Big Sky Saturday

As you can probably guess from the title we were in Montana at the weekend. It was about 3 1/2 hour drive to East Glacier Park. Which wasn't a bad place to stay as it had a few restaurants.

So here is a picture of the big sky



At one of the water falls we saw a bird that flew in and out of the water. It floated under the water and jumped out at just the right time onto a rock. Considering how fast the water was flowing this was an amazing feat.



I took a lot of photos over the weekend many of them duplicates because I was trying different shutter speeds and I am not going to bore you with a load but this tree fascinated me as I could not see what the roots were growing into as I thought we were on solid rock but there must have been some goodness there somewhere.

The Yarn Harlot Stole My Idea

Actually, I don't think that's true. Although she is in the same country as me I'd be very surprised if she had ever come across my blog, but I thought that the "snappy" title would get someone's attention.

The title does have relevance and is not just a gratuitous reference to the Wise Knitter. In January I wrote about how nasty some people can get on-line. This week the Yarn Harlot has written about meanness in blogs. She doesn't mention anyone by name and doesn't say if the blog post is because she has been targeted or that she has come across nastiness in blogs that she feels is unnecessary even if she doesn't know that target.

So the Yarn Harlot did not copy me but it is nice to know that other people think that on-line nastiness is just, nasty. Although there are going to be some who will say 'get-over-it'.

Knitting and Sports

I take my knitting to the boy child's sporting events. Most of the time you are sitting down so why not knit? Now that he is playing lacrosse, I take something simple that I do not need to look at as lacrosse is a fast game.

My heart sank on Saturday when I saw the referees, I have mentioned them before as they just do not call anything. During the game one of the fathers commented on me knitting. "Normally you're laid back and knit along slowly but today because the game is so intense you are knitting really fast." It was true; when a game is poorly refereed you worry about what advantages the other team will take. Especially when early on in the game a fight breaks out because penalties haven't been called. I tell you my hands were moving so fast even I was surprised.

Unfortunately, at the game on Saturday and last night's game I experienced poor adult behaviour. Firstly, the boy child scored 3 of his team's first 4 goals. So the other team's coach said get number 12. And that means stop him anyway you can.

Secondly, one of our parents shouted really loudly "ref, you're an idiot". Which, not surprisingly, the referee took exception to. To cap it off they didn't think they had done anything wrong because they didn't swear. That gives you such a warm and fuzzy feeling to know they are part of your support.

Thirdly, yesterday the sister of one of our team got into a heated argument with one of the opposing team supporters and then her mother joined in. I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. At least the mother apologised when she saw how embarrassed I was.

Anyway that is it for another year; and we won't come across these parents next year as their son's are a year older than ours. But we will come across others like them, we will see more poor refereeing and more dirty teams. Such is the nature of sports and life.

Saturday Sky

I bet you're glad you waited for this one!



In California they call this June Gloom. Not sure what we should call it here. Anywhere else it would be April showers.

The good thing - don't have to water the garden.
The bad thing - grass is growing but it's too wet to cut
The good thing - we have a water butt (aka rain barrel)
The bad thing - it's not connected to a down spout (yet)

Some Quilting

I completed the 5th project from the I Can't Believe I'm Quilting book. All the fabric used had been given to me from my mother-in-law from her stash.



I have finally signed up for a quilting class. The spousal unit gave me some gift vouchers for the local quilt store and I decided to take a beginner lesson. Although I have taught myself quite successfully, I decided that I should start at the beginning in case there were any must know techniques. I had the first lesson (of three) on Tuesday. There were only 2 of us in the class which was great as we were able to proceed at our own speed. Whereas in bigger classes you either have to stop what you are doing to be shown the next step or wait for everyone to get to the same point.

I'll let you know at the end how useful the class was.

Some Knitting Content

The other day I mentioned that some knitting photos would appear so here they are. The photos actually came out better today; a grotty rainy day than the sunny day that I originally took them. And you gotta love digital cameras; there were still a few photos that were rejects. I usually have ISO on auto and have found in the past that changing it hasn't made any difference to the photos, this time I changed it to 400 and was pleased with the difference it made to the photos.






The pattern is Tiger Eyes from Socks Socks Socks. The picture in the book does not show the mock cabling for the back of the sock. I am a little annoyed with myself as I had hoped I had knit the length of the sock so that I only used one ball of yarn for both socks, but I ended up starting the second ball. So I am going to split this ball into two and work yet another toe-up pattern with it. All the socks I have made just lately have been toe-up.

The yarn I used was Regia in raspberry. This was yarn that I bought in the Boxing Day sale.

I have not cast on any more socks as maybe it is time for a break.

Almost Knitting

Almost knitting, "what's that?" you ask. It's when you intend to post photos of your latest completed projects but the photos aren't very clear. So, in the meantime, you take photos of the next stage of the garden project.


BEFORE



AFTER




That is 6 cubic yards of garden mix and one cubic yard of mulch that was moved from the front of the house to the flower beds in the back. The beds have been planted with seeds and plants so I just have to wait and see what decides to grow.

Knitting Update

I haven't mentioned knitting for a while although some has been taking place, mostly at sporting events. Here's an update on what I have been working on.

The recalcitrant yarn finally became a pair of socks.



The pattern is from Mag Knits. I found it after googling the gauge I obtained with the yarn.

The scarf is also completed. I did just keep knitting until I ran out of yarn. Not sure what I am going to do with it yet.





The pattern is My So Called Scarf and the yarn is Elaine by Schaefer although the colour I have is not shown on the website. This pattern worked well for the colourway as the different colours were broken up into small blocks.

Also I have completed a rib watch cap which will be for charity and I had enough yarn to make another one. This is a great sports project as it is a simple 2x2 rib. On the sock front I have nearly completed a pair of lacey socks. Expect pictures soon.

Saturday's Sky

Not sure if another picture of a tree counts as Saturday Sky but here goes anyway.



The tree is not well positioned but it was there when we moved in and we decided not to move it. It will end up an odd shape as we prune to fit the space available. I am really enjoying the smell of the apple blossom.

Saturday morning I went to the Horticultural Society Plant Exchange. I didn't have any plants to exchange but I was allowed to buy 5 plants for $2.00 each. I chose some for the shady parts of the garden.

Saturday afternoon I dug a new flower bed. Although by the state of the soil -good- and the decorative rocks I found I think there must have been a flower bed there at some point that other owners of the house didn't maintain so it got overgrown with dandelions.

I didn't think to take a before photo but here is a photo of one pile of dandelions I dug out.



And here is a photo of the dug flower bed. I still need to get some edging.



Yesterday I planted a Monks Hood and a Columbine.

And in case you need another photo, here are the rocks I found.

After - Part One

The male members of the household worked hard this weekend and I now have these:-




The next job is to order soil and then when the weather decides to behave I can start planting. Yes - we have snow forecast for tonight.

Saturday's Sky

A typical Spring sky for this week.

This is the tree in my neighbour's yard. I hope they didn't notice me taking the photo and wonder what I was up to. Although they are nice neighbours and wouldn't have minded anyway.

On the garden front; the male member's of the household started to build the raised beds and they are looking good.

Next Stage

Exciting things happened in our house last night. The lumber was purchased for my flower beds. I had drawn up the plans and worked out how much of each length of wood was required and then the men folk went off in the big truck to the lumber store.

Now you would think that men, truck, lumber store sounds like an ideal combination but, apparently, they weren't that excited about it.

The plan is to build the flower beds this weekend as it is a long weekend, but, like any holiday weekend rain is forecast.

No Saturday Sky

There's no photo of the Saturday's sky as I did not see much of it on Saturday. This weekend there was a lacrosse tournament so I spent much of my time driving to games, waiting for games to start and watching games. Plus the extra game I saw when I was doing my volunteer stint as floor supervisor.

The boy child's team won 2 of their 4 games but, more importantly, started to play as a team. Despite lax refereeing, their games were mostly clean. Unlike the game where I was floor supervisor. One team played very dirty. I wish referees in any sport would realise that the rules are in place not only for fairness but also to protect players' bodies.

With so much sport just lately there has been much on the knitting front. I will post photos soon.

Saturday's Sky

I didn't know if the title should be Saturday's Night Sky or Saturday Night's Sky. Here it is anyway.



Saturday dawned warm and sunny which was a relief after the rain (and snow) of the previous two days. The lawn wasn't dry enough to rake but I cleared the leaves out from the flower beds and trimmed the dead matter from the perennials. Today we laid the landscaping fabric on the big weed patch and I think it looks better already.

An Oldie

Here's another oldie but goodie that I finally finished yesterday.

The pattern is The Great American Kid's Afghan which appeared in Knitter's Magazine over a period of 4 months or so. I started the first square on 1 May 2004. I was working on other projects so didn't complete all the squares until January 2005. For some reason it then took until September 2005 to sew the squares into the blanket.

When I had completed the blanket I thought the yarn wasn't very soft and that the blanket needed a soft backing. I don't have a record of when I bought the fleece but I think it was quite a while between finishing the blanket and buying the fabric. For some reason I decided to blanket stitch the blanket to the fleece and then cut the fleece. Obviously that didn't work too well so I had to unpick three sides of my stitching, cut the fleece and sew again. Once I had done that the sewing went quite quickly. Now I just have to decide to which charity I am going to donate it.

Before

This is the before photo - actually this is the only photo.




Technically it is not the true before picture as last year there was a rickety fence and there were stones and weeds where there are just weeds now.

The plan is to turn it into some sort of garden with raised flower beds for plants and vegetables. The men in the house have said that they can build the containers for the beds. So let's hope that there will be an after picture later ths year.

A Power Cut

Yesterday evening we had a power cut. We had power cuts frequently where we used to live but this was our first here. Don't know what caused it but it certainly wasn't the non-existent-forecasted-major storm. Maybe some poor animal now has the punk look it was always wishing for.

I am hoping that someone will explain to me how weather forecasters can get it so wrong. Yesterday there were winter storm warnings. A minimum of 15cm snow with up to 30cm overnight. Newsreels of previous spring snows were shown as a dire warning of what we would wake up to today. Yesterday morning, I rescheduled the appointment I had for today as the weather forecasters were so certain.

What did we wake up to this morning? Not even 1cm. That's right no snow. You're warned not to make any unnecessary journeys, how about no unnecessary warnings.

How Long Is A Scarf?

Sports season has started so I started a simple scarf with some yarn I was given. I don't really like the mix of colours in the yarn but they are not too bad in the pattern I have chosen. I have been knitting away while the boy child has been running up and down and the scarf is quickly growing. My original intention was to knit until the yarn ran out but that is going to make a pretty long scarf. But if I stop at what I feel is the correct length, what do I do with the remaining yarn? The colour way certainly has not been growing on me and there won't be enough left to do much with, anyway.

The other thing is, when I finish the scarf I will need another easy project for sports, so if I just keep knitting away to the end, it will give me time to choose another easy project.

How long is a scarf anyway?

A Useful Item?

A couple of years ago I started to make an afghan in two colours using the slip stitch method rather than fair isle. I chose a white and a light blue yarn but the light blue was not enough of a contrast for the design to stand out and I completed just one square of the afghan. I kept the square, not wanting to destroy my hard work but not knowing what to do with it.

Well last week it became a cushion cover. I bought some fabric sat down at the sewing machine and this is our new soft furnishing. Move over Nate.

Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Weather Man

I decided that it was about time that I posted a photo that I actually took on a Saturday. So here it is.



Note the blue sky. This was the first blue sky for a week. By Wednesday (the 4th) we had reached the total of April's average snow fall. This was due to the low temperatures otherwise it would have been raining. In other words no blue sky. The weather forecasters were embarrassed as they had been predicting temperatures of at least 16 degrees for the weekend. I'm sure they get it right sometimes.

My Claim To Fame

The other evening I was showing the spousal unit the statistics that my host provides for this blog. He was particularly interested in the page that showed the searches that people had done that had brought them to my blog. They were all knitting or yarn related except one. Someone had come to me by searching for chinook cloud.

So into Google that phrase went and the Spousal Unit was really impressed that my blog came up on the first page of the search results.

Gentle Reader, I will let you live vicariously through me and you may tell all your friends that you know someone whose blog comes up on the first page of a Google search.

It's A Bear!

Winnie now has a face and is complete.

Last time I made a bear it was a panda. The limbs and other parts were made separately from the body and were sewn to the stuffed body. This was not easy and involved one person (me) pinning the parts to the body and another person (spousal unit) standing at a distance giving directions. That bear I gave away to a charity auction.

With Winnie, the arms, legs, ears and nose were made separately and then crocheted to the body at the appropriate place. As I completed more of him it felt like he was hugging me as I was working. Combine this with no intended recipient and Winnie is here to stay.

Another Upside-down Adventure

We had a couple to dinner on Saturday. For dessert I made a raspberry Charlotte Russe. Very basically, you put fruit and jelly (Jello) in the bottom of a dish, put sponge fingers around the sides of the dish and then fill the middle with a mixture of fruit, cream and gelatin and let it set for several hours. When you are ready to serve, it is turned out onto a serving dish. Hence the upside-down part.

The moon must have been in the right phase on Saturday night as it turned out perfectly. Except the Spousal Unit decided to tease me and ask if I was going to take a photo of it.

So no photo and it did get eaten.

Look What I Made

It's a pineapple upside-down pudding. I bake fairly regularly so I am not showing off that I actually made something. It's just when I brought this to the table, I thought "we can't eat this". So I took a photo as the next best thing.

Saturday's Skies

I am not sure if I am breaking a rule of the Saturday Skies web ring when I post photos that were taken on a day other than a Saturday but, sometimes, the sky is more interesting on other days.

This photo was taken on Sunday morning. Now it is Spring we get heavy snow, rain and heat in the same day. An hour after the photo was taken you would not have known it had snowed.

An Unlikely Read

I have joined a book club. I joined after the selections for the first half of the year had been made so I cannot say why certain choices were made. And this month's read is very surprising:- Extreme My Autobiograpy by Sharon Osborne. Sharon Osbourne is married to Ozzy Osbourne who used to be the lead singer of Black Sabbath and was the lead in his own festival Ozzfest. Lately, the whole family became famous for their show about themselves on MTV. I find it interesting that MTV's cameras have followed other stars and that has been the end of the relationship but it didn't seem to have an impact on the Osbournes. Maybe because the Osbourne's life is so volatile anyway.

I started reading the prologue and it is full of swear words and I didn't think I could continue reading. It felt as if they were put in for effect. But after that the ratio of swear words to non-swear words reduced and seemed to be in the places where a swearing person would put them. The book was interesting for background into the music industry; especially for bands being ripped off. It seemed as if you had to find the person who would rip you off the least.

How Long Would You Have Waited?

Yesterday I had a dentist's appointment. The dentist had been recommended by a friend, so it was not a random choice. My appointment was for 1.30 and I arrived at around 1.25; I was finally shown to the dentist's chair at some time after 2.20.

I was in a quandary as to what to do and had decided to wait an hour and then leave. I didn't want them charging my insurance company if I left without seeing the dentist and I didn't want the immediate hassle of finding another dentist. Now, at least, I have 6 months to find another one.

As this is a new dentist I do not know if this is normal for them or if I was unlucky. The receptionist did not say anything until she saw me looking at my watch and at no time did anyone apologise for the delay.

If I had turned up nearly an hour late for my appointment I am sure they would have charged me and told me to reschedule. A pity it doesn't work the other way around.

What's On The Needles

A little while ago I posted a teaser to say that I had taken some yarn out of my stash. I didn't say any more as I didn't do anything with it until a friend e-mailed and at the end she asked how I was doing with the stash. That finally got me motivated to start the project. A few years ago I bought the yarn and pattern to crochet a toy Winnie-the Pooh. So I have finally started it. My knitting project is My So Called Scarf with some yarn I was given. And last night I wound the wool that refuses to be a scarf into two balls for socks. That should keep me going for a while.

Another Sale

The nearest yarn store to me is closing down and they started their sale on Monday. I was debating whether to go on the first day or not thinking that better bargains could be had towards the end of the sale. But I am glad I went as everything was 50% off from the get go and I imagine that they would not have had much left after the first day.

The store is closing due to the ill-health of the owner. It has been open for about 8 years. Their shop was sorted by colour so it was hard to zone in to find the specific weight of yarn you wanted. But they had good basics so you could knit a sweater without breaking the bank.

I was very pleased to buy some yarn with a specific pattern in mind. I had seen the specific yarn for the pattern in another LYS but not in a colour I liked and I had been trying to decide from where to order it and when. So I was happy to see something similar by the same manufacturer in a colour I liked. This is the yarn; I bought shade 23 but I won't be starting the pattern for a little while as it will require some concentration.

I also bought a book Felting from the Vogue Knitting on the Go series. I had borrowed this from the library and knitted one thing from it and there were a couple of other patterns I was interested in. Books in Canada are very expensive so I do not buy them anymore.

And I bought some yarn for my lace collection, ready for the next mystery project.

Saturday's Skies

Well this is Friday's skies really. There was no school on Friday and spousal unit was out of town. Many people would take the opportunity to stay in bed but I like to get up early and enjoy the quiet. Where we live is fairly quiet so I can open the curtains and enjoy the start to the day. At the right time of the year I can watch the sun come up. So Friday, I made a cup of coffee, took the last piece of pumpkin pie, and sat with my knitting to watch this.



This is a Chinook cloud at sunrise. Pretty amazing, eh? I should have gone out to the fields to take a picture of just the sky but I was still in my PJs and I didn't want to scare anyone.

More Socks

I finished the mitred square socks. They are from a pattern in Vogue on the Go Socks Two. Being a typical Vogue pattern there were some mistakes but nothing horrendous. The only parts worked in the round were the toe and the gusset. The heel shaping was the same as for a top-down sock so that the slipped stitches are under the heel and not at the back so there is very little heel at the back.

The yarn is Anne from Schaefer Yarn Company and was once that tangled mess seen here.

Warm Enough For My New Sweater

For once the weather forecasters were correct. The Chinook came in on Saturday. On Friday it was hard to imagine that we would get a Chinook as it was snowing and the temperature was around -10 C. But we have had a Chinook cloud since Saturday although today it is still below freezing in our part of town.



Anyway, it reached about 10 C on Saturday so I was happy to wear my new sweater. I am pleased with how the sweater fits and I will be using it as a template for sizing other things I knit for myself.

My Yarn Is Talking To Me

I've heard people say their yarn is talking to them and always thought that some wiring had come loose in their head; but now it is my turn to give my yarn anthropomorphic qualities. At a sale in the summer I bought some yarn which the owner of the store had recommended for socks. Atter seeing a pattern for a lacey wrap I decided that the yarn would look good in that pattern; which it did; except I didn't have enough yarn. The yarn is hand painted and I couldn't get anymore so the wrap was unpicked and the yarn rewound. Next iteration was My So Called Scarf. But the resulting pattern seemed very stiff; so that was unpicked before I had gone too far.

Now I know what you are saying. "If I liked the lacey wrap why not use the pattern for a regular scarf?" You know, some things in life are just too obvious. The next iteration was a scarf from Modular Knits. I didn't like that either. I think the yarn is not varied enough in colour to show some patterns well.

So another unpick and the yarn is sitting next to me waiting for me to choose a pattern that will show it off to its best. And it happened; I nearly spoke to the wretched stuff. But it was in my head. "You just want to be socks don't you. That's why none of these other patterns are working." So close to joining the crazies.

I haven't started socks yet. There might be a few more scarf varients in this yarn yet. Or maybe I'm just too stubborn to listen to inanimate objects when they talk to me.

Faithful to One

Surprisingly, I am working on just one project; socks. It is an interesting but easily remembered pattern so it is simple to pick them up and work on a few stitches at a time. I did take some yarn out of my stash when I completed the black sweater But I haven't started anyhting with it yet. I have been working on a few sewing projects that needed the final finishing touches.

Yesterday, the boy child asked me if I got bored knitting socks. That depends. The ones that go round and round that I take to his sports can get very boring and tend not to get worked on out of season. Socks with visual interest, like any object, are more interesting to knit.

He is more sure of my accomplishments than I am. He declared that I had knit at least 10 pairs of socks this year. Actually this is just my second pair.

A Finished Object

On Wednesday I finally finished my sweater. I am not going to take any photos of it as it is black and I doubt they will come out clearly enough. Here is a link to the pattern. The original pattern uses a bulky mohair. I used Patons Lacette which is between fingering and DK weight. I have used this yarn once before on larger neddles and liked the effect so I decided to use the yarn at a looser gauge again. Because it is a brushed type yarn it works well knitted at a looser gauge. I have just under a ball left so at some point I will have to see what it is like at the recommended gauge. This was the project mentioned in this post.

So I have just some socks on the needles right now but I will soon be digging into the stash for my next project.

A Chinook

After more than a week it finally stopped snowing although Wednesday was still very cold. The chinook came in yesterday and we had sunshine and temperatures above freezing. Here's a picture of the sky although it does not show the arch as well as real life.



The city should be happy as this is their main form of snow removal. It is amazing how poorly cleared the roads are but this week one of the news stations counted the cost of uncleared roads. The costs include insurance claims, emergency personal, time spent in traffic and people taking sick days. It will be interesting to see if people's opinions on snow clearing change when the good weather comes. The city has a sidewalk clearance by-law. Your sidewalk has to be cleared within 24 hours of the last snowfall so the by-law officers were out yesterday ready to ticket the non-compliers. Shouldn't the city set an example by clearing the roads.

Saturday's Sky

It's a good thing that the webring is called Saturday Sky as this means you get some blue sky. After the Chinook last Monday, it has snowed every day. But, at least, it stopped snowing during the day on Saturday and we had some sunshine. So make the most of it as it is going to have to keep you going for a few more days.




On the knitting front, the mess from last week is fast becoming a pair of socks.

No Second Sock Syndrome Here

Did you know that some people have many odd socks? They knit a sock and then never knit its mate. I wonder if these people wear odd socks or are doomed to always wearing store bought socks.

No such problem in this house. I love wearing my hand knitted socks so I am always going to complete the pair. I knit my socks on 4 double pointed needles (dpns). I have tried the magic loop method on hats and mittens but didn't really enjoy it and I can't really justify buying more circular needles to try the two circular method. When I say 4 dpns, I mean stitches on three needles and one needle for knitting. I have had most of my dpns for years so they only have 4 needles in a a set and not 5 like you can get nowadays.

So here are a couple of photos of my completed Baudelaire socks.



I did not make any adjustments to the pattern as I used Stretch by Regia which I had bought in England last summer and I decided that the "stretch" would make up for the inelasticity of the pattern. I saw some Stretch in the LYS on Monday but for some reason the owner did not realise that I was interested in buying. But that is a story for another day.

Those photos were taken indoors as this was the view from my front step at lunchtime (and it is still snowing).

What a Mess

or this yarn will not get the better of me.

I have nearly finished my two projects so I decided that Saturday night was a good time to wind the yarn for my next project. Usually I can wind yarn and knit a gauge swatch while watching a movie. The chosen yarn was Anne by Schaeffer. Yarn bought in a sale in the summer and recommended for socks. The store was not winding while the sale was on but I could have gone back at a later date and had the yarn wound. Except I never did as I am one of those people who like to wind yarn just before I use it so it is not always convenient to return to a store. Plus I don't really mind winding yarn even though I don't have a swift nor a ball winder.

So Saturday night I untied the yarn put it over the back of a chair and thought it looked a bit crinkly but I brushed that thought aside as I wondered if maybe it had just been tied up for a while. After a few winds of the ball I was faced with this.



I have no idea what went wrong. This has never happened to me before. I didn't get a gauge swatch worked I didn't even finish winding it before bed time even though I watched a (the) hockey game after the movie.

Sunday morning I was back working on it aided by some buttermilk pancakes and coffee courtesy of the spousal unit. So by mid-morning it looked like this.



I was convincing myself that there was an improvement. But I was in a quandry. If you recall I wanted to finish my black sweater while the Super Bowl was on but I also wanted this mess finished with. Should I go with the mess and hope to finish it before the end of the game or should I go with the sweater and then return to the mess. Decisions, decisions. Plus how could I eat Super Bowl food and work with this?

I decided to continue with the mess. As much as I wanted to finish some things. I couldn't bear the thought of having that sitting around for another day.

After watching the Super Bowl and Miss Marple, I finally had this



It needs to be wound again as I gave up worrying how it was wound when the bigger issue was getting it wound at all. But it is done.

Saturday Skies

Here are a couple of photos from yesterday. They were taken shortly after 7.30 am.


The first one is the view from the back of the
house and you can still see the full moon;
the second one is the view from the
front of the house and it shows
the sun rising through the clouds.



Here is a photo from last Saturday. It was a lovely sunny day and I noticed an airplane that looked as if it was going straight up. I am pleased that the con trail came out in the photo.

Knitting Update

I promised you some knitting content. No finished objects but some nearly finished objects. I am working on the neck of my sweater. This is a lot of (I know, not good English) knitting round and round, so, although, it comes under the mindless category it is a little too mindless. It's finally at the right length and just needs to be cast off. Having worked a sewn cast off for the first time the other day I have decided that is what I would like to do on the neck but the yarn is not smooth and I will have to have a long length for the neck so I don't know how cooperative it will be. This will be a good Super Bowl Project.

My other nearly finished project are these socks. I am becoming quite a fan of Cookie as the Pomatomus socks are her design and I have decided that one of the sock yarns I bought in the Boxing Day sale will look very nice in one of her other designs. Never thought I would become a clothes horse - or in this case a shoe tree.

Another Record

I was going to write about my knitting today but instead I am going to let you know that we hit another temperature record yesterday. At least this time it was positive. Yesterday was the hottest day on record for January 24th. Some reports said 13 degrees, others 15. Either way, not bad, especially as normal for this time of year is -3.

I'll let you know about my knitting next week.

Saturday Skies

Woke up Saturday morning to a very grey sky that looked full of snow. Snow had been forecast for Friday night but we hadn't had any so I was expecting it to snow at any time. I decided that it was too boring to take a photo. The winds came in during the morning and the sky turned from grey to this



Late in the afternoon the sky had changed to this

The Nastiness of the On-Line World

I am part of the on-line community. I have a blog, I read blogs and I am a member of a Yahoo group and a discussion forum.

A blog is your private house. When you write an entry, you are opening your door and inviting people in. Sometimes what you see is a room tastefully decorated, you may not want to live there but it is pleasant to visit; others are clean and tidy but definitely lived in; or they are so lived in that there is a mess everywhere; and then there are those where you open the door and dirty laundering is waiting for all to see.

A discussion board/group/forum is like a public park. Anyone can use it as long as you follow the rules. Some park keepers rule with a rod of iron, any transgression of the rules results in banishment, others do not worry about minor infractions but wait for the complaints of other users before issuing a warning. There are many different types of users of the park. Some pop in every day, others just at weekends and others are infrequent visitors. People move away and find a different park and other people move in.

Some people like to listen to music while in the park. Of these some will have head phones or have the music turned down very low so that they don't disturb anyone else; some will set the volume at a setting they like but when asked to turn it down, they do so with many apologies; and there are a few who have the music up so high it disturbs everyone in the park. When asked to turn it down they say it is their right to have it at the volume they want and a few are pleased that they are upsetting people.

Something along these lines happened in one of my forums/groups this week. A poster asked a question. The first replies answered the question and then there were some not-so-nice replies, then posters were sticking up for the original poster and the replies got more nasty. The original poster started a new topic asking what she had done wrong to get such hostile replies. You wouldn't believe what that unleashed! Many headphone users, no apologisers, and, unfortunately, a few I can do what I want.

I often wonder if that is what people are like in real life or if they feel that behind the anonymity of the on-line world they can be as nasty as they want. Being nasty is being nasty however it takes place. I hope these people like themselves because they must spend a lot of time in their own company as other people gradually leave them alone.

Out of the Stash

On the 1st January, I posted about my stash. Any stash not used by the end of this year had to be assessed for its usability. As a start to this process I divided my stash into two parts:- stash that could be used for a specific project and stash that I had no idea what to do with.

Imagine my excitement when somebody on Knitters Review posted a request for yarn that I just so happened to have in my stash. She was offering to buy or trade but it was stash yarn so I said she could have it for free.

Good thing I didn't charge her postage. I could not believe how much it cost to send three balls of yarn to eastern Canada. Next time I'll send them individually as I think it will be cheaper. The cost of postage in Canada was already high and has just gone up. I do not know who they are trying to kid when they say it is one of the cheapest in the world. Maybe Canada Post's world has only Canada in it.

Saturday's Sky

Don't tell anyone but this is really a photo of Friday's sky. I took the picture as I liked the cloud formations. It snowed most of the day on Saturday so the true Saturday sky was just a mass of grey. I thought this was a little more interesting.

Where's Alberta In Prime Time?

The other day I posted about the new sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie. My closing line was the above question posed by Bob McKenzie of the National Post.

The answer is very simple - hockey. Albertans live, breath and eat hockey. They have no need for any other shows.

Little Mosque on the Prairie

This sitcom debuted last night. It centers around a group of Muslims in small town Saskatchewan, who set up a Mosque in a church hall and hire an Amaar from Toronto. Poor guy has a lot of trouble ordrering a cappuccino in the local cafe. When he tries to leave he finds he cannot get a one-way flight to Toronto. And of course there's infighting about what to eat during Ramadan and when does Ramadan start.

I did a quick internet search to see what others had written about this new show, mostly Candian bloggers who had liked the show. The funniest I read was a conservative American blog which took the description of the show from the New York Times. Actually, the blog is not funny but when an entry about a Canadian show (only showing in Canada) ends with "Step by step--inch by inch--lunacy is taking over Hollywood"; all Canadians are rolling in the aisles laughing.

One of the best lines in the show was when a local is berating the vicar for letting the Muslims use the church hall, the vicar says "its a pilot programme". The local then goes in a panic becaue he thinks the hall is being used to train pilots.

In the review in yesterday's National Post, Bob McKenzie lists the settings for other shows and asks "But where's Alberta in prime time?" I have my answer to that question next time.

Christmas is Over

Well that's it for another year. Saturday dawned with no idea of what it was going to be, but I knew it was 12th night and the decorations had to come down. No rush, gently, gently, through the day but Saturday morning decided it wanted to be a snow day. So gently, gently turned into rush, rush. Had to get out and take the lights down outside before it got slippery. It was a lot quicker to take them down than put them up. Boy child had the task of rolling up the lights so that they would be easy to put up next year. Not sure if 11 months away is any motivation for a good job.

Our city has collection sites for recycling Christmas trees. Ours was dropped off on Saturday afternoon as morning and afternoon had had an argument about being a snow day and afternoon won.

The house was carefully checked, not an ornament left out. So what was I surprised to see on Sunday night as I returned home? The reindeer was all forlorn on our doorstep. The wreath had been taken in but no one had remembered the poor reindeer. He shouldn't complain he got an extra day in the light before being relegated to the closet.

Saturday's Sky

Have new batteries in camera so back to the regular Saturday feature. For your viewing pleasure there are two photos. Actually, they are of the same thing, can you spot the difference?



Yes they are the same thing. Just different settings on the camera. I always have the camera set for auto flash. When I took the first photo I couldn't understand what the blotches were; I was taking the picture through an open window. Then I realised (I was going to say dawned on me - but that's too much of a pun) that it was the flash, so the second photo was taken without the flash.

Stash Wars

I posted at the start of the year that I wanted to use more of my stash. A number of people have posted on their blogs or on forums that 2007 is the year of using stash or not buying yarn. I am sure that many of them make that statement every year. In 2006 a fellow knitting blogger, Bess declared that she would only be knitting from her stash and not buying any yarn. At the beginning of 2007 she wrote that she had achieved this and how she felt about it. Others have declared their own set of rules for 2007.

Apparently this is not good. For more than one reason.

Did you know that yarn stores will be dropping by the wayside this year as no one will be buying yarn? Yup - bloggers have been contacted by customers and owners blaming the yarn dieters for the future demise of their store. Sounds a tad dramatic to me. Its not as if the whole world is going on a yarn diet.

Then there are those with stashes who feel guilty about their stashes but instead of doing something about it blame the stash busters for making them feel guilty. If you feel guilty about your stash do something with it. Knit it, sell it, give it, throw it. But the feelings about your stash are your own and not anybody else's responsibility.

But what I think is the saddest are those people who feel guilty for not having a stash. Knitting is about doing something you enjoy. It is the end results not how you get there. You haven't lost if you don't have a stash or if your stash is small. There are no rules in knitting.

And that is the problem, somebody posted some fun rules on her blog and stash wars has broken out

Photos

As I had written about most of my completed items, I decided I should post some photos. I was surprised that I hadn't taken photos of a couple of sweaters as I usually keep a record.

Firstly, the two sweaters from Knit Simple.




I hung them over the back of a chair to take the photos and you can see that one has a very loose gauge.

This is the jacket I knitted for my niece.



And here are pictures of the Cinderella doll.

We first see her when things aren't going too well. She is doing the cleaning and has been told that she is not going to the ball.



But let us not despair, this is a fairy story and miraculously she has another head and might still be able to go to the ball.




Here she is in all her finery. And with the wonders of magic she has become a blond without sitting in the hairdressers for hours.


Will she get her prince?

New Year's Resolutions

I have never really understood New Year's resolutions. I'm sure the majority of people treat them lightly as a fun thing like horoscopes. But I wonder about those who make the same resolution every year because they break it before January ends.

I have been reading on some blogs about stash control for 2007 and going on a yarn diet. I have posted prevously that I do not have a real stash, most of my stash is left overs from previous projects. And going through my completed projects I was surprised at how much I worked from my stash in 2006. Just recently and in the summer, I bought yarn in sales so now I have an old stash and a new stash. The new stash is mostly sock yarn.

I am not going to go on a yarn diet. I am not excessive in my yarn purchases plus I have to make a special trip to any of the yarn stores in town so they can be avoided. But the time has come to deal with my stash. Last year, every other project was to use yarn from the stash, which worked well for the first half of the year until I started some complicated lace projects. I am going to do the same this year. Every other project has to be with yarn from the old stash. That should be managable. But this time next year the stash must be reassessed and if I cannot see a project for any of the left over yarns I must find a new home for them.

Happy New Year