Fall Craft Show, Knitting Progress, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I had a wonderful weekend, spending time with my family and my boyfriend's family. Yesterday, I went to the Milton Farm Craft Show that they put on every year. There were so many wonderful things to look at and this year I bought a couple lovely things. I bought a ceramic berry bowl for my boyfriend's stepmother for her birthday. I also purchased some beautiful, soft alpaca sock yarn from Alpaca Time. I am so excited to get started on knitting socks with this yarn. My sister who crochets, also purchased some yarn to crochet a hat. It was an exciting find for us. I loved our trip there this year and looking forward to going to more upcoming craft fairs in the Winter hopefully.

Yarn I purchased from Alpaca Time at the craft show

Just a few of the many stalls set up at the show

Me with some craft show finds

In knitting, I have been working on knitting up the first stocking as part of the project for this Christmas to have handknit stockings for my boyfriend and I. I am using the Jumbo Christmas Stockings pattern on Ravelry. It is a fun, fast knit and I love working with big, chunky needles and thick yarn around this time of the year when it is getting a bit cooler. I am liking the way the stocking is looking so far, except I added an extra row in by accident right after working on the gusset but I think it isn't too noticeable.

 The sweater is still in a standstill and I must work on taking the seam out on the left sleeve and redoing it. I definitely want my next sweater not to include sewing pieces together at the end as many people have said it is more enjoyable that way.

I am still reading the book Love the Wine You're With by Kim Gruenenfelder. I am liking it but haven't been setting aside time to read due to being distracted by school starting up again and different things. I will try to read a little bit each day so I can enjoy the book. I have also still been reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I am on the chapter about paper and have been going through paper of mine and find that the book is helping so much to help me toss more things than I have before because we really hold onto things we don't need thinking we'll read it one day when we never do. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book and working through all of the items and having less stuff around. 

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, AsKatKnits for Unwraveled Wednesday, and The Little Room of Rachell for Yarning Along. 

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Have a great day!

Veg Fest in Toronto, Knitting Updates, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well.  On Friday night I went to Veg Fest which is organized by the Toronto Vegetarian Association. I had a great time going with my friend, trying samples, and learning more about a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle. We first spoke with a woman from Mercy for Animals about their organization and how they work to make lives better for animals on factory farms. I have since added them on Facebook, Instagram, and visited their website and love what they are all about. Then we went to the area of the festival where they had lots of food and products which were all vegan. I tried the Chick Chicken burger at a food truck which was made from chickpeas and my friend got the imitation beef burger. It tasted so good, I would not miss chicken eating that burger. Then we went around and ate samples and I also bought a vegan ice cream made from oatmeal. It was so good and my friend bought a donut from Bloomer's to share. I was pleasantly surprised how delicious it was.

Photo of me about to eat the vegan ice cream

Veg Fest tents set up 

My chick'n burger which was really made from chickpeas. It was really good!

My friend's burger, she got their famous burger which looks like beef patty but it is also made from chickpeas

I have been thinking lately of cutting back on eating meat and I want to live a more vegetarian lifestyle. Right now I am not limiting myself and saying I won't eat meat, but I want to gradually reduce eating it for my health and compassion for animals. I am excited about this change which I have been contemplating for quite awhile. I can share some vegetarian and vegan recipes I like on the blog too. I have gone a few days without meat now and eating more nuts, beans, other foods which contain protein but I am still learning about supplementing my diet with other foods to get the protein and nutrients I need.
Tonight while I was at Loblaws, I saw these snacks in the natural food aisle that I sampled at the festival and had to buy them because they were so delicious. The Hungry Buddha coconut chips are so good and they a crunchy and so flavorful. The SimplyProtein chips I have not tried yet but did try the granola bar and liked it, so I am looking forward to giving them a try too. They were a decent price, under three dollars each. I am not affiliated with these brands in any way, I just wanted to share which snacks I liked from the festival with you.

Vegan snacks

In knitting, I have not been knitting too much this weekend. I was busy seeing family this weekend and getting organized before school starts. I will share some progress made on my stocking and sweater seaming in a couple days to catch up! I will also be starting to knit some other projects soon and looking forward to sharing those projects with you.
I am still reading Love the Wine You're With: A Novel and enjoying it so far! I have also started reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing and I am loving it! I will be posting an entry soon on my experience with the book and how it helped me to get organized and start tidying up properly!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! If you would like to keep updated on when I post entries on my blog, please follow me on Bloglovin', Google Followers, and you can also put your email into the subscribe button at the top right corner of my blog to get email updates when I post!

Have a great day!

Spiral Socks Knitted, Sewing Sweater Seams, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It was the first day back at school for many yesterday, I hope that if you have children, they had a good first day! or if you are returning yourself, hope you had a good day. I will be starting my courses next week on September 12th, and only have one course I have to drive to the college for in-class sessions, and the rest are online. I am looking forward to starting up with the next batch of courses to finish the certificate later this year.I have been watching the news on hurricane Irma, I hope that if you live in the areas that the storm will hit that you stay safe!

Knitting:
I finished knitting the Patons Spiral socks and they look great. I can put them away now for Christmas to give to my mom as a gift. I love knitting socks, they are such a small project, easy to pick up and bring with me to watch television, or as you saw this summer, I brought them camping and to Montreal to knit while away on vacation.

I loved this pattern, it was a simple one and easy to remember and kitting in the same pattern for 13 inches. You can see the notes on Ravelry here. I am thinking of using this pattern again in the future, maybe for another Christmas gift or make a pair for myself at some point.

The socks laid out flat do not look as much like socks but more like stockings. I think it is so amazing that when you put them on, they fit your feet so perfectly. I like that about these tube socks, that they are so comfortable.

I will be pulling the sweater seam out today so I can re-do it and I have been working on that today too. I did some more research and I think sewing the sleeve first then going down the side of the sweater is what I will do this time for the whole sleeve is sewn in half instead of knitting side, then up the sleeve because it was tight and uneven that way. In the photo below the right side is not sewn yet I just placed it like this for the photo to show how it will look once the seams are sewn.

Reading:
I finished reading Into the Water this weekend. I loved the book, it was intriguing and kept moving a long and kept me interested and reading on. It got mixed reviews, and one thing I have to agree with it that at the beginning of the book you are introduced to a lot of characters and it is sometimes hard to remember who is who. I had to go back a couple of times to refresh my memory. Once I knew who the characters were and jumped back a couple of times, it was so good and the character development was so amazing. I love how Paula Hawkins adds so much darkness and mystery to her characters and she touches on some topics which are dark and show how evil some people can be. I think she handles these topics well and captures the emotions of each character wonderfully. I would definitely recommend Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, and I am looking forward to reading books she writes in the future.

I am currently reading Love the Wine You're With by Kim Gruenenfelder. So far I am in the early section of the book, learning about the characters and I will learn more about the characters as I read on and as they come together to create their business. I think the characters so far are trying to find themselves and are in negative situations at work and in love, and I am looking forward to seeing the changes they make as I read on. I also started reading the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I will try to finish this book this week so I can begin applying the steps I learn. I will probably write a post this month on the topic to share what I learned and how it changes my outlook on tidying and keeping organized. 

             

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, AsKatKnits for Unwravelled Wednesday, and The Little Room of Rachell for Yarning Along.

What are working on and reading this week?

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Have a great day!