When one is retired, weekends and even long weekends, for that matter, aren't that big of a deal. One isn't exhaused from having worked like a dog the previous couple of weeks - finishing marking, tallying marks, entering marks on the computer, generating progress reports whilst still prepping for new lessons. But what is a big deal is spending time with family and friends. I even am getting to the point where prepping the turkey dinner isn't such an onerous task as it once was. (Thanks again, Honey, for doing all that vacuuming!!!).
Of course, I forgot to take photos but suffice it to say dinner was a success and there were enough leftovers for a couple more meals.
I am so grateful for so many things, my good health, my marriage, my family, my friends, plenty of nourishment and TIME. Time to pursue my passions and do whatever I want to pretty much when I want to.
Several of my friends are going through hard times right now and I feel so bad about that. In most cases, there is nothing I can do but listen to and support them. I hate it when people I care about are hurting.
It certainly makes me realize how fortunate I really am. I certainly don't take that good fortune for granted. I live in the present knowing that I can be hit by the proverbial 'bus' at any time and my life as I've been enjoying it can be changed forever. However, in the meantime, I'm just very thankful for my wonderful life (and knitting and spinning - LOL).
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Monday, 12 October 2009
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Moose Loves Roses
After knitting the Snowflake Mittens last week, I was eager to find another pattern to begin in the Nordic style of mitten knitting. I found a very intriguing design, Moose Loves Roses, by a Norwegian designer, Jorid Linvik (5th from the bottom of her page).
I didn't like the garter stitch beginning of the cuff but decided to continue on and hoped it would block nicely and not stretch out so much. I had the first mitten 2/3 finished and noticed someone on Ravelry had used a Latvian braid. It looked lovely and I yearned to learn how to do it. I found this very cool website, Golden Apples, where there were not one, not two, but THREE excellent videos showing how to execute this somewhat 'fiddly' but not-too-difficult technique. And I was 'off to the races'.
So I frogged said mitt and started it again with a two-colour long-tail cast-on (red and black), a round of two colour stocking stitch and started in on the Latvian Braid. It worked!
I did another braid above the 'roses' on the cuff, then two rows of red stocking stitch and inserted another Latvian braid, this time in black and white, the colour of the remainder of the mitten.
I then knit 9 rounds of stocking stitch and then started the first two-colour round and carried on.
Between fits of activity during our Thanksgiving meal preparation, I finished the first mitten (except for the thumb).
Ta da!
The red line on the palm is where the thumb will go.
I call it 'Moose At Night' and may use the design for a Cowichan-style sweater I want to knit for Skip.
I'm also rather proud of the inside of the mitten.
I made sure I didn't carry the yarn more than 3 stitches before 'catching' it. There are hardly any ends to weave in now that I'm done the knitting - YAY!
One other tip - I'm a fairly tight knitter, especially when using two colours, so to keep my floats loose, I turn the mitten inside out to knit it. That way the floats (strands) are on the outside of the mitten.
I didn't like the garter stitch beginning of the cuff but decided to continue on and hoped it would block nicely and not stretch out so much. I had the first mitten 2/3 finished and noticed someone on Ravelry had used a Latvian braid. It looked lovely and I yearned to learn how to do it. I found this very cool website, Golden Apples, where there were not one, not two, but THREE excellent videos showing how to execute this somewhat 'fiddly' but not-too-difficult technique. And I was 'off to the races'.
So I frogged said mitt and started it again with a two-colour long-tail cast-on (red and black), a round of two colour stocking stitch and started in on the Latvian Braid. It worked!
I did another braid above the 'roses' on the cuff, then two rows of red stocking stitch and inserted another Latvian braid, this time in black and white, the colour of the remainder of the mitten.
I then knit 9 rounds of stocking stitch and then started the first two-colour round and carried on.
Between fits of activity during our Thanksgiving meal preparation, I finished the first mitten (except for the thumb).
Ta da!
The red line on the palm is where the thumb will go.
I call it 'Moose At Night' and may use the design for a Cowichan-style sweater I want to knit for Skip.
I'm also rather proud of the inside of the mitten.
I made sure I didn't carry the yarn more than 3 stitches before 'catching' it. There are hardly any ends to weave in now that I'm done the knitting - YAY!
One other tip - I'm a fairly tight knitter, especially when using two colours, so to keep my floats loose, I turn the mitten inside out to knit it. That way the floats (strands) are on the outside of the mitten.
Friday, 9 October 2009
A Bushel and a Peck? etc.
In January 1970, Canada went metric under Pierre Trudeau. I was near the end of high school and had spent the previous 11 years memorizing 5280 feet to the mile, 1760 yards to the mile, 2 pints make a quart, 4 quarts make a gallon, 16 ounces make a pound, etc. etc. When I was finished university and buying groceries for the first time, I started having to deal with grams and kilograms. I now have a pretty good grasp of units of weight and can convert back and forth pretty easily from metric to the British system; likewise between kilometres and miles. Celsius still doesn't come easy though and I usually have to 'multiply by two and add 30'.
Last night, I got a box of Empire apples from my knitting friend, Darla. I knew it wasn't as big as a bushel but I had no idea what unit of volume it was. This morning I actually read the box and it said a peck. Skip informed me that it was half a bushel. I must have missed the 'two pecks make a bushel' lesson in elementary school.
Anyway.... this morning I made enough applesauce (unsweetened with cloves and cinnamon) to occupy about 1/6 of our little freezer. It was about 14 2-cup containers. It took all morning and once Skip helped me peel apples, the last part went very quickly. I probably won't even be serving applesauce for Thanksgiving, but I'm glad I got it done.
Wow! I just saw a commercial for the Canadian Olympic Team attire from The Bay and am loving the Cowichan Bay-type sweaters. It's disappointing that the Cowichan Natives didn't win the bid on producing the sweaters for the Canadian Olympic team. I'm sure they could have found enough knitters to meet the demand. Instead, the Olympic Committee contracted a BC supplier of hand-knit sweaters (in China) to make them for sale for $350 as opposed to $215 that the Cowichan knitters would have offered. I'm SO bummed out the Cowichan Natives didn't get the contract. In its defense, The Bay stated, "It was clear that they (Cowichan knitters) were unable to meet Hudson's Bay Company requirements as a national retailer for consistency, speed to market and volume for delivery". Harumph!
All politics aside, I still am loving the sweater and now will be searching in earnest for a pattern to make a similar one.
Last night at Kniterary, I got a photo of Miranda with the afghan that we all contributed to.
Her baby is due in 11 days (but I don't think she's going to make it that long).
It was a great community effort. Martina had a great vision for it, selecting three shades of Mission Falls superwash wool in green from which we could pick plus a contrasting colour. She laboriously stitched all the squares together.
Now I'm all inspired to knit my own mitred square afghan. But I'll definitely be knitting the squares together if I do get around to making one.
I got to try on Maureen's lovely February Lady sweater that she just finished knitting with the new Berocco Blackstone Tweed yarn.
It's very soft and squooshy yarn.
and her Fish Hat (Dead or Alive) and Mitts from the 2008 Winter Knitty issue.
I'm on the 8th ball of 10 on the Lace and Cable baby blanket and really want to get it finished before I cast on another project, the Sagrantino Shawl. It really reminds me of the Jojoland Swirl Shawl but the Sagrantino Shawl pattern is FREE! Wheee!
Last night, I got a box of Empire apples from my knitting friend, Darla. I knew it wasn't as big as a bushel but I had no idea what unit of volume it was. This morning I actually read the box and it said a peck. Skip informed me that it was half a bushel. I must have missed the 'two pecks make a bushel' lesson in elementary school.
Anyway.... this morning I made enough applesauce (unsweetened with cloves and cinnamon) to occupy about 1/6 of our little freezer. It was about 14 2-cup containers. It took all morning and once Skip helped me peel apples, the last part went very quickly. I probably won't even be serving applesauce for Thanksgiving, but I'm glad I got it done.
Wow! I just saw a commercial for the Canadian Olympic Team attire from The Bay and am loving the Cowichan Bay-type sweaters. It's disappointing that the Cowichan Natives didn't win the bid on producing the sweaters for the Canadian Olympic team. I'm sure they could have found enough knitters to meet the demand. Instead, the Olympic Committee contracted a BC supplier of hand-knit sweaters (in China) to make them for sale for $350 as opposed to $215 that the Cowichan knitters would have offered. I'm SO bummed out the Cowichan Natives didn't get the contract. In its defense, The Bay stated, "It was clear that they (Cowichan knitters) were unable to meet Hudson's Bay Company requirements as a national retailer for consistency, speed to market and volume for delivery". Harumph!
All politics aside, I still am loving the sweater and now will be searching in earnest for a pattern to make a similar one.
Last night at Kniterary, I got a photo of Miranda with the afghan that we all contributed to.
Her baby is due in 11 days (but I don't think she's going to make it that long).
It was a great community effort. Martina had a great vision for it, selecting three shades of Mission Falls superwash wool in green from which we could pick plus a contrasting colour. She laboriously stitched all the squares together.
Now I'm all inspired to knit my own mitred square afghan. But I'll definitely be knitting the squares together if I do get around to making one.
I got to try on Maureen's lovely February Lady sweater that she just finished knitting with the new Berocco Blackstone Tweed yarn.
It's very soft and squooshy yarn.
and her Fish Hat (Dead or Alive) and Mitts from the 2008 Winter Knitty issue.
I'm on the 8th ball of 10 on the Lace and Cable baby blanket and really want to get it finished before I cast on another project, the Sagrantino Shawl. It really reminds me of the Jojoland Swirl Shawl but the Sagrantino Shawl pattern is FREE! Wheee!
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Mother Nature's Paintbox
I had a thoroughly delightful and aesthetically pleasing drive to Campbellford today. The leaves have just started to turn and it looked as if Mother Nature had just dabbed here and there with yellows, oranges and reds. The reason for the Campbellford trip was to attend the 20th Annual Warkworth Spinners' Spin-In.
I arrived just before the appointed time and was amazed that the church parking lot was already full so I had to park down the street. Once seated in the church hall, I figured there were at least 60 spinners there and 10 retailers selling lovely hand-painted and hand-dyed rovings, spinning paraphernalia, pattern books, knitting needles, etc. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and only have crappy cell phone photos.
This is what I couldn't live without.
80% merino/20% silk
80% alpaca/20% merino
Ashford 80% New Zealand merino/20% silk
(this picture does not do justice to the beautiful purples and greys).
100% Polwarth roving from Autumn Garden colourway
So I guess one would say I have my own little paintbox of colours in this lovely, soft fibre.
So that I'd have something to spin before buying stuff, I took the alpaca/Corriedale/nylon top that I had bought from Jody at the World Wide Spin in Public event back in September.
This is what some of the little batts looked like before spinning.
And this is what it looks like after spinning. I'm thinking of plying it with some 100% alpaca so I can knit something significant like a pair of socks or a scarf from it.
I still don't have a lot of confidence in the strength of my singles. Practice makes perfect!
I arrived just before the appointed time and was amazed that the church parking lot was already full so I had to park down the street. Once seated in the church hall, I figured there were at least 60 spinners there and 10 retailers selling lovely hand-painted and hand-dyed rovings, spinning paraphernalia, pattern books, knitting needles, etc. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and only have crappy cell phone photos.
This is what I couldn't live without.
80% merino/20% silk
80% alpaca/20% merino
Ashford 80% New Zealand merino/20% silk
(this picture does not do justice to the beautiful purples and greys).
100% Polwarth roving from Autumn Garden colourway
So I guess one would say I have my own little paintbox of colours in this lovely, soft fibre.
So that I'd have something to spin before buying stuff, I took the alpaca/Corriedale/nylon top that I had bought from Jody at the World Wide Spin in Public event back in September.
This is what some of the little batts looked like before spinning.
And this is what it looks like after spinning. I'm thinking of plying it with some 100% alpaca so I can knit something significant like a pair of socks or a scarf from it.
I still don't have a lot of confidence in the strength of my singles. Practice makes perfect!
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Light the Night
One of my wonderful former students, Allison Boyce, was a bright, shining light as a trumpet player in my class and excelled in her other studies in high school. She is all grown up now and pursues a very rewarding career as a registered nurse in the cancer ward at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She becomes very involved with the families of many of her little patients and often sees many of them succumb to cancer - mostly leukemia.
One particularly remarkable little one, Maggie, was admitted at just three months of age. Allison provided lots of TLC when Maggie was vomiting, shaking with fever, and receiving blood products, or in pain after a procedure to put chemotherapy into her spine. Maggie fought hard for six months and won her battle with leukemia. She is now cancer-free and happily toddling around.
Allison and Maggie
As of 2009, approximately 70,000 people are living with a blood cancer in Canada. Every 35 minutes a Canadian is diagnosed with a blood cancer, and every 73 minutes a Canadian dies from a blood cancer.
Leukemia and lymphoma account for 44% of all childhood cancers. Lymphoma is the most common cancer in adolescents and young adults. Overall, men are diagnosed with blood cancer more frequently than women.
This Thursday, October 8, Allison will be participating in a 5km Light the Night walk with Maggie's family and friends to raise money for the Greater Toronto area chapter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. She hopes to raise $1000 and is almost at her goal.
I enjoy writing this blog and am pleased I might actually be able to do some good for this cause by putting a couple of faces to it and promoting this most worthy endeavour. If you feel you might be interested in helping Allison achieve and possibly exceed her $1000 goal, you can click on this link and scroll down to the "Sponsor Me" button and do your tax-deductible magic. You can also help all year round by being a blood donor.
I thank you very much.
One particularly remarkable little one, Maggie, was admitted at just three months of age. Allison provided lots of TLC when Maggie was vomiting, shaking with fever, and receiving blood products, or in pain after a procedure to put chemotherapy into her spine. Maggie fought hard for six months and won her battle with leukemia. She is now cancer-free and happily toddling around.
Allison and Maggie
As of 2009, approximately 70,000 people are living with a blood cancer in Canada. Every 35 minutes a Canadian is diagnosed with a blood cancer, and every 73 minutes a Canadian dies from a blood cancer.
Leukemia and lymphoma account for 44% of all childhood cancers. Lymphoma is the most common cancer in adolescents and young adults. Overall, men are diagnosed with blood cancer more frequently than women.
This Thursday, October 8, Allison will be participating in a 5km Light the Night walk with Maggie's family and friends to raise money for the Greater Toronto area chapter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. She hopes to raise $1000 and is almost at her goal.
I enjoy writing this blog and am pleased I might actually be able to do some good for this cause by putting a couple of faces to it and promoting this most worthy endeavour. If you feel you might be interested in helping Allison achieve and possibly exceed her $1000 goal, you can click on this link and scroll down to the "Sponsor Me" button and do your tax-deductible magic. You can also help all year round by being a blood donor.
I thank you very much.
Friday, 2 October 2009
If I Do Say So Myself
I finished the first Snowflake Mitt (aka White Witch Mitt) and really like how it turned out.
That's a damned fine mitt, if I do say so myself. And its mate has been cast on.
That's a damned fine mitt, if I do say so myself. And its mate has been cast on.
Fair Isle
The KnitPicks catalogue arrived last week and I was very intrigued by the photo on the cover. It was of Fair Isle Mitts in a star pattern using several colours. The kit was very reasonably priced but being one who likes to start projects NOW and likes to make use of the Internet for free or discounted items, I searched Ravelry under the following key words "fair isle mittens free". And this is what came up. Now, the photo doesn't show the lovely star pattern on the back of the mitts but Ravelry had 97 people's versions so I could see what the back of a finished mitt actually looks like. This pattern also used only 4 colours of fingering (4 ply) weight yarn instead of the 6 that the KnitPicks pattern used.
Man, do they knit up fast! I started them at about 4pm today and this is what they looked like before I turned in for the night at 1pm. Somehow I screwed up and didn't cast on enough stitches for the corrugated ribbing on the cuff so I added 4 stitches in the first row after the ribbing to bring the stitch count up to what was required to do the pattern. As I am a tight knitter, I'm knitting the mitt inside out. The floats are on the outside (not shown) and it is preventing them from being too tight.
I should be done the first mitt this evening.
In the photo of the palm side (on the right), the contrasting waste yarn can be seen. This is where the thumb will go. Once I finish the body of the mitt and graft the top, I'll pick out the waste yarn and pick up the live stitches, add two stitches on each side of the thumb and finish it in the round.
Have I mentioned how much I love knitting in the round with one circular needle?
Man, do they knit up fast! I started them at about 4pm today and this is what they looked like before I turned in for the night at 1pm. Somehow I screwed up and didn't cast on enough stitches for the corrugated ribbing on the cuff so I added 4 stitches in the first row after the ribbing to bring the stitch count up to what was required to do the pattern. As I am a tight knitter, I'm knitting the mitt inside out. The floats are on the outside (not shown) and it is preventing them from being too tight.
I should be done the first mitt this evening.In the photo of the palm side (on the right), the contrasting waste yarn can be seen. This is where the thumb will go. Once I finish the body of the mitt and graft the top, I'll pick out the waste yarn and pick up the live stitches, add two stitches on each side of the thumb and finish it in the round.
Have I mentioned how much I love knitting in the round with one circular needle?
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