Challenge

While doing laundry, I found a self protrait challenge on the Digital Photography School site. I don't have too many photos of myself so this seems like a fun thing to do. I can practice my poses and learn more settings on my camera. :)

This week's challenge is Props. I'm supposed to choose something that has meaning to me and I originally chose a pair of knitted socks. That makes sense but it was very difficult to compose a photo with myself and my prop. Add the complexities of me using a remote shutter release that is only 12 inches long (my wireless remote needs batteries and syncing) and figuring everything else out.

This is the best of the bunch. I will try again tomorrow and maybe I'll try doing a 365 self protrait theme.

Skating

Busy Saturday today. The usual Tyler activities which take up the morning, a quick lunch then a 40 mile trek to Agoura Hills where  Discount Hockey is located. A no frills place but chock full of ice/roller hockey gear and equipment at good prices. We ended up with new hockey skates for Tyler and Joshua, some better fitting hockey socks, knee/shin pads for Ty and practice hockey balls.

Joshua got to use his new skates this evening which are loads better than the rentals he used last time.

Doesn't he look like he belongs on ice skates??

Working on puck handling.

Josh took a hard fall when a bigger kid ran into him and flattened him. Poor guy! I heard him cry out "OW" and lay there. We made sure he was okay and Josh wanted to keep on skating. He is a trooper. :)

Now we are home and it's been a long and crazy day. I'm ready for some R & R tomorrow.

Tally

I finally took some pics of Joshua's hockey gear which is considerable for a sport but it's nice to see that he will be padded over most of his body (head to toe).
I'm extremely grateful to his ice hockey program which lends us all the gear which adds up to over $200 and that's lowballing the prices.



He has a helmet with a full cage.



Knee/ shin protectors, elbow pads and hockey shorts (padded throughout).



Shoulder pads.




Blue hockey jersey and stick.




Hockey gloves and oversized socks (really legwarmers).



Phew, I had to get a duffel bag just to put everything in there.

in progress

Lovely pattern: Pomatomus socks. The yarn is Three Irish Girls which I'm digging right now although I had some difficulty with pooling which some people like. It depends on my mood and I love these colors but I didn't want the pooling.  I tried 2 other sock patterns and it just didn't look right. So far on these, I get a bit of pooling for only about 2 rows and it looks like striping so I'm okay with that.



Also my 2nd attempt at knitting socks for our friend He-man and his gigantor, humongous size 15 (16?) feet. I've done about 2.5 inches, only 10 more inches for the foot and maybe 8 more inches on the leg. That is if I have enough yarn. Yeah, these might be done around Christmas.





My Baktus scarf slowly growing to almost the halfway point. This was my hockey playoff knitting project and well, that has gone to the wayside since my Kings were eliminated. Sniff. I'd knit this then those darn sasquatch socks...when I'm done with those socks, it will be the first and last pair he will recieve. :) That reminds me I still have Tyler's socks still on the needles and should get going on that. Luckily I'm still knitting the foot so if his foot grows, I can knit more! Ha!



Roasting some smoked turkey legs for tonight and the kids start their ice skating lessons later today. I will need to buy some pads for Tyler to prevent further breakage. Oi! :) I hope he likes ice skating...

DARN

Quick side trip: My cousin Hannah brought me her Hello Kitty hat that I knit for some surgery. Somehow a hole developed in the hat so I had to research how to fix it.



The hole was very large about 3 x 3 stitches and I followed the darning instructions modified a bit to suit.



Naturally, I couldn't find sewing thread so I used some cotton fingering weight to weave a base then went over it with duplicate stitch. I sort of combined 2 methods because I got confused but it worked out okay.



I didn't want to duplicate stitch the entire patch and luckily the bow would cover the rest so I tacked down the bow. Yay!



Success!! :)

Shades of Purple

Not much to report but I'm almost done with a laceweight shawlette that range in colors in today's post. I have about 5 more rows, then bind off and blocking.

pre-blocking and not very impressive.

Pinned into a crescent shape.

I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation.

Transformation complete!

Close-up of nupps (the ball-like things).

There will be plenty of yarn for another Annis shawl too maybe with beads nex time. :)

Stay tuned for photos later....

Now for the hard part...modelling it! Not easy, holding my DSLR at me but the photos turned out fine.

Side shot.

Pretty colors! :)

Suiting Up

A couple of weeks ago, I found a special needs ice hockey program in Pasadena that I thought Josh might be interested in since he loves to ice skate and inline skate.

Saturday was his first day and the people there are very nice. First we have to get Josh all his safety gear which is provided for him.

Josh with some of his gear on waiting for the next item.

He was so happy to put on the gear.

There is so much gear too that I have to take pics soon to show you everything and now we need a bag to put it all in.
The man that was with Josh on the ice praised his puck passing skills and suggested ice skating lessons. So that's the next step, both boys will be taking ice skating this week. :)

It's been heating up so hanging around the ice rink won't be so bad.