Riding on the Struggle Bus

I have been participating in the Arne and Carlos Mystery Christmas Stocking knitalong since it started last Friday (Nov. 6). It is in 24 parts and will run until the end of the month.

It is being knit toe-up so the first day we knit the complete toe. Then the colour work started - 6 rounds per day. Silly me, I thought I'd be able to knit the chart from my phone or iPad. But I have never had so much trouble doing colourwork in my life! 

First, the circular needle I used was way too short for magic loop. I then changed to a long cable - much better. When viewing .pdfs, the device shuts off after a few seconds so I'm constantly touching the screen to prevent shut-off or missing that opportunity, I have to log in again, then align the round I'm knitting so I can keep track of where I am.

In retrospect, I could be printing the chart each day and using the sticky note to keep my place but it's only 6 rounds per day. You'd think I'd be able to keep track. The last couple of days in particular, I've skipped rounds by mistake or only done half a round before trying to knit the next round. I even have a stitch marker on the edge that is the beginning of the round.

Today was no exception. After knitting, frogging, re-knitting, and doing more frogging,  then re-knitting yet again, I finally got today's 6 rounds completed. Thank God!

I'm sure it will be lovely when it's all done but the struggle has certainly been real.

At stitching on Monday, I got the last tree done and started another snowflake. I'll do more work on this at the stitching guild I'll be attending this weekend. Because I'm carpooling and rooming with the organizer, we'll be heading out tomorrow after she is done work. I got laundry done in preparation for packing, checked the weather report to make sure there wasn't going to be any rain, and hung the clothes outside to dry. At about 3:30 the skies got very dark and when I went out to retrieve the clothes from the 'passive solar dryer' they were being rained on. Argh! Back inside with them, I tossed them into the dryer to finish drying. Starting to pack will be one of my jobs tonight.

Yesterday, Jen1 and I ventured up to Bobcaygeon to a quilt shop, Quiltiful. In their email, they mentioned they would be closing early for the Settler's Village Quilters' Quilt Guild trunk show at the Legion hall. Prolific quilter, Peggy Pirillo. The Legion Hall and many areas around town were adorned with thousands of donated poppies that had been knit or crocheted by locals.

Many other communities have sponsored Poppy Projects. Over 10,000 were donated in Port Perry and attached to mesh, then draped on each side of the entrance of township hall.

The modern quilting trunk show was very interesting and may be the subject of a subsequent post. Jen1 and I also visited Granny Bird's Wool Shop where I purchased a hank of Cascade Heritage sock yarn with a plan to knit some more of Arne and Carlos' Christmas baubles.

I need to wind it into a yarn cake and locate some white yarn of the same weight, purchase and download the 2026 patterns and start knitting. Each one doesn't take long to knit, stuff or finish. 

This morning I had every intention of attending the Remembrance Day services either at the Whitby Cenotaph or the one in Oshawa. Last night at 2:40am I must have been sleeping lightly because the power went out and I heard the beep from whatever device does that during that event. It took me forever to fall back asleep so I stayed in bed until mid-morning and abandoned my cenotaph ideas.

 I did watch the coverage from Ottawa on TV and wrote a lengthy Facebook post which I won't bother to duplicate here. I'm going to try to get to bed relatively early tonight as tomorrow some of us are heading up to Uxbridge for another crafty get-together.

I'm meeting Barb at Vandermeer's - our usual place to carpool and we'll meet a bunch of the gang at Quilter's Cupboard for a shopfest. It's MaryK's birthday the next day so we'll have a celebratory lunch up there before I have to get home and finish packing for the stitching retreat. 

I have 8 yard waste bags of leaves to put out tonight for collection. Hopefully, next week sometime I will be able to use the leaf blower and get the rest of the leaves shovelled into bags for pickup in 2 weeks.

 

And finally, I finished the Sophie scarf a few days ago. 

It is very cozy around the neck. Not sure which scarf I'll take on the cruise. The neck ring I took last time worked well so I may just take a couple of those. They're very light and warm and easily shove into a coat pocket.

And now... to start packing.

On Wednesday, many ukulele players, including Alexa and myself descended upon Jey's Kitchen for a ukulele jam session. Our leader, Arlene, projects the lyrics and chords on a big screen and we all play and sing along. Most of the people took ukulele lessons through the Whitby Seniors so most of us were geezers.

Of course, Ernest, Veronica, and Thomas wanted in on the action.

We played from 7pm until about 9 including several tunes with kazoo bits. My fingers on my left hand were kinda sore the next day. 

Arlene's gang does the jam session on the first Wednesday of the month. Alexa and I will be on our Christmas Market cruise for the next one but I hope to attend in January. I want to keep up my ukulele 'chops' so I'll be ready for music camp again next summer.

I finished the red scarf and this morning, dropped it and a library book that was coming due at the Central Library. Then popped over to Michaels to pick up the yellow, white, blue, and green yarn I need for the Arne and Carlos Mystery Christmas Stocking Knitalong. The first installment began at 12 noon Eastern time - 4 minutes ago.

I'm using the leftover red yarn from the red scarf project as well.

I have done the last three stockings from 2023 to 2025.

This was taken before I added the afterthought heel (where arrow points). I'm pretty sure I finished it but didn't take a photo for some reason.  It's packed away with the Christmas stuff downstairs.

My DK yarn stash isn't organized enough for me to find the remnants from last year's stocking so I had to stock up at Michaels; 25% off - which is what 'Buy One Get One at 50% off' works out to.

I have been poking away at the border of my Mystical Lanterns blanket - currently doing single crochet on the 4th round. I used a different colour yarn for every side on round 2, changing colours at the corners because I didn't know if I'd have enough of any one colour to go all the way around.

I'm copying the border I did on the Persian Tiles blanket:

Round 1 - single crochet - three into the side of each double crochet, one in the centre of the half-lantern, and one each in the ends of the single crochet rows on the half-lanterns.

Round 2 - **3 double crochet in a single crochet from the round below, chain one and skip 3 sc from the round below. Repeat from ** . In the corners: 3 dc, ch3, and 3dc in the same spot.

Round 3 - Starting in a corner, 3dc, ch 3, and in the same spot, 3dc. Then 3dc in every chain space from the round below.

Round 4, 5, and 6 - sc in every stitch. At corners, 3 sc on the corner chain 3 from the round below.

Here's what my finished border looked like on the Persian tiles blanket.

When I got bored with doing that, I picked up the Sophie scarf again and did a few more rows. This finger counter has been so helpful. The (little hearing-aid-type button) battery in this one just keeps on going, and going, and going.

And finally, my Piccola orchid has started to bloom. The blooms are only about 2.5cm (1") in diameter.

As I did last year, and to prolong the blooming stage, I have taken it out of the sunny window. This will slow things down. The other, regular-sized orchid has a flower stalk forming. I anticipate it will bloom within the next month. It last bloomed on January 20 and the blossoms lasted and continued to bloom well into September by using my technique of moving it out of the sunny window.

And now, I must start knitting.

Stay tuned for the progress on the mystery knitalong.

Breathing Again and Random Stuff

After arriving home from band last night I watched the election results from the US with great interest. I felt like I'd been holding my breath these last few months and before heading to bed, I felt like I could breathe again.

It will be interesting to see what changes happen next January. Hopefully some that would be palatable to Canadians like scrapping tariffs, ending social media searches at the border, stopping random ICE detainments, etc. I'd love to be able to go back to that country with a clear conscience.

Flipping over to some YouTube videos this morning, someone was showing her finish of this piece;  Hands On Design 'A Classic Christmas'. I might just have to put it on my wish list. 

I do have 'Painted Flowers' all kitted up and am looking forward to starting it at the Toronto Guild of Embroidery's retreat at the Nottawasaga Inn in the not-too-distant future. Shown are the last 5 colours that weren't already in my stash.

At stitching on Monday, Jennifer brought her lastest Pocket Buddy - an adorable koala. Those ears!!!!

I just might have to add Debra Gorman's 'Pocket Buddies No. 4'  from French Lavender Home to my collection of Little Buddies.

While watching the copious amounts of TV lately, I'm about 85% done my first red scarf.

It's a little over 5" wide and needs to be 6" wide. I should be done later tonight.

However, before then, I'll be off to Jey's Kitchen in Oshawa (Rossland and Stevenson) for a ukulele jam session with many other uke players taught by Arlene and Bill. Alexa has reserved a table for us for supper at 6 and we play at 7. Arlene also wants to make sure we bring our kazoos. I'm all set. It should be fun.

It's a Start

I'm fortunate to have a lawn service regularly mow my lawn. The last two times, the proprietor mentioned he could also do leaf raking and removal. As I only have one tree on my lot and it's on the boulevard, I decided to tackle the job myself as I have done in previous years.

The tree on my boulevard is at least 10m (~30ft) high and sheds its leaves gradually throughout the fall; usually holding on to the last ones until early December. (photo taken today from my 2nd storey bedroom window).

However my driveway and gutter along the curb have been filling with leaves - mostly from my tree. 

Today, being yet another fabulous fall day, I decided to make a start on clearing up some of the leaves. I have a narrow-ish, plastic snow shovel that is perfect for scooping up leaves and dumping them into yard waste bags. I find it a lot easier than trying to lift them with a rake. 

I scooped up most of the leaves from my driveway, the street in front of the house, and the curb along the street. It wasn't too strenuous. I was even able to shovel leaves from directly under the tree and all along the sidewalk in front of my house.

This is my neighbour's curb and what my place looked like before I started.

And what it looks like in front of my place - at least for now...

There are still lots of leaves on the lawn. I'll get them at some point; possibly blowing them into a pile with my leaf blower and then shoveling them into yard waste bags. But for now I'm happy with what was accomplished and goodness knows, I can certainly use the workout.

It's a start.

Kimat Fall Stitch Day

Yesterday Poppy and I carpooled (Poppy drove) to the Lemonville Community Centre for Meagan and Kim's stitch day.  

Meagan and Kim had their pop-up shop at the far end and Tiny Modernist, being our featured designer had the setup on the right. 

The hall is very well lit. Most of us didn't even need to use our lamps.

We each received a cute, Hallowe'en chart from Tiny Modernist - exclusive to our stitch day.

Cheryl passed around the model that had been photographed for the cover of the chart. The wooden hangers, made fairly locally, are available for sale at Kimat Designs.

A light, late breakfast was served, then lunch plus refreshments. Being Hallowe'en, there was lots of candy available for us.

It was nice visiting with stitchers that I customarily see at this event. 

I got another tree and some more of the band stitched on 'Merry Christmas'. I forgot to bring my iPad so I could use Markup R-XP to keep track of my stitches so I had to stitch from my iPhone - very 'squinchy'.

And I finally finished the moth on long-languishing 'Newcastle Bouquet'.

I think it was the frequent colour changes that caused such a delay in its completion. So glad to have the *^%$ thing done.

I didn't purchase anything from either Kimat of Tiny Modernist. I am really trying to stitch down my WIP/UFO pile.

Back at home, I started a red scarf for the local Red Scarf Project. In the month of November knitted or crochet red scarves measuring at least 6" x 60" can be dropped off at our central library. On Nov. 27 they'll be collected, tags will be attached, and the scarves will be placed in prominent outdoor areas downtown for anyone needing or wishing to take one.

I remembered that I had a couple of balls of red Mary Maxim DK yarn in my stash and was actually able to locate them quickly. 

Although a double crochet scarf would make up quite quickly, I decided instead to do a linen stitch scarf using this pattern, Linen Scarf by Heidi Cantaway. It's a free pattern on Ravelry.

It's crocheted longways. It will take me a ball and a half of the yarn to make one wide enough but this is how far I got with a 4.5mm crochet hook - about 7/8" wide and used 20g of this 100g ball.

I remember buying several balls of yarn with the Red Scarf project in mind over a decade ago and used a couple of the balls to weave scarves for this project.

photo from November 2015

I haven't had the heart to fix the mistake I made on the Spring Courier. I miscounted by one column and it has screwed up the bottom right corner so I need to adjust the pattern before I proceed.

In the meantime, I keep on working on the other more satisfactory projects and do more crocheting.

After being out all day, I kicked back and warmed up some leftover chicken quesadillas for supper. I was lounging comfortably until I realize it was Hallowe'en and didn't have the outdoor lights on. Good grief. So at 7pm, I started handing out treats; double what I ordinarily would dole out because I didn't want to be left with a bunch of chips and mini chocolate bars. I turned the lights off again at 8:30. 

I watched the most recent season of 'The Diplomat'. Holy cliffhangers! If you haven't watched this series on Netflix I recommend starting right at the beginning to get caught up. Now I can't wait (again) for the next season.

PS. Crepes in my new, non-stitck, Canadian-made fry pan were delicious this morning. 

Some Things That Gave Me Joy Today

I retrieved my oboe from the oboe hospital today. It needed a complete overhaul, understandable since I don't remember if I'd ever had it serviced in the 54 years I've owned it. 

Pro-rated - $26.85 isn't a lot to pay per year to keep the thing working properly. All the pads and corks were replaced. He even used silver solder to repair a key with a crack in it. The repairer, Alessandro, was very surprised when I told him how long I had owned it. He was also surprised when he learned how old I was. He thought I was younger than my actual age. The compliment and repaired oboe made my drive into The Big City well worth it.

On my way home, (avoiding the DVP) I stopped in at Michaels in Pickering to get the last 5 colours I needed for my Painted Flowers project.

I haven't decided when I'll start it as I'm quite happy with my progress on 'Merry Christmas'.

The band below the trees has been easy to stitch while watching TV. The rest I do with Markup R-XP on my iPad just to keep track of things. I did find one mistake on the pattern which I'll let the nice people know about at Hobby House Press. Will check first to see if it's on an 'errata' list.

Perhaps 'Painted Flowers' will be my start when I attend the Toronto Guild of Stitchery's retreat at the Nottawasaga Inn next month.

Further along my way home I picked up tacos from Cocodrilo, the food truck in front of the Ajax Canadian Tire at Salem and Kingston Rd. They're the best tacos I've had north of the Rio Grande Valley.

I ate 3 and froze 3 for a future meal.

Also, while at Canadian Tire, I purchased a new, non-stick frying pan that I'd been coveting for a while. Gratefully, it was on sale for 30% off.

It's the one with the raised stainless steel grid to create a non-stick surface, not the chemically-treated non-stick one.

The added bonus is that it is manufactured in Canada - in Charlottetown PEI

My easier, less traffic-y drive home was enhanced even further by sunny skies and stunning leaf colours. 

Crossing the Rouge Valley provided breathtaking vistas. I would have taken some photos had I not been driving.

After all that activity, I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the day. 

Tomorrow is a Kimat Designs sponsored stitch day, then tomorrow night will be busy with trick or treaters coming to my door.

Hallowe'en Concert

On Sunday, the Pickering Community Concert Band played a Hallowe'en Concert at the Pickering Museum Village's Hallowe'en Event.

We were instructed to either wear black or orange or Hallowe'en costumes.

I had snagged these kitty cat ears at music camp in the summer, thinking they'd be great for a Hallowe'en costume. I just wore black, donned the ears and drew a kitty cat nose and whiskers on my face with eye liner.

It was Ernest's turn to get in on the action. 

Our conductor, Giancarlo Binetti, dressed as Sorcerer Mickey - in keeping with the theme of the day and since we played selections from 'Fantasia'.

For 'The Addams Family' , Giancarlo distributed noise makers to the children (mostly) in the audience. During our performance, my Apple watch often informed me that the noise level was harmful to my hearing.

Dunc was strongly discouraged by his family not to dress as a blind referee (something about not being politically correct) so instead, ordered the skeleton costume from Amazon - into which he sweated profusely. Sorry if that's TMI but that's what he announced.

Again, it was a beautiful fall day - perfect for folks to wander around the Museum Village and listen to scary music. 

It was a fun program to play and I was thrilled I got to wear my understated kitty cat costume. The woman at Subway (where I had a pre-concert lunch) even said I looked cute.

Sadly I'll be out of town for our town's Christmas event and later the band's Christmas concert. I will, however, be able to make it to the spring concert but will again, have to leave a stitching retreat (Elim) on the Sunday morning to get there.