A New Yarn Store (for me)

Today I woke up very sore from my workout yesterday. I decided to skip weight-lifting for today but was too late to go to the Yoga class. I goofed off on the computer for a while instead.

Skip and Scooter called me after their golf game to go for lunch so I met them shortly thereafter. After lunch they went home and I headed to "Never Enough Wool" - a yarn shop in Port Perry. They had some very nice yarn including quite a selection of sock yarn. There wasn't anything 'to die for' though but I now know what they have. I then stopped into Ferguson's Wool shop in Myrtle Station. What a gold mine! Paula was very helpful and showed me lots of different yarn and projects. I bought a skein of Drops Alpaca yarn in a yummy tweedy purple shade:

I think I'll knit a pair of either cabled or ribbed fingerless gloves or wristlets. I've spent most of the evening surfing the 'net for patterns. I may design my own pattern incorporating ribs and cables.

I'm about half done the foot of the monkey socks:






And here's a closeup:


Paula hadn't ever knit using two circulars or using the 'magic loop' method. Next time I go, I'll take my knitting and show her. She knits very loosely continental style on dpns. I may drop in some Saturday to 'sit and knit'.

Tomorrow we're either going to the Ukrainian Festival at Harbourfront or to Mel Lastman Square for the Hispanic Fiesta.

Monkey Socks (cont'd)

I'm on the home stretch with the first monkey sock. As there would be so much yarn left over, I added an extra repetition of the pattern before starting the heel. This is the first time I've done a plain (stockinette) heel but it's what the pattern called for. I really like working with the stretchy yarn. It's good for tight knitters like me.

My sister is interested in knitting with 2 circulars. She's also curious about the magic loop method. I'm going to be at the Knitter's Fair next weekend so I'll pick up a couple of Addis for her.

I did a weight-lifting class yesterday plus 40 mins. on the treadmill. I am sore today so I think I'm just going to go for a walk.

Skip and Scooter are golfing this morning but I will meet them for lunch. Then I'm going to head to Port Perry to a wool shop I've heard about but haven't visited yet.

Monkey Socks

I got some things accomplished today. I got my routine blood work done and did a 45 min. aerobics class followed by 30 min. on the treadmill. I made an awesome bean salad and got some laundry out on the line including all of Scooter's clothes. It got hotter and hotter as the day went on so I put on the A/C so the house would be cool when Skip and Scooter got back from golfing in Guelph with Skip's brother. They got back at about 8pm pretty pooped. They had a very nice time golfing.

The tickets for "Dirty Dancing" and "Sweeney Todd" arrived today. I've been looking forward to having a subscription series for years! The first show (Sweeney Todd) is on Nov. 7.

I've started the monkey socks from the Knitty.com website. I'm doing them in Regia stretch yarn colour 83 - a nice variegated yarn with blues, beige and cream.


Here's more of a closeup on the pattern:



I think they are going to be very spiffy.

Skip and I are probably going to go to the Hispanic Fiesta at Mel Lastman Square this weekend. There are going to be mariachis!!! Jui jui!

Back to School? HAAAAAA!!!

Well, it's the last week before school and I'm not getting geared up. What a great feeling. I've just been going about my business, doing errands as they come up or as I think of them.

Yesterday I did a Yoga/Pilates class and walked for 30 min. Today I walked about 3.5 km for 40 min. I took the car for an oil change to get it ready for our trip to Indiana. I went to the library and poured over the knitting books and knitted. I went shopping for provisions for dinner. We had a lovely dinner of schnitzel, cole slaw and beans from the garden. Scooter had pasta and alfredo sauce.

If I think of it and don't have breakfast right away, I'll go and get my blood work done tomorrow.

We subscribed to the Royal Alexandra season for Wednesday matinees! I'm so pleased. Our first show will be "Sweeney Todd" in November and "Dirty Dancing" in January. There will be 4 other shows. With the subscription the front of balcony seats are only about $35 each! I've been perusing the Toronto Symphony brochure and there are a few concerts I'd like to get cheap tickets for.

On the knitting front, I finished the Tidal Wave socks for Joan on Sunday before her 'Feast at the Farm'. We were served leg of lamb, risotto, grilled veggies, salad and an array of desserts including my favourite - flan - which she painstakingly made in 48 little ramekins, cherry pie, merengues with lemon curd. We took delicious brownies home.

Tonight, I finished James' plain blue ribbed socks - my own design - and I'm very please with how they turned out.

My next socks will be monkey socks from the Knitty website. I just have to decide what yarn I'll use. I probably have some in my stash which will be suitable. I have one of Lorna's scarves to finish - just sewing the beads on - and the other one to knit. I also need to finish the triangular shawl and the Baby Surprise Jacket.

There are a couple of scarves from the Scarf Style book that I'd like to knit and I'd like to finish the cabled gaiter that I abandoned last winter. The circular knitting needles were a pain in the butt because there's such a big bump between the cable and the needle.

Tomorrow Skip and Scooter are going to Guelph to golf with Skip's brother. I'm sure they'll have lots of fun; it's a lovely golf course. I'll go to workout or walk or both. Oh yeah, I have to remember to get the blood work done.

One Down, One to Go

I finished the first Tidal Wave sock last night and have started the second one. I would like to get the second one done by Sunday afternoon as I would like to give them to our hostess, Joan, who is throwing her annual 'Dinner at the Farm' party.

Here is the first one:

And from the side:


Yesterday, Chewy finally made its chrysalis. He had been hanging upside down from the cover of the 'Bug Bottle' for over a day trying to shed his exoskeleton. Finally we noticed a chrysalis.


I worked out every day this week except Wednesday when I walked around downtown Toronto in search of yarn shops. I've done one Yoga/Pilates class and two weight-lifting classes and have power-walked from 30 - 60 minutes each day. I don't like it that I now hardly have a metabolic rate.

My big accomplishment at home today was organizing the linen cupboard. It is very small and has been overflowing of late. I had been meaning to do it all week and got side-tracked each time. I sorted the sheets and towels and stored all the Queen sheets in Scooter's room. I am giving all the twin sheets to charity and some of the old sheets and pillowcases. The old towels are going to our veterinary clinic - they can always use them. It almost looks like Martha Stewart herself organized the cupboard.

Tonight Skip and I are going to see 'The Bourne Identity' with my free vouchers I got from the AMC Moviewatcher program. We're also going to have dinner at the Mongolian Grill with one of the gift certificates I was given for my retirement by my Family Studies colleagues.

Chewy's Making a Chrysalis!

I finished the Sweet Pea socks on Monday and wore them into the city to visit Lorna and Nancy yesterday. We had a nice lunch. I bought a Pandora bead - a suitcase - at a store in the PATH at the Adelaide Centre. I went to Romni Wools on Queen St. W. at Palmerston. They have an extensive inventory of yarn. Half of an entire wall was sock yarn! I didn't find anything 'to die for' but now I know where to go if I want a wide variety of yarn to choose from. From there I walked over to Lettuce Knit - a specialty yarn store in Kensington Market. I bought the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits magazine. I caught the Spadina streetcar and took it to Union where I knitted until I could get on the GO train. All in all it was a very nice day in the city AND I got a lot of knitting done!

I went to a 45 min. aerobics class this morning and then came home to shower (for the 2nd time this morning) and eat lunch before I went to visit Rifka in Downsview. I hadn't seen her in 6 years although we correspond sporadically via e-mail and Facebook. It was good to see her. I had to leave after only a couple of hours, though, because I didn't want to get caught in rush hour traffic. As it was, it took me 1.5 hours to get home just due to volume of traffic. Thank God I don't have to commute into the city to go to work.

Today the current Chewy climbed to the top of the Bug Bottle and started to pupate. It is currently attached to the underside of the lid. I expect it to be a chrysalis in the morning. Then it'll only be a couple of weeks until it metamorphoses into a beautiful monarch butterfly, assuredly before we leave for Indiana.

Hurricane Dean died down considerably, thank goodness. My friends in Tampico, Mexico reported that it was raining but there were no high winds. Phew, that's a relief.

Now I'm working on the Tidal Wave socks in the Tofutsies yarn in the pink, orange and yellow colourway #728 Three Feet Short. In modifying the pattern, I am carrying the pattern onto the instep and the top of the foot. I hope to finish them this weekend. I think I'll give them to Joan. I want to knit Monkey socks next and finish Scooter's other blue sock. I really liked the simple K3, P1 pattern.

Back from the Cottage

Nancy and I went to Sue's cottage near Balm Beach on Saturday for the night. We had a very nice drive up and stopped in Orillia to shop for yarn. We encountered an antique car show on the street where the yarn store was so we had to drive around a bit to find parking.

Once at the cottage we chatted, drank and ate junk food and of course, I knitted - alternating between the Sweet Pea sock and a pair of blue K3, P1 ribbed socks for Scooter. It got quite cold at night. I'm glad I packed socks and long-sleeved shirts. I slept in 2 of everything, socks, pants and shirts. It was quite snuggly in my sleeping bag.

So now I'm working on Scooter' blue socks and then start another pair with Tofutsies yarn. I can't decide whether to do the Tidal Wave socks or the Pomatomus socks from Knitty.com. I exchanged the Tofutsies yarn I found with another colour.

We are down to one caterpillar again. It doesn't appear to be eating when we are around but next time we look at it, it is bigger and there are big chunks out of the leaves (and lots of poop). Both the caterpillar and its poop are getting bigger.

I'm heading into Toronto to meet Nancy and Lorna for lunch tomorrow and then will head to a couple of yarn stores afterwards.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game"

This evening Skip, Scooter and I attended the Stitch n' Pitch game at the Rogers Centre. The Jays played the Angels. It was very cool to be sitting amidst knitters in our dedicated section. The goodie bags were pretty good too and the fabric bag alone will be very useful for grocery shopping or to contain more knitting projects. Stephanie was there with most of her family. Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera and my cell phone was dead so I couldn't even take pictures with it. Waaaahhhh!

I took a couple of pictures of the completed Sweet Pea sock:

from above


and from the side



I cast on for the second sock this afternoon so I could knit on the GO train to the game. This yarn is kind of droopy but the sock feels nice on and is snug enough to probably not droop much. This pattern has me hooked on lacework socks. I'm considering doing the Monkey socks from the Knitty.com website soon.

I also cast on for the K3, P1 sock I am knitting for Scooter. I bought some Scheepjes Invicta Extra yarn at Mary Maxim at the Creative Festival in a denim blue colour they call Periwinkle. I thought I would need fairly 'mindless' knitting for during the game. I have 4 1/4 inches (11 cm) done on the ribbed sock and about 2 inches (5 cm) done on the second Sweet Pea sock. It took me a while to find the Addi Turbo 2.5mm needles. I hunted and hunted and searched knitting bags. What I did find was the ball of Tofutsies yarn I had bought at Kniterary back in June that I couldn't find the other day. It is the exact colour of the one I bought the other day. I'm debating taking it back and exchanging it for another colour or another type of yarn. Finally I did find a bunch of Addi Turbo circular needles but I couldn't find the 2.5mm Addi Turbo Lace circular needles I just had the other day. They'll turn up but I don't have a clue where they are now.

I'm going to Sue's cottage on Saturday morning with Nancy - both Gamma Phi Beta sorority sisters from our time at the 'centre of all learning in the universe' - The University of Western Ontario or 'Western' as we call it. We'll have a nice time relaxing, chatting and I'll be knitting.

The caterpillars are growing quickly. One of them likes to cling to the pantyhose I have across the top of the container. I almost drowned him getting him off there today when I cleaned out the container. But when I checked on them tonight, he was up there again. Whatever.

Happy Anniversary, Ollie!

Eight years ago, our cat, Eddie, died. He liked to rummage under the sink and steal stuff out of the container where we put vegetable scraps to take out to the composter. One day he ingested the pointy end of a corn cob. It got stuck in his intestine and he got very sick. He had surgery to remove the obstruction ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) and make a pretty good recovery. However, a couple of months later, he became ill again. This was just the day before Skip and were heading to Puerto Vallarta on our delayed (by one year) honeymoon. We boarded him at the vet so they could keep an eye on him. When we got home, he had not recovered. He was a very sick kitty cat and we made the decision to have him euthanized. I was very sad as I had owned him for 9 years and had lost my first cat as an adult, Stanley, 3 years before.

After Eddie died, I progressed through the stages of Death and Dying as outlined by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in the record time of 2.5 weeks.

Scooter and I went to PetsMart where they have a pet adoption agency. We thought we'd get a female cat so I picked one up and gave it the purr test. (The cat that rubs against your face and neck and purrs passes the purr test). I picked up a cute, tabby-with-white, female cat. She wasn't interested in me at all. I picked up her brother and he started purring and rubbing his face on my neck and face. His name was Oliver and he passed the purr test. That was August 15, 1999.

So here we are 8 years later.

Knitting-wise, I finished the first Sweet Pea sock.

I rather like it and am now looking for another fairly intricate pattern to knit after I finish this pair.

The two caterpillars continue to eat, poop and grow.

Sweet Pea

I've made good progress on the Sweet Pea socks. I've rounded the heel on the first one and have half of the foot done.


These are my first socks with a really lacy pattern. It's not that intricate but does require that I keep track of what row I'm on.

Here's a closeup (note the eye of partridge heel and open work):


The two caterpillar babies have doubled in size in 2 days! They're eating and pooping (nothing new there).

Skip and Scooter golfed near Campbellford today. Tomorrow they're doing another 18 holes at a local golf course. Scooter got to drive the golf cart a little bit today. He was pretty excited about it - hee hee. He is growing up so fast!

Rip it, Rip it

I knit 8 inches and half of the heel flap on the Sweet Pea sock yesterday. I discovered that if I put a sticky note under the row I'm working on on the pattern, it is much easier to keep track of where I am. I tried on what I had knit and could barely get it over my heel. Soooooo.... I frogged it back to the ribbing and switched to my 3mm Addi Turbo Lace needles and started again. It seems quite a bit looser so should do the trick. Have I mentioned I LOVE my new Addi Turbo Lace circular needles? They are brass (I don't have metal allergies, thank goodness) and red cord. The tips are a bit pointier so are good for the lace patterns I've been doing lately. I purchased them at that lovely yarn store, The Yarne Source, in Rochester, NY a couple of weeks ago.

On the caterpillar front, 2 have hatched from their eggs and are chomping away at the milkweed. Their poop is like black specks right now - just wait!!! I hope we get a better survival rate than the last few attempts. We're about 1 for 6 at this point.

Today Skip, Scooter and I are going to Taste of the Danforth . It is an ethnic food festival in Toronto's Greek Town (Danforth St.). Basically we'll wander up and down the street sampling ethnic foods until we can barely walk. Then we hop on the subway and come home and nap. It's supposed to be hot again tomorrow so staying hydrated will be a major goal as well. I'm wearing as few clothes as possible (shorts and short-sleeved top) and lots of sunscreen. Opa!

I've been invited to a friend's cottage next weekend. Yippee!! It'll be nice to visit and chat. It will only be the two of us. I'll drive up on Saturday morning with a stop-over at a yarn shop in Orillia and come home Sunday - hopefully before everyone else returns to the GTA from their cottages. I haven't seen my friend (and sorority sister) since the spring, I think. Of course, I'll take whatever knitting projects I'm working on. I have a couple of UFOs still: the triangular shawl, Sweet Pea socks, Surprise Baby Jacket, Lady Eleanor scarf, to name a few. Bit by bit I've been getting them done.

Another Project Finished

Today I finished the last few rows on Shingo's Austermann Step socks. That was the yarn that was wound backwards in places so I couldn't get the stripes to match. Arghhh. I love the feel of the yarn but this is the second time I've had 'issues' with the striping.

Whilst surfing some blogs, I discovered a pattern from Knitty for Sweet Pea socks. I thought I had bought some Tofutsies yarn at my LYS (local yarn store) Kniterary but couldn't find it anywhere. Conclusion? I didn't actually buy the yarn afterall. So I headed out and bought a ball of SWTC Tofutsies yarn in the 725 colourway called 'Foot in the Door'. It is blue, aqua, green and yellow. The pattern has a very interesting cast-on. You cast on double the stitches and then k2tog 3 times and p2tog twice repeated for one round. That's one way to guarantee that it will stretch far enough!! I may adopt that cast-on in the future as my long-tail cast-ons aren't as loose as I would like. I started using 3mm Addi Turbos but the tips were too round so I switched to a Clover 3mm circular needle and thought it was too loose so switched again to my new favourite needles - Addi Turbo Lace. I bought two sets (2.5mm and 3mm) when I was in Rochester, NY two weeks ago. I lurve them. The tips are a bit pointier and perfect for fingering weight sock yarn - especially knitting the next row after a m1. The lace pattern isn't hard but again, I have to count to keep of where I am.

I got so caught up in starting the new socks I completely forgot to take Ollie to his annual check-up scheduled later this afternoon. I called them when I realized my error and have rescheduled him for Tuesday. How embarrassing.

Namaste

It has been very hot and dry this summer. We have not had significant rain all summer. The ground is like concrete - our lawn is dormant.

I finished the yoga mat bag last night and finished knitting the strap this morning. I sewed the strap on minutes before I had to fly out the door for my yoga class.


Knitting this sucker was a real pain in the butt. The lace pattern itself was easy once I got the hang of it. There are only 4 rows (aside from the alternating purl rows) of the pattern. However, it was very easy to get lost initially and I frogged it several times near the beginning. Every once in a while I'd notice I'd make a mistake in the lace so I'd have to 'tink' it because it was impossible to pick up stitches (yarn overs made it impossible) after frogging a couple of rows. AND every time I started a right side row, I had to count from the bottom to make sure I was starting with the correct row.

Finishing it was a snap, I just sewed the cast on row to the bind off row for the cylinder and collected the stitches at the end to close the end. The strap was just sl1, P1, K1, P1 K1, P1 with two strands of yarn. The bag stretched nicely over my mat.

Fortuitously, I found a drawstring from God-knows-what on the dining room table so I just wove it through the lace at the top which goes around the mat. The drawstring even had a fastener on it. Bonus!

Soooooo... now that I have completed two projects, I have started the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole from "Scarf Style". I am only doing it as a scarf with 3 8-stitch squares wide rather than the 7 squares the pattern calls for. That way, I should be able to get a decent length scarf out of the 3 balls of Karaoke yarn I bought in New Hartford, NY two weeks ago.

I still need to finish two pairs of socks and the Surprise Baby Jacket but they won't take long.

Happy 27th Anniversary, Francey and Rich!

27 years ago today I attended the joyous wedding in Huntsville, TX of dear friends, Francey and Rich Aubuchon. It was a lovely, hot, Texan summer day with the magical palindromic numbers of 08/8/80 (Aug. 8, 1980). We celebrated with wine and beer and ate Texan barbeque (BBQd pork, chicken and sausage) and baked beans - much to the horror of Francey's southern belle mother, Barbara. The bride wore a lovely Nieman Marcus wedding dress with a delicate veil. My face hurt from smiling all day that day.

I just spent the week with Francey and Rich in Columbia, MO. They now have 3 wonderful, active children and their lives are full, healthy and happy. I congratulate them on 27 years of building a life together. Here's to you, Francey and Rich. May you celebrate many, many more anniversaries.

Now for things knitterly, I got a picture of the Adirondack Yarns Seamist silk/wool socks with the cat's paw pattern:

I also 'tinked' (unknit --> tink = knit backwards) a few rows of the yoga mat bag and re-knit - correctly this time. It's the pattern from p. 168 of Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'N Bitch Nation". I'm using Plymouth Yarn's Sunsette 60% rayon/40% acrylic. It should be fairly indestructible. Here it is about half done. I guess I could have knit it in the round but chose to follow the pattern without changes.



I had a delightful time at the public library today. I went to pick up Pam Allen's "Scarf Style" which I had put on hold. I then spent quite a bit of time looking at the other knitting books and then sat down to tink the yoga mat bag and re-knit it. It was nice to sit in the cool, quiet library. I knit there for about an hour and enjoyed a latte (decaf, skim) from the coffee shop adjoining the library. Man, if this is typical of what my retirement will be like. I'm LOVIN' it!!!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

We had an exciting trip home from Missouri. Due to technical difficulties, we left Kansas City 2.5 hours late. We were told we might make our connection in Milwaukee but if we didn't there was a later flight we could get to Toronto. That made us feel a little better.

When we arrived in Milwaukee, we sprinted through the terminal to get to the plane which they were holding for us and our luggage. YAY!!! We only delayed take-off by about 10 min. Because our luggage was last on the plane, it was first off. YAY again! We were through customs and immigration, had our luggage and were calling Lorna's son for a ride within 15 minutes of deplaning - a record for me. I got home by 10pm.

Monday I did laundry and loafed. It was fun being away but it is good to be home. I went for a 45 min. walk in the morning and after dinner Skip and I walked to the Second Cup for lattes - 25 min. each way.

This evening I finished the cat's paw socks. I'll post pictures tomorrow when the light is better for taking pictures. I have about 4 other UFOs to finish before starting a new project. The yoga mat bag is coming along nicely. It sure is easy to screw up the pattern, though. Now I just have to locate my yoga mat. Hmmmm.

Chewy #1 metamorphosed into a butterfly and was released on Saturday. Skip caught it on videotape because I was away with the digital camera. Chewy #3 died for some reason - perhaps due to unsuccessful pupating. Chewy #2 is still in its chrysalis. I think it has died, too, as it should have turned into a butterfly yesterday or today based on Chewy #1's release. We do have a couple of eggs we're hoping we'll hatch. I'm not sure why we've had such a high mortality rate.

Thursday Already?

Here in Missouri, Francey, Lorna and I are being ladies of leisure. Lorna and I flew to Kansas City on Monday and rented a ‘Texas orange’ PT Cruiser for our 2.5 hour drive to Columbia, MO.
Tuesday we went to see "Hairspray". It was delightful and I was so proud of my neighbour who was in it, the up-and-coming, talented singer/dancer/actress Kristina Uranowski who was a dancer in Jerry Stiller’s shop scene.

We also visited the lovely Gamma Phi Beta house. We got to look around and had a nice chat with the housemother who lives there in an apartment all year round. 80 collegians live in the house (mostly sophomores) and the chapter is 200 strong. The girls will start moving in this weekend to get ready for rush preparations before their classes start mid-August. Francey, Lorna and I all wore our Gamma Phi Beta flip flops. We asked the housemother to take pictures our flip flops on the ΓΦB rug in the foyer.

She also took our picture on the front steps.

Yesterday I went out early to yarn shop. At Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe I bought two skeins of SWTC Oasis - 100% soy silk - in the ‘Parrot’ colourway to make a yoga mat bag. I then went over to Stitches and noted they had sunny yellow Plymouth Yarn ‘Sunsette’ 60% rayon and 40% acrylic yarn on sale for $2 per skein. I decided to return the Oasis yarn and buy the equivalent yardage in the Sunsette yarn. There was a bunch of ‘fun fur’ type yarn on sale there for $1 per skein so Lorna picked up three skeins of two different colours and I’m knitting her scarves. We went to Hobby Lobby to buy other sundries and I bought a set of 9mm needles and 19mm needles to knit Lorna’s scarves. I’m just knitting garter stitch 5 rows of 18 stitches each with each needle size.

I bought a couple of knitting magazines the day before at Barnes and Noble and already have my eye on a couple of designs I’d like to create.

My cat’s paw socks are coming along well.

I’m almost done the leg of the second sock.

We had a lovely lunch at Flat Branch Pub and Restaurant yesterday. It had been recommended by the ΓΦB housemother the day before. I had a BBQ beef brisket in a tomato wrap with a side of coleslaw. After lunch we went to the campus book store where I bought Missou decal for my car and a doohickey for my car radio aerial so I can find the car easier in parking lots. I also bought a Missou binder. Then we went shopping at Columbia Mall. I bought a pair of city pants and at my favourite clothes emporium, Christopher and Banks, I bought a denim shirt with kitty cats embroidered on it with paw prints. The idea was that it would match the socks.

We ordered Chinese food in and just chatted the rest of the evening while I knit about ½ of Lorna’s scarf.

Today Francey and Lorna are going to see the Harry Potter movie and I’ll head back to the mall to do some more wandering. Or maybe I’ll just come back to the house and knit and read and listen to my beloved iPod.

Skip tells me that back at home Chewy #3 is making signs that he is going to pupate and Chewy #1 looks like he may become a butterfly any time now. I hope he releases him in time. Scooter is back with him now for the rest of the week so they’ll get some golf in, I’m sure.