It's time for roses.

I am just so impressed with this rose - I put it in spring 2008, and in spring 2009 I discovered that it had been gnawed by mice - but the plucky thing just grew up from the roots, and this spring it grew plenty of canes and buds. The flowers are semi-double (about 25 petals) but the buds are quite pointy... and the most attractive thing, I think, is when the buds start to open. They make a lovely little whorl which gets bigger and bigger, over a day or more. And then they LAST, both on the bush and cut, for many many days. Now, if only I could remember what its NAME is? Or, failing that, if it would just sucker me some babies so I could plant them everywhere. That would be almost as good.

Speaking of suckers, the Bourbon rose, Tuscany Superb, on the rose mound, is making more all over the place. I have put one in the bed by the (new) lilac hedge, which had a poor start but is taking off quite well now. The main one is blooming, but, because it is behind a Therese Bugnet, doesn't show up that well. I must do more pruning. Heavens knows I have plenty of Therese Bugnet! The Snow Pavement is also suckering along well. I wish the eastern end of the mound was filling in as well as the western one, but I fear the nearby trees are at fault for cutting down on the light. Also the varieties there may be at fault? But surely Hansa is one that should sucker out like a good one - it certainly suckers all over old dooryards.

Back to the Garden

My frustration with - I suppose - MY inability to use Blogger continues - can't get more than one photo in a post without them mixing up, getting out of order, or lining up, side by side, at the top, rather than where I want to use them to illustrate my very important words. Aah well. This photo at least illustrates TWO things, the snowballs planted three years ago in the former driveway which circumnavigated the house - until we decided that we needed wind protection on the North more than we needed to be able to get from the upper to the lower driveway (or vice-versa) through the yard. This is the first year that there have been any amount of blooms on them, and, because they're in the shade (on the North side of the house) they bloomed later, and stayed longer, than their bigger parents on the South. We planted several things there at that time, including alders to improve the soil, a lilac, and a Rosa Glauca. There were blooms on the lilac as well, and they were double ones - I can not recall buying a hybrid lilac but I MUST have, because while it is the same colour as the common ones, the bloom was hybrid - huge, double, and later than the commons.
The shawl is Haruni, in Malabrigo laceweight (it's a single-ply 100% merino wool from South America and is very popular on Ravelry). It has a very simple allover lace pattern in the body, and a very fancy edge with big doubled leaves which cause the shawl to curve a bit (meaning it's bigger than a simple triangle, I suppose). It's quite a tiny shawl, a shawlette really, and quite warm because of the wool. I got the yarn at Romni Wools in Toronto.

We're Back! And it was wonderful.

We were staying in Glengarriff in County Cork the second week, and one day we did some of the walks in the neighbourhood. There are many of these, and they are well-utilized. The above photo is of the waterfall walk in the local forest reserve. There was a high school group on a field trip there as well.



This is the view out our bedroom window in Glengarriff. The island you can see isn't Ilnacullen (the one with the public gardens - it's off to the right) - but it was a lovely, lovely way to start the day, looking at this. (Ilnacullen was wonderful too.)


One day two of our happy band decided to do a walk on the Beara Way, from Ardgroom to Eyeries. We dropped them off at Ardgroom, and went to Kenmare to shop. The yarn shop I was seeking had closed, unfortunately, though we were able to indulge in bread-and-butter pudding and cappuccino at jam, a very nice cafe there.
When we got back to Eyeries to pick them up, there was no sign of them. Our plan was to meet in one of the two pubs in town, and we visited both of them. Everyone we asked agreed that they should have returned - we had given them three hours, and most thought that was plenty - we were envisioning sprained ankles at the very least - when they showed up, an hour late. Apparently neither of them had a watch!
We waited in the pub with this view out the back window. Glorious! Apparently Eyeries was a film location a few years ago for a film called "Falling for a Dancer" and there were stills on the walls - believe me, Eyeries is a lot more colourful now.


Bantry was our local big town, where we went for groceries and other supplies. I even found a tiny yarn shop there, and bought some Happy sock yarn and a celtic cross cross-stitch kit for 'way too much money. We also were able to find free wifi on the street, as the wifi at our cottage wasn't very reliable. One day, we visited Bantry House and Gardens. This is the view from the front rooms.

More to come!

One more sleep and I'm off!

I am so excited I can hardly sit still and type. I have most of my packing done, so I am wearing things that won't be travelling. I am up to 9 kg in my suitcase, but that's OK until we get to Glasgow, and I can leave some of the things there, to lighten the load. I'm actually grateful to Ryanair for the restrictions, because they're forcing us to pack light - very light.
I have been trying to finish off the Swallowtail shawl, mainly so that I can use the needles on my 'travelling' shawl, which will be Icarus. However, Swallowtail has been giving me grief! I ran out of yarn in the second-last chart, and, because people on Ravelry mentioned that the *nupps* take up so much yarn, I frogged back the two nupp charts and knit them again, subbing beads for the nupps. And now, I'm in the first row of the edge chart and I'm going to run out of yarn AND beads, and I just discovered that I've lined up the two patterns wrongly - I was going up when I should have been going down. Grrr. I have a skein of Elann Kydd silk in ALMOST the same colour, and so this Swallowtail is going to have a slightly fuzzy edge - and possibly no beads.
Because we have the whole day in Toronto on Wednesday, I'm planning a trip down Queen St. West to Romni Wools and Arton beads. Luckily sock and laceweight yarns don't take up much room, and neither do beads. And they can be left in Glasgow too. I am glad for the 30% expansion zip on my carefully measured and weighed "carry-on" bag, which will come in handy on the way back.
Luckily for us, Glasgow is open on "Good" Friday, so I have a few yarn shops to see on my list - one that carries Knit Pro needles, which is the European equivalent of Knit Picks, or so I am reliably informed. I have a little list!
We have some local guides laid on for the Cork portion of the trip - we'll meet Bert and Annie in Cork City on Sunday the 11th and then they have a tour planned to Mizen Head on Tuesday, and a music session afterwards. And then dance class on Wednesday night in Skibbereen. They will be sick of the very sight of us.
Off I go!

In just over a week!

Passport: Check.
Euros: Check.
GBP: Check.
Tickets: Check.

Almost ready to go! I have some work to do this week to prepare for the annual audit, and other tidying up at the office. Then off we go!

The house could use a tidy as well - we have a lovely niece who's agreed to house - or rather cat-sit, and I want her to be comfortable. However, there are outside family commitments that are taking some time.

Knitting: I'm into a new shawl - Swallowtail, with Elann baby lace merino. I have finished the budding lace (19 repeats) and now I'm about to embark on the lily-of-the-valley lace, which in TOUGH. I've already frogged a bit. However, I got out stitch markers and I'm trying again. Hope to have it finished before we leave.

It's hard to think of anything else.

I've been doing some natural dyeing, following recipes and hints offered on the 'Plants to Dye For' group on Ravelry. I dyed a mohair - and - nylon shawl that I had knitted some time ago - it was originally a pale baby-ish yellow, so I tried it in some butternut liquour I'd had soaking since the fall. I wet it, but didn't mordant - put it in a pot with the cool dye, brought it up to just under boiling, and then let it cool in the broth. It's a beige now, a touch on the greenish side. Better than yellow, anyway. They I tried a couple of skeins of my Belfast Mini Mills sock yarn (80% alpaca, 20% nylon) in black bean liquor. This was mordanted with alum and cream of tartar overnight, and then just put in the water from soaking 2 kg of black beans. Some people are getting a nice blue, but I just have this silvery grey. The cowl underneath is the undyed alpaca.

This is my nice Multnomah - I have gotten several compliments about how nice it looks when I wear it - usually with brown, though I have tried it with blue (jeans) and that's fine too. I keep planning to take a photo of it on me, but I haven't managed that yet.
Planning the trip is taking a bit of time - usually weekends! I bought a Ryanair-approved suitcase and am starting to make lists about what to take. On the flight to Glasgow we can take 5 kg as carry-on and check 20 kg, but of course Ryanair is 10 kg and no checking, so I have 15 kg for stuff for Emily - which so far has amounted to 2 tubes of deodorant for Jeremy. And slippers. Felted slippers.
Still no sign of the passports - they should come this week, I hope. Getting excited!

March comes in like a Lion

We've had a nasty bout of weather - not cold at all, just wet and windy. I do hope that March will go "out like a lamb" - as we'll be flying to Glasgow on the last day of the month.

I do feel sorry for the cats, who are all enthusiasm to go out in the morning - and then we open the door, and the north-east wind howls in, spitting snow or rain or a mixture of both in their poor fuzzy faces and they shrink back and finally turn away. Only to give it a go later on, of course.

Two shawls were completed in February! The "Little Arrowhead" one actually turned out more shawl-like than I was anticipating. I blocked it quite hard, having bought some TIG wires at the welders, and some T-pins as well. The wires bend quite a bit but straighten out fine after they're released from the pins. So far this is the only shawl I've blocked with the wires. I'm determined to make the next one a straight-line lace-weight one, so I can use them to block even points, etc. I'm almost tempted to re-block some of my shawls!

I finished Multnomah as well, and wore it with my brown skirt & top - it went quite well & felt comfortable! I bought a Celtic-design shawl pin to hold it on, but I'm not completely happy with it - for one thing it's a bright silver (although it's made of pewter) and it's a bit big. I'd like a hammered wire one, and I may have to make my own. Perhaps in the interim I could tone this one down a bit. I think I could use acrylic paint for the purpose.

I've been going a bit crazy with felting - Katie asked for some red felted slippers, and I have all of this very cheap Patons SWS, so I tried a Garnstudio pattern, put it in the wash and forgot it! Naturally it felted into a bootie for a leprechaun. Tried again, with another pattern - basically a gigantic toe-up sock with a short-row heel - put it in the washer and stayed with it this time. I checked it three times, taking it out the third time. I felted a SWS handbag also, and it looks fine - now I just have to line it and make or find a handle. With success at the felting stage, I made the second slipper for Katie, and now I'm working on the second one of another pair - this time in a striped red and gold SWS. With my stash of SWS, I can outfit the whole family!! The pattern allows for needle-felting an insole of roving in the slipper - and I'm tempted to do some decoration on the toe as well.

I must say that making gigantic sock feet is a great antidote for knitting fine lace shawls. I really feel like I'm productive when I can knit a whole slipper in an evening. As opposed to two weeks per shawl. I'll have to start another sometime this month - if only to have something to knit on the plane(s). I think it will be socks in Ireland - if they disallow my bamboo needles on Ryanair, I'll just buy new ones in Dublin. I am taking my Knit Picks Harmonies in a pencil-case in my carry-on luggage - this is suggested as a successful tactic by many travellers. I don't have enough - or the right sort - of hair to use them as hairsticks.

I'm finding it fun to make knitting travel plans!