And Yet Another

As mentioned in the previous post, I was doing well, almost having completed the second Trondheim mitten only to realize I had knit two right mittens. After frogging the second one, I started a third one, this time a left-hand mitten. They were a bit snug so I was devising in my mind how to make mitten blockers out of foam core covered in plastic wrap. I almost had it finished.

I then wondered how much looser they’d be if I went up a needle size. I liberated a 2.75mm circular needle from a long-abandoned project and cast on a fourth mitten. I also used a skein of black Happy Feet sock yarn from Plymouth Yarn Company. It was probably a skein I bought at Rhinebeck a few years ago. Definitely a while back as the 50g skein of superwash merino/nylon yarn was only $6US - purchased from Hillcreek Yarn Shop.

 I again used the modified intarsia method for the windows.

To say it was tricky dealing with all those yarn ends would be an understatement. Yet I persevered.

The resulting mitten fits much better. Quite the contrast in size with only one size larger knitting needle.

So now I’ll start the 5th and hopefully final mitten. 

And Then This Happens…

Most of the time I think I function quite capably. It has often been noted by myself and others that I like to do things quickly. I often used to drive faster than legally allowed - until I got a speeding ticket that made my car insurance go up for three years. My mom and Skip used to remark that I moved quickly - often surprising or scaring them. Nowadays, I will often do things quickly while I’m multitasking and just trying to get things done. Occasionally, as a result of going quickly and not taking enough time to do a task properly I get myself into trouble.

Case in point #1

I borrowed 3 DVDs from the library a couple of weeks ago. I viewed them (binge-watched, really) and returned them a couple of days later. Yesterday I got a message from the library that they were overdue. Huh?? I looked over at the TV and much to my horror, there they were. What?? I just then realized I had returned 3 DVDs of family videos and photos that I’d had made at Costco several years back. They, too, had been sitting on the TV stand. Obviously I had grabbed them instead of the library’s DVDs and shoved them in the return slot at the library. At that time, I even thought it was interesting that the library used Costco cases for their DVDs. But then didn’t think anything further. If they had been anything else but family photos, I wouldn’t have sweated it but they were old pics of Scooter and his dad when Scooter was a little guy. And the thought of forever losing the pics and videos of Skip just made me sick. 

I hopped in the car with the overdue DVDs and headed to the library. When I told the person on the desk what I had done, another employee emerged from the back room who remembered my drop-off the previous week. Thank goodness she had set the DVDs aside, and was able to pluck them from a shelf and return them to me.

When I got back to the car I burst into tears. I was so relieved not to have lost those precious photos and videos.

Case in point #2:

I got the second Trondheim mitten underway. Halfway up the cuff I decided to knit the ‘windows’ in with lengths of white yarn. Rather than trying to carry one strand of yarn around and around, this half-assed intarsia method worked quite well. Being halfway up the cuff, I duplicate stitched the lower windows I had missed to that point. There were lots of yarn ends to weave in afterwards but I’m happy with the result.

You will note, there are fewer windows on the left. This is the cuff where I duplicate stitched all the windows and on the smaller buildings, kinds guesstimated where they should go. There wasn’t very good stitch definition on the brown handspun. On the right, I only had to duplicate stitch the lower two sets of windows so they all appear as the pattern dictated.

I was well past the thumb gusset when I realized I WAS KNITTING ANOTHER RIGHT HAND MITTEN! Good grief. What a rookie mistake. I partly fault the pattern because there is only a right hand chart. The knitter needs to know how to move the thumb gusset to the other side of the palm chart. Once I had that figured out, I used a stitch marker (in this case, a paper clip) to designate the gusset stitches. I think I’ll be fine for the rest of the mitten.

Case in point #3:

I had all of the above typed out, photos inserted, and formatted when I deleted half of it and had to redo it. The ‘undo’ feature on this little after-market iPad keyboard only backtracks so far. 

Enough of my faux pas.

Lately a well-cared-for neighbourhood kitty has been hanging around my yard. When I opened the patio door it tried to come into the house.

It definitely wasn’t a stray as it was well-groomed, chubby, had a nice collar on. I did not want it to think my yard was a friendly one as I feed birds and don’t want them to be a target for this beast. I had to scare it away. Hopefully, it will learn that it is not welcome here. 

Domestic cats are one of the main reasons the songbird population has been decimated over last few decades. My personal belief is it irresponsible for a cat owner to let their cat roam freely - unless it is a cat whose primary job is to eliminate rodents in grain storage facilities. In urban and suburban areas, there are many perils for a cat that is permitted outside. They do not ‘need’ to go outdoors if they have enough stimulation inside. I love cats but I don’t want them preying on birds I lure to my yard to feed.

And on another tangent…

Yesterday I took delivery of a Chef’s Plate meal order. Last year I had ordered several kits from Hello Fresh and enjoyed making the nutritionally-balanced, flavourful meals. You might say it’s very expensive - about $11 per serving, but living alone, I am not always able to consume the quantities of things I purchase. These meal kits eliminate any food waste because everything comes with the exact proportions of ingredients. I also like the detailed recipe/instruction cards. I have remade several of the Hello Fresh meals. Did I mention the meals are very tasty?

When subscribing to a meal delivery service one must be mindful to select the desired meals every week or they’ll just send you something random, which would be tasty but probably not a preferred choice. There is the option to skip deliveries but every week one must log in to do this at least 4 days before the next delivery. Of course, the service can be cancelled at any time. 

All that being said, these are the two meals from my introductory order:

Scooter is coming for a visit on the weekend so I thought he’d enjoy the Falafel and Moroccan-Spiced Couscous meal with toasted almonds and hummus dressing. Last night I prepared the Chipotle Beef Taquería-Inspired Bowl with homemade charred-corn salsa. 

It was fun and easy to prepare, and very tasty.

The minimum order is 2 servings per meal, so I have enough leftovers for a full repeat meal tonight.

To me, there isn’t much difference between Chef’s Plate and Hello Fresh. I have already selected next week’s dishes. I may do this for a couple more weeks then will cancel the membership so I don’t have to keep remembering to log in and make my selections.

Now I’m going to post this and do something constructive. Garbage day is this week and I want to at least make an attempt to get rid of some the crap around here.

Starting Trondheim

Yesterday, I had the gang over for a stitch day. Four of us, Heather, Jen1, Poppy and I are in the group going to Iceland and Norway. Some of us spent the day stitching and some others, knitting. We celebrate Barb’s birthday. It was so fun.

Later on, Jen1 texted us about a mitten pattern she found online called, ‘Trondheim Mittens’. Trondheim is one of the ports we’re going to be visiting on our Norwegian coastal cruise. The designer,  Sofia Cappele, was inspired to create this design based on some of the iconic buildings.

I quickly purchased and downloaded the pattern.

I rummaged through my stash for yarns that would work for this project. I had enough black sock yarn for the contrast colour. I didn’t have enough white sock yarn but found 120g/380yd of natural handspun that would work. I spun it back in 2015, with twined knitting in mind, with a z-twist. Since it had been sitting on a shelf for almost 10 years, I figured I’d used it for this project.

I didn’t have any gold or rust remnants of sock yarn. I really only needed 10g of each. I did find a skein of golden yellow Yvieknits hand-sock yarn so wound off enough for this project. In a bin of my handspun, I found some rust-coloured merino/mohair yarn that would also work.

I checked what needle size I had used on many of my previous Nordic mittens and decided on 2.5mm.

I had So. Many. False. Starts. First I miscounted the number of cast on stitches, knit a Latvian braid and started the cuff chart only to realize I did not have enough stitches. Rrrrrippp!

Next, I cast on the right number of stitches and completed the Latvian braid. I was two rounds in before I realized I was knitting the palm and back of mitten pattern instead of the cuff pattern with the buildings. Rrrrrripppp!

To do the windows in the buildings I needed to use a third strand of yarn. Holy moley was that ever challenging. At this point Poppy, Jen1, and I were texting back and forth and Jen1 suggested using duplicate stitch. Rrrrripppp! Back a couple of rounds. 

I then continued on omitting the windows. And finished the colourwork on the cuff. My duplicate stitches weren’t perfect (my handspun is not all that consistent) but I got the windows stitched. 

Whew! I was glad to be done with that pesky old cuff. The graphs for the palm, back and gusset were all on different pages. There was a lot of flipping back and forth. I finally used sticky notes to keep track of what row I was on. 

I stayed up knitting  WAY too late. I didn’t want to stop but finally packed it in and went to bed. 

This afternoon I continued on and now have about half of the first mitten finished.

The thumb gusset stitches are being held on waste yarn (pink). After the main part is finished, I’ll pick up the thumb stitches and knit the thumb.

I plan to watch AFC Championship game this evening. I know Skip would have enjoyed watching the Bills this season. He was an avid fan most of the time. Some of the less stellar years - not so much. When the Bills were at their worst he started cheering for the Seahawks, in part because bought a windbreaker on sale with the Seattle logo and also because it was Mina Kimes’ favourite team. We even attended Buffalo Bills training camp a couple of years. 

Back in 2018, we were in Buffalo where we had flown to on the way home from a cruise. Before crossing back into Canada we popped into Wegmans. The whole town was vibrating as the Bills had made it into the playoffs for the first time in almost 20 years.

There were red and blue balloons everywhere.

Helmet balloons, jersey balloons.

There was lots of football themed merchandise in the bakery. Football cakes,

And I LOVED the football-themed cookies.

The cashiers all had Bills jerseys or colours on and the lights alternated red and blue.

It was so fun just being there. Sadly the Bills lost that game but it was sure fun while it lasted.

Last season when they were in the playoffs we mused at how fun it would be to just hop in the car and drive to Buffalo just to hang out at a sports bar. Sadly, Skip wasn’t well enough for us to do that. 

Tonight, when the Bills play, I know he will be watching. He’ll certainly be with me while I watch.

• I watched George Clooney and Julia Roberts in ‘Ticket to Paradise’ on Netflix. Far-fetched premise. Predictable and silly. I don’t recommend it.

One Never Knows...

This morning when I got out of bed, I had nothing planned for the day. I thought I'd do some housework, specifically vacuuming, as there were bits of firewood and bark on the rug in the family room.

Unfortunately my Dyson cordless vacuum wouldn't work. I'd had it plugged in overnight. The filters had been recently cleaned. I found the spare battery and had to watch a YouTube video on how to install it. That being done, the thing was still toast. Time for a new vacuum. I checked Consumer Reports and have been price comparing between Canadian Tire, Best Buy, and Amazon. No decision yet. I'll haul out the central vac in the meantime.

On a completely different topic...

I ordered Simona Bussiglieri's (from Mani di Donna) Mystery Christmas Box at the beginning of October. 

She mailed them at the beginning of December, right in the middle of our Canadian postal strike. After the strike was over, I waited a month for it to arrive. No dice. I contacted her again and she had another package sent. It arrived today.

This is what was contained:

2 skeins of Dinky Dyes silk threads. The one on the right would be awesome for an autumnal leaf design.

This little kit included the chart, wooden snowflake and template, wooden gold bead, and sisal rope for finishing.

A pair of scissors and beaded, festive scissor fob.

6 thread drop cards and ring.

A threader, Christmas button, and snowflake ribbon.

The pattern for a Christmas Sewing Set and fat quarter of her 32ct hand-dyed linen 'Burnt Sand'. 

Also included were a wreath button for the front and the two wreath rings for the inside. I'll have to source the lining, red rickrack, and felt for the pincushion. I might save the lovely linen fabric for some other project and use linen from my stash.

I watched a lot of Christmas/Advent stitching videos on YouTube. From what I saw, I would give this one an 8/10. 

• watched 'Woman of the Hour' on Netflix - a disturbing true crime movie directed and starring Anna Kendrick
• watched several episodes of 'The Innocence Project' on Netflix.

In Survival Mode

As usual, on a day when I don’t have a pressing appointment in the morning, I stayed in bed for a while and listened to my audiobook. (Nancy Pelosi’s ‘The Art of Power’). When I got out of bed, it felt excessively chilly. I checked the thermometer on the dresser and it read 54F (12..3C)!. What the heck!?!

I went downstairs to the thermostat and it read ‘batt lo’. I replaced the battery and it would show a readout, and the furnace would start. Then then display readout would go blank and the furnace would stop. After a couple of times, it wouldn’t read out at all.

I Googled how to replace a thermostat and determined that it would be a more complex process than I could do myself. I called the HVAC company that we’ve had check our furnace and air conditioning for years and was told a technician would be by between 1pm and 3:30. When I told her it was 13C She asked if I had another source of heat and I told her I had a fireplace so I would be OK.

I toyed with the idea of doing a bunch of baking to warm up the kitchen but was just too lazy to do that. Besides, I had to bring in a bunch of firewood and keep the fire going. I used shreddings of our document shredder and some dried out twigs and bark as kindling. I had a roaring fire going in minutes.

I kept the screens open to allow the most heat through and parked myself in front of the fire to await the technicians.

The guys showed up at 2pm and installed a new thermostat. Unfortunately it was programmed in Fahrenheit and I wanted Celsius. The instructions to change it are in the installation booklet but I’m going to wait for a while before I tinker with the thermostat. It is quite different from the previous one so I’ll have to have a good read of the instruction booklet so I can program it properly.

The only other thing I did today was a load of laundry.

I was surprised at how tired I was after everything was settled. Being in survival mode is quite exhausting.  I’m still in front of the fire under a cozy blanket. The furnace hasn’t cut out since it turned on so the house is still heating up. 

The last time this happened to me was two houses ago, circa 1990. I remember it was 57F in the house. I don’t remember exactly what the problem was - probably the thermostat again.

Knitting-wise, I frogged the Flannel Scarf. I finally figured out the pattern but wasn’t feeling the love. I may start a Night Shift shawlette or adapt the pattern for a scarf. I have a LOT of handspun that I can use.

Washing Riddari

I knit this sweater for Skip in 2017. It's Riddari by Védis Jónsdóttir.

He wore it, or the other Icelandic sweater I knit him, almost every day in the winter. It looked smashing with black dress pants or jeans. I plan to take it on our Iceland/Norway trip so I wanted to make sure it was good to go.

I found a couple of breaks in the yarn on the front which created holes. It could have been caused by a wool-eating critter. I found a remnant of the Lett-Lopi yarn and made the repair. It wasn't perfect but unless you're looking for it, you'd never notice.

The sweater needed washing so it would be nice and fresh for my trip. I used the last bit of Eucalan and gave it a good soak. This wool wash doesn't require rinsing but I rinsed anyway, just to make sure most of the detritus was washed away. I drained the sink, then pressed a lot more water out. Next the sweater was rolled up in a fluffy bath towel. I stepped along the roll, unrolled it and placed it on another fluffy bath towel for one more try at removing as much water as possible.

Then hauled out my drying mats (interlocking foam playroom floor squares), blocking wires, and pins. The pins are quilter's rustproof t-pins.

I pinned it out onto the mats, measuring the desired sleeve length as I don't like my sleeves excessively long then pulled the wires to the desired width of the sleeves, yoke and body.

I believe I had knit extra rows on the back before starting the yoke but wanted to make sure it was higher so I pulled the back of the neck up a bit and pinned it in place.

The sweater will be dry by tomorrow. It would dry faster if I put the fan on it but I'm too lazy to bring it up out of the basement.

Back in 2016 I knit an oversized Icelandic cardigan, lopapeysa, for myself (pictured before the buttons were added). Am trying to decide whether to take or not. 

I used the Italian tubular cast on which made for a nice, rolled cuff edge. It's an easy technique and there are lots of YouTube videos on the subject.

There's also a way to do a rolled bindoff like this.

Also trying to decide if I'll shorten it a bit because it hangs below my bum.

These sweaters are pretty lofty but they'll squish down nicely in my suitcase. I also have vacuum bags I can use to express even more air out of them. 

Icelandic sweaters knit up quickly because the yarn is thick and the body and sleeves are knit as tubes - round and round in stocking stitch. When you get sick of plain knitting, it's time to do the yoke. 

I knit this one in 16 days back in 2019. Afmaeli, also by Védis Jónsdóttir, is a free, unisex pattern from Lopi Design.

We are very fortunate to have Myrtle Station Wool close by. She has all weights and many colours of this company's Icelandic wool. Open Thursday - Saturday 11 to 5, or by appointment.

A Late Start to My Day - Then Lots of Activity

I slept in very late today. My bed was so cozy and I was listening to my audiobook. I didn’t have an appointment until 1pm so wasn’t in a big hurry to get going. 

Then I remembered that I wanted to go to KimatDesigns as on Fridays no appointment is needed. I did cancel my mani/pedi at 1, though. I also remembered I had some DVDs to return to the library (Broadchurch Second Season). I also remembered I had to visit two other libraries in person to renew my cards as they had both expired and wouldn’t let me download any more audiobooks.

At Kim’s I purchased some fabric that would kinda go with Winter Rose Manor. It’s for The Light of Winter - which I consider a companion piece.

The fabric I used for Winter Rose Manor was a remnant of R and R Reproductions 40ct Fawn. The 40ct Vintage Country Mocha is a bit darker but should look good. It will be almost the same size as Winter Rose Manor. I also bought two WDW flosses I needed.

After finishing at Kim’s I dropped my DVDs off at the Whitby Public Library. My ultimate goal was the Courtice Library and I needed to drop into the Oshawa Library so I decided to go to the south Oshawa Branch where parking would be free. There, I reinstate my expired library card. Yay!

I then headed to Courtice and renewed my card there as well. In front of the library and rec centre is a cute, little public skating rink that folks were enjoying. 

There was even a stack of the things beginners could hold onto - I don’t know what they’re called. All they needed was some gentle waltz music like Strauss’ ‘Skater’s Waltz’ playing in the background. 

I then remembered I needed to go to the downtown library in Oshawa after all to get Season Three of Broadchurch. My freshly renewed card worked well, even though it cost me $0.25 to park. That being done, I picked up some groceries and headed home.

A few days ago I noted that the rubber buttons on the Santa Fe remote had disintegrated. This was the spare remote as the same thing had happened to the other one a while back. Rather than go to the dealership and have them charge me over $300 to replace the remotes, I did some investigating and learned the rubber part could be replaced. I ordered a set of 2 on Amazon for $10 and they were delivered while I was out today. I watched a few YouTube videos on how to replace the rubber so confidently set out to do that. 

Once that was done, I thought I’d test them out to make sure they worked and nothing happened! The little light lit on the remote but the car didn’t respond. Well, crap.

I went to start the car and the battery was dead. I don’t remember the last time I drove the car and it has been sitting in a cold garage for a couple of months.

I have a potential buyer for my beloved car and thought we’d take its last trip on our little road trip tomorrow. I dug out the 12’ jumper cables out of the other car and got the Santa Fe started but I didn’t want to turn it off for a while so the battery would charge up. I thought I’d check the tire pressure and sure enough, they were low. I have a portable tire inflating compressor that plugs into the 12V of the car so pumped up the tires while the car continued running and hopefully the battery continued charging. I then took the car for a bit of a spin. Back at home, I cleaned out the rest of the cup holders, console, secret pockets, etc. in preparation to hand it over to the new owner.

Once the battery was all charged up, the remotes worked well. A bit stiff but definitely functional.

That was a lot of activity in a small amount of time.

Tonight, I’m going to kit up ‘The Light of Winter’ and do some stitching on the other Spring Rabbit. Oh yeah, and binge-watch Season Three of Broadchurch.

So Cute!

There was a Tiny Modernist booth at the Peel Stitch-In last November. One of the patterns I purchased was Spring Rabbit Pillows.

This confuses my stitcherly friends because they know I hate rabbits. But that’s because rabbits eat a lot of stuff in my garden. I think the actual critters are very cute.

This stitched up really quickly and is SO cute!! With the help of the floss colour tool, I substituted DMC 3833 for 3733 and 3340 for 352.

It would make a great standup. Since I have all the floss pulled for the other one and set aside the same fabric (36ct antique white linen) I might as well start it. Using two strands on this fabric really made the stitches stand out, giving them a bit of dimension. Also, when I press the finished item I use  50/50 solution of Best Press and water and iron it face down on my wool pressing pad or onto a terry cloth towel. They way the stitches don’t get flattened out. I was also careful to trim threads close so the tails wouldn’t be visible through the thin fabric. I still need to do this on the black backstitching on the paw.

I’d really like to get started on the Autumn Quaker. I just need to pick the fabric.

Some of us are going on a little road trip to a quilt shop (not that any of us need fabric, cough, cough) and on the way home will visit Hank’s Pastries, a bakery in Port Perry that boasts apple fritters ‘as big as your face’. They don’t offer dining inside so we’ll probably have to find somewhere to have lunch and save our honkin’ apple fritters for eating at home.

I love that we’re always planning some kind of stitcherly outing or get-together. Always something to look forward to.

Speaking of that, I just learned about the Hobby House retreat the weekend after next Labour Day. It features Tanya Brockmeyer from The Scarlett House and Vickie Jennett from NeedleWork Press. I've paid my deposit.

I’m also excited to be attending the one this spring featuring Heartstring Samplery and Plum Street Samplers. 

Always moving forward. Life is good.

To be Fully Finished (FFOd)

I had a stack of project bags on a table in the corner of my dining room for the longest time. Recently I decided to sort through them. One pile became WIPs/UFOs and the other pile was items I'd finished stitching and tossed them on the FFO pile. This way, I could remove the threads and incorporate them back into my thread stash, throw the patterns and working copies in a pile to be filed later, and completely empty 8 project bags. 

I'm not sure how many of these items I'll ever fully finish. The Christmassy ones can be made into ornaments. I still need to add some snowflakes and bling to this one.

This was the second Mary Corbet 'Christmas Wreath Ornament' I stitched. It was a very quick stitch. If you've never done surface embroidery, I highly recommend trying this pattern. I used 46ct oat linen, DMC threads, and HotFix 'jewels' instead of beads. The other one I made, I gave away in our Christmas ornament exchange with the Trillium Embroidery Guild.

This, too, was a pretty quick stitch. It's from a Just Cross Stitch magaine.

I bought this chart from the Tiny Modernist booth at the Peel Stitch-In last fall. It was fun to stitch but I see I still need to add some bling.

I currently don't have plans for the others. Here they are in no particular order.

This is part of a Strawberry Thief chart. 

A punch needle piece.

I loved stitching this. I also did it on the yoke of a denim shirt. That Sticky Fabri-Solvy makes stitching embroidered designs so easy. 

I used it on this project, too. I really enjoyed all the special stitches and different plies of thread.

I stitched two of these. One I FFOd in a hoop and this one.

This is a Terri Bay whitework design using #8 and #12 Perle cotton. It stitched up pretty quickly. It would make a nice lid of a box.

I have many, many more items that are waiting to be FFOd. Bottom line, I love stitching them but often don't have a plan for how I'll finish them. That is why I enjoyed doing model stitching - once the stitching was done, I just sent it back to the designer to be framed or finished in some way.

I hosted the Monday morning stitching group today. We had a wee toast to the memory of Sharon, our friend who died last week after living many years with lymphoma. She will be missed.