Mods

Ah, here we are again. Firstly good news: we have a dryer! Yay! It's a bit futuristic in that it has one magical dial and a bunch of touch censors. And a sloping top surface. Really, do they not want you to fold things on there? I mean, who doesn't do this? Style trumps function. Boo. I'm hoping my towels don't end up on the floor. Plus I'm not especially thrilled with the flimsy and hard to catch door latch. I'm expecting this will ease as I become familiar with how hard I need to close it. (Clue: a good slam does the trick, though it seems rather excessive.) Ahem. They sure don't make appliances like they used to! A practical test coming up very soon.

Meanwhile I was revamping (yet again) a top that I made awhile back and already fixed once. It's an interesting black ruched texture with Lycra threads gathering a fine woven fabric. Can't remember if it's rayon or polyester at this point. Sleeves and bottom band are cotton/Lycra knit in charcoal gray. It still wasn't working for me. See how the hem sticks out awkwardly?

Yuck. So I dug out the rest of the yardage and started chopping and pinning. I ended up with this:

The off-grain areas reflect the light differently but it's the same fabric. I left the cool fringed selvedge on and stitched a piece also onto the back point. 

I like it a lot better now. Even if some people have issues with pointy hems. I love them! And I also had enough of this fabric to cut a sleeveless triangle top layer. Of course the points go the opposite way - side to side instead. I can wear it as a nice light top for hot weather with shorts or layer it over this one or the other T-shirt that I made in the same charcoal knit. Nice to have options. I haven't had time to sew that last one though it should only take a short while. I'm going to recycle the hem from the original for the neck and armhole binding. Waste not and all that.

Another mod I did today was to fix the Ribbon Cardi. As I wore it the neckline stretched and tried to slip off my shoulders. So I worked a row of crocheted knit stitches across the back, including the raglan sleeve areas, to snug it up a little bit. I think I'll be much better now.

Plus I finished the Featherstonehaugh:

It took two days to dry! And a gabillion pins. I think it's rather pretty.

Kind of Easter-eggish springy pastels - very seasonal. If nothing else it goes perfectly with my Stripey Cardi. Hard to believe those are all natural dye colours, isn't it? No "mud"!

So now we're cleaning house and packing for our camping trip south. We're both really looking forward to getting away for a week or so. The weather promises to be reasonable for several days at least. After that we'll take it as it comes. Can't expect more this time of year, can you? We will try to be ready for virtually anything.

I'll leave you with one of our resident Anna's hummingbirds. We currently have at least one nesting in our arborvitae and as many as half a dozen showing up to the two feeders. So cute!

That's one of the males. It's hard to catch their magenta chin feathers. They have to shift them in sunlight to show the iridescent colour! The rest of the time they just look black. They move so fast that it's hard to photograph them at all! Thom took this one with his cellphone.

Earth Day?

Maybe I’m just feeling grumpy, but I think we should think about our Mother Earth every day. Not just one calendar date where everybody is running around turning off lights and brushing their teeth with the tap off. I know every little bit helps but really in the scheme of things, this is all just a drop in the ocean. Stop playing “holier than thou” and start putting your money where your mouth is! We need to get serious about what we purchase (or don’t purchase) and what the companies we deal with are really about. And do a lot more research to make sure it’s not just a bunch of greenwashing going on. I’m pretty sick of all the ubiquitous eco-sensitive words. They still want you to buy their products and it’s all in the marketing! Are they telling you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? OK, call me cynical.

Besides, you can’t live on this planet and not use up something. The trick is to contribute as much back as you use. Pretty impossible with our current consumer lifestyles, huh? Things are changing but sometimes it just seems to be at a snail’s pace. Locally we just got the ok today to start adding compostable materials like uncooked vegetable and fruit bits, eggshells, coffee grounds, filters and teabags into our yard waste bins. Took them long enough! And I won’t be doing that myself. I’m not giving away my own carefully saved compostables so I can go collect one cubic yard per year of questionable compost back! I’ve had a compost pile since we rented a basement suite back in the early 1970’s. Our current one is the full length of our garage and gives us lots of really good stuff to put on the garden beds every year. We already let the city have the stuff we don’t want such as walnut leaves (too much tannic acid), invasive roots like bindweed and buttercups, and sticks that take forever to break down but are too small to bother getting out the chipper. But I’m definitely keeping the rest for myself! I do think it’s a great idea though and I’ll be sure to participate when they eventually get to the second phase where they will take “putrescible” waste, aka meat, fish, dairy, bread and food-soiled paper. Then they will increase pickup to weekly (I’m guessing to get rid of the stink faster!) and cut regular garbage pickup to every other week. We only put our garbage out about once a month anyway unless we’ve been doing some big cleanup. And we have the smallest available city garbage bin too.

Ooh. I just thought about all the fun we’ll have cleaning out the yukky (and larger) yard waste bin after it’s had meat bones and such in it. The price one has to pay for doing the right thing, huh? Think I need to find a long-handled brush somewhere so I can reach the bottom. I can just picture me ending up with my head stuck inside and my feet kicking in the air!

I totally agree that anything we can keep out of the landfill is good. Plus they use the compost on city gardens as well as returning some to people (though I doubt most remember to go pick it up). The new program needs to expand to multifamily dwellings and commercial businesses though because they are the ones who don’t have access to a regular compost (unless they get a worm composter – and most sadly won’t adopt those cute little wrigglers). However most apartments and shops have private contracts for their pickup so implementing composting there will take some work. Not impossible. But there needs to be a will to do it. The city is calling this Phase 3 and haven’t given a timeline on it yet. Hurray for tenants who get together to start a composting scheme themselves to get a jump on this bandwagon! Go for it.

Personally, my biggest problem is that most of our own trash is non-recyclable plastic. If we could convince companies to cut down on packaging and to use recyclables as much as possible it would cut our garbage down a lot further. Pressure needs to be brought to bear on them for sure. I use my backpack and tote bags all the time but I also need to find a substitute for plastic produce bags. I reuse them at least once more before they get trashed but I would like to avoid them a lot more than I do now. There are several brands of cute little mesh or cotton reusable bags available now but recent research revealed that A) I can make them easier myself and probably out of recycled or stash materials and B) they aren’t good for long-term storage. They’re only meant for bringing produce home from the store. So I see two choices here. Either I just get better at washing out and reusing the regular store bags while avoiding bringing home more of them. Or hunt down produce-sized corn/bio-based compostable bags. I’ve found an online Canadian source in Ontario but haven’t noticed them locally, though I’m certain they should be available here somewhere. (That would save postage and transport.) I’ll keep an eye out. And I have to get Pfaff-y home from the sewing machine doctor before I can sew anything.

Now if only the dog owners in this city would use compostable bags for doggy-do. Then we’d really be getting somewhere!

Denial Ain't Just A River In Egypt

Apparently knitters have an aptitude for denial. In my case it was the Earthly Beret I was knitting on in the last couple of days. I got about halfway along the chart and realized there was no way that thing was going to fit even my small head. Nowhere near the correct gauge. No, of course I didn’t do a gauge swatch! Why do you ask? I just rechecked the pattern notes. Hmmm…I can’t tell a 2.25 mm needle which is what I used from a 2.75 mm needle which is what it was supposed to be. 2’s look just like 7’s don’t they? Almost?

Anyhow I bit the bullet and pulled out what I had done, rewound the ball, located some 2.75 mm bamboo dpns (because I don’t have that size in Addi Lace circs and I don’t feel like walking back up to the LYS to get yet another $20 needle right this minute) and started over. For some reason things always proceed faster the second time around. I’m not back to where I left off of course but I am already up to round 17. It’s the process that counts, right? I’m getting a lot more process out of doing it all over again. And there’s still no photo. Or a tutorial on the modified magic loop because I’m not using it. Can’t until I get the right-sized needle. Oh wait - I have an ancient Aero circ that might do the trick. Will test it out.

Meanwhile I’ve been lazing around still but feeling a bit better today. I have a disaster’s worth of kitchen to clean up. Perhaps I forgot to leave out a saucer of cream for the brownie, annoyed our domovoy with a careless profanity or maybe I accidentally gave some article of clothing to my house elf. Dunno but somehow there’s a mess to clean up. And the maid took the day off too. Sigh. Better get to it before the grandkids show up. We’re supposed to be babysitting them while their parents go to a party this evening.

I’ll leave you with a photo of the Thanksgiving cactus that I adopted from Auntie90’s house:


It’s quite glorious in full flower! I know some people call these Christmas cactuses but they are somewhat different. Note the pointy edges on the leaves and the upward-facing flowers. I have the other type, the real Christmas cactus, and they have scalloped-edged leaves (not pointy) and the flowers are straight. They are later blooming and currently mine are still at the bud stage.

And here’s the lovely rainbow from Thursday afternoon:


Don’t see a pot of gold anywhere but that birch tree across the street is beautifully golden right now. Particularly in the slanting sunlight.

All Hail

And more rain. Last evening while heading out to pick my first asparagus of the year, I narrowly missed being deluged on. There was a big black cloud over my head and a few drops of rain as I headed back to the house. I just got inside when the heavens opened. Every day I gain new respect for local farmers and the difficulties in getting crops to grow in our mild but wet and occasionally unpredictable weather. It seems impossible to consistently produce anything but moss and mildew around here! Today is nice so far so I guess I shouldn’t complain too loudly.

I have to tell you the further story of the baby goslings I showed you last Thursday. Yesterday the parent geese decided to move the whole family of 8 babies to a new home. They all took off walking through a series of parking lots, across a very busy multilane street and partway across the technical institute’s campus to another pond — 3/4’s of a kilometer in total. I measured it on Google Earth! Someone (or several someones) in T-Man’s workplace took photos of the whole procession but unfortunately I don’t have permission to show you how cute the little guys were especially when trying to get over some steep curbs. All the cars stopped, students were taking cell phone pics, mommy and daddy goose herded carefully and everyone arrived safely. Whew! I wonder if they’ll stay there or go back or even go somewhere else entirely. There’s a much larger lake a couple of kilometers away so they may be heading in that direction. Doncha love how nature still happens even in the middle of the big city?

Well I’ve finished knitting the Unmentionables and they have been washed and are currently blocking on a towel. Washing instructions for Sublime say machine washable but dry flat and reshape whilst wet so that’s pretty much what I did, substituting hand wash (because I didn’t want to fill the washer for one garment) but I did machine spin to get out the excess water. I’m now braiding ties for them on my marudai using a 16-strand braid called Keiruko No Himo. I plan to attach the tie ends to the elastic so that it can be tightened and tied in place but she can still get out of the bloomers by herself by pulling them down. She’s having enough trouble with toilet training without me making it more difficult! This will also allow her to grow and still fit into her Unmentionables for another couple of years by loosening off the ties. I’m using 3/8” swimsuit elastic since it has a mostly cotton content with rubber for stretch and will hold up to a lot of washing. I’m debating on whether to dye it pink and see if I can get it close to the same colour or just to leave it ecru. I might try the dye later this afternoon and see what happens. I can still replace it with undyed if it doesn’t work. Wonder if the rubber minds the salt and soda for Procion MX dye?

I decided to use the rest of the cotton on part of a secret project. You won’t hear more until I can talk about it. Mum’s the word around here for now. OK, quit trying to guess, you guys!

One-Legged Or Many-Legged

I finally pushed myself to finish the ruffle on one leg of the Unmentionables today:


Whew! That was a lot of fiddly knitting. For some reason the method I used (following the pattern) seemed awkward to me and the needles kept slipping out of the work. Even the bamboo needles were somewhat escapist! However it looks quite passable. I have just enough (I hope) of the ball left to finish the other leg’s ruffle. Then I will have 2 balls extra which I will take back to the store and possibly trade for something else. I’ve just about had it with knitting with cotton, organic or no. It’s not really been a pleasant experience for me especially trying to join or sew in the ends securely yet invisibly. I’m not at all sure they’re going to stay through washing and drying! We shall see.

So of course I haven’t accomplished anything else of note. A few more rows on the Hepburn Cardi last night while watching TV and a few more on the A-Maizing socks this morning while reading my email. Not terribly exciting, I’ll admit.

We have the carpet guy coming to install our new soft green carpet on our main stairs tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to saying goodbye to the old ratty gold stuff that I’ve been looking at for nearly 30 years! I will take before and after photos just for memory’s sake.

Speaking of photos, I’ll leave you with a sweet pic taken by T-Man’s colleague Peter White, posted here with his permission. (No, not any of the Peter Whites you might have heard of! My, what a popular name.) There was a Canada goose couple who built a nest right outside a large window at T's workplace where everyone could watch the goings-on. These are the cute results!


And there’s a pond close by where they can learn to swim. Now you know that Spring is really here. Regardless of the odd weather we’ve been having.

The Moon & Tulips

So did you catch the total eclipse of the moon last night? Too wonderful! We missed the first part but managed to catch it just as the moon was sliding out from under the earth’s shadow. It was hard to photograph and I had to use a tripod. It took 14 seconds for the shutter to close! Here’s sorta what it looked like:

And a closer view with it zoomed out as far as the camera will go:

There was intermittent cloud cover which made it difficult to catch the whole thing but it sure makes you appreciate the infinitely complex workings of our universe!

Next I thought you might like to have a look at the Tulip Socks for Milady Daughter. I enlarged the original chart, which used to look like this (scroll down) and now looks like this:

From the original stitch count of 64 (the tulip motif times 4) which fits me, the extra stitches increase it to 72 which hopefully fits her. So far they look good:

To be on the safe side I’m also using 2.25mm needles for the leg part just to make sure it’s stretchy enough. I’ll reduce to my usual 2mm needles for the foot so it’s not too loose there. The tulips look quite nice set off with a bit more reverse stockinette. It doesn’t change things much however which is good because I liked the pattern the way it was. This is exactly the same yarn as I used for my socks too. She said she liked the yarn as much as the tulips so now we’ll have mother and daughter versions. Heh.

Changing the subject entirely, I’m a big Dr. Who fan. Not so much the original series but the more recent version. We discovered a spin-off from it called Torchwood (which btw is an anagram of “doctorwho”) and I have to say it’s even better than the show it sprung from. We missed all but the last two episodes on TV so we bought the DVD collection of Season One. Totally worth the money. My kids are going to love it when we finish watching and lend it to them! If you haven’t seen it, it’s darker and sexier than the series it sprang from. It takes place in Cardiff, Wales, at another Torchwood facility (the main one blew up in an episode of Dr. Who) and the five-person crew’s job is to save mankind from alien incursions. Apart from the fact that I want to knock some sense into their angsty little heads occasionally, I love enigmatic boss Captain Jack Harkness and the storylines are really different from what you might expect. If you like British murder mysteries with sci-fi icing on top, this might be right up your dark and stormy (with eyes and teeth) alley. Can’t wait for Season Two.

There’s a weavers’ guild meeting this evening with our speaker Felicia (Sweet Georgia) talking about photographing your work. This should be interesting but first I have to get through the executive meeting beforehand. Good thing for my knitting. At least I have a thing or three to report on about our website in between stitches.

Question to Ponder:

Why is it called a “self-cleaning” oven if you still have to set it and turn it on? Yeah, I finally remembered to do that. It’s been awhile.

Birds & Books

If there were any groundhogs around here (they aren’t native to west coast Canada) they would have seen their shadow yesterday. And it’s still mainly sunny today — must be some kind of record! Here’s the Hamamelis I mentioned yesterday.

That’s much more fun to say than “witch hazel” which has nothing to do with witches at all. It really means “dousing rod” and I don’t think we need to douse for water around here. There’s altogether too much of it available right now. It just falls out of the sky. Heh. But I digress. Isn’t this a pretty variety? I want one.

The snow isn’t melting very quickly even with the sun and my front yard is still completely covered. I got this cool photo of frozen crow prints:

Those crows have started making more noise earlier in the mornings now and many of the birds that are visiting my feeders are getting their spring colours on. The male house finches are an especially pretty orange-red. Yesterday we saw a northern flicker, a nuthatch and a downy woodpecker in the yard at the same time. This morning T said he saw a Cooper’s hawk and of course all the other birds had disappeared the instant it showed up. I love watching the birds. I could do without being woken up by the crow chorus though. It gets earlier and earlier along with the sunrise. And louder and louder to a really noisy crescendo when the young ones are fledging. I actually like crows. Most of the time. They’re interesting and smart and quite pretty when you notice the iridescence in their feathers. Yes, I also like spiders and snakes and hate the cute little squirrels so take my opinions any way you want.

Before I went off on a nature tangent, I thought I’d do another book review. This one is a Japanese book “Knitting Patterns Book 250” by Shida Hitomi.

You can get it directly from YesAsia or the Needle Arts Book Shop in Canada. Marsha at Needle Arts also has a PDF tutorial on following Japanese patterns and some links to more online help. The Japanese books are worth figuring out how to use because the patterns are exquisite! This one has stitch patterns consisting of mainly cable, rib and lace combinations of breathtaking beauty and complexity and all in charted form. Some of the symbols will be familiar to western knitters but some are totally new stitch manipulations, at least to me. There are several pages of illustrations explaining many of these stitches in the back of the book but it might be worthwhile getting another book “Clear & Simple Knitting Symbols” which has 60 stitches clearly illustrated — though it too is totally in Japanese except for the title. Since I only recently learned about this helpful book, I plan to order it next time. Meanwhile I do have the advantage of having a good friend who is both Japanese and a knitter, so hopefully if I get stuck she can help.

As someone reminded me recently, Japanese writing is already “pictorial” so it makes sense that they would be very innovative in charting knitting patterns. They must also have some pretty darned experienced knitters in Japan. The “Knitting Patterns Book 250” shows a few lovely and tantalizing garments made using the pattern stitches. Of course the instructions for them are not included. In the books that have garments, they are usually given in only one size which is really teensy compared to your average North American. If you are not that particular size and want to adjust the pattern for your own body, you have to do all the work of resizing it yourself. When the pattern includes really complex stitch patterns as well that’s a daunting task! Add not being able to read the text to the mix and the Japanese pattern books become a challenge only for the brave and intrepid among us. But what a challenge! The results if successful would sure be worth it.

S'no More Fun

Remember my rhododendron from yesterday? Today it looks like this:


It kept snowing most of the night and all of today, though we’re supposed to be switching over to a warm low pressure system by tonight with lots of wind and rain in the forecast. I’m trying to enjoy the pretty white stuff while I can. We went out for a short walk (me hanging on to T-Man for dear life!) and came home wet and cold with my glasses all fogged up and snow-covered so I couldn’t see a thing. It was fun if a little uncomfortable. At least I can say I got out in the snow even if it was only for a short while. Bring on the rain, darn it.

I had a deadline for my Complex Weavers Beads & Interlacements study group yesterday. I had trouble seeing the computer to finish it so I managed to do that today. I just had to send in a PDF write-up with the theme of “Free For All” which made it kind of fun. I used my row counter bracelet and matching stitch markers from last February since that’s probably the last appropriate beading I’ve done around here. It’s kind of a fun project and doesn’t take very long if you have all the materials at hand. Good practice with the crimping pliers and making wire wrapped loops too:


I’ve been knitting on the Pink Froth Socks and I think they’re turning out quite cute. Even if I can almost taste the strawberry mousse that the colour reminds me of so strongly!


I think granddaughter KiKi will like them anyway which is the important thing. She had her dad call us on the phone this morning so she could tell us about playing in the snow. Too adorable. Her brother piped up too in the background. I think he already can say “hi” at not quite a year old. She wouldn’t let him talk to us though. The phone is for her use exclusively (at least that’s what she thinks) and she likes to chat at least once a week or so. I think it’s good for her speech since she has a bit of a problem communicating sometimes. Though she’s still only 3 years old so we’re not too concerned yet.

Continuing with the pink theme, I’ve been spinning up my madder-dyed wool and have almost 2 bobbins full of singles. I certainly didn’t dye all that much of any one colour though I was hoping there would be enough of the darkest madder rose to be the main colour of the sweater or vest I’m planning to make. We’ll see. I’m just spinning for the moment in approximately a sport weight yarn which should work for something. Even if I have to design it myself after I see how many balls I end up with. I would like to blend some of the colours for a second project so I don’t want to spin up everything in single-coloured yarns.

S'no Fun

Well, it’s a little bit fun maybe. It’s been snowing itty bitty flakes all day and I’m watching it turn somewhat blizzard-ish at the moment. Unfortunately I can’t go out in it or I’d probably end up ass over teakettle as I stagger around. It’s not nearly deep enough for soft drifts to land in and it’s supposed to stop and turn to rain before Monday. Typical. We just get into Winter Wonderland territory and the next Tropical Punch weather system moves in to ruin the mood.

Yes, I’m still dizzy and to top it off, I also have a migraine. I’ve had altogether too many of those lately as well. Sorry. I’ll stop whining. For the moment. However I am feeling somewhat put-upon by the universe right now. I know, it could be worse.

Meanwhile I’m getting some knitting and spinning done. Not so much readin’ and writin’. Cruising up to the sleeve caps on the Hepburn Cardi and I’ve put the OYT Socks temporarily on hold as I knit on the Pink Socks for my granddaughter. I’ve added a ruffled cuff for an even more girly effect. I also need to make a Christmas Stocking for my grandson before it’s too late and he ends up with one of his dad’s Ninja Socks hanging over the mantel instead. Oh wait. They don’t have a mantel at their new house. Wonder where the stockings will be hung? I’m sure I’ll find out. Too bad but I don’t feel much like working at the sewing machine right now. Though I did end up replacing the zipper on the bag that belongs on T-Man’s leaf blower/vacuum so he can finish his yard cleanup. That was yesterday. Today he can’t work outside at all because the leaves are all either under the snow or frozen solid to each other. Or both. I still have to clean up all the dirt on my sewing machine and surrounding area even though he did clean out the bag as well as he could first. Yucko. Hope it didn’t get into the mechanism. I love my Pfaffy. She’s a vintage treasure.

There’s a lot of traffic right now at my birdfeeder. Here’s a junco taking his turn.

Something To Crow About

Last evening after dinner on the upper deck, we watched the crows come in and land on our arborvitae and across the street on our neighbour’s huge birches and even huger firs. By the end there were dozens and dozens of them, all making a loud cacophony. As if that wasn’t enough, a friend of said neighbour (who was having a party on her deck) came out and started crowing at the crows! It was hilarious. I think he was trying to scare them away but it certainly had no effect. I’m one of those weird folks (you knew that, right?) who likes crows and finds them very intelligent and fascinating to watch. Though we often get up to a dozen at a time, this was fairly unusual to see them flock here in such numbers. Eventually as dusk fell they all flew off to Burnaby and their usual night roosting places. Of course they were back first thing this morning with our usual wake-up calls.

This morning I divided my blanket yarns into 3 piles: lights, darks, and mediums. Each pile is further divided in 2, half for warp and half for weft. Though the weft in a balanced weave like this one usually takes slightly less than half, I’m giving it a bit of fudge factor. However, it will be interesting to see if I can get the warp out of its half. If so, then I have enough yarn. If not, I may have to consider either adding the yarns I removed from the running or buying some more from my friend — if she’ll allow me to deplete her supply even farther. It’s amazing how much yarn a large blanket uses up!

Today is supposed to be a holiday in BC and it’s a lovely warm (but not too hot) summer day. However, T-Man has to work as usual so it doesn’t feel like one to me either. At least it’s quiet next door. I want to get some work done today so I’ll leave you with a photo collage of my garden colours. BTW, the coreopsis planted itself. Very handy but I’m trying to control myself from picking all the flowers for dye! And isn’t the texture of that coleus unusual? Just call this “practice with the macro feature on my camera”.

Moving Right Along

I spent Saturday at my friend D’s house with all but one of the rest of our Spectrum Study Group. They were working on felting flowers for our guild booth at the ANWG conference in June while I sewed on garb. Yeah, so what else is new, hey? I managed to finish the baby garb (which hopefully will still fit him in 2 weeks). I don’t know about the grosgrain ribbon that I used for the tie though. It seems too jarring. What do you think?

Maybe something lighter weight? I also completed the narrow hem on my veil but I didn’t do that neat of a job though I got better as I went. Out of practise I guess and it's much harder to do around a circle than straight sides and on polyester that doesn't hold a finger-press. It took quite a number of hours but that’s another thing off my list. No, you're not going to see a photo until the wedding!

Then yesterday T-Man and I went for a Sunday drive to Rolley Lake where we had a picnic lunch of cold leftover pizza and then a walk around the lake:

It’s a very easy walk but my hips have been bothering me lately so it was plenty of exercise for one day. I’ve been getting lazy and not taking my glucosamine as often as I should so old Arthur Itis is getting way too friendly with this old bod’. I’ve made a pact with myself to be good and take the full 3 capsules a day from now on. The weather was iffy, though the sun poked out a couple of times and it was a bit chilly but not too bad. It didn’t rain on us athough I packed an umbrella and wore my Gore-Tex jacket just in case. Spring is well along here despite the chill in the air:


It was good for me to get out and smell…er, look at the flowers. The trillium and salmonberry flowers were pretty and not stinky. But you don’t want to smell the skunk cabbage if you can help it! Pew! The other item in the collage is the undersides of a bracket fungus. There was a lot of damage in the forest from the ferocious winter storms we had. The trees here are mostly Western Redcedar and Western Hemlock with a smattering of Douglas Firs. It looks like it took quite a chainsaw brigade to clear the trails. It’s unfortunate but the forest will grow back eventually. It will change however now there’s a greater amount of light getting into the understory allowing more plants to grow on the forest floor.

So today I plan to dye my undertunic fabric some hopefully pleasant shade of light green. Heh. I also need to cut out T’s tunics and start thinking about how to make the coffee filter hat for Nana. She and the Ninja and his family are coming over for dinner tomorrow plus I have a guild meeting this Thursday evening, so I have to get along on the last of the items I still need to make. The Bride has a shower/stagette in the late afternoon next Saturday which somewhat conflicts with our involvment in another of the neighbourhood Stepping Stone projects on that day. It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t take almost an hour to get to The Bride’s house from here. Guess we’ll just have to work fast on our mosaic and hope that T doesn’t get a call from work (he’s on-call next weekend). A person can only do what a person can only do.

Hmmm…did I mention that my shower gift for The Bride is my Sleeping Beauty spinning wheel? T-Man spiffed her all up for me, fixed her wobbly legs and waxed and polished her NZ rimu wood so she’s all ready to be passed down to the next generation spinner. I sort of hate to part with her, but I’m not using her and I still have 3 more wheels (4 if you count the charkha) so it seems silly to have her sitting gathering dust. At least it will still be in the family and is more period if my daughter wants to use it for SCA demos. It’s only 4 years younger than she is!