The first casualty of Puppy Cas

It's a good thing she's so cute...look at what she did to my alpaca mitten!!

Stuff

It took a while but I think I've figured out how to add my blog to Google+. We went to see Joel Plaskett on Saturday night at the Vogue Theatre. I love seeing concerts there. The nice surprise of the evening was the opening act - David Vertiesi. Normally, opening acts don't thrill me but this guy was really good. Good enough to buy his CD. On the knitting front - not a lot of knitting being done. Still working on the sleeve of the cotton cardigan. It's now taken two weeks to knit one sleeve. Puppy snuggling seems to be the priority in this house now.

Puppy pics and a couple of knitted bunnies

There's not a lot of time to write up anything. Right now, Cas is distracted by her squeeky ball. Thank goodness for squeeky balls! She has a new sleeping area...the shoe crate by the back door. She will crawl into the back, push all the shoes out and make herself a little puppy nest.














Knitted a couple of little bunnies for Easter. Made these before we got the dog. I may not be able to knit for a long time. Cas seems to be fascinated by the knitting needles.

*sigh*

Life has a way of happening on Wednesdays

It seems that life happens on Wednesdays around here. There's some kind of cosmic force that's keeping me from going to meet up with the Twisted group.

This week's distraction is...THE PUPPY!!

Meet Cas, short for Castiel. She's nine weeks old. We weren't expecting her until Saturday but was able to bring her home today.



Once she warmed up to us, we discovered Cas has two modes: sound asleep or running around like a little black ball of mercury.






Yes, Tammy, those puppy ears are very snorgle-able. :)

Puppies

Tonight we went to look at some puppies. Needless to say, one cannot just go "look at puppies" without wanting at least one or two of the cute furry fuzzballs. I remember saying to my hubby that unless these pupplies looked like half-eaten zombie puppies, it's pretty much a given that we're getting one. It was really tough picking out one that all three of us were happy with.

Sorry, no cute puppy pictures. They have to be checked out by the vet, go through all their shots, etc before we can bring one home.

I'm quite excited.

Natural Selection at work here...

We got a new bird feeder. It's one of those squirrel-proof ones...if a squirrel does manage to jump on the ring, the weight of the squirrel pull the ring down and close the feeder. We've been getting flocks of Pine Siskins living in our backyard for the last month or so. They're very aggressive with the other birds and will clean out the whole feeder in about a day or less.

Squirrels love them as these birds will knock the seeds out of the feeder onto the ground. Seconds before I took this picture, there were close to 50 birds covering the trellis and feeder. All that's left are a lot of blurrs and the squirrel on the ground. The squirrel took off a second later.

It seems that we now have a couple of residence falcons using this place as their version of Watership Down.



Whenever the whole flock is spooked and takes off, we know one of the falcons are near. Sometimes there would be the one bird left, pecking away at the seeds on the ground. That one usually ends up being falcon food.

Bunny Chunks

My latest obession may seem a bit odd. I've been drawing little tiny bunnies on a sketch app in my ipod Touch. Instead of knitting on the morning trains, I've been doodling.



Don't ask why that middle bunny is tilted.

Not so instant Instagram

I love the idea of Instagrams and how cool the pictures look. Unfortunately, there is no Instagram for my phone and I do not like the iPhone. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPod Touch but just can't see me switching for an iPhone anytime soon. There is a workaround solution. Download Instagram to my Touch, take the picture on my camera phone and email it to myself. Pick it up on the Touch, play around with the Instagram stuff, and email it back to myself. Yeah, I thought it was too much work too.



Apparently, Instagram does not like the higher resolutions. It took me a couple of tries in finding which resolution worked the best.

Despite the bit of rain we've been having, the weather has been gorgeous for the most part. My favourite fall days are the cold, crisp sunny days. Just bundle up in your cozy handknitted woollies and it's all good.

Yesterday we got a really nice treat at work - a tour up on the catwalk. I've been up on the ring beam of the old roof and been up on the old roof before but this was much scarier. Not a place you want to be if you don't like heights.



The stairs and the catwalk are the grated metal kind...the kind where you can see ALL the way down. Ick! I'm usually okay when it comes to heights but this was making me go weak in the knees by the time we got up to the actual catwalk.



Things that makes me happy:
1. I have the next ten days off!
2. My fibre friends welcoming me back into the fold after my long absence.
3. It's December and Christmas shows are back on TV!

It's a perfect day!!

To make up for working last Sunday, I took a couple of hours off today to get my haircut. It's one of those haircut where you trust the stylist and tell her to surprise you...which she did, in a good way. Really happy with the cut. On the way back to work, I stopped off at Sweet Georgia Yarns to pick up my fibre club stuff for October & November. October's fibre is a blend of superwash Merino, bamboo, and nylon. November's fibre is Polworth and silk.

A great hair cut and fibre. You would think that all this would be enough for a perfect day but no, it got better. Got back to the office and there was a message from home that my Hansen minispinner had arrived.




Perfect day!!!!

King of Coffeemakers

My Hansen mini spinner is not here yet but the new coffee maker arrived on Friday. It's a very unusual looking machine this Technivorn Mochamaster. It's handmade...yes, handmade coffee maker. While not quite as awwsome as a mini spinner, it's a pretty amazing coffee maker. What makes it so special is that it actually brews coffee at the right temperature!


On the knitting front, I finished the Stockholm shawl in record time. My motivation was the very cold mornings waiting for the train. Long enough to wrap around twice and wide enough to pull over my head as a hood.


Pithy details: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in dark brown, roughly 3-ish skeins (yarn reclaimed from a project that was destined to be unfinished). 7 mm needles, cast on 252 sts and knitted in the round. Knitted to 16" wide and blocked to 13". Silly me washed it in warm water.

Made it through the dark tunnel...

...and there was light at the other end. I promised myself that I was going to meet up with the Twisted last Wednesday. It was time to get my life back in order, get back the stuff that's important to me.

Sometimes plans change. When I got home from work that Wednesday, fate decided I was going to stay home...and ordered this.

Very much a SQUEEE worthy moment.

Roof from the inside

Nervousness and sleepless nights are all part of the package now. It's about a month to re-opening day and things are really jumping at work. Everyone is walking around with a glazed look.

Our department is slated to move back in two weeks. I'm going to really miss it here at the Waterfront. Miss all the yummy food carts at walking distance...back to the dust, noise, steel toe shoes, and hard hats everyday.

Hot! Hot! HOTHOTHOT!!

It's hot today. It wasn't that hot when I left the house this morning. Cool-ish enough to grab a sweater. By mid-day, it was HOT! Extra hot if you're walking on concrete. And no one felt like cooking today so a decision was made to go out for sushi. The perfect meal for a hot day. Cold raw fish in an air conditioned restaurant. Followed by black sesame ice cream.

Which led me to google black sesame ice cream recipes. Now I have to go find the ice cream maker. :)


No explanation for this picture except that everyone needs a random shadow picture once in a while.

Didn't mean to leave it so long...

I had forgotten my password to log in...it's one of those things when you try too hard to remember something and it just doesn't happen. And then if you leave it for a while, your fingers automatically remembers the right sequence to type and you're in!

Old age will do that to you.

So far, I have no new finished projects. Stuff are on the needle but knitting half-heartedly. Summer has been nice but super busy. Work is getting stressful again. I haven't decided if it's good stress or bad stress. Just a different kind of stress than before. There's so much to do getting a world-class stadium ready & re-open in less than 50 days. It's really REALLY scary!

I did managed to take a few days off and we went on our Annual Trek. The Annaul Trek was a tradition my sister and I started when the kids were teeny. Our usual trek was to ride the Westcoast Express downtown, have breakfast, wander through Science World, BC Mining Museum, etc. It was something we loved doing. Over the years, BC Mining Museum went away and Science World got old. It was hard to come up with something different. This year's trip was to Britannia Mines. I haven't been there since the renovations and it was really a lot of fun.


All the old core samples were kept in trays here. There must be millions and millions of them. The guide was telling us how valuable and extensive this collection was, etc and not to touch. At that point, I looked at the group and most of us had a core sample in our hands and guilty looks on our faces. She might have mentioned that first.


It was a fun day. We wandered around the mine, panned for gold (got some interesting shiny rocks), then drove to Squamish for a tasty lunch. The weather was great and a good time was had by all. Our kids are older now and I'm not sure how many more Annual Treks they'll put up with but I'm hoping there's at least one more.

I got a call Saturday morning from Helen at Black Sheep Yarns. She said that those bags we were drooling over the other day are in...do I still want one? HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!

Within 15 mins I was at the store.


The pockets are really nice and deep so you don't have to worry about things falling out. The inside is HUGE!

And it's reversible too! It will hold a knitting project or more PLUS whatever else you'll need. A beautifully made bag.

Of course, if you have a new knitting bag, you must have new yarn to go with it, right?

Madeline Tosh Light.

I was thinking of a light shawl for that yarn. I even started one today, right after I finsihed Amiga Three. Did about 3 inches and changed my mind.


It's amazing what a difference a sunny day makes. When I took the pictures for My Amiga, it was a very dreary cloudy day. The colour kept looking more green than yellow.



Pithy details on Amiga Three - Louet's Euroflax 100% wet spun linen, knitted on 5.5 mm needles. No real modifications to the pattern except on the front band. I did a simple yarn over eyelet. No buttons. If I decide to add buttons later, I can use the eyelets as buttonholes. No blocking but threw it in the washing machine on a gentle wash, followed by 15 mins in the dryer.

Interesting the lint that came off this yarn...it's like paper.

Gingerbread Cake

Gingerbread Cake...my new favourite. So good with coffee. I need to make a variation of this with chocolate. Gingerbread Brownie Cake has a nice ring to it.

Amiga Too

This is the Amiga Too from the Amiga pattern from Knitty. And I've started a third one. I really don't think I've ever knitted the same sweater pattern three times in a row. Love this pattern. It's a quick simple pattern that is easily adapted to pretty much any type of yarn. This version is more snug fitting than the first version. I added the feather & fan inserts on the bottom and sleeves. The sleeves are tapered to the elbows then flared slightly by the lace. No buttons on this one.

I started Amiga Three in linen. Loving this one so far and can't wait to see it finished.

And just to show that everything is not always about knitting...



Things that makes me happy:
1. It was sunny today. Time to plan more picnic lunches at work!
2. Long weekend coming up and the weather is supposed to be nice.
3. My cellphone. With this phone, I always have a camera with me.

Knitting in April 2011

April turned out to be a bit of a stash busting month. It wasn't really intentional...just so happened that the projects finished this month were knitted from the stash.

Ribwarmer is one of my favourite designs by one of my favourite designers - Elizabeth Zimmerman. This ribwarmer vest is a modification of her design from the Fall 1997 Knitter's magazine. It's done in one piece with no seams if you graft the shoulders together. It's a great pattern for odds & ends of leftover yarn and it really knits up fast.


Well, that's interesting. Blogger is being weird and I'm not able to post another picture.

That's ok. The other sweater was just a plain simple shell knitted from Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. I love this yarn but it pills if you look at it sideways. I'm sure it's one of the reasons this yarn was discontinued. The pattern is Amiga from Knitty. A great versitile pattern that's good with all different yarns. Just started the second one in a grey wool.

Echos in Alpaca

I saw a really fascinating scarf/shawl, whatever in the Spring issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern was for a reversible cable scarf that can be used as a shawl. Reversible cable...the same on both sides. Great concept!

Got it! Made it! And here are pictures to prove it!



The yarn is the Baby Alpaca from Diamond Yarns. So very soft!

Exactly two skiens used to knit it to pattern measurements.

If I were to do this again, I would do the 1-stitch buttonhole instead of two as the pattern suggested. I found the button holes a bit big once you dropped the stitches. I ended up closing up the buttonholes with a bit of sewing thread.



I didn't like the loose loop of yarn after you dropped the stithces. Next time, I would knit to the second to last row before binding off, knit to the stitch you will need to drop, drop the stitch and knit through, drop next stitche, knit to the end. Then cast off on the following row. I thought about going back & redo the last two rows but didn't feel like it.

According to the pattern, it should be wide enough to be draped over your shoulders like a shawl but I found it a bit too narrow for me. Worked great as a cowl, though. If I were to use it as a shawl, I would double the stitches.

Things that makes me happy:
1. Spring is here...first tulips are up and blooming. Same with daffidils.
2. Wandering around the seawall at lunch.
3. Weather is still cool enough to wear knit stuff.

Someone had a bad day...

Overheard on the train today...

Two construction he-man types were sitting together, taking up a total of four seats. They had their bags and dirty gear thrown over the extra two seats. One guy deliberately put his dirty work boots up on the seat across from him and pretended to adjust his laces everytime the train stopped at a station...just so people would be so grossed out that they wouldn't want to sit there. I could hear them talking about that. Couldn't miss their conversation - they were quite loud and obnoxious in their opinion of us dainty office worker types. When the train pulled into the final station, the two men gathered up their belongs and disembarked from the train. The man with the shoe lace trick left a bag under his seat. No one said anything.

That's justice.

Only crazy people take pictures of their yarn...

I will admit to being a little bit crazy...


...but this is Madeline Tosh pure silk lace, 100% Tussah silk, hand-dyed. What you can't see in the picture is the green tones in there. Silk is so hard to photograph. I could probably be able to capture the colours with the big camera but I really wanted to see what this little cellphone camera could do. The picture doesn't tell you how scrumptiously soft this stuff is. A total of 2000 yards. I have a couple of ideas for this yarn but nothing definitely yet.

Love it when the weather forecast is wrong!

Last Friday, the forecast was for rain and snow. I think they were off by just a bit.


It's late...

Another Lazy Sunday

Today's Sunday activity was spinning. And making cheese muffins. Cheese muffins are like scones but takes a lot less work.


Fibre is from Sweet Georgia's fibre club from September 2009. I'm that far behind on my spinning. The colourway is "Enchanted Forest". As I'm spinning it I can picture Robin Hood wearing a cloak made of this fibre, hiding amongst the trees in Sherwood Forest.

In between spinning and cheese muffins, time was spent playing with my new cell phone. As much as I'm going to miss my old phone, I'm loving this new one. It's basically a camera with a cell phone attached. :)


The first crocuses and snowdrops are coming up. Spring is not far behind.

Thankful for:
1. ...the lull between the storms that are the Olympics and the re-opening of the stadium.
2. ...my spinning wheel - spinning is so calming and peaceful.
3. ...our Canadian health care system.

Winter Cowl KAL

This isn't a cowl but a shawlette (mini shawl). Started Jan 1/11, finished Jan 6/11. The fibre is from Sweet Georgia's fibre club but I can't find the tag with the description. All I know is that there's bamboo in there. Yarn is handspun by me.

Pattern is 198 yds of Heaven. I added an extra repeat to make it bigger (it's still a very samll shawl...more like a scarf, really). Great pattern - fast & easy to knit up.

Boxing Day

I think, of all of the days during the Christmas holidays, my favourite day is Boxing Day. It's a little like the hump day of Christmas and New Year's Day. I don't really care for the crowds of Boxing Day shoppers so it's a stay-at-home day for me. Boxing Day is when the craziness of Christmas has past, the presents have been opened, and everyone is relaxing to enjoy their new toys. You still have plenty of leftovers from the dinners previously so no cooking is required. There is still the holiday glow but you're not quite into the New Year's celebrations yet.

It's a day that you can sit around and catch up on all the Christmas specials that you recorded but haven't had time to watch. And knit.



Excuse the mismatched hat...she doesn't have hair yet.

6 More Sleeps to Christmas!

All the presents are wrapped & under the tree, just waiting for the BIG day. I'm counting down with 6 more sleeps to go.

This skein of Madeline Tosh Pashmina (75% Merino, 15% Silk, 10% Cashmere - colourway - Fjord) was a celebratory knitting project. The chosen project was the Eleanor Cowl from Knitty. The yarn was absolutely yummy to knit with and the pattern was quick. It only took a couple of days. I didn't weight the cowl but there seems to be a fair bit of yarn left. Possibly enough for a pair of fingerless mittens.

What else have I been doing? Finished spinning from Sweet Georgia's fibre club. Unfortunately, it's been on my wheel so long that I've forgotten which month the fibre was from.

I also started another Barn Sweater. A barn sweater is just a simple basic sweater...the kind you would throw on to go out to muck out the barn, if you have one. I don't have a barn but I like comfy sweaters. I love working with the Berroco Ultra Alpaca (50% Alpaca, 50% Wool) for the Ribbed Cardigan that I'm making a Barn Sweater in brown.

Lazy Sunday

I really should have been studying but it's really cold today and we got a light dusting of snow. I took that as a sign that I should knit something warm...like a hat...Sweet Georgia's Ballard Slouch hat, to be exact. A quick knit for a slightly snowy Sunday. I found a leftover skein of Lorna's Laces that was perfect. One thing I didn't factor in was that if you wet block it, it will take time to dry. So no new hat for me to wear tomorrow.

Brain hurts

My brain hurts right now. For the past four weeks, I've been thinking, eating, dreaming Organizational Behaviour and I have another three weeks to go. I'm not used to this. I miss knitting. I miss watching tv. I miss vacuming. Ok, that last one is a lie.

Summer is really over.

So here we sit, feeling smug that we haven't broken down & turned on the heat yet. Thinking that maybe we'll make it to November. Then we found out that the swine kid has been turning on the heat. We lost.

You can really tell that summer is really over.

I wished I did more knitting over the summer...I could really use another sweater or two right now.

Things to be thankful for:

1. No leaks here at home and no leaks in my office at work.
2. I don't work outside in the rain and cold.
3. Westcoast Express trains are heated in the winter. It's all very civilized.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Things to be thankful for:

1. Growing up with a great dad. I still miss him after all these years. Especially at Thanksgiving as it usually fell on his birthday.

2. Hot water heater broke but thankful it wasn't the great disaster that it could have been. A few days of inconvenience of washing in cold water is nothing compared to the water damage that could have happened.

3. My son. Looking at my cousin's new baby tonight reminded me of all the silly things my son used to do. Now he's an adult. I'm very proud of him. :)

4. The use of my hands. If I lost my eyesight, I could still knit. But if I lost the use of my hands, I would go crazy. One can't take anything for granted.

This was my favourite vacation picture taken at the top of the hill of the Plains of Abraham, overlooking Old Quebec City.

Vacation meanderings...feel free to skip this post.

Really enjoyed Montreal and Quebec City. Beautiful old buildings with lot of history. Everything seems to have burnt down at one point or another. We walked everywhere and I do mean WALK. They weren't kidding when they said there's a church on every block. Somewhere on the second day, after visiting the 50th church, we stopped going in. Mont Royal was interesting. We were walking along and I asked my husband how far until we get to the mountain. He said we're on it. It's a very small mountain. By B.C. standards and the true definition of the word mountain, it's almost a hill. Still, it was a beautiful walk. Old Montreal was really touristy and it was very crowded. If you don't like crowds, don't go on a Saturday when the Tall Ships are in. We went back the following Monday and it was much better.

I wasn't looking but came across one yarn shop in Montreal. It was an odd little store. All the yarn was in cones and stacked in boxes like a warehouse. The prices were by the weight. You would go in and pick out what you wanted and a little old man would wind it off the cones and weight your yarn on an old scale. I couldn't tell what was the material for most of the yarn. Another thing that surprised me was how many people smoked in Montreal. Although, you can't smoke in stores, there's no bylaw that says they have to be a certain number of feet away from the entrance. There were a couple of old ladies smoking just at the entrance and it made the yarn inside smell like cigarette smoke to me. Blech!

In Quebec City, we stayed in Old Quebec. The hotel was really small and quaint but in a good way. No rusty beds. Again, we walked everywhere. Plains of Abraham, Battlefield Park, Old Quebec, the lower city, EVERYWHERE. One would think that with all the walking, I would drop pounds but paired with all the good eating we did, I'm lucky the net gain was only one pound.

Toronto could have definitely be a miss for me. What made it worthwhile was seeing old friends and meeting people I've heard my husband talk about over the years. He hasn't seen some of these people in nearly thirty years. Most of these guys knew each other in highschool band and are still playing music for fun. Some of them are in the music business there and some just play in bands on weekeneds. They got together at the place we were staying and played. That was a lot of fun. Good food, good conversation, good music, and good people.

Yarn-wise, Toronto was the only real wool stop. Visited Lettuce Knit and Romni Wools. Lettuce Knit is like any LYS anywhere. Romni Wools was filled to the brim with yarn. I convinced my friend to start knitting again. Overall, I bought one measuring tape (forgot mine at home) and one ball of yarn. Honestly, there was nothing that I saw that I couldn't get in Vancouver.

As fun as it was to go away, it's so nice to be back home. Two weeks is a long time for me...I start missing things like my own pillow and my coffee mug. Just before we left, we got our new stove delievered. I'm so glad I took an extra week off. It has been nice and relaxing. Dusted stuff (house needed serious dusting), tried out the new convection oven (baked muffins), knitted stuff (made pumpkins), and general relaxing.

Thunder and Lightning

Last Wednesday, lightning struck a house half a block away. It was loud, very loud. Thank goodness no one was hurt. The chiminey was damaged. For some reason, that affected our internet. We finally got our internet back on Friday and our WIFI back last night. It was the weirdest feeling not being able to access the internet whenever you want.

Reasonable thoughts

My brain is saying that it is completely silly to pack ALL the yarn for the projects I'm knitting during our trip. I have never EVER knitted an entire sweater in two weeks. But...in my heart, I can't bear the remote possibility of running out of yarn and not be able to knit. This is not reasonable. The only way I'm going to run out of things to knit on this trip is if the plane flew into some kind of time warp where the ratio of their time to ours is 25 years to 3 days. But still...I'm bringing the yarn...just in case.

The grey shrug is done and I love it. The green one has been ripped back and is now ready for whatever's next.

I've been in a finishing mood lately and finally finish the button bands on the purple ribbed cardigan. After four attempts, I went with my original plan of rib 2x2, simple two row buttonholes. The dumb thing was making the buttonholes without choosing the buttons first. You kinda have to keep your fingers crossed that you're going to find buttons that you like and will fit the hole. I was lucky. I found some really nice vintage glass buttons at Black Sheep Yarns yesterday. They fit perfectly and looked great on the cardigan. The drawback was that the sewing hole on the buttons were too small. If they were plastic, I could heat a needle and widen the hole but you can't do that with glass. Bummer. The buttons are great and I can probably use them with something else but the poor cardigan is still buttonless. The yarn is Berroco's Ultra Aplaca - Lavender Mix. Soft and easy to knit. Love it so much that I bought some more yesterday...in bunny colour. :)

Shrug Version 3

Version 3 is doing well. Version 3 is completely different from the previous versions as I didn't bother ripping out the original shrug. I just started a brand new one with yarn I bought for a second shrug. New yarn, new colour. I'm coming to the tail end of the second ball and already at the start of the second sleeve. Definitely will have enough yarn with just four balls. Amazing how things work out if you follow directions. This time, I'm following the pattern...with really minor adjustments.

Our Montreal/Quebec trip has been booked. Hotels, planes, trains, blah, blah, blah...all done. Knitting projects have been sorted out and ready to be packed. Itouch loaded with patterns of each project. Thought about taking my spinning wheel but decided against that. Yarn & Fibre places have been checked out on Ravelry and on the internet. Directions for these places have been printed out. All the important stuff done.

Shrugging off the Shrug

Version 1 - I hate sewing so I thought it would be brilliant to knit the shrug in the round. I always get gauge so didn't bother doing a swatch. By the time I finished the first sleeve and was well on my way through the back, I decided the fabric was too tight. I wanted something looser. Ripped everything out and started with bigger needles.

Version 2 - This time, I casted on for the sleeve and knitted 4" and checked the gauge. Close enough...just off by a stitch or two. No problem. I wanted the shrug to be on the big side anyway. Merrily knitted the first sleeve, the back, and then the second sleeve. Keeping in mind that I wanted this shrug to be loose, I added 2 extra inches. Did I mention that because I wanted it on the big side, I casted on for the largest size? Well, I did. According to the pattern, this would give me 22" across the back when all done.

This morning, I noticed that I have only less than half a ball left and I still have the ruffles to do. Odd. I don't usually run out of yarn. Off I go to the LYS and found out they were out of the colour I'm using. If I'm lucky, I might have enought to do a simple edging. Got home and knitted the last three rows. I decided to pin the shrug together & make sure everything fits before binding off. It was too big. Measured it and it turns out that it was 5" too big across the back. 27" across the back meant that it was falling-off-my-shoulders-too-big. No wonder I ran out of yarn.

Version 3 will have to wait until another day when I'm not so frustrated.

Things that save the day:
1. Picked up fibre from Sweet Georgia. Can't wait to spin that.
2. Picked up more Noro Shirakaba in a different colour in case I want to make another shrug. This time, I bought extras.
3. First time ever! Four balls of Noro and only found two knots.

Twit

Twitter is a strange bird. Is there a prize you get for having lots of followers? Is that why people get all bent out of shape if you stop following them or not follow them back? I'm afraid I've offended a few people there. Oh well. Life goes on.

Teeny Tiny Tomatoes!!

When I first saw these, I thought they were jelly beans! Super teeny tiny cherry tomatoes. Weird year for growing veggies. I think the weather got too hot too fast and the poor little tomatoes didn't have a chance to grow before ripening. They're very tasty, though. It's like all the flavours of a regular tomato squished into a little jelly bean sized package.




I'm really going to miss being down by the waterfront when the construction for the Stadium is done. One could get used to the view here. This pic was taken this morning. No filter on the cell phone camera so the colour is a bit off.



A couple times a week, there would be a cruise ship parked in this spot. I love the atmosphere here when the place is teeming with lost tourists. It makes you feel like you're almost on vacation yourelf. :)

Things that makes me happy:
1. Teeny tiny tomatoes are better than no tomatoes.
2. Living in a place where people come for vacations.
3. Gibson's Fibre Fest this Friday! And I have 2 days off!

Woohoo! Blueberry crop!

Seriously! This is it. Our entire blueberry crop to date. Ok, not really...there were three more blueberries on that plate which got taste tested.

I really don't understand it. Things that are supposed to be super easy to grow would just not grow for us. Things that are supposed to be difficult to grow would spead like wildfire. To date, we have not successfully grown rhubarb. We've tried using store bought plants from reputable garden centres and cutting from friend's tried & try plants...nothing. I guess we can now add blueberries to that list now.

Things that are Double Rainbow:
1. Stat holiday Mondays.
2. Cooler weather for knitting & spinning.
3. Ice coffee cubes for making iced coffees.

Psst to Gillian - good idea about VitD. I will look into that. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt I could convince the guys to switch from cow's milk. I don't care for cow's milk so this is a great alternative for me.