Knitting Again - and dancing too.

A wonderful thing happened when I snuck out of set dance on Saturday at lunchtime - I went to LK Yarns in the Hydrostone and they had the Balmoral yarn I'd used for K's hat and mittens - and they had it in the purple I used! Glory! So I finished off her mittens. The missing one can show up now if it wants to. The mittens and hat turned out to be useful, as it snowed! in Halifax on Saturday night, so we got up on Easter Sunday to a snow-covered world.
   We went to Sage (Saege, if I knew how to make a dipthong) for Easter Brunch and it was lovely! One of those all-you-care-to-eat things with literally everything you would ever want to try.  The only bad thing I had was a slice of ham that was a bit grisle-y. I had a egg Benedict and skipped the English muffin on the bottom to save room for more interesting things, and I must say that the hollandaise sauce was something I really didn't enjoy. It's amazing that they can do them and hold them at just the right consistency. The egg was perfect. There was also lot of fresh fruit and a really nice bread with apples inside and mini Easter eggs on top, which I had twice. Delicious.
    But there was salmon - smoked and baked - leg of lamb, a veggie pasta - luckily Katie eats fish so she was fine. And the dessert buffet was grand too - I had a slice of lemon cake and some homemade gelato - vanilla and raspberry. Delicious! We may need to try making this at home.
By the time we were finished eating, the sidewalks were clear of snow and by the end of the day it was mostly gone. We found a bit of blowing snow on the Cobequid Pass but after that there was a lot more snow on the ground but none in the air, thankfully. There was quite a bit on the Island, though!
    The new car - we are calling her Brigid - has cruise control, and that made the drive much more enjoyable. It's amazing how much work is involved, accelerating and decelerating all the time. It's meant to be good for mileage too. I found it a bit stressful on the divided highway, if you got up behind someone going slowly and the passing lane was occupied. And left-hand descending turns (especially in the hills) were a bit white-knuckle - I must usually slow down going into them, because my brain was saying "too fast! too fast!" all the time. But I learned to hang grimly on and I was fine.
    We were 12 Islanders at the event, and I think it would have been a pretty small gathering if we hadn't been there! Of course the locals can drop in and out as other priorities take over, while we are all there to go to the event exclusively. Pat is talking to Elizabeth about coming at another time of year - possibly the Labour Day weekend, as he is free for the first couple of weeks of September, and then he could tour around in some better weather than most Easters in the Maritimes can provide. It sounds like a good idea, as we never have anything special to do then. We will have to come up with something else to do at Easter! Now that Pat is retired, he doesn't have the Easter holiday to save up, and I am sure he could spend time with his family too! He may be thinking that there will be more people around then as well. I wonder if they are thinking of starting this year?

Snow Day!

     See. I said the winter wasn't over yet. We had a snow day - the kind the teachers & kids have been praying for all winter.

   I actually took a snow day - didn't go in and tutor, even though  today is my usual day. I was waiting for Rush Transfer to deliver the washer and dryer, so the weather wasn't too bad for them to be out, even though the schools were closed. In fact, just before noon our snowplow guy came in and did the usual job on the "lane" - actually this year he has been plowing the whole *yard*.

       Worked out well, as the delivery truck arrived shortly after and they were very pleased to have all the room. They tried to back up to the door and got stuck! I so should have taken a picture. The machines are HUGE and gorgeous, not hooked up yet of course, so just for looking at so far.

Pale "Moon Blue"

     I spent some of the day dyeing roving - I tidied up the craft area downstairs, looking for the Jacquard acid dyes I'd bought from Knit Picks some time ago - and didn't find them immediately, but found some ancient boxes of Rit, and instructions online on how to do oven-dyeing. The suggestion was to use aluminum roaster pans but I just got out the Pyrex. You soak the wool, pour on the dye and cover with foil, then put it in the oven at 150 degrees C. for an hour. I did a dark green and a "moon blue". The blue was a cold water dye and is the palest for sure.

      You check for clear water, which is a sign that the dye is exhausted, but I think I had too much dye for the amount of roving each time. Less dye next time! I washed quite a bit of it down the sink. My weighing machine needs new batteries, so I don't know how much of each I dyed, but it was such a rush to do it that I want to do it again! I have been watching a YT video on making felted slippers - these you don't have to knit first, and they are hand-felted so there is more control. Probably less sturdy, but there's a lot of room for embellishment and so on.  Can't wait to get started!

Purple and bright!

    After I did the first two colours, I searched some more and found the acid dye tidily put away in a box - so I cleaned out the pans, soaked another two pansful of roving, and did a bright green and a really bright purple (2 t. fuschia and 1/4 t. cobalt) - again, too much dye. Tomorrow I am going to try to make pastel colours.

The dye actually *boils* in the oven, but because the wool is kept really still, and gradually brought up to temp and then down again, it doesn't felt. Amazing.

Winterish

    The much-ballyhooed January storm didn't arrive, but we did get one on February first. It was my first day of work at the fabric store, and I was allowed to leave a few minutes early, although I didn't actually get *home* early as I had to wait for Fred's car pool to arrive... we ended up at home by 6. However, the power was out, so we couldn't cook, and the house was cool-ish. We lighted all the candles we could find, and got the wood furnace going, with the gravity-feed panel open at the back. I'm thinking of putting it on a hinge, it gets opened so often.
    Anyway, we ate cheese and crackers and dip, and went to bed to keep warm, and shortly after the power company came and we had power again. It is amazing how quiet the house is without the mechanical hum of the fridge, the furnace fan, and so on. It's also amazing how much warmer the furnace makes the house *with* the fan! Anyway, we now have a nice amount of snow, no more than 20 centimetres, but nicely piled up in places. I was out for a walk today, but the wind was bitter - fine when it was at my back, but excruciating in my face on the way back. It's a gorgeous day, though - bright and clear, with a few big flakes every now and then. I wouldn't be surprised if there was quite a bit of solar gain.
  Knitting continues apace, with another pair of Cloisonee mittens in the pile for next year's Christmas presents. It's so nice to make something that takes two days, rather than two weeks (like socks).

    I invested in a few skeins of Patons Classic Wool - went to M*chaels first, as they had a sale on - 2 skeins for $10 - but they had very few colours. I bought black and orange there, and then went to Owl's Hollow, and got a lime yellow and magenta - for their regular price of $8.99. Eeek. Anyway, they are nice big skeins, over 200 metres each. Good for a couple of pairs each, almost.
     The current pair use the black and magenta, and the blue and the white are Aran yarns I have in abundance. (I tried out a pair in Briggs & Little but they are so scratchy I don't think anyone would wear them. I'll wash them and see if there's any improvement.) Once the ends of this pair are darned in I will have a look at another colour combo. I made these in size small, and they really are tiny. I'll have to think about whom they will fit.
    Speaking of tiny, I made a 'selbu' pair of mittens in sock yarn - a fairly dreadful self-stripe from S. R. Kertzer in pinks and turquoise - with which I had tried to make Jaywalker socks long ago. I discovered that the Jaywalker pattern made the leg so un-stretchy that I couldn't get my foot through, so they were frogged, and the yarn's been in time-out city ever since.

    This pattern starts out with 40 stitches, so the mittens are really, truly tiny, but the stripes are set off quite well with the white, I think. Or perhaps it's just cute because  it's so tiny? Anyway, everyone else on Ravelry who made this pattern used worsted or DK weight and made mittens to fit adults, so I may try that myself at some point. It's quite an easy pattern.  I liked the stripes so much that I may have to find some stripey DK! Another time I might make a corrugated rib or a braided edge, as, again, I'm not keen on the stripe by itself.

   I managed to get my deck table grouted, despite the frustration of only finding grout in large boxes, so I ended up with much more than I really wanted. I mixed it up in a yogurt tub, and underestimated twice, so had to mix three batches in all. On the up side, I didn't have to throw out much.

      I suppose that the spaces were quite wide between the marbles, compared to the granite tiles which were our last grouting project, so I needed more than I thought. However, it's finished now, and I have enough of the charcoal-coloured grout to do a couple more projects.
     I have a book on mosaics home from the library, so everything that isn't moving should look out!

     The table will have to be sealed before it goes outside, of course, and I'm looking for a small amount of grout sealer - Home Depot seems to think that we all want a big $40 jug of the stuff.

 

March came in like a Lion

Well, finally February is behind us. In addition to the snow and rain and then more snow on the weekend, we had another storm yesterday - fine snow which started about 3 pm, and rapidly became quite bad...luckily Fred left work (and let me know) at 3 so we met at the UPEI gym and then we left there about 5 - they were about to close - and getting on the highway was the hard part as all the parking lots were emptying at once. Once there, though, we took it slowly and managed to get home an hour after we'd left the gym (usually a 20-minute drive). I think it was the worst weather I've driven through this winter.
The wind was SE, so it was on the front door, which needs its weatherstripping changed - it whistled all night. The snow changed to rain after midnight, apparently, but I didn't see much evidence of rain - it was blowing at 40 kpg gusting to 70 so the windchill was below zero - it probably froze any rain in its tracks! The path was drifted in again this morning. Anyway, the sun is shining today so we should have some solar gain.
It was chilly in the house last night, so I couldn't really get into knitting - I am finishing the second of a pair of socks, fairly uninspiring ones, having finished my lace-weight "Ethereal" shawl and a fingering-weight small one called "Arroyo" on Sunday. Talking to Anne on Sunday, she would like some green wrist-warmers, so I'll check my patterns and find something that will work with the lime Qiviut. Should be fun.

This is a month I won't miss much

February can be quite unattractive any year, but the one we are having in 2011 will certainly be a record-beater. We aren't out of the woods yet - there's another system barrelling its way toward us as I write - this time, we will get rain and freezing rain as well as snow, so perhaps we will lose some of the piles and piles of snow left from previous storms. And, of course, perhaps we will lose our electricity and be in the dark for days. Only time will tell, and luckily I have knitting to keep me busy. I suppose we can count this a sign of spring, that we are getting rain as well as snow. I'm trying for optimism here.
This is the last day of Fred's medical leave (per se) so he's in town today getting errands done and the like. We went to the gym at lunchtime, so after work we'll be able to pick up a couple of movies and a big bunch of groceries, and head straight home to hunker down with fingers firmly crossed that the power stays on.
My lovely sister sent me a care package of yarns from the West coast with a friend who was visiting - 2 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (colour above), 2 skeins of Jacques Cartier Qiviuk Merino Silk (80% merino, 15% qiviut, 5% silk) in lime, 1 skein of Jacques Cartier Cashmere in dark blue, and 2 skeins of Jacques Cartier Heavenly Alpaca in green. The latter is laceweight - I think a shawl or fine scarf is in order. I have one other skein of the same, in a blue-green, with which I tried to make the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing - but it's too fine for that. I don't know if it would work for my cowl-and-fingerless gloves combos. The Berroco surely will, however, as it's a worsted weight. Ah me! Off to seek out the perfect pattern from my patterns drawer in the filing cabinet!

Another One! Oh No!

Yes, incredible as it may seem, we had another considerable snowfall yesterday and last night, combined with 70 kph wind overnight and this morning. Schools are closed, and the Bridge is closed to high-sided vehicles (it's a NW wind this time, you see). Most of our storms to date have been Nor'easters. I come to work on the private road from Mt. Edward Road to the Mall, this year the site of the Jack Frost Festival (on this weekend) and they are having NO trouble keeping their snow sculptures and skating rink frozen *this* year. No indeed.
It's all good for the knitting and the manipulation of seedlings. Looking at garden catalogues does engender a bit of a sense of disbelief, however (looking out at the hip-deep snow in the front yard). Working on the second of my Mockery socks, and trying to NOT cast on anything else until I get these two pairs of socks well and truly finished. But my mind is reeling with possibilities.

Yet another Snow Day!

This is getting to be a habit. We have had *two* snowstorms this week - Wednesday night and Sunday. Luckily the expected 25-30 cm. of snow came in the form of rain this morning (changing back to snow later), so we don't have quite as much of the white stuff to shovel. The wind's picked up, however, and it's not a great day to get out and walk, as it was yesterday! The photo on the left was taken when we walked up "the back road" on a beautiful, sunshiny yesterday.
Ah well, we will get our exercise shovelling!
Two at-home days mean that I got lots of reading and knitting done - making good progress on Kilt hose stocking No. 2, with the top bit all finished and just about the amount you would have to do on a *regular* sock left. And of course it's in a much bigger gauge than my usual socks - so it should be a breeze.


Just to keep things interesting I'm making a regular-sized sock from a pattern called "Mockery", with a subtle flat cable - looks really interesting! In a cotton/wool/nylon mixture I got at WalMart or Zellers in a mill ends bag. It's looking like I will get two socks out of a skein, and I bought two bags of the mill ends, so enough for 12 pairs of socks. I am loving the subtle colouring - light ecru background, with striping in light grey and beige. I may well get sick of it by the time I make 12 pairs, but I'm fine with it so far. I am using 2.0 mm. needles which is making a lovely firm fabric. The yarn has been confirmed as Patons Stretch Sock (mill ends are *usually* Patons or Bernat) - they have just released seven new colourways (and the formula seems a bit different as well) and mine is called "nougat". I am so pleased to finally identify it! I've been checking back at Z and W but no joy finding any more. Makes me realize I should go with it when I see something interesting, though!
I got Robin McKinley's new book, "Pegasus" at the library on Friday and I've just finished it. As usual with McKinley, I'm a bit breathless at the end, more so than ever this time because it is a 2-parter - and the second part isn't yet written! I was going to hold out until they were both finished, but when I saw it on the new books list at the library I clicked - and I got it! I must be the first person to read this copy. Now to wait - until 2012 - for part 2!

As Christmassy as it can be.

The snow has come! We've had a couple of snowfalls by now, and the last one has stuck - literally. We're so sheltered here that it has stayed on the tiniest twigs, as well as the largest trees. We tried to move this seat indoors yesterday but it was firmly attached to the earth. Ah well, we'll have a thaw sometime, and in the interim it can serve the cats. I saw paw prints.

The tree on the far left in this picture (below) is now - partially - resting on the porch. We're waiting for the thaw to bring it in, but I think it has to be done today. Time's getting short.


Have I mentioned how much I HATE Blogger?? It won't let me place pictures where I want, it won't let me load more than two, and when I try to insist, it hides the cursor so I don't know where the next line will show up. This is NOT very Christmassy, you guys.

Much to do, so I'll leave this frustration behind and go put up a tree, and maybe bake bread. That'll fix ME.

Merry Christmas!