2009

2009 is here and I'm so behind with posting anything on this blog that I wonder if it is even worth my while to continue doing it. But I don't give up easily, so even though I may only write every few months or so, it is a good outlet for me to keep writing.

I don't have the time, energy or patience to try to figure out how to add pictures within the text so they will just be spread either at the bottom or at the top. Guess all my previous years of doing HTML have been deleted from my brain.

Christmas was simple but nice. We didn't spend as much money as we've done in the past and yet everyone got gifts, there was plenty of food, chocolates and snacks. My grandson, Heagen loved Christmas morning. Of course, he got the most presents, but it is hard to resist buying a 2 year old a gift.

My den which was my room for quilting and storing some knitting yarn and supplies has now been taken over by a jungle gym, trains, balls, and Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. Gifts that my dear mother-in-law had crocheted for Heagen since he was born. I've tripped over the trains as they are at the entrance of the room but it is easier to deal with that then try to navigate around the jungle gym. I have suggested to my eldest son that he sell his pool table in the rec room and then his own son would have more space, but obviously that isn't happening right now. At least my son found a job and is in training right now so we don't know how much longer they will be living with us.

As much as I'd like my space back again, I know that I'm going to miss seeing my grandson every day and spending time with him. His English is coming along great and his mum works on his Japanese and he knows to speak English to us. He is definitely bilingual and hopefully it will continue.

He is very good with our Golden retriever now. Today we went to the dog park and Heagen kept calling Millie to come to him. Millie was playing with another dog and having a lot of fun so she ignored Heagen. But when she stopped playing for a bit, she'd come running to Heagen. Heagen loves to tell her to come to him, sit and give her a treat. It is nice to see that he isn't afraid of most dogs at the dog park. The bigger ones do scare him a bit, but his mum is there to pick him up and he just says, "Big dog."

I'm finally finished knitting the front and back of my husbands sweater and have started the sleeves. I told my daughter-in-law today that I will never make a sweater out of grey with 4mm needles again. I taught her to knit and she took to it like a fish takes to water. She catches her mistakes and comes to find me before it gets too messy for either of us to deal with. She's making a ribbed scarf out of some brown Classic Elite yarn that I'd purchased years ago and hadn't used it to make a sweater. Now she can go through my stash and see if there is something she wants to learn to work with. Except for some yarn that I do have specific plans for.

Speaking of that, I find that I keep changing my mind about projects and what I want to make out of a particular yarn. I can spend hours looking up one of my yarns on Ravelry and seeing what others have done with it.

I still have several UFO's that I'm determined to finish but I keep adding smaller projects to work on when I'm bored with my husband's sweater. I did make the instant gratification scarf because I had some of the yarn and needed something that was pretty mindless. It is blocking now.

I've finally begun a Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman and hopefully it will be the right size for my niece's baby that is due in the Spring.

My days are filled with playing with Heagen, taking Millie to the dog park or walking her, cleaning her after she rolls around in mud, doing laundry and trying to keep the bathrooms fairly clean. My daughter-in-law does the vacumming which is a big help as with fibromyalgia and a bad back, I was told not to do it. And she does a wonderful job. I only have to cook on Monday nights and do try to make something simple that Heagen will like. He is a good eater so I don't really have to change much for his tastes, but his dad hates cheese and that creats a problem for me as a lot of my simple recipes have cheese in them.

We had a lot of snow over Christmas and it is still on the ground but mostly it is dirty snow now and not as pretty as it was.

Having all three adult children home again has its ups and downs. Things are going fine right now so I don't want to rock the boat. I'm learning to deal with interruptions and very little free time to myself.

Heagen and I watch Frosty the Snowman and we've been watching Pooh and friends when he's allowed to watch something on a screen. He is slowly learning to play by himself for short periods of time but he and I play trains and I try to teach him new things or new words when we're playing.

I did finish the Wisp that I'd made out of Malabrigo sock yarn and got the buttons on it but I'm waiting for Yuka to model it. I'm giving it to her. She is breaking out of her wearing mostly black, grey, brown or white and something with colour makes her look even more beautiful.

My daughter is back at UBC, but she finds time to help with meals, run with Millie on the weekends and work part-time and have a social life.

I'm quite content yet I do long for more privacy. But it will come with a price. No little boy to want to sit on my lap to watch Pooh or Frosty the Snowman or no little boy to say, "Good morning, Gramme."

Life is an Excitment of Possibilities, Not a Series of Obstacles

Again, I have no time to post here. If I were a tad more organized, I'd be adding patterns that I've changed or created, not that there are that many or at least post something that might help someone who actually reads this.

My eldest son, daughter-in-law, and almost 2 year old grandson moved from Japan over a month ago to live with us. Now there are 6 adults, one toddler, one very old cat and one almost 7 month old puppy in this house.

It is amazing that things are running so smoothly. I credit my wonderful daughter-in-law for a lot of it because she helps with meals, cleans and does anything she can to help out. My daughter is at UBC full-time now but she still manages to cook dinner 3 nights a week. I'm down to only having to cook dinner on Monday nights, so life is good.

I have finished some knitting projects, but still need to find time to work on the alpaca grey sweater for my husband. I made two more Christmas stockings and will probably make a third one as I did the heel backwards in the first stocking. I'll use that one for our dog, Millie. She won't mind.

I still have to add decorations and names to the stockings, but they didn't take me very long to make, and the second one was much easier since I actually read the pattern and figured out how to do a regular heel. I'm used to doing socks toe up, so now I can do a cuff down sock on two circulars if I choose to do so.

Millie is now in dog obedience and at her third session today, she was the star pupil with the instructor. I think I finally have a clue as to how to get her to walk beside me much better. She loves to go to dog parks and just runs and plays with other dogs. She is quite submissive so she knows how to protect herself from bigger dogs who are running fast. She does a duck and hide.

My grandson is delightful. He's teaching me Japanese but his mum has to help me as he's just barely learning it. His English is good. His poor little brain must be confused with growing up bilingual, but it will be to his benefit.

We're have his 2nd birthday party this weekend and we did buy him some shelves and containers for the bedroom so he can put away his own toys. All of their belongings haven't arrived from Japan yet, so Yuka is able to borrow my coats or my daughter's.

August in BC, Canada

I'm not very good at keeping up this blog. And of course I don't write down patterns, or give any knitting hints, which I probably could do to help out others. Maybe at this time in my life, I just need a place to write down my thoughts about knitting and whatever is going on around me.

I recently finished the Cindy pattern from Berroco which was a KAL for the group on Ravelry for people who's names were related to Cindy.

I attended the PicKnit on Saturday, August 9th at the Surrey Museum in Cloverdale. I wandered around, met up with old knitting buddies that I haven't seen for awhile and even met some new knitting buddies that I only knew from Ravelry. It was a wet, damp and rainy day, but then it does things like that in August in BC.

I'm working on the Luna Moth shawl which is a free pattern from elann.com and I'm making it out of some Tussah Sea from Handmaiden that I purchased at Urban Yarns in Vancouver. It is slow going but lately I've found myself actually being able to follow the chart and know how many repeats I need to do before I get to the centre stitch. I have lifelines in place at specific spots so if I do end up with the wrong number of stitches and can't figure out where I made my mistake, I can rip back to the lifeline and continue on. I swear by lifelines for any lace knitting and I also used them for my Branching Out scarf that I just finished blocking.

I think I've convinced my husband that a sweater out of the light weight, #3 or dk and alpaca will stretch out of shape on him. I was trying to create a sweater, sorta follow a pattern and make it to fit him via my sweater wizard. It was just becoming too much work for me and trying to concentrate with a puppy around isn't easy. So now I'm going to make another swatch and he did pick out a sweater from a library book that I'd picked up of men's sweaters. I'd rather use this beautiful grey alpaca for a beautiful shawl, but then working with it is hard enough for me. I don't like to work with black because my eyes just can't focus on it and it strains my eyes. While this yarn is grey and cost a lot of money, I do think that if I can get the gauge for this pattern, I'll just stick with that. He may get it for Christmas but then again, he may not.

With my eldest son, daughter-in-law and my grandson, who will be almost 23 months old in September when they arrive from Japan, I think I'll be back to making Heagen sweaters. I have yarn to make him several sweaters, but the last item that I made for him was too tight so it will be easier to have him present so I can measure him myself.

My daughter has moved back home to save money as she continues studies at UBC and she has been a big help around the house. She works and is taking one class this summer, but she cooks many of our dinners and that is a major help to me.

What is going to be strange is having all three of my adult children plus my daughter-in-law and grandson and Millie, our 4 month old puppy all under the same roof. At least until my eldest son can find a job here that he wants. Hopefully it won't take him long to find something in management either school related or just a position that uses all of his abilities and experience. He has taken a Canadian Labour Law course by distance in Japan so that should help in some ways. He is also talking about getting a MBA. He doesn't want to have to live with us for long, but they have a lot of paper work to finish and deal with, plus job interviews.

I still go to 88 Stitches in Langley each Friday to sit and chat and knit. My husband comes home for lunch on that day so Millie isn't left in her crate for more than an hour or two. She is getting two walks per day now and she loves to meet people and other dogs. She is walking very well on her leash since I started watching the show, End-of-my-leash and incorporating some of his hints into her training.

I plan to take one knitting class in the Fall at 88 Stitches and since it is in the daytime, that helps me as I don't do well with a class in the evenings although I did it last Spring to learn about lace knitting.

My mindless knitting was the eye-of-the-partridge shawl and even with that, I had many lifelines. My trip to California was great but it was far too hot for me and I messed up one stitch and tried to fix it and ended up having to rip back one stitch at a time to fix my error. I didn't have a lifeline in place so after that I made sure I had several.

No problems with needles on Air Alaska and my friend and I both knitted on the plane and we hit as many yarn shops as we could in the Redlands, Lake Arrowhead, and Riverside areas. I did buy too much yarn as usual but I only bought yarn that I can't get in Canada easily and I was focusing on sock yarn or fingering weight yarns for shawls.

When I get over my desire to do lace knitting, I will have a lot of yarn for socks or whatever else hits me to make. I'm really sick of making scarves, but they do make nice Christmas gifts. The problem is that I've given my family fingerless gloves and scarves and hats for several years now and I guess I'm going to have to return to making felted clogs and sweaters.

I did cast on the vest for my daughter. It is the Ski Lodge Sloop vest from the 12 Months of Knitting and one that she liked. I'm using green malabrigo and changing the yarn every two rows as it is kettle dyed.

This constant shift in weather isn't doing much for my fibromyalgia nor my energy levels, but hopefully it will settle down in September. I love the Fall here in BC and I'm enjoying walking Millie and she had her first car ride without being in the crate because she was too big to fit into it. She was a tad nervous but she managed just fine as I had two quick errands to run, it wasn't too hot outside and I had the windows down and the air conditioning on when I was driving. She was shy about entering a new pet store but once she was in it and saw toys and a fake dog, she went up to the dog and wanted to play. It was quite amusing to see her all submissive to a statue. She just keeps getting better and better and I don't have to get up every single night to take her outside. That is a blessing and she is still sleeping at the end of our bed and not bothering me. My husband is the one who wanted her there and yet she does tend to sleep on his legs. I'm sure he'll change his mind when she is bigger. She sleeps in with me and is a horrible alarm clock.

With Millie at almost 6 months and Heagen at almost 23 months in September, it ought to be interesting to see them together. He is used to his Japanese grandparents' dog so I'm sure he won't be scared of Millie, and we're working with her to keep her from jumping up on people. Something that doesn't go over well with my 90 year old mother-in-law or at least it doesn't sit well with me. Mum just tolerates it.

Back to knitting and watching the Olympics.

Is It Really Summer Yet?

We had a very hot long weekend as Canada Day on July 1 was on Tuesday. Then last night we had lightning and thunder and rain. It was rainy today but not really horrible, but I do wonder if we are going to have a real summer this year or not. We didn't really have a Spring, so chances are that we'll continue to have hot days, rain, and then hot days.

I prefer nice and sunny days but not too hot. Yet our home is air conditioned, so I really don't have much to complain about.

I finished the Flower Basket Lace shawl that I decided to make to take with me next week when I go down to Lake Arrowhead to visit with 9 of my high school friends. I have 2 projects on bamboo needles that don't require much thought from me plus socks on two plastic circular needles.

Apparently Air Alaska accepts needles but any liquids over 3 oz are banned. I'm going to brave it and put all my make up stuff, creams, toothpaste, etc in my suitcase and just hope it doesn't get lost on the short flight from Seattle to Ontario, California.

Since I keep checking the weather in Lake Arrowhead and it is in the 30's C, I figured that I don't need anything to keep me warm.

I also finished the Gwen Vest from The Illustrator from Mission Falls, made out of cotton. The cotton was hard to work with, but it did turn out looking quite nice.

I still have about 11 UFO's and have joined a KAL on beginner knitters on ravelry making the luna moth, which is a free pattern from Elann.com. I've done the first 14 rows of it, but don't plan on taking it with me.

Millie is 3 months old now and had a rough weekend due to the heat, having another set of shots, teething, and feeling generally lethargic. My daughter moved back home this past weekend to save money while she's at UBC. She's going to take the bus so she can study and save on gas, which just keeps getting higher and higher. It is nice to have her at home again and she and her dad painted her old bedroom and she's settling in quite nicely. My den which is now my craft room still needs to be organized. Going from her old bedroom which was a good sized room into a small room meant that I've had to store a lot of my stash of yarn in the basement for now. It does give me a motive to start using more of my stash for projects though.

I'm also working on a Cindy pattern for a KAL on Ravelry for knitter's named Cynthia, Cindy or any other types of names that are related to Cindy. I'm slowly working on the back but my heart isn't into it right now. Mostly, it is because I've been busy with Millie and also trying to get things organized for my trip south. But I will finish it. I want to finish at least 5 of my UFO's before I start something new because I need to work on the sweater for my husband so he can wear it in the Fall and Winter. Also, I have a pair of socks for him that have been glued to the needles for months now.

Sometimes I just get bored with a project but I do always finish them. Unless like a couple lately that I frogged because I just didn't like what I was seeing.

UFO's and other Misc. Things

Since I'm planning to be in Lake Arrowhead in July with the same group of friends who came to visit me last summer, I've had to read all sorts of stuff about the rules and regulations of what I can or can not take on a plane. Air Alaska says yes to knitting needles but the friend that I'm flying down with said to take bamboo ones. She said they really are more concerned about liquids. Finding mouthwash in bottles less than 3oz isn't that difficult but it sure is a royal pain in the neck.

And then to have to put these items in a plastic bag to be inspected makes me just a tad frustrated. I'd rather just put everything in my suitcase but then with the air lines losing luggage left right and centre these days and not being able to lock luggage anymore and baggage carriers helping themselves to things in people's bags, doesn't do well for my sense of security.

However, I will do what I have to do. I have two knitting projects that I can work on on the plane and will probably just take those two items as they don't require much thinking. Well, the Branching Out Scarf does require some so I may do that on the plane and leave the Eye of the Partridge shawl for when we're all just hanging about.

Millie is now 11 months old and is quite delightful and very smart. Except that she likes to chew on my sweaters and slippers and my hands. I now just don't allow it. She starts and she is put down and I walk away. Then she'll go to my husband or anyone else in the room who will play with her. That is until she starts chewing on them and they figure it out that they'd better stop her or she'll keep doing it.

She is sleeping with us and I've tried to explain to my husband that he isn't going to want a big Golden Retriever pushing him out of bed but he's so smitten with Millie that I figure it's his problem. If she bugs me at night, I take her out to pee and if she can't settle down again, she goes into her crate. I love her dearly but I am alpha dog. She will wait until I step outside before she does, she will sit and stay for me. She will shake a paw and we're working on lying down. Mostly she just lunges for the treat, which is really just some of her food. She retrieves sticks or balls and rides in the car very well. She is getting used to having the leash on her and each day we practise walking around outside or in the house and if she doesn't chew on the leash, she gets a 'treat'.

I haven't been able to get much done around the house or yard, but then the weather has been wet and dreary and I don't feel like weeding. Plus, when I did try to do some in the backyard, Millie thought she should help and was digging holes.

I've managed to work on some knitting with Millie sleeping next to me. Problem is when she wakes up and wants to chew my needles or the yarn. I always win with this contest.

My Flower Basket Lace Shawl is coming along nicely with only a few errors and a few rows ripped back to my lifelines. I'm hoping to finish it to wear in California if there is a cool evening.

My Gwen vest from Mission Falls, The Illustrator is about 3/4 finished. I just need to finish the right front, block it, sew up the seams and figure out how to do the neck which at first didn't make any sense to me but is slowly awakening some of my tired brain cells.

I did cast on some socks in case I want to work on them in California, but I still haven't finished the pair of socks for my husband yet because I got so bored going around and around.

I feel like I have a new baby and a toddler rolled into one. Yet, Millie is fun and even though I still miss Scully, getting Millie when we did was the right time. With our grandson coming to live with us in September with my eldest son and daughter-in-law and my daughter moving home again at the end of this month to save money while at University, and my youngest son working full-time for a year before he has to decide if he wants to get another bachelor's degree or not, our house is very full.

I've had to move my yarn and quilting and scrapbooking supplies to the smaller den on the main floor and store a lot of yarn in the basement. My husband still has to tile the rec room in the basement and finish it up but he does have time before September.

It will be strange having all 3 of my children back under the same roof again, but as adults plus our daughter-in-law and grandson who will be almost 2 at the time of their arrival.

I just hope I can overlook their messes and that there is some order to who is fixing dinners and which day I do get to do the laundry in my own home.

Life is to be enjoyed and not suffered through so I choose to see this as a positive thing. We've always had family meetings to discuss issues, and my daughter has already suggested that we have one when she comes and then another one in September.

I'm grateful to have her returning home because even though she will be working part-time and studying for her degree in Sociology, she knows what needs to be done around the house and what I can't do nor should I do it.

I finished the Bias Shawl recently and it will also go to California with me. I've been checking the temperatures at Lake Arrowhead and I'll be taking mostly summer clothes. With rain and damp and cool weather here in BC, I've been forced to return to wearing some turtleneck tops just to keep warm. Hopefully that will change in the next week.

Welcoming Millie into our Family

On Saturday, May 10th, my husband and I drove out to Rosedale, a small town just past Chilliwack to look at some Golden Retriever puppies. It was a long drive, but I told him that we were just going to look. I'd already contacted a couple of local breeders about acquiring a Golden Retriever and we did have the option of putting down a deposit at one place for a female which would be ready in September.

Since my husband is a planner and I'm the type of person who will and who has purchased animals more spontaneously, it was a very long drive to just look at puppies and also make sure that these puppies were from a good family. I loved Millie from the start but David had his eye on another female that was a bit bigger. Since it has been me and the kids who have always brought animals into our home, David wanted to pick the breed and pick the name. I only asked for a female dog as that's what we had before and we had one very bad experience with a male mixed dog when our two older children were too small to have a puppy around. My reasoning was that females are easier for me.

David finally picked up Millie and she licked his face. That did it for him. He wanted her. I was also enjoying a male who was a bit shy and David asked if I thought I could handle two puppies. I was very shocked. Then instead of being spontaneous I thought. Training two dogs at one time is a lot of work and since I'm the one who is home the most, that job is mine. Having them sleep together might have helped, but I wasn't willing to spend double and also get double the work. So I said that since our other two dogs were a year and a half apart and our two older children were 14 months apart, it was easier to wait and see if we actually wanted a companion for Millie.

She rode home in our old crate, which David had cleaned and slept. We stopped at the pet store to get her some puppy food and a couple of toys.

So far, she has done all her peeing and pooping outside. I think I'm well trained. I took her out today and she met another dog and other people and seems to want to be outside digging and running around and trying to chew everything in sight. She will be only 7 weeks old tomorrow so she sleeps a lot, but she won't sleep in her crate next to our bed. I'll keep trying but the last two nights, she's slept with us.

I'm tired and have forgotten how hard it is to get up in the middle of the night with a new puppy to take her outside to pee. But she does return to our bed and settles in and I'm getting some sleep but it isn't what I need for fibromyalgia. However, I know that this stage will pass.

She seems to want to get into my knitting bag. I tried to knit this afternoon but she wanted to be right next to me and of course was interested in the yarn and needles. Finally she fell asleep so I continued to work on my bias Shawl.

I finished my Misty Garden scarf on Sunday, Mother's Day and it is blocking now. I'm still waiting for my lace wires from Knitpicks in order to block my Evelyn A. Clark shawl of Flower Baskets. I'm trying to finish up the few projects that have been sitting around for awhile, but I do want to work on a vest made out of Mission Falls cotton from the book The Illustrator called Gwen. I've been working on the back as it is mindless knitting at this point.

My knitting is taking a backseat to Millie right now, but I just mailed off the romper outfit that I'd made for my grandson.

I do wish I knew how to get my pictures to appear where I want them. I guess I'll have to email a couple of people who seem to do it seamlessly.

Saying Good bye To Scully

Early in the morning of April 20, our beloved dog, Scully died. We'd celebrated my birthday the day previous so she had a party, ate pizza crust and had a lot of attention and love. I had a feeling that she was going to die when I settled her on her bed for the night. Her breathing was quite laboured, and even though she was still going outside to pee, she preferred to lie on another bed on the patio.

Her timing was perfect. We all knew that if she hadn't died, we were going to have to put her down on April 22 but I just wanted to get through my birthday which was on April 21. We all had a rough day on the 20th, my real birthday day wasn't much fun for me, and I really felt the loss of her yesterday.

We'd buried her in our backyard and hopefully I'll be able to wander up to her grave in the next month or so.

I did finish the Kukka, by Norah Gaughan that I'd been working on and am enjoying wearing it. Since it is made out of Alpaca, it tends to stretch and I'm reblocking it now because I've been wearing it tied around my abdomen. But it is warm and perfect for our non-Spring like weather.

The knitting class that I'm taking at 88 Stitches, making a flower basket shawl/scarf by Evelyn Clark is slowly coming together. After learning how to add beads with a crochet hook, I ripped back to the 25th row, which was very painful to do, and added beads in three spots. I will be adding beads to the lace edging but I wanted some beads throughout the scarf, but not very many. I'm finally enjoying the pattern and have managed not to make mistakes this time around with the repeat rows. I'm using lifelines of course and they are really making it easier in case I do have to rip back. I'm also counting the stitches after I do each odd row so that if I have too few or too many, I can just redo one row.

I've also been mindlessly knitting a neck scarf that I usually take with me for when I have to wait in lines or for appointments. I just needed to finish something else or just not have to think too much. If I'm focused on the lace pattern I can sometimes forget about losing Scully, but sometimes I just need something to do with my hands that requires no thinking.

Grieving is hard. It has always been hard, but I do know that it will pass. And I'm grateful that we had Scully for 11 years and that she isn't suffering anymore.