NovaKnitter

Going, going, gone………

2011-10-13T11:04:00.001-03:00

This will be my last post, at least for the foreseeable future. I think the time has come for me to give up on my blog. I have really enjoyed doing it for the past six and a half years, but I have noticed that in the last five months I have written only five blog posts. Basically one a month and each one was a bit of struggle to write. I thought that once summer was over and fall was in full swing and life was back to a normal pace that I would pick up with the blogging again. But not so. It has become a chore and I am not enjoying it anymore.

My original intent when starting this blog was to keep a record of all my knitting projects, what I knit, who I gave it to, all that type of thing. It was great and I was pretty faithfully doing just that. But then Ravelry came along and voila! there was the perfect place for me to catalogue my projects, with all of the details. And then it became a chore to post things in both places and I started to slack off on the blog.

So I would like to thank you for reading my blog and commenting on my projects. It is such a boost to get positive comments on knitting from other knitters who actually know what each project involved and the work it entailed. My name, NovaKnitter, is the one I use for Ravelry so any Ravelry folks, feel free to visit my project page or add me to your friends there!

Over and out!

I ♥ Autumn!!

2011-09-26T12:27:00.001-03:00

We are having the most wonderful autumn weather. Sunny, warm, no bugs, rains in the evening or a day or so and then sunny again. Gentle breezes. I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

I have been knitting up a storm this past few weeks and actually have something to show for it. I knit the Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan using my Blue Heron Metallic Rayon in the colourway slate. It is gorgeous but much too small for the intended recipient. So small in fact, that I don’t have enough yarn in my other Blue Heron skein to do it again in a larger size. So I am hoping that it will fit DD2 and that she likes it. If not, the friend modeling it for me loves and then she would get it!!! I would also only put in one button and buttonhole if I were ever to do it again.

Now I have found another sweater pattern that I quite like and have purchased that, with Shan’s approval, to knit for her. It is called I ♥ Aran and has just enough cabling in it to make it interesting, but not too much to be overwhelming. I went to Have A Yarn in Mahone Bay Monday to get the Tanis Green Label Aran weight yarn and they only had a few skeins available. However, I did like the poppy red colour and came home and ordered it from Tanis. Should arrive by Friday or next Monday! Quite looking forward to knitting this one up!!

I also knit up this little slouchy hat, called Sockhead Hat, another hat for Shan.

It is really quite cute and I knit the ribbed band extra wide so you can wear it as a slouchy hat, or with the rib turned way up, as a beanie hat!

Pete wants a pair of socks to fit inside his hockey skates. Not sure what colour would be acceptable but I got a nice green/ blue tweedy striped yarn by Zauberball whilst in HAY. Also I am hoping he doesn’t want actual hockey type socks that go way up to the knees because I have cast on and started them last night.

Today is another lovely day and I have my computer guy coming this afternoon to fix the fan in my tower and to find out why my computer keeps shutting down on its own. Then I have a suppertime meeting but no meal to be served.

Big news for my weekend!!! My friend and I are heading out to St. Andrews NB on Friday for KnitEast. This is the first time something like this has been held in our area of the world and we are seriously excited!! And we have tickets to hear the Yarn Harlot speak on Saturday night!! I will surely post an update early next week!!

FOs! Yay!

2011-09-08T11:21:00.001-03:00

Now that the Warren sweater is finished and nicely hung away in my closet, I am moving on to other projects. (The jacket BTW, was very well received on its recent outings by both knitters and non knitters! And I totally love it, so that makes the whole summer of knitting worthwhile!)

Finished object #1:Daphne Socks

This pattern and yarn came from the Cookies A sock club. I quite liked the pattern, not so much the yarn. The yarn was A Verb for Keeping Warm Metamorphosis.

Firstly, it was poorly skeined with several breaks so it took me forever to get it all balled up properly. Secondly, it was a sport weight which isn’t my favourite for knitting socks. (Not the yarn’s fault, just my preference.) However they are finished and on their way to Ottawa as I type!

Finished object #2:

Next up the BSJ that I finished and have gifted to my chiropractor who is due in early November. She loved it!

Finished Object #3: Shirl’s Mittlets

I know I said no more yarn, but this was new at Have A Yarn and they had a dear little pattern to knit these delightful little hand warmers. The yarn is Berocco Flicker and the pattern knit up in a couple of evenings!

Finished Object #4: Triana Scarf for Margie

This was done in an evening for my friend Margie who is leaving to go home to England today. I was unable to get the yarn that she originally wanted, but she seemed pleased with this!

No more finished projects, but this is my latest WIP or work in progress: The sweater is called Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan and is being knit with my Blue Heron Metallic Rayon and I am doing a pattern I found on Ravelry. Another I LOVE RAV comment coming up.

I had purchased this yarn in Tuscon AZ in April with nothing particular in mind. I just loved the yarn and the colour, which is slate. So I search for all the sweater/ cardigan projects knit with this yarn and voila! This pattern came up and only uses one skein of the yarn. (The yarn is pricy so I only bought one skein!)

I am almost at the divide for the armholes, starting at the neck and working down. Once all the increasing is done and the sleeves are done, then it should be smooth sailing. So far I am loving the look and feel of this. It drapes so beautifully! Pictures don’t do it justice but here you are:

The closeup shows the little flickers of gold that are in the yarn. I am really looking forward to seeing this one finished. Now if only I can stop admiring and touching it after I finish each row!

That’s it for me. Now if the rain would stop in New York and they could play the US Open Tennis, I would get way more knitting done!! Go Roger!

Dear Blog Reader

2011-08-25T10:44:00.001-03:00

It has been more than a month since my last blog post. As I type this, I am having a flashback to the days of weekly confession with the priest at our church. I can remember as a child working very hard to come up with sins for this solemn sacrament. What I mean is, I was making up sins to list at confession every week. Every week I was sinning almost every time I went to confession. I mean seriously, how many sins can a 7 or 8 year old girl have?! But I digress……….

Getting back to the topic at hand. Because it has been so long, I was thinking that maybe it is time to give this blog a rest. Obviously I had nothing worthy to post or I would have done so earlier. We did have the girls and their families here for 2 weeks which were very busy and filled with grandkids and lots of fun, but I don’t even have any pictures of them to post. Most of the pics I took were with my iPhone, and as anyone can tell you, they are not the best pictures in the world. I did knit a couple of dishcloths and another one of the frilly scarves, but again, not really worthy of a blog post. And as for the weather, don’t even go there. This week in August is the first time all spring and summer we have had more than 2 days of sun in a row!!! Another weather rant avoided.

And then I realized what the problem was. Why I seemed to be so apathetic about the blog! I have been knitting on the Warren sweater since the 25 of June. It is not a challenging knit. It consists of four long (58 inches for one piece) basically straight strips that get sewn together and make a sweater. It is totally knit in seed stitch. Which is knit one purl one forever. VERY BORING! I mean VERRRRRRRRY BORRRRRING! DEADLY BORROWING. So I did lot of other things rather than knit. But now it is finished. It is all sewn together (thanks to my friend Donna W!) And here is the proof:

It fits and is exactly what I wanted. There are more pictures on my Ravelry page linked above.

And just to prove to myself and everyone else that my knitting mojo is back, voila, two new projects!!

The first is another Baby Surprise Jacket for my Chiropractor, Dr F:

Not quite half done yet, but she is not due till late October so I good on that one.

The next are a pair of socks from the Cookie A Sock Club in a lovely shade of pink. I started them last night and hope to have them finished by the end of the month for my KALs.

I’M BAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKK!

Overdue!

2011-07-22T11:23:00.001-03:00

Way overdue for a blog and I have absolutely no good reason other than I have been busy and the weather has been gorgeous. We haven’t had the high temperatures and humidity that they are getting in the US and Canada, but I am sure it will make its way here in due time! We actually had a severe thunderstorm warning for last night with high wind gusts that they warned could create tornados. So I popped onto my iPad and my trusty weather radar site and watched the whole thing move across Nova Scotia just north of us! Yay!! Not even a drop of rain! Which I must say we do need now.

And speaking of overdue, my niece lives in Ottawa, the heart of hot humid weather and is now 41 weeks pregnant and her doctor says no induction until she is 42 weeks! Go Amy!!! I remember planning my pregnancies so I was in the early stages during the summer months. Both of mine were February babies! I really mind the heat and humidity! Pregnant or not. Anything over 25 C and I am sitting in front of my fan, whinging and…………..

Also overdue, is getting rid of the squirrel who has taken up residence in our back porch. We think we know how he is getting in and John is going to try to block it off today! We have a live trap in the porch but nothing seems to entice him to go in it! That is the entrance we use to go and out of the house and having to keep that door shut is a pain in the ass! Plus it is a serious nuisance with the dogs. They are sniffing around and digging and generally going bonkers every time we go in or out! So I say Begone damn squirrel!!

Next up on my overdue list is the socks I should be knitting for July. Not going to happen this month. I am working on my sweater/ coverup and as it is a summer garment, I would like to finish it to wear this summer!! I am almost finished the collar piece and then can start the 2 back pieces. I plan to knit them together as the yarn and seed stitch together make it virtually impossible to count rows and that way I should have both exactly the same. So I figure another couple of weeks and that should be done. I am so looking forward to putting it together and wearing it!! Still no pictures as there really isn’t anything to see. Just long strips of taupe seed stitch.

I am not sure if this qualifies as overdue or not, but……..We were supposed to be going to the city today to stay a friend’s house tonight, but we got a call this morning that she is under the weather so we are not going in till tomorrow! We had already made arrangements to stay in a hotel and go out to dinner with John’s brother and his wife Saturday evening, so we will continue on with that plan tomorrow. In the meantime, we were both so tired from poker night at our house last night ( I had to prepare a meal for 10 men ) that we were not too disappointed that we couldn’t go today!

Not very often we see this at our house, so I thought it was worthy of posting:

Gunni and Maggie sound asleep on the loveseat! Gun is usually behind my chair and this is Maggie’s chair! So sharing it is a big deal!!

Both of our girls and their families will arrive a week from today for their summer visit to Nova Scotia. Five grandkids ages 7 thru 3 so we are looking for good weather and lots of photo ops!! We are seriously excited to see them, especially Shan’s family as I haven’t seem them since late January and they grow and change so fast! We saw Lauren and family a few weeks ago on our way home from Freeport Me and since then Reese has had a birthday and is now 5!! Before too long they are going to be all grown up…………….. time goes by so fast.

So this is my long overdue post. Hopefully I will have actual knitting to show next time!

Canada Day Here and Happy July 4th USA!

2011-07-04T11:47:00.001-03:00

What a perfect weather weekend we had! Sunny with a nice breeze to keep the black flies and mosquitoes at bay and a fog offshore to keep the temperature tolerable! And the SUN was out for three days in a row!!

Friday night we had an impromptu pot luck dinner party and what a huge success that was! Eight couples and one half couple came and so we had 17 people for drinks and dinner. And the food! I had 2 salmon halves, baked and served with a tzatziki sauce and a wasabi sauce. John barbequed some Alimento burgers and sausages. We had potato salad, veggie salad and an arugula salad! And my all time favourite cheese biscuits!

Then for dessert there was a delicious chocolate cake, a gorgeous strawberry trifle and a strawberry rhubarb pie! And of course there are leftovers, so we invited a couple of friends in Saturday night to help finish them all up!!!

So here I am on Monday morning doing the usual Monday stuff. Laundry, bedding, towels and putting away from the weekend stuff.

Despite the fact that Wimbledon was on for the past two weeks, I didn’t blog about it, thinking that might help Roger. It didn’t. He got knocked out in the quarterfinals! But then we had a great final match between #1 Nadal and #2 Djokovic and Novak won!! He is now #1 in the rankings and a Wimbledon champ and in my opinion, deserves it all. He has worked very hard and played extremely well and is a worthy champion.

Obviously I knit during these matches and actually accomplished a lot on my sweater. I have about 16 inches left to knit on the arms/back of the sweater. It is 58 inches long so I am getting there. But not anything much to look at yet, so no pics! I am hoping to have it finished by the end of July, but we will see! Maybe then we can have another party to introduce the newest addition to my closet. That is assuming it turns out the way it is supposed to and fits the way it is supposed to! If not, it may be the last sweater I ever knit for me again!!

Funny story before I sign off. My sister was checking out her page on Facebook and went to make some tea. Her cat Sophie then decided to take this opportunity to invite everyone in her address book to be her FB friend! So now she is inundated with people accepting her friend invitations! Cats do the strangest things!!

OMG How Cute Are We?

2011-06-25T10:50:00.001-03:00

Surprise!

2011-06-24T10:52:00.001-03:00

We spent the last few days in Freeport ME with a couple of friends, doing some shopping and wining and dining. As we were taking the Digby ferry and driving the rest of the way, I knew I would have lots of knitting time. So the night before we left I cast on for the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket aka BSJ.

I will say right off the top that I read EZ’s instructions and then the row by row instructions and was completely mind boggled. I was particularly intrigued by the part where she asks, “are you still with me?” Anyway, despite my misgivings and total confusion, I persevered. One row after another and slowly but surely it started to make sense and looked a little bit like it might actually turn into a sweater! Every time I came to a part that seemed really out there, I would say to myself, “well it has worked so far” and so I would plug on. And by the time we were on the 103 on our way home, I had sewed up the second sleeve seam and was finished.

I had absolutely no idea where to place the stripes, so I just started and stopped where ever and I think they came out pretty much as I had hoped. Probably needs another stripe along the bottom, but that will be for another time. I do see more of these in my future! This one needs buttons which I will get today.

There was a lovely yarn shop in Freeport, Grace Robinson’s Yarn & Needlework, where I found exactly the sweater I had been looking for as a summer evening cover for me. I hadn’t planned on knitting one, but there it was, the exact perfect sweater, so I bought the book and the yarn and my next project will be the Warren 2 Way Jacket. This is the link to my ravelry page which does have a link to the pattern picture, but I am not sure if it will go there for non ravelry members. So I also have this link to a YouTube video clip of it. The jacket is the first one they show in the clip.

So I must go and finish up my little baby slippers and my Frill scarf and then start on my new sweater.

Wimbledon is on so I will have a lovely time knitting and watching tennis!!

OMG Too Cute for Words

2011-06-13T11:26:00.001-03:00

Some of our Knit Nite group went to Mahone Bay to WWKIP day. (World Wide Knit In Public) The weather was perfect, sunny and warm with a nice breeze to keep the bugs away! We sat around and knit and talked and met new friends. We participated in the speed knitting contest. Turns out I am an average knitter, but two of our girls were fast! And one actually was the fastest knitter and got a lovely prize of yarn!!

Then we were off to Have A Yarn where they had a 25% off sale. I was very good. I am on a sock yarn diet after all. But I did manage to snag the pattern for these:

I didn’t knit them but they matched the little sweater for my niece’s new babe to be, so I bought them! How freaking cute are they?

So I came home and promptly finished off my socks so I could start knitting some of them.

Then I started in on the slippers! I got one pair done last evening but haven’t felted them yet. I also am the world’s worst pompom maker, so I need to see if I can find one of those little thingies that make them somewhere. Maybe the dollar store? But I need one as I see a bunch of these little darlings in my future!

FYI It is another rainy foggy cold and horrid day out there, but I am cheerfully knitting little baby slippers!!

The Sun’ll Come out Tomorrow……

2011-06-09T16:11:00.001-03:00

We have had a few warm and sunny days, so it may be that our summer weather is actually here to stay. Not saying for sure, just mentioning that it might be. ( I don’t want to jinx anything!) But everyone is out and about and smiling and happy. It really does make a difference in one’s outlook when the weather is nice and sunny and warm!

That was yesterday when I started this post. Today not so much. Cloudy, foggy, cool (sweater or jacket cool) and grey. But there is always tomorrow. Hope springs eternal!

I have put buttons on the little sweater and it is ready to be sent off to Ottawa! No matter how many times I have tried I cannot get an accurate picture of the colour!

The socks I am knitting for my friend are almost finished. Not the most gorgeous socks I’ve ever seen, but I think she will be happy with them. The kindest thing I can say about them is that they are utilitarian and should be great for sailing and cool weather.

Saturday is International Knit in Public Day and several of our knitting group are going down to Mahone Bay to join their get together at the Biscuit Eater and then head over to Have A Yarn for some yarn goodness and treats! I am going to attend, despite having people in for dinner that evening. I will be very organized and have much of it ready ahead of time. At least that is the plan.

My printer is acting up, half printing a page and then stopping, telling me to open and close the back, and then finishing the printing job, but with a big crease in the middle. I hope to be able to fix it myself or take it to Staples to see if they can fix it as I just a few months ago put in all new toner cartridges. Four of them!!! Crossing my fingers on that one!

Today is my brother’s birthday (Happy Birthday Dave!) and he is in the city today for an appointment. So he is stopping in here on his way home to Yarmouth and we will treat him to a birthday dinner at the Quarterdeck! Looking forward to that midweek treat on a dull and dreary day!

And I close with these oh so appropriate lyrics:

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!
Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!
When I'm stuck a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

Well Hello June! and welcome

2011-06-02T15:45:00.001-03:00

Holy cow! June came in like a lion, roaring and gnashing it’s teeth. The biggest thunder and lightening storm I’ve seen in many years, any where!!! Just constant flashes of lightening and thunder claps so fast you couldn’t even begin to try to count one one thousand, two one thousand………. Four long hours with two very upset dogs! We are tired today!!!

But the sun is shining and my cold is better, John’s books are done and life is looking good!

I have been knitting this little baby sweater for my niece who is due next month, which is a Tanis pattern and just too cute for words. I used the yarn I won a couple of months ago in the Sock a Month KAL. It still needs buttons but is just adorable. There is probably enough yarn left over for socks, but I am not in the mood for baby socks, so I gave it to friend. And for some reason I cannot even come close to the actual colour, not this pink but a lovely peachy salmony colour!

Next up on the needles are a pair of socks for my friend Margie who picked the yarn out of my stash. It is called AslanTrends Santa Fe and is the indigos colourway. Not sure what pattern I will use, but I want some brain dead knitting for a change so it will be simple.

That will be it from the sunny downtown south shore of Nova Scotia!

Knitting At Last

2011-05-21T12:24:00.003-03:00

Finally! A knitting post. And a long time coming if I do say so myself! I started these socks in Arizona so I could knit on them on our flight to Hawaii. That would have been April 15th. I finished them last night and I couldn’t wait to get them off the needles! That is the longest time I have ever taken to knit one pair of socks!!
Here are 2 pictures:

You would probably look at the picture and think “ Oh what a lovely azalea in the background!” And you would be right. And if this was a movie clip, you would also hear the roar of hundreds of honeybees working their magic on every blossom! Needless to say, I got 2 pictures and hightailed it out of there! They were not happy to be disturbed.

Then you might look at the socks and think how lovely they are! And again you would be right. They are a pattern called Louche, by Hunter Hammersen and I always enjoy her patterns. But these suckers kicked my butt from the get go! They are mirror images and they have an interesting gusset decrease. Between those two things, I managed to screw these socks up every way you could think of. I like to knit my socks TAAT on dpns. Well that messed me up right at the start. I could never remember what sock I was working on, the left or the right. Which is a huge issue. I didn’t knit much on our vacation in Hawaii so I was just at the gusset of the first sock on our flight home. (Note to self. Never knit a complicated pattern on an overnight flight!) So I screwed up the gusset decrease but didn’t notice it and went happily on knitting the sock and grafted the toe! Voila! One sock, crooked but finished. I figured it was supposed to be crooked as the pattern wrapped around the top of the foot. NOT!

So I am starting the gusset of the second sock, when I noticed my error on the first sock. By now I was starting to seriously hate these socks. I skipped by dislike straight to hate and loathing! But I am stubborn so I frogged the first sock back to the gusset and redid it properly. Then I finished sock #2 last night and although they look lovely and indeed are lovely, I still hate these socks. Not their fault, totally, but you know what I’m saying!

Another reason I was so long getting these socks done was playing Lexulous and Scrabble online! I must say I quite enjoy it online. You can pick what speed you want to play at and if you only make 3 or 4 moves a day, that’s fine. You can take your time finding words or you can play a fast game where you need to make a move every couple of minutes or so and finish in about an hour! I usually play medium games which would finish in a few days, but some are longer. No big deal! Or maybe I was playing the word games to avoid knitting the socks?! My next project will tell.

Next up I am knitting a little baby sweater called Sunnyside, by my favourite yarn lady, Tanis! But I am not using her yarn! I have a gorgeous Chloe and Spud yarn that I won a couple of months ago and that is what I will be using. I am knitting the girl version, which is the blue/pink one in the picture. My niece in Ottawa is having another little girl so it will be a perfect match!

Finally, I still have the cold from hell. I seriously felt better last week and was on my way to a full recovery, when Thursday night my head started filling up again and my throat was sooooo sore! It’s Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! With a vengeance! My question now is: Am I still contagious? Do I even care anymore?

One more final note. We haven't had a sunny day since my last post, but there was no whining or complaining in this post.

Weather or Not

2011-05-15T11:28:00.001-03:00

We have been home from our vacation for 2 weeks. In that 2 weeks we have had one sunny day. And to be quite honest, the sun has come out this past Thursday and Friday in the late afternoon. It is raining today. It rained yesterday. This is our weather forecast for the next week.

Long Term Forecast

	Monday May. 16	Tuesday May. 17	Wednesday May. 18	Thursday May. 19	Friday May. 20	Saturday May. 21

	Rain	Light rain	Cloudy with showers	Cloudy with showers	Light rain	Isolated showers
P.O.P.	100%	80%	70%	40%	80%	90%
High	10°C	13°C	13°C	14°C	13°C	14°C
Low	6°C	9°C	9°C	9°C	10°C	9°C
Wind	E 20 km/h	SE 5 km/h	E 10 km/h	E 5 km/h	SE 10 km/h	N 20 km/h
24-Hr Rain	25-35 mm	close to 5 mm	1-3 mm	1-3 mm	close to 5 mm	1-3 mm

Some random rainy day thoughts.

I don’t know about the weather records, but I would guess that this spring has to be up there with the wettest and rainiest in weather keeping records!

Apparently the grass likes the rain. It is growing like wildfire. The lawn was almost 8 to 10 inches tall and John still has some to mow. And it is so hard to mow when it is long, much less long and wet!

The trees all have buds but they are waiting for some sun to bloom. Seems like that might never happen.

I don’t play golf, but I feel sorry for the golfers. If they do try to go out and play, the course is either closed or so soggy it is just too unpleasant to enjoy.

The dogs and their walkers are really getting tired of walking in the rain and or drizzle. They have to be towelled down every time they come in. Actually, after all the rain, the drizzle is quite pleasant!

My rhubarb is ripening and will probably rot before we get much pulled. Fresh rhubarb anyone?

I’m thinking that if the rain doesn’t stop soon, we will all just turn to rust and disappear.

Rainy days are good for staying in and knitting. Or doing the year end books which are due in June and the accountants’ office want to have now. It looks like this will be a good week to get that done!

Looks like this will be our weather for the next week, so we will just have to suck it up and make some lemonade with all that water! At least the wells should all be good for the year!

Tuscon AZ Trip

2011-05-12T13:50:00.000-03:00

As promised, a longer than anticipated review of our trip to Arizona.

We arrived in Phoenix late on our first evening and stayed there our first night. Next morning we officially began our visit to Arizona and the Tuscon area. We were staying in the Oro Valley area on the outskirts of Tuscon in a lovely house we had rented for our visit, which was very near to our friends’ home. How convenient was that?!

This was our view as we sat out in our fenced in yard with a small pool:

Most of the homes have snake fences as there can be a real issue with rattlesnakes. ICK!! Our friend, who we were visiting, assured us that this was a very secure snake fence and we would have no issues with them!

Our first day there was spent settling in and getting groceries and acquainting ourselves with the area.

The next morning we went off to visit an old Indian mission, The San Xavier Mission. There is no outside picture as it was raining when we were there, but if you click this link you can see it. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that or this:

Much more ornate and detailed than I would have ever have imagined! I lit a candle for my mother there. That is something I try to do every time we visit an historic church or cathedral. There have been many lit over the past 10 years.

Then there were the cacti. The saguaro cactus to be precise as there were all kinds of cacti around. The saguaro (/səˈwɑroʊ/) is a large, tree-sized cactus species. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in the U.S. state of Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, a small part of Baja California and an extremely small area of California, U.S. The saguaro blossom is the State Wildflower of Arizona. The first time I saw the saguaro cactus, I thought to myself how attractive they were. By the end of our visit there, I was naming them and making up little stories about each group as if they were living in villages and all had there own place in the hierarchy! So the following pictures will be of cacti:

Saguaros have a relatively long life span. They take up to 75 years to develop a side arm. Some specimens may live for more than 150 years. These cacti can grow anywhere from 15 to 50 feet. They grow slowly from seed, and not at all from cuttings. Whenever it rains, saguaros soak up the rainwater. The cactus will visibly expand, holding in the rainwater. It conserves the water and slowly consumes it.

You should note the holes in the cactus above and below. Native birds such as Gila woodpeckers, purple martins, house finches, and gilded flickers live inside holes in saguaros. Flickers excavate larger holes higher on the stem.^[ The nest cavity is deep, the parents and young entirely hidden from view. The Gila woodpeckers create new nest holes each season rather than reuse the old ones, leaving convenient nest holes for other birds and animals.

Here is my friend and guide during our visit to Tuscon just to give you a perspective on exactly how big these saguaros grow. The one without arms would be less than 70 years old and the one behind her would be much older. This was the day the men went golfing and we went to the Arizona/Sonoma Desert Museum, which was amazing.

A mountain lion sunning himself.

This is inside the Aviary, and I am not sure what bird is in my picture. I seem to think it might be a hummingbird.

Another day John and I drove to Nogales, a town on the US/Mexico border. This picture very much reminds me of the Berlin wall. I understand why they need it, but I find it very disturbing at the same time.

Nogales, Arizona on this side, Nogales, Mexico on the other.

On our way home we stopped into Tubac, an artists’ community filled with wonderful galleries and shops. John managed to get me a birthday present and I also bought a lovely turquoise and lapis bracelet as my Arizona souvenir.

As you can tell, we had a wonderful trip to Arizona made even perfect by our hosts and guides. They had so much planned for us to do that we really got a great Arizona desert experience.

And we ate a lot of Mexican food, which we love!

A Slight Whinge

2011-05-05T18:41:00.001-03:00

Ok. When we were on vacation I spent the first week in Hawaii, (the second week of our trip) sick with a horrid bout of gastroenteritis. Six days I was down and out with it. But I was a good sport and didn’t complain. Too much.

Now we are home, and the second day here, I come down with the head cold from hell. I can’t breath, my sinuses are full, my eyes hurt, my throat is sore and it hurts to cough. (which I am doing a fair amount of).

So tell me, what the heck have I done to p*** off the gods of good health enough to deserve this? I can’t even concentrate to freaking knit, for heaven’s sake!

Plus something is wrong with our water purifying system and we have no water pressure. The plumber was here this morning and says that is the issue. So now we are waiting on someone from Halifax to come tomorrow and hopefully fix it. And what little bit of water we do have is full of rust! So,I haven’t even been able to wash anything this week.

OK. Whinge over. But I am still feeling sorry for myself.

Catching Up

2011-05-02T13:44:00.001-03:00

on sleep and blogging.

We have been away on vacation for almost a month. Hence the blog silence.

This post will be mainly about knitting though. We just got back from Hawaii yesterday afternoon and with the 7 hour time change, I am too tired to take all my pics of the camera and go over our trip. So knitting is what this will be.

On my last post, I showed the picture of the yarn I won in the SAM11 KAL. It still looks overly bright in my pic. Well in person it is a lovely peachy pink and the bottom one is the truer colour:

Next up I have the yarn that came for my Cookie A sock club, April package. It is a new yarn by Lorna’s Laces, 55% merino, 15% nylon and 30% Outlast, which is a fibre technology that continuously interacts with your body’s microclimate and the environment to moderate temperatures from being too hot or cold.

And the colour is pretty accurate. It is a limited edition called Boysenberry Jam. I am so excited to be one of the first to be trying out this new yarn.

While we were in Arizona, my friend took me to her favourite yarn shop where I scored these two beauties:

My favourite yarn, Blue Heron Rayon Metallics! I can’t wait to turn these into something special!!

I also decided that trying to get my other skein of Blue Heron to do the planned pooling thing was driving me crazy, so I am frogging it. I have offered it to one of my friends, but if she doesn’t want it, I will put it out there for anyone who may decide they would like to own it.

As for knitting, that was pretty much only done on our flights to and from everyone. So I got one pair of socks done, my Kona Mona socks:

And another pair half finished. I am the heel turning on each sock. This is the Louche pattern by Hunter Hammersen.

This is supposed to be a simple pattern but for some reason this one keeps kicking my butt. I do like the pattern results, so I am sticking with it. The socks are mirror images so I think they will be lovely when done. The yarn is the latest to arrive from the Tanis Year in Colour club! Lovely shades of greens!

Next time, vacation news and pictures.

I Did it Again

2011-04-03T10:30:00.001-03:00

For the unluckiest person in the world, I seem to have the golden touch with the random number generator in the Sock a Month KAL. For the third time I was the monthly winner and will receive this yarn from Spud and Chloe:

I’m guessing it is probably not this bright, but who knows. Anyway, more sock yarn and I didn’t have to buy it so I am still doing good on my sock yarn diet!! (BTW, I finished and posted the sock just hours before the deadline!)

More Blog Silence Explained

2011-04-01T10:48:00.001-03:00

I bought a new vehicle:

This is my new Honda Pilot and I am slowly coming to love it. My problem with vehicles is that I tend to love them and not want to get rid of them when the time comes. Anyway, the time had arrived for my MDX to go, but I was not ready to lose it. I get very attached to my cars, know them inside and out. Well maybe not inside, but I always know when there is something wrong with the poor baby. And I reallllllllly loved that vehicle. But the time had come and the Pilot was on my list of acceptable SUVs. So after many trips to the dealer, test drives, internet searching for reviews etc., I finally decided on the Pilot. Plus the fact that their bottom line came in lower than the ridiculously low one I had in my mind as the lowest I would go and the extras they added to that, made it pretty much impossible not to take it. So here I am, the proud owner of a new Honda Pilot. Which takes regular gas, not premium and I get it serviced in Bridgewater, not Halifax.

I spent the first night setting up the phone and the sound system and reading the manual. The next morning I am on the phone with the XM Radio guy, moving my contract to the new vehicle and he tells me to get in the car and turn on the radio to make sure it is working and Holy S**t!!! I turn on the key and lights flash on and off but the engine won’t turn on. So I run in the house and get the other key and try that one, same thing. Remembering that I had read the manual the night before, I decided that I had switched the keys, numbered 1 and 2 and had probably screwed up the keyless entry system. After a couple of frantic calls to the dealer and a visit by their service people, it turns out the battery was dead because I had spent so much time playing with it last night when it was not running. Sometimes I overthink things. But in my defense, usually when the battery is dead, you don’t have lights and things on!

Anyway, that accounts for a good part of the blogger silence. Lexulous game playing accounts for some more.

Then trying to finish these socks:

(Gorgeous aren’t they?) by the end of the month so I can at least do one KAL in March. These were finished last evening. ( I just have the neckband and button bands left to do for the Peasy sweater and that will be finished and ready for it’s new owner.)

Then on to my newest obsession, planned pooling. You take a skein of yarn like this:

This is the Blue Heron Rayon Metallic, Sunset colourway. See how the colours are lined up? Then you knit from the middle of the blue end to the middle of the green end for a few rows. If your colours are lining up right, with each colour going up in a stripe, you count the number of stitches you have and that becomes your magic number. Apparently it can take a few tries, but I am fascinated by it and it I can get it to work out properly, I will have a scarf similar to this one. Totally boggles my mind what they are doing with planned pooling now. Plaids even!!!!

It is now raining out and they are calling for snow here today. I may whine about the rain, but I will rant if we get snow! I am definitely in spring mode!

Why I Love my New Chiropractor! (et al)

2011-03-21T11:21:00.001-03:00

This post explains my recent back issue and now, 5 weeks later, I am a pretty darn happy camper!

My back is better than it has been in 4, count them, 4 years! I had an issue on the weekend driving to and from Saint John ( a 6 hour trip ) despite stopping and walking around every hour or so. I have a spot where it seems to kink sometimes, but I can usually work it out pretty easily. Yay! That acted up both days after the drive, but was gone the next day. Last night I even took the dogs for a half hour walk with no pain whatsoever! I am now cautiously optimistic that this will continue and I will be able to walk further and further! And I will definitely continue to see my chiropractor at least once a month for the rest of my life! And that is why I love my chiropractor!

Whilst we were in Saint John, we went to Reese’s Ice Show where she was a panda in the I Want to Move It Move It part of the program. And the cutest little panda you ever did see!

I also went to the yarn shop and bought this:

It’s the Blue Heron Rayon Metallics that I knit the gorgeous shawl in last year. If you look closely, you can see the gold sparkles! Not really my colours but I thought it would be bright and cheerful for summer! I am thinking another Clapotis, but a thin one this time. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Progress has been made on the sweater. I am down to my last ball and am not sure if I have enough or not. But as it turns out, I have to go to the city tomorrow for a car appointment. My gear shift is really stiff and hard to move so they will fix that. ( I may also go try out this car I found on Kijiji. Not sure. I’m tempted but not sure yet.) So I should knit on the sweater today and then I’ll know whether I need the extra ball or not. Maybe I’ll just get it and I can always return it if I don’t use it! Ok, now I’m rambling.

I started the Lupine Socks with the Waikiwi yarn on Thursday as I needed car knitting. Here’s where I am with them:

I am totally pleased and love them!

And now I am off to play my turn on Lexulous and then go to lunch with my friend!

Randomness

2011-03-15T12:17:00.001-03:00

This is going to be a random mishmash post. A little bit of this and that. No theme. Just rambling.

1. Like the rest of the world, at our house we watch the news avidly and just cannot believe the absolute horror of what is happening in Japan. The humungous earthquake, the devastating tsunami and now the nuclear reactors blowing up! What can we do to help? Not a whole lot, but we donate money to the Red Cross and hope and pray that things get better soon.

2. The Brier (curling) is over and Manitoba won. They are not my favourite team, but they played better than any team there and truly deserved to win! Go worlds! And I got a fair amount of knitting done. Just about 4 inches left to go on the body of my Peasy sweater!

3. Staying with sports, it appears the World Figure Skating Championships to be held in Tokyo Japan have been cancelled. I totally understand but feel so sorry for all the athletes who have worked so hard to compete there this year.

4. It is sunny and lovely out. Cool, but you can tell spring is in the air! And my dogs love sprawling out in the sun in our den.

5. DH and I have both had a touch of the stomach flu these past few days. Nothing serious. Just feeling blechy. And I do think blechy should be a word in the dictionary. I can’t be the only one in the world to use blechy!

6. I started playing Lexulous on FB with a friend of mine and I totally enjoy it. Anyone who wants to play, I am only starting and my rating fluctuates, but right now I am 1370ish.

7. I went to Sagor’s Bookstore in Bridgewater the other day, looking for a particular book. They carry a lot of wonderful knitting books, which I had forgotten, and the lovely lady who works there is now my friend on Ravelry, GooGoo. She is a knitter, hence the great supply of knitting books. So I bought two:

The first is Sock Club and there are at least 12 patterns in there that I would love to knit. These are socks that have been designed for sock clubs and not released to the general public.

The second, which she ordered for me and which arrived yesterday is Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders. I figured this would be a good source of ideas for some of my sock yarn, so I can put a dent in my stash!

8. And speaking of books, last week I received this in the mail.

It is a sock pattern book by Hunter Hammersen and is based on oriental rug patterns. I have done a couple of her patterns and so pre-ordered the book months ago. There are some lovely patterns, one of which I am showing here!

9. I am currently knitting another pair of slippers for DD2 as once again she has worn out a pair. This time I am going to sew the suede soles on them and see if that will make a difference!

Deep Purple, Purple Haze, Purple Rain & Purple People Eater

2011-03-09T11:06:00.001-04:00

Are songs that come to my mind right now. And I can't get this one out of my head or stop humming it:

“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls

And the stars begin to twinkle in the sky—

In the mist of a memory you wander back to me

Breathing my name with a sigh...”

I appear to be in the throes of a purple takeover and I love it. I recently bought a purple cardigan and last week a purple shirt. For some reason, everything I am knitting now is purple, I have three scarves finished and two sock projects waiting to go on the needles and they are all purple! The sweater that I am currently knitting is purple.

These skeins will be socks in the very near future!

DD#2 requires a new pair of slippers. I wonder what colour I will make them?!

Why I Cheated (on my diet)

2011-03-04T10:41:00.001-04:00

I put myself on a yarn diet for this year 2011. But as I have been known to do with all diets, I then changed it up a bit by deciding the diet would only be for sock yarn. I have lots of sock yarn. Loads and loads. I haven’t actually counted yet because I don’t want or need to know. Sort of like I won’t weigh myself when I know I have gained weight and should be doing a bit of dieting.

So I have been doing really well for January and February. I bought some of the Frill Seeker for the scarves. Our local yarn store is closing the end of March and all yarn was 25% off so I bought a bunch of Classic Wool for slippers. And two skeins of the Cascade Heritage sock yarn. It was on sale for goodness sake! I think you can cheat a little under those circumstances.

But then yesterday I popped into my favourite yarn shop, Have a Yarn, In Mahone Bay, to pick up one more ball of the Frill Seeker yarn to knit one more scarf and these somehow or other ended up in my basket.

Now this yarn is 55% merino, 20% nylon, 15% alpaca and 10% possum. It is the softest freaking sock yarn I have ever touched. Plus there was a customer in the store who had knit with it and totally raved about it. And then to top it off, look at the colour. I have been searching for a lovely soft purplish yarn for a long time and it will so match my new top! The colour reminds me of lupines. I Loooooooooove lupines. But I wavered, yes, no, yes, no, maybe, no……….

So then guess what was sitting in a basket right beside the checkout counter? A Fiber Trends pattern by Evelyn A Clark for a pair of socks called Lupine Lace Socks. Can you believe it? And that is how I cheated on my yarn diet! I went and got the yarn and the pattern and here they are, happy as can be, at my house! Just waiting for me to match them together for a perfectly gorgeous pair of socks. For me. Nobody else is getting them. Me.

And yes, I am still on a sock yarn diet. But now it is only for sock yarns brands that I already have. If I were to come across a yarn that I have never knit with and is drop dead gorgeous, I am allowing myself to get one. Only if it is absolutely amazing and wonderful. Duh!

Almost March

2011-02-28T11:09:00.001-04:00

Between chiropractor appointments, resting and icing my back, and watching curling on TV, this past week has flown by! And a lot of knitting has been accomplished!

I finished my last ruffled scarf and it matches my jacket beautifully! I love it! It gets compliments everywhere it goes!

After I finished that I was at a loss for what to start. I received my yarn from the Cookie A sock club, and whilst I loved the yarn, I confess to not being too fussy about either pattern that came with it! So I am holding off on knitting those. And I can’t start any other socks till March 1st a la my KALs. So I dug out this humungous ball of Bernat Handicrafter cotton and knit 10 dishclothes.

Two will be for me and the others can be gifted whenever I need a little something or if anyone in my family wants a couple. I know both girls like them! Not sure whether my sister or SIL has ever had one, but they are up for grabs.

We went into the city on Saturday and stayed overnight. We went out to dinner with John’s brother and SIL and another couple at a Mano. Fun Italian restaurant with great food and wine.

Whist we were in the city, I got some yarn to knit my friend a Peasy sweater. ( John did quite well at the golf store, BTW! ) She modelled the first one I knit and absolutely loved it and really wanted one for herself. I found a gorgeous rich purple which I am sure she will love and started it yesterday afternoon when we got home. Between 2 curling games and the Oscars last night, I got a fair amount of knitting done:

It is knit from the neck down and there is a lace pattern at the top front edges. There is also increasing for the raglan sleeves, etc. The pattern is well written and very accurate, but one must be on one’s toes when reading it. The lace pattern is only four row repeats, but you have the right side and the left side to keep track of. You knit so many repeats of the lace pattern and then change the raglan increases to every other row for the sleeves and then every 4th row for the body! Like I said, well written but requires concentration and math skills!! But the finished product is worth it. I have knit it twice before for my daughters and they both love theirs!

And that has been the past week. Boring but fruitful.

Now we get to look forward to March. We are not going away this year in March so we are hoping for another one like last year. It was actually nicer here in Nova Scotia than it was in Florida for several days in March. So maybe it will be similar this year!!

The Tim Horton’s Brier starts on Saturday March 5 and that will be excellent curling! Kevin Martin is there again from Alberta ( go Team Martin!) with a great field of competitors, so I anticipate finishing this sweater in no time!!!

Blame the Back

2011-02-21T10:42:00.001-04:00

There has been a bit of a blogger blackout from me lately. I was really doing well blogging at least once if not twice a week for the last while, but I have been brought down by a bad back. A really painful bad back. Excruciatingly painful bad back. Bad enough that I went to Out Patients at our local hospital a week ago. ( I do not go to OP unless things are really bad.) The doc on call gave me some muscle relaxants and suggested I see a chiropractor. I will confess that my jaw dropped to my chest when I heard the C word coming out of his mouth. (Most doctors do not like chiropractors and never recommend them!) So I took my meds and called the next morning for an appointment. I had to go out of town as our local chiropractor is off on Maternity leave. So I got an appointment for Wed afternoon and none to soon at that! I literally could not make it across the street without almost crying with pain on Wednesday. She examined me, took a history and did a spinal scan. After all this she determined that some of my facet joints were stuck, causing the extreme pain, and also that my pelvis was off kilter by more than an inch.

I have now had 2 treatments and am feeling much better, although I keep having pain in different areas of my back and legs now. Not as acute pain, but pain nonetheless. I figure as she pushes things back into place there is bound to be some discomfort. Anyway, I have 3 sessions booked for this week and she will reassess me after that.

As anyone with severe back pain will tell you, when your back is bad, everything else suffers. I know I am very nervous to even take my dogs for too long a walk for fear of aggravating the whole thing. And you just can’t seem to function at a proper pace. Everything is slow. So I am taking things slowly and doing everything I can to get this back of mine in shape again!

However, one thing I still can do is knit. I have finished my In and Out socks by Cookie A and am very pleased with them. They are for ME!

They are mirror images, so I have posted both pics so you can see the way the socks wrap around one’s feet.

Next up, I finished the scarf/shawl from the Tanis Fiber Arts Year in Colour club. I should have gone up a size or two when I cast on, but I didn’t so it is only going to be a scarf. I also didn’t put the edging along the one side. Just didn’t seem to like it that much. But I love the scarf as is and it is blocking as we speak. I’ll post a better picture when it dry and looking good!

Then we have one finished and one on the needles of the Frill Seeker scarves. For some reason, I enjoy doing these scarves up and they are so quick it is instant gratification! The blue/green will be going to a silent auction. ( I am hoping someone in my family will want the purple one! And the blue one from the Tanis Club! I already have 2 in those colours!) This one is about 5 feet long.

This is about 2 feet of the purple one. I did one less stitch to make it not quite as thick as the blue one and like it much better. They are fun and funky and I get lots of compliments on my red one!

Now I am going to knit and watch the Scotties Ladies curling. Then after lunch I am off to the chiropractor again and I am crossing all appendages for a good successful session!

FYI They Really Mean those Warnings

2011-02-09T10:57:00.000-04:00

When they tell you not to turn your microwave on with nothing in it, there us a reason for that. It will catch on fire! Had I thought to take pictures, I would have physical proof of this. But, I was seriously upset and annoyed with myself and didn't think of it till this morning. And of course, today is garbage day and my dead microwave with all it's bits and pieces was in the garbage.

So, how could this happen you might ask yourself. Good question. I was making another slow cooker recipe from the book mentioned in a previous post. The slow cooker chicken was perfect. The rice was ready, the asparagus was done, but it was a little early for dinner yet. Being a very clever lady, I decided to put the timer on for 10 minutes and then check how things were holding up. I then turned on the microwave instead of the timer. When it buzzed 10 minutes later and I returned to the kitchen, I noticed an orange glow in the microwave. WTH! I said to myself. (Actually I said something else which I won't repeat here!) And then the flame went out and all became clear. (More asterisk language here.) I had run the freaking microwave on high for 10 long minutes when it was totally empty. They do clearly tell you not to do that. I have accidentally done this before for a minute or so with no dire consequences, but not this time. The round molded plastic thingy that the turntable sits on was ashes, the glass turntable was burned through and cracked, the floor of the microwave was marginally affected and the whole thing was full of smoke! And let me tell you the smell of burnt plastic was horrid! Still is hanging around today, despite open windows and candles and everything else.

On the positive side, the dinner was really good! And I am getting a new microwave! And hopefully I will never do this again!

Rain Rain Go Away

2011-02-08T10:46:00.006-04:00

Our beautiful winter snow is being washed away by a winter rainstorm. I hate it. Cold, horrid, wet rain. I love snow. Light, fluffy, white, sparkly. There will be no picture of the rain destroying my snow. The dratted stuff is coming down in buckets, cats and dogs, whatever you say to indicate heavy rain. Then when you go to town or wherever, people will invariably say, “ well at least we don’t have to shovel it!” A pox on them I say! I like snow!
My husband thinks I am crazy for enjoying winter, but I will confess to be a winter sports junkie. I love skating and curling, the only sports available in our small town when I was growing up. Due to knee and back issues, I no longer do either, but I love watching them on TV. Both of my girls figure skated and I have been involved with the sport, either locally or at the provincial level for over 25 years. I retired from the provincial board 4 years ago when I had my knee replacement surgery, but still love it! Every year we drive to Florida for the month March, which encompasses the last week in February and the first week in April. I miss the curling finals, men’s and women’s, and the world skating championships. For some reason, the American networks don’t show these events in Florida!! This year we are going to Arizona and then on to Hawaii for the last 3 weeks in April. So I get to see all my favourite sporting events! Yay!

I am really enjoying my In and Out socks. I have turned the heel on one and am on the foot. I am about to turn the heel on the other. I love the way the pattern in the leg becomes the slipped stitch heel flap:

I almost screwed it up though. The pattern calls for the slipped stitches to happen on the purl side, not the knit side, as is the norm and I almost, very nearly said to myself, what the heck, just knit one row and do the slipped stitches on the knit side! But I didn’t and voila!

I should be able to finish this sock today. I have a pedicure and hair appointment this afternoon and will take the sock with me. And then tonight is NCIS. NCIS Los Angelos and The Good Wife on TV. Great knitting night!
FYI. The pouring down rain is now pouring down wet snowflakes. And yes, I hate those too. If we are going to have snow, I want proper, light and fluffy, and pretty snow. Not these aberrations! A pox on them I say!

Amazing Hand Dancing

2011-02-06T09:27:00.001-04:00

This is wonderful and will definitely make you smile and feel happy! Nothing to do with knitting, but they do use their hands! They are the couple from the McDonald's ads and apparently this clip got them the job for that ad!

Amazing Hand Dancing (with a straight face yet!) - more than 4,000,000 views

Thursday Things

2011-02-03T15:25:00.001-04:00

Thing #1:

We did get the big storm yesterday. Lots of snow and wind. John ended up snowblowing our driveway three times, but it looks great!

Quite a contrast from this one from last Thursday Things post!!

Thing #2:

I finished the little socks for Dave and sent them off in the mail today. They should be in Ottawa early next week. And miracle of miracles, the envelope fit in the slot for letters so I only paid $1.40 compared to $10 if it went as a parcel!!

They were knit with Apple Laine, Apple Pie sock yarn that didn’t work out for my Pointelles, and they are lovely and soft and warm for his dear little feet!

Thing #3:

I decided on the In and Out sock after a comment posted by Amphibiaknitter who suggested trying to envision them not in the dark blue in the book. It worked and so here we go:

I am once again double dipping with 2 KALs. The colour is for the Solid Socks group with a theme of fire for this month, and the pattern is for the CookieA SKL KAL!

Thing #4:

And the most exciting if I do say! My first bi-monthly package from the Tanis Fiber Arts Year in Colour club arrived today and I am so in love with the yarn and the pattern. Yarn is named Frost and the pattern is for a lace scarf designed by Tanis Gray!

As anyone who knows me or has seen my project page on Ravelry can attest, I LOVE this colour and am so thrilled and pleased with this package. Last year I joined another sock club that I will not mention and was seriously disappointed with the yarns that came. In fact, I have given a couple of them away as I just plain did not like them!! So I was a little leery about joining another club where I would have to take what was sent, but I figured with Tanis I would be safe! I haven’t seen one of her colourways that I did not like!!

Thing #5:

I have had a cough for at least two weeks, and probably longer. Not a chest cold cough, just an unproductive tickle in my throat cough which has been driving me crazy (and possibly John as well) for days now. Sometimes it seems like I am coughing every 5 minutes! So one of my friends suggested honey and cinnamon. Just a spoonful of honey with cinnamon sprinkled on top. Sounds like a song doesn’t it? Anyway, I hate cough syrups (they make me sick) and I am not a fan of honey (too sweet), but I finally decided this morning to bite the bullet and try the honey concoction. What can I say? It seems to be helping. The coughing is way down, maybe 5 or 6 times in the last four hours! So I will take it again after dinner tonight and at bedtime and see if it continues to help. But right now I am a happy camper. I was getting so tired, just from the coughing alone, that I was verging on breaking down and going to the doctor! Now we will wait and see!

Thing #6:

Lastly is my new venture into the world of crockpot or slow cooker meals. When I was in Ottawa, Shannon bought this cookbook, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, by Stephanie O’Dea. She started out with this blog, A Year of Slow Cooking and it was so successful that she now has two books out! Anyway, when I came home I bought the book and have done a pot roast with all the veggies, which was very successful and well received by John, and then the Coq au Vin recipe which was amazingly good. John has requested this gone on the menu at least monthly at our house.

On Saturday we are having friends in for chili and to watch the movie, The Social Network on our Apple TV. We tried last weekend, but it wasn’t available then! I have checked myself and as of today, you can rent it through iTunes and Apple TV! I will make slow cooker chili, but I’ll use a long time favourite recipe of mine, although there are several in her book. Tried and true works for me as well!

So have a nice weekend everyone! We are meeting Lauren & Mark and kids in the city for lunch on Sunday! Yay! Really looking forward to that!

Monday Morning Mishmash

2011-01-31T10:40:00.001-04:00

I spoke too soon! This morning John is out snowblowing. Not that much snow, about 4 or 5 inches, but now that the ever popular weatherman is forecasting a big storm on Tuesday and Wednesday, J is getting ready for it. Now the big question is: will it actually hit us or not?

A Gunni update. Turns out the lump on his head was an abscess. The vet couldn’t find a scratch or anything that might have caused it, but when he inserted a needle into the lump, bloody pus came out. So he made a small incision and drained as much as he could and told me to use hot saline compresses for a few days and not to let it scab over. So of course, I get up the first morning and it is scabbed over! I did try more compresses, but to no avail. Hopefully the little lump that is left won’t get bigger. Plus, he is on antibiotics for a week.

I finished two more of the ruffled scarves. (The pattern I use is on this link to my Ravelry page.) Both are going to friends for prizes for events they are putting on! I wear my red one all the time and can’t believe how warm they actually are!

And I started a little pair of socks for middle grandson Dave. He likes my warm socks and so he will get a pair. I needed something to knit till my next KAL which starts on Tuesday! So vanilla/basic/plain, whatever you want to call them, blue socks for Dave.

I still haven’t decided what pattern to knit for my KAL, but will make my mind up later today. The choices are Marilinda, which I have already done. or In and Out which I haven’t done, but don’t like as much as the Marilindas.

Next post will be either big snow or rain. Hoping for rain.

Thursday Things

2011-01-27T15:27:00.001-04:00

Today we were supposed to be hit by our third, count it 3rd, snow storm of the month. So I cancelled my car appointment and my lunch date with my Halifax Nancy and stayed home. This is a picture of my back yard after our third, count it 3rd, snow storm had struck:

You might notice the lack of snow. And the grass. Now you can understand why they refer to our little area of Nova Scotia as the banana belt!!

So instead of heading off to the city, I stayed home and watched the Australian Open Tennis semi final between Roger and Novak Djokavic and knit. Roger lost. :( Actually, I must say that Novak won. He seriously outplayed him. And with Nadal out as well, we will have a new champion. I am hoping for Novak, as I am not a fan of Andy Murray ( despite the last name ) and have not one iota of interest in David Ferrer. They play off tonight for the other final berth!

On the plus side, I did finish my Pointelle Socks! Yea! For a while there I actually thought they were going to bring me down. They did kick my butt some, but I persevered and voila:

This is the view showing each side and the next one shows the mirror images:

Next up I am doing another one of the ruffled scarves, in a lime green with the silver thread running through it. This is being donated as a prize for my friend’s fundraising bingo. I figure better a scarf than socks, as it will be more likely to fit!

And lastly for today, we have a picture of our little Welsh Terrier, Gunni, who suddenly developed a lump on his forehead, just above the eyes. It’s hard to tell in the pics, but the black spot is supposed to be flat!

Little guy has an appointment at the vet tomorrow morning. I am guessing cyst, but who knows. Hopefully they will be able to fix him up without an anaesthetic. When he was neutered, he had a huge issue with low pulse rate and blood pressure and almost died on them! So we will be thinking positive thoughts tomorrow!

Ottawa Week in Review

2011-01-24T12:28:00.001-04:00

I survived my week in Ottawa helping Shannon out whilst she worked on report cards, homework, etc for school. I am tired, but must say I enjoyed spending time with the little ones.

The children were supposed to be at day care so I could get some things done during the day. Monday morning however, I got a call from Shannon saying that Leah was sick and could I go pick her up and bring her home.

On our way home, I scooted into Tim’s to pick up a muffin for my lunch and of course had to take Leah with me. Well, the little monkey was dancing to the music, flirting with the customers and smiling all over the place. Did not appear to be one tiny little bit sick! We got home where we did puzzles, read, watched a video. (Please, please, don’t make me watch Strawberry Shortcake or Dora ever again!) And that set the precedent for the rest of the week. I did errands or whatever in the mornings, picked Leah up at noon and had her the rest of the day. So Leah and Nana really had a wonderful time together! I would definitely say that we bonded! I also managed to get a lot of things done for Shan. Laundry, beds changed, grocery shopping and general errands. I took Dave to Beavers one night and went to Pete’s hockey game another night.

Dave’s the little one on the left.

This is Pete’s hockey card picture:

On my last night there we went to Montana’s to celebrate Leah’s third birthday and then back home for butterfly birthday cake:

All in all, I think it went well and I am even prepared to go back again in February if they need help again.

On the knitting front, I finished the little baby blanket for my friends' new granddaughter:

Please take note of how the diagonal blocks all match up beautifully! I was really pleased with this and it will go off to the new little one tomorrow!

My Pointelle socks are coming along nicely. I have turned the heel on both socks and am halfway done the foot on one of them. Pictures to come when they are finished.

And finally, as I was getting ready to leave for the airport on Sunday, Rudy, the family cocker spaniel, was doing his best Snoopy imitation on the living room sofa:

Weekend Wrapup

2011-01-15T10:47:00.001-04:00

I have knit dozens of pairs of socks. I love knitting socks. They are portable, fun to knit and you always have a finished product that someone will love! I never have problems with socks. But, I am having issues with my latest sock. It is the Cookie A pattern Pointelle from her new book, Knit Sock Love. It is a beautiful pattern and will be gorgeous when it is done. But getting it done seems to be the problem. Actually, getting it started is the real problem. I started out with Apple Laine Apple Pie sock yarn, which I love and 2.75 needles, which is the size I always use. After the ribbing and about 2 inches of the leg, I decided it was too big and tore it back to the ribbing and changed to smaller needles, 2.5 and knit about 3 inches of leg. It is still too big. So I have decided that the problem is the yarn. I started again with Malabrigo yarn, which I really love for socks and the 2.5 needles. Now I am thinking it is going to be too small! Argh! But I will continue for a few more inches to be sure. The big question is, if it is indeed too small, will I rip it out and start again on 2.75s?

I am still working on the baby blanket. I have 3 squares left to do, then sew in the ends, and add an attached icord around the whole blanket to finish if off. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to finish it before I leave for Ottawa tomorrow, and I wanted to get the socks set up for car and plane knitting, so I will take it with me and hope to finish it up there! It really is going to be sweet and so pink and girly!

Yesterday I got a text message from Lauren with this picture attached. I was totally surprised and taken aback. First, I didn’t realize you could send pictures with a text message and second:

These slippers got to her mid December. She hasn’t even had them a month! I cannot figure out how she is wearing them out so fast. But upon closer examination, this one looks like the stitching is coming apart at the top of the middle seam of the sole. Not worn out through. Do you suppose it could be (gasp, God forbid) human error? I can guarantee the next pair will be stitched within an inch of their lives and maybe reinforced with some miracle glue to hold them together!!!!

We went to the movie, The King’s Speech, last night and it was excellent! I gave it a 9 and John gave it a 10! If you haven’t seen it yet, I would strongly recommend it!!

We’re out to dinner at a friend’s house tonight and then I am off in the morning. Chances are I won’t be posting again until I get home in a week, but who knows!

Yesterday ( Not the Beatles song )

2011-01-10T10:26:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we had our first snowfall of the season. Only about 5 cm, but enough to make everything white and really pretty. I wished I had my camera on my walk through the woods as it was just stunning! A true winter wonderland!

Yesterday I worked on my baby blanket for my friend’s granddaughter. It is coming along nicely. I’m almost half way there and hope to have it finished before I go to Ottawa on Sunday.

Yesterday we went out to a friend’s for dinner. We had lobster Newburg, an all time favourite of mine and it was delicious! We had a great evening!

Yesterday, before we went out to dinner, I took the dogs for a walk around the block. And then I slipped on the ice and went smuck down, flat on my ass/black. Hurt pride and other parts of me.

Today, I am sore.

Today, I found the gripper things for my boots so walking on the snow and ice shouldn’t be an issue again.

Today I shall rest. And knit if my sore shoulders and wrists hold up!

Another Year, More Knitting

2011-01-06T18:26:00.001-04:00

A belated Happy New Year to everyone out there!

I have been reading people’s first blogs of the new year and many are doing a yearly roundup of all their projects. A great idea which I did last year and have decided to pass on this year. If you read this blog regularly, then you have seen everything I have done in the past year anyway. Suffice it to say that according to my mile marker, I knit 10.9 miles last year! Not braggin’, just sayin’.

And then a lot of people are going on a self imposed yarn diet this year. Also a good idea and one I will join with enthusiasm. I seem to have lost my sock mojo for the past few months, so my sock yarn stash has accumulated to record size. Not knitting socks and buying more sock yarn will do that. Plus, I joined not one, but two sock yarn clubs this year, which means that I will be getting 12 delightful parcels in the mail to fulfill my need for yarn.

As for the sock mojo, I do hope to find it this month. But things keep getting in the way. I started a pair of Pointelle socks for the Cookie A Knit Sock Love KAL on January 2nd, only to find out that my friend’s daughter had a baby girl 2 days later. ( If people knew how much knitters appreciate knowing the baby’s gender up front, they would all find out what it is when they have their 20 week ultrasound! ) So now I am putting aside my sock to work on a pink baby blanket. And then next week I am going up to Ottawa to stay with Shannon for a week. I may or may not take the socks as they require a chart and it doesn’t always work well with three little ones around! We will see.

The baby blanket is the same pattern that I did once before, but in a pretty pink pattern instead of the blues. And for the new mother, totally wash and dry!

And to finish off, a couple of pictures from our visit in Saint John over Christmas:

Miss Reese in her Christmas eve nightgown:

And of course Hunter in matching PJs!

And here we have the whole family for Christmas Dinner:

A wonderful time was had by all! Everyone contributed to the meal, so it wasn’t a hassle for Lauren to get ready. Plus it was absolutely delicious!

Catching Up after Christmas

2010-12-28T10:05:00.001-04:00

Christmas is over and we are slowly getting back to normal at our house. We spent a wonderful few days with Lauren and her family over Christmas, but I forgot my camera and so no pictures. I will get them to send me a few of theirs when they sort them.

Knitting has been going along well. I found this pattern and funky yarn for ruffled scarves when I was in Ottawa, and so far have knitted 4 of them. Three are like this:

for Reese, Leah and a friend of Reese’s is getting the third one. I had the yarn leftover for one more and no grandkids to give it to, so Reese offered to give it to her friend Hannah. It’s hard to tell but there is a silver thread running through this to make it sparkle. The fourth one is red, no sparkly thread and wider for me:

This one took two balls of the yarn using 9 stitches and I have one ball left. So I may do another one using 6 or 7 stitches for someone. And finally I have a silver/grey ball to knit one more!

I also finished the Infinity Scarf and am thrilled with it. The pictures don’t do it justice but here it is:

The second pic shows it as it would be if wrapped once around your neck. And it is delightfully warm!

At the moment I am knitting another pair of clogs for my former hairdresser. She moved her business to her home which is too far for me to travel, hence the former. And she recently had a baby! She is friends with my pedicure lady and asked her to ask me if I would knit her another pair of clogs. She absolutely loves them and so of course I said yes. It is such fun to knit things for people who really love and appreciate them!!

Next up on the needles is this hat for John. He keeps wearing the dog walking hat everywhere and that was knit to match his winter jacket, and doesn’t look good with everything else. One of our Knit Nite ladies knit a hat with a great grey yarn that would be perfect for this hat. I’m going to try to get some today!

Ok! That’s it for the knitting. Now for the rest. I am getting a cold. My nose it itchy and running and I am annoyed. I do everything right and still I get a cold. This will be my second cold in four months and I am seriously ticked off! I had a flu shot and everything. I am taking Cold FX. My last cold peaked just in time for my big birthday party in late August. Guess who is having a big new year’s eve party on Friday? That’s right. We’re having 12 people in for a pot luck wine pairing meal and I am doing the main course! Lobster Newburg. *!?^$#!

I am off to Bridgewater later today to do some errands. My food processor died as I was making a dip to take to NB before Christmas. Bah humbug! And my printer colour cartridges all needed to be changed at the same time, so I need to go to Staples to recycle the old ones and get some paper! I will say the cartridges do last a long time so I am safe for a while. Maybe I’ll get a black cartridge. If they have any. I replaced that one several months ago!

Lastly, the storm that wreaked havoc on the New England states and much of Atlantic Canada, missed us completely. Yesterday, when others were getting snow and ice and high winds and power outages, we had a little rain and the temps were around 7 or 8! We actually had sunny breaks! So I say, yes, we do live in the banana belt of Nova Scotia!

Christmas Time in Ottawa

2010-12-18T11:31:00.001-04:00

This has just been the busiest December I can remember in a long time! Seems we are constantly on the go with parties, visits, shopping etc. But I finally had a few minutes to download some pictures from our visit to Ottawa last week and so here they are:

Pete and Rudy checking out traffic on the street.

David just being David!

Leah proving she can put a whole chocolate ball in her mouth. Also demonstrating the black eye she got an hour before we arrived in Ottawa!

Next we have Pete & Leah bonding with Rudy:

Quiet time! In a house with 3 small children, you don’t see this very often!

This is a picture of my niece Amy with Leah. Leah is so much like Amy it isn’t even funny. Same mannerisms, everything. So we are guessing that Leah might look like this when she is all grown up.

And finally, the Christmas tree which we picked out on Saturday and then decorated on Sunday. We aren’t going to have a tree this year as we are going to Lauren’s for the holiday, so it was great fun to get to do this with Shannon’s family!

Christmas Comes Early

2010-12-08T10:20:00.001-04:00

Remember the little knee socks I was knitting for Reese and rushing to try to make it in time to qualify for the Sock a Month KAL? Well guess what? I won! My number was drawn! I am now the proud owner of Dream in Colour Smooshy, colourway Spring Tide! And how much do I love this colour?! Tons!

Is it obvious to everyone that I ~~never~~ hardly ever win anything?!

Monday Mishmash and Pattern Reading

2010-12-06T11:57:00.001-04:00

Update on my shopping trip to Halifax last Tuesday! I got a pair of gorgeous shoes at O My Sole. They fit beautifully and are so comfortable that I wore them to a party Friday where there was singing and dancing going on for hours! Then I wore them to the city yesterday and shopped for a couple of hours before going out to dinner with John’s brother and his wife and the shoes were just as comfy. I also managed to get a bit of yarn at LK Yarns. Some blue Miski by Mirasol Yarn to make a cowl and a drop dead gorgeous kit to knit the Dipped Infinity Scarf. The kit was done up with Tanis Fiber Arts fingering weight yarns and is going to be beautiful! Lots of other things got done, but those were the highlights!

OK. So first I finished the knee socks for Reese. And got them in under the wire for the Sock a Month KAL.

Then I cast on and knit the Darkside Cowl, which did up in a couple of days. This is for me to put on under my winter jacket whilst walking the dog on these cold windy days.

Now I was ready to start the Dipped Infinity Scarf. I was absolutely drooling I so wanted to get going on this scarf.

With the little bit of free time I had on Saturday, I balled up to skeins and cast on 252 stitches and started the ribbing. ( I really wanted to get this going so I could knit in the car on the way to the city on Sunday.) As I was knitting I am thinking to myself that I am not going to have enough yarn to knit this according to the pattern instructions. But, ~~being in a state of denial~~ really keen to get this underway, I continued on until even I could see that this wasn’t going to work. So I read the instructions again and noticed that it said to start at the dark end, not the pretty turquoise end that I started at. I then weighed the skeins and realized why. One of the balls at the dark end had twice as much yarn as at the light end. I ripped it out, ( this is knit with 2 strands at once so you know it isn’t easy to do) and on Sunday morning, before we left for Halifax, I cast on 252 more stitches with the right colours! I knit for over an hour in the car when I remembered that the pattern said to be careful not to twist the yarn when joining it together. So I checked it once, twice, ten times! (insert curse words here) Not only was it twisted once, but get this, three twists! I ripped it out again. I was calm. I then put it away until later today when I can have some quiet time and cast on 252 stitches again, with the right yarn, and make sure there are no twists when I join it together! I still love it and want to knit it. But here’s a warning, do NOT mess with me again. Everybody should play nicely together until this is finished! Agreed?!

With the Christmas party season well under way, we have been out straight for several days and are looking forward to our visit in Ottawa! We fly in on Thursday and home again Sunday evening, so we will have lots of time with the kids and still get some errands done! I have an appointment at the Apple Store to have my iPhone looked at and am hoping they can fix the crack in my screen.
Although I am eligible for an iPhone 4 upgrade, it does mean signing a contract again and I realllllllllly don’t want that!

Finally, a little bit of history. This is a picture of me and my dear friend Robin, who I have been friends with since we were wee little things. He is literally my oldest friend in the world. The picture was taken at Hunts Point Beach, which is the community we both live in now! It’s the old what goes around, comes around thing.

Weren’t we just the cutest things?

Next post: Ottawa grandkid pics!

What? Monday again? Already?

2010-11-29T11:51:00.001-04:00

Where is the time going? I seem to be on the go constantly and getting nowhere at the same time. How can that be? It must be the whole Christmas is on the way thing, and if I ignore it, it won’t get here until I am ready! Not!

I am making progress on my Christmas knitting though. Here is another Clapotis scarf that I knit for a friend of mine. It is in Tanis Silver Label Mulberry Silk and is simply gorgeous to work with. As is the finished project:

The second picture is just there to give a truer colour. For some reason they all seem to come out bluish, when in fact it is more on the purplish side. Anyway, done!

Secondly are the knee socks I have been knitting for Miss Reese. I finished one and am just past the cuff on the second one. My goal is to finish them by Wednesday so I can at least qualify for the Sock A Month KAL this month.

My other 3 KALs were a no show for me for November. Next month I will be able to do some sock knitting and whatever else I may come up with. I am thinking a warm cosy cowl for my neck whilst walking the dogs this winter. Not sure if I have suitable yarn, but I am sure a yarn shop could be in my future tomorrow. I am going to the city to do what little Christmas shopping I have to do and look for a pair of shoes. (I hate shoe shopping, I take a 10 wide and everyone looks at me like I have 2 heads when I ask for that size! “What? You actually think we have that size this time of year?” Silly woman! ) But hope springs eternal and I will go convinced that I will be bringing home a new pair of shoes! And maybe even a bright shiny sweater to wear over the Christmas season! Who knows?

We are getting ready to fly to Ottawa to visit Shannon and her family next weekend. It will be so great to see the little ones again, and their parents of course. Where we only see them a few times a year, we notice such big changes in them every time. Pete is in hockey for example! Little Pete. I can’t wait to see him in his gear! We are going to watch one of his practices! Fun!! And then for Christmas we will spend a few days with Lauren and her family, so we will get our dose of grandkids this month!

I must go and knit. And knit some more! Oh yes, and get my flu shot this afternoon! Over and out…………

8 Pair, Finally Felted

2010-11-23T10:57:00.001-04:00

and ready to be needle-felted. Not all of them. Not the men's clogs. Somehow I think the men will be happy with just the clogs. So that takes it down to 5 pair. And I may not do the child's pair. The colours alone make that one funky enough, IMHO! They are the cute pair in the middle.

I spent much of yesterday felting these clogs, I don't like to throw too many in together and get dark woolly bits over light coloured clogs and vice versa. So I did them in two loads. And then of course there is the whole issue of trying to get them the right size! I need a 7, or a 7 1/2. A 10, an 11. Well, you get the idea. So they are all felted to size the best I could do with only my feet for sizing purposes!

So today I needle-felt and then I am finished with the clogs for a while! I am totally not artistic, so my artwork is pretty basic, but it does perk up the clogs and makes them look pretty darn impressive!

In other knitting news, I am working on another Clapotis scarf with some gorgeous purplish Tanis Fiber Arts Silver Label Mulberry Silk. I’m not quite halfway through my skein of yarn and I have 36 inches done, so it will be lovely and long!

The colour is not quite right. There is more of a purple with bluish tones than this is showing. And of course it will look 100% better when it is soaked and blocked!

And lastly, my brain-dead, car knitting, the little pair of knee socks for Miss Reese:

I am on the heel flap, so the rest should go pretty quickly. It is the 9 inch leg that takes up so much time! Hopefully I will have enough yarn to get both socks out of one skein. I will weigh them when I am done so I will know for sure. They will be really cute when they are finally finished and I am sure she will love them!

As for my Bubbles Scarf, that will have to be on hold until after Christmas. Just too darn much to do. And yes, I said the “C” word. I absolutely cannot believe how fast the time is flying by and it will be here before I know it! Must get knitting, must get knitting…………..

Felted Clogs & Still Here Update

2010-11-16T09:49:00.001-04:00

Christmas is around the corner and I have been knitting on felted clogs like a fiend. ( Ask my husband, he complains that all I do is count when I knit those! ) True, but I make way fewer mistakes and don’t have to tink back! I have finally finished: 3 ladies medium, 1 ladies large, 3 men’s large, and 1 child’s size 2! Which adds up to 8 pairs of clogs. And 2290 yards of wool! It is knit in 2 strands, so I don’t count the doubled total. That is 1.3 miles or 2.1 kilometers! And about 3 weeks of my knitting time! So they are finished and awaiting their turn in the washer to be felted! Pictures when they are finished!

One big job done. Now on to more Christmas knitting. Socks to finish for Reese and a scarf to start for my dear friend. I am doing another Clapoits in a gorgeous Tanis Fiber Arts silk. No pictures yet.

I have a busy week coming up, nails, hair and pedicure appointments. The dogs needed their shots yesterday and I have bridge tonight! Just another boring week in my life with nothing worth blogging about.

Hence this quick post! Bye for now!

Bring On the Ark!

2010-11-07T09:16:00.002-04:00

I just checked our weather forecast for next week and it was pretty dismal looking. On top of the 3 full days of pouring down rain we have already had, we are expecting rain for the next 5 days.

Monday Nov. 8	Tuesday Nov. 9	Wednesday Nov. 10	Thursday Nov. 11	Friday Nov. 12

The poor dogs are always damp, as are my jeans and raincoat! We were getting used to nice weather ( lovely spring, wonderful summer, and pretty good fall up to now) and I fear the worst. People will whine and complain, become depressed, resort to dire measures. How quickly we forget that this is our normal weather and we should just be grateful for the great weather we have had in the past year!

We have had a busy weekend so far. Dinner out with friends for two evenings, which was great fun. Last night was a pot luck and I made this amazing spread, Arugula and Gorgonzola spread that was absolutely delicious! And easy, just throw all the ingredients in the food processor and voila! It makes a huge amount, and as I have leftovers, I am thinking we should have people in soon to finish it off! Today being Sunday, will be a day of rest and of knitting.

I am still slogging away on the slippers. I can do them so much quicker if I just do them all at once. I pretty much have the pattern memorized and can knit them up pretty fast. The men’s pairs take longer, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am not one of those people who cope well with WIPs ( works in progress to the uninitiated) so my goal is to finish my current projects. Except for the Bubbles scarf which I will piddle at over the next few months. I will not cast on a new pair of socks. I will not cast on a new pair of socks. I will not cast on a new pair of socks.

Well, maybe just one pair……………….. but no more till my WIPs are all FOs!

My How Time Flies

2010-11-04T10:13:00.001-03:00

When you are having fun, or just plain busy and not in the blogging mood. I received an email yesterday from a friend inquiring about my lack of blogging and wondering if all was well here in our little part of the world. Yes, it is. I sometimes just don’t realize how long it has been since my last ~~confession~~ blog post. ( Whoops! that’s the RC coming out in me!)

The main reason is that I haven’t finished going through the rest of our Italy pictures yet and the guilt has kept me from posting. I had in my mind, no post until the pictures are done! Soon though.

I have been busy knitting for Christmas. I sent a letter out to family asking for any slipper requests this year and got a total order for 8 new pairs of felted clogs! So I have been busy doing those. I have 4 ladies pairs done, 1 men’s slipper done, and I need to finish that pair and 2 more men’s pairs and 1 child’s size 1 pair.

Next up is another Christmas gift which has not been started because I am waiting for the yarn to come in at Have A Yarn. Heather ordered it a couple of weeks ago, but still not here yet!

The Bubbles scarf is coming along slowly. I do love it, but I have to seriously concentrate on it, especially in the areas where the bubbles go. I don’t think I am dyslexic, but there are some things I just don’t seem to be able to do. And figuring out how to start and finish each bubble so that it is right on both sides is one of those annoying little things that I just can’t seem to get in my head! Grrrrr!And there are lots of bubbles. So that may not get finished until next winter!

I also started a pair of striped knee socks for Miss Reese. Haven’t got very far on those either.

Apparently I do much better working on one project at a time. Right now I have three on the go, one waiting for the yarn to come and another sock that I want to knit for my KALs. I don’t know how other people can have so many projects on the go at one time and ever get any of them finished. I think that must be what they call “startitis”. You get all excited about starting a new project, and it just goes from there. I think I need to get some finishitis! Hey! This Windows Live Writer program just put in the little happy face for me! Cool! Now let’s try a sad face! Yes! Ok! I am officially happy now! I love this program for doing my blog!

I ordered the new Cookie A sock book, called Knit. Sock. Love. I also got the pdf version, so I can browse through it on my iPad until the hard copy is out later this month! So many socks, so little time to knit them.

That’s a bit of an update. Hopefully by the next post I will have the rest of our Italy trip pictures ready!

Yay! An FO

2010-10-19T10:18:00.003-03:00

Just a quick post to let you know that yes, I am still knitting. And to prove it, here is a finished pair of socks:

These socks are called Journey and I quite loved the pattern. Not the yarn so much. This is from the Rockin' Sock Club, STR lightweight (it felt like medium to me) and the yarn bled terribly. All over both hands! Every time I picked them up to knit I had black smudges and a thick stripe across my throwing finger. And it even felt grungy. So no, not my favourite yarn. Now, because of this one bleeding skein of STR, I am totally off the whole company and probably will not buy any more of their yarn. I got the yarn because I joined their sock club, where you get a surprise skein of yarn and two patterns every other month for a total of 6 times. All the yarns except this one were variegated and I am not a fan of variegated yarn, so I this has not been a fun club for me.

But, being ever optimistic, I have joined another yarn of the month club for 2011, this time by one of my favourite dyers, Tanis Fiber Arts and am quite looking forward to it!

I am still working on the bubbles scarf, but that for me is not social knitting, It requires toooo much concentration. And now is also the time of year when I go into felted clogs mode, so I have started a pair of those for Lauren. I will send out the family letter in a day or so, to see who, if anyone wants any more for this winter!

Too many projects, too little time!

I think that I shall never see

2010-10-18T14:57:00.002-03:00

A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

      -- Joyce Kilmer

Sometimes we have to have trees taken down and it is usually no big deal. A couple of years ago we removed 52 old scraggly pine/fir trees and were glad to see the end of them.

But today we are going to have to remove our beloved maple tree that has stood in our yard for the 37 years we have lived here. My favourite tree. Beautiful in the spring, shady in the summer, gorgeous in the fall. Last Friday we had a bit of a wind storm. Not a hurricane or anything, just a big wind and boom, down came 1/3 of our maple tree. The trunk split in three pieces and one gave up the ghost, landing a few feet from our house.

Despite all my attempts to convince myself that this tree can be rescued, (you can see through the trunk where it split), I know that it has to go. Even today with a fairly stiff breeze, it is leaning precariously. No way will it survive the snow and freezing rain of the upcoming winter! :((

I’m sure we will plant something lovely to fill that spot, but you just cannot replace a beautiful old tree! My lovely maple tree, you will be missed.

Italy Trip, Vatican Tour

2010-10-17T16:06:00.001-03:00

Here is a not so brief post about our guided tour of the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica.

Vatican City covers a territory of 0.44 square kilometres, that is 44 hectares (roughly 100 acres). It is partly surrounded by walls and stretches into St Peter’s Square. The population of Vatican City is about 800 people, of whom over 450 have Vatican citizenship, while the rest have permission to reside there, either temporarily or permanently, without the benefit of citizenship.

This is part of the wall outside the Vatican:

One of the first things we saw was this 1st century Roman bronze Pigna ("pinecone") which gives the name Cortile della Pigna to the highest terrace; it was originally an ancient fountain.

Next we went through several of the Vatican museums with amazing paintings and sculptures. I must confess to taking terrible pictures inside and also not remembering which museums we went through. There was just so much to see. And everything was so overwhelming! I do however remember the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo’s ceiling.

It's about 40 meters (131 feet) long by 13 meters (43 feet) wide and well over 5,000 square feet of frescoes. It took him a bit over four years, from July of 1508 to October of 1512 to complete. This is a sign outside of the Sistine Chapel depicting the whole ceiling.

The ceiling in the Sistine Chapel was truly amazing, breathtaking, any adjective you can think of. Most of the paintings looked three dimensional and I must say I thought that they were till I checked with our guide! Here are some pics ( not mine, but the results of a google search ) if you want to check them out!

Then it was over to St Peter’s Basilica.

Again, I was overwhelmed just to be there, so didn’t get too many pics, but here are a few.

This is the Holy Door or 'Porta Sancta' which is only open during a Holy Year (Jubilee), which occur every 25 years (the last one in 2000). On the first day of a holy year, the Pope strikes the brick wall with a silver hammer and opens it to the pilgrims.

The Pietà (1499) is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by the renowned artist Michelangelo, housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pietà is unique to the precedents. It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism. The statue is one of the most highly finished works by Michelangelo. Again, just boggles the mind to actually see these things in person!

Here lies the body of Pope Bl. John XXIII, who died in 1963 and was beatified on September 3, 2000 by Pope John Paul II. His body has remained incorrupt, as you can see. The tomb of John XXIII was opened for the recognition of his mortal remains which were transferred from the Vatican crypt (located under the basilica) into the basilica in 2001.

When we left the Basilica, we saw these gentlemen.

The Swiss Guards are a small force responsible for the security of the Vatican city with various task including guarding the entrances to the Vatican as well as ensuring the personal safety of the Pope. Today being a Swiss guard at the Vatican city is largely a ceremonial role. However the history of the Swiss guards corps is a long one involving many real military campaigns.

Next we have the view of St. Peter’s Square, from the Basilica:

The Obelisk from Egypt was brought to Rome by Emperor Caligula in 37 AD. It was moved in 1586 to the center of St. Peter's Square. It is also a sun dial, its shadows mark noon over the signs of the zodiac in the white marble disks in the paving of the square. The obelisk rests upon four couchant lions, each with two bodies whose tails intertwine.

Finally we ended up in the official Vatican gift shop where I purchased a peace medallion for me, a couple of medals (all of which were blessed by the Pope), and the obligatory book!

And that was our tour of the Vatican and St. Peter’s Cathedral.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-10-07T09:27:00.001-03:00

This is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and we are busy with family and friends for the next five days. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Canadian friends Happy Thanksgiving and hope you all have much to be thankful for!

Here is one small thing that I have to be thankful for:

My English friends, M & N spent some time at Wimbledon recently and sent me this postcard. Now to them, it is just a postcard! But to me, living here in rural Nova Scotia who is likely never to get to Wimbledon, it is a souvenir from the hallowed grounds of the most famous tennis center in the world, with a picture of Roger Federer, holding his Wimbledon Championship trophy and wearing his Wimbledon garb on it! You should have seem me at the Post Office when I received this in our mailbox!

This now has a position of honour on my desktop, and I mean my own desk in my den, not my computer desktop:

So many thanks to M & N and to all my family and friends, old and new, here and in cyberspace, for being such good friends! I am indeed very lucky and very thankful to have you all in my life.

Next post will have trip pictures!

Home Again

2010-10-04T10:10:00.001-03:00

We arrived home safe and sound after a 21 hour trip. That’s leaving our hotel at 6:15 Thursday morning and arriving here in NS at 10:15 Thursday evening. Factor in the 5 hour time difference and voila! 21 hours! We were so tired we didn’t know if we were punched or bored! I spent the next 3 days either experiencing the worst jet lag ever, or with a case of the stomach flu. Headache, body ache and queasy stomach.

We both decided that we were never travelling again. Ever! So what was John doing last night? Looking for flights to Phoenix Arizona and then on to Hawaii in April! We are going to try Tuscon this spring instead of Florida. Friends of ours who live there part time swear it will get rid of all my aches and pains from arthritis, so we decided to try it for a week or so. Then other friends invited us to stay with them in the condo they had rented in Hawaii for 2 weeks, so we figured that since we were almost half way there from Phoenix, that we would take them up on their offer! No Florida for us this year. Arizona and Hawaii instead!

I’m fine today and ready to get things back to order. Mail has to be gone through, luggage finished unpacking and put away, more laundry done! Then I have to go through all our photos and pick some for my next post! And that doesn’t include my biggest job of all…….. watching all the season premieres and new shows that I dvr’d whilst we were away! Hours and hours.

But I should get lots of knitting done trying to catch up on these shows. I didn’t knit as much as I had planned on our trip. The motion sickness totally eliminated any and all car knitting. Poor lighting in our accommodations accounted for the rest of the excuse! I need good light to knit! I did however finish the Par 5 socks and am very pleased with them.

And the dog walking toque for John.

I had started a scarf to work on during our trip home, but I just couldn’t get into it. Not sure if it was the yarn, or the pattern or the fact that I wasn’t feeling well, but I have decided to frog it and give the yarn away!

So when we got home and I needed something to knit I remembered the Bubble Scarf by Lucy Neatby and I started that. I knew it was not a project to take on our travels, too much concentration required. And boy was I right! It is definitely labour intensive. I actually even did the swatch because I had never done double knitting before. My edges aren’t perfect but I hope that a gentle soak in Eucalan and blocking will help fix that!

Finally, the Piece de Resistance:

Remember the Mini Dress Top that I knit for Shannon in June. She wore it to work last week and sent me a picture. How smart does that look?

Next post………… trip pictures!

Rome is wonderful!!

2010-09-25T16:18:00.001-03:00

Roma is everything it's cracked up to be and more! Our hotel is across from the Pantheon and in the center of everything! A five or ten minute walk gets us to the most amazing places, ie the Trevi Fountain. We just got back from a walk around our Piazza area, had a drink at an outside bar and people watched. Hundreds and thousands of people of every nationality walking by whilst we sat there. Wonderful!

We returned our car to the airport and got a cab into the city. Very much an experience! For what it's worth, the Italians do drive like maniacs.

And just mention a couple of other Italian type things that I didn't quite believe......

Yes, they do close most everything down between noon and 3:30 - 4 pm, even the supermarkets! Watch out on Mondays. Depending on the weekend festivities, they may not open at all!

And yes, the Italians don't eat until 8 or 9 at night! They then bring the whole family, bandies included. Most restaurants don't even open till 7:30!! Guess who are the first ones at the door when they do open? Yes, the crazy Canadians!

We just returned from a lovely dinner where we met two very nice young men from Germany and enjoyed their company very much. Having a wonderful time here in Rome.

John is still having back issues. He may have to see a doctor tomorrow as the OTC meds the first doc recommended just aren't doing the trick! I, the nurse and experienced back pain/spasm patient, think he needs stronger drugs.

Tomorrow we wonder around on our own. Monday we are doing a city bus tour and on Tuesday we are off to the Vatican to visit the pope. A candle will be lit at Saint Peter's Cathedral in memory of my mother. That will go with the one I lit at Westminster Abbey and the one my brother and sister and I lit at Bath Abbey. I guess there is still some RC still in there somewhere.

Wednesday we get a cab to the Marriott Hotel at the airport so we are ready for our early morning flight home.

Continuing on......

2010-09-24T06:14:00.001-03:00

Well, I have to tell you, nothing is easy here in Italy. We continue to travel around, this time in the Chianti area. We continue to get where we want to go, see what we want to see and occasionally get lost. So we end up seeing a LOT of places we didn't plan on. The roads continue to be winding with sharp curves and I continue to get motion sick. I also continue to wear the sea sick bands, figuring they must be helping some, right?

Tomorrow we return the car to the Rome airport, where we will have to account for a few scrapes (caused by others) and the dent in the rear fender where John had an encounter with the cement base of a lamp post!! So we spent last evening on the phone with insurance people getting that sorted. At least in Rome we won't have to drive. :))

And just to top it off, John's back, which was a bit sore when we left home, has turned into a full fledged issue of spasms and excruciating pain. After the insurance calls, I then spent time on the phone with our medical insurance people. There has been miscommunication, language issues here and we still haven't seen a doctor yet! Very frustrating and annoying. They keep saying one will come to our room, or at least I think that's what they are saying. Oops, phone just rang. The Italian insurance rep just called to say a doctor will be in our room at 4 o'clock. Just 5 more hours. Hopefully we will get meds and John will sleep tonight.

For the record, despite how pitiful this post sounds, up until late yesterday we have been having a great time. I am not getting a lot of knitting done.... that whole motion sickness thing killed all hopes of car knitting. :(( But good food and wine (beer for me), continue to be enjoyed.

And so we continue on to Rome. Arrivederci!

Under the Tuscan Sun

2010-09-19T19:49:00.001-03:00

One thing you should know about John and I, sometime, when we travel we get lost. Actually, a lot of the time we get lost. So it should come as no surprise that traveling in Italy we got lost. More than once. I of course, am navigating whilst John drives. The names of the different communities all look the same and it is very confusing. The Italians do drive like maniacs and there is no keeping up. Someone is always tailgating you! So John is doing his Mario Andretti imitation as he takes hairpin turns going up and down and around corners! (Did I mention that I get motion sick?) Well I do. Next time before we plan a trip, I am going to check out the geography first and make sure it is a flat country.

So here we are in Italy, lost, we can't read the signs, we don't speak the language and my pathetic little Italian app on my iPhone is virtually useless. But guess what? We are seeing lots of the Tuscany area and seeing wonderful sights. We meet really nice people and are having a wonderful time. We're eating great Italian food and partaking of the occasional glass of wine. I'm not going to do a list of where we went and did. Too boring. Highlights: the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Pinnochio's birthplace, several ancient hilltop towns and of course, vineyards.

I took lots of pics but can't post them using my iPad. (One downside of only taking that and not my laptop. I also managed to screw up my email program so I can't get my mail). Totally annoying.

Anyway, to continue:
The fact is that we've seen a lot of the Tuscany area and hope to leave our farm a few days early and go to Florence, which would be wonderful! We're going to talk to our landlord tomorrow.

Until next time.

Look Out Italy, Here We Come!

2010-09-13T10:01:00.001-03:00

Cold and all. Yes I still have the cold. I got better when I first went on the antibiotics and figured I had turned the corner. But I haven’t improved any since then. Still coughing and blowing. I think I will try to see my doctor again before we go just to make sure I don’t need another antibiotic. Really don’t want to get sick over there.

I have finalized all my travel knitting projects…. one pair of socks, one scarf and a toque for John. The last two being brain dead knitting for the car. Hmmmm, maybe I better throw another skein of sock wool in there just to be on the safe side! I have picked out the yarn and loaded the patterns on my iPad. So as far as knitting is concerned, I’m good to go.

I also set my DVR to record all the season openers and new shows for when we are away. Not sure if it can hold I the shows I want, but hope it will. I really hate missing the season opener when there has been a cliff-hanger ending, as several of my shows did!

The dogs are being looked after again by my housekeeper. She moves in here for the time we are away so they can keep staying in familiar territory and have their same routines! And she gets up earlier in the morning than we do, so they really like that!

Now what to wear. The weather is warmer there than here during the day, but cool at night and so I really feel that I need to pack both summer and fall clothes. Long pants, capri pants, short sleeved tops, sweaters, shoes, sandals, sneakers and a jacket. Plus all the personal stuff. I guess I will have a practise pack later today to see if it will all go in! That is the part I like least about traveling. Packing. And of course all the flying. Once we’re there it will be great, but it’s a hassle getting there!

On the US Open front, my Roger lost to Novak Djokovic in five sets. I didn’t see the end of the match as we were out to dinner with friends, but I do understand that Novak played really well and deserved the win. And of course the final last night was cancelled due to rain, so I will be able to watch it tonight. Pretty sure Nadal is going to put a beating on him, but with Novak getting the day's rest, who knows?

Lastly, a knitting update: The Mock Cable socks for my niece in Ottawa are ready to go in the mail. I hope they fit her. I knit a ladies small and she is a growing girl, so I figure if they are too big, she will grow into them!

These are the Par 5 socks I am knitting out of chocolate Malabrigo. I didn’t think the pattern was going to show up on the brown socks, but voila!

Looking good if I do say so myself!

Whilst we are travelling, I will be taking my iPad instead of the laptop. My intention is to be able to blog and post some pictures, but it is a little more difficult on the iPad, so we will have to wait and see. (I can get email, surf the net etc with it, which are the main things.) If not, have a great two weeks and I’ll have lots of pictures when we get back home!

Monday Morning Mishmash

2010-09-06T10:24:00.001-03:00

Today may be Labour Day, but I still have lots of things to do. Laundry, beds, and hopefully some knitting whilst I watch the US Open. Go Roger!

The heat spell that gave us temps in the low 30s is gone and we are now having normal for this time of year temperatures! It’s wonderful. Earl passed through quite quickly on Saturday and left some downed branches and we lost power for about an hour, but otherwise, rather ho hum! Basically a non event!

So now if I could get rid of this horrid cold, I would be a happy camper. This is day 17 and despite the regime of antibiotics, I am still blowing and coughing. I would really like this to be gone when we leave for Italy next week. Please! Whoever is in charge, please!?

Between my cold and the overwhelming heat wave, not much has been knit or blogged this last week or so. It was just so darned hot and humid that I couldn’t bear to hold the needles or the yarn! I am still working on the socks for my niece in Ottawa but have no pictures yet. Also trying to think about projects to take to Italy with me. Long plane rides and waits in airports will be much more tolerable if I have my knitting.

I am planning to take my iPhone and my iPad and no laptop with us on our trip. We will see how that goes. I hope to be able to post some pictures of our trip whilst we are away. It is a little bit more involved with the iPad, but definitely doable! There are lots of apps you can get to help and I may get the one that lets you do blog posts. I can check out everything on Safari, but it won’t let me add comments or do a blog post there. I need to go to a blogging app to write a post and to add pictures! We will see!

In other news, our Airedale Maggie was quite sick last weekend and had to go to the vet and stay overnight to be checked out. She started vomiting Saturday evening and vomited all night and the next morning, wouldn’t eat or drink. and hadn’t had a poop for 24 hours. So of course we are thinking bowel obstruction. Many x-rays, blood work, and big bucks later, it turned out that she had a raging gastritis and would be fine. They felt she had gotten into something that had a lot of sodium chloride and really irritated her stomach. (We have no idea what it could have been, so I am going to check with the boarder. She was there overnight on Friday and we picked them up around noon on Saturday.) She is totally back to normal and fine now.

That would just about wrap things up here. Really not much to write about when you spent the week in front of a fan feeling horrid!

YOU KNOW IT'S HOT WHEN...

2010-09-02T10:16:00.001-03:00

* You keep spare bottles of freon in your car.

* You buy sun block by the case.

* You start bonding with your air conditioner.

* Your electric bill is higher than your house payments.

* You start putting ice cubes in your water bed.

* You start buying stock in Gatorade.

* You keep your refrigerator open just to feel the cool air.

* You keep humming the song heat wave to your self.

* You cancel your Hotmail account because you didn't like the name of it.

* You get a life long pass to White Water.

* Your dream house is any house in Alaska.

* Your not even sure how hot it is because your heat thermometer only goes up to 120.

Trying for a little hot humour here, but it’s not working.

I am so freaking hot and sweaty and cranky that it is not even funny. I cannot tolerate this heat. We have no AC in our house. Just fans that move hot air around. 30+ degrees C is too freaking hot in or out. And that is what the temps have been not allowing for the freaking humidity! I can’t sleep. i don’t want to eat! I can’t even knit!! I sit in front of the fan and play sudoku on my iPad and watch tennis. And when I get too hot and seriously think I am going to melt, I get in my car with my dogs and go for a drive.

And then just too add to the unpleasantness, my head and sinus cold developed into a raging chest infection so now I am on antibiotics and an inhaler. The chest infection is clearing up nicely, but I still have the sinus issue. Being sick in this heat is totally horrid.

On the good news side, we are supposed to be in the path of Tropical storm/hurricane Earl to hit SW Nova Scotia on Saturday. Hopefully that will break the heat. Have I mentioned that I can’t bear the humidity and heat?

At this point, all I have left to say is:

There really are no funny hot jokes.

BRING ON EARL!!

The Party is Over!

2010-08-29T19:28:00.001-03:00

The party is over and the cleaning up and putting away is all done. The general consensus is that it was a huge success. Not that I am bragging or anything, just going by email and phone call comments.

The weather was perfect, sunny but comfortable outside. There were lots of nibbles, wine and beer. There was music and dancing and some loud singing out on the deck. (Apologies to our neighbours but it did settle down once the dinner was served.) Dinner consisted of cold baked salmon, warm barbecued chicken breasts and thighs, an amazing potato salad, curried tomatoes, tabouli and Asian salad. And for dessert, cupcakes from our local bakery! There were cards and jokes and great conversations. And new friends to mix and mingle with old friends! All in all, a great evening! (Despite me still having the head cold from hell!)

We have great friends and several pitched in to help clean up during the evening. And we appreciated it!! Saturday and Sunday we will be eating leftovers, that’s after having shared some with friends already! If anyone needs any cupcakes, we have loads left over. I think the bakery lady doubled my order so we got 60 instead of 30 cupcakes! They were delicious but will be going in the freezer if I can’t give them away! And then there are the spiral appetizers that I got from M&M and totally forgot about in the back porch fridge. Still there Saturday morning! Appetizers anyone?

We picked the dogs up from the boarders on Saturday noon. That was probably the best thing we did for the party. Boarding the dogs instead of leaving them in their pen where they would have barked and yapped and howled and basically driven everyone crazy. I then put all the dishes, platters, utensils, etc away and we are now back to order.

Monday the US Open starts and is on for two weeks. So I will be able to get back to knitting again. I want to finish the pair of socks for my great niece and then get started on the Bubbles Scarf by Lucy Neatby! And I need to come up with project(s) to take on our trip to Italy in September! Life is seldom boring at our house! :))

Also in the sports category, as the pennant race for baseball is in full swing and my Toronto Blue Jays aren’t in contention, I will be hoping for my backup team:

And last but by no means least, my birthday present:

What is in that black case with the apple on it, you might ask?

Why an iPad of course! And I LOVE IT!

Twosday

2010-08-24T10:28:00.001-03:00

Today is for 2s. Not ones or threes. Just toos! Any old to will do.

Here are two pairs of finished socks. The second pair actually got knit up in two days.

The adult pair is Cookie A’s BBF pattern for my friend in the UK. They are knit with Socks That Rock yarn, colourway Fireworks. Nice and thick and warm. These will be # 2 for her this summer.

The second pair is for my grandson H! I sent a pair of sweet socks to his sister a couple of weeks ago and he was very disappointed not to get any. I call these socks, the “I Want A Pair Too” socks! Knit out of leftover On Your Toes 4 ply with Aloe! Hope he likes them. They will go in the mail today.

Next on the needles is a pair for my great niece in Ottawa. I gave her sister a pair when they were here this summer so am knitting her a pair too. These are Mock Lacy Cables in the Celestial Dreams colourway Damson.

On the health front, I have had two issues this past week. One was an infection ( I seem to get one every summer ), which is now better and the second is a horrid head cold, (which is not!). Normally I wouldn’t be that upset about getting a cold, ~~(Liar. I am always upset when I get a cold.),~~ but we have invited 2 dozen people to our house for a barbecue on the weekend and we are doing all the food ourselves. That would be 24 people coming to dinner. 26 counting us!! Tell me I will be better by then. I am feeling marginally better this morning and hope this improvement continues and is not just wishful thinking. Sometimes that whole glass half full thing can backfire! I realllllllly do not relish having to cancel.

This afternoon I am taking my head cold and going to the beauty salon where I am having two procedures done today. One is my hair and the second is a pedicure.

And on an entirely different note, my Roger played in two tennis tournaments these past two weeks. He lost in the final of the Rogers Cup here in Canada, but won in Cincinnati on Sunday! He is peaking just before the US Open which starts next week! Go Roger!!

Staying Within My Comfort Zone

2010-08-17T14:49:00.001-03:00

Ok. It is official. I don’t like variegated yarns. I have tried very hard to like them, but it just won’t take. I even stepped outside my self imposed solid/semi-solid comfort zone and joined a sock yarn club where they send you a skein of specially dyed yarn and sock patterns to go with it. This is the fourth package, ( they come bi-monthly ) and this is the first time I have knit socks out of the yarn.

The first time I knit the Happy Go Lucky colourway into a scarf. My friend from the UK loved it so, tadah, she is the proud owner of this scarf.

The second skein became a little shrug for Miss Leah. As you can see, this one is very much a mishmash. But very cute on the model!

The third skein I don’t actually hate. It is off white with pastels running through it very subtly and does have potential:

You can see the hints of yellow and pink and green in this yarn, which is actually very pretty. Not sure what to knit with it, but I like it.

And this last skein, called Fireworks, is also for my UK friend ( she really likes reds and loved this yarn) and I am knitting the Cookie A BBF pattern with it. Now the pattern even says it works well with variegated yarn, but give me a break. Can you see the design in these socks?

Maybe? If you look very hard. But I don’t really think so. (The wider rows have cables in them.) However, you can see that the right sock has pooling stripes whilst the left one doesn’t. And the left one has dark blobs. Not so much on the right. Nowhere on these two socks does anything match up. But on the positive side, these are going to be very warm and comfy and they are knitting up very quickly!

So I guess I would have to say that I have learned my lesson. I will not be joining a sock club again unless it is all solid or semi/solid yarns. I will not get sucked into buying variegated yarn again, no matter how pretty it is. (Unless someone wants me to knit socks for them and buys the yarn themselves and I don’t totally hate it. I do enjoy knitting for friends.) I am going to stay within my comfort zone. Top down patterns. Solid colours. Nice yarn. Beautiful socks!

Socks and More Socks

2010-08-14T12:10:00.001-03:00

Reese’s Robin’s Egg socks are done! And in the mail!

They are just too sweet and I hope they fit her!

Next up are a pair of socks for my UK friend who quite loved the recent colourway that came with my last Rockin’ Sock Club order. It is called Fireworks and I am not fussy about the patterns that came with so I am knitting the ever popular Cookie A’s BFF socks.

It is hard to tell with the varigated yarn, but there are rows of cables going down the leg. I am hoping they will show up better when I get more done! I am knitting them two at a time with the Hiya Hiya dpns. They are stainless steel and it is my first time using them. I think I like them. I was finding my wooden ones were being affected by the humidity, as were my hands. These seem to have solved that problem. Actually, I know I like them. They come in a package of 5 and of course, I have lost one. Fortunately they are somewhere in my den and will turn up eventually. So for now I am using one 5th needle for both socks!

Another gorgeous day and we are going out to dinner tonight at a friend’s house. Looking forward to a great time!

Two Peas(ys) in a Pod

2010-08-10T10:11:00.001-03:00

I finished the second Peasy cardigan for Shannon. It is every bit as lovely as the first and again, I am thrilled with it. Just delighted. So with no further ado:

My friend is modeling it for me on the spur of the moment, so the colours aren’t great together, but I think it shows off the sweater beautifully! I particularly love the neckline! Very feminine and pretty! Maybe not the best sweater for going back to school, but I am sure she will love it!!

Next up I am knitting a pair of socks for Miss Reese. They are from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin’ Sock Club bi-monthly package. The main yarn that came is this:

Not my favourite colours, but I may know someone who would like it! And as a bonus, a skein of Sock Candy in the Robin’s Egg colourway. I am using the Crosshatch Lace by Charlene Schurch pattern to make them a little feminine!

Now I ask you, isn’t that the cutest little thing? I just have the foot of the second sock and they will be finished. Toddler size 10/11.

We are continuing to have the most amazing weather. Sunny and warm, the humidity has gone and it is just great. Even days when the weatherman calls for rain, we often don’t get it. But of course, this morning, when I am off to Mahone Bay with my UK friend, it is raining. But it is supposed to clear off at lunchtime! Nobody can complain about our spring and summer this year!

Post Visit Report: Ups and Downs

2010-08-02T18:43:00.001-03:00

The families have come and the families have gone and we are now back in our regular old routine. Boring, but our routine and we are happy with it.

It was wonderful to see all the grandkids.

Reese didn’t want her picture taken but I took it anyway, and Hunter is watching bubbles whilst eating an apple.

Pete is showing off his collection of snails from WP, Dave is sporting a black eye and Leah is modeling a new shrug.

Lauren & Mark arrived first with Reese (4) and Hunter (2) on Friday Aug. 16 and had a couple of days alone before Shannon and co arrived on the 18th. They stayed at a nearby cottage and Shan’s family stayed with us. Peter (6), David (4) and Leah (2)! The cousins had a wonderful time together. As did the sisters and their husbands.

Highlights:

David got his cast off on Monday morning and everything was fine.

Reese had a birthday party with a giant castle shaped bouncy tent, special princess cake and pizza. Her cousins and the children of a couple of her long-time friends all had a ball!

We had a big family dinner here with my brother and SIL and my sister and BIL, both coming up from Yarmouth. Sister and husband have just moved back from England and had never met any of the little ones, so they were really excited.

The weather was perfect, sunny almost every day and hence lots of beach time!

Lots of bonding with the grandparents!

Lowlights:

Shannon’s kids were having sleep issues and so the parents didn’t get great sleeps. And after Paul left on Sunday, Shan was the one dealing with the kids not sleeping and not getting much sleep herself for the last week.

David fell the day after getting his cast off and got a black eye which lasted the whole time he was here.

But all in all I would say it was a great vacation for everyone!

The finale:

I drove back to Ottawa with Shan on Friday and Saturday and then flew back home on Sunday. The drive to Saint John on Friday wasn’t too bad, just road construction hold-ups. And we had a fun time at Lauren’s house that evening.

But Saturday, the long drive day, the 11 and 1/2 hour drive day! Let me summarize:

DVD player broke after the 3 hour. Leah freaked! Crying and screaming and wanting to watch Diego.

Very low on gas, got lost trying to find a gas station in Sherbrooke QC.

Just as we parked at the gas station, Pete vomited inside the car all over everything. Got him cleaned up and the car cleaned up and headed out again.

Leah watched a Scooby Doo movie on my IPad ( yes I did break down and got one and thank goodness I rented the movie before we left)! Then she wanted to watch Diego on the still not working DVD player. Tired and cranky and still hadn’t napped. Crying and whining.

We are on the right highway to Montreal and Shannon, who drives this road all the time got lost going into Montreal and when we came through the other side. Add more time to an already long trip.

Leah finally fell asleep about an hour and 1/2 from home.

Total time in the car that day – 13 and 1/2 hours!

We arrive at Shannon’s house, unpack the car, get something to eat and go to bed. I sleep on a pullout bed down in the rec room and slept well, but did hear a bit of a commotion during the night.

Got up in the morning to find out that Pete had vomited in his bed. Paul cleaned him and it all up and decided they would sleep in sleeping bags in the living room. They just settle down to sleep when Leah comes out to tell her father that she too had vomited in her bed and all over herself. Those two continued with the vomiting and now diarrhea until I left for the airport at 11 o’clock.

I love them all dearly but I cannot tell you how glad I was to be on that plane flying home to NS and John and my two dogs and my quiet boring life!

Can’t wait till next summer when hopefully we can do it all again!

Presenting Sweet Sophie

2010-07-19T16:17:00.001-03:00

And with her brother E!

E!

2010-07-17T09:42:00.001-03:00

A picture is worth a thousand words:

Rav details here.

Yay! I went to Lucy Neatby’s Shop

2010-07-13T12:34:00.002-03:00

Yesterday I went to the city to do a bunch of errands. Nothing major, just a lot of small things that needed to be done. I also got to go to Lucy Neatby’s shop in Dartmouth. I had phoned to ordered a pattern/kit and Dawn, the very nice lady on the phone, suggested that where I was local, I could pick them up and save on shipping. So I made an appointment for 11ish, set the address in my car’s Nav System to her house and there I was. In a gorgeous world of colour and projects, finished and amazing! Walls of coloured yarns, solid and multis. Patterns and projects, dvds. And of course the piece de resistance:

Kauni Yarn in the Rainbow colourway and beiges colourway to knit this:

This scarf is drop dead gorgeous and apparently flying off the shelves. My friend and I are going to knit it together. Not one scarf, but one each of course. It is double knitting which is a new technique to me and I am quite anxious to learn, so this seemed to be opportune!

I also bought a skein of the Celestial Merino to knit socks to go with Shan’s Peasy. The colour isn’t perfect but it should be fine on her feet!

Lucy was not there. She was at her summer place on Tancook Island, working and enjoying the summer weather! I have met her before, having taken two workshops from her, so I wasn’t devastated not to meet her. But she really is a great lady and it would have been fun!

Now off to try to finish two more stuffed animals before Sunday. I am knitting Elijah for H and Sophie for Reese! So far I have Elijah’s head done! Must go knit!!!

What to Knit Next?

2010-07-11T11:15:00.001-03:00

I finished the second of the no pattern teddy bears. This one is for David (with the broken arm). He is cute, (well they both are, David and the bear), but again I really hate not having a pattern. I think he is even bigger than the one I knit for Pete, probably about 12 or 13 inches. I did give him a little removable cast for his broken arm! :)) To match his owner!

Now I am trolling Ravelry looking for patterns to knit two more stuffed animals for Reese and H. (Reese calls me Nana D, Hunter just calls me D, so I call him H!) I am pretty sure these can be anything I want, as long as they are really cute. I have found a couple that I like, Elijah the elephant and Sophie the bunny. Both are knit in the round like the teddy bear I did for Miss Leah, but are a bit more time consuming than the plain teddy bears. On the plus side, they are pretty darn cute!

Any suggestions would be much appreciated DD2.

Gunni is totally enamoured with anything yarn, so I am seriously thinking of knitting him a dog bone. Then I will probably have to knit one for Mags as well. Just like kids, can’t do for one without doing for the others! OK, it’s decided. I am off to use the leftovers from David’s bear to knit this bone!

Charities and Telemarketers

2010-07-08T10:44:00.002-03:00

Something happened yesterday that really upset and annoyed me to no end. I got a call from a telemarketer regarding a donation I had made to a charity (for a specific disease, which I will not mention). But a well known one that we have donated to for a long time.

Yes, I recognize telemarketer numbers and was pretty sure that was what the call was, but I was in a good mood and so I answered. She thanked me for donating to the charity and gave me the usual spiel about needing to raise more money. I was prepared to say yes, I would donate again, but no……. they would like me to accept literature and donation forms from them and then, at my expense, to mail this information to my family and friends.

Now I must tell you that fundraising is not my forte. I have hated selling things and asking people to buy or donate since I had to sell Girl Guide cookies as a little girl. I couldn’t tell you the books of tickets I have bought over the years, rather than go out and sell them. I buy everything the school kids bring to my door. I donate to all the charities that come to my house. But I don’t fundraise. I have and do volunteer for lots of things, but I. DO. NOT. FUNDRAISE!

So I try to explain to the nice lady that I thank her for the opportunity, but I find it very uncomfortable to do fundraising and would prefer not to.
She tells me that this disease is not comfortable either, and that they really need me to do this.
Again I nicely say thank you but I would rather not.
She starts in again.
I hang up!

This whole thing got me thinking about donating money to charities and how they get your information (obviously from the information you provide them to receive your tax benefit) and what they do with said information.

Definition of donate: To present as a gift to a fund or cause; contribute.

Twice, following the deaths of very close friends of mine, we have made a generous donation to a major charity. Since then we regularly receive brochures and information and more requests to donate in the mail. That I can handle. But calling me at my home and trying to guilt me into doing something that I have specifically said I did not want to do, is going too far. How many other people beside me do you think she ticked off? Now I don’t want to donate to that charity at all. And that upsets me.

I remember many years ago one of the charities would send out (without any request on our part) a bundle of Christmas cards and we were expected to donate to the charity. Which I did ever year. But one year I forgot for some reason or other and in January I got a letter chastising me for accepting the cards and not donating. You can probably guess where this is going. I have not donated to that charity since. So don’t send me something unsolicited in the mail and then expect me to pay for it. Not gonna happen.

What if other charities start doing things like this? I think there is a very fine line here about requesting help and trying to push you into helping (at least with me) and some organizations are starting to cross that line.

There are so many worthy charities out there, and each and every one of them needs money and volunteers, and you just can’t give to them all. And new ones are popping up all the time with all the natural disasters, ie. Haiti and then the manmade ones, BP in the Gulf of Mexico. And they all need help.

So I say, please, let me decide who I will and won’t donate to. We have limited resources and we contribute to x number of charities. If this type of telemarketing and harassment continues, x will become a much smaller number.

Quick Picture Post

2010-07-05T09:39:00.001-03:00

The cute little teddy bear is finished. I am not in love with the pompom tail. I see it being pulled off or falling apart. Other than that I had great fun knitting him up. He’s about 10 or so inches and is a sleepy teddy, hence his position:

Also I am not the best at sewing on faces, but he is still pretty darn cute!

In other knitting news, I have one Cubist sock done to the heel and am halfway down to the heel on the second one!

And yes, (Frieda) they are blue! :))

WIPs or Works in Progress

2010-07-01T11:20:00.003-03:00

OK, my mourning period for Roger is over and I am moving on with life and Wimbledon. I can now enjoy the tennis because I no longer have this huge ( where every stroke is a live or die situation ) investment in who wins. Although I am not an Andy Murray fan, I would like to see him win, if only to take the pressure off him and to finally give the British their Wimbledon championship!

As for the ladies, I hope the final is better than I expect. Zvonerava won the first match and has beaten Serena before, but she just seems pretty formidable to me. That is assuming that Serena will win today and take on the winner of the current match!

After the socks from hell, I decided to knit another pair of socks that I would like/love and found this Cookie A pattern, called Cubist Socks. And I am pleased to say that I am totally loving them. So I put the Peasy sweater aside to work on these socks. I only have a few inches left on the sleeve, and then have the body of the sweater to knit. So it’s not close to completion.

Then yesterday I was talking to Shannon ( little David broke his arm falling off a jungle gym ) which reminded me that I had promised to make the kids all a teddy bear like I made for Pete! Now without a pattern and doing it by guess and by golly, that was not my favourite thing to knit. I went on Ravelry and found this cute little guy. And for those of you not on Ravelry, I don’t have a picture yet, but hopefully soon. The same with the socks. Pictures for sure on the next post! So I started this little bear in pinks, deep pink for the body, paler pink for the face, hands and feet, so to speak. She definitely wants a pink bear! It is all knit in the round with no seaming. It’s kind of an interesting technique, because you do the head, then stuff it and pick up stitches from the cast on end to start the body. Likewise with all the legs. We’ll see how it goes, but he should be sweet if I can in fact do it properly. I will confess that I have visions of him being lopsided……………

And finally, Happy Canada Day!

The Best of Intentions

2010-06-26T11:36:00.002-03:00

Sometimes you do things with the best of intentions, and yet they seem to go pear shaped, or wonky or whatever term you might like to use. For example, I started a pair of socks for a friend with the best of intentions to knit a beautiful pair of socks. She chose the yarn she liked in the colour she liked and I chose the pattern. Because I had a couple of projects on the go, I decided to do a brain dead (or so I thought) pattern. A simple rib pattern, knit 2 purl 2 for row one. Knit row two. Basic, simple, easy.

Not! For some reason it was so easy I would forget and knit 2 rows of the rib row and forget the knit row. Or vice versa. Then I would have to tink back. Now this yarn is very splitty and hairy and thin in some places and thick in others. Tinking back was not easy. It would get tangled or knotted or something! I cannot tell you how many times I had to tink back a row. or part of a row. Yes, I would knit the first 3 needles of the round and then rib the 4th needle. Dear God, give me a break! I will say right here and now that I hate these socks. I will never knit them again. I hate this yarn. I will never use this yarn again. And if ever, in the near or far off future, I forget these statements and buy more of this yarn, please feel free to kick my butt!!

The aforementioned socks have been soaked in a lovely lavender scented Eucalan bath, and are now drying on my sock blockers. I am being far nicer to them than they were to me! They actually don’t look too bad at all, but looks alone will not break my resolve. I will NEVER knit this pattern or knit with this YARN again!

Now I think I will knit another pair for my friend to go with these, from hereon in to be known as the Socks from Hell! You have probably also noticed that the damn things don’t match either. Just one more way these socks have made my life miserable!

I am thinking the new pair will be Cubist, by one of my favourite designers, Cookie A. I am also thinking blue again. I’m sorry UK friend, but I love blue socks! So I hope you like them too!

Just felt I had to mention that Roger won yesterday and in fine style. The man is back and all is well in my world!

Wordy Wimbledon Wednesday

2010-06-23T18:54:00.002-03:00

My nerves are shattered! I managed to get a win for Roger on Monday (it meant totally doing nothing but sit in front of the TV and use all my mental powers to push him to the win), but I was prepared to do it. And it worked!

Wednesday however was a different situation. I had a dentist appointment. Now I know the dentist has TVs in his hygienist’s office and his office, so I was good for the Federer match. What I wasn’t prepared for was the match going to a fourth set tie break, just as the dentist was finishing up my cavity repair. In the middle of a freaking tie break! Dear God! So I was frantically trying to figure out ways of staying in the chair until the tie break was over. Fainting, seizures, something. Apparently he was thinking the same thing, as he did some extra fussing and tidying up! He was convinced he would have to cancel his next appointment if it went on too long!! :)) Finally it was over and Roger won. Yay! My very nice dentist then apologized for keeping me so long and I didn’t even realize that I had been there for two hours!! Next up: Round 3.

Knitting: I am working on my blue socks for my UK friend. They are not going to be identical twins. I just can’t seem to find the right spot to start with the Zauberball yarn. They will be close, but no cigar. In fact, I think that is what I am going to call them!! They should be finished in the next day or so! Another yay! Then it will be back to the Peasy sweater again!

Weather: It is pouring down rain! Buckets! John will be so happy! Apparently the lawns and gardens really need the rain and hopefully his golf game in the valley is over! I got the dogs out for their after dinner walk just in time! It was raining, but not like this!

News bulletin: My daughter was telling me about the earthquake in Quebec. They felt it in Ottawa, windows swaying and pictures falling off the walls. According to this news article, it was 60 km away from Ottawa! What the heck is going on? We don’t get earthquakes and tornadoes here in Canada! Blizzards, hurricanes and ice storms are what we are used to! The occasional storm surge, but not earthquakes!

And so it continues……. Wimbledon I mean! More soon!

The Wimbledon Fortnight

2010-06-21T11:20:00.001-03:00

Without Roger?! WTH? I am typing and watching the first round on my new TV ( with no blue blotches ) and cannot believe that Roger is down 2 sets and on serve in the third. I mean, the whole fortnight without my Roger…… :(( Say it isn’t so! I say, get a grip and start playing like the champion you are! Don’t ruin this whole tournament for me please and thank you.

I am also eagerly awaiting the release of OS4 for the iPhone, which was supposed to come out on June 21st. Well, it is June 21 and so far….. nada. I keep going back every hour and checking to see if it is there yet, but so far, no luck.

Today is the summer solstice and to start our actual summer, we had a huge thunder and lightning storm last evening and spent the better part of an hour with one or both dogs on our laps! Mags takes a flying leap and bam! there she is…… all 47 pounds of her right on top of you. Gunni just tries to scramble up your leg. Poor dogs really seem to mind these storms. I am just glad it was not the middle of the night!

John has been busy working in the yard and planting his newest shrubs and trees. He is really enjoying it and wants more thank you. The girls gave him a gift certificate to a garden center, so he can’t wait to go out and find some more shrubs.

Knitwise, I am working on the second sleeve of the Peasy sweater, but I think I had better put that aside for a bit and finish the blue socks I started for my UK friend. I need them done by the end of June to qualify for the Sock a Month KAL. And I also think they will qualify for the Summer of Socks KAL! So it will be socks for me for a while. By the way, the Mini Dress sweater arrived in Ottawa and fits Shan and she will take a picture soon and send it to me.

Now I am going to have to go and totally concentrate on willing Roger to win this match. He apparently needs me. Go Roger!!!!!

Rainy Days and Mondays

2010-06-14T10:06:00.001-03:00

I will confess to enjoying the occasional rainy day and I always like Mondays. Mondays are the start of a new week with all kinds of possibilities. Social engagements, appointments, and everyday life things. Sometimes it is just the regular appointments like hair and nails. Other times it is doctor, dentist or eye appointments. This week I have an appointment with the eye specialist, and whilst the actual appointment is not necessarily fun, I do have the possibility of needing new glasses. And as someone who has worn glasses every day since I was five years old, ( from the moment I get out of bed in the morning until I am back in bed at night) I love getting new glasses. It is an opportunity to reinvent yourself. Change your whole look. Be adventurous and glamorous. Not that I probably will, but there is a small chance that I may step outside of my safe box.

We went to the Briar Patch in Berwick yesterday to get a few more shrubs for our yard. What a great garden center and with a huge supply at really good prices. We ended up with nine shrubs/trees. More than a few, but we do have a huge property with lots of room for them! Now John has to figure out where they will go and then dig holes for them!!!

Tomorrow evening I have the AGM of an organization I belong to, the Queens Association for Supported Living. This is an amazing organization and we have such a low profile, that nobody seems to know or understand the scope of exactly what it is that we do. When someone comes on the board as a new member, they are totally blown away when they take the tour and see the group homes, the clients and staff so happy to be there, the Penny Lane Enterprises, where so many of our clients work. And our most recent endeavour, the Riverbank Store in Mill Village. The staff and clients have worked so hard to renovate it and it is looking amazing! The people of Mill Village and area are totally supporting it and everyone involved is just so proud and happy to be a part of this! If you are ever in the area, be sure to pop in and see it. You will be wowed!

Not much knitting news. I finished the Mini Dress sweater ( see previous post) and am working on the second Peasy. Yes I am knitting another one. I had two balls of wool left over from the first ( and couldn’t return them as Gunni had carried them around in his mouth and they got dog saliva on them ). So I popped into LK Yarns the other day and they had 6 balls of that dye lot left. Just what I needed so it was kind of meant to be. I am doing one size larger this time and it should fit Shan to a T!

We are still waiting for our new TV to arrive. I bought a stand to go with it whilst I was in the city the other day. It came in a box and needed to be put together. Lots of pieces. Now we are not handy with things like that so I asked my housekeeper/dog-sitter/friend if her husband would do it for us whilst we were shrub shopping yesterday. He did and it took him 1 hour and 1/2 tops. It would have taken me that long to get it out of the box and all the pieces sorted!! It is not as long as the original stand, so the television screen will stick out over the edges although the TV base itself has lots of room. Which I don’t mind. But, it does have glass doors that close and keep all the equipment out of the way! Which I love!!

Now I am off to do my Monday, starting the week stuff. Laundry, bills, errands!

May I Present

2010-06-12T10:45:00.001-03:00

For its first time in the public eye,

The Mini Dress:

I am sooooo pleased with how well this turned out. When I was blocking it, I was a titch worried that it might be too long so I threw it in the dryer on delicate for about 10 minutes and voila! Perfect. And the colours in the pictures are spot on! Now we all cross our fingers and hope that it fits DD! ( We are going to a party tonight and I may take it for someone to try on for me. :)) At least that way I will have some idea of the fit! )

The Rambling continues

2010-06-07T10:38:00.003-03:00

It’s Monday again! Where did the last week go? I know I was busy with appointments, etc, but give me a break! Seven days just Gone! Like! That!

I did spend some time knitting and watching the French Open. ( Did you know they have an app for that? ) It boggles my mind that there seems to be an app for just about everything! And I mean everything. You can listen to radio stations anywhere around the world, or watch a ML Baseball game, or email , twitter, play games, get recipes, navigation……. the list just goes on and on. I belong to a group on Ravelry called, I Love My IPhone and I get tons of tips, free apps and great ideas from them. I know I am a geek and I revel in my geekhood.

FYI, I am also a Gleek. A Gleek is a fan of the TV program, Glee, which is just wonderful! I love it and look forward to Tuesday nights when it is on! Now that is a show that will cheer you up and make you smile! It deals with a lot of the issues teens have to handle these days and is not always cheery, but most usually sends a very important message cloaked in amongst the song and dance!

Anyway, back to the tennis. A lot of the top seeds and my favourite players were eliminated so I didn’t think the finals would be any good. The Ladies final was great and although I was hoping for the Aussie, Stosur, I was just as pleased when the Italian won. Almost 30 years old and winning the French Open was wonderful to see. She played beautifully and deserved to win. And very much appreciated winning!

The men’s final on the other hand was boring. Nadal won in straight sets. He played great tennis and totally overplayed Soderling who did try but just couldn’t pull it off this time. Next up, Wimbledon! And I am pretty sure there will be an app for that!

In other news, we are getting a new TV. Our not quite 5 year old TV has a large blue blotch covering about 1/3 of the screen. Everything in that blotch has a blue tint to it. So I called the Sony tech people and guess what? Tech guy goes, “Oh, the blue blotch.” I figure this is not a new issue with these TVs. No it is not, but, they are (of course) no longer making these models and don’t have the parts to repair it. Would I please send a picture documenting my issue and they will get back to me. I did. Being the total geek that I am, I paused the picture when it was the worst and took these pictures:

So we are getting a new TV. I hope it is here by the time Wimbledon starts. As you can see from the golf green above, the blue really shows up on grass!

Lastly, for knitting, I am almost to the neck on the front of the mini dress sweater for Shan. The back is already done. So then it will just be the sleeves and seaming up and that is finished. I reeeeeeealllly hope it fits!

A Monday Morning in May

2010-05-31T10:31:00.001-03:00

and I am waiting for the water treatment people to come and do the annual check on our system. No time frame, just Monday. Such a pain. Totally ties up the whole day and John is busy all day, hence I get to stay home and wait. Fortunately the French Open is on, so I can knit and watch tennis. Justine Henin is playing this morning so that should be a good game. And then up next is Rafael Nadal, definitely worth watching!!

We had a lovely weekend in Saint John with the A’s! Little Reese was a lovely flower in her ballet recital. Her group did a routine called Mary, Mary Quite Contrary! Too cute for words. Having never been to a ballet recital before, we very much enjoyed seeing the different age groups and the improvement from the first groups. The older girls were wonderful. They certainly give the little ones an idea of what they can achieve if they continue on in ballet! No pictures were allowed at the recital, but I do have one of the little ballerina in her costume!

Ok, did that not bring a big old smile to your face?!

We also celebrated Hunter’s 2nd birthday on Saturday. He got loads of great presents but I think he most enjoyed the cupcakes! The tops were decorated as different balls, baseball, soccer, and football. H is a little ball fiend. He loves any and every kind of ball!

And then, because this is a knitting blog after all, my weekend knitting:

This hat is made for my friend in England. She picked out the yarn and pattern when she was here last week. I actually finished that on the drive to NB.

The sock is also her choice. This is the Zauberball with shades of blue, which I think will knit up beautifully. I am doing it in a rib pattern for brain-dead knitting. I did work on it at Lauren’s house, but there is no great spot for knitting and I forgot my lamp. Ugh! When I got in the car to drive home I noticed a mistake and had to frog back to the cuff. By the time we got home, I was finally back to where I had started frogging!!!

I am still working on the mini dress sweater for Shan and although it is just stocking stitch, it is a huge pain with having to constantly juggle the five balls of wool. It does, however, keep it interesting! It is not a take along project by any means!! But I will say it is coming along nicely and I think I will be pleased with it when it is finished!

Almost forgot! The Peasy sweater fit Lauren perfectly and she likes it, so I am pleased to say that it now has a home and is an orphan no longer!

Wonderful Long Weekend

2010-05-24T11:10:00.001-03:00

I really can’t help commenting on our weather. We seriously never have a beautiful spring. And a whole long weekend where every day was perfect……………….. Never! But this year the spell has been broken. We have had 3 perfect days in a row. Warm, sunny and with a breeze to keep the dreaded blackflies at bay. John golfed and worked in the yard, the dogs were walked and we sat out on the deck and it was just lovely.

So now what? The weather gods can’t keep smiling on us. We have not been worthy for some reason or other. I anticipate fog all summer, or a drought where wells go dry and lawns turn brown. Maybe hurricane season will start early. I just don’t believe this will continue through to September.

And the other thing is: now that we have had a taste of a really nice spring, we might actually expect it to happen again next year. And what are the odds of that happening? 50 – 1? Or more? We are being set up for disappointment!

The last time I remember a weekend this nice was 37 years ago. That was the weekend we moved into our first (and only) newly purchased home. Friends came and helped us clean and move furniture, appliances etc. Shannon was 3 months old and we were moving to the country. As a town girl, this was a big move for me!!! Now I can’t imagine living anywhere else. We love our home and our property and have raised two children and numerous dogs here. I can’t believe we have been here for 37 years! It’s the old, my how time flies, thing I guess!

My May 2010 May Mystery sock is finished. It was designed by Cookie A who is one of my favourites and knit with Malabrigo yarn. Another favourite. No wonder I am so pleased with this pair of socks:

Next on the needles is a sweater for Shannon (that I actually hope will fit!). I swatched, got gauge and cast on last evening for this:

Mini Dress by Caddy Melville Ledbetter (picture not great as I scanned it from the book). The front and back are knit separately, but there are two stripes at both sides. These are done together with the main colour so I have 5 balls of yarn to work with. The yarn is an Aran weight and should knit up fairly quickly, but I fear the balls tangling will be a definite slow down. I have put them in baggies, hoping this will lessen the tangling issue. We’ll see. Progress picture in the next post!

The Good, The Bad, & the Knitting

2010-05-21T10:14:00.001-03:00

We are experiencing the best spring I can remember in years! And a lot of years at that! The leaves are all out on the trees, apple blossoms are blooming, the magnolia tree has actually lost all its flowers and those most hated of all bugs are here. Blackflies. Everyone hates blackflies. This is an excerpt from Wikipedia so you will realize that I am not exaggerating :

In the wetter parts of the northern latitudes of North America, including parts of Canada, New England, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, black fly populations swell from late April to July, becoming a nuisance to humans engaging in common outdoor activities such as gardening, boating, camping, and backpacking. They can also be a significant nuisance in mountainous areas.

Black flies are a scourge to livestock in Canada, causing weight loss in cattle and, in some cases, death.

We live in one of the above mentioned areas, Nova Scotia. Every year, having usually put in 4 –5 months of hateful winter weather, we eagerly anticipate the spring. And every year we seem surprised to find the dreaded black fly is back, and usually with a vengeance. We think maybe it won’t be bad this year. (I mean, give me a break! Who could be that much of a Pollyanna? Beside me that is.) They make being out doors a serious challenge. Walking two dogs, each on a leash, and trying to swipe at the horde of blackflies relentlessly surrounding your head and upper body becomes an event worthy of the Olympics. Once the dogs have done their duty, you rush into the house sweaty, bloodstained and spotted with bites. Sounds like a lot of fun doesn’t it? And then there are the poor golfers, out in it for hours at a time. Yuck! Ick! Just one more really good reason for me NOT to play golf! As for the gardeners, who kneel out there and weed and plant and are wearing their bug jackets which are so unpleasant and uncomfortable, they deserve medals for their perseverance! We all get to appreciate the results of their efforts with the beautiful gardens!

So we have learned to take the good with the bad and we are thankful for the windy days, for that blows the little bastards away for a while. And even the rainy days which seems to keep them at bay. But most of all we are just so shocked and pleased that spring has arrived early that we can’t seem to believe that they came with it! Now all we need are a few really hot spells in the near future and that should kill them offffff! Yay!

A knitting note. I am coming along really well with the mystery socks and my new cabling without a cable needle technique is just a godsend. I am just zipping along with them. I finished Clue 3 for the left foot and now need to do Clue 3 for the right foot and I’ll be caught up. Clue 4, the final clue, comes out tomorrow. Sounds like the title to a new action movie doesn’t it?

Monday Morning Wrap-up

2010-05-17T10:13:00.001-03:00

The weekend is over and here it is, the start of a new week! And I have knitting news to report.

First and foremost, the Big Brother Bear arrived in Ottawa and was successfully received. I now have orders for 2 more. David wants a black one with a red/green sweater. Leah doesn’t care and will probably get a pink one. Both will be smaller than Pete’s Big Brother one out of respect for seniority in the household.

Another pair of socks are on the needles. This time I am doing the Sock Knitters Anonymous May Mystery sock designed by Cookie A. I love her designs and have knit several of them. I tend not to do mystery socks ( I am anal and like to see what I am knitting ), so this time I cheated and waited until Clue 2 was out and some fast knitters had done it up. I loved it and am now on the leg of the second sock. They are mirror images, so the left leg swirls the other direction.

Interesting side note: I have tried in the past to use the knitting cables without a cable needle method with no success. 25 out of 26 rows in this pattern repeat require a minimum of 3 and maximum of 9 cables per row. So after a couple of inches I went online and found some great instructions and now I am cabling without a cable needle. And it is going well. Now I grant you, it is only 2 stitches for each cable, but I do have the whole thing down pat and it is going along much faster!

Friends of ours arrived from England for their annual two week May visit. She is another person who likes hand knit socks, so these were ready for her. Plus the Happy Go Lucky Clapotis now has a very happy new owner. M loves reds and pinks, so it is a match made in heaven!

Final knitting comment: We had friends in for dinner Friday night and one of them is a size small. Lo and behold, I had a model for the Peasy sweater. Not only did it fit her perfectly, but she loved it and is now first in line in case Daughter # 2 decides it is too small or she doesn’t like it. At least I know that it will have a good home either in NB or here in NS!

We had a busy weekend with lots of socializing. My dinner party Friday night was a great success. I made the Gorgonzola Spaghettini a la Roland at Charlotte Lane in Shelburne, and if I do say so myself, it was delicious!

Now I look forward to a quiet week with maybe one day trip to Mahone Bay with UK friend!

Kudos to XM Radio Canada

2010-05-14T10:12:00.001-03:00

I had a phone call yesterday afternoon that a parcel had arrived for me at the office in town. As I was on my way home from Bridgewater, I detoured into town and picked up my parcel, which had arrived that morning mind you. Less than 24 hours after placing my order, I should mention.

It was my new XM Radio, all shiny and bright and just waiting for me to install it in my vehicle. But it had to hang on a little longer. There was dinner to prepare and eat and dogs that needed their after dinner walk! All these things were finished and so I sat down with the Quick Guide and the User Manual and skimmed through them. Yes. I had everything I needed and was ready to go.

Out to the car we went, me and my phone and assorted required bits and pieces. I plugged in the power cord, then the new antenna and turned the car on. I had sound, not static. Hallelujah! I turned it off and then tried it with the already snugly installed old antenna and it still worked! Glory Hallelujah! Now I didn’t have to take that long antenna and string it under carpets and windows and doors to get to the back of the car!

It worked just like the tech lady said. One minute I had one channel, and then after a few minutes, 10, 20, 130 channels. She said it would be ready to go and that I wouldn’t have to phone to get it activated and it was! Plus it has a bunch of new features that my old radio didn’t have! I am one happy camper!

Thank you XM Radio Canada for the wonderful service.

Just a Ramble, not a Rant

2010-05-12T15:42:00.001-03:00

I really like it when customer service works the way it should! Doesn’t ~~ever,~~ often happen, but when it does, it makes me sooo happy.

I have been having problems with my portable XM Radio in my car. Now you have to realize that I truly LOVE my satellite radio! We live in the country and have our choice of two, count them. 2 stations. So when I received XM Radio for Christmas one year from my daughter and SIL, it was like a revelation. I could listen to anything I wanted. Talk, music, news, sports & baseball! I thought I had died and gone to heaven! It was wonderful! I mean, I could never imagine going without it!

The problems started a day or so after we got home from Florida. All of a sudden I was getting static and poor reception and I assumed (never assume) that the antenna wiring had gotten loose or something with all the packing and unpacking of the vehicle. So I put off trying to find out the issue and jigged with this and that for several weeks. I got static but could move from station to station to get the signal in better, but it really was frustrating listening. Sometimes I would just turn it off! And then one day John called from my car and said how sad it was that my radio was off and he knew how much I loved it and to go get a new one. So I did. And that one didn’t work either. So we were thinking it was the radio in my car.

Now by this time I am seriously considering buying a new car with the XM radio all installed. (That is not really as farfetched as it sounds as my vehicle is 5 years old and has over 200,000 kms on it and John has been wanting me to get a new car for months now!) But I really love my car and wasn’t quite prepared to give up on it!

So I went to a car audio place and buddy there suggested trying my XM radio in John’s car. Well, it didn’t work there and it didn’t work in the house either. Tadah! Do you see the light bulb go on?

This afternoon I called the Delphi people who make the radio and tech guy says something is wrong with the board inside. And he also says that the one I bought didn’t work because I didn’t connect both the magnetic antenna and the other one. (It came with two antennae but I didn’t think it needed both to be connect!) Nothing was wrong with the radio, I just didn’t hook it up properly.

Next I called the XM Radio people and ordered a new radio which is being couriered to me and which should work just fine with the magnetic antenna and shouldn’t need a direct FM antenna installed. The new one will be all set to go the minute I plug it in my car and it will be transferred to my account and the faulty one will be removed! I mean, how easy is that?

Stay tuned for the update when I actually get the radio and hook it up in my car. We’ll see how easy it is then. (She said with just the tiniest hint of doubt in her voice.)

Big Brother Bear

2010-05-10T00:02:00.001-03:00

AKA the bear that Nana tried to knit using another one as a template. I have never knit anything without a pattern. I am definitely a pattern person. I need recipes for cooking. I don’t throw in a pinch of this or a drib of that! I add exactly what the recipes requires in exactly the amounts it tells me to add. And so it is with knitting. I get a pattern, buy the yarn and make sure I have the proper needles. I follow the pattern to a T. I do not deviate from said pattern. I know there are lots of people out there that can change things up, but I am not one of them.

Now when my 6 year old grandson asked me if I could knit him a teddy bear exactly like the one they gave him whilst he was in the hospital, I assured him that of course I could. It never occurred to me that with the wonderful and seemingly endless resources of Ravelry and with the whole internet world thrown in, that I would not be able to find THAT EXACT PATTERN!

But I couldn’t. Many teddy bear patterns, some free some for a charge,but not this exact one. And none of the others would do. Thus it was with great fear and apprehension that I set out to make up the pattern with the notes I had taken re number of stitches and rows and the pictures on my digital camera. Of course if I knew what yarn they used and what sized needles, it would have been a huge help. But no, so i winged it. I used Paton’s Classic Wool and size 4.5 mm dpns. The only change he wanted was that this bear be bigger than the one he had. It was to be a big brother for his bear. So this is what I ended up with:

Original one My Attempt

Mine is actually bigger lengthwise. And apparently I should have decreased a bit before the arms, but otherwise I don’t hate it. I would definitely narrow the body a bit as mine looks like a weight lifter compared to the original! I will send it off in the mail tomorrow and see how he is received in Ottawa! It only took me a day to knit him up so I can always do another one and make a few adjustments if he doesn’t quite fit the bill! I am sure that if he doesn’t meet with Pete’s approval, someone in the house will like him! He really is kind of cute! :))

And Another One Bites the Dust

2010-05-09T10:52:00.001-03:00

The Big Boy Baby Blanket is done! Six rows of seven blocks seems a perfect size to me – 24 by 29 inches. I did an applied I cord to the edges and am very pleased with how well it came out!

I did forget to line up the start of each row up with the right colour, hence no pattern just a mishmash of the blues and greens, but I am happy with it and I am sure the recipient will be too!

Now I am on to the next project, which is a big brother bear to match the one Pete received whilst he was a patient at the Childrens' Hospital of Eastern Ontario. He became very attached to that bear and really wants a bigger one. I searched everywhere online and couldn’t find this exact pattern. So I took the dimensions, number of stitches and rows, and am trying to replicate him. Time will tell how successful I am.

Today is Mother’s day and I had French toast for breakfast and am having LOBSTER for dinner! I also had lovely calls from both daughters with good wishes! Hope all the mothers out there have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Finished!

2010-05-07T09:47:00.002-03:00

My Easy Peasy Teach sweater is finished, but it will not be for a teacher. I must say that it came out beautifully and I am really pleased with it, but the whole knitting the wrong size thing is the problem. I had an obvious brain fart when I thought that a sweater with a finished bust of 34 inches would fit someone with a bust size of 34 inches!

I know better! I am usually smarter than this. I think things through. I just don’t know what happened here. But what’s done is done and the finished project is gorgeous. Soft, with a lovely drape to it. This picture of it being blocked is the best I can do to show it off, as I don’t have anyone around here who could model it for me.

It has 3/4 sleeves and needs 5 buttons up at the top lace part and really is much lovelier than this picture shows.

Also, the colour is not quite right. This picture of the ball of wool would be closest to the actual colour of the sweater:

It is really a soft purple and very pretty.

I sincerely hope I can find a home for this sweater!

(I am hoping daughter #2 will like it and deign to offer it a place in her closet!)

Weekend in Ottawa Wrap Up

2010-05-06T11:00:00.001-03:00

I had a wonderful visit in Ottawa last weekend. I flew from Halifax Thursday morning and arrived in Ottawa at lunchtime! My friend Debi picked me up at the airport and took me to lunch and then on to a yarn shop called KnitKnackers. After a long visit there, but no ( can you believe it?) purchases, we took the scenic route through the canal to see the tulips, which were just coming into bloom and were gorgeous! Unfortunately, my camera was in my suitcase, so no pictures. You will have to take my word for it that the huge splashes of colours were everywhere and were amazing!

I arrived at Shannon’s house with lots of knitted stuff. First up the Blueberry Olympic sweater which fit and she loved! Also the shawl, which again she loved but no picture! And the Peasy sweater for a try on. More about that later.

The children are growing up so fast. The one that I noticed the most difference in was Miss Leah. Racing around doing everything the boys did and her mouth going a mile a minute. But she also had her quiet times when she was the best little mother to all her dolls and stuffed animals. What a little cutie!! Such a sweetie pie! So here they are:

Pete, David and Leah

Friday we went to the Apple Store where my niece works. We met her there and had a lovely visit and saw all the amazing stuff! They even have a couple of small tables with four chairs and computers set up with games for the little ones to play whilst the adults shopped! I did buy the IHome docking system for my night table so I can listen to music and play my white noise sounds when I go to sleep and see the time! Plus a case and skin for my iPhone.

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys at the Rideau Centre:

Saturday Shan & I went to the Wool-Tyme yarn shop where I purchased yarn to knit a baby blanket and yarn to knit a sweater for Shannon. It looks like the Peasy sweater may be too small for her. I was totally braindead when I picked the size. She wears a size 34 so that is the size I knit the sweater. Duh?! So she will be getting a different sweater and I hope I can find someone for the Peasy! Also Pete wanted me to knit him a teddy bear like they gave him in the hospital! I took a picture and hope I can get it similar enough. I have searched and cannot find this exact bear anywhere, but I think I should be able to make one up that is pretty close!

Sunday was going home day. Granny kept the little ones for lunch so Shannon and Paul and I could go out for a lovely relaxing lunch, which we did and enjoyed very much! Then after a visit with Brigid and the kids, it was off to the airport and home for me!

Monday was definitely a day of rest. I couldn’t believe how tired I was! This whole being on the go thing with three very active children around just about did me in! I think I will have to build up my stamina for the next visit!!

Boring, but a Post

2010-04-26T10:43:00.001-03:00

We went to visit my brother and SIL and my sister and BIL in Yarmouth on Saturday. We had a great visit, saw the site for my sister’s new home they are building on a lake. They will have a gorgeous view….. the ocean can be seen beyond the lake. Beautiful. They are quite excited and looking forward to this new stage in their lives. After living in England with all the traffic and congestion and close quarters, they think they have died and gone to heaven here in NS!

For dinner in Yarmouth, we had lobster! Lots of lobster! Straight from the steamer and with lots of butter! With salads and rolls! Wonderful and an amazing treat for the British who haven’t had lobster like that for many years!

I am flying up to Ottawa on Thursday morning for a visit with Shannon and her family. I will be staying until Sunday supper time and then home again by bedtime! It will be nice to see the little ones, they change so quickly at these young ages. Hopefully I will remember my camera and get some great pictures. And I am going to lunch with a friend and yarn shopping on Thursday afternoon and to the Apple Store on Friday or Saturday! Quite excited for my very busy visit.

The Peasy sweater is coming along. I had a brief unrealistic moment when I thought I might actually have it finished before I got to Ottawa, but that’s not going to happen. I am now finished both sleeves and am on the body. I have about 12 cm done and it wants 30 or more cm, plus the trim around the neck and the front edges button bands. So it won’t be finished but I should be able to try it on for fit. I have been measuring as I go and I still am getting gauge and the measurements are all spot on, so we will see! I will also say that I am really enjoying knitting this cardigan, even with the deadly boring stocking stitch! I did the sleeves on round needles, so that gave me a break as I could just knit all rows!

I am still wearing the wrist support and must say I am pleased. I am knitting as much as normal and my wrist is just a little bit sore now, so I will continue to wear it! It doesn’t really get it my way at all, but it seems to slow me down a bit on purl rows. And as the body of this sweater is stocking stitch back and forth there are a lot of purl rows!

Nothing else to add for today. Boring………………….

Easy Peasy, Maybe Not

2010-04-22T10:22:00.002-03:00

OK. Everything seems to be fine again. The sun is shining and yes, I do think that spring is really here. The temps are in the low teens, but the grass is growing, the trees all have buds and some have actual leaves and my rhubarb is growing by leaps and bounds. I see rhubarb crisp being baked at our house in the next week or so! Love rhubarb crisp!!! I often make mine with strawberries for sweetening instead of sugar. I really like the sweet and sour tastes mixing it up in your mouth and tantalizing your taste buds!

My Peasy sweater is growing by leaps and bounds. Well, sort of centimetre by centimetre, but you get my drift. The actual knitting of the pattern is easy, but following the pattern takes concentration. It is one of those patterns that say, do this for x number of rows, whilst at the same time, do this for a different x number of rows, and so on and so on! It definitely requires attentiveness. That being said, I have reached the armhole divides, and as per the pattern, am knitting the first sleeve. I am using a round needle (can you believe I had a small round 3.5 Addi?) instead of knitting it straight and then seaming it. I am actually knitting the sweater with 3. 75 needles, but I recall reading somewhere that your tension is looser knitting in the round than straight stocking stitch. Hence the 3.5 mm for the sleeve. Plus the fact that I don’t have a small 3.75 and I wanted to continue working on the sweater and not have to schlep to Mahone Bay to get one. I will say that I cannot see the difference at all. Can you?

The thing is, I actually did a swatch for this one and was just out with the 3.5 mm the pattern called for so I tried the 3.75 mm and voila! Stitch and row gauge! That never happens to me. I will usually get stitch gauge, but not both! So I did feel pretty safe using the smaller size round Addis. BTW, I really like this yarn! It is called Zara Solid by Filatura Di Crosa and is a superwash merino wool!

On the other hand, that would be my left one, I appear to be getting a bit of tendonitis……. the bane of knitters everywhere. So I thought I would nip that ~~sucker~~ problem in the bud and I bought a wrist support apparatus to wear whilst I am knitting. It worked fine last evening, I wore it and did a lot of knitting and my wrist is no worse today. Not better, but no worse and it didn’t hurt at all. So we will see how that goes.

Saturday we are going down to Yarmouth for a lobster feed at my brother’s house. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that my sister and husband were moving back from England and they are building in Yarmouth county. So we are all getting together for the first time in 9 years! Should be fun and very very tasty. I LOVE LOBSTER! My all time favourite food! And the family of course.

Monday Morning Mishmash

2010-04-19T10:10:00.001-03:00

Maybe I spoke too soon in my last post and jinxed everything springlike. It has been cold and rainy since then. And I mean cold and rainy. Not that tolerable mild drizzle type of rain, but the cold, raw, goes-right-through you rain. Even your bones feel cold! However, the weatherman is calling for better weather mid week, so we shall look forward to that!

I finished my Lindsay socks. I will confess that although I didn’t particularly care for the yarn or the pattern, the socks are great. They fit well and seem softer once they had their Eucalan bath.

You still can’t see the sparkles in the yarn, so you will have to take my word for it that they do sparkle. I knit them with the Dream in Colour Starry colourway Deep Seaflower. The link shows the colour and the sparkles.

So having finished that I started the Peasy sweater for Shannon on Saturday evening. Then I knit all afternoon Sunday whilst watching sports on TV and just about dinner time I noticed a mistake in the lace pattern right at the start. This sweater is knit from the neck down and the front panels have a lace section at the top. Probably not noticeable to the average person, but as a knitter, I couldn’t live with it. So out come 11 rows and then pick up and start all over again. Because the sweater is knit top down, I am increasing 8 stitches in every other row, and was up to 220 some stitches when I had to rip back. GRRRRRRR! Anyway, having worked on it all evening, I am almost back to where I made the mistake.

As you can see from the lace panel, it is symmetrical and would have stuck out like a sore thumb, so although it was a pain to rip it out (and my wrists are a little sore) I am glad that I did and it will be perfect! BTW, the colour is not that deep a purple, it is more like this:

So off for another week of life on the South Shore of NS. Meetings, appointments, lunches and some knitting. Same old same old.

And to whomever it concerns: Please let the sun come out soon?!