My New Toy

After dropping off Millie at Bark'n Lounge, I drove into Vancouver to pick up a weaving loom from
Birkeland Bros.Wool,. Thankfully my GPS was working, or I would have gotten totally lost and would still be wandering down the streets of Vancouver. It is amazing how a trip into Vancouver can take so long to get there, but the drive home was quick and easy.

I immediately set to work assembling this 20" weaving loom. I had to rearrange my working table in my craft room to have enough room. But it is now set up and the next thing on my agenda, after I do some writing that I do with my eldest son, I plan to play around with my new toy.

Since my eldest son, daughter-in-law, and grandson moved out two weeks ago, I have become more positive and have been busy setting up my craft room again, plus moving all my knitting books back into the den on the bookshelves. I've left my scrapbooking supplies in the closet in the den for now as the craft room is too filled with yarn. I'm hoping to pick up another shelving unit so I can store my stash in that rather in containers that tend to pile up and of course I have no idea what yarn is where.

I'm slowly taking pictures of my stash and am selling some of it on Ravelry. I discovered today that I can use up my sock yarn to weave scarves. Once I figure out how to weave, that is. The pictures in the book that came with my Ashford Loom are very straight forward, but I tend to complicate things.

I'm also in a book reading group at Ravelry on the 88 Stitches group. We're reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, so my actual knitting time is really being pushed aside. I did get my knitting mojo back and have been working on my grandson's James the Train hat.

My new toy is calling my name, but I must do a couple of articles before I get to play. That must mean that I'm finally a grown up.

Dreary January

The dreary, wet, and depression weather here in the lower mainland of British Columbia is doing a number on my mental outlook. Last Friday my dear friend, Karen and I went to our favourite yarn shop, 88 Stitches and she tried to get me to be more positive. I was mostly whining and complaining. Finally the rain stopped and I actually saw some blue sky. After eating lunch and seeing more blue sky, and having fun at a big Loonie store, I ended up laughing and could feel my negative mood was lifting.

Granted it didn't totally go away as the dreary weather has continued, but at least it has been fairly dry so I could get Millie to the dog park. We now have a regular routine for dog park days. She gets muddy, I put her into the car, she waits at the entrance in the house until I tell her to head upstairs and she will now on most days jump into the bathtub. With the handheld shower, I'm able to hose her off with warm water. Then it is towel time for drying. She is a very patient dog or maybe she doesn't like all the mud on her.

My knitting mojo flew out the window after Christmas, and isn't really coming back. I keep casting on projects that I think will help, but I do a few rows and call it quits. On the other hand, I've been cleaning my house more and have been doing some reading.

On Ravelry I've joined the 2010 Shawls in 2010 group and am working on the Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West out of two skeins of Verdes Malabrigo that I had in my stash. I'm trying to reduce my stash by searching it first before going out to buy more yarn that I don't really need. Team Cindy on Ravelry is another group that I'm involved in and I've signed up to finish three WIP during the Olympics. I may have to change it to two, as one is a shawl, one a scarf that isn't mindless, and a Baby Surprise Jacket for my second grandbaby that will be born in August.

Trying to keep my sanity with this dreary and dark weather has become my main focus lately. I'd prefer snow and sunshine or even just snow instead of this mild weather, no sunlight and of course a very muddy dog most days. Millie now goes to doggy day care at Bark 'n Lounge one or two times a week and she has a lot of fun there, I get a break, and she doesn't get muddy.

I didn't make any resolutions for this year, except to try to live one day at a time, which I've been trying to do for years now. Also, spending time with positive friends helps me now as I've never felt this down in January. It could also be that my eldest son, daughter-in-law and grandson have found a place to live and since they've been here for almost one and a half years, I don't have space and as much time to myself as I was used to. I'm grateful that they will still be close by, but they need their own place and I need my home back plus I'll be busy sorting all my crafty stuff back in my old craft room.

Focusing on the positives helps me to cope with this weather. And this weather isn't very good for the Olympics that will be here soon.

I plan to work hard to finish at least two WIP during that time.

Fall has Arrived

Another beautiful day in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We did have some much needed rain, but I'm grateful that it is beginning to feel and look like our usual Fall's. Fall is my favourite season. I love to see the colours of the leaves change, feel the crispness in the air, and of course it makes me want to just sit all warm and cosy and knit.

My problem right now is that Millie needs to be walked or taken to the dog park each day. I usually just take her to the dog park in the afternoons so she can play with other dogs, run, and get rid of excess energy. We now are walking her on her leash each evening right after dinner. Soon it will be too dark to do that, and I'll be back to walking her around 4 or 5pm.

My knitting time seems to be more limited these days. I may get a bit done in the mornings, but I don't find time to knit during the afternoons much these days. Mostly because Millie needs to be out playing and having fun with her doggy friends. However, I did rip back the Lavalette shawl as I'd cast off too tightly. I have no idea what I did as I do know how to do two different methods of casting off loosely. But I fixed it and now it drapes very well.

Millie is now 18 months old and she and Heagen play very well together. They of course are still supervised.

I did a KAL with the Scary Lace group on Ravelry and used some yarn that I had in my stash from a trip to California last summer. I made The Travelling Woman.


I've started the KAL for October, Saskia, and between trying to do a few rows each evening on a lace shawl for my daughter-in-law's mom out of silky malabrigo, redoing the back of Thomas the Train, working on Charlotte's Web, and doing a few rows on the Saskia shawl, and ignoring all my other UFO's for now, I don't really feel a sense of accomplishment. Once I get going on one of these projects, I know I'll do what I always do. I'm totally focus on one of them until it is finished.
I do work on the Einstein coat when I'm out and need something totally mindless, so that may be finished by next Fall.

Our knitting guild, The Fraser Valley Knitting Guild seems to be going much better now that we've elected some people for major positions. I'm the treasurer/membership person and we opened up a bank account, which was a major accomplishment. With my husband doing all the graphic work for free for now, I can easily give him the information to be printed out and he does it.
My pain levels have increased with the shifting of weather, but so far I'm managing to do the main things that need to be done. Like taking Millie out, playing with Heagen, a couple of meals per week, and of course wanting to buy more yarn that I really don't need.

Too many hobbies

My den room is definitely too small for all of my hobbies. Shelves are filled with yarn, the closet is overflowing with yarn, scrapbooking supplies and other things that just need a place to be for now.

My daughter-in-law and I decided to do scrapbooking today since it is too hot outside to do much of anything. After I found all my printed pictures from 2006, I couldn't find the notebook where I'd written down all the places we'd visited while in Japan for Cherry Blossom Season during that year. I couldn't find any pictures for the beginning of 2006 except for one of my youngest son wearing a scarf that I'd knitted for him. It wasn't ready in time for Christmas so he got it in January. At least it kept his neck warm during the winter months while he was finishing a degree at University.

After spreading out all my papers, tools, glue that was so old it wouldn't stick, and finding new glue and acid-free sticky's and some birthday paper and some other birthday things, I proceeded to just sit on the floor and paste the birthday photos from Mum's 88th birthday and half of the pictures from my daughter's 27th birthday on pages, and then my back hurt, I was tired and felt like it was too much work to do in a totally disarrayed room.
My daughter-in-law and youngest son had moved a bookshelf into the den which now houses many containers of yarn that I haven't noted on my inventory list as to which container they are in. While my yarn inventory is kept up-to-date, finding the yarn that I want is still a bit difficult for me since I had to move all my yarn, scrapbooking, and quilting supplies into this small den and the basement and under our bed.

The thought of finishing 2006 seems like a lot of work. I still haven't printed out all the pictures from our trip to Japan, but I do have enough to fill a big scrapbook. Sometimes I wish I'd hadn't started doing this hobby or had just done books of birthdays, Christmas, holidays, and special events rather than trying to do it year by year. I still haven't totally redone my grown children's baby pictures, and many of them were damaged due to acid getting into them. At least I'd removed them from their old albums.

If I get the wild idea to finish two quilts, the scrapbooking stuff will again be back in the closet so I can use the table.

I think that's why I prefer knitting. It is portable, it is waiting for me next to my spot on the couch in the family room, and if I'm bored with one project, I can pick up another UFO and work on it. Quilting and scrapbooking take time, lots of equipment and of course an uninterrupted hour or two.

Millie turned 16 months old on the 25th, and she had a very exciting experience out in the lightning and thunderstorm last night. We'd gotten ready to take her out when the rain began and as we heard thunder, we decided not to go to the power easement. We walked her down to a big park with a pond, trying to gauge which way the storm was moving. It was moving with us. My husband got some pictures of the lightning and the skies but he was frustrated as he only had his small camera.

When the storm was coming right over us, I decided that we'd be safe on the stage that is covered and at the park. Along with some skateboarding teens, we sat and watched the storm, watched the downpour of rain and Millie wasn't frightened of the thunder. It was a good test for her as she is going to be a therapy dog, visiting people in hospital and eventually visiting children at Children's hospital.

Once the storm was past us, we walked very fast in the opposite direction to get home, get dry, and feel safe. Our daughter had towels out to dry off Millie, for which I was very grateful.

I needed a picture of Millie since she is now 16 months old, but she wasn't interested in sitting still. She was more interested in what 'her dad' was doing. He'd cleaned the barbecue so our youngest son could barbecue hamburgers on it tonite. Millie wanted to be with 'her dad' and he was trying to get her to sit quietly but she wanted to play.


He finally got her to sit with him, and they both seemed to be smiling. I think.



Of course the first picture of my messy den has Millie lying in her favourite spot while I'm on the computer.

I'm really enjoying working on the Lavalette shawl with Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber silk and cashmere. The pattern is simple to memorize and although I should be finishing the Thomas the Train cardigan for my grandson, I keep returning to this shawl. I did do a few rows on the cardigan last night and plan to do a few more this evening. Doing intarsia isn't my favourite thing to do, but the fronts are looking much better than the back. After I finish the front left that I'm now doing, I will do the sleeves. Then if I have yarn left over, I may redo the back. Now that is something that I'm not looking forward to doing, but I do like my projects to look finished and well knitted.
My BSJ is finished except for buttons. Either I'll just put the buttons on and give it to my sister-in-law when she's out her visiting in August to take home with her to give her daughter, my niece who is expecting in September, or I'll wait until the baby is born and put the buttons on the correct side. I wonder who decided which was the right side to add buttons, but I'm sure I could google it and the answer would be there.

Holiday's on Vancouver Island

With my car loaded to capacity, my husband and I left home for Vancouver Island with our dog, Millie on July 2. It was Millie's first long trip, first ferry ride, and many firsts for her during our week on the Island.

The picture above is of the waterfalls in Campbell River where we stayed with my brother-in-law for three days. Our queen-sized air mattress which had only been used once in 2007 during a visit of my high school friends, was filled and quickly deflated. So I chose to sleep on a small couch, while my husband managed to keep filling up the air mattress and eventually fell asleep on the floor. On our second night, I turned the air mattress over to discover about 3 rips. It probably occurred when it had been put back in the bag. A trip to get duct tape was in order.

With the duct tape, it had a slow leak. I chose the couch again. After two difficult nights of sleep, my husband went to Canadian Tire and bought a new queen sized air mattress, which worked beautifully.

We spent three days in Campbell River, visiting with my b-i-l (my husband's older brother), walking Millie around the town, down to the water, and through a great park where other people were walking their dogs or riding bikes or just taking a pleasant evening stroll. I of course found the local yarn shop called, Needle Arts Centre, which I found some yarn that I just had to have.

From there we headed to Port Alberni and the weather shifted from sunny days to rain. We found a hotel that took dogs, and the staff were wonderful to Millie.

We spent one day in Tofino wandering around and took Millie on a walk that led to the ocean. She found a friend to play with there, much like she'd found a friend while walking around the park area in Campbell River as can be seen in the picture below.

At Tofino, Millie had so much fun playing in the ocean and it really wore her out. She slept well every night, but then she went everywhere with us and was walking a lot or running free when we felt that she would be safe.

After two days in Port Alberni, we headed for Nanaimo and found another hotel, a Best Western, that allowed dogs. They even had a bed for Millie plus they'd leave out treats for her like she was a prized guest.

We found a small dog park at Beban Park and Millie again found friends to play with.

Millie did very well on her first holiday. She didn't mind the ferry ride and neither did we. Instead of leaving our car and going upstairs as we usually do, we stayed in the car, walked Millie and even sat for a short time in the small dog areas that they do have on ferries. The first one was air conditioned and too cold for us, however the second one wasn't air conditioned and the door was cracked open a bit and it wasn't very comfortable. The car and just walking Millie around the cars and to the back of the ferry seemed to work well for all of us.

I did find another yarn store in Nanaimo called, Mad About Ewe and was able to find some yarns that I usually have to travel into Vancouver to obtain.

All in all, I found this week away from home very relaxing. I read two and 1/2 books and highly recommend The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. I quickly read two fairly current knitting novels which entertained me, but they were books that I'd call light summer reading.

I only worked on one project the entire time. I managed to get quite a bit done of the wrap that has been on my needles for months now. As I have two projects that I need to finish by September, I'm going to finish this wrap, which will be great in the Fall, and finish the BSJ for my niece whose baby is due in September and my grandson's Thomas the Train.

Life just keeps happening

The house is chaotic again with noise from a 2 1/2 year old, questions from the adult children, whining from the dog, and meowing from the ancient cat.


My wip's are piling up and I can't seem to stay focused long enough on any one project to finish it.


The cardigan for my grandson has 1/2 of the back done, which has been a long and tangled mess. Doing fair isle/intarsia to create Thomas the Train on the back has finally paid off. I'm going quicker now and only have to work with green and white for awhile and then on to shaping the armholes in blue for the sky. I'm dreading the two fronts and have considered knitting them plain, but I want to make my grandson happy and he loves Thomas the Train and friends.

I've woven in some of the ends, but it will take me hours to totally finish the back of this cardigan, but my grandson is thrilled each time I show him how Thomas is actually being created. I have told him that when he is about 5 I'll teach him to knit. He now can handle his child chop sticks very well, and since he can manage those, I don't think needles should be too much more work for him to learn.

I have three shawls on needles and have been trying to do a few rows each evening, but between trying to concentrate, being interrupted, losing my spot on the chart and having Millie wanting to go for a walk, means that my knitting time is hard to come by on certain occasions. I did take some knitting with me to the dog park yesterday and managed to get one row done before it was time to leave.

Millie loves to run and play with her buddies at the dog park and we had to stop going there for over a week because she developed kennel cough. She is well now and of course back to requiring three walks/day or at least two and one long play time at the dog park.

Millie is almost 15months old and is definitely my best buddy and the delight of my life. She lies quietly at my feet as I'm knitting and has never gotten into my yarn or projects. She doesn't like it when the yarn happens to lie on her head, so I move it, give her a pet and she just lies down again in comfort.

Yarn change rather than a yarn mistake

Today I was sitting and watching The Dog Whisperer with Millie at my feet. She'd had a good walk and run earlier so it was the perfect time to work on the Storm Cloud Shawlette. I did wonder why it seemed like I had more than 205 yards of yarn and that what I thought was Lorna's Lace in an aran weight was a fingering weight, but I just kept knitting and dropping YO's on the even rows and doing the increase rows without really thinking very hard.

After deciding that I should do some much needed housework, like clean the master suite bathroom and change the sheets on our bed plus put clean ones on our eldest son's and daughter-in-law's bed for when they return next week, I was tired of housework. Besides our air conditioning isn't working properly and it was warmer inside than out. With my husband, we took Millie to the dog park as she'd tried to help me make the beds and was getting under my feet for real.

It was a nice day outside and she sniffed, played, and milled about which is what she is good at doing at the dog park when she doesn't see any of her regular playmates. It is the Victoria Day long weekend and a lot of people are out of town or at the rodeo, which is in our small town.

When we returned, my youngest son was actually fixing dinner! I of course let him continue and sat down to work on the shawlette. Then I looked at the second ball of yarn that had been wound at the same time as the one I was using and realized that I was actually using Handmaiden 2 ply cashmere/silk for this shawlette. Since it was a 300meter ball, I was definitely going to have some leftover.

I wasn't about to frog all my work, so I decided quickly that I'd probably have enough leftover to make a lacey cowl. I had to laugh at myself. At my age, it's the best thing to do. Also my husband and I are trying to be positive about everything in life these days. If I'd gotten frustrated and frogged the entire project, I'm sure that I wouldn't have made this shawlette at all.