Making stuff

Despite the weather, it was a glorious weekend! Most of my time was spent crafting bits of stuff. I came across a lined zipper pouch tutorial (via Whipup) and just had to try it out. Despite me being zipper-challenged, the pouches were quite easy and quick to make. Just a note...finer nylon zippers are easier to use than the heavier metal ones.

From there, I moved on to bags. I revamped the Knitting Bag, made it taller, added an inside pocket and extra outside pockets, loops to attach things to (like keys & umbrellas), added buttonholes so I can use these sheep buttons, and made the handle longer. In hindsight, I think I should have made the loops with the lining fabric and used a fabric stiffener for the sides as well as the bottom. The material is a cotton floorcloth canvas - really heavy duty stuff - but because the bag is taller than the other bag, the sides are a bit more floppy.

I should note that the original bag came from the Crafter's Companion book. Seventeen internet Craft Bloggers talk about how and why they craft, plus projects to inspire you.

A bit of knitting got done on the weekend...the BPT is still not done yet. Still working on that hood and trying to decide if I want to put in a zipper or buttons. I just realized that I've never put in a zipper in a knitted cardigan before. It will be a first for me! I'm not good at sewing and find zippers, if not done right, will buckle and pucker funny. I'm a haphazard kind of seamstress.

More books...

It takes almost the same amount of time to make four books as it does one. Instead of staring at your book, waiting for the glue to dry, you just move on and glue up the next block. The photo album at the end was the most difficult as each page had to be cut separately and interlined with the glassine. The binding is done in the Japanese stab binding tradition. After all that work, my final holes were croooked. I didn't noticed it until the binding was finished. Lesson learned...it's worth the hassle of setting up the drill press.

Blustery Saturday

It's Saturday morning and it's the kind of day that you want to spend bundled up inside the house. You can't see the rain pelting down in this picture. Some of the Twisted by Choice gals are heading over to Langley Weavers & Spinners sale this morning. Husband is running on Sunday so we're going to spend a nice quiet day at home today. It's been a very long week at work and it's nice to be home relaxing with nothing planned but a bit of knitting.

Button Button

It was a good day at work. I was not grumpy at all. The reason was that I discovered Gaffer Tape. The guys were using it to mark seat numbers on the back of the floor chairs for the concert. It's fabric on one side and sticky tape on the other side. It looked just like bookbinding tape except it's flourescent pink. I asked the Purchasing manager if it comes in other colours and YES IT COMES IN BLACK!! He gave me the contact's number and I called them up. Apparently, Gaffer's tape IS bookbinding tape! And they will cut a roll to my specifications. Life is good.

Hey, Tammy! It's called Button Button and here's the address...

422 Cordova Street West, Vancouver, BC V6B 4K2
Telephone : 604-687-0067

She has only buttons - all different kinds - new, vintage, EVERYTHING!! It's located on the outskirts of Gastown. Be prepare to spend hours going through all the drawers. I found a really neat looking button that I'm thinking of making into a brooch.

Work gets in the way of real life.

It's official...I hate work. That's two weeks in a row that work got in the way of me meeting up with my Fibre friends. I'm going to be incredibly grumpy tomorrow. I think I'll have to make this up by doing something fun at lunchtime tomorrow...like a visit to the Button store? :D

Happy Halloween!

ARGH! What a week it's been! This is the first time ever that I did not carve my pumpkins until today! It's been so crazy at work that I haven't had time to think about Halloween! I think this year's trick-or-treater count is the lowest ever! We had 14 kids come to the door. When we moved into this neighbourhood years ago, we had close to hundred kids. Each year, the numbers steadily dropped.

It was announced today that the Rolling Stones concert in Vancouver has been postponed to Nov 25th. Bah! Instead of 2 weeks of intense stress, it has now become a month of intense stress. The stage build started on Monday and it was going so well. It's just as much work to cancel a concert as it is to put one on. Good thing I have my fibre to keep me sane.

On the knitting front, I've finally finished the sleeves on the BPT and started on the hood. Not sure if I like it with the hood but I'll try it. If I don't like it, I can always re-knit the hood into a collar. Started some more socks for the work commute. Nothing special...just plain old socks.

I felt like sewing tonight so I made this...
(Yes, it does look like the bag SOMEONE bought at FibreFest. I've been regretting not buying one when you did, Amber.) It's about 11"x7"x5". I lined it with some leftover fabric I got at Maiwa and made a drawstring closure for the top. I think the next one will be a bit taller, with inside pockets and a loop to attach my keys. That would be the perfect knitting bag.

Odds & Ends

I love the Fall season! The weather this year has been exceptional. We had a few days of rain but it's been mostly sunny. A lot of the plants have started to die back but there's still a lot of colour tucked away here and there. It's like finding treasure. Our yard is slowly being covered with leaves from our trees and the neighbour's trees. It's a never-ending chore to rake and re-rake the leaves. Good thing we have a teenage kid. :D

This is my first attempt at sewing the head & end bands. Bookbinding is really an ugly process. You're looking at all the bits & pieces, covered with glue. Then suddenly, you put the cover on and transform the whole ugly mess into a book that actually looks like a book! In hindsight, I think I should have practice the headband sewing on something first. You can't see it but the bands are lopsided. The cover is handmade paper - not by me - and the paper inside is recycled paper.

I like this book. Instead of using binding tape, I used dyed abaca rope. The cover spine had been slit to pull the rope through and tied. The cover is handmade paper but I tried distressing it to give it a leather look. I diluted water and glue and painted it on. The back cover was done first and I used even strokes. The front was painted randomly and it seems to work much better. Again, like the whole headband fiasco, I should have practiced this first.

Now I have to go and finish the sleeve of my BPT. Yup, I'm still on the first sleeve.

*sigh*

Where have I been?

I need more hours in a day! I've been seduced by bookbinding and have not had time to knit (much) or spin lately. I just finished another book today with handsewn head bands. I'm really proud of this book. :D

What am I going to do with all these books? I can't bring myself to write inside them...I have very messy writing.

BPT is going slow. I seem to have lost steam. I'm still halfway down the first sleeve. I promise tomorrow night will be devoted to finishing the sleeve and (hopefully) start the second sleeve.

Today was supposed to be Pumpkin Patch Day. That was cancelled due to rain. We'll save that for next weekend. Instead, I was treated to a trip to Aberdeen Centre and a long visit to Daiso. I love that place! I picked up lots of cool paper and abaca string.

Paper & Glue

Wow! The last three days have been just a whirlwind of paper and glue. Total sensory overload. I was at the three-day workshop for Bookbinding at Maiwa Handprints. Paper had been my first fibre love right from day one - I come from a long line of printers. I grew up running around printing presses. I love paper. I have memories of me sitting at my dad's desk playing with the bits of paper trimmings. I would glue the ends to make great elaborate sculptures or stack bits of paper together and make little tiny books. I would take the die-cast letters and dip them into small ink puddles to stamp my pages. I still have some of those teeny tiny books around somewhere.

Gaye Hansen is an excellent instructor. I've heard so many good things about her classes before and I'm glad I had the opportunity to take this workshop. The last time I actually made any books was close to twenty years ago. I had forgotten so much. The little blue book (our practice book) is covered with Japanese paper and fabric binding. The larger book is covered with fabric from Maiwa and put together, using all sorts of wonderful add-in pages.

It was good to do this workshop and refresh a few things and learn a whole lot more. One thing about these workshops is that you're not just learning from the instructor. The work that everyone was doing was amazing. So many ideas and so little time. I feel like a diver coming up to the surface too quickly. I really need to go into a little room and decompress. Unfortunately, I had to go straight back to work today. It was really really hard to concentrate...my mind was on paper.


Everytime I look at this book, I can't help but think - wow! it looks like a real book! It has headbands and everything! And there's another use for my kumihimo braids. :)

BPT in Progress

I'm halfway through the body of the BPT sweater. The pattern is for a top down cardigan - my favourite way of knitting a sweater. When you're done, you're really done. No sewing the pieces together. I'm finding this sweater is a very good traveling project at this stage. The cables are very straightforward and I don't need to drag a chart around with me. I think when I get to the sleeves, it will be a bit awkward knitting on transit.

Usually for a top down sweater, I like to put along the back, a few rows of short row shaping for the shoulder. I didn't do that with this sweater because I think the hood will give it extra length in the back.

I know I can get more knitting done if I stop fondling the work in progress every couple of rows. I love this yarn!

Bugknits

I am in awe of this woman! Check out Bugknits! You hve to see it to believe it!

WOW!!

My Fall Cable KAL project

It took me many hours this week, going over all my pattern books and magazines, looking for a cable sweater pattern. I had forgotten how many Aran sweater patterns are out there. I found a beautiful classic Aran cardigan pattern that I thought would look great in a cream Misson Falls wool. The one problem I have is that most Aran sweaters are too warm for me. It would be a nice gift for someone. I worked out the yardage and set off to Three Bags Full. Even though I was there only three weeks ago, I still had to fondle and touch everything. It doesn't help that they encourage touching. I fell in love with the purple Lorna's Laces and left with a bag full.

The pattern is a traditional classic Aran with lots of cables and twists throughout the whole sweater. But once I did the swatch, I knew it was not meant to be. The purple, being handpainted, had slight variations of purple all through it. It would have been such a shame to hide it all in a cable sweater. So the new pattern is the Knitty's BPT hoodie.

I think I've made the right choice. The cable is not hard and the sweater is knitting up quickly. There's enough cable work to keep it fun and the colour variations will keep it interesting through the plain bits. If I don't like it after it's done, I can either reknit it into socks (a lot of socks!) or give it away.

Kudos to...

...the schools and Provincial government in Labrador and Newfoundland for setting an example for the rest of Canada. I know my son's highschool have already started bringing in healthier choices for lunchtime meals over the last few years. It was not mandatory but a choice the school decided upon. Anytime there's change, there will always be opposition. Still, I think having healthy choices available also serves to raise student awareness about what they eat. They may not always pick what's good for them but at least they have a choice now. I hope they stick this out.

Having said that, I feel slightly guilty as I munch down the do-nut sitting on my desk.

How I spent my weekend...

Sweater time

I know summer end officially in another week or so but it always feels like summer ended on Labour Day. The first day back at school, no matter what the weather, is the end of summer. It's time to take stock of my sweater situation and think about knitting cardigans and other warm clothing. I spent some time this weekend going over my sweater drawers. It was sad. Sad because not much fit me anymore. I just have to face up to the fact that I'm getting older and my metabolism isn't what it used to be. Either stop eating so much junk food or start knitting larger sweaters, I guess.

I love going over my sweaters. I usually don't knit a lot of sweaters for myself so if I decided to keep it, it's special to me. It's like seeing old friends again. I may not be able to fit them but I love them all the same.

This summer I knit quite a few pairs of socks and a lot of small things but no sweaters. I've started a few but ended up ripping them out. I did visit the new yarn shop, Three Bags Full the first week they opened, to pick up some yarn for the Rogue sweater. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) they were not set up to take debit or credit cards yet. I came across the Fall Cable KAL today. This might be what I need to keep me motivated in finishing a sweater. Time to pick something and stick to it. I've given myself to the end of this week to commit to a project and yarn, whether I spin it or buy it or use something from the stash. Once I pick something, I'm going to knit it through to the end - even if I change my mind about it. There. I've committed myself.


I finished spinning the chartreuse Polworth and I love it! 330 metres of plushy softness! I was thinking of knitting this into a scarf, using plain stockinette stitch to see how the fabric would twist and pull. I did a small swatch and I'm really liking the effect so far.

Cotton is not evil

The white stuff is pima cotton ~ 1" staple. The brown stuff is the Foxfire organic cotton ~ 3/4" staple. The pink stuff is cotton/silk ~ 1" staple.

One thing I've realized is that I will have to spin A LOT of cotton to knit a sweater! Last year, I had thought about getting a charkha but decided to get the Little Gem instead. I'm glad that I did. Both the Suzie and the LG spins cotton beautifully once I got the tension right. Sometimes I think I need more stuff but I really don't. I just need to learn how to use what I have properly. This weekend, I was in the spinning zone.

A slight mishap

I made a batch of liquid shampoo yesterday and I knocked it over today - all over my laundry room floor. In my 20 years making soap, I've been very careful and have not dropped a batch. I was always paranoid that I would do just that! I'll bet you that I have the cleanest laundry room floor around.

A good thing

What's better than a loaf of freshly baked bread? A loaf of freshly baked bread with homemade blackberry jelly. Not jam but jelly. No seeds. My brother loves me. :) He gave me two jars of his homemade blackberry jelly. I finally replace my old bread machine today. The old one was close to twenty years old and the loaves were like bricks. The paddle didn't work properly anymore. It would have cost almost as much for a new one to have the old one fixed. The inaugural loaf was prompty sliced up and slathered with blackberry jelly. Oh, it was absolutely heavenly!

Sunflower Pulp - Part 3

Day ??

I've lost track of how many days of beating now. I've stopped counting. The pulp is not looking any better. This stuff looks exactly the same. I've drained it, rinsed it, and will ship it off to a friend with a Hollander beater. I'm done.

The cotton linters dyed to a nice soft brown colour. Weather pending next weekend, I'll make it into paper with a surprise.

Sunflower Pulp - Part 2

Day 4

The liquid had been strained out and saved. The pulp is still quite chunky. The fibres are soft but not sure if it would make good paper. I think it will have to be blended with something else - cotton or linen perhaps.

I started beating the pulp this afternoon. The easy way is to spend $7000.00 for an Hollander Beater - the alternative is to find a good pounding rock and beat by hand. I would dearly love one of these but until I win that zillion $$ lottery, it's the alternative for me. A good pounding rock is one that fits in the palm of your hands nicely. You may need to pound for hours and hours.

The rock pounding broke up the bigger chunks and I can use the mixer to break up the rest. The mixer resembles a modified paint stirer that you attach to an electric drill. As long as you're careful not to overheat the drill, it will do a pretty decent job of breaking up the fibres. Not practical if you're making paper on a large scale but good enough for the home hobbist like me. It's not a good idea to use it when the pieces are big as you don't want to chop up the fibre but to break it apart.

Day 6

Nothing new to report on the progress of the sunflower pulp. This is taking a lot longer than I anticipated. The pulp is S-L-O-W-L-Y breaking down. I can't beat it more than 15 minutes at a time because the drill will overheat.

I've decided to try and dye the cotton linters in the liquid. That way, if the pulp doesn't break down completely, I can use it as an inclusion. Cotton, by itself, makes a very soft paper so I will add some abaca to give the paper more body.

Cotton linters are made up of the very short fibres, the leftovers after the cotton plant has been processed for clothing fibres. The short fibres are pressed into 2'x 3' sheets, sold to papermakers. This fibre is even SHORTER than the regular cotton fibres we spin with. I have not tried spinning this stuff and will never ever attempt it. Might as well spin dust.

Yarn Pr0n

The weekend was not spent entirely pounding the crap out of smelly pulp. There was a trip to Granville Island - specifically, to Maiwa and Diane Sanderson's Weaving Studio. I picked up some beautifully dyed warp ends perfect for Kumihimo braiding. I can see this will be another addictive hobby.

This is some of the merino/silk from Mud River Angora that I picked up at Fibre Fest in April. 50gms at 265m, navajo plied. This stuff was so much fun to spin. I think the blend is 70% merino and 30% silk.





The weekend has been absolutely gorgeous! I love this weather - hot during the day and cool enough at night to sleep. The plants are loving it as well. This is the first time my Apothecary rose has rose hips!

Sunflower Pulp - Part 1

Day One

The plan was to boil the sunflower stalks, save the liquid for dyeing, and use the pulp for papermaking. I started with 500gms of sunflower stalk, cut into 2"-3" pieces, 90gms of soda ash, and water. The soda ash will help break down the pulpy bits. The pot will sit overnight and the boiling process will begin tomorrow.

No living sunflower was harm in the making of this project. This one fell over and broke.

Day Three

This is the results of 2 - 3hours boiling sessions with it cooling and stewing overnight. It's still not ready yet. The stems are a lot tougher than I thought. In hindsight, I think I should have cut the pieces in half, lengthwise.



You are so lucky that you can't smell what's coming out of this pot! The first time I ever made paper with plant fibre was years ago when we lived in a little apartment in the West End. It took days to get rid of the smell. Fortunately, we had a corner apartment and the ocean breeze really helped. Still, I don't think my husband really forgave me for that. Everytime I bring out my pots, he cringes. Now, I do this in the backyard. The smell is not as bad as when I render suet but it's pretty bad.

Today is such a hot day that I left the pot outside in the sun. I've been stirring it every hour and it's steaming.

Edited to add:
Just found out that the liquid will not be good to dye wool as the soda ash will damage wool fibres. It will be ok to use for dyeing silk or cotton. Hmmm...

Kumihimo

One evening Irene invited us over to her house to do kumihimo braiding. Kumihimo is a form of Japanese braiding, normally done on a Marudai - something that resembles a wooden stool with the centre cut out. We used squares of cardboard with slits cut out. It worked quite well. My braid was very lopsided and twisted - where I've miscrossed some (a lot) of the strands. It was fun but the cardboard didn't hold up to my manhandling of it. They will start to bend and wear out after a while.

These Kumihimo discs from Braiders Hand. The discs are made of very dense foam, with all the slits pre-cut. They are a really good inexpensive alternative to the more traditional Marudai. I thought and thought about it - do I need another craft? No. Do I want another craft? YES!!! When I saw The Keyboard Biologist with her kit, I knew it was a sign and that I really should buy one (or two). I bought the Disc and the Flat braid kit. Janis at BraiderHand was very helpful. The discs included English instructions, EZ-bobs bobbins, and a bit of floss to get you started.

They arrived today and I tested them out. After making the first braid, I had to run down to Michaels for more embroidery floss. I didn't want to use up my DMC floss just yet. 105 different colours and 40% off! Love that Michael's coupon.

For practice, I made a bunch of little samples - won't bother with pictures for now. The flat braid was interesting...I accidently did a wrong cross halfway through and the pattern changed. I like the new pattern better but have no idea how I achieved it.

I can see this will be very useful for making cords for my knitted bags. With the embroidery floss, I can make thinner cords for fancy shoelaces. Now, I need to find out where to get the clear plastic tubes for the ends of the shoelace.

Edited to add:
A quick search on the internet informs me that the plastic tube thing is called an AGLET and there are websites devoted solely (haha) to shoelaces.

Crochet

Dentists are evil but necessary. Ok, I shouldn't say that about my dentist. She's a real sweetie. In fact, her whole team is wonderful. But I still don't enjoy a trip to the dentist. Half my face is still frozen and slowly thawing out. I hate that tingling feeling. It's going to hurt later. Ugh! While sitting at the dentist, I've been trying to think of things that could be worse than a trip to the dentist. Childbirth might be close.

On the bright side, I think I might have corrupted one of the assistant...she was fascinated by my sock knitting. Heh!

Crochet

When I was four or so, my parents sold our house to some people who had a daughter a few years older. I remember they came over one night to do some paperwork and Belle, the daughter, was crocheting granny squares. It was one of my first exposure to fibre arts of any kind and it was the coolest thing I've ever seen! This even predates knitting for me. She was making granny squares to sew together to make a blanket. She taught me the chain stitch and the double crochet stitch. At that time, I didn't know what these stitches were called.

Years later, out of curiousity, I picked up a crochet hook and made a couple of granny squares. Other than a pair of really ugly slippers (it's amazing what you can do with very oversized granny squares!) I made for my husband years ago, I don't crochet. I understand the principle behind it. Crochet is for picking up dropped stitches in your knitting.

A week ago, I came across this and thought how nice this would look in handspun. Better yet, in energized handspun single. So, that's what I did. And crochet this...



The singles were really kinked up and hard to work with so I washed and stretched the yarn to dry. Once the scarf was finished, I washed it again and let it dry without stretching. This seems to put the the "energy" back in the singles and I got all the kinks back. In using a thinner yarn, I got a thinner scarf. I joined the ends of the scarf together to make a big loop instead of having them flap free. I like my scarves better this way. Spinning the yarn thick/thin gave the scarf more texture but it made the clovers less distinct. I joined the flowers a little differently - through the middle instead of going through the side petals. The wool is a Polworth roving that I had dyed lime green/chartreuse with splashes of black. Spun up, it gave me the darker bloches of green.

My first crochet project - other than granny squares.

Best two weeks ever!

It had been the most glorious two week vacation ever! The two weeks felt like two months (in a good relaxing way). And being back at work had not been bad at all. This is the first time I've come back from vacation and not have to figure out the mistakes of a CERTAIN MORON. Life is good!

I did a lot of fibre stuff, reconnected with an old aquaintance. (Michelle will be showing her work at Fibre Essence, opening Aug 27th.) Finished the Sister's Plain Jane socks and sent them off in the mail. Finished another pair of Plain Jane socks for myself and casted on for yet another pair of PJ socks. I bought 400gms of this sock yarn so that WILL be a lot of socks. I could dye the yarn but for some reason, it appeals to me to make as many pairs of socks - all the same colour and style. There's no reason, other than I wanted to do this.

I also did a bit of swatching for the Rogue sweater. I've had this pattern for two years and still have not made the sweater yet. I thought I would spin something for it but not sure I like the look. The corriedale lamb is nice and soft but the cables are not as crisp as I would like them to be.

What else did I do? I knitted 36 rows of my lace shawl and unknitted 13 rows back. I still haven't finished the first repeat yet. I think if I ever decide to design another lace shawl, I'll make the pattern repeats smaller. The pattern is 79 rows! That's ok. This one is just the prototype to work out the mistakes.

What I didn't do that was on my list of things to do was re-tile the front entrance. I have the tiles but ran out of time. It's been busy with picking all that fibre, the Annual Trek, knitting socks, spinning, the barbeques, and general lounging around on the deck. I just ran out of time.

See? Fly Eyes!

Those giant heads are gettting heavier and bigger each day. I think it's time to tie them up. The Jays have been by a few times to check them out but I don't think the seeds are quite ready yet. Close but not quite.

The tree in the background is a crabapple tree. (Click on the pic to see the tree better.) The previous owners of the property planted it and never ever once pruned it. When we bought the place, the realtor told us it was a plum tree (it was in the dead of winter) so we expected plums. We thought it was strange that it took a VERY long time for the plums to ripen. And they were so SOUR!! Finally, we cut into one and found the apple seeds. It was a D'OH! moment. The second year, we gathered as many of the crabapples that we could reach and made crabapplee jelly. A gazillion pounds of crabapples and hours and hours of boiling, straining, etc gave us 14 jars of crabapple jelly. And red spots on my kitchen walls that I still have today. Tasty jelly but really not worth the effort. Now, we just let the birds get at them. Or, if anyone wants crabapples, you're welcome to them.

Fleece Pickings

Monday was fleece-picking day. I brought the picker outside and picked through close to 16 pounds of fleece in 5 hours. My "assistant" sorted and pull the clumps of fibre apart while I fed the bits into the picker. We had quite the production going. It was a perfect day - until the wind picked up in the afternoon. It's really not a great idea to pick when the wind is blowing. I have tuffs of fibre all over the yard and into the neighbour's yard as well. The awning that kept the sun off us, acted as a wind tunnel and funneled all the wind right through where I was working.

Today, I have to pay my assistant...we're off to see Pirates! Love Johnny Depp!

Pillows and Mug Rugs

The mutant sunflowers are not quite as tall as they were a few days ago. That's because the heads have gotten so large, they're bending over. And there's six flowers now instead of four. The centres reminds me of fly eyes. I know...I'm weird.

Annual Trek

Last Thursday was our 8th Annual Trek. The Annual Trekkers consists of me, my sister, my son, & my neice. Every summer we take one day and play tourist. It always starts with breakfast and Science World (yes, I know it's called Telusphere but it will always be Science World to me) and whatever else that catches our fancy. This year's Science World attraction is the Secrets of the Pharaoh Lego display. Really cool! I kept thinking how I would love a job that lets me play with Lego all day! We all had a great time. The new updated displays were very informative and fun. I'm just a big kid. :) Unfortunately, I think it must have been Day Camp day or something because I think every day camp in the city was there. The place was full of screaming pushy kids - we just ignored them.

The two kids had fun. It was strange to see the two of them together - great hulking teenagers - still enjoying an outing with the moms. Not sure how many more Annual Treks we may have but I'm hoping for at least another year.

Socks

As much as I pretend, I'm just not one of those people who start a pair of socks and finish them in 3 days time. The socks I was hoping to have done by Friday are still not done. I might have finished them if I had remembered to bring them with me on the Annual Trek. That's ok. My sister's birthday is not until next week. I can mail them to her. I'm halfway through the feet now.

Thanks to Rusty for the reminder the Guild Pillow Challenge is coming up (Ack! September!). I've gone into Mild Panic Mode trying to think of something. It's a Weavers and Spinners Guild. Since I don't weave, it means I could either spin something and knit it into a pillow or knit something with commercial yarns and full it into a pillow. I like the second choice. Paton's Classic Merino fulls up really really well. And thanks to January One for the Knitted Log cabin idea. The sample swatch fulled into a perfect mug rug size - I'm done for the Christmas exchange too! :D

Do you have yarn in your stash that you absolutely love? That, as soon as you saw the yarn in the store, you just knew it would be perfect for a particular project? That's how I felt about the Elspeth Lavold Hempathy. I knew it would make the perfect cardigan. I told myself I just need to find the right pattern for it. I've tried so many patterns (some I've made up) and nothing seems right. Tried it with different needles. It's just not happening the way I see it in my mind. It keeps telling me that it would make the perfect tank top but I had my heart set on a cardigan. I think it's best if I just re-skein this yarn and put it away for now.

*I'm having problems uploading pics so I'm not going to stress about this.

Mutant Sunflower invasion

We have giant sunflowers growing in the back yard. Rick is 6' tall so I think the tallest one might be 12'. This picture was taken yesterday and today, they're even taller and the fourth flower has opened.

The fun thing is that we never planted them. In between the sunflowers is our tiny little apple tree. Last year, one sunflower sprung up in the dirt around the apple tree. We let it grow. I think the Stellar Jays must have brought the seeds in from a neighour. They're always in our yard for the crabapples. The Jays, not the neighbour. The flower from last year was just as tall. By the end of the summer, the seed head was about 12" wide. The Jays would fly at it, hang upside down and peck at the seeds. These flowerrs are from the dropped seeds last year.

The little apple tree is doing really well. We feed it quite a bit since it has to share the space with the sunflowers. One thing we noticed is that the tree is doing better, surrounded by the flowers. It had been touch and go for the two years with all sorts of problems and insects. I don't know if the sunflowers are helping but the apple tree doesn't seem to have any of the blights.

Sock Cuffs

Of all the different styles of knitting a sock cuff, this one is probably the best (in my humble opinion). I credit this to Elizabeth Zimmerman. I'm sure lots of other people over the history of knitting had done the same thing but EZ was where I first learned about this. Combined this with a K2P2 ribbing and you have the perfect cuff!

Cast on double the stitches you'll need over two needles in the size you're going to knit with. Pull out one needle. First round, knit or purl two stitches together - whatever you chose for the ribbing. By far, the superior sock cuff. I like using two needles to cast on because when I pull out the extra needle, it leaves lots of room for me to easily knit/purl 2tog without struggling. Easier on my hands.

Stand up and take a bow!

The strangest thing happened this morning. On the commute this morning I decided to finish off my sock-in-progress. I only had two more rows of decreases left. With that done, I whipped out my sewing needle and grafted the toes together. As the last sock came off the last needle, I looked up and noticed EVERYONE watching me. One person started to applaud and everyone else joined in. Apparently, most of these people have watched me knit almost everyday but they had never seen the finishing. Usually I do that at home.

Too funny!

Triple Picker

It was a beautiful day to be driving out to Chilliwack to pick up my Triple Picker today. Not too hot. Traffic was light. We were greeted at the door by Paula and Pumpkin the cat. Their farm is absolutely amazing! Not only did we leave with a Triple Picker but Paula gave us a big bag of green beans, apricots, tomatoes & cucumbers!

They can't stress enough about the safety of using one of these. Warnings and caution stickers were all over the picker. It came with safety bars and a padlock. Rick took one look at it and insisted on a side trip to Lee Valley Tools for leather gloves. Good thing these gloves are long. I can see myself raking my arms over the nails.

I LOVE my Triple Picker. I tried it out on a fleece that I call my dirty little secret. It's a Romney cross - possibly merino cross, I think. I was not as careful with the washing as I could have been and the locks matted. Then I tried to salvage it by dyeing it in an Indigo bath last summer. By the end of it all, it was quite matted and really difficult to tease apart. I should have known better.

I pulled it out today and put some of it through the picker. What I thought was unusable came out so nice and fluffy! 1/2 hour of picking gave me 3/4 full garbage bag. Some bits were put through twice because it was so badly matted.

The Triple Picker opens up the fibre but it doesn't pick out second cuts. It does flick out quite a bit of VM, though. I think, with some of the finer fibres, I'll probably still hand tease first. This stuff is good enough to spin as is without carding it into batts.

I think I need to go spin a sample now. :)

Knitting Rambles

The weather is certainly different today. Much MUCH cooler! I'm actually glad that we're expecting rain this weekend. This picture came from the weathercam on Jericho Beach.


Last night I was tidying up my Stuff Room. I needed to find some space for my brand spanking new Triple Picker that's coming home on Saturday. I found way too many UFOs lying around. And these were not the ones that have been laying around for the last 20-plus years...current projects from the last six months. Three sets of unfinished socks...that's what happens when I knit one sock at a time. I always change the pattern as I knit and I always forget what changes I've made. AND I always tell myself that I'll remember because it's only one little change. Hahahaha!! They have now been reconstituted back into skeins and gone back into the stash.

I've tried keeping a knitting notebook with me. Over the years I think I've purchased as many little notebooks as I have UFOs. The problem is that I'm not consistant in using them. I have good intentions but bad follow-through. The notebook is always in another part of the house or in another bag when I need to jot something down. Pages get wrinkled or ripped out when the notebook is stuffed in the bottom of my bag. Maybe the problem is not the notebook but a better knitting bag. I'm still searching for the PERFECT knitting bag. I don't want a big one to carry ALL my knitting stuff...just one that's big enough for my current project that I can carry around the house, small enough to fit in my backpack to take to work. I have many bags that came close but just not quite right when I use them for a while.

So you see, it's not my fault that I'm not finishing things. I need to go shopping for a better bag...or a new notebook.

I think it's just easier to knit both socks together at the same time.

We're Back!

I love Mayne Island! Time move slowly there. Island time. One week felt like three. People move slower there. Animals move slower there. Mayne Island is such a nice place. I suspect it's so clean and tidy because the deer population eat everything that's not surrounded by six feet of chicken wire. They are cute, though. We saw 2 goats, 2 horses, 1 cow, 1 squirrel, 4 eagles, 2 herrons, and a number of seal heads bobbing in the water. No sheep. Apparently, Saturna Island is the island to visit if you want sheep. The way the ferry schedule worked out, we didn't get a chance to visit any of the other islands.

The place was nice and quiet. It was the perfect place to get away and do nothing. We did a bit of kayaking, a lot of hiking, and walking on the beach. Most of the waterfront areas are rocky and perfect for beachcombing and tidal pool watching...which is what I like. The one area that was sandy was so crowded. If I wanted to sit in a crowd, I would have just stayed home and headed out to Kits Beach here. I find it boring to just sit on the beach all day.


We checked out a few local attractions like the Lighthouse. The beach around the Lighthouse is perfect for tidal pool watching. Lots of small crabs, minnows and starfish. The rocks along here were all worn out by the tide to create natural chairs forsitting and watching the ferries go by.

The view at the top of Mt. Parke was spectacular! Mount Parke Regional Park had lots of trails for hiking that were pretty easy and some not so easy. Apparently we took the harder trail up. Wondered why we were the only ones huffing and puffing at the top.

I found Indian Pipe flowers growing all through Mt. Parke. They're a strange looking plant, all white and waxy-looking. As they mature, the flowers blacken. The plant doesn't have chlorophyll and survive by sucking nutrients from nearby tree roots. Medicinally, they're used as a poultice for wounds that are hard to heal.

I was disappointed that I didn't acquire any new fibres. Hatake Farms was not open for visitors because Linda O'Brien was away. I was not able to arrange a visit to Meadowmist Farms either. That's ok. I had enough to keep me busy. I did re-read all six Harry Potter books, the Alden Amos spinning book. On the fibre side, I knitted half a sock, half a sweater, and 3 more rows on my lace shawl.

It's been fun.

It's hot here!

It's hot and muggy inside the house. The windows are still taped up and covered with plastic. The weather has not been good for painting. The painters have only painted one day this week. They were supposed to be done by Friday and it's already Thursday. Still, I'm not going to worry about it. Only two more sleeps before we go away. I've finally decided on what to bring - sock in progress, lace shawl knitting, and a sweater project. Plus my wheel with three fibres - silk/cotton, silk/merino, & Polworth. That should keep me out of trouble for the week.

Soccer and Knitting just don't mix!

Italy won the World Cup and the month-long soccer fest is over for another 4 years. It's been fun. Soccer is really the only sport I watch...and even so, my understanding of it is limited. I enjoy the game for what it is.

I can't help but wonder if it would be better to come in third place than lose to second. Germany won and they were ecstatic! I'm sure there was a lot of celebrating that night. France came in second and they all looked like someone killed their cat. Second in the world is really not bad but I guess it's all psychological...losing to second place and winning third place.

One thing to remember for next World Cup - it's really not a good idea to knit lace and watch exciting games at the same time. Saturday's match between Germany & Portugal resulted in frogging back 7 rows - that's 1,400 stitches. I wasn't paying attention and a couple of misplaced yarnovers shifted the pattern over.

The house has been prepped and ready for painting today. Another week and I'm off on vacation! I've been thinking of what fibre projects to bring with me. A quick easy sock project for traveling. Spinning wheel is coming but haven't decided on the fibre yet. Probably my lace just in case. I'm deciding whether to bring the Sweater Surprise or start a new sweater. The Sweater Surprise is almost done...just need to finish the sleeves and sew everything together. I think I need a new sweater project.

Knitting News and Happy Canada Day!

I love knitting lace and especially lace shawls. I don't wear them so they are usually packed away and eventually given away as gifts. Sometimes it may take months and even years before a shawl is finally "gifted".

The Wedding Shawl/Afghan is NOT done. In my deepest heart, I think I knew it was not meant to be. Especially after restarting it for the 4523rd time. This is something I should take a bit more time with. It will be a shame to rush through this and come up with something less than what I wanted. Besides, my family kindly pointed out it may not be something my cousin and her new husband would want and it's not something that they can return to a store if it's not to their liking. I really don't know them well enough to make them something. Does it sound like I'm trying to justify this? Heh! I am.

With this realization, I decided to re-do the border. I changed the pattern and used a larger needle size. I think I'm liking this one.

The pattern repeats every 15 rows. I was thinking of 20 repeats before turning the corners. That would give me 300 inside stitches. I'll have to adjust the snowflake pattern a bit.


Madli Shawl

The Madli Shawl (Interweave Press Summer 2004) is completed! I'm quite pleased with it.





The wool is from a Polworth fleece that I wash, carded, and spun myself. There is something special in looking at the finished product and thinking - Wow! I made that! I REALLY made that from start to finish! Short of raising the sheep myself, I REALLY, REALLY made it all!!

It's a cool feeling. :D

Finished measurements: 64" x 21" blocked
Fibre: Raw Polworth from Penelope Fibres.
Weight: 107gms
WIP: 28-30 wpi - The spinning was not as consistent as it should be.
Needles: 4mm circular

The pictures should have been taken against a different background but the painters will be here shortly to powerwash the house. Didn't have time.



Happy Canada Day! I'm off to watch the World Cup Quarter Finals - England and Portugal. It should be a really good game.

*click on the pictures for larger pics.