Snow Business

Look quick! It's melting already, darn it! I love snow! I just love how the world looks so different when covered in a white blanket. I love the hush that happens when everything is muffled. Here it doesn't snow often and usually melts really fast. This is early for us though. Normally we don't get any snow (except on the mountains) until January or February. Just a couple of centimetres caused all kinds of highjinks this morning with traffic. Remind me again why I don't work for a living?

I got these treasures in the mail yesterday from my friend Cathy at That Bead Lady in Ontario. I wanted to try out the new C-Lon cord which comes in lovely colours and is heavy enough to be used for micro-macrame. A nicer version of Mastex. Anyway, since it was going to cost her more to send it than usual because it's fat, I thought I'd make it worthwhile and order some more stuff. What? Of course I need more stuff! Since I used up some of my cube beads while teaching the Wild Beaded Bag class, I thought I'd get a few new ones. Cathy has some new smaller cubes in now, so I got a couple of those too. Plus some copper crimps and some sterling crimp covers to try out. Not pictured is the new packet of size 12 beading needles which I go through quickly with some of the bead classes. They last me until they are completely bent out of shape but Some People went through 3 or more of them for one project! Yikes! I'm not naming names but they need to learn to be a bit more aware of how hard they are pulling so as not to break the eye. BTW, does this look like $60 worth of stuff to you — well, minus the $9 postage? Thought not.

Anyway I think I like the C-Lon cord. It certainly comes in pretty colours and they match the C-Lon thread (a Nymo substitute) in case that's important in a piece. These are my current fave colours, except for black which I already have in Mastex. Wonder when I'll ever find time to try it out? The potential project list just keeps getting longer and longer. So how do people run out of ideas anyway? Never happens to me.

Another item to cross off the To-Do list is my submission for the bead swap due on Thursday. Just have to write it up now. This is Russian netting in a snowflake design. Appropriate, huh? The snow I mean. I used some unusual black Czech seed beads with a white stripe, white pearl seed beads, and some silver-lined crystal seed beads. I got the interesting bars for the clasp out of my stash. Now I wish I remembered where they came from! One end of the tube is open and you kind of slide a row of your beadwork into the slit on the side and then close the flap to keep them in. It was exactly the right length too. I added the split rings and lobster claw clasp which made the bracelet just long enough to go around my teensy wrist. I can't do it up without help though! It's quite dramatic with such contrasting colours even though the silver beads on the edge don't show up as well as I'd hoped. I didn't want to use galvanized beads however for fear the finish would rub off and I didn't have a darker silver-lined. The ends were a bit tricky to work in the two-needle netting but I fudged it and added more reinforcing thread. Hopefully it won't wear through too quickly at the clasp bars.

Well it's my turn with health problems. I'm having trouble with my right ear since last evening. It clogged up completely and now my tinnitus noise is really loud and I can't hear very much at all out of that ear. I don't think it's ear wax or anything like that. Don't know what's up and my doctor's office keeps having a busy signal on their phone. It makes me feel dizzy and queasy because I think it's affecting my balance so maybe it's my inner ear? But I don't think I've had any infections lately. Anyway it's really annoying! If it doesn't go away by tomorrow I'll make a doc's appointment. I've got to teach tomorrow night which won't be easy if I can't hear properly. Yuck! If it's not one thing it's another, eh? WHAT? Now I know why some people with tinnitus commit suicide.

Busy Busy

This is a fuzzy version of what the sliver of waning moon looked like this morning at 7 am. I’d already been up for an hour and done the dishes from the night before. It was really frosty for the first time this season. No wonder I had to go get an extra blanket for the bed last night. Time to put on the flannelette sheets. Winter’s coming.

I’ve been trying to get a few things done — especially those with deadlines. See? I finished Mother’s socks. And I’m partway down the leg on sis M’s socks. I think Mother’s pair are quite eye-dazzling! They are knit from one of the Confetti patterns with lots of “dashes” and very thin lines of solid, similar to the one I used for my friend’s grandbaby set. Sis M’s have 3 shades of grey and burgundy and white dashes which is a similar pattern (though different colours) to the socks I made for Darling Daughter.

Since I have a bead swap due on December 1st, I figured I’d better get to it. The theme is Ethnic and we were supposed to do a larger piece than the one we did in the spring and email the picture and information to our swap leader. I didn’t use a Greenlander pattern this time though. I went to my “White Russian” book (the actual title is in Cyrillic and I can’t read it) and hunted up another netted design. The Russian patterns are very similar to the Greenlander ones but often require two needles to accomplish because of their mirror symmetry. It’s quite a challenge and I’ve already frogged several beginnings and about a half inch of beading when I made a mistake back aways. I found a nifty clasp in my stash that works very well with the width so it’s going to be a bracelet. Pictures to come when it’s done. Hint: what’s black and white and silver all over? Back to beadin’.

P.S. I love getting comments on my blog. Hi Susan! Hi Nanamouse! I know you're out there!

The Fog Lifts

And now it’s raining. I think I liked the fog much better. Come on back, Fog! Or Sun — even better.

I’ve gotten up to the toes on Mother’s socks now. Just starting the decreases. This was pretty fast, eh? Picture when done. Then I finish the Jaywalker socks before starting on sis’s socks. Her birthday is several weeks away anyway so I have plenty of time. I mean, why should she be the only one this year to get birthday socks on her actual birthday?

I was thinking (always a frightening prospect) that I need to buckle down and get a handle on the WIPs & UFOs around here. There are too many and, although they aren’t preventing me from starting new things, they’re making me crazy. (OK, more crazy than usual.) This is because things are missing from their proper place because they are permanently engaged in a half-done item somewhere around the studio/study/storage area. Needles, hooks, bags of beads, wire, tools, even whole looms are occupied by things that have either been A) usurped by something more time-critical or more fun or B) ignored because something is wrong with the original design, it’s not working out the way I wanted, or it was just a bad idea all around. Option A items, aka WIPs (Works In Progress), usually just need to be finished up but Option B items, aka UFOs (UnFinished Objects), have yet more choices. Each one has to be assessed as to whether I can fix what’s wrong or should abandon it all together. And if I abandon it, I have to decide whether to just chuck it out or recycle the parts into something usable for another project. Decisions, decisions. However, unlike some people, I haven’t counted how many WIPs & UFOs I’ve actually got. That would just be too frightening. I like it better when they stay hidden in their bags, boxes, and baskets. Though if I do get inspired to catalogue, it will be listed here. Not before the New Year anyhow.

Well. Rumour has it that the news of Darling Daughter’s engagement has escaped into The World At Large. Apparently there are more people who read this lil’ ol’ blog than I thought. So, Lurkers, feel free to post me a comment some time, whydoncha! Just so I know you’re out there.

Fog Continued

The morning sun tried to peek in through that persistent fog but it just wasn't happening. The sky was a really interesting peach colour though it doesn't show up that well in the pic. The bare branches in the right foreground are my swiftly clearing walnut tree and those lovely huge fir trees are across the street in my neighbour's yard. I love branches silhouetted against the sky. I enjoy them all winter long.

Speaking of enjoying, isn't this bouquet lovely? My favourite colours of orange with purple. Yum! That's my belated birthday present from my boss at the wool shop. It was my last beginner spinning class last night and she dropped the fact that there's 11 signed up for the sock knitting class starting next week. Yikes! I think she was sucking up to me for that one. Number 11 is the boss herself though and she's started this before and gotten too busy to continue. However, I'm not especially happy about this many students because sock knitting is difficult even for experienced knitters. Last time, we had only 4 people but that included one who wasn't even able to cast-on or purl! Sheesh. And the rest had to be led by the nose every step of the way. When they deigned to actually show up for class. Hope these new ones are as swift as my newly graduated baby spinners, who were almost all exceptionally good. (Except for the one male, but we won't go into those "male ego gets in the way of learning something new" problems!)

I'm halfway down the foot of Mother's socks and trundling along. I took advantage of being in the yarn shop last evening and got another couple of balls of superwash baby yarn in rich purple and lighter orchid for the new grand-niece. Who says babies should dress in pastels? I'll use the darker purple for the main part of the poncho and hat and the lighter one for the garter stitch edgings. Unfortunately I won't be able to get to this until I'm done both Mother's socks and Sis M.'s socks, since I promised them first. I knit too slowly. Definitely. Projects are backing up.

BTW, Darling Daughter and her Sweetie have just about got their dream townhouse — subject of course to a bunch of red tape which includes borrowing $2500 from us for a week until the cheque from his dad comes through. I think this place will work out well for them though and it's not very far from where they live now in the wilds of lovely Surrey, BC, car theft capital of the world. Hey, it's affordable! And there's a private swimming pool...

The Foggy Foggy Dew

It's been foggy most of the week and it's so damp that it makes pearls on the spider web on my back fence. OK, so I have a thing for spiders. Maybe it's because they spin and weave? No? I'm just weird? Sure, but I still miss Queenie who hasn't come back since we painted her windowsill. However there is another tiny spider in her place. Queenie Jr? We don't have the same close relationship though. Something's just not the same.

Still out in the garden, I'm having trouble keeping the birdfeeder full. The chickadees are so into their oil sunflower seeds that they like to hide them all over the place, in tree bark and under roof shingles, to save them for later when they get hungry for a snack. We also get sparrows (several kinds), juncos, and the occasional towhee on the ground munching on the dropped seeds. My cats can enjoy the birdfeeder from the comfort of the kitchen table as they watch out the window. The birds don't mind as long as there's glass between them and their potential enemies. The old lady cats are too slow to catch them anymore anyway.

Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely time babysitting our granddaughter while her parents got to go see the latest Harry Potter flick. Here she is with her grampa reading a book and having a snack. Actually the book is a very boring computer text, but she didn't seem to care. Notice the cat's tail — she has to be where the action is just in case there is some patting and loving to be had. Even at the risk of losing a handful of fur in a toddler fist!

Note: I want to go see Harry Potter now too.

On the sock front, I've got the heels safely turned on Mother's socks. Not without frogging yet another heel flap though because it didn't match properly. That's what I get for knitting on it at Mother's birthday party. When will I learn that knitting and anything else don't mix? Guess I'm not as good of a multi-tasker as I'd like to fancy myself, huh? Or maybe it was the glass of wine and the late evening. It should be smooth sailing on these socks now. I hope.

Yet another project has just come up. I'm trying to decide what I should knit for my new grand-niece born November 16th. It didn't occur to me to get ahead of the game and do something earlier in the pregnancy. Noooo...I have to wait until after she's born and then try to come up with something preferably before her first birthday. Silly me. Maybe I'll make another one of those ponchos which seem to have a fairly long wearable time since they don't have to fit exactly. And my stretchy little beany hat that lasted this baby's older brother for a whole year. And he has a big head too. Hmm...maybe an excuse for a stash enhancement! That's always good.

If It’s The Process That Counts…

…then how come I’m so frustrated! I’ve had to frog so much knitting lately that it’s no longer amusing. I guess I need to stop knitting anything but plain stockinette in front of the computer or TV. Anytime I’ve done anything more complex lately I’ve made mistakes and not seen them until many centimeters later. Argh! Yesterday I had to frog the gusset back to the heel on one of Mother’s birthday socks because the stitch count was off and I couldn’t find out where. (BTW in case you haven’t been keeping up, this is birth mom, not the recently deceased adopted mom.) Then after picking up all the stitches, I was steaming along very happily and the count was off again — in the same place. I’ve just fixed it for the third time and hopefully it will continue correctly from here.

As I’ve whined about before, the same mistake/frog/mistake thing has been happening with my Jaywalker socks, but I’m almost back up to the second (or is it first?) heel. Then I plan to turn both heels one immediately after the other. I have to read Grumperina’s directions carefully because she has a different number of heel flap rows and stitches to pick up than I usually use.

I got this little book the other day from my friend Marie at Fibres Plus. It’s Prudence Mapstone’s Never Too Many Handbags. Prudence is an Australian fibre artist who uses freeform knitting and crocheting to create some fun pieces. She teaches workshops all over but I missed her the two times she was near here. I don’t think I really need a workshop though — just some time to play with what I already know and the information I already have. I also have Prudence’s original book on freeform. This one sold me because it has some nifty crochet motifs: flowers, fish, leaves, and spirals. Plus discussion on bag construction which is helpful. OK, I know. Too many ideas; too little time.

The persistent fog has lifted somewhat right now, though there’s no mountains showing. It’s damp out there from the fog but at least it’s not raining. There’s sure a lot more leaves to rake now that the walnut tree has decided that it’s time to let them fall almost all at once. Besides our own yard we have the boulevard beside our house (before the street) and the alley to rake. These leaves unfortunately can’t be used in our compost because they are so nasty nothing will grow in the resulting soil for at least 3 years. It does make a good mulch if you have some area with weeds you want suppressed but don’t expect to be able to plant anything else there and have it thrive. And of course there are some things that will grow anyway, usually the weeds you least want. According to what I’ve read, any toxin (juglone) in the leaves should break down within a couple of months but in my experience it takes a lot longer for the effect to wear off. They also say that our English (Persian) walnut has less juglone than black walnut. If that’s true I’d hate to have one taking over half my backyard like our English one does! I already have enough trouble growing things in my garden. Right now there's leeks and some salad greens that have seen better days, plus some overwintering broccoli which won't be giving me sprouts until spring. I have to plant my garlic as soon as the space is dug and ready. Thom is reluctant to plant winter rye since he thinks it might be contributing to the wire worm problem but that could just be the fact that we haven't had a good killing cold snap for a number of years now. I sure don't want to give up my garden but there are only certain things that will grow properly these days. Oh well, I don't have to worry about that for months yet!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

Can you see the difference between these two balls of yarn? The darker grey in the left one is lighter than the one on the right. They both have the same dyelot number. Confetti has got some 'splainin' to do! I have to go back to the store and see if the one last ball of this is remotely going to match just one of these two. I'd prefer the dark one. Either that or I pick some other colours entirely. These are supposed to be for my sister M. who's birthday is in December.

Now these socks that I started yesterday are for my birth mom. (See a theme here?) Her birthday is next week but we're having a party of sorts for her tomorrow. As usual there's no way I'll be finished yet. The best wishes come first and the socks will come later. I actually like these better than I thought when the yarn was in the ball. There's a lot of the grey/white spots and a thin line of rosy-brown, baby blue, and blue-purple. Hope she likes them.

I'm totally annoyed with my Jaywalker socks, which is why there is no picture of them! I had to frog half of the leg yet again on one of them when I discovered a big mistake. It wasn't obvious unless I counted the stitches more carefully. That's why I didn't find it until I was trying to get the right amount of stitches for the heel flap. Phooey. I'm getting tired of these things. Maybe I should have just made regular plain knit socks like usual. I've frogged so many stitches I could have finished the darn things by now.

It was nice and sunny today and I was glad I could get out and walk in it. Of course I should have been doing some more raking of leaves but my excuse is I needed to shop for veggies and dairy products. Right. Maybe tomorrow with Thom to help.

Oh yeah, darling daughter and her sweetie decided not to buy the condo. There were some moisture issues that potentially could be their responsibility to pay for fixing. Such a common problem around here! The seller is obliged to disclose this kind of thing and didn’t in this case. Tsk, tsk. Oh well, they don’t have any compelling reason to move from their comfy rental basement suite until they’re good and ready.

A Meme

“In casual use, the term meme often refers to any piece of information passed from one mind to another. Examples might include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods.”

I got that from Wikipedia, which is also itself a meme. The Internet has caused memes to infect more people faster than ever before. Oh yeah, it’s pronounced “meem” (rhymes with “dream”). In the Blogverse, it’s like a chain letter or being tagged as It. Bloggers like to pass memes around, such as the following “20 Things About Me” exercise. It wasn't passed to me though. I took it!

1. I live for fibres and beads.
2. My husband, family, and friends are even more important to me than fibres and beads, but they might not believe me if I told them that.
3. I spend way too much time on the computer but I can live without it. For awhile. Weeks even. Just don’t ask me to.
4. My Palm Handheld is more important to me than my cell phone which I almost never use or even turn on unless I’m making a call.
5. I love to hang out in my studio (top floor of my house) and just play all day by myself.
6. I enjoy organizing things.
7. I have way too many craft books and magazines. I need more bookshelves for them.
8. When I’m not reading craft books and magazines, I read fantasy and sci-fi.
9. Some days I feel very old and other days I feel very young so I guess that means I’m middle-aged.
10. I don’t like most of today’s fashions because they are too similar to the ones I liked as a teenager.
11. I’m not afraid of looking odd to others so I wear whatever I want.
12. I’m a very cheerful and patient person, otherwise known as “terminally perky”.
13. Sometimes I’m not very tolerant of stupid people.
14. I need lots of sleep and try to get at least 9 hours per night.
15. I was adopted as an infant because my birth mom was only 15, Catholic, and her mom wouldn't let her keep me.
16. My adopted parents are deceased and my birth mom has terminal cancer.
17. I have two certifiably crazy adopted sisters who I try to stay far away from.
18. I have three perfectly nice half-sisters (and a half-brother) whom I’ve only known for 15 years.
19. I’ve never had a real 5-day/40-hour-a-week job and I can’t drive a car.
20. I’ve been totally in love with the same man since I was 17. (Luckily he’s the one I'm married to!)

Gee, I could keep going on this for another 20 but I’ll stop now. I have another migraine today — or probably it's the continuation of yesterday's. And I have to teach tonight too. My poor newbie spinners will get a semi-nonfunctional instructor. Maybe the headache will go away by then. Maybe?

Oh, and I almost forgot...I have great news! My darling daughter is finally getting married to her sweetie. Oh goodie — a wedding in the family! And a new son-in-law. Yes, I do love the guy and they are great together. I'm so happy for her. And there's more! If all went well last evening, they have just bought themselves their first home. It's a condominium but it's got wonderful amenities and they can (just) afford it. Seems like things are going very well indeed for them!

Something To Talk About

I’ve got my mother-in-law coming for dinner tonight. No that’s not a bad/scary thing. I love my MIL. And she would never presume to criticize anything I cook as long as I don’t offer her too much on her plate. (She hates that.) I also have my daughter’s boyfriend coming. He says he has something to discuss with us without his sweetie’s ears picking it up. Now he’s got us speculating in a million directions! What is this all about? So anyway the pork roast has to go in the oven in half an hour. My only complaint is I have a migraine and it makes it hard to socialize and also hard to cook. Promise me that one day those darn headaches will go away? Maybe when I finally finish menopause?

I’ve continued to spin that lovely boysenberry stuff. The bobbin is almost filled and I have maybe half the 250 g bag left. And I’m almost up to the heel flaps on both of the Jaywalker socks. Slow progress, in other words. I should be doing the beadwork for the swap that’s due December 1st. Hasn’t happened yet because I just haven’t been inspired. At least it doesn’t have to get mailed anywhere. This is a cyber swap so all that’s necessary is a digital picture and a PDF of the write-up.

Speaking of swaps, I got my kumihimo swap in the mail yesterday. Some nice braid samples there including a takadai braid. Takadai is a different braiding stand that is more like a loom. The braids are flat and can be quite wide. It’s more like weaving on the diagonal so I can understand the structures fairly well even though I have to stretch to read the braiding diagrams which are nothing like weaving drafts. I want a takadai so I can learn to do this! I have 4 books on it and a supplement with plans to build a takadai. How to inspire Thom to leave the lampworking long enough to do some woodworking? I guess not until after the kitchen is truly finished anyway. There’s still a few cupboard doors to finish painting and installing as well as building the short countertop between the stove and the original counter. No pictures here until it’s done!

Surprisingly, I’m not as stiff as I thought I’d be today after all that leaf raking business. A little bit in the neck and arms but maybe the ibuprofen I’m taking for the migraine is keeping it down to a dull roar. Guess I’ll find out for sure tomorrow when I hope the headache will be gone.

What Comes After 2 Days of Rain?

Answer: Monday! After many more than 2 days of dark dreary rain, it was so nice to see the sun today. Of course it showed up all the dirt on the kitchen floor and the grubby windows but who cares? I started sweeping off the back deck and then got completely carried away raking leaves out of my vegetable garden. I only got them into piles however — Somebody Else is going to have to bag them. Plus there’s plenty more leaves left on the walnut and chestnut trees so we’re not done with them yet. I do love the smell of walnut leaves. It’s very different from anything else.

I don’t love the smell of the other walnut product that I created out of the squirrel-chewed walnuts I managed to rescue. I put a bunch in a big bucket and allowed it to fill up with rain. Well actually the bucket didn’t have a lid so the rain was inadvertent. It’s been out there in the garden since about August so it’s getting really ripe about now. Today I filtered out all the muck (which went into the compost) and poured the lovely brown but somewhat smelly liquid into one of my dyepots. That was as far as I got before getting sidetracked by the leaf raking business. I’m hoping this will be strong enough to dye some wool but I’m a bit nervous about bringing it into the house until I’m ready to go. Who knows how much the stink might increase when it’s heated! I’ve been hoping to dye with the walnuts for years but so far never got around to it. This time, it’s in my best stainless steel dyepot so it will encourage me to do something to get it out of there.

I also want you to see these lovely NZ rovings from Aurelia in Victoria, BC. The first one is called Boysenberry Glitter (red, grape, berry, and raspberry sparkles) and that’s what is on my bobbin. The second one is Tamarillo (wine, black, jade, and olive) and it’s going to be spun and plied with the first roving to A) give me twice as much yarn and B) tone down the “My Little Pony”/“Sugar Plum Fairy” sweetness of the Boysenberry Glitter. This combination is recommended by Aurelia’s owner, Andrea, who has spun and knit some samples of everything she carries. Unlike most multi-coloured rovings, these have the colours in strips laying side by side. That gives you lots of different ways to spin them for different effects. I’m trying for the Golf Spin — aka spin it as it lies and don’t try to influence what colour comes up. It’s hard to be random!

Also notice the lovely neon green drive band currently sported by my wheel. Poor Klaus the Louet S90 had his driveband break and it would not melt and stick back together. So I remembered the S'getti String I had in my stash and tried that with a tight knot. It occasionally jumps down to a smaller whorl but it has been holding fine. The trick is to pre-stretch the String a lot, tie the square knot, hold it in your mouth for 20 seconds, and then yard on it really hard to make the knot as tight and small as possible. It holds pretty tight after that. This stuff is manufactured for braiding lanyards and friendship bracelets for kids. It comes in really bright colours which is a big change from the boring black band that lasted for about 13 years.

I also had to frog a whole inch of my current Jaywalker sock. I had a glitch that was too obvious for me and I felt I’d be happier if I eliminated it. I’m not quite back to where I was before the trip to the pond.

Remembering

Today I am remembering my dad (infantryman) and father-in-law (sailor) who both fought in WWII plus my half-brother who is a Canadian sergeant-major (retired) and served as a UN-sponsored peacekeeper in Egypt. Also I am extremely grateful that my husband or my son, who is a husband and father, never had to go to war. (Though as a black-belt ninja I'm sure my son would have been training fighters rather than fighting himself!) I am forever grateful to those who fought in the wars with the noblest of intentions but I sure wish nobody ever had to do anything like that. I can’t imagine how it must have been for them or for their families at home worrying. May I never find out.

My Jaywalker socks got a change of needle size to my usual 2 mm. I started to be afraid they would be too tight to get over my heel though at 4-1/2” the longest one still fits. They are knitted on 76 stitches which should be lots but the pattern stitch takes in considerably and isn’t particularly stretchy even though it’s mostly plain areas. It’s plain knitting on diagonals though which must be the difference. I’m hoping that the slightly larger needle size won’t be too obvious though the shorter sock is only an inch into the pattern so it should be fine. The longer one might be a bit more problematic. We’ll see after another inch or so. If I have to frog, so be it. I’d rather have socks that I can wear!

I also have a finished skein of yarn to show. The colours don’t look as interesting in the skein as they did in roving form but they actually go quite nicely with the brown-red skeins. Yes, I have weird taste in colours — but we all knew that, didn’t we? I still need to spin some more yarn to use for another multidirectional scarf. But first I have to fix my poor spinning wheel. Yes, Klaus the Louet Wheel has a broken drive cord, the first in 13 years. I finished my plying with a string substitute but it slips too much for comfort. I think I can use my heat tool to repair it. I’ll do some research first. A replacement band costs about $16 (for a piece of stretchy plastic!) so I hope I can fix it myself.

Mrs. Fixit

I can now call myself a computer geek! Who'd a thunk it? I finally fixed a problem I've been having with my Wacom Graphire pen tablet that I've been suffering with ever since I got my new computer. The pen (which I use more than a mouse) was going wonky on me. It was "sticking" as I moved the cursor and the button wouldn't work properly, pretending it was the mouse scroll button instead. And the problem wouldn't happen all the time. Right after booting up it might act correctly for awhile and then later revert to bad behaviour. I couldn't find out what the problem was. But for some reason, I had the inspiration to look (again) for a new driver and there she was! Just out in October for Windows XP. First I had to uninstall my old driver, reboot, and install the downloaded new driver and it for a miracle worked fine. Ah, comfort. Anybody who hasn't used a pen tablet should try it. It's like using a pen on paper. Once you get used to it, it's so much more comfortable for most things than a mouse. It also comes with a tail-less mouse anyway, just in case you want to switch back and forth. This mouse only works on the tablet but it has a scroll wheel which makes it nice for reading long emails or blogs. I love this thing even though people look at me funny when they notice me using it!

I did some spinning yesterday but I'm waiting until I have it finished and plied before I share it here. I had some lengths of roving that I dye-painted and it only makes about one bobbin full in total. Have no idea what I'll use it for but it seems to coordinate with some dark brown-red skeins I have that are waiting for inspiration. They used to be a big bright red 1980's vest but I frogged it and overdyed the yarn. I have 5 1/2 skeins for something new when they decide what they want to become.

So I guess I can't chicken out on getting my hair cut even though it's still raining like crazy. I made an appointment for 1 pm today in spite of the weather. Then it's off to the Circle Craft Christmas Market with Thom just to oggle the wares. Since I don't give presents, I won't be buying. But I really like to see what the artisans are making and if there's anything new and innovative or whether it's just the same-old same-old. Report tomorrow.*

* Well, don't hold your breath. No report will be forthcoming. We both decided that $10 each entry plus busfare was too much to bother — even though it did stop raining. Call us lazy. Or cheap. Back to spinning...

Current Projects

I didn't have anything "blogworthy" to talk about yesterday but today I decided there was enough of the Jaywalker socks to show off now. I know the two yarn balls don't quite match. They also get lighter from the inside to the outside. That's because I dyed them in the ball in the dye-microwave and what is now on the inside was on the outside so it got more dye there than the inside did. I was a bit nervous about knitting this pattern because I went down quite far on the needle size, from the recommended 2.25 mm to 1.75 mm. I've tried them on so far and they fit over my heel and stay up on my leg just fine, but I'd use my usual 2 mm if I was making them for a more "normal" leg and foot. Mine are skinny! The tilting pattern doesn't stretch much and definitely takes more paying attention to knit. The double decrease is especially tricksy and I have to be aware of the end of the round so I can switch from a row where I just knit to one that needs increases and decreases. I like the effect with the spotty yarn though. No worries with hand-dyed yarns about "pooling" because there is no definite colour repeat.

When I got tired of struggling with increases and double decreases in skinny yarn, I switched back to my warm vest project that I started months ago. Now that I have the 52" cable for my Denise needles (bought it on our holiday in Port Townsend, WA) I can stretch this out all the way on it. I'm doing the back and fronts in one piece so it makes for a very long row. I have about 10" done and am coming up to the underarms where I'll have to split into fronts and back. Guess I'll actually have to start writing out the pattern, huh? So far I've been making it up from an idea in one of the knitting magazines. Carrying on.

Time to do some spinning today methinks. About time I reinstituted Spinning Wednesdays otherwise I'll never get enough yarn spun to actually do anything with!

Whew!

Well that was a busy weekend! We chose the most rainy day (Saturday) to go for a walk downtown. However, around here if you stay home because it’s raining, you’ll never get anything done so we went anyway. Turned out that if we waited until Sunday we would have had a much nicer day. Oh well. Got some of the garden and deck cleaned up plus I did a lot of housework. Today is even nicer still with that big light in the sky turned up full. Too bad — now in the bright light I can see what I missed when cleaning yesterday! I’m too tired to care though. I should learn not to vacuum the whole house in the same day. It’s really hard on my poor neck. My physio tells me to do it a floor at a time on different days, but did I listen to her? Noooo. Silly me.

Finished the daughter’s socks today and washed them. They get much softer and full a bit when washed so I try to do it right after grafting the toes and before I gift them to their owner. I kind of like this Confetti yarn colourway though it’s fairly tame as these things go. The baby blue spots are unusual in this yarn brand. I should have taken a picture of my own socks vs. these ones. Hard to believe I actually hatched this particular chick! No wonder it took me so long to knit her socks. They took almost the full 2 balls with only a little left over. I usually get a pair and a half sock out of this yarn so I often buy 3 balls for 2 pairs. Obviously this trick won’t work with larger socks.

Started my Jaywalker socks but there’s not enough of them yet to photograph. It takes more attention to work the increases and decreases every other row so these don’t make good socks to work on while reading. I used a smaller needle than called for in the pattern knowing that I knit fairly loosely and also that I have skinnier feet and ankles than Grumperina does. I like my sock fabric nice and tight so I can’t feel the stitches underfoot.

Must Be Winter Or A Close Facsimile

It has been so dark and windy and rainy here that I've been hibernating indoors. I still haven't made a hairdresser appointment yet. My hair is getting so long it's almost in my eyes and it can actually blow in the wind. It's more than 2 inches! Yikes! Super-short hair is my personal style — as in wash-&-wear-and-never-even-have-to-comb-it, no-maintenance, KISS-principle hair. Anything more is too much work. The drawback is that my hair grows so fast you can almost see it grow. So my dear hairdresser Pat gets to see me often. She doesn't mind since I pay her well.

So while I've been hibernating I've also been knitting. I'm up to the toe decreases on both DD socks. Yay! The end is in sight! Also I played a game that some other bloggers suggested where you type your name followed by "needs" into an Internet search engine and see what comes up. It's hilarious! Here's the best ones I got:

Louisa needs to be taken care of.
Louisa needs to know.
Louisa needs no urgin’.
Louisa needs the money to buy a small cottage.
Louisa needs a work out.
Louisa needs names of those who can go and preferably a large deposit.
Louisa needs the man he once was, not the man he's become.
Louisa needs a maid for her mother-in-law.
Louisa needs a traffic signal.
Louisa needs a reason.
Louisa needs furniture, kitchen appliances, linens, kids clothes, throw rugs, etc.
Louisa needs you to know that she's having a much more interesting life than you are.
Louisa needs the room for teaching the flute.
Louisa needs a kidney.
Louisa needs to be bombed beyond recognition.

I'm still chuckling! Then I tried it with Thom's name and got even more funny stuff. It appears that there's a popular singer in some band with that name? (Don't ask me; I'm a folkie, preferably Celtic.) I'll have to share what I found with Thom so he can ROTFL with me. If you want to try this yourself, be sure to put it in quotes like this: "Louisa needs" — so it finds the exact phrase. Too funny. Unless you have a really truly unusual name or spelling, though the only-somewhat-unusual name (like my daughter's) still seems to get some great hits. Have to try my son's next...

One other thing I found yesterday was a new craft ezine called The Anticraft. It's quite wonderful, edgy and imaginative. The link will (hopefully) be in my sidebar. Just the title of the first issue gives you the idea: "You're Going To Die Anyway, So You Might As Well Knit" — wild, hey? There's a great tutorial on knitting with wire and a project to go with it: a black wire-knitted heart box. Or how about elbow-length armwarmers with a motif that morphs from snowflake to skull? A knitted voodoo doll with a cross-stitch heart to stick pins into? And if you have any great craft ideas (not just knitting) in this vein, they're looking for good submissions. Just go check it out and you'll see what I mean.

Ever the Optimist

See the pretty rainbow? It was beautiful and sunny and pouring rain at the same time so I went hunting out every window for this! Interestingly, you can just barely see the echo-rainbow to the left of the brighter one. I actually didn't notice it as I was shooting this photo from my front porch a couple of days ago. Did you know that the echo-rainbow has the colours in the opposite order to the main rainbow? I love the Real World! Another thing about this photo is that our north shore mountains are missing. Well, ok they aren't really gone; they're hiding. They should be behind those pretty fall trees. The joke here is if you can see the mountains then it's going to rain and if you can't see the mountains then it's already raining! Today it's really windy and rainy (no mountains visible) and I'm swiftly rethinking my plans to go get my hair cut. Sometimes the Real World can turn your umbrella inside out!

My spinning class went ok yesterday. There's 9 students and we don't have enough wheels for everyone so a few had to use spindles. That's a big class especially the first lesson where I have to run around from one to the other and hold their hands a lot. These guys are pretty good though and seem to have the patience to give themselves a chance to learn. The one person (a handsome young black man!) who had some trouble is planning to go back to the shop today to practice on a different wheel which should help. Sometimes you need to switch around until you get something that works better for you. I make them trade each lesson anyway unless they have their own equipment. Next week we learn plying.

I think I was a bit optimistic when I thought DD's socks would be ready by this weekend. I'm heading for the toes but it's slow going. These are big socks because she has big feets! Two full sizes larger than mine anyway. I also realized that I originally said I was going to make a new pair for my granddaughter but I want a pair for me first. Little ones should go fast after that. She just keeps growing anyway so they'll just fit her longer if I don't make them right away. (Justify. Justify.) She's still not quite walking though she's almost 15 months. She needs the security of holding hands or furniture but we won't rush her into growing up too fast, will we?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Since it’s my birthday, here I am in my birthday suit, ca. 1951. This is one of the few family photos I managed to have in my possession before my crazy sister absconded with everything. Cute aren’t I? Yup, it’s that day again. The day I have to add yet another number onto my age. This year I’m the same coming and going: 55. I used to think that I would feel old by my mid-fifties but I don’t. I feel younger than I did 10 years ago. I’ve lost 30 pounds and, although the joints occasionally creak, I can still touch the ground without bending my knees. My hair is only somewhat grey, kind of a sprinkling, but there are a few more wrinkles showing. I like to think I earned the grey hair and wrinkles and pouchy tummy and flabby boobs just by being a mom. Truthfully, it would all have happened anyway — eventually. All I have to do is live long enough! Now I’m aiming for the honourable title of “Crone” but I don’t think I’m quite there yet.

Today I also want to include my first drawing done by my 15-month-old granddaughter. It goes on the fridge in a place of honour! I miss having pictures done by little kids on there. My fridge is quite new, so it hasn’t been “papered” sufficiently like the old one was. Besides my own two irrepressible artists, there were the babysitting kids, the after-school care kids, and the nieces and nephews. I just realized I don’t have as much contact with little ones anymore. I need more grandchildren! Tell my kids to get on with it, eh? I’m not getting any younger — and neither are they!

Some craft content: I’m almost halfway through the current sock feet now and heading for the toes. Darling daughter will be getting these the next time I see her. I already have a new pair for myself in mind: handpainted yarn in greens/golds/rusts/browns that I’ve decided to do in Grumperina’s Jaywalker pattern from the September MagKnits. I was going to do Falling Leaves from the Fall issue of Knitty.com but I don’t like knitting socks toe up and I don’t like short row heels. It was too much trouble to try to adapt the pattern and I’m not sure it’s possible to knit the leaves upside down. Jaywalker is cool — looks like mitred knitting — and it suits variegated yarn. I was getting tired of knitting straight stocking stitch all the time. Though come to think of it, I probably won’t be able to do it on the usual autopilot. More on these socks to come, I’m sure.

Tonight I have to teach a beginner spinner class. I hope they aren’t too difficult this time. Some people just don’t have enough patience with themselves. I like to tell them that in the “olden days” almost every woman (and some men) could spin. Indeed they had to spin. Otherwise there would be no cloth, rope, string, thread, sails, fishing nets etc. It’s amazing how people don’t realize how they are always surrounded by textiles and how, before machines were invented, they all had to be done by somebody’s hands. Aren’t we as smart as people were in the past? We like to think we are anyway. And we often have better equipment too so it should be a cinch. Heh! Of course I don’t show them the 200 thread-ends-to-the-inch handspun handwoven fabric that is possible with just hands and simple tools. And a lot of skill. They can build up to that!

Day of the Dead

This is my blog and I can write what I want to! There are those who think that one should stick with a topic such as knitting or beadwork, but as with most things in life, this Damselfly is all over the place. Today I’m remembering family and friends who have passed away. They get to live on in our memories, right? Actually I’m kind of lucky in that the list isn’t really all that long. And most of them were at least in their 80’s so, although it’s sad that they’re gone, it’s not all that unexpected. We move on to the next stage eventually.

First of course there’s mom (aka Mary Mary Quite Contrary!) who left us almost 2 weeks ago now. She was stubborn and funny and full of love and kisses right to the end of her 93 years. And best of all, she picked me to be her first baby. Though maybe dad had some input on the adoption choice. LOL! He was an infantryman during WWII and a letter sorter for Canada Post. He called himself Johnny, but mom called him by his second name, Warren. He called her Mommy, Mimi, or Mayme but I don’t recall him ever calling her Mary. (Must be a family trait not to call people by their given name, eh? I’ve no idea why, though come to think of it I don’t know why they called me Janie either. My second name is Jane but I went back to my first name in my late teens.) Dad died in 1988 at the age of 79 after a long decline from the complications of not-well-managed diabetes. My other “parent” was my aunt, mom’s sister Bow (my version of Isabella) who lived with us from the time I was a baby and worked as an executive secretary. I was never sure whether letting her into the household was a good idea or not. She was more stubborn than mom and somewhat selfish and judgmental. However, she watched over mom after dad died and when mom started losing her marbles. Kept me from worrying about them as much as I might have. Bow died from cancer in 2001 at 85.

My Mom & Dad on their wedding day.

Bow

On the in-law side of the family, there’s Thom’s dad, Frank. He was short, handsome, and very funny. He had a whole collection of goofy props for his silliness: clown nose, Aussie hat with cork bobbles, a wind-up talking parrot etc. He was only 72 when succumbed to lung cancer. He had smoked from the time he was very young until Thom’s mom finally convinced him to quit for good. But it got him anyway. Evil stuff, tobacco. Gives me a 3-day migraine myself. I’ve never smoked though there were 3 smokers in my house growing up. See above!

My Father-in-Law

In my birth family, I lost my grandmother a few years ago at 97. She never really got to know me well because I didn’t meet my birth family until I was 40 and she already had Alzheimer’s by then. But I know now where I got my “craftiness” from. I have some of the lace she crocheted and a pillow with her yo-yos on it. I never even got to meet my half-sister Betty, who died in a car accident before Mother located me. She was only in her late 20’s which was very sad.

My Grandma Stella

There were other more distant family members too, including my great-aunt Betty who was my grandmother-substitute (although she lived in Wisconsin) until I met my “real” grandma. Auntie Betty was soooo Scots — I was the only one in the family who would eat kippered herring and oatcakes with her for breakfast! And there was my Uncle Ed, dad’s brother, who sent us money to start a bank account for each of my kids when they were born, and his wife, Auntie Emily, who had dementia but managed to hide money all over their house. They didn’t find it until after she went into the care home and the house was sold. The US$10,ooo was enough to keep her there until she passed away with enough left to pay for her funeral! Or how about Thom’s uncle George who managed to (almost) take it with him by spending all his money at the local casino in his last few years. I figure that’s just about equivalent to Bow’s giving all her money to the Catholic Church. Some of the money goes to “charity” either way, I guess. It would have been nice to inherit a little something to help the kids buy a house instead though.

We’ve also lost a few friends: Max the Mohair Man and weavers/spinners Amy, Gertrude, and Doris. I still have some items that Amy wove and things she gave me and I remember her whenever I use them. I have booklets that Gertrude wrote and a couple of boxes of samples and notes. Collected handwoven Christmas cards from Doris remind me how she was so encouraging when I first joined the weavers’ guild. As for Max, I have a blue glass star hanging in my window for his angora goat ranch which was called Blue Star. Thom and he made a winning Spinathon team at the Sheep Fair with Max spinning and Thom carding. They were fast! Thom doesn’t have many friends apart from colleagues and family, so it was hard when Max died too young from nasty old cancer, probably acquired from the toxic copper mine he worked in to afford the ranch. Another friend was our long-time neighbour, Wayne, who passed away in his late 50’s several years ago. We have a tree on our boulevard for him. It used to be on his side of the street but the city conveniently moved it to our side. He was a great guy, nicknamed Marty Stewart for his cooking, cleaning, decorating, and party-hosting abilities. (And he wasn’t even gay!)

I’m sure if I thought hard enough there are more people for the list of those close to us who have died. But this post is getting pretty long! Hopefully there will be a lull now. I think I’ve had it with funerals for awhile.

Happy Halloween!

BOO!!!

These are my Halloween costume for this year! Thom made the beads for me last year after he'd only been making beads for a month. I always get compliments on them but unfortunately I can only wear them during October. Cute, huh?

I spoke too soon yesterday about the socks that I'm knitting for my daughter. I found I'd miscounted the stitches for the heel flap on one of them and had to frog it back. I've gotten past the heel turn on both socks now though so it should be easy sailing from here. Oops, better not push my luck this time. Forget I said that.

I'm trying not to start anything new until I assess what unfinished things I've got going around here and what is on the priority list before the holidays start in earnest. I've given up giving gifts for Christmas (except for the small children) a few years ago. It's not because I'm cheap or mean — it just makes me crazy! I have too many people on my list for starters. I can't possibly make gifts for everyone. Plus buying things that people neither need nor want just for them to buy me things that I don't need or want either is just stupid consumerism. We are so pressured by the media that we must buy stuff or we and our loved ones won't be happy. I can't be guilted into it anymore. If they absolutely must buy something, they can buy something nice for themselves and think of me while they're doing it! At least then they'd get something they really want. As the older generation is passing on, our immediate family is starting to focus more on Winter Solstice with no cultural or religious expectations attached to it. It's just a time to get together, eat, drink, light candles and celebrate the return of the sun which is a true, scientific event. No faith necessary which suits us non-religious types perfectly. I'm hoping we can eventually substitute Winter Solstice for Christmas entirely. But it's sure an uphill battle fighting the pressure of the social majority!

The kitchen is coming along slowly. I can't decide how to dye the curtains: plain or tie-dyed, gold, red, green or what? Meanwhile they're just sitting down on my dye-stove waiting for me to figure it out. More than half the cupboard doors are on now. And the quarter round is nailed on, holes filled and touched up with paint. Thom did that yesterday. He's finally back at work today after taking more than a week off so it's quiet around here. It was nice having him home even after the stress of mom's funeral subsided. Now it's back to what passes as normal in Damselfly's pond.

Well That’s Over

The workshop actually went ok yesterday. We found an error in my pattern which was probably inevitable! I wrote the original version after I made the bag, which means that I had to recount what I had already done. Counting rows and stitches is hard in variegated yarns. We also had some difficulty getting the 6º beads onto the yarn which was actually slightly thinner than the original where I used E beads. I know we could have used smaller needles for a better gauge too. Most of them were loose knitters. Sigh! Oh well. I’m really not enjoying teaching right now. I feel like I spend all my time preparing for workshops and don’t get enough out of them to make it worthwhile. I find it too draining rather than invigorating which I feel it should be. And I don’t make enough money for how long it takes me to prepare. Though I do like what my students can often come up with afterwards. Sometimes they come back to me with fabulous pieces inspired by whatever workshop they took with me. It’s great to see that excitement.

I’m going to try to cut down on teaching for the next while until (or unless!) I feel like doing it again. I’m sure my boss at the wool shop will understand. I can’t get out of the spinning class starting this Wednesday though. Nothing like having to work on your birthday, eh? Plus I’m feeling a bit grumpy that I didn’t have time to create a Dios de los Muertos doll like I wanted this year. Oh well, I’ve got my little “altar” for mom. I’ll have to remember to light the candles and put out some chocolate for her on Tuesday.

Back to craft stuff, I still haven’t finished the bracelet I showed a pic of back on Oct 19th. It’s only about an inch longer now. I did make these earrings but I’m not sure how much I like them. They kind of hang a bit off, but maybe that’s because I made them while I was sitting beside mom’s bed on her last day. Tension problems! Lastly, I’m up to the heel turn on my daughter’s socks. Had to take out a bit of one of the heel flaps when I found a mistake. That’s what I get for reading email and knitting at the same time — in the dark. Hopefully once I pass the heel turn I can zip along faster and get these done soon. I want to start on another pair for my granddaughter.

Sorry About That

Has it been a whole week since I posted last? A lot has happened in the meanwhile. My adopted mom died last Thursday and we had her service yesterday at the graveside. It was sad for me but it was definitely more stressful than sad because of difficult family dynamics. Mom was 93 so it wasn't as if it was a surprise or anything.

Note: After sleeping on it, I edited out the rest of this because it was way too personal for Blogland. Guess I'm lucky that I don't have a lot of regular readers as some bloggers do! It's not that I mind good friends knowing the details of my life, but I have to be somewhat careful. It's not like this is a totally anonymous forum, eh?

So while I'm recuperating from emotional trauma, I have to get ready for a workshop on Saturday. I'm teaching "A Wild Beaded Bag" knitted in hand-dyed wool yarn and featuring 4 different ways to incorporate beads into the knitting. This is my original one here. I spent this morning fine-tuning the instruction sheets and this afternoon dyeing the skeins. They won't look anything like the original I'm afraid but that's ok. I have a full class of 10 and only 3 hours of class to get the concepts across. Challenging! And my brain is not really in gear yet either.

Tomorrow I have to count beads and decide on which eyelash/novelty accent yarn goes with each kit. Wish me luck. At least I slept better last night. Hopefully tonight is better still. I have work to do!

Where Did the Sun Go?

It's raining again today but I took my granddaughter out for a walk in the nice fall sunshine yesterday. We went to my LYS and got some more natural Quebecoise 2 skeins plus some fun novelty hairy stuff called Chili (100% polyamide) in 4 different colourways. These are for my beaded knitted bag class at the end of the month. I still have to dye-paint the wool and make up the kits. (I’ll post pics when they’re ready.) I have no idea how many students I've got yet. Guess I should find out.

After the yarn stash enhancement, we went to the playground in the little park near my house. There were lots of kids playing (teachers are on an illegal strike) and there was another little girl the same size. Though they don't really play together at one year old — they eyed each other and then went off to do their own thing. The other little one was already walking but Kiera wants me to walk her around everywhere. She's almost walking by herself but feels like she needs the extra security of my hands. The little slide was a big hit! She got a grin on her face in anticipation as I sat her on the top and giggled her way down to the bottom. Cute! Granny and child had a fun afternoon together. No pics because my hands were full of little girl.



I got this slim book during my vacation shopping frenzy. It's one of the "Design Originals" books which are inexpensive and basic, yet often have some intriguing techniques in them. This twisted beaded knitted bracelet that I've started is the first pattern. It's hard to see in the photo but the beads (8º) are threaded 2 blue/2 brown silver-lined on Kreinik #8 (fine) braid in copper colour. The needles are size 0000 (1.25 mm) and you can see my homemade twisted wire needle that I use to thread the beads. The pattern is so simple: CO 3, knit the first row, then turn, sl 1, place a bead, k1, place a bead, k1 and repeat the last row until it's big enough to go around your wrist. Stitch ends together as invisibly as possible. The twist happens all by itself, though you should snug up the stitches fairly tightly as you go. Not too tight though or you won't be able to get your needle through it. Simple, huh? The book has several other variations on this too, including making a large bead by knitting a beaded piece with beads only on one side and using it to cover an oval wooden bead. There's another interesting bracelet made from two bracelets with 8º on one side of the twist and cubes on the other and fastened with clasps. You can wear them individually or twist them together for a thicker bracelet. There's also a really nice but easy-to-make tassel pattern that includes a lobster-claw clasp to attach it to anything you like.

I think they should have left out the clothing patterns though. The poncho, hat, and wristwarmers are not very imaginative and the beads are not used to advantage. For example, what looks like bead stripes in the centre photo on the cover is actually a novelty yarn and the beads are scattered in the plain sections in between. They're the same colour as the yarn and blend in so well I had to look carefully at an enlarged photo to see them! So what's the point?

I will be demonstrating this type of beaded knitting at my guild meeting tomorrow evening but I don't really have enough samples yet. Better get to work on it or I'll be winging it as I go.

Darling Daughter should be happy that I've gotten this far on her socks. I haven't had a lot of time to work on them. I think this Confetti yarn looks quite different from the usual with the wide stripes and blue-and-white spots. Hope she likes them!

Rain Rain Go Away

Seems like the rains have set in in earnest — though it's not very cold. Just wet! We actually have 3 seasons: the Cold Wet season, the Slightly-Warmer Wet season, and the Warm Dry season. Note there is no Hot season. Though we do have a few days a year that could be described as "hot" there's not enough of them to be considered a "season". And any of the other seasons could happen at any time of the year. Keeps you on your toes deciding whether to bring an umbrella or sunglasses and whether to wear shorts or a raincoat. Actually all of them together is often a good idea.

The other day I promised to post the pictures of my handwoven fabric that I used to cover the biographical book I made for my weavers' guild's 70th birthday. This shows both sides which are quite different. The first one is the one I chose to be on the outside of the book. The structure is deflected double weave and since I used so many colours (orange, red, brown, purple, and green) it was a lot of shuttle-shifting to weave it. I left loops on the selvedges because I was planning to full it quite a bit and figured I could cut them off later. I still have about 4 yards left so I can make something to wear eventually. I've only had the fabric for about 5 years so far waiting to decide what it wants to be when it grows up!



And here's Thom's lovely fall socks in all their glory. Hmmm...I'm seeing a colour theme here. The yarn (Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch) doesn't have a repeat that I could find so the socks are kissing cousins and not twins. Luckily he doesn't mind. If I make him another pair of socks in future (assuming he actually wears these) I'd make the leg at least an inch longer. Silly me made them the usual length that I make mine forgetting that his legs are somewhat longer and he would like them to come up higher.

Lastly, I'll show off my tiny stash from Saturday's Fraser Valley Bead Show. It was so much fun, especially for Thom who found all his kindred beadmakers there! He spent more than I did for once too. The top two are wired drops made with paper beads by Carolyn Dawn Good. They each came with a fortune paper like a fortune cookie! The lovely roses are by Tamara Garland. They're only 3/4" long and quite lovely. And lastly, I keep trying to remember to wear a watch. Ever since my beaded one died I haven't clicked on a watch that I liked. This watch face is a lovely metallic purple with silver and I got it from my good buddy Ania of Turtle Beads. Now to finish it with some kind of bracelet so I can wear it. It will have to have orange and black as well as purple and silver in it I think.

On the kitchen front, it's getting back together slowly. I have about half the cupboard doors now though they need a bit of touch-up with the paint and their handles on. We priced the granite counter that Thom has his heart set on for the gap between the old counter and the stove, but it's really hard to justify the cost. We'll have to go back to the store when we're not so tired and re-assess. Got the oak legs for it though plus the quarter-round for the edges of the floor. One little baby step at a time. At least I can cook again and I have a fridge!

It's Here!

But nothing else is. I still have my fridge out on the deck in the rain (covered of course) and the stove is in the hallway. Everything else is spread all over the house! It feels like it did when we were painting — a big mess. Oh well. At least I can get things back now and they will stay.

Here is the old floor. I loved this linoleum even though it's probably almost as old as I am. I love the colours and the pattern but of course there's nothing remotely like it available. Yeah, it's not very trendy at all. Not quiet and neutral like so much of the interior design these days. Taupe, pearl, mushroom, and beige are just so not me. I'm a colour girl! So I got some very expensive but hopefully very durable Armstrong vinyl flooring. It does brighten things up, don't you think?

I love the pattern of leaf skeletons in dark red and green. I'm very fond of leaves which is why fall is my favourite season. I'm so enjoying the leaves outside right now and it'll be great to have them in my kitchen on a permanent basis. It was really smart to pay a professional to install the floor. It took him 5 hours and he did a great job.


I can't move anything big in until Thom gets home so I've been amusing myself by lining the shelves in the nook and putting the things back in them. It's interesting trying to assess what needs to get chucked and what I still need. Waffle iron that I haven't used for 3 years? Canning pot that I might need for pickles sometime? Maybe. Regular pasta that I no longer eat because it's too high in carbs? Honey? I don't even like honey. Molasses? Need that for Christmas baking. Or will I even do that anymore? Questions, questions. This is a much harder job than it should be.

On the craft front, I finished Thom's Fall socks. Picture to come soon. I've just started daughter's socks. She was pretty pouty over the fact that I made her dad's socks first since her birthday is before her dad's (by a week!). She was ok that I already knit her sis-in-law's birthday socks because her birthday really is first in the sequence. These ones are Confetti and they do look quite different. Fairly wide stripes of dark grey and cool blue that are almost the same value, then a thin white stripe, then white and light warm blue spots, a wide stripe of light grey, and lastly the thin white stripe and white and blue spots again. I'll take a picture when there's enough sock to see.

I'm still adding a page or two to the guild bio book that I mentioned. They're trickling in very slowly but it has to be ready by Sunday afternoon for the birthday party. Anybody who isn't in by tonight is SOL. Blogger's image file transfer is a bit flaky, so I'm nervous to try adding the pics of my handwoven fabric right now. It's coming eventually. (Gee, I'm big on promises, aren't I?)

It's Coming!

My new flooring is coming tomorrow. Yay! I'm so glad that I'll be getting my kitchen back to some kind of normal some day soon. However, the floor thing is stressing both of us out bigtime. We have to get everything off the kitchen floor, including the honking great fridge that took 2 delivery guys an hour to get in the back door. Thom has come up with some wheeled thingies that hopefully will help get it back out through that door without scraping up anything. Luckily I haven't painted the back door yet since it has to come off along with the fridge doors. And since I can't help much (or my physio will have something to say about it) we've bribed dear daughter's boyfriend into helping. Flying Wedge pizza seems to be an acceptable medium of exchange for exercising his muscles. They even have a low-carb crust version for us. Yum.

Meanwhile I've been somewhat occupied with finishing up a binder for my weavers' guild's 70th birthday exhibition at Place des Arts in Coquitlam, BC. The exhibit is listed on the website under Current Exhibitions and my "Beads & Knitting: A Wild Little Bag" workshop is listed under Learn More. Which reminds me — I still have to get organized for that too. It's on October 29th so that doesn't give me much time. The binder is covered with my handwoven fabric and holds bios and pics of most of the folks who's pieces are included in the exhibit. It took me about 2 full days to produce this thing! Not including weaving the fabric of course. (Which I would show you but Blogger is being a Bugger again and not letting me post pictures. Later.) The big birthday party is on this Sunday so I'm all ready to celebrate! I've been a member of the GVWSG for 20 years. Time flies...

I'm still up to the toe of the second of Thom's socks. A picture will be coming as soon as I finish them. I gave my DIL her socks on Thanksgiving and she was pleased. DD pouted that I haven't started hers yet, but I couldn't help it if her dad's sock yarn was too hard to resist! Her socks are next on the list. That will be 3 pairs of socks in a row that weren't for me — a record!

I know I promised more Oregon, but it's just not happening today.

More Beady Stuff

Meet Lady O:


Remember way back in a post in July where I showed you what she looked like "undressed" except for her face and breasts? (Sorry, I'm not going to spend time finding it for you to link it here.) Anyway, this is what she looks like now. Her name is Lady O for Oregon, natch! I managed to finish her on the last evening before we came home from our vacation. To get a better idea of scale, she's about 3-1/4" tall, not including her hair (halo? crown?) The face is one I made from polymer clay using a commercial mold and her breasts are a broken lampwork bead by my husband. Colours are the surf, sand, sea, sky, agate, sun through the fog, and just-turning leaves of our holiday on the coast. Her hood (wimple?) is peyote-stitched and I also used couching, backstitch, lane/lazy stitch and stacked stitch. I think she turned out pretty well, though I like the back better for some reason. I got better at stitching as I went along so the beads are more even and neat and the design is a little more coherent. Nowhere near perfect though, but that's ok. I ended up using a tiny quilting needle, often pulling it through with bent-nosed pliers. My beading needles seemed too long to get in tight places and I wasn't able to find a fine curved needle anywhere. The quilting needle actually became quite comfortable to work with but I guess it helps that I have very small hands!

I couldn't believe how time-consuming the stitching was. She's so small but it still took me two weeks worth of late afternoons. Several hours later I'd have maybe a square inch done max, but I think the results are worth it. I want to do another one now, but I'm not sure I'll have time. I've been pondering Dia de los Muertos images — kind of appropriate since my birthday is All Souls Day. Maybe I need to figure out how to make a skull face. Is there such a thing as a pleasant-looking (but not too cute) skull? Help, Tim Burton! I'm not much of a sculptor.

I got a comment from Elizabeth from Australia on yesterday's blog entry. Hi Elizabeth! Another reader — wow! You commented on my DIL's socks. I hope you realize they aren't real fairisle but are commercially printed with dyes to look what I consider somewhere halfway between fairisle and ikat. All I have to do is knit plain! This type of yarn has sparked a real boom in sock knitting and the exciting part is you are never really sure what the different brands and patterns will look like until you knit them up. This guarantees that knitters won't be able to resist trying every different colourway/brand they can find! The Confetti that I use most often is made in Italy but distributed from Quebec (at least in NA) and it's very reasonably priced for sock yarn and fairly easily available here in Canada compared to some of the other brands.

Oh and as far as wearing wool socks in warm climates goes, I don't have a problem wearing them in summer when walking distances in my boots. Wool absorbs sweat without feeling too wet and can even insulate against heat (think Berbers in the desert in their wool caftans). Of course the hottest day in Vancouver's summer is probably a cool day in winter for you tropical types!

More Oregon next post.

The Continuing Story

Yup, this is the kind of weather we had while we were in Oregon. Can you say "perfect" or pretty darn close to it. Of course what you can't see here is the wind that's so strong you can practically lean on it! It wasn't very cold, but it made my ears ache so I stuffed my old wool beret over my head. This is looking south from the top of Cape Blanco and it's always windy up there.

And this is our klutzy young eagle. He/she was being harassed by crows and tried to land on a branch right near our campsite. The bark slipped off and he crashed through the branches to the ground less than 20 feet from where we were sitting. When we went to investigate he flew to another tree further away where he sat for about 15 minutes regaining his composure — and allowing Thom to take several great pictures.

Did I get carried away with beads or what?


But aren't they beautiful? The vials of Japanese seed beads are from Beads & Beyond. They have a colour-arranged sectional bin of seed beads in various sizes that is just irresistable. As usual, I indulged in some of those lovely matte gilt-lined Matsunos which I adore. Plus I spent quite awhile counting and packaging tiny pressed glass leaves from their wall of little bins. Oh happy times! Down the road a ways, the new improved and even more humungous Shipwreck was just too much for me. While trying to be somewhat reasonable, I started coveting pressed glass leaves in large bags and when I went to pay they insisted that to get the best price, I needed even more of them! Yikes! I now have a lifetime supply for several beaders. Greedy ones even. They had so many pretty beads, what can I say? I also got a number of large hanks of 6º and 8º seed beads for knitting with. And some unakite carved leaves (another item that I had to get 2 strands of...aw, darn) and a big huge bag of Indian pressed glass beads (only $14.35!) which are great for classes and embellishing. Not in the picture are several cones of nylon cord, fine and heavy, and 2 cones of Gudebrod silk that I got at Wynwoods Gallery for macrame, knitting, and crochet. Gotta get 'em when I see 'em, ya know! Now I need to come up with a project that uses several thousand leaves...

More Holiday Stuff

Ooohhh, I want to go back there...now...

Looky! We have pictures today! I don't know what gives here but sometimes dear Blogger just isn't cooperating and sometimes it works just fine. Oh well. For my buddy Mel who asked: yes, the pics always come in at the top of your blog editing window. You just have to drag the darn things to where you want them to be. Works better than Hello from Picasa though, even if you can't see thumbnails of the images you're sending. Assuming Blogger decides that today the picture insert feature is actually working!

Back to the pictures. Today I'm concentrating on the knitting I got done mostly while we were driving but also, as you can see, while sitting on the beach. I also knit while reading if I could get the darn book to stay open. You should have seen all the various things I used for weights: my teacup, more books, the camera, anything. I couldn't read my fantasy pocketbooks that way at all and knit at the same time since they refuse to stay open and you can't weight the page without covering up the type. I think somebody needs to invent a book holder that makes it easy to insert any size book and easy to turn the pages with one hand (the one not holding the knitting at the time). Now I know why knitters and other crafty people are big on books on tape.

Below is the pair of socks I knit for my lovely daughter-in-law's birthday prezzie. The in-progress sock is sitting on the lush seaweed that grows on the rocks at the south end of the beach at Cape Lookout. Yes, I removed the poor thing before the tide came in! The finished pair is sitting on one of the interestingly sculptured shore pines in the Nehalem state park campsite.

The next pair of socks is for Thom (even though I'm supposed to be doing my daughter's promised pair) because I really needed to try knitting up the Meilenweit Mega Boot Stretch yarn that I got at the Wool Company in Bandon. Of course I had to see what it looks and knits like! Since it comes in one big ball and the repeats are very long (half a sock!) there's very little chance of making two socks that match so I'm not worrying about it. Thom says he's okay with fraternal twins. As usual, the recommended needle size and gauge for this yarn is way too big so I'm using my Susan Bates Silvalume sock needles in the 2mm size. Did I mention that I got another package of these needles at a Jo-Ann's fabric and craft store in Lincoln City? I've found I need 2 sets of needles for because I like to knit socks by alternating a little on this one and a little on that one to avoid SSS and to make them match more closely.

Thom's unfinished sock is hanging from the rack on the back of our trusty 1989 Volkswagen Westphalia, Fraulein Blau. (That's "Mrs. Blue" in case your German is rusty. We've had her since she was a brand new baby van. She's our home-sweet-home on the road and transporter for things that are too big for Velvet, the MINI Cooper.) We were in the campsite at Nehalem there. Notice I resisted hanging the poor sock off the Deception Pass Bridge (between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands in northern Washington State) on the way home, though the thought did cross my mind! It was really windy and pretty damp though not actually raining at the time so I was afraid I'd lose the sock over the side. Actually I was afraid I'd lose me over the side.

This yarn is interesting to work with. It's a bit splitty because it's quite loosely spun so I have to watch a bit more carefully than with regular sock yarn. It also tends to knit up a tiny bit narrower than you expect because of the stretchy Elite' in it. I'm getting about 9 st per inch. But of course it stretches easily to fit nicely on your foot and still feels nice and soft. I'm currently up to the heel turn on sock number 2 so the durability hasn't been tested yet — even though Thom wore the first sock the minute it was off the needles and went for a walk for about an hour with it on! Guess he likes handknit socks now. Maybe it's just this yarn? He's not having my second ball with the brown instead of black in it. That one is mine!

I actually have a couple of blog readers and they actually missed me while I was gone! That's so sweet. Hi Melanie! Hi Susan! Next installment will feature the beads. I actually shocked myself at how many I got.

I'm Baaaack!

Wow! That was such a perfect holiday! The Oregon Coast is so relaxing. It was the best combination of sunshine, fog, sand, walking, shopping, reading, knitting, beading, eating, drinking...OK. Perhaps my spouse and I have an odd idea of what makes a holiday perfect. The above description sounds pretty normal but if I add details you'll see what I mean. The sunshine was only warm, not hot, and included a lot of rather cool wind as well. The sand was either hard and great for walking miles on or it was so soft you sank in up to your ankles every step. It also might be blown into your face, boots, ears, and down your neck. The fog was eerie. We walked on the hard sand at the edge of the waves in a cocoon highlighted by a barely-seen sun, prompting us to have some concern about finding the way back to camp since we couldn't see anything around us. It was like the rest of the world didn't exist — until a pair of riders on horses popped out of the mist. We also saw lots of wildlife: whales, seals, brown pelicans, 5 kinds of butterflies (on one single trail), and a very klutzy young eagle who fell off a branch almost right at our feet.

The shopping was such a big treat too. I went just a little nuts with the sheer volume of choices. It didn't help that two of the shops were the biggest of their kind! We started the first day out as we were heading through Washington State by stopping at 2 bead stores: Beads & Beyond (no website) in Bellevue and Shipwreck in Lacey (near Olympia). Why 2 stores you might ask? They carry different things of course. Even the amazingly huge warehouse that is Shipwreck doesn't have everything, not by a longshot. I even hit one more bead store on the way home: Wynwoods Gallery in Port Townsend, WA. It's tiny but very well-stocked with hard-to-find items. We also had a great time in Powell's Books in Portland, OR. This huge store (over time it took over a whole block of old shops) has a map available for newbies and all sections are colour-coded so you can find what you want. The craft section is really extensive. Not to leave yarns out of the mix, we stopped at the Wool Company in Bandon, OR, where I succumbed to 3 big balls of Meilenweit sock yarn, 1 print in deep colours and 2 different Mega Boots Stretch. The latter yarn is quite different having 1 strand of gradually varying fall colours, 2 slightly finer strands of one colour (one had black and one brown), and one tiny strand of Elite' (a stretchy thread not unlike fuzzy nylon). Another yarn shop I checked out is Diva Yarns conveniently located right in the same building as Wynwoods in Port Townsend. I found the really long cord for my Denise needle set there. Now I can knit Cat Bordhi's moebius scarves. Last but not least and especially for Thom, we went to Frantz Glass in Shelton, WA. This is a big supplier for lampworkers and the tables were turned on Thom as he tried to get what he wanted/needed without going too nuts! I'm afraid I wasn't too sympathetic after Shipwreck. Tee-hee.

There's more, but I'll post more later. For some reason I can't include any pictures at the moment, and I definitely have pictures!