Ann

A good friend died on Wednesday.
Ann had courageously fought ovarian cancer for a long time.

Ann was the kind of woman you wanted on your side, she may have seemed harsh sometimes, but she was a no nonsense woman that told you like it was.
Ann was a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, knitter, weaver, spinner, great cook. With her passing I am learning more about her.

I last saw Ann in January at a guild work night, busy knitting away, having a laugh with everyone.

As a guild member she was an inspiration to everyone, as a person she was also inspirational. Her zest for life, the encouragement she offered everyone, her Rowan jelly..... Yummmmmm

Her Son kept a carepage for Ann while she was in hospital, it was a way for everyone to get updates and to send well wishes to her without having to inundate the family with visitors and phonecalls. I truely appreciate the effort that he made doing this, as I never felt that I was one of the immediate friends that should be visiting her.
I would have loved to, but she had so many other people that were closer.

I met Ann less than three years ago, when I joined Burr house spinners and weavers.
As part of the guild membership, we work a few shifts in the store that is run by the guilds, Ann's work was always the stuff I picked up at the store, her work was simply amazing.

I will miss her very much.

Long time... Again!!

I may well have been busy, but does that really mean I couldn't have blogged quickly in a month, shame on me.

I have been busy though, and I don't have many pictures to prove it.

DH has been getting allergies up the wazoo, one of his reactions we were very concerned about and he ended up at the hospital, got prednizone, and epipens amongst other things. The search for the culprit continues, although he does think it might be the Kevlar gloves he wears at work.

I have of course been busy knitting. I finished Daffodil a long time ago, but here, finally is a piccie of it blocked!!!!
















I have been plugging away furiously on both of my Pi shawls, which are notoriously bad for photographing in the state they are at right now, which is exactly when I would want to photograph them. So here is one attempt.













I haven't actually worked much on the Pi's since the 14th, that is when all my wool arrived from knitpicks. The wool is for this

I also found a nice little basket in Loblaws the other day, I had actually seen them before, and quite liked the look of them, all the time thinking what a nice knitting basket.
I had decided to get one on saturday only to discover that they were all gone. Bummer. So off I went on my merry way, randomly filling up my shopping cart, when what do I see in the clearance bins, my basket!!! Sure, it's got a handle missing, I was planning on cutting the handles off anyway, but it was reduced, which was a big bonus, it was $3.99 from $6.99 only I am sure it was actually $14.99 last week.

Anyway, it fits all the pallette yarn colours in quite nicely.













Here is where I got to with the cardi anyway.

It is sewn up ready to be cut at both sleeves and the front. Don't ask about the photo, for some reason photobucket is playing silly buggers.












One sleeve is now cut and the sleeve is in progress.














I also had a craving to make some little socks the other day, so I went yarn shopping and came back with this.












Some yarn to make a top and some socks for the wee one! Of course the moment passed once the yarn was home, I am sure it will appear again soon.


I forgot one more picture. This is from the fireworks that we had last night on may 2-4. Victoria day for those unaware of the significance of the holiday here in Canada.

We had visitors up from the US. Frank and Jeff are visiting canada every few weeks for work related training, they are in Milton, so not far from us, DH met both in Maryland when we lived there, they worked for the same company, He has maintained a friendship with Frank ever since, and they go to the Mopar Nats yearly together. We don't get many visitors, so the kids get all wound up when we do, they were just here for the night, having to return to Milton for schooling!
They went and bought a box of fireworks as we had missed the big fireworks display the day before.
The box of about 15 fireworks of course cost a small fortune, but was worth it. Katherine got scared so we got earmuffs for her, actually it was my range ear protectors. I carried her down the stairs of the deck, missed the last step, and of course in the nature of trying to protect my young, fell, onto my knees, and the little one got away scratch free. My knees are sore. Skin is completely off one of them. I swear men don't take these kinds of bumps for their kids.

Anyway, the photo, I tried but the delay on the digital is way too slow, so I missed most of them, got a few trails of one, and this one, I think it looks like a light bulb exploding.

I was amazed to read this story, The dying sea it disturbs me, I am not a religious person, but for some reason recently I have been drawn to books about the early years of Jesus, and first century AD Israel. I don't think I am getting all religious or anything, I went through an Egyptian phase prior to that, and a Japanese phase before that. I love historical fiction. One book I just finished was Kathy Reichs cross bones, awesome book, I really want to read more of hers now. I am currently reading Lamb

Don't ask me why I ended up here, it seems strange, not really in my line of reading, but I love Christopher Moore books. I have read Fluke, The island of the Squined love Nun and The lust lizard of Melancholy cove. I didn't totally love the love nun, but the lust lizard was hilarious, fluke took me a while to get into purely I think because it was the first time I had read a Moore book. Lamb, well, it's simply brilliant. I have laughed so hard through a lot of it, and I am not yet half way through.

I also ended up reading the Jesus Christ book by Anne Rice. I am a huge fan of Rice, I have read all of the Vampire/witches books. I didn't see how Rice could go from the ghoulish to the religious without losing her charm, but she did, I loved the Christ the Lord I simply wanted more, I would love for there to be another part, her style of writing in the book is beautiful, actually it always is, I still can't quite grasp how I fell for the charms of Lestat in the Vampire books, but I did, and I think the less said about that the better!

I have become good friends with a Lady in my local bookstore, we did a book trade recently, she read all my Sano Ichiro books by Laura Joh Rowland She also got a few other books and read them. I think it's funny how we both like the same kind of books. Our friendship started out when I just couldn't decide what to buy at the store, I was sick of the completely mainstream stuff I had been reading, I wanted something different. Rebecca found lots of books for me to read, I loved all of them.


Anyway, enough about books for now.

The new mystery clues are up, and I can't decide what to use for the green shawl. I might use a pattern from one or two, because nothing pops out at me from the new clues, but I have decided what to use for my purple shawl, so I should go and do some, it won't knit itself!!!

More blabbering

Not really anything exciting to post again, I just feel like blabbering some, had an odd week, not much of anything though, so whatever...

First I wanted to show the pretty yarns I got a few weeks ago.


Knitpicks merino sweetpeas, paint your own, three yellows from the pallette line and a box of DMC #80 cotton for Princess.














I started two Pi shawls in the mystery Pi KAL, one is using the sweetpeas yarn the other I dyed the paint your own.

This is the sweet peas at clue two.














This is the paint your own at clue two.















The green is being knit on 3mm needles, the purple on 3.75. Here is a comparison piccie of the two together, there is going to be a good difference in size when finished.













Finally a picture of the Princess shawl, here is a close up of a pattern repeat, there is eleven repeats, it's going to be big!











I still haven't got around to blocking Daffodil, but it has to get done by next wednesday.

Pictures coming soon.

I am almost, like 15 rows, done my socks, I can't wait to finish them.


Last week I popped up to gemini fibres in Mount Albert Ontario. What a lovely shop, I so enjoyed my trip up there. Bought some bits and pieces, but most importantly I got The opinionated knitter by EZ.

I finally got around to sitting down and looking through the book yesterday. I started my first surprise baby jacket yesterday, and today it will be finished. I have no doubt I will start another one very soon. I love so much in the book, I am sure I will make many things over and over again from the book. Well worth the money.


Well, it's getting close to dinner time, so I guess I should make some.
More later, the next clue on the mystery KAL is out late tonight/early tomorrow, so I will be busy knitting for the next few days, don't expect to hear anything from me!

Too long

You would think I had something to say after so long between posts. Well I don't really have much to say, which is actually why I haven't been posting.

I finished the Daffodil, but haven't blocked it. The teen top is finished but needs adjusting. The Unst hasn't been worked on much at all, and I finally got some new yarns, which I have been using, I am making two knit your own mystery Pi shawls on the EZasPi yahoo list. The knit along started on friday, so we only have one clue up so far. I am making a regular Pi, and a PiR2.
Some yarn I ordered was from the UK, 9 balls of #80 DMC cotton thread, it arrived very promptly, but the colour is so far out from the little balls I am currently using for the Princess shawl that I still have to use the wee little 5 gram balls until I get to the laurel leaf break along the top end of the border, which by my reckoning means I need to buy another 5 gram ball, possibly two. I have made progress with that shawl, putting a grand total of 16 rows on it in less than a week. This is progress as there is about 865 stitches per row. There is a total of 220 rows in the border, so I am getting close to the half way point on it. I wish I could remember how many rows to a ball I have been getting.
Anyway, my 20 gram balls arrived, and I really want to get to using them, so have been furiously plugging away at the Princess it is so slow a progress though that it feels that I am getting nowhere. It is very difficult to get a picture of the work in progress as well since it is so large and on straight needles, the longer it gets though, the easier it will be to get a somewhere near decent picture.

I got some paint your own knit picks yarn for the Pi KAL, I dyed it some lovely spring like colours, and can't wait to get to use it on the Pi, I am using a green right now, but will add in the multi colour in the third pattern ring I think. Elizabeth wants the shawl to be hers, so I can't make it too big since she is just a little squid still. Little isn't quite accurate, she is over 4 feet tall, but a Pi shawl can be very big, so I have to keep an eye on how big it is getting.

I also ordered some of the Pallette yarns from knitpicks, I am tempted to do the fairisle pallette cardigan that uses all but the white and cream colours from the pallette line, I got the pattern and a few balls, just to check out the yarn, and it is lovely. So I think I might just order up the rest of the colours, get a start on the cardi early.

I haven't done much spinning recently, the Princess took over, but I plan to get some spinning done this week, I am trying to spin up stuff to put in the guilds shop for the big spring pottery sale, sales are high that weekend. Since our dear friend Ann has been ill the weaving stuff has been severely lacking in the shop. We all need to add in a bit more to fill the empty spaces.

What have I been up to?

This is a top I am making for Elizabeth for her 8th birthday. It's a teen top, a free pattern from kertzer

I am almost done, half of one strap, all of the other, top and bottom edge on the front, and sewing. Should be done by tuesday, right!















Here is the Unst, it finally has edging on it, only 6 points, but it is edging none the less.


















This is a stole I am making in drops Alpaca, I just love this yarn, the pattern is one I am making up as I go along, it's a simple razor shell pattern, all the stole will be this pattern, very simple, but the yarn will show up wonderfully. This yarn is a deep turquoise colour, but has flecks of lighter turquoise in it, I just love it. I plan to go buy more in different colours, soon.....















This is a toe up pair of socks I am making, almost done the foot of both socks now. I am using the Wendy's generic toe up sock pattern.


















This is a pair of Estonian mittens I am making for Ron, the yarn is handspun, navajo plied. I am very proud of this yarn, it is really my plying I am proud of, I had only ever tried out navajo plying once before, I still have it, so was amazed at the comparison, the first is all lumpy, this isn't. I know that means my spinning is getting better too, but I think I managed to control the plying a little better too.














Here is Daffodil, by Marianne Kinzel, I am slowly working my way backwards through the modern lace knitting book, I did Rose of England first, then Balmoral, now Daffodil. I love this pattern, and I found some yummy yellow cotton, perfect!

This was it a few days ago.

















This was it last night.
















I still have 64 rows to go, and already I think I am up at 708 stitches in the round.


We had to take Baby doll to the sick kids hospital yesterday for some tests on her eyes, Not fun at all. I hate hospitals. Katherine was a trooper of course. She always is, makes the doctor work for their money.

While we were in Toronto though I made sure I visited Lettuce knit Well of course I left with something, they have lots of fine yarn there, and the store was only two blocks away from the sick kids hospital, so I didn't have to twist Ron's arm to drive through T.O much. It is in Kensington market as well, I have never been there before, I found it very charming. The lady in the store was super nice. My daughter also found the shop cat Brad I think it's name was. My girls find cats everywhere they go!

This is what I left with though, I got two skeins of Misti Alpaca, wow is this stuff ever nice, I am developing a major soft spot for Alaca. I get very stressed out about Kat's eye condition and all the tests and appointments she has to go to. I am just waiting for the "she needs surgery" before I really break down, but everytime she has an appointment I cry. Poor honey. Now she has to patch for two hours a day, there is only so long I can get her to do puzzles for. She takes about 6 minutes for a 24 piece puzzle, for a three year old I think that's pretty quick, but there is only so many times I can get her to do a puzzle, certainly not enough to fill two hours. Anyone know tricks to get a kid to sit still and watch tv for two hours? She is supposed to use the eye that isn't covered, this will get the muscles working.

All the stress of the day though was soothed over the moment I touched the Misti yarn, ahhhh, better than a coffee and chocolate. Seriously!

Olympic generated knitting funk

It appears that many people suffered a sort of low, or funk after the olympics ended. I was part of that group. The day it all ended I cast on a shawl, ripped it out, next day, a doily, ripped it out. So I started a pair of socks, which are now finished. I also started a top for Elizabeth, who will be 8 this month, it is almost finished too, just knitting on edges and straps.
No photoies for today though.

I have been doing a lot of spinning, I spun up some lovely black, natural and orange corriedale for some estonian mittens for Ron, his dad was Estonian, so I get to knit him a traditional pair. I am using a pattern from Nancy Bush's book. I will get around to a post about them and fill in the details then.
I am also spinning a lot of mystery fibre, all I know is that it is wool. No idea what kind, so far I have 5 oz's spun, I tried a natural dye from the Spectrum book of dying, this book is a book about dye plants of ontario. My guild has produced the book. Sales have gone well, but there is more.

I dyed with Parsley, and while I was dying I noticed in the footnotes that it was a poor dye. Gee, now I see it...!!!!!%&$^#
Well I agreed about the poor dye, but had to have a stab at an afterbath. I used vinegar as I just can't seem to locate neat ammonia anywhere. Vinegar sharpened up the colour a little but not really much of a change. Next on the hit list is lettuce, spinach and onion skins. I expect more from them after Parsleys poor showing!

My Mom and sister went to Rome last week, I have yet to hear how there trip was, needless so say I was jealous, stuck here in Ontario.