Backyard Bliss

I love this time of year. Our summers in central southern Ontario are glorious! Except for the few steamy heatwave days, we have the windows wide open day and night and it is very pleasant to work and sit outdoors.

One of the things that drew us to this house when we were house-hunting 17 years ago was the 60+ foot wide lot - a rarity in suburbs of the greater Toronto area. The garden is mostly perennials and is supplemented with swatches of colours of annuals here and there. Basically, you stick a nasturtium seed in the ground, stand back and after a couple of months, voila!

Skip always plants a bunch of marigolds, too.

Our bird feeder is popular with chickadees, nuthatches, grackles, housefinches,

American goldfinches,

and cardinals. Pictured below is a female. You can really see how the beak is suited to cracking open the seed casings - a lot like the business end of bolt cutters.

We hate the destructive rabbits and have managed to 'relocate' a couple of them but chipmunks are always welcome.  This bright-eyed little fellow hangs out under the feeder with the mourning dove and fills his cheeks with seeds for his stash.

The best thing about our deck is the metal 'gazebo' we put up a few years back. The top disintegrated years ago but with a generic tarp cleverly folded and anchored, it provides the necessary shade for the southern exposure. This creates our outdoor living space which we enjoy.

From the table I get a good view of the bird feeder and its denizens.

With a cool drink, my camera, laptop and wifi, I can spend hours out here listening to my tunes on iTunes, editing photos, blogging and generally thoroughly enjoying the time al fresco.

Wow! Three blog posts in one day!!

Bliss.

Fish Lips Kiss Heel

Mo and I were chatting the other night as we sat and knit. She told me about a cool short row heel technique she had just learned about called the Fish Lips Kiss Heel developed by the Sox Therapist. It is supposed to be easy and not use traditional wraps yielding no holes or gaps.

I have done a couple of short row heels but never successfully enough to adopt it as my 'go to' heel style. Instead, I usually default to my preferred 'eye of partridge' heel flap.

Last night I bought the instructions from the Sox Therapist's Ravelry store for the princely sum of $1 US - a paltry sum for all her years of research and development.

I had no trouble following her instructions and within a few minutes I had a perfect short row heel! Woo hoo!

Why is it called a Fish Lips Kiss heel? Off the foot and looking straight on, it looks like how we suck in our cheeks to simulate fish lips. Do you see it?

I'm about 1/3 of the way finished the foot of the first Pavillion Sock. I'm loving Mo's pattern and the colours and feel of the Kidazzle yarn.

It took me a long time before I could find the perfect pattern for this multi-coloured yarn. Anything lacy would have been dominated by the stripes in the pattern. But a nice, textured pattern works very well.

Butterflies 2013

For several years we have been cultivating milkweed to attract monarch butterflies to our yard. Early in July each year, I inspect the undersides of the milkweed leaves for the monarch eggs. If I find any, I take the entire leaf into the house so we can hatch the eggs indoors away from the earwigs and other insects that prey on the eggs. We have had quite a bit of success in past years hatching up to 10 butterflies in one season.

This year monarch butterfly numbers were the lowest in 20 years for an, as yet to be conclusively determined, unknown reason or combination of reasons.

I was only able to find 2 eggs this year in mid-July - a couple of weeks later than usual. An all-time low for our back yard. When Skip and I were away 1.5 weeks ago, they both pupated - transformed from the larva (caterpillar) to the chrysalis. Our kind neighbour not only house-sits when we're away but he also feeds the cat and any monarch caterpillars we have on hand.

Once they pupate (form the chrysalis), it takes a little over a week for the new butterfly to emerge. This morning I thought to check the 'Bug Bottle' and one of the butterflies had hatched!

I had warning last night that it was going to hatch as the chrysalis got darker with the black of the wings starting to show through the chrysalis.

I could see the orange-coloured drops on the bottom of the container which are from when the butterfly first emerges with its crumpled furled wings.

It must have occurred a couple of hours before because its wings were fully unfurled and dried and it was just waiting patiently at the bottom of the container.

There was no way for the butterfly to climb out so I got a stick from the yard so it would have something to climb up. I then lay the stick on top so the butterfly could take its time to ready its wings to fly away. The lack of black spots on the wings indicate that this is a female. Click here to see a male monarch and its spots.

This butterfly was a big one! Its wingspan was about 4" which was surprising because its chrysalis was the smaller of the two.

Here you can see the empty chrysalis on the left and the other one with the curve of the wings starting to show through. The second one will hatch later tonight or tomorrow morning.

It's disappointing that we were only able to hatch two this year but that is two more than if we had let nature take its course in our garden.

Ready to Steek

Today I reinforced the stitches on either side of where I am going to cut my steek.

I used a crochet hook to run the stitches on either side of the center stitch of the 5-stitch steek.

Here you can see where I will cut between the two lines of waste yarn.

For now Rams and Yowes is a big tube but soon it will be a flat piece. I am looking forward to getting the steek cut so I can pick up all the stitches around the edge and start the garter stitch border.

I will be meeting with my monthly knitting group in a week and a half and will cut the steek then with a captive audience.

The many yarn ends near the steek will get hidden between the two layers of the garter stitch border.  I shouldn't have to weave any in if I do it right.

I also started a new sock pattern designed by my friend, Maureen Foulds, who is also quite the prolific knitting designer. Her Pavillion Socks pattern is perfect for the multi-coloured Fleece Artist Kidazzle yarn I've had in my stash since Cat Bordhi recommended it at her workshop I attended at KnitEast 2012. Kidazzle consists of 70% merino, 20% kid mohair, and 10% nylon.

Although it's not marked on the label, I believe the colourway is called Stone.

I am enjoying just knitting and purling without doing any fancy stitches. The chart is easy to follow. I'm going the smallest (54 stitch) size. I like the striping and don't feel it is taking anything away from the diagonal pattern.

Palate Cleansing

I'm between major knitting projects and have been doing some fun, easy knitting. I was inspired by the YarnHarlot when she blogged about knitting some facecloths using the Bee Stitch.

I did the first one with part of a ball of Cottontots cotton yarn that I had on hand.

It kinda looks like moss stitch but is WAY less annoying to knit.

Then I got my hands on some linen/cotton blend yarn and knit a couple of facecloths casting on 41 stitches. It was very mindless knitting with the K1, k1 below the next stitch row alternating with a plain knit row.


They can be Christmas gifts for only the most knitworthy of my friends or family.  The nubbly stitch makes for a great exfoliating scrubber and the linen will soften yet maintain strength in the fibre.

 I also tried a new short-row petal pattern with some Spinrite Peaches and Creme Stripes yarn.

I did a couple of extra slices so it would like flat.

I also knit another double knit hot pad for the table on the deck.

I'm going on another wonderful knitting adventure in Ireland in November. I'm trying to determine what projects I'll take to pass time on the transAtlantic flight and whilst on the bus from place to place.

The latest Twist Collective has come out and I've faved several project on Ravelry. I've got to pick a couple of small projects like sock, mittens or a shawl.

Rams and Yowes

I started this project last September and got a few inches done before I abandoned it for other things. I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago and have been making good progress.

I only have a couple more inches before I'm done and will cut the steek. It's WAY easier to knit colour-work in the round than having to purl.

At first I alternated yarns on the 5-stitch steek but after a while I realized I would have trouble seeing the centre stitch to cut it.

So I started a dark-light-dark-light-dark steek pattern.  It will be much easier to cut up the middle dark stitches.

This pattern uses the 9 'natural' colours of sheep's wool. It is very nice yarn to work with. These are the 'yowes' (ewes) and

these are the rams.

When I first started knitting, I used my customary technique of knitting with a colour in each hand. The fabric was a bit tighter than I would have liked. In the meantime, I remembered that it is better to knit colour-work inside out so the floats are at their maximum. I also decided to knit throwing both colours with the right hand but keeping the lighter colour uppermost and the darker colour lower, never twisting the two yarns or anchoring the floats. This yarn is 'sticky' enough that with use, the floats will felt/stick down and not catch on things.

Another good thing about knitting colourwork in the round is being able to change colours in the middle of the steek. After picking up the stitches all around and knitting the doubled garter stitch border, I will tack the border down, concealing all the yarn ends. I won't have to weave any in. Yay!!!

One of my knitting groups wants me to cut the steek in front of them but I'm so close to being ready to do it, I don't think I can wait 'til the end of the month.

I'll take lots of pics when that time comes.

I was recently inspired by a double knitting tutorial to knit some hot pads for the glass table on our deck. I just used dishcloth cotton and whipped this up in a couple of hours.

I also practiced the tubular bindoff. I just need to figure out how to do a tubular cast-on with the two colours. It's not the most even knitting I've ever done but it will be very useful.

You Can Go Back Again

I took a quick trip to my home town and the environs this week to visit my sister, some other family members, revisit some of my old haunts and have breakfast with some of my former colleagues before I head back home tomorrow for the Civic Holiday weekend.

One of the things we ex-pat Sarnians do when visiting the area is go for fries under the Bluewater Bridge. Just before lunch, I spent a few minutes at the water's edge at the mouth of Lake Huron. A freighter was just going under the bridge where Lake Huron empties into the St. Clair River. I still marvel at how good a photo my iPhone 4S can take - IMHO.

There are a couple of chip trucks that operate right under the bridge but the best one (Albert's) lost its spot a few years back and they've moved into a real building only a few hundred metres away. There, my sister, Valerie, and two of her grandchildren and I had a lovely lunch of hot dogs, FRIES, pop and ice cream. We were feeling pretty mellow after that so we decided to drop the kids (age 9 and 16) off at the beach while Valerie and I went yarn-shopping. We then returned to the beach to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing while the 9 year-old, Alex,  played and swam, and the 16 year-old, Andrea, chilled listening to tunes on her iPod while Valerie and I knit socks and watched the antics of a cute little puppy with his new owners a few metres away.

Nana (Valerie) and Andrea

Here's sock-knitting proof.

Alex schmoozed with the little girl who had some beach toys to play with. The two of them played and swam together all afternoon.

As long as you don't expect everything to be the same as it was when leaving your hometown, you can go back again.

It was a lovely summer day in one of my favourite places from my youth.

Bliss.