Scarf Knitting Progress and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have started getting into the Christmas spirit even more now. This year I thought about Christmas a lot more and I was getting excited way earlier (September too early?). I am so happy that it is now the Christmas season. I have already gone to a Christmas parade, decorated my parent's tree, and gone to our annual Christmas shopping at a mall to get ideas and start shopping together. Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree and I have decorated our tree. I have also bought decorations and ornaments. I will share all this with you next week for Blogmas I can't wait for Blogmas, it is only 2 days away now! It is on a Sunday which is the perfect day for the start of it because it is not a work day and I can get into the spirit and work on blogging and getting ready for a busy and fun month of posts. If you are also participating are you ready for Blogmas? Leave links to your blogs below and I be sure to visit your blogs this holiday season.

I have still been knitting the candy cane scarf. I found the pattern on Ravelry by Kristen Retigg. I used US 9 knitting needles and used Red Heart Supersaver yarn in white and red to knit up the scarf.

Modeling the scarf in progress

I haven't knitted more of the shawl because I have been busy knitting the candy cane scarf so I can finish it and enjoy wearing it during the Christmas season. I am really looking forward to getting back to it soon. I am using size US 6, 4mm circular needles and the yarn I am using is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in the color of dusty green.

Shawl in progress

I am still reading Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin. I am loving how she focuses on the main habits that we should work on and and that improve lots of aspects of our lives.  Some important ones are getting more sleep, moving more, healthy eating and drinking, and living more cluttered-free. I have been recently working on getting more sleep and going to bed earlier in order to get more sleep during the week.

Currently reading: Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I want to wish everyone in the United States a happy Thanksgiving and hope you have a great time spent with family and friends.

Family time, Knitting, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have been busy with work, I trained on a new task to take over for my coworker in a different role while they are away. I have been doing the task for a couple of weeks now and maybe next week for a third. It was good learning something new and challenging myself.
I went to the Santa Claus parade last weekend with my family and we had a wonderful time I love this tradition we share every year. My sister and I used to go just the two of us, then once I moved out and life got more busy, my parents also joined in and we all started going every November. We also have the tradition of decorating my parent's Christmas tree the same day and it was fun to look at all the decorations that we put up every year and they bring back fond memories. We drink eggnog and eat chocolate and cookies and listen to Christmas music. My sister and I made up funny dance moves to some Christmas songs and we laughed at ourselves. It is a wonderful time of year. I love the family time spent together most of all. As I get older, especially this year I am thinking how I don't really need gifts I just love the traditions and the time spent with my family and Liam's family and it makes it so special. As you can see our cats were also interested in the Christmas tree and Moo enjoyed going under the tree.

Moo investigating the new tree

Roo just likes to be with my dad

Santa! I know him!

I have been knitting more of the candy cane scarf the pattern is found on Ravelry. I really wanted it to be done in time to wear to the parade, but I didn't knit it up in time. I will have it ready for the rest of the year's festivities and next Christmas I can wear it to the parade. It is a fun pattern and I love how the stripes are looking and are on an angle.

I got the needles I was waiting for in the mail last week and shared it on my Instagram story as some of you might have seen. I was so excited to get them. I ordered them off of Etsy, they are ChiaoGoo brand needles and are apparently make of surgical-grade stainless steel, they sounds pretty durable and good quality to me. I started using them to knit some of the shawl again and really liked using them they are flexible and lightweight and I like the feel of them. I will really enjoy using these. I am looking forward to knitting more of the shawl now that I have the needles. I got them from the FibreArtStudio shop on Etsy. They shipped from Vancouver, British Columbia. I ordered the 40 inch, size US 6, 4mm circular needles as the pattern calls for this size, but a shorter length. I went for longer needles to accommodate bigger projects as well in the future.

ChiaoGoo needles

I am currently reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin and really like it so far. I like how she describes the different types of people when it comes to habits: the upholder, questioner, obliger, and rebel and how people fit into these four categories. So far I think I am an obliger and I am looking forward to reading more.


Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday

Thanks for joining me this week and hope you have a good day!

Blogmas 2019 Announcement!

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am excited to announce I will be doing Blogmas again this year. Blogmas is a challenge for bloggers to post daily on their blogs for most of the month of December starting the first day of December and posting everyday leading up to Christmas. Last year was my first year doing Blogmas and I had a great time coming up with topics to cover and patterns to try out for Christmas. You can read last year's posts by clicking here. I wrote about goals of mine, knitting projects, ideas,and  books I had read and plan to read in the new year. I will be including some of the same types of posts as last year, but also writing some posts on new topics and trying out some new patterns and including gifts ideas. It will be so fun and I am already excited for it.  This is both a writing challenge and a knitting challenge for me as posting daily requires you to write each day and also to come up with more creative ideas and some projects to share. I remember last year it was a bit of a challenge at times to post daily, but it was also interesting what posts and ideas come out of that daily challenge. I posted some posts such as wellbeing at Christmas and 'quick gift ideas to knit or crochet in time for Christmas' last year which I wrote on the day and were written from inspiration by participating in the challenge. I am so excited for Blogmas it is such a fun time of the year and I love sharing it with you all.

Want to join me?
If you would like to also post blog posts daily for Blogmas, let me know in the comments below. If I have enough interest I will start daily link up parties so we can share our posts. I will be hosting daily link parties where you can also post your Blogmas blog post at the bottom of my posts so we can all share our posts each day.

I am currently still knitting the candy cane scarf using the pattern from Ravelry called candy cane scarf by Kristen Retigg. I have to knit more to have the scarf ready in time for Saturday's Christmas parade! Think I can finish it? I am still waiting to get the circular needles in the mail to work on my shawl. I started reading Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin, it is so good so far I am excited to read more. 

Making more progress on the scarf!

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.


Thank you for visiting my blog today and I am so excited for December to come and to share in all the joys of the holiday season with you. Sorry the photos are so dark I had to take photos tonight to share this post!

Knitting a Candy Cane Scarf and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are all doing well. It has been getting a lot colder here in Toronto. It is also getting so dark now earlier at night after we moved the clocks back with daylight savings time on Sunday and it feels a lot later when heading home from work. Wedding plans are going well and I signed a contract for hair and makeup and will have a contract for a florist soon, then we are done signing contracts and have all of our main vendors, that is so exciting. I am really looking forward to our big day now as it gets closer.

I have started knitting a candy cane scarf by Kristen Retigg found on Ravelry. I am still going to be knitting the casual lace knit shawl, but I had to order larger needles so that is on hold for now. I was so excited to start the shawl project that I started without long enough needles and planned to buy some eventually. I picked up the needles again to knit this scarf last night to work on while I waiting for the needles and to also knit something fun for the holidays. It is knit in all garter stitch and by using some increasing and decreasing each right side row by knitting two stitches together and a knit front to back increase. This candy cane scarf is such a fun and festive knit to make and wear at Christmastime. I was thinking I can wear this scarf at the Christmas parade and markets to look and feel festive. I am knitting the scarf on US 9 needles and I am using leftover yarn Red Heart Super Saver red and white yarn from knitting last year's Santa gnome. I had a lot left over and enough to make a scarf and maybe some other fun things for Christmas.

Pattern: Candy Cane Scarf by Kristen Retigg

I just finished reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg this week and will start reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. As you can probably see I am really interested in reading books in the self help and self improvement category. I am also listening to the audio book of  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. It has been a great companion on my drives home from work and so informative and I love the lessons I have learned so far. All the books are to promote positive habits and I am a big believer that we can really change our lives by changing our habits as all three of these books demonstrate. I have been starting some positive morning habits and weekly habits and can see how they are improving my life already.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday and Small Things for Yarn Along (November)

Thank you for stopping by! What are you working on and reading this week?