I think the pre-Christmas rush started this week. I have been packaging orders non-stop all day. OK I did stop to put a joint of beef in the oven.

Big thank you to Missa for the button that she kindly made me. It is perfect.

Finished the 2nd flap cap. This one is for Hubby. Made in black fleck chunk yarn. It is from my stash from years gone by. Can't say what it is other than it is Patons.

Not sure what to start knitting now. I have a few ideas but I look at the patterns and find something about them that I don't like. It is normally the seams that put me off. If I wasn't so tired, I would think about making them on circs and then separating for the front and back at the armholes. But I am just pooped tonight.

A Poem for Remembrance Day



"The inquisitive mind of a child"



Why are they selling poppies, Mummy?

Selling poppies in town today.

The poppies, child, are flowers of love.

For the men who marched away.



But why have they chosen a poppy, Mummy?

Why not a beautiful rose?

Because my child, men fought and died

In the fields where the poppies grow.



But why are the poppies so red, Mummy?

Why are the poppies so red?

Red is the colour of blood, my child.

The blood that our soldiers shed.



The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy.

Why does it have to be black?

Black, my child, is the symbol of grief.

For the men who never came back.



But why, Mummy are you crying so?

Your tears are giving you pain.

My tears are my fears for you my child.

For the world is forgetting again.



Author Unknown

Finished this project so fast that I never even had time to mention that I had started it. The pattern is Little Flap Cap by Cabin Fever. It is sized for kids but I used chunky yarn and a 6mm circular. It fits me perfectly.

Just started another for hubby. This one is in black.

Bonfire Night - Guy Fawkes - Nov 5th

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder treason and plot.

We see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!



One British tradition that I miss (and I don't miss many) is Bonfire Night. Nov 5th meant fireworks, bonfires and making a "guy". A 'guy" is a dummy that we make to put on the bonfire. I used to make him out of my Dad's old clothes and stuff him with fallen leaves. Then we would take him around the streets chanting " Penny for the Guy". And people would give us money. Of course the "guy" represents Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Bonfires were lit all over London when the people leant that the King had been saved from this fate. Hence the fact that we light bonfires on this day still. Our "Guy" would be placed on top of the bonfire and burnt. Then the fireworks began. Read more about the Gunpowder Plot and Bonfire Night