KNITTING NOODLES

2012-01-23T09:46:00.004-07:00

Will be posting soon!! I'm still around and kicking. As well as spinning, knitting, throw in some sewing, embroidery, etc. etc.

Besides that the majority of my time since the last post I've been, together with my DH, trying to repair damage from a flood in our basement last June, and then again another flood in July 2011.

So my crafting has maintained my sanity through all the destruction, mold issues, cleaning, and now the drywalling, sanding, painting, new flooring, on and on. Too much to mention.

Anyway I look forward to getting back to this thing called blogging.......if only I could stop perusing Pinterest though. That website is addictive!

Happy New Year!!

2010-07-16T15:41:00.009-06:00

Thought I'd better show something .....

uplifting after my last post and my frustration with Shetland roving.

The delphiniums are in full bloom.

The nasturtiums are going bonkers with the greenery.

With just a few of the blooms showing. They need more sun which hasn't been happening here. Just rain and more rain.

It's that time of year for the lilies. I've been waiting all week for these buds to open.

Their beautiful colours show up so well when it's overcast outside. On a sunny day the camera seems to over expose them.

In other parts of the country they're experiencing a heat wave. Not here in Alberta. Send some sunshine our way please.
Have a good one!

2010-07-16T14:34:00.003-06:00

Life is too short........

to be spinning fibre that's not going to be used for knitting. So this Shetland that I bought a couple weeks ago is going to be used for stuffing pillows, handknit toys, teddybears, etc.By looking at this picture of the top spread apart you wouldn't think there was anything wrong, but upon spinning I knew this was going to go extremely slow. In between pulling out nubs, nups, or whatever you call them, the spun singles felt awful.I first started spinning some Alpaca which is sitting resting on the bobbins right now. Then I started on this Merino/Tencel blend and it was like spinning heaven. This is a bobbin of single ply. I'll spin up another one and hopefully ply it up for sock yarn.

So that's the progress for Tour de Fleece so far. I've come to the conclusion that I'm a very slow spinner, but the thing is I'm totally okay with that. When I get to finally sit at the wheel it's quality time for me, and I don't want to rush that.Have a great weekend everyone!

2010-07-05T19:46:00.008-06:00

We're still babysitting our Grandkitty Monty......

We've had him since June 17 as my DS left for a weeks holiday in Vancouver visiting our DD. Well his one week holiday is looking like it's going to be more like three weeks. He's had the unfortunate luck of breaking his right leg just above the ankle.The Tibia and Fibula both broke, as well as ligaments and tendons tore. This above picture was after trying to set it twice, and then surgery to implant a pin, plate, and half dozen screws. Tomorrow afternoon he'll have day surgery to remove a couple screws, and then hopefully get the okay from the doctor to fly home.

So in the meantime Monty (who's all of five months old) has been a rascal, which leads to getting some timeouts in his room. The thing is he's just so darn cute, and I had to post this latest video of his obsession with anything paper.....

So there in lies the reason why we've put this Christmas bell thingy around his waist. He doesn't seem to mind it, and it really helps to let us know where and what he's doing in the house. Like when he's getting into paper towels and he's kicking and wrestling with that those bells really start jingling.Oh Monty........you're such a sweetheart xoxo

2010-07-05T11:37:00.015-06:00

Kind of feeling lazy after this long weekend.......

Sat out in the backyard and visited with friends.New pictures of what's blooming in the yard.

When we were busy working around the yard, the girls got their couch time outside.

Went to see the Canada Day fireworks.

Saturday went to the downtown Farmers Market. Bought some cinnamon buns, and was looking to see if there was anything for sale fibre related.So Sunday it was the start of Tour de France. One of my favourite things to watch in the summer. In my last post I mentioned I started up with Tour de Fleece, Ravelry group Team Canada for spinning. I'm hoping it will get me back in the habit of spinning more frequently.
Here's a few pictures of fibre from my stash of which I'm hoping to at least get a couple bobbins of 2 ply each.

The above is super wash merino/tencel destined for some sock yarn, and the two pictures below I'm hoping to get a consistant 2ply in a DK weight, 12-14 wpi.

100% Black Alpaca top.

For now, I'm starting off with a partially filled bobbin with 100% Alpaca bought in roving form from my local yarn shop.

Happy Spinning!

2010-07-02T00:34:00.002-06:00

Come Join......

It might be fun. I'm looking forward to it.
Find me on Ravelry in the Tour de Fleece Group, look for the Wild Card Groups and join up with Team Canada.

2010-06-27T12:48:00.081-06:00

The end of another year of fibre festivals in my area.....

DH and I headed 2 1/2 hours south to the annual Olds, Alberta Fibre Week 2010. Such is life that I haven't been able to take a week to attend any of the classes at this event, but someday I look forward to it. In the meantime we head out to see what the vendors have for sale.

Lovely, lovely fibre of many colours.

The above picture is one of my favourite vendors Twist of Fate from Kamloops British Columbia. The shop owner is the lady standing to the far right. I didn't catch her name, but she's on the ball with what's new in the knitting/fibre market. Last year I had picked up a set of Addi Turbo dpn's (double pointed needles) and loved them. So I was on the look out to see if I could find another set.

Instead what she had was some Hiya Hiya dpn's along with some wonderful yarn from Fleece Artist, Hand dyed Peter Rabbit, 70Angora/20Nylon/10Wool. It feels sooo soft. Definitely will knit something to be worn close to the skin with this stuff.

Which brings me to ask......does anyone know what that little blue picky like thing is that came with the Hiya Hiya dpn's? I haven't got a clue, and I'm hoping someone in blogland can tell me.

Twisted Sisters & Co. Fibre Mill & Store was one of the vendors I visited at the HWSDA conference at the beginning of June. I found some wonderful Alpaca/merino/Nylon sock yarn that I absolutely have been enjoying knitting with. Blogged here. They're located in Alberta so I'm hoping one day to do another road trip and visit their store.

It was a little confusing, but there were three separate vendors at the Wild Geese table. Thank God for receipts because I wouldn't have remembered all their names. The one vendor Knitopia (White Rock B.C.) had something I've been looking for, but couldn't find, a merino/tencel hand dyed roving. I was wanting to spin a mix that would be strong for sock yarn, and I finally found it. I bought a total of 223gr/7.87ounce. I'm not sure how far that's going to take me in making a pair of socks. It'll be a learning experience.

Above is the mother/daughter team of Rabbitworks Fibre Studio in North Vancouver, B.C. Their corner of this booth had some wonderful hand dyed yarn which I snapped up a couple skeins. Toe Jam Sock Yarn, Colourway: Black Orchid, 60Alpaca/20Nylon/20Wool.

I couldn't stop touching this stuff and I started winding a ball in the car on the way home, and knitted up a swatch. She also had these lavender filled bags that were an excellent price, and are now sitting on my nightstand where I can grab and sniff. The lady in the centre in the yellow tank top (couple pictures up) is Barb Brown from Wild Geese Fibres in Cold Lake Alberta. Barb has a book coming out this fall Knitting Knee-Highs, and will also be in this Falls issue of Vogue Knitting.

Sharon Wickstrom (in the purple vest) from Homespun Haven in Armstrong, British Columbia(no website). I've been to visit her home/store in B.C., and have stopped in to see her at the last two conferences. She has an amazing amount of stock for anything fibre related.

More fibre from Custom Woolen Mills. 1 lb each of Icelandic (left), and Grey Shetland (right). This Icelandic is very different from the Icelandic I bought from Paradise Fibers, blogged here. I asked if it maybe was a blend as it's much softer, but she said no. So go figure. I didn't know that there would be that much difference in texture in Icelandic fleeces. I'll have to do more googling on the subject.

Wide shot of the Merchant Mall at AG-Mech hall at Olds College. Click to make bigger.

On the tables were bags of fleece some cashmere, alpaca, sheep. Sunday was scheduled for judging of fleeces.

A classroom where they were setting up for judging some Alpaca fibre. I think. Don't quote me on that. It's serious business and I didn't want to interrupt anyone to ask.

After all that fibre/knitting/stash building DH and I couldn't believe the weather was cooperating so we went for a walk through the gardens at the college. Just gorgeous.

2010-06-25T12:10:00.001-06:00

A little late in posting this.......

My Mother's Day gift came in the mail last week from my DD. She mailed this along with her Father's Day gift to Dale.

What an awesome card! Nicole, you've got the award for 'Amazing Card Finder-er' ;)

You can see the tissue paper was torn at the corner already in this picture. It was at this point that I thought I better get the camera going.

Every stitch was made by her hand. Self taught.

There's a whole week of them! Bright and sunny!

Also included was the second season of '"I Love Lucy." I have had the first season for a couple years now, and absolutely enjoy it. When I'm sewing I'll have it playing on the laptop, and it's amazing what a comedienne Lucy Ball was.

Thank you Nino! I'll think of you now when Lucy is playing and I'm drying dishes.

2010-06-18T10:45:00.007-06:00

The first blooming thing in our pond......

This is an Iris that was split from a friends plant, and the thing was stuck in a pail and then jammed into the rocks in our pond, and it's growing! I have had a pond lily that I've been babying for a couple years now, and the thing still hasn't bloomed. I was told that I'm not fertilizing it enough so I remedied that and I'm hoping I'll see some blooms this year.

In the meantime DH and I are babysitting our grandkitty Monty.

I can't say that my two old girls (two female cats, 17 &18 yrs) are enjoying the experience, but they're dealing with it. To give them some peace at night Monty goes into one of the bedrooms where we've set up his own little bachelor pad.

I wish I had a bachelor pad to go to. Who knew keeping the peace was so exhausting. :)

My knitting has been going slow, but of course I love the close-ups so here is a couple pics of the Birch Leaf Socks and what I've done so far....

The front design.

The above picture shows the blue dye in this brown alpaca sock yarn. Whereas the picture below you would never know there was a speck of blue.

I'm loving this sort of cabled rib pattern on the back of the leg. It's meant to be used for just the cuff, but I'm wanting to carry it down the whole back of the leg before starting the heel flap. Very stretchy.

And finally .... I finished one slipper that will be felted and I'd love to do some needle felting on it after. Maybe a flower here and there. Gotta make the mate to it first.

Have a great weekend!!
P.S.: An after thought......Have a great and relaxing weekend! Monty sure knows how ;)

2010-06-14T12:50:00.002-06:00

Finished Plying.......

The Icelandic is done. Some close-up shots. I can't get enough of the close-ups. Reading other blogs and seeing close-ups of spinning just makes me ;). Click to make them bigger.

A little bit closer now.....

7 wpi=#5 (Bulky/Heavy Worsted). Amount of fibre 11 oz./311g purchased from Paradise Fibers. After spinning, and washing the total yardage is: 187.4m/205yd, weight 11.9 0z/337g.

There is a discrepancy here because I never weighed the fibre before spinning. I checked my receipt and I ordered what they had left at that time and that was 11 oz. After processing into yarn you can see that I've weighed in with more than the 11 oz. Bonus!!

Before ordering this I never worked with Icelandic fibre and I have to say I was a bit shocked when it arrived in the mail. I opened that package, stuck my hand in the bag, and immediately knew that it was not anything that I'd be able to wear close to the skin except for socks or slippers. So the fibre has been sitting in my closet since July 2008, and I thought this is what I'm going to practice spinning some thick singles on. I tested the singles to see how strong they were by just trying to rip a piece off, and couldn't believe the strength this fibre has. I could totally see combining the Icelandic with some other fibre for sock yarn.

So I'm now testing gauge to knit some felted slippers. I'll post pictures later showing how it felts up.

2010-06-11T13:46:00.001-06:00

Just a few pictures of the first Iris to ever bloom in my garden.

Previously I just seemed adept at killing them.

It looked like it was going to rain, so I came in to post these, and now it's sunny out. So I'm outside mowing the grass.....

Have a Great Weekend!!

2010-06-08T21:05:00.000-06:00

I had a wonderful day with my Mom......

Which doesn't happen all that frequently as she lives over 303miles/487km from where I live. It so happened that I had the day planned and she came into town and joined me in shopping for some material and fibre.

First stop was to Fabricland which had a sale on quilting fabric 'buy 1 metre get 3 free'. So I added to the stash.

I went to check on the discounted bin which was 50% off, and found some pretty yellow floral material which I'm hoping to make a top for the summer. We'll see. All good intentions pave the road to 'you know where'.

We met up with my sister Jackie and went for lunch after material shopping. I couldn't eat lunch fast enough as the Hand Weavers, Spinners & Dyers of Alberta were holding their annual conference in Edmonton this past weekend, June 1-6. That's where my Mom and I headed to next. Unfortunately I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't take one picture! UGH! Thinking back to it now I was too busy looking at everything that it never occurred to me to get the camera out. Not like Robin from For the Love of Fiber. She blogged about her weekend going to 3! fiber festivals. She takes some wonderful pictures.

Anyway the following pictures are what was added to the fibre stash from the HWSDA 2010 Conference.

Beautiful sock yarn from Twisted Sisters & Company Fibre Mill. They carry beautiful alpaca rovings, but what caught my eye was this chocolate brown sock yarn with a tinge of blue through it. 70%Alpaca/15%Nylon/15% Merino. It feels wonderful, it's very sturdy for sock yarn. So I cast on that same evening for Birch Leaf Socks by Nancy Bush. Pattern can be found in A Gathering of Lace, produced by Meg Swanson.

The silk bag pictured below is from Studio Celeste. I immediately knew that it would be perfect for carrying around a sock in progress. Studio Celeste is in the midst of developing a website so there isn't a link I can send you to. They have wonderful silk fibres, and imported wearables. They're based in Lethbridge, Alberta Canada.

Four skeins of Studio Celeste's silk/nylon yarn. I had a heck of a time picking these colours. There were too many to choose from, but I'm hoping to incorporate some of these in a weaving project.

Another booth which I had singled out was Homespun Haven, owner Sharon Wickstrom. I've visited her shop at her home when I've been on holiday in Armstrong, B.C., Canada. I've also caught up with her at other fibre festivals, but this is the first time that I really took a look at her weaving yarn. So this time I picked up 1/2 lb of 2/8 Tencel in red, and blue. Then 1/2 lb of 2/8 Bamboo in green and beige. I'm hoping to design some sort of runner for a buffet cupboard with some of the colours that I've been gathering. It's going to take me awhile to figure out how to combine several colours that compliment what's going on in the colour scheme of my living room. So hopefully it won't take forever to figure that out. Coordinating colours just seem to be an exercise in exasperation for me.

Last but not least I finally cashed in on Knit Picks book sale last month. Vogue Knitting Shawls and Wraps is a varied collection of 43 patterns. Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush has been on my list for a long time now, and not only are there some great patterns, but some great information of the history of lace knitting in that region of the world. Finally I'm really looking forward to doing some hand-dyeing, and the Teach Yourself Visually book really has it laid out well for the

beginner dyer.

The dyeing bug bit me when I saw these jars.

Funny how these things start.

2010-05-31T11:07:00.000-06:00

The weekend started with this.......

My lilacs finally opened up to the little bit of sunshine we got on Friday. It quickly turned to this Saturday early morning.......

Sleet, mixed with a bit of hail. All the planted pots were put in the garage, and what plants I have planted outside basically fended for themselves.

Construction is still ongoing down in the basement, but on Sunday I finally (Finally!!) got to put the jumbo sliding hook flyer on my Ashford Traveller double drive.

I have some very sturdy Icelandic Top that no way can go against my shoulders or neck. So I started spinning thick singles which I'll double ply and knit up for slippers which I'll felt for hopefully even more strength.

Love the jumbo bobbins for spinning thicker singles.

Everything goes that much better when a venti decaf vanilla iced caffe latte is sitting at the ready. Who else is addicted to this stuff???

2010-05-26T09:51:00.000-06:00

Can I bend your ear?.........

This was supper last night with some honey garlic wings. Quick and easy.

That's how suppers have been around here as we're still working on basement renovations, and working in the garden. Unfortunately any progress with knitting has been done in the evenings before Dale and I crash for the night. There are some days/weekends where we've been so busy that I can't fall asleep. The kind of exhaustion that as a knitter I can't even concentrate on knitting. Which is very unusual. Slowly as we finally start seeing progress in construction/demolition of renovating, I'll be posting more pictures of fibre goodness. ;)

So in the meantime when I should be writing new posts on this blog, I've gone and found more knitters/bloggers (Carole Knits, Seed Stitch, The Woolen Rabbit, Under The Tulip Tree) who love to knit/garden. It's been inspiring reading all of them, and makes me envious how far ahead their growing season is than mine up here in the Canadian north.

So for now all I've got are pic's of what's growing in my garden......

The Primula or Primrose are up in full glory.

This is a highchair that is as old as I am, probably older. I painted it a Chelsea Blue and it's now a plant stand in the garden.

I'm hoping to plant my climbing nasturtiums at the base of the highchair so they can grow up the legs, but the weather is still dicey and my seedlings haven't hardened up enough yet.

Some sweetpeas. Hopefully they'll be easy to transplant. It's still an experiment as I haven't grown sweetpeas for ages.

The pond is up and running for this year, and we're waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before transferring the goldfish and koi. It's always exciting watching them being put in the pond for the first time of the season. If darting around like maniacs constitutes fish being excited, well, they're pretty darn excited then. Hopefully I'll remember to take a video this time.

2010-05-07T10:01:00.012-06:00

TGIF and the snow is slowly melting.......

We managed to get the pond cleaned out before the snow came at the beginning of the week. My delphiniums are taking a hit, but I'm hoping the cold temperatures won't stunt their growth.

In the meantime I've still got the sewing bug. This material was discounted to something like buy 1 metre get 2 free. So I bought 3 metre's and hoped that would be enough for something. I didn't know what I was going to use it for at that time, but upon looking at the daisy lace pattern on it I loved how it looked as a tablecloth and seat covers.

So I traced the seats of my kitchen chairs and cut out the pattern. Hopefully after I get finished posting this I'll start sewing them up today.

After some fussing and fitting I got the jean jacket finished. Pattern by Burda #7812.

Closeup of the pocket flap lining, and buttons.

Noodles investigating what's on the floor? Can I eat it mama?

I've got a really cute video of Noodles eating some leftover rice pudding in a little cup (She LOVES rice pudding), but the video is taking it's sweet ass time loading. I will post it asap when it finishes processing.

Here's the video....She didn't eat the whole thing just what I leave her which is about a teaspoon. Rice pudding is very sticky. Have to go clean Noodles whiskers now :)

Have a great weekend everyone,
and Happy Mother's Day to all!!

2010-05-04T13:19:00.008-06:00

The rain brought more than we bargained for.......Spring will be here hopefully, again, by the end of this weekend. Anna and Noodles were crying to get outside to chow down on some grass, but they walked away in disgust when I opened the screen door to show them the wonderful whiteness. Now they're trying to sleep away the weather.Well one good thing that comes from this is that our overseeding of the lawn will get a boost from this moisture. Hopefully the farmers are welcoming this. I don't know how this snowfall falls into the management of their fields.

No knitting pic's for today. Still trying to finish ufo's. Hopefully will have something to post soon!

2010-04-28T21:16:00.000-06:00

Rainy Wednesday..........

I don't have anything new started with knitting. Just trying to concentrate on getting wip's finished which isn't easy at this time of year. I've been purchasing bedding plants here and there as the quality seems to be really good right now. Later on in June everything seems to be picked over so in the meantime I store them in the garage and pull them out during the day to get some sun.

Today I was scarifying (scarification) the sweet pea seeds, and also the nasturtium seeds. The sweet pea's I've started in the tray pictured below. The nasturtium's are soaking in luke warm water and tomorrow I'll plant them in trays as well. So hopefully in 10 days I'll see some sprouts and in mid June transplant them outside.

I just realized that I have finished my Multnomah Shawl. It's been so cold and rainy here today that I've been wearing it and totally forgot to blog about it. This shawl was a fast knit, and I loved this yarn Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light. Pattern: Multnomah designed by Kate Flagg. The shawl pin was bought from Twist of Fate out of Kamloops, British Columbia at Fibre Week in Olds, Alberta June 2009. Hopefully I'll make it there again this year.

Here's hoping you are having better weather than we are....I'm looking forward to some sun after four days of rain.

Take care and Happy Knitting!

2010-04-23T23:37:00.002-06:00

TGIF.......

I have no pictures of knitting or spinning today. Just a few pictures of the work I've been slogging away at outside. Basically spring cleaning the flower garden, and I'm amazed at how it's starting to green up outside with a little bit of rain. Some garden Mum's breaking through the leaves.We have lived in the same neighbourhood for 29 years, and this is the first time I have had a little visitor of the squirrel kind. So Cute!DH and I are heading over to some friends for supper, and DH offered to bring dessert. Something decadent but light was requested so I came up with a recipe out of Company's Coming Christmas Celebrations by Jean Pare.I know it's in a Christmas cook book, but this Snow Angel Trifle translates well for an all year dessert. Snow Angel Trifle
4 cups Milk
2 Boxes of instant white chocolate (or vanilla) pudding powder (4 serving size, each)
17 oz. Commercial angel food cake, torn into 1 inch pieces.
8 0z. Package of cream-filled chocolate mini cookies (oreos), 12 cookies reserved for garnish
3 cups Sliced fresh strawberries
2 cups Frozen whipped topping, thawed

Beat milk and pudding powder on low in medium bowl for about 2 minutes until thickened.
Layer ingredients in large glass serving bowl as follows:
1. 1/2 of cake pieces
2. 1/2 of cookies
3. 1/2 of strawberry slices
4. 2 cups (500 ml) pudding, spread evenly
5. Remaining cake pieces
6. Remaining cookies
7. Remaining strawberry slices
8. Remaining pudding, spread evenly

Spread or pipe whipped topping in decorative pattern on top of pudding. Garnish with reserved cookies. Chill for at least 4 hours to blend flavours. Makes about 12 cups (3 L).

p.s.s.: For my picture above I doubled the amounts for the angel food cake and cookies. It seems like it's a lot, but when spreading the layers it all compacts down. The bakery section at PC Superstore is where I find the already baked angel food cake, and I use the mini oreo's for the chocolate cookies.

The actual picture out of the book just for reference.....Our weekend will be consisting of painting and doing yard work, but I'll get to visit my Monty. Here's a quick snippet. Don't mind the wiggly video, or my pink crocs, or the sounds I make to get Monty's attention. He's full of ~~piss and vinegar~~ Love and Cuddles. :)
Have a great weekend everyone!

2010-04-13T14:22:00.023-06:00

Where there once was a wall......Now there's a window.

This is my DS house which we're helping to reno. I have since figured out that between doing renovations at our home (because of a flood) and working on DS house, I much prefer the demolition side of tearing down and throwing out. Finishing work like drywalling, sanding, and trim work is a pain in the backside, and takes long to do.It started out all innocent, 'Oh let's open this up and it'll make it brighter in here!' To then actually stepping back and thinking that this is a support wall so we'll have to do some creative building. Thus an extra wall was built to support the support wall and put in a header before we cut the opening. (The headers not up yet in this picture.)

Renovations continue as well downstairs in DS house so that we can utilize the basement suite, and make it it's own contained space. So a couple walls were put up to close it in. The entry into the suite. (Primed and waiting for molding and baseboards)The kitchen area.

Finally the last wall in the laundry room. Enough about renovations.....there's been some weaving going on at my house.I can't describe how exciting it's finally been to sit down and finally start weaving. I'm using left over yarn from the stash, and if I would have had one straight afternoon I could've had this scarf done. Saturday night I couldn't stop. 10:00pm rolled around and I thought I should really stop, but then it soon turned 11:00pm and I was starting to make mistakes and I decided to quit for the night.

The biggest challenge was warping, and then tieing on, threading it through the heddles, and getting my coordination working with the loom. I was exhausted but just thrilled that I had tackled it along with a couple great books which were a BIG help
Weaving Made Easy by Liz Gipson
Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving by Betty Linn Davenport

More sock knitting is happening as they're great for packing along.Calloway Sock Pattern by Cookie A. I'm using Knit Picks 2.25mm dpn, Yarn: Briggs & Little Durasport 1 ply in colourway: Smoke. It's a tough little yarn and I'm putting it through it's paces. I like to knit my socks with a tight gauge and this 1 ply seems to be holding up. 80% Pure Wool 20% Nylon.I love this pattern. Diagonal Lace Toe-up Socks. What makes it even more loveable the price is FREE!! From a wonderful designer WendyKnits. You'll find the pattern on her website under Free Patterns with the added bonus of over 40 more free patterns. I'm using Knit Picks Harmony Wood 2.00mm dpn's. Yarn: Regia The Sockwool Jet Set Color. 4 ply.One more shawl that I spied on Smoking Hot Needles. Monika was knitting this up and I had to follow. I'm such a follower of people with great ideas ;)
Pattern: Multnomah designed by Kate Flagg. It is a free pattern you can find on either Ravelry or Hello Knitty. I'm using Knit Picks Harmony Wood Circular needles 3.25mm. Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light. Colourway: 4275

Anyways that's all folks! Time for a nap....

2010-03-30T11:34:00.008-06:00

Just a few pictures of our new Grandkitty.......

His name is Montgomery Clift. Monty for short. He's a little older than two months now. My DS found this half pint at the local SPCA, and his life just got a little busier.Monty is an indoor cat, but loves sitting by the front door watching the goings on in the park across the street.

His toys are too many to mention. He has no fear even with this skateboard.

He's a boy's boy. He loves everything that moves and will chase until he plops down exhausted. I didn't know cats love to play tag, but this little fellow loves to run up behind you and tag you in the back of the legs and run past you as if to say, 'Tag, you're it!"A peaceful moment.

2010-03-29T10:54:00.024-06:00

It seems the Olympics are still in the news,

......and I was in Vancouver during that time, for a month and a half for personal reasons, and I thought I'd share some pictures of where DD and I ventured.......The crowds of people on Granville.

Looking south on Granville and Robson. More crowds.

The Olympic Flame. This was as close as you could get to it. I took the picture through a chain link fence which went around the perimeter. You could only get in closer if you were a dignitary, athlete, olympic staff, police, or Wayne Gretzky.Downtown Vancouver just before sunset.

Canada Place looking toward North Vancouver. If you look at the upper portion you'll see some lights which is Cypress Mountain where Olympic skiing events were taking place. A Russian Tall Ship at Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.

A visit to Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. Very colourful.

Vancouver Art Gallery all decked out for the Olympics.

A visit to White Cliff Park in West Vancouver with the most important people in my life.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on Robson in downtown Vancouver. Yumm. Made too many trips here for anything chocolate.

How can a person choose!?

Oh Lord....chocolate.This made me happy just looking at it for about 10 days. As well as my knitting and reading blogs gave me needed distraction while in Vancouver. There was a fair amount of knitting going on...one of the finished projects....The Haruni Shawl designed by Emily Ross. A free pattern on Ravelry.com I used Knit Picks Gloss Lace, 70%Merino, 30% Silk. Colourway
Aegean. I used two strands of lace as I wanted a shawl with a little more weight. So I bumped up my needle size to 4.00mm Addi Turbo Lace circular needles.
I saw this shawl on Smoking Hot Needles and fell in love with the border. It was fun to knit up and it went very fast and has already been mailed out as a gift to a friend.Oh and I can't forget we finally met up with a little chap we had heard so much about and finally got to meet. Introducing Jean-Pierre Manning. (aka Muscles for short).

2010-03-18T15:26:00.009-06:00

It's taken me awhile........

But I'm slowly coming back to blog. We've suffered a devastating loss of our dear Nathan on February 13, 2010. He was our daughters fiance, son to Wayne and Kathy, and brother to Caleb. A talented Artist, Designer, and Skateboarder n.matthews.com. He fought with such courage for nine months that it's hard to believe that he succumbed to testicular cancer at the age of 29.

Our daughter and Nathan's family, and extended family will forever feel the loss of Nathan who impacted so many in such a short time. He was an inspiration to all who knew him.

Nathan, words cannot express how much you meant to us, and how much we miss you.

With permission I'm posting my daughters blog entry dated March 3, 2010. (n.lathe.com)

19 days ago, I lost the love of my life. He fought a courageous battle, and most often with a smile on his face and determination that surprised most people. Our statistics were good at the beginning…98% cure rate. Who could argue with that? But they’re just numbers, and not a certainty. There is still that lingering, dark cloud of 2% that leaves you wondering. That 2% that you ignore and think “That won’t be us.” But it happens.

If I could find any reasoning or answer in this, it’s that I hope we’ve learned something. Hopefully Nathan’s fight with cancer will teach the medical community a little bit more about testicular cancer, which will lead to more lives saved.

I really wish he didn’t fall in that 2%. I wish he was still laying in bed next to me. I wish he could’ve held my hand in the rain a couple nights ago. I wish I could hear him tell me he loves me, just ONE MORE TIME. But he can’t…and I’ve accepted that loss, but it certainly doesn’t make it easier.

He was my inspiration. He was my best friend. I love him more than words can even describe. The past two weeks have shown me what real heartbreak is, but the past year has taught me what true love is.

I miss you.

2010-01-06T13:55:00.009-07:00

A girl's gotta have a new dress for the New Year.....

Too shy....

And just when I'm in the middle of doing laundry, and cleaning the bathroom....everything had to stop. I had a hankering to make Noodles a bracelet, and take some pictures. This looked pretty on her for two seconds, and then it ended up being a toy that rolls along the floor really nice.

What was completed over the Christmas holidays. Drops Design Pattern No.116-7. Free from Garnstudio.Snow Glade Mittens by Patricia Lewis. I'm using my own handspun Alpaca for the white, and the green contrasting yarn is Noro Kureyon Sock yarn. I'm using 6" Harmony 2.25 dpn's from Knit Picks. Love these double points.
A short video of how cooperative Anna can be with just a scratch under the chin.

Wishing you a Happy New Year and All the Best for 2010!!

2009-12-17T09:07:00.025-07:00

Just a Few Images.........

We're back from Vancouver visiting DD. Her and her boyfriend Nathan live in the downtown area which explains the following pictures.I loved this window which was huge. It reminded me of some castle window I might find in England.

We took the new Canada Sky-Train from the airport to the Waterfront Station where the hotel was. This train line was finished in September of this year, and I believe was part of the plan for the Olympic crowds which will be arriving sometime in Jan/Feb. 2010. The view from our hotel room at the Fairmont Waterfront.

In the evening.....We took the SeaBus over to Lonsdale Market in North Vancouver. How much more Christmas can it be watching this children's school choir?

The tugboats outside Lonsdale market.Seabus ride from North Vancouver back to downtown Vancouver...Canada Place in the background to the right.More shopping the next day over at Daiso at Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. Of course we had to check out the wedding dress shop.A perfume shop with a pretty display of samples.A goofy lunch at the mall.Dinner that evening was at Foundation (A view from our table) on Main Street, Vancouver.

After dinner we took a drive around Stanley Park to take a look at the Olympic rings.The shopping highlight of the weekend was when I stopped in at Dressew on Hastings Street. Nashua yarn motherload at $1.99/ball!!!! You know you picked the right man when he can be convinced to stuff yarn in his suitcase until it's near bursting. Thank you Dale you don't know how happy that yarn made me. ;) XOXOMiss you Nathan and Nino!!!!! We had a really good time!!

2009-12-07T11:05:00.005-07:00

Baby it's cold outside........

-27 Celsius this morning and the frost was on the windows. No going outside for the kitties today!I just love the lace like effect on windows. When working on my stained glass projects my favourite glass has to be glue-chip which is the same as what frost on a window looks like.

On to my next obsession which is getting some mittens knit up. Drops Design pattern No. 116-7 from Garnstudio.com pattern. Everytime I go on this website I feel like I need to shout it out.....all these designs are free for the taking people!! So I'm rockin' with Drops patterns right now. I'm using Noro Kureyon, colour 194. The long colour changes make for a really interesting mitten. The black is from my stash, Gaella Irish worsted knitting wool. Front view of mitten.

Back view or the palm side of mitten. Still have to finish the thumb and then block it. I've started the second mitt while we were watching the Canadian Curling Olympic play offs here in Edmonton.

Finished project which I blogged about earlier....yup I am finishing stuff around here.

I'm lovin the cables right now, and I would be further along on this if it wouldn't be for the mittens right now...yeah I'll blame it on the mittens ;)

A quick video of who keeps my lap warm while I'm on the computer. My sweet Noodles.

2009-11-17T18:49:00.013-07:00

It was a sewing kind of day today.......

I got started on a nightgown pattern I've had for awhile. McCalls's M5769. The material was also bought from Fabricland awhile ago. I generally don't gravitate to pink clothes, and there's not a pink to be had in any of my home decorating, but for me there's something comforting about wearing pink to bed. Go figure.This is the top half tomorrow I'll finish the bottom half...oh, wait I've got a dentist appt. tomorrow so hopefully Thursday it'll be done. In the meantime I found a new Sandra The Knitting Magazine which I'm happy about. This October 09 issue, which is only $5.25 Cdn. at Chapters/Indigo, is loaded with 32 patterns.

The Filati Edition 38 Fall/Winter 2009/10 has 44 patterns and I couldn't resist the green cabling on the front cover. I've never seen this magazine before and was blown away by the photography and the layout. If you're a lover of the earthy green tones this edition has a total of 11 different sweater patterns dedicated to that colour.

The Interweave Knits Weekend has jacked it up a notch in this edition. Or is it just me? There's several patterns that I'd love to start right NOW! ;) The cutest being the Whirligig Shrug. How cute is that for a little girl!! I like that they've included a couple patterns for the guys as well, and one in green too!In the mail this week came a new order I placed at Elann. Peruvian Sierra Aran colour: Deep Forest, 80%Highland Wool/20% Alpaca, 50gr=83 m/91yd. I ordered this on Nov.11 and received it Monday Nov. 16! That's just phenomenal! I've never had an order delivered that fast which now puts the pressure on. I have a pattern picked out from Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman.This is the closest to the actual colour of the yarn I could get. It's quite dark with some flecks of red. I thought it'll be nice for this Man's Tweed Pullover pattern. I like how the sleeves set right up to the neck.

After spending last week laying around recovering from a flu bug I was in the mood to bring out my bread machine, and make some cinnamon buns. Don't ask me how flu = cinnamon buns, it just does. Anyway I haven't used the machine for a looong time now, and I wasn't sure if it was going to work properly. Either way I had a hankering to do this for awhile, and I had made sure I had fresh ingredients on hand. Well the dough had risen to the point it was lifting up the lid of the bread machine, and of course I forgot to take a picture, but here's evidence of baking.....Time for tea...ttyl :)

2009-11-10T13:11:00.016-07:00

More Spinning......

I was browsing through my blog entries and realized I hadn't posted pictures of the finished navajo plied merino/silk blend from Aurelia. I finished spinning this last month, but with the basement reno and the furnace installs I just plain forgot. Bought this fibre from Aurelia Wool in Merritt, British Columbia, Canada when we were travelling to Vancouver, B.C. to see DD. 80Merino/20Silk, Spun to 12 wpi which on my chart means DK weight. Colour: Pink Parade. Total weight:96gr/3.5oz. Total metres: 211.5m/231yd. This was wonderful to spin. It's sooo soft, and will be wonderful knit up for anything close to the skin. Oh and I discovered something....when you have the flu try to avoid stranded knitting.....I came down with the flu last week Friday and after a couple days laying in bed I decided to try finishing off some Latvian mittens I've been working on. Well after ripping it back three times I thought I was finally on track, but eventually realized after knitting the entire body of the mitt, there was still three huge errors......so again ripped it back all the way and started again. Flu-brain, yuck. Some thumb shots A week later and I'm still feeling the effects. With regret I'm having to say that we never made it to Phoenix. I was so looking forward to some warm temps and relaxation, but when you're sick you don't want to leave home. I don't know what was worse the flu or letting my DH and my sister and her family down by not going. Either way I'm feeling somewhat normal now, and the flowers from DH did help :) And my other sweetheart that has become even more clingy, and loved having me sick in bed because I was a great source of heat for her. I swear she would love living in a warmer climate.

2009-11-05T08:13:00.013-07:00

I'm holding on.......

to this great weather we've been getting. ;) It's November 4 and the temp today is expected to hit +15C. Our average is around +1C, but hey the shorter winter is around here the better. I've been bitten by the touque bug, and the solution I've found is in 'One Skein' by Leigh Radford. Asymmetrical Cable Hat

I'm using some Drops Alpaca from my stash. Colour 6834, guage 23st x 30 rows, addi dpn's 4.0mm. This is more of a lace weight, but I loved the colour for a man's hat so I used all three skeins stranded together. I still had to increase my cast on to 81sts. to get the right guage for the circumference of the man's hat. This is going out in the mail today to my DD's boyfriend Nathan who is in hospital starting on another round of chemo.

Also in the same book there is a pattern for a baby hat. I have a friend who works in the maternity ward at one of our local hospitals and I thought I would love to do some stash busting and make up some to donate. So again I'm having to play around with gauge and I think I've got it down now.

Last but not least....updates on the basement reno. We've now got it insulated with rigid pink, and pink fibreglass. The framing was put back up along with the electrical back in place, and the vapour barrier. So now DH has been putting up the drywall. Slowly but surely the basement is coming back to us. I'm not sure if it'll be ready for Christmas though.

I have an azalea plant that was given to my mother-in-law back this spring. She lives on Vancouver Island, and didn't want to travel back there with it so she handed it over to me in full bloom. It was beautiful and I thought, oh I'm probably going to kill it with neglect. I generally don't keep houseplants because I'm constantly forgetting to water them. Anyways this thing loves my west facing window in my dinette. It's constantly blooming and it doesn't mind getting dried out. So far it's been the perfect plant! Who knew!

Next post I'll try to blog about our trip to Phoenix coming up this Saturday. I've got several yarn shops located on the GPS so hopefully DH won't mind coming along on my fibre hunt.

**An afterthought......I used Clover's Pom Pom maker to make the pom pom on the above mentioned blue touque. After some initial studying of instructions, and rotating it around and figuring out how it works I started winding the yarn on it. I couldn't contain my amazement at how wonderful that pom pom turned out. I've shown everyone who has been to my house. Like I'm hoping everyone tries this thing out because my exasperation at using half circle cardboard cut outs just never worked for me. So just a heads up if you see one and you've had the same problems making really nice round pom poms...you'll love this thing.

2009-10-27T11:20:00.004-06:00

Isn't she pretty..........

She has a nice purr to her. This past week I've been coordinating furnace installations in three different homes. We decided to make the plunge financially to replace the old ones as the government rebates were an incentive to do so. At 96% efficiency we're hoping to see some difference in our gas/power bills. We'll see.

While the furnaces were being installed I managed to do some knitting, and finally got the Latvian mitten figured out. The thumb was a real lesson in patience as I had to rip it down three times before getting the pattern right. Hopefully the second one will go faster. I'm loving knitting these up. The weather here has been rainy with some dense fog. It makes for some great knitting weather.

Just a quick video of Anna and Noodles. It's funny the look that Anna can give when being watched, over the shoulder 'Who me?'

2009-10-14T08:26:00.011-06:00

Busy Busy Weekend........

In between working on the basement I managed to get some knitting done.

Also some spinning was managed. The 80 merino 20 silk fibre from Aurelia is finally done, and I'm navajo plying. I stopped in at Fabricland and picked up some material to make a kitty and scotty dog stuffed animals. Just a little something for DD and Nathan. DD is missing the kitties at home here, and is desperately wanting a pet of her own in Vancouver. She has terrible allergies and I'm thinking somehow maybe this will alleviate those withdrawals of not having a kitty to cuddle. The Scotty dog will be for Nathan. Just because :)

Next came the books I ordered from Knit Picks. They have a book sale going on until November 4 and I couldn't resist. In Cables Untangled, there is some awesome patterns, and reference to cable stitches. Interweaves Knitted Gifts, is wonderful! There's several patterns I'm wanting to knit up, but one in particular 'Ballet Flats' by Marta McCall. Also if you are a Fair Isle Knitter Alice Starmore's book is an awesome reference book as well it has some wonderful timeless patterns.

Saturday was our 25 Wedding Anniversary which was spent out at a concert with some friends. It was different as the kids aren't home anymore and weren't with us to celebrate, but we had a great time anyway. The next day Sunday was our turkey day. The plan was to have our Thanksgiving around 6:00pm but when DH brought the turkey up in the morning something was off. I mean really off. I kept smelling something, and in the pit of my stomach I was hoping what I was smelling wasn't the turkey, but it was. Bugger. I ended up phoning Costco as I bought the thing only the day before from them. Costco's good that way with returning things, and they told me to bring the turkey back with my receipt and I'd get my $ back. Turns out that a half hour before I got there another lady brought her stinking turkey back as well. So I don't know what was going on with the fresh turkey's from Lilydale. After standing in line up there we ran to Superstore and got a frozen turkey, and Thanksgiving supper was served at 8:00pm instead. With a great bottle of Chenin Blanc from Quail's Gate everything tasted great.

Monday was DH's 52 birthday. Again just the two of us celebrated after a day of working in the pit called our basement renovation. Some progress was made after we did a major backtrack with the insulation. We ended up taking down all the framing which we just finished doing to put in pink rigid insulation to bring up the R value to 20. One of those things that we had to do so there'd be no regrets later on. My camera has this neat feature to take panoramic pictures. (Click to Embiggen) Framing is just about finished. Next comes hooking the electrical back up, and then drywall.

2009-10-08T12:32:00.005-06:00

Weighing on my mind.......

First snow fall of the year

Amongst other things on my mind today it's now the snow that is botching my plans of getting outside to do some major pruning. My poor apple tree is calling out for a haircut. It's out of control very much like my own hair. I was hesitating about putting this picture up because it shows the state of the backyard. Yes that pile of 2x2 wood is what we ripped out of our basement walls after the flood. I was going to have a fire in the pit, but the weather put a kabosh on that as well. Oh well, it's supposed to warm up for the Thanksgiving weekend coming up, and hopefully I'll have time to catch up then.

2009-10-08T10:23:00.015-06:00

Where am I going with this???

I've been waiting anxiously for this in the mail. Now that it's here I'm not sure where I'm going with it. Up to this point I've been borrowing all the books on weaving from the library, and after doing some reading I know I'm going to have to take some classes. I was naively thinking that weaving was going to come easy to me, I'm not so sure about that now.
Kromski Harp, Rigid Heddle Loom 32"
How it came packed......some assembly is required.
My assistant Noodles.
She soon tired, and took a nap. Right in the middle of my work area. I was trying to assemble the stand for the loom, but it was a two person job and I had to wait until DH was home.
All done! She's a Polish beauty! Now I just have to find the time to warp.
In the meantime I've been slowly progressing on my DD's Pakuna sweater. Blocked the back piece last night which then I can sew the front to the back in order to pick up and cast on for the sleeves.Next I've been forever wanting to knit a pair of Latvian mittens. This is the fourth time ripping this project apart, but I think I've got the size right now.
I'm using 2.00mm dpn with three different colours of yarn. The white I'm using is from my stash Gaella Irish Worsted Knitting Wool. The dark blue is also from the stash Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Artic Pool Heather colourway. The light blue I had a heck of a time finding. None of my LYS carried the type of baby blue I needed so I ended up going to Michael's and buying Bernat Satin worsted weight. The pattern I'm using is 10e Kurzeme, Alsungas (graph 108) from the book pictured below Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis. Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2008 also has a pattern of one of the mittens from the book. The instructions for the mitten in Vogue is a little easier to follow, and it would be a good intro into knitting Latvian mittens.

2009-10-02T07:03:00.008-06:00

Work, Work, Work.......

I think this was my husbands reaction to something I wanted to change. So much work, too little time.

But fortunately he has a little helper, and I mean 'get right in there to inspect if the work is done right' helper.

It's amazing how spunky she still is at the ripe old age of 17, but she'll leave you in a heart beat if you're not paying attention to her. So off she goes to her new bed we bought for her. Yes a brand new bed! Oh so soft! So comfy! But what does Anna prefer? Her mangy, mat layered old mattress bed. So my DH tricked her. He just put the old one inside of the new one. I'm not sure if I have the heart to eventually take the old one away. I'll have to periodically sneak it away and do a cleaning. Next post I'll have pictures of the Latvian mittens I'm working on.

2009-09-28T17:58:00.009-06:00

Back tracking on a few pictures......

We were in Vancouver for four days in July to visit my DD and her DB (Dear Boyfriend) and in the above picture I've amateurishly photoshopped the picture to illustrate where they now live. As always click to embiggen to see more detail.

The following are just a few pictures of the Saturday when we were there and it was one of the busiest. We headed out in the morning on the Seabus which leaves from downtown Vancouver heading to North Vancouver. When you dock on the northside you enter immediately into Lonsdale Market.

On the Seabus coming back with a view of downtown Vancouver. The tent like building is Canada Place where the cruise ships will stop to either load or unload passengers.

After getting off the seabus we hopped on another bus to head to Granville Island.
Yummmmm
More yummmm
Of course my yarn sniffing nose was on high alert. This was a interesting shop. The owner had live silk worms doing their thing. Unfortunately she wasn't too keen on my husband taking pictures of the inside of her store. Too bad because it was a really nice shop with lots of silk yarn.
Some of the handpainted silk I bought.Later that same day I convinced my DD to come with me to another fibre shop Birkeland Bros. Wool. I was surprised that my Mom and DH still were wanting to come along, but this was a really interesting store. The building and the business are over 70 years old, and still run by the third generation of the same family. The lady helping me was very friendly, laid back, and helpful with all my questions.

The carding machine is now over 100 years old.

Birkeland is Western Canada's #1 Ashford products dealer. My spinning wheel is an Ashford Traveller so I picked up four more bobbins, and fibre. I'll definitely head back to this store it was well worth the visit.
Haven't spun Corriedale, but once I do I'm wanting to try my hand at dying this fibre. As per usual I can't seem to get enough of any type of green fibre.

The final fibre/material/notions store that my DD said I HAVE to see was Dressew. They had really good prices on some yarn there, but not anything I wanted. They're mainly a fabric/notions store. It's two floors that are packed to the hilt. I got sidetracked by the buttons. My DH was so patient as I perused from top to bottom, side to side.

2009-09-24T14:04:00.005-06:00

Spinning, Chocolate Cake, and a runny nose.....It started yesterday... a craving for comfort food.

It turned into this....sort of looks like a volcano, but it's just warm icing.

My heads pounding and my teeth ache. I've got a head cold, and it's beautiful outside. Instead all my brain can handle right now is the soothing comfort of a motrin, a cuppa, and a spin at the wheel with this...80% Merino 20% Silk from Aurelia Wool & Weaving from Merritt B.C. Canada

2009-09-23T20:20:00.017-06:00

In the mail today......

I have plans.....well intentioned plans to start and finish something. Famous words I know.

Knit Picks had a sale on some lace weight yarn....

I have a penchant for green.This is Alpaca Cloud colourway Dill. 100% Alpaca. Heathered lace weight. I can't stop feeling this stuff it's unbelievably soft.

In the same order was some Knit Picks Shadow. Bordeaux Kettle-Dyed. 100% Merino. Not as soft as the Alpaca Cloud, but still fantastic value for a wonderful lace weight yarn.

I know I'd mentioned in the previous post about the flood in our basement. I thought I'd post some pictures of what it is now, and how we'll be trudging through the process of rebuilding.

This was the actual day it happened. We were scrambling to try to get everything on to the dry side of the room.
DH was working to try to limit any moisture sitting over night. We knew there was no way we could clean this up by ourselves. The poor little shopvac blew up after DH started going over the carpet for the third time.The insurance co. hired a clean up company to come and assess the situation. Without a word the dude started cutting up carpet right away. It's kind of shocking when you see someone cutting up your house like that, but he had it done in under an hour. For the next five days we had a humidifier going and four huge fans.

But as per usual we weren't happy with the fact that the clean up company didn't recommend taking down the drywall. I couldn't rest knowing that it was fish by products that had been sitting in behind the wall. So DH and I made the decision to take down the drywall and we'll be replacing it ourselves.

That's where the basement is standing right now. I'm hoping we can complete this by Christmas, and yes that's our poor kitty Anna sitting on the bottom part of the sofa. Downstairs was her domain and we've tried coaxing her upstairs while this reno is going on, but she won't have any of it. Thank god it's been wonderful weather here so she's been staying outside for hours to enjoy lounging on the patio furniture.

2009-09-22T15:52:00.023-06:00

Oh Lord Where Do I Begin........

You think I was on a sabbatical or something, but it was just life in general. I've missed posting and any spare time I had was spent reading all the wonderful blogs I've been referred to and inspired by. It's like getting addicted to a soap opera or something these blogs. Sheesh.

So here's a list of what's happened since my last post in March. Keeping it short and sweet.
-The estate my DH is executing was probated in February '09, and it continues to this day. Don't let anyone tell you this is a swift thing to do. We've already passed the one year anniversary and we're still dealing with it on a daily basis.
-March '09 my DD moved to Vancouver B.C. to be with the one she loves. She's the last of my children to leave home.
-April was just lost.
-In May we went to Florida for two weeks. That was nice. Would like to go again. Experienced rain like I never have in my life. I can now appreciate what they go through in a hurricane.
-June we were devastated to hear from our daughter that her true love Nathan at the age of 28 has testicular cancer stage 4. It spread up to his lungs. The same cancer that Lance Armstrong had.
-In July we went to Vancouver to visit DD and Nathan, and it was wonderful seeing them. Our hugs have a certain desperation to them since this hit us. After getting back from the trip I was home watching the Michael Jackson Memorial on tv, and went downstairs looking for something to start for dinner. To my shreaking panic discovered our 200 US gallon fishtank had drained onto our basement floor. All but four inches which was enough for me to scoop out and save our Koi and Goldfish.
-August basically has been a month of running back and forth from Home Depot buying stuff to fix our basement. In between fixing our house we bought another home which my DS and his friend are renting from us. It needs some upgrading which also demands more trips to Rona/Home Depot.

So that's that list.......The saving grace for me has been, which I'm sure you can all understand, is The Lord above, my DH, family, my spinning, knitting, and not to be forgotten the new blogs that I lost myself in inspiration, and keeping up with the lives of the dear blogs that I've gotten to know over the years.
-Smoking Hot Needles
-Gypsy Spinner
-Susan in Stitches
-NovaMade
-Spin, Knit, and Life

The new Blogs which blow me away by their photography and inspiration:
-Alicia Paulson
-Posy
-Apron Thrift Girl
-Allsorts
-Anna Maria Horner

On to fibre news....here's some of the projects that I've tried to finish, some that are finished, and new ones that keep getting in the way.

Market Bag for Nicole. Having fun coordinating fabric for these bags. Probably having more fun shopping for fabric. Another dangerous stashing hobby started.

This was my first try at making this Market Bag. McCalls Pattern #5822. It's been used more for carrying around my knitting and not groceries. I still have a ways to go in combining fabric.

A sweater pattern (Berroco Pakuna) I found in Vancouver at Birkeland Bros.Wool Ltd.

I'm finally using my natural colour Alpaca handspun for this project and I couldn't be happier how it's turning out so far. Progress has been slow, but almost finished the back. These pictures are of the front and side.

A bit of embroidery from the Babylock Esante. I'm making some bookmarks for my Niece and Nephew. Actually the sewing machine is making them I'm just programming and changing thread.

Some 2 ply handspun from Aurelia in Merrit B.C. We stopped in on our way to Vancouver. It was my first time at spinning something with so many colour changes, but I had read somewhere to separate the colours and have one spun up with all the colours combined which you can see in the one bobbin. Whereas the other single was spun up with the colours flowing one into the other. Which I then plied together. This yarn is going to be knitted up into Fiddlehead mittens with a black yarn anchoring it. Pattern by Adrian Bizilia which I purchased off of Ravelry.

More handspun by Louet. Dark Blue Faced Leicester. This reminded me very much of spinning Alpaca. I had to have more twist when spinning singles. My goal with this was to try Navajo Plying which really frustrated me just watching people do it. Until I found this....Sarah Anderson Navajo Plying. I love how I can take a spool of single spun and spin right to the end of the bobbin with no leftover and the result is a three ply. Wonderful!

2009-03-10T10:13:00.011-06:00

The weather....

What greeted me this morning....

A water main break..... Two car pile-up happened just before taking this picture. What a miserable day for that poor lady.

-30 Celsius produces a lot of steam.

Flooding now is up on the sidewalk.

I'm not sure if I want to venture outside. Neither does Noodles.....Noodles doppleganger Mr. Sweetness.

2009-02-19T16:35:00.010-07:00

What joy there is when a movie has some great knitting in it......

I'll have to put Tess of the D'Urbervilles down as another movie with a few glimpses of some interesting knitting. I've never traveled England's countryside but I can imagine that it looks very much like it did in this four-part drama series. Beautiful cinematography.

The thing that caught my eye was a wrap around shawl that Tess Derbeyfield was wearing. I made my husband stop the movie and got him to freeze frame, and from what I could see it was a straight garter stitch with a picot edge shawl. I've attached a link showing a clip from youtube, but it's not the greatest of quality.

After looking through all my reference material I came up with a similar pattern that I'm going to follow to hopefully make something similar to the shawl like Tess's. Folk Shawls 25 Knitting patterns and tales from around the world by Cheryl Oberle It's the Simple Garter Stitch Prairie Shawl. With some of my own modifications I think I'm close to the same design on the movie. I've stretched it out width wise to allow for the wrap around which buttons in the back, and I've added a picot edging all the way around for a finished edge.

Yarn: Berroco, Peruvia, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool, colour: 7105 Prairie Dog, Needles: Knitpicks Interchangeable Needles 5.00mm.

Not quite done yet, but I'll post pictures of the shawl when it's finished.

2009-02-19T16:27:00.011-07:00

Some treasures passed down with much appreciation.......

A pretty tin which holds some curiosities.

Still curious that Noodles.

Vintage buttons, thimbles, cloth tapes.

Some old spools of thread. I'll never use any of this as I find it too sentimental.

Old flour/seed sacks.

My goal is to make some aprons out of this material. It's original use was a duvet cover that our Great Grandmother had made. It's now thin in some spots, but overall the material is still very useable.

I have always been on the lookout for retro fabric, and this fits the bill very well. I recently found a contest at Tie One On. I don't know if I'll have time to enter, but it's such a cool idea for anyone interested in entering an apron sewing contest.

2009-02-17T14:14:00.011-07:00

Picking up where I last left you.......

Unfortunately the hazard of not blogging consistently means this post is going to be a long one....

Before I start with my present day knitting projects I just wanted to post an update on our bathroom renovations downstairs which is the main reason I haven't been around.

Just to back track...the start of demolition going back to January 2008. Yup this has been going on for long time.

Fast forward to the summer and Dale's jackhammering a hole to start re-routeing the plumbing for shower, toilet, and vanity. My contribution was/is as official photographer, digging and hauling of concrete and dirt, and general grunt work/passer of tools to DH who was/is the lead in this excursion.

Again fast forward...pipes are now moved and refilling of the hole.

As time passed over the summer and I neglected to take pictures of the concrete being mixed and poured. We are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Drywall is up, and now we're laying infloor heating....................................................>

Over this past week we were laying tiles, and grouting, and sealing.

Still a fair ways to go yet, but now comes the fun stuff with painting and decorating. I'll post as progress is made.

So in the evenings I got on a sock kick.

Favorite Socks 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave. Can't say enough about the really nice sock patterns in this book.

I'm knitting these for a ladies size 10 so I've made increases to the pattern for foot length. What caught my eye when searching patterns was the lace design carried down the back for the heel.

Yarn: Trekking Pro Natura, 75% superwash wool, 25% bamboo. Knitted with 2.5mm dpn's.

After finishing the purple sock I was smitten with another design out of the same above mentioned book.

Undulating Rib Socks, knitted with 2.5mm dpn's. Yarn: Lorna's Laces Hand-dyed yarns. 80% Superwash Wool, 20% Nylon. Color: 403 Tuscany.

I love this pattern, and I'm totally in love with hand-dyed sock yarn. Knitting this went by so fast. The repetitive pattern was interesting enough not to be borrowing. (I just came back to re-read this entry and discovered my spelling error, lol, I meant boring! Not borrowing. What was I thinking? It must've been the caffeine, yeah that's right I'll blame it on the caffeine ;) )

So I was on a roll throwing caution to the wind, and I started on a toes up knitted sock pattern. It's always intriqued me this toe first idea because people were saying it's easier to get the length of the foot right and not run out of wool. I really enjoyed this technique, and I'll be on the look out for more patterns toe first.

I had to do some major increasing on this sock to fit my size 10's. I fell in love making these bobbles, and loved the yarn I used which was a gift from last Christmas.

Pattern: Bacchus Socks, by Alice Bell. From Interweave Knits Fall 2008. Yarn: Knit Picks Essential, Colour: Inca Gold Tweed 65% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon, 10% Donegal. Knitted with 2.00mm dpn's.

Hope everyone is doing well!
Happy knitting!!

2009-01-13T13:16:00.013-07:00

A quick post.....

We had a good Christmas, but I have to say I'm glad to see 2008 done with. I've heard several people say the samething. What's up with that? Good Charma or kizmit just wasn't flowing last year.

Anyway over the holidays I kept busy with a couple projects which are now finished.

Cross-Country Chullo, free pattern from knitty.com

Yarn: Patons Decor (Purchased at Michael's)
75% Acrylic
25 Wool
Colours: Pale Sage Green, Rich Grey Heather

It's been so cold I've been thankful I managed to finish this in time to actually use it this winter.

Next project came along while we were in Jasper, Alberta over the holidays. I stopped in at a little yarn store called A Stychen Time, and picked up some Sari-Rainbow Silk from Nepal. 100% silk, 200 gr., 200 yards. I always liked the pattern Morning Surf Scarf, and I thought the silk would work for this pattern.

Morning Surf Scarf
Pattern from Spin-Off Magazine, Summer 2008

Blocking....silk doesn't stretch as much as wool, and this pattern gulped up the 200 yards I had. The finished measurement is 20cm x 158 cm. Or 8in. x 62 1/2in.

Dry cleaning is recommended, but it says on the label you can wash in luke warm water which is what I did with vinegar to set the colour. Whew! What a smell that came off this silk. I used some essential oils to combat the odour, but what seemed to really work is laying Bounce fabric softner sheets underneath the scarf while blocking. All is well now.

Hope all is well with you, and stay warm!

Noodles knows how to stay warm....I can't get her out of the lightbox I use for photography. She feels the heat from the lamps and loves it.

2009-01-10T10:39:00.003-07:00

You caught me snoozing.

(Haha Mae :) I'm heading to Michael's this morning. They have a bunch of yarn 70% off sale. DH is still working on our bathroom reno downstairs. I'll post pictures asap of progress there. I'm missing my blogging, and I'll get back at it, but unfortunately I'm being rather lazy. Could it be because of the weather? hmmmm

2008-12-15T12:52:00.016-07:00

Welcome to the inside....away from the cold.

I figure I do a fair amount of decorating, but it's gotten to the
point where I'm cutting down as I have to think of where I'm going to store all this stuff after I buy it. Plus cutting back on the decorating helps with the knitting schedule. Click to embiggen any of the following pictures.

The front living room. This year we bought a new Christmas tree. It's artificial pine/spruce slim tree. It's in a smaller box that I can lift myself, and putting it away won't be such a chore.

Close up of the Christmas tree decorations. My DD is a graphic designer and she fell in love with this colour combination....it's sort of a dark plum/brown with coordinating gold ornaments, and tinsel garland.

Looking in the other direction in the living room.

My DD was at a Christmas function a couple years ago and won these wire deer. Something I never would have thought to buy, but I'm sure glad she won them as I really enjoy them.

A little closer look at the guardian of the liquor cabinet.

Santa Claus.

Off the living room area is the dinette where breakfast, lunch, and supper is served, or to our American friends its dinner, or to the British its tea.

Heading downstairs to the basement is a antique buffet we recently received which promptly got decorated. I think it looks happy.

The final decoration I usually put up is in the rumpus room downstairs which sits on a mantel above the TV. It's a metal house bought from Costco a couple years ago. It holds three tea lights inside which light it up from the inside. This year I was surprised that Costco wasn't carrying much for different decorations such as this one.

Finally after all this is mostly a knitting blog, and of course I've got a sock in progress. Pattern from Favorite Socks 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave. Page 39 Merino Lace Socks by Anne Woodbury.
Yarn: Trekking Pro Natura.
Made in Germany
100G=420m
75% New Wool
25% Bamboo
Colour: 1515

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Fantastic New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peace and Love from my house to yours
See you in the New Year!
Charlene

2008-12-11T12:58:00.019-07:00

Day 1.....I'm such a joiner........

I saw this.....

on Susan In Stitches blog, and thought it was such a cool idea. You can find the link in my sidebar, or go directly to BooMama's blog.

So today is day 1 for me. I'm starting with the outside of the house which I've been trying to take some nighttime pictures of Christmas lights, but haven't figured out my aperatures/shutter coordinates yet. Bear with me more research is needed.....

The backyard.....
I think it's been almost 15 years I've had these candles and I still like them. I've also had the large red bows for many years and only now thought to put them on the fence and trees. They sat in a box for the last two years because I didn't know where I wanted to put them.

The lights were on and I thought they'd show up more in this picture, but it still needs to be darker outside. I've already filled that bird feeder for the second time in two weeks. The sparrows and chickadees are really chowing down.

This is the front door with a bit of garland and another couple of trees decorated with some red berries on either side of the door.

Front door wreath and bells >

I was inspired by Susan's blog and her talent at taking Christmas pictures of all her animals/pets. I recruited my daughter to help with my Noodles to do some sort of garland arrangement, but there was so much movement by the model, this one turned out kind of blurry.

This was the best one, but as you can see by the placement of the ears she wasn't thinking this was fun.

Yeaaahhhh....this was fun. As you can tell by the tinsel shredded on the floor this wrestling match ended quickly. I had to save the garland.

There has been some knitting going on. Sparse as it is. I've made five of these hotpads in different colours, and given most of them away. I am using them as hotpads, but the pattern is calling it a dishcloth. The pattern is free and was found on Ravelry here. If you're not on Ravelry then it's here. Yarn used: Bernat Handicrafter Holidays, Colour 47706 Mistletoe, 100% Cotton, 100g/3.5oz. Any of the Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn works great with this pattern. I can make one in about four hours while watching television, and I'm not a fast knitter.

Tomorrow I'll have more pic's of Christmas decorating inside the house.

2008-11-26T15:20:00.017-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving to our American Friends!

I have to say it's kind of nice to watch all the Thanksgiving Festivities on TV. It kind of gives me another boost into getting into the spirit of the holidays.

I finished my housecoat that I had blogged about earlier. I added some bling to the cuffs and pockets. From this distance they're hard to see, but they're some square sew on diamond thingy's.

I've been wearing it all week, and I'm so glad because it's been getting colder. If there was any humidity we'd have snow by now, but thank goodness we don't. It makes it feel like a shorter winter the longer we go without the white stuff.

Another one of my wip is a Sirdar pattern of a Bolero sweater for a baby. This is a practice version which is a good thing as I've had to rip half of the back down because I'd made a mistake and didn't realize it until I started blocking it.....
(After thought...I'm using Naturalee by Lily, 100% cotton, 4 ply Sport Weight, Colour #214 Salmon)

I've got another couple projects on the go which I'll blog about later as I haven't gotten enough knitting done to show them.

This is what I feel like when I have to frog a piece of knitting. Noodles hit the nail on the head. Thhhrruuuuuppppppp (Blowing a raspberry)

2008-11-20T11:52:00.009-07:00

New Header, New Mugs.......

My daughter informed me yesterday that Starbucks had these really cool mugs with a knitted texture, and my reaction was 'Get'em'. Is this a new product this year? I don't remember seeing them last year, anyways they're really nice. My new blog header was my DH and my breakfast this morning.

I've got a bit of startitis happening with knitting projects right now and on top of it all I got the sewing bug. My latest project waiting for me upstairs......

I recently paid a visit to Fabricland, which is the only material store in Edmonton, and I couldn't stop mushing this embossed Cuddlelucouis fleece. This stuff is so soft and all I could think of is what a nice housecoat this would make. So when I found out that it was 40% off I was sold.

Actually the same day I decided to go to one of my lys (River City Yarns) and use my birthday gift certificate I got in September.

Four balls of Noro Silk Garden as required to make the Noro striped scarf I saw Yarn Harlot posted about here. There was a limited supply of Noro, at River City Yarns, but I'm quite happy with these two colours
#47, and 269.

The rest of the gift certificate went to four skeins of Cascade Yarns The Heathers, 100% Peruvian Highland Merino Wool, Col. No. 4010, 100 gr., 220 yards.

Last but not least another skein of sock yarn by Arequipa. Made by Estelle Yarns. 65% Superwash Wool, 20% Alpaca, 15% Nylon. Col. No. 201. 400 meters/100 grams.

I'm loving these colours. I have no plans for them, but that's most of the fun dreaming about this craft/obsession.

Have a great day!

2008-10-27T15:32:00.005-06:00

This is a brief post to answer Phyllis (Spin, Knit, and Life) who tagged me on October 4. It's taken me this long to respond, but I do enjoy reading other blogger's tags, so here goes.....

Six Random Things About Me:

1. I love Chocolate, but the caffeine in it seems to bother me at times. Does that stop me from eating it though? Nooooooo :)

2. I HATE the wind. We just recently had a windstorm here 100km/hr. It tore the top off of our carport. One of the plastic/canvas ones that you buy from Costco.

3. After wrapping Christmas presents for a marathon six hours I went to bed (at some ungodly hour) and had a hallucination/dream that somebody had put wrapping paper up in the ceiling light fixture. My husband woke me up as I was standing on top of the bed trying to clean out the 'said' wrapping paper.

4. I love collecting rocks for our outdoor pond, and for edging around my flower gardens.

5. Now this is really out there, but I think George Bush is kind of cute. I know, I know, what is she thinking? His politics suck, but I've always thought that George was a funny guy...I find that appealing.

6. I'm fanatical about the British soap, Coronation Street.

2008-10-16T09:20:00.027-06:00

Blog...I'm back....

It's almost overwhelming. Where to start?

Back in August we had heard about the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival that's held the first week of October in British Columbia. We thought about going, but our first priority at the time was for our Uncle Otto. Since his passing on September 19th our days before and after the funeral were so emotionally draining, and busy that it was a welcome reprieve to think about getting away. So October 3 we left for Valemount, B.C. picked up my mom and headed for British Columbia's wine country for some wine education. A few pic's......

Fall colours heading into the Alberta Rockies

Just taking a leisurely walk alongside the road.

A view from the balcony at Gray Monk Estate Winery.

Grapes waiting to be processed.

Mom and DH tasting some grapes right from the vine.

The cellar at Mission Hill Winery.

The view from the outside bistro at Dirty Laundry Vineyard.

Wine tasting at Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Winery.

It was great to get some knitting in while driving, and I started a new sock KAL designed by Kirsten from Through the Loops. The free pattern can be found on Ravelry: Fans of Through the Loops.

I had full intentions to get all these 'in progress' sock pictures with the vineyards as a back drop, but after the wine tasting I never remembered to do it...Geesh.

A great time was had by all three of us. We visited 16 wineries in five days, and we all agreed it would be something we'd love to do again. There are so many wineries and vineyards in the Okanagan that a person could go back and not visit the same ones.

Of course no trip is complete until I've visited the local yarn shops. There was only one shop in Kelowna. Kelowna Yarn and Needlecrafts........

I bought this......

And I couldn't keep my hands from smooshing it the rest of trip.

The second fibre shop stop was in Armstrong B.C. on our way back to Valemount. We stopped in and had a visit with Sharon Wickstrom from Homespun Haven. What a wonderful shop she had! It's in her home in a big room situated over her garage. I was inspired, and she had such patience with all our questions. I found out that she's hoping to teach some courses at next spring's HWSDA's conference at Old's College in Olds, Alberta, May 22-24, 2009. Hopefully next spring I'll be able to attend one of Sharon's classes.

I've never seen so many spools of yarn. Click to embiggen.

Sharon was showing me one of Ashford's looms. This ones called The Knitter's Loom. She gave us a mini demo and I'm putting it on my Christmas list.

I bought this for the stash...............

This grey is something I never heard of before. It's combed wool in a natural gray colour. It is a bit on the itchy side, but it has some wonderful fuzziness to it which I'm hoping to incorporate in some projects..................................>

So I need to take pictures of my works in progress right now. That'll be my next post....Stay warm everybody!

2008-10-06T23:26:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the long absence.....

Just wanted to say that the last several weeks have been so busy attending to matters concerning the passing of Uncle Otto. Since then my husband and I decided to take a week off for a bit of R and R, and visit with my Mom in Valemount, B.C.

I will be back home soon to share in our travels.....

2008-09-22T06:56:00.005-06:00

We lost our dear Uncle Otto due to Alzheimer's and a subsequent stroke at 9:20am this past Friday.

September 25, 1929 - September 19, 2008

Through out our lives Otto was more than anybody could want in an Uncle. His passion for the outdoors, planting trees and long drives on the family farm, fishing, photography, and all things related to nature including the changing of seasons. He had a great sense of humour. We would laugh about the phone calls we would get from him, on June 21 (first day of summer), reminding us that we're heading back to winter and the days are getting shorter. It was inspiring his obsession for details, and keeping care of things (neat and tidy), and documenting events (writing in his journal). More than once we heard him say, 'There's a place for everything, and everything in it's place'. Even though he didn't have children I know that he held his nieces, and nephew close in his heart. The same can be said of his faith in God and his Church. Through out it all there was nothing greater than his love and dedication that he showed to all of us.
We love you Otto.

2008-09-05T13:12:00.004-06:00

A completed something.....

Revontuli Shawl.

This was a really nice project to knit on the go. I could pick it up and each row was easy to follow. I loved the yarn. Kauni Effektgarn Wool. It's a bit rough, but I gave it a wash, rinse, and then soak for about 30 minutes, and it softened up a bit. A bit. Sorry but I don't have a photo of me wearing it as nobody is home to take the picture....so blocked on the floor is all I can do.

I originally purchased this yarn because I fell in love with this pattern, but then decided that I probably hadn't ordered enough to make for my size. So it's getting used up in other projects that won't be close to the body. I'll have enough to try a felted project...we'll see.

That's it for now. I'm looking forward to a hopefully quiet weekend.
Wishing you all peace as well this weekend.

2008-09-02T14:20:00.010-06:00

WooHoo!!!!!

What better treat, besides Chocolate, is there? Getting fibre in the mail? I think so!

All the way from Ontario..............

Jody and I sort of did an unplanned fibre exchange. I picked up some Finnsheep fleece for her, and she sent the following loveliness.....

All neatly packed for a new home.

Beautiful handspun alpaca. One thing about alpaca you can feel the weight. More so than merino which is lighter.

This is great! Tagged with the name of contents so I'll never forget.

Black Corriedale from a Canadian Supplier. Val from Life With Sheep.
Such a deep rich black.

What more can you say about dark fawn Alpaca, and...

Fawn Suri Alpaca.....it's like feeling clouds in you hands.

Noodles enjoys opening presents as well. Especially when she smells, and discovers that there were other kitties living where this came from.

Thanks so much Jody! You work so hard with fleece. Cleaning, combing, spinning. I can tell that it's a passion for the love of fibre. It's great emailing with you and sharing in this obsession.

2008-08-27T08:04:00.009-06:00

More of the same spinning update............

I just love this colourway from Bountiful. Now 2 plied.

A close up of the alpaca staple requested by Jody. (Gypsyspinner)......Purchased in Valemount during my last visit.

Recently I was inspired to look back at my history in rug hooking. It all started with Phyllis (Spin, Knit, Life) mentioning another blogger Robin (For the Love of Fiber) who is a rug hooker besides many other talents. I loved rug hooking back in the day, and actually it was the first thing that I had ever started regarding a fibre craft even before knitting or spinning.
The only thing I have to show for it is .............

I even joined the guild and got a name tag............

But alas, it was unfortunately a craft that fell by the wayside because of family commitments, and the meetings were a long drive away. The meetings were an important aspect because that's where the strip cutter was. I don't know if that was the proper name for the machine, but it would cut strips out of the wool used to hook into the backing fabric. It was a craft that I first spotted, while on holiday, in a mall in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We were walking through a shopping mall, and a couple ladies from the local guild were working on projects. They had also set up some tables showing some beautiful finished pieces of rug hooking. I had to stop. I was compelled, and made a commitment to myself to start something as soon as I got home.

Well that was nearly 20 years ago, and yes as a young mother I got myself signed up with the guild and went to the meetings and really enjoyed meeting most of the mainly senior ladies. We just recently renovated one of the bedrooms into my craft/sewing room now, and one of the things that had to go to make room for wool/yarn was my wool fabric for rug hooking. Gosh in my next life I'm putting in a request for a bigger craft room..lol.

Too many crafts, and too little time.

2008-08-19T11:38:00.013-06:00

We're having a heat wave..............

This is the thermostat reading inside the house last night.

This has been the norm for the last 10 days. The last couple of nights the weather has decided that that's not enough to make sleeping miserable....it throws in fantastic lightening shows with window rattling thunder at 2:00am just for good measure. We're staying in the basement to keep cool, and I've discovered this yummy drink mix that we've been indulging.

(I have since discovered while taking this picture that the calorie count is 190 for one scoop. We've been putting a total of four in a double batch which fills a blender. Gosh everything good is bad. Who would of thought that that little scoop of powder would count so high in calories. I guess we'll have to limit this drink to maybe once on the weekends from now on.)

So what else to do in the basement, but some spinning. Yesterday I got my order of Variegated Merino from Bountiful. Colourway: Sage. I have to say I've never spun Merino, and this was my first time....I love it. It's a little shorter in staple than what I'm used to with the Alpaca, but I've adjusted my tension on the wheel, and my short draw, and it's been spinning up great. I'll be 2/plying this and I'm considering knitting it up into a shawl....we'll see.....

Click to embiggen.

Canadian nickel for spun single size reference.

Next is the Alpaca, that I blogged about earlier, from Joyce in Valemount. It's from her Alpaca named Camron Steele, and the two bags are divided up as first and second quality fleece. This has yet to be washed, and then combed. I went delving into the bags today, and it's a gorgeous fleece. Hardly any vm at all, and I have to say whatever Joyce is doing to keep the Alpaca's clean, it's working. No plans for any projects for this fleece yet. I'm just looking forward to spinning it.

First quality

Seconds

This is a sample of some Rose-Grey Alpaca from Joyce. It is my understanding that this colour is one of the most sought after regarding Alpaca fibre. Could this be true? Joyce had agreed, but now I'm doubting myself on that tidbit. Opinions anyone?

Noodles couldn't give a flying fleece about colour. She just wants it to cool down.Have a great day!

2008-08-14T13:35:00.013-06:00

As promised.......

My Folk Festival project.....

Revontuli-shawl. Knitted with Kauni Effektgarn Yarn, 100 % wool, colourway EQ - 150 grams. Needle size 8 (5.00mm) Knit Picks Optional Interchangeable Harmony Wood Circular Knitting Needle Tips (love these needles).

It is a free pattern offered by AnneM from Finland. I would love to read her blog, but of course it's in Finnish. I use the Babel program for translation, but there's no option for converting Finnish to English. Is there another way to translate it?

I fell in love with how this pattern shows off the slow colour changes that Kauni yarn is noted for. I was having a bit of difficulty understanding how the pattern sets up on Chart 1, but then found out that I was doing my left, and right leaning increases wrong. I also put in stitch markers after each of the pattern repeats, which is a total of eight. It helped me focus on my position in a row especially when knitting the 'yarn over' rows. Each row in the pattern is very easy to memorize, and it was a great project to bring along for the weekend at the Folk Music Festival.

The next thing I'm excited about is this.......

It's going to come in handy when blocking projects. I was surfing some knitting blogs and saw this product, unfortunately I can't remember what blog it was, but it's such a good idea.

It's like puzzle pieces when attaching them together.

Add another square......

And ta daaa....

(This isn't an actual blocking....I grabbed one of my shawls for display purpose.)

I never would of thought of using these square foam carpeted interlocking squares for blocking....I have to thank whoever it was that blogged about this as it's saving my ironing board cover from my blocking pins. I'm only showing four squares being used here, but there's two more that will expand it up to 24 sq. ft. I purchased this at Rona for $19.97 Cdn.

2008-08-12T13:06:00.018-06:00

Going back.............

It all started with a bridal shower.

It was my cousin getting married to the above beautiful bachelorette. It's always a great day meeting up with extended family. Good times, good drink, and of course cake.

Next came the August long weekend and we headed out to Valemount, British Columbia where my Mom lives.

We had such a good time, it was just too short. There's always time though to go visit Joyce and her alpaca's.....how more sweet can these animals be?.......

Joyce has 22 alpaca at the moment with enough room to go up to 30. She had, I believe, most of them shorn this past spring so she has a bus load of fibre. Literally....

It's absolute heaven in that bus. You spinners know what I mean. It's wonderful talking with Joyce. One fibre addict to another. My Mom, DD, and DH sort of get it, and don't mind going to visit and look at fibre, but it's a real treat when you can have a conversation with someone else who's just obsessed as I am about fibre/spinning. Joyce was showing me a swatch she 3/plied with grey, cream, and black alpaca. I thought it looked gorgeous, and I wanted to post a picture of it knitted up....

Click on picture to embiggen it.

While out at the alpaca farm I managed to snag some dark grey which has minimal vm in it, and it's taunting me in my craft room right now. Don't know what I'm going to make with it yet. I'm just looking forward to spinning it after its cleaned and combed.

Our next jaunt out in Valemount is our favourite place by Kinbasket Lake. We follow along a logging road which winds around the lake. This picture is taken at the west end of Kinbasket, and eventually one day we'd like to canoe it.

Our resident rock thrower.....DH

Another spot which is always fun to check out is a pedestrian bridge which is over Swift Creek in George Hicks Park right in the town of Valemount.

This is a well known tourist stop to watch the salmon run which hasn't started yet....it'll be closer to the end of August when they reach this area. It's a lifetime experience. I've never seen so many fish in my life at one time. For me it was a little sad as you begin to think that all these fish are returning back to their birth place to spawn and eventually die. All for the sake of their natural instinct to make new life and start the cycle all over again.

So that's about it for now....gotta get supper going....tomorrow I'll post about my next knitting project which I had a great time working on while listening to some fantastic music at the Edmonton Folk Festival. I promise more fibre/knitting pictures.

Wishing you a great day!

DD, Me, Nana

2008-08-12T12:44:00.002-06:00

Wowwee Cow...it's been over a month.......

Bear with me I'm uploading pictures, and having to resize them before importing into blogger....I've got the whole afternoon. Maybe I'll get something done.....aaah this feels good to have time to sit and catch up. How is everybody doing?

2008-07-09T12:53:00.009-06:00

It's raining, it's raining.......

and the garden is loving it.
These are the first of my lilies that have decided to open up. They seem late this year to me for some reason. This is the second summer they've come back. I will probably have to dig them up this fall and clear off any of the little cling-on's (sorry that's my terminology). The little tubers that cling on to the bigger main ones tend to drain the plant of energy and if you can pick them off you'll maintain the larger blooms for next season.

I bought most of my annuals from Home Depot, and I'm enjoying the nasturtiums this year with they're profusion of blooms. They're a great trailing plant for pots, and baskets.

My delphiniums have just started to bloom as well. Both of these plants were self propagated in a hedge I have in the front yard. My previous neighbour had planted them, and for some reason they had reseeded into my hedge. So I dug them up, and happy days, they've managed to come back for the last four years.

<--LightPurple/Pink Delphiniums

More blue delphiniums... So you're wondering where's the knitting content in this spinning/knitting blog???? Well I've got nothing new right now. I've been trying to focus on getting projects finished, but I tell you I've been piling up a list of things I'd like to do. So when the garden is less demanding I'll be sure to post some of the lace I'm dreaming about knitting.

In the meantime this is my spinning......

There's nothing more enjoyable than looking at a fat bobbin of singles, except when you get to finally ply them together.....

Which is where I'm heading now.....

Have a Great Day!!

2008-07-08T12:21:00.008-06:00

Back at Home.......

I'm so happy DD has been inspired to sew.....

Does it look like she's having a good time?------------>

It threatened to come off the rails a couple of times, but she persevered, and this is the result....It looks great on her, and where else can you buy a dress like this for $13.00?? As usual I haven't been quick enough in the morning to capture her in it on film.

Another project on the go is our two carboys of wine. One is a Pinot Noir, and the other is a South African Chardonnay both have been filtered and are resting in my craft room. Next we'll be bottling it up. DD is designing the labels so I will post the final product when finished. In between the two carboys are what looks like pop, but we found a new product where you can make beer in 2 lt. bottles. It comes with a special lid that you put on after adding the yeast tablet, and in two weeks we'll have a Mexican Cuerveso, and a Red Lager.

My kitty Noodles hasn't been eating, and I suspected something was up so I brought her into the vet. Blood tests are showing that with the diet change her kidneys haven't declined anymore, but her liver is now having problems. So now she's on medication for the next two months....she's lost weight, but now with the medication she's eating a bit more, and seems to still have some fiestiness. Of course I never capture her running around it's always on the swing outdoors asleep.Either way....I think I might join her.....

2008-07-07T10:47:00.009-06:00

Catch up........

That's what this whole post is going to be about so a forwarning it's picture heavy......

I finished the sundress that I mentioned on an earlier post. I know, I know I've been showing clothes on hangers, but honestly I can't bring myself to take a picture of it on me. Plus I haven't worn it yet because I discovered that the straps on the slip for underneath need to be fixed now. That shows how long it's been since wearing a dress.

It's a Easy-To-Sew Simplicity pattern 3773, and the material is a poly/cotton.On the knitting front I've been spinning and then knitting up the alpaca to continue on with the Ajoure Sweater. This is how far two skeins have produced for the back. I'm loving the whole process from sheep to sweater. The sweater is at a halt right now as I've got to fill one more bobbin to get more 2ply for knitting.

Next came the long weekend in July which is our annual family reunion at our family farm. We've never had a weekend with such good weather. It's been a habit every night to put things under the canopy to protect from rain, but for five days there wasn't a drop. I love the weekends out at the farm as it means more time for visiting and knitting. We love having guests come out with us, and this year was my DS girlfriend Erin. I think she had a pretty good time. We look forward to having her come out again soon.Other Canada Day activities were......

Deep-fried Turkey
Pinata's for the kids, and adults made by my DD.

And of course fireworks at the end of the day.

Cooling down at the river

And of course a girl's got to have her sun bonnet! ------------>

And some fantastic sunsets....

2008-06-19T09:50:00.009-06:00

It will be her 26th summer.................

Happy Birthday to my baby girl. Nicole was born on one of the hottest days recorded in Edmonton 26 years ago, June 18.

Look at her now. Heading off to work. The painting of the tree in the background was made by Nicole for Mother's Day a couple of years ago....a girl of many talents!
Last night was spent with just family, eating, reminiscing, and of course birthday cake.

This is what Nicole thinks of turning 26....total denial..lol.

We barbequed, and unfortunately I didn't get a picture of DH cooking the burgers under an umbrella in the rain. That would've been such a good picture. As per usual the weather cleared up within an hour. It would've been nice to eat outside.

This birthday thing seems to be turning into the birthday week. It's now carrying over to this weekend where we'll be going bowling, and I know there'll be lots of interesting pictures to take there....
**Update: Bad Blogger Bad. Forgot my camera.

Progress on the sewing front.....Started the sundress....

2008-06-16T14:51:00.029-06:00

Where did 14 days go?

Not much knitting progress recently.....here's the latest on the sock. Heel's done, and it's home free to the toe.

On the spinning front.....We went to a farmer's market and I found a local breeder of Angora Goats, Spring Harvest Farm. So I might be in the market for some fleece. I'll have to see how the budget can take it. I had to buy a sample bag of her roving (100gr) which I'm thinking I'll blend with some alpaca.
I got two deliveries in the mail this week....I was so excited to get my serger.......

so during the evenings I managed to finish this..... It's a cotten/linen blend material, and I loved the border along the edge which I thought would work well with a Simplicity pattern I had at home...I call this my hippy shirt. Can you smell the patchouli? ;)

The next delivery was my English Woolcombs. I haven't had much time yet to get going with some raw fleece, but I took some alpaca I had and quickly combined it with some silk. Love these combs which I purchased by phoning and talking to Gerry (Ray's wife) from Ray's Spinning
Accessories . Thanks to Jody for the recommendation!
Friday the 13th we went with the kids and their friends to Edmonton's Festival of Beer. The crowd was very well behaved and we came back with some freebie drink shakers....

We had a lot of fun learning about the different beers that are available here from around the world, and my new favourite is a tequila blended beer. Go figure. I don't like tequila, and I thought this was a Mexican beer, but soon found out that it's made in France, and it's their #1 beer.
Below are some pic's of other drinks that were sampled, and we now have added to our selection at home:

DD's favourite are a blueberry ale, and raspberry ale. She tends to like the fruity flavours. Click on pic's for more bigness.
My DH's fave was a wheat beer which was rather tasty from Germany.

In the garden, some new pretties....

Some standard poppies that are the first to show up in the spring, and then the hosta's which are in the shade part of the garden, and then my pink oriental poppies which are still in bud form.

The fish are back in the pond, but they're all hiding. They're getting used to their new home, and they're not in the visiting mood. So pic's of them will come later.

I did manage to get a picture of our one baby fish from last fall. He/she some how survived the other cannibal fish and is now in his/her new home 'the big tank'. It must seem so big and lonely.Noodles was having some wretching episodes, so I gave her a dose of Zantac, and she's back in fine working order! Appetite's back which fuels her fitzy running around the backyard.
**Since writing that statement we've had a torrential downpour and West Edmonton Mall flooded again. You know it's bad when they have to close the mall. So because of the rain Noodles isn't running around outside....she's happy inside away from the thunder.Another quick note that I just remembered. I took out a book from the library, and fell in love with it immediately. Victorian Lace today by Jane Sowerby. The photography is absolutely amazing, as well as the patterns. I promptly looked it up on Amazon.ca (for us Canadians) and it said that I'd have to pre-order it....I then went to Amazon.com and it was in stock. I ordered it from them, and it was here in less than a week. What's up with that? I'm getting books faster from the U.S. than from the Canadian Amazon website.

Grumperina has a very good review of the book with a lot more pictures of the patterns.

**Victorian Lace Today Corrections and Clarifications

2008-06-03T14:50:00.020-06:00

More Progress.........

on the bathroom reno downstairs. This past weekend dear hubby unfortunately got the dirtier end of the stick when he was knocking out some old cast iron plumbing, and got his finger pinched. The nail immediately turned purple, and I'll spare the details, but the nail is coming off....eewwwwww.

But here's a picture of what he got accomplished on Saturday......he worked so hard. Sweat dripping off the forehead hard. Purple finger throbbing hard. It's all new abs black piping put in. It doesn't look like a lot was done, but organizing where we wanted everything to go was half of it. Plus a couple trips to Home Depot, and the day turned into 9:00 pm by the time we were finished.

Words can't say how proud I am that DH has the shutzpa to take this project on. He has no fear. It's going to be great when it's done Dale!

DD was gone this past weekend to Seattle, and she bought me a nifty apron....So this morning I had to take some pictures of the apron with the Bath and Bodyworks, and the Mr. & Mrs. Smith DVD which were both bonus gifts.

Now you may think, 'What!? She gave her a flippin apron?' The thing is I love aprons, have always used them (bad habit of wiping my hands on pants) have sewn some, and try to find unique ones through my travels.

This white apron was bought during a stop while on a cruise to Alaska in '06. It's silk screened with a landscape shot of Creek Street, Ketchikan, Alaska. I haven't used this one yet because in no time I'd have it dirty and it would need washing, and I'm not sure how the silk screening would stand up. So for now I take it out once in awhile to look at, and then it goes back in the apron stash.

So this morning I put on my new apron and headed out in the garden to take some pictures of what is newly sprouting in this part of the world, and of course the kitties came out.....

My Noodles in the Hosta patch. The hosta's are now starting to unfurl their vibrant green leaves. Noodles seems to be doing well considering she has renal failure. We changed her to a special diet food, and she seems to be maintaining her weight. She sleeps a lot, but when she's up she has her fitzy moments running around thinking she's a young filly.

Anna on the other hand....wants her privacy. Which we give her, but she's just so soft, and grey, and well she only allows so much cuddling............More Hosta's, Day Lilies, and ferns in the background.

We stopped at our local Rona last night after our visit to see Uncle Otto, and they had pond plants...so we bought this Zebra Rush.
Scirpus tabernac-montani 'Zebrinus.' Hardy to -30Celsius. So I'll do more investigating and see if I can leave this one in the pond over winter.

So on the knitting front I've started a sweater pattern from one of my new favourite knitting magazines Sandra The Knitting Magazine. Printed in Austria. January 2008 issue.

It's the Fluffy Ajoure Sweater, Model #2. I'm taking a leap here, but I'm pretty sure that Ajoure is french for perforate. So I'm assuming that they're referencing that it's lacey. I'm using my handspun from 100% alpaca. By my estimation I'm going to need 12 hanks of 123m each. So I'm spinning and plying as I go along...I just about have 4 hanks right now. I never thought I'd get this much satisfaction, and enjoyment knitting my own handspun yarn. I was having too much fun just spinning the stuff.

Progress so far........I'm using Addi Turbo Lace 4.0mm/120cm. Very nice circular needles I purchased from The Yarn and Fiber Company. Free delivery within the U.S. and Canada. I've had very prompt and reliable service from them.

Coming up in projects to do....I'm waiting for my Serger to come in hopefully by Friday. The sewing bug is biting, and I'm getting inspired by some of these gals blogs.... All things Heather
and Nova Made. Very talented people.

2008-05-26T08:07:00.014-06:00

The cat in a glass......

What's up with my cat....she thinks everybody's glass is hers to drink out of. In the middle of the night I can hear the glass moving along the desktop. Knowing full well, even in my sleep, Noodles has her head locked in there and is on the way to tipping it over.

Now this isn't the only glass of water on this night table. She's got her own huge bowl sitting there. It only takes once for her to see me drinking out of that glass and she sneakily heads to her bowl, but oh....what's this, this glass of water looks better, and in goes her head.

Aaaah...but I love her quirks and all.

Things are happening in the garden but slowly.....

Do to a family member's illness I'm gardening in bits and spurts. We've been having some great weather with some sunshine here, and a little rain there. So things are really growing fast.

We bought a few extra plants for the pond. Angel moss, Duckweed, Hyacinthe, hornwort. We just haven't added the fish yet as the water still needs time to balance.

Progress on knitting is also happening when time allows. I'm still on the first sock of Country Girl Socks pattern from Heart Strings Fibre Arts. So far I'm on the heel flap. The colour isn't quite right in this picture. The colourway of the yarn is more burgundy. Yarn: Knit Picks Risata, colour-Burgundy. I've been taking it along to the hospital, and I can get a few rows done, but not much more. Socks, as it turns out, are a great take along project.

I finished Dr. G's Memory vest, pattern by Through the Loops. After following the links Kristen has on her blog, and making a donation to the Alzheimer's Research Foundation, Kristen will forward a pdf of the pattern.

Knitpicks : Wool of the Andes, colour: Arctic Pool Heather 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. Some adjustments were made in the length of the vest, but other than that everything went like clockwork. I started this vest at the end of March thinking that I could get it done in a couple months. With medication Uncle Otto was doing really well, but unfortunately within the last three weeks this insidious disease has taken hold of him, and it's not possible for him right now to try on the vest.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Uncle Otto, and as well with the many families around the world coping with, and caring for family members who are living with Alzheimers/Dementia.

We love you Otto

2008-05-25T08:35:00.010-06:00

Fibre Friday......

It's been raining all week, and on Friday the sun finally broke through, so we headed to Brightbank Finnsheep Farm.

I had heard about Kathy Playdon's finnsheep through another knitting blog, Gypsy Spinner. I couldn't believe my luck in finding a locally produced fleece from someone in Ontario....another one of the amazing things of the online knitting community. Good news travels fast.

Anyway I dragged DH along with me, and we had a great time meeting Kathy and getting a tour of the farm. I took a few pictures.......

So I'll be trying my hand at this fleece cleaning thing again, and then processing it so that I can eventually spin it. I'm so looking forward to working with this finnsheep fleece....

Here's the fleece in all it's glory.....the left pic is the inside all white and fluffy showing the marvelous crimp the finnsheep have. The pic on the right (sorry for the weird angle camera shot) is showing part of the exterior which is the side where all the dirt and vm is. Looks pretty dirty....it may take me some time to get to cleaning this.....stay tuned.

2008-05-13T13:29:00.016-06:00

This is no Extreme Makeover Home Edition......

Though I would like to have all those people helping. Especially when we were hauling all of the concrete, and dirt out.

DH was jack hammering pretty much for three days, on and off. It started out as this small hole, but there is plans for it to get bigger.

A little bit bigger here with all the old marble tile taken off. Some people might think, 'What? Taking out marble?' But it was put in by the previous owner over 26 years ago. He was a tile layer by trade so what was put in our bathroom was all the leftover stuff he had from other jobs.

The excavation part is now close to being done. You can still see the tiles from the old shower. Again that's the previous owners method of tiling onto the foundation wall. No wonder it was always freezing in there.

Speaking of freezing, it's not freezing outside here anymore. We had a great weekend of weather which allowed us to get a lot of work done outside. The pond is now cleaned out and running. No fish yet as we've got to get all the bacteria levels balanced. This picture looks like it's kind of murky water, but it's the peat moss pellets and barley we put in to keep down the algae growth.

Unfortunately hardly any knitting or spinning has been done. I'm still working on Dr. G's memory vest which I'm hoping to get done before this weekend. One project that I finished awhile ago, but didn't post about, is the finished Sugarplum Shrug.

Modelled by DD.

I wore the shrug on the plane to Las Vegas. It was just enough to keep from freezing from the air conditioning, and light enough that I wasn't sweltering when we landed in Vegas.

Speaking of sweltering. The cutie patootie living next door, Seika, was rolling around enjoying the summer breeze. That's what I call living in the moment.

She abruptly stopped, as soon as she heard the camera clicking, giving me this shy look saying....'What's the big deal? Haven't you ever rolled in the grass before?'

Have a great day!!!!

2008-05-08T15:05:00.012-06:00

Beginning of Spring......

I've been envious of all the blooming pictures from our southern neighbours that I went out to snap a few of my own.....

Delphiniums. Amazing that they're growing so well with Noodles adopting that area as her personal fertilizing zone.

A few more shots of springiness.......

=Courtland Apple Blossom

Peonie, white variety=

=Tulips

I promised pictures of the alpaca that I had processed at Custom Woollen Mill, and here they are......

100% 2ply handspun alpaca. 18 wpi. Sport weight.

I'd love to make a shawl out of this which is why I've been trying to spin a lighter weight yarn. I don't have a pattern yet, but I figure that I'll be safe with a shawl design because it doesn't have to be an exact gauge.

One of two finished hanks....the other one is still drying. Total meterage for both is 256.5 meters, total weight for both is 4.5oz.

After all this blogging and counting and calculating it makes a girl thirsty....

Quote for the day:

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading....
Henny Youngman (1906-1998)

2008-05-06T07:00:00.019-06:00

Short and Sweet.......

That was our trip to Las Vegas....I went with good intentions to visit a yarn store called Wooly Wonders, but alas it wasn't meant to be. We arrived there on a Saturday, and it was crazy with traffic so the car rental got put on hold. As it turned out for the next three days we basically walked our feet off. I had a tourist guide, and we saw half of the destinations listed. There's too much to do in just four days. Next time we're going for a week.

Mom and DD gambling at the Bellagio.

Front Entrance to the Bellagio.
Beautiful hand blown glass...........

Mom, DS, and DD (half of her). Resting our aching feet at Bills Gamblin Hall and Saloon. We had such a good time there. Good live entertainment, and cheap beer.

New York, New York at night, and my sock knitting with a view from our hotel room.

Our last night in Vegas was visiting Fremont Street. Loved the Golden Nugget.

Last day we visited the Star Trek experience at The Hilton. I live with a bunch of trekkie nerds and this was an absolute must on the to see list. We had fun and it was actually quite informative. This is probably the last time I'll ever sit beside a blue alien.

So....since being home we started on the bathroom reno downstairs.

And since Sunday this is where it is now after three days of demolition.

Then on Sunday DD and I went to the Allied Beauty Association trade show held here once a year. DD was asked to be a hair model for one of the distributors FHI.......

They were showcasing their curling irons. DD's hair is normally straight, and then after about 20 min. it was curly.

Wow all that in seven days. It's a lot condensed down into a couple pictures. Next post I'll hope to show progress on my spinning of the alpaca that I had processed at the mill.

2008-05-05T13:45:00.001-06:00

I'm home now from a short and brief holiday in Las Vegas.....gathering photo's, and my thoughts, to show what I've accomplished in the last week...which is basically a big fat nothing.....I'll be back