Low Key

Holy cow, it's been ages since I've posted!

First thing, go check out those gorgeous socks that Donna finished. Cookie A's pattern. I am tempted but not enough to buy the pattern and cast on. I bought a couple of her patterns last year and still haven't knit either one.

Turns out that it was a very non-knittery Christmas/Holiday. I finished hubby's sleeping bag which he took for a test drive Christmas afternoon. 14 skeins of Briggs and Little Heritage! Now Colin desperately wants one of his very own. OH MY!

Colin didn't waste any time breaking in his new socks.

That was the extent of the knit gifts. Hubby's sweater is not done. For some unknown reason it ended up on the back burner.

Over the holidays we've watched a lot of movies, including a Star Trek movie marathon. Tonight we're going to all tuck in and watch the third Pirates of the Caribbean. Might even knit a bit. I've been on a dish cloth knitting jag lately. Nice and brainless.

Have you guys seen these? So darned cute! Now I have to decide if I'm going to make those or the French press slippers. One can never have enough slippers.

My modified booga bag is almost dry and I will post a picture once the handles are attached.

Lastly, I'm starting to consider patterns for the Knitting Olympics. And even though I plan on going on a yarn diet in the new year, yarn for the Olympics project may be the exception. I'm thinking along the lines of another colour work sweater.

I'm still reading Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt, November's selection for Readers Annonymous. I'm enjoying it much more when I can sit and read for an extended period. It's definitely not a book where you can read a portion of a chapter here and there. It's taking me longer than normal since the dictionary is my constant companion during this read.

December FO

I finished knitting the scarf at the cottage and delivered it to Beatrice last weekend. It turned out well, and now I'm thinking I'd like one for myself, perhaps 2 cables' worth wider for a true shawl. I didn't have the yarn recommended in the pattern so I did some major stash busting and used a strand of 100% wool and one of 100% nubby silk, final length being approximately 175cm (my height). First picture is colour accurate.

I finally finished knitting Colin's socks, in stretch Regia. I didn't like the way this yarn pooled in some spots, creating obnoxious splotches of colour. Bleh. No picture. They don't deserve to be photographed.

Thanks Holly. Here's the link for the pattern for the cabled duffle coat.

Failed

Well, I tried. And even though I crashed and burned, it was still a good idea, participating in NaNoWriMo Challenge 2009. I'll do it again next year, hopefully with better results.

I don't know what my final word count is/was. Although writing longhand in a notebook actually got me writing and getting the ideas down before they evaporated, it turned into that proverbial double edged sword. If I haven't already, let me say that a laptop would have come in extremely handy for this challenge. It would have saved me from having to type what I had already written. Somehow I doubt my Word program's ability to produce a word count from scanned pages. That's the way it goes. Part of my problem was that I liked to be comfortable while writing/creating a story. I would write late at night, when everyone else would be sound asleep. I'd settle into my nest and allow the ideas to come. There were nights where I ran out of steam before running out of ideas, sometimes coming awake after a short doze to find notebook and pen still in my hands. I admit that transcribing my story proved useful, as well. Where I had only dialogue on paper, as I typed I was able to fill out the scene almost subconsciously. While I didn't want to get bogged down with all sorts of details as I wrote longhand, they practically typed themselves, and so my word count grew. The other side of that process was that I would actually stop transcribing to pick up pen and paper again if an idea blossomed to move the story along. Bizarre but true.

So as of this post, I haven't transcribed even a tenth of what I have written. The up side of this is that I actually intend to keep working on my story and hopefully one day it will reach that magic 50,000 words. That's when I will sit back and evaluate if there's anything worthy of a second draft. Time will tell.

P.S. Thomas seems to be fully recovered. He was begging to go outside by Sunday morning. He is staying close to home, though. Thanks for all your kind thoughts and wishes.

P.P.S. I finally repossessed my coat from Pandora.

Cat Issues

Poor Thomas. My son's cat. Rescued from the Oromocto SPCA in 2001. He's a fighter. That's a problem. He's mainly an outdoor cat, ruling the neighbourhood with a heavy paw. This summer a couple new cats moved into the house cross the road and Thomas has been busy educating them about turf boundaries as evidenced by all the fur they've been leaving behind. A couple weeks ago things didn't go so well for Thomas, and we wouldn't have known except for the bloody pillow that he left on his owner's bed where he spent the night to recuperate. By morning his face was a mat of dried blood and fur. I cleaned him up and he was back out on guard duty by the afternoon. Yesterday afternoon I got suspicious when he hasn't begged to be let out. I tracked him down hiding in the laundry room/my sewing room and gave a good once over. I didn't see anything wrong but when I tried to scratch his chin he started whining. Looking closer I noticed the right side of his face fluffier than normal. I gave it a little poke and he just about took my hand off. I thought he must have gotten into another scrap so I tried feeling around for a cut and when I couldn't find anything I decided to clip some of the fur off his cheek to get a better idea of what was going on. Turns out that his cheek was incredibly swollen under all that fur with a massive abscess and after some phone tag with the vet, she was able to see him this morning.

As I said, poor cat. He was so stressed out, his bladder failed him. Oh, the stench. The weigh in? 5.71kg! Definitely not a feather weight. Anyway, the vet told me to leave Thomas and come back after hour to give her time to lance and drain the abscess. She injected him with a time-released antibiotic so I don't have to shove pills down his throat. When I picked him up in his carrier, he had blood all down his chest, all the more dramatic looking because of his white fur. Poor kitty. After all that, I had to give him a bath when we got home to wash the blood and urine off before I could allow him to roam; on second thought I decided to make the bathroom his home for the next day or so to keep an eye on him. The vet left a hole in his cheek so it could keep draining, and I really didn't want Pandora harassing him in his weakened state.

All in all, very traumatic, but it looks tonight like he'll recover.

UGH!

Read how clever I am here. Now I must go to FarmVille to farm away my pain. Heh

Thursday (I Am SO Original)

First:

I want to thank everyone for all your kind birthday wishes. Thank you!

I'm currently reading a book that's providing me with belly laughs aplenty: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster. In my opinion everyone could use a monster laugh that will cause tears to run down their cheeks. In fact, it's my belief we don't laugh enough.

Would you believe I signed up for the NaNoWriMo Challenge? I did. I've no idea what my word count is so far as I'm using a notebook and pen, the goal being 50,000 words. It's easier to be inspired sitting in a cozy bed with a cat curled up on my feet than staring at a computer screen. Which would explain why my blog posts are so sporadic. What I wouldn't do for a laptop...

After last week's burst of energy to get the house shiny and neat, I'm sad to report that sloth has taken hold again and all inspiration to clean has evaporated. Don't look so shocked. Just give me an hour's notice before you drop in for coffee, OK?

Last night while watching Princess Diaries with the kids I casted on hubby's sweater. Shockingly enough, I got gauge on the first try using a strand of Briggs & Little Heritage and a strand of Patons Classic Wool to give me the 13 stitches to 4" on 6mm needles. I decided to knit this sweater in pieces as written to make this project more portable. I wonder what the odds are that I will be able to get this done for Christmas?

Pay It Forward

It's that time of the year again.

I was checking in at Dorothy's and Heddy's blogs recently and it would appear that they've both taken up the torch to Pay it Forward. Now I will too.

I agreed to take part in a Pay it Forward exchange. It's a pretty neat idea: you can receive a personal, handmade gift from a talented crafter, and all you have to do is "pay it forward" by agreeing to do the same for three people.

If you would like to receive a handmade gift from me, and are willing to make and send a handmade gift along to three of your blog readers, please let me know in my comments. Once you accept, you will receive something from me within 365 days. In turn, you will have 365 days to fulfill your end of the bargain.

Best Birthday Ever

Not quite over the hill yet.

Hubby took a break from hunting to be home for my birthday. He woke me up this morning with a mug of coffee in one hand and a plate of French toast in the other. Good thing that he came bearing yummies or he wouldn't have survived the 6am wake up call. I don't do mornings, well, or otherwise. After we booted the kids on their way to school, we went to New Minus to pick up my new glasses and for some shopping.

I got these two beautiful leather-bound journals, and a king-sized feather pillow, just because I deserve to be spoiled rotten on this one day of the year. Then he took me to lunch at Union Street Cafe in Berwick, where the food is always delicious, and the service outstanding. A perfect meal with the man I love.

Yes, it was the best birthday ever.

Favourite New Baaartist

Drip Dry by Conni Togel

Global Warming by Conni Togel

Have you ever seen the art of Conni Togel of the Sheep Incognito fame? Brilliant I tell you! I would have loved to have been at Rhinebeck just for a chance to meet her.

Love, love, love!

Bad Move (Or Not)

If you recall, I mentioned in the last post about my man hinting about the lack of a knitted sweater for his person. Today I decided troll the Drops site for a pattern that might be acceptable. I printed off three patterns (85-2, 85-23, 85-6). Having already more or less settled on 85-2 to be knit out of Briggs & Little Heritage Anniversary Twist, I made the mistake of showing the patterns to my husband and asking him which he liked the best. Big mistake. He picked 85-6, which requires two yarns to get gauge, something I didn't notice when I originally found the pattern.

Also, I can tell you right now that I don't want to knit this sweater flat. But looking at it, I can honestly say that it is a much nicer choice than mine. It's got good stash busting potential, it will make my husband look hunky, I can finally brand him with a large hand-knit (!), and best of all it will provide me with some knitting direction so I can stop knitting those Kitty Pi beds. The second one is felting even as I type this.

I guess I'll be stash diving again this afternoon. What are you up to?

They Grow Up So Fast

My youngest reached double digits on Tuesday. Time flies, doesn't it? Sometimes I still manage to create items that she deems worthy of her fashion sensibilities. Imagine.
Fresh from a bath and testing out the new floor-length nightgown. My creation. She toasted me with jello. Innocent and cute, yes? I finally got around to making a Kitty Pi Bed. So easy and fast. It's drying now. I wonder if it will be to the cats' liking. I want to make more. Maybe for the local animal shelter. There's an idea. To answer your question, Holly, the alpaca will be make into something for me. Even though the husband has been hinting that there was lots of talk about a sweater for him and to date none has materialized, alpaca would be wasted on him. Yes, I suppose I should get a project on the needles with his name on it before the year is over. Maybe I'll name it Madness Worthy of My Man. Heh!

Reclaimed UFO

The end of the year is not far off. I have been putting a decent amount of time and energy for the past nine and a half months into reducing my yarn stash and UFO quantities. The duffel coat took a very satisfying chunk out of the stash, as have the blankets and socks. I have another large blanket/sleeping bag on the needles for my husband that's only about a third done.

Remember this? It's now this. Reclaimed UFO. I was tired of it taunting me and decided I wanted all that scrumptious alpaca put to use, not to lounge in its plastic jail. I'm currently in search of a new suitable pattern. Suggestions welcome.

Finished Knitting

Nesting sure is a great way to knit away a weekend.

Pandora did some nesting of her own.

Knitting

Finished pictures of the cabled duffle coat are here. I hope to have better pictures tomorrow or after a much needed blocking.

Also, here's what else I'm working on:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful that it's a beautiful sunny day, that last night's storm passed overnight (it was a doozy!), that I have more yarn and fabric than I will be able to use in this lifetime, that I have an awesome husband and kids, that we're all healthy and together, that we have a lovely and comfortable home in a nice town, that I have friends that love me just the way I am (heh!)...

I did some yard work including moving my lilac tree (the poor thing was leaning so badly it was practically laying on the ground), some laundry, some dishes, started knitting Colin's fingerless mitts,ripped back the cable on one of the sleeves of the duffle coat, taught the kids how to make hot chocolate from scratch, spied on robins in the front yard,and baked a pumpkin for pumpkin pie. After all, what would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie? Brianna grew the pumpkin so technically I'm just a helper in the pie preparation department. She was thrilled to finally harvest it! Since I'm being all technical, you may as well know that we celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday because that is when Hubby got the day off work due to pouring rain. It's all good. We got to spend the day together.

Checking for dirt.

Look at that concentration!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tale of Two Slippers

My love affair with the Drops slipper pattern mentioned in the previous post has fizzled and died. Dead. That would be the bottom slipper in the picture. Not nearly as cute and charming as in their photo. All this slipper resembles in real life is a glorified tube sock. Bleh! I'm trying to decide whether to knit the second one. If I were to felt them once they're a set, they might fit one of the kids or I could keep them for guests and they won't seem like such a waste of time having knit them.

The top slipper was my revenge for the crappy Drops pattern. I knit this one in Briggs & Little Atlantic on 5.5mm straight needles. I just fudged a pattern as I went along. This is size extra large. I cast on 36 sts, knit for 17 ridges, switched to 2 X 2 rib, starting with K1, P2 and ending with K1 until desired length, in this case 24 rows. Then I began the decrease rows by k2tog on every k2, and repeated it for the second row. In row three I knit together every k1p1 to the end, cut the yarn and threaded it through a darning needle, to cinch together all leftover stitches and continued to sew up the top of the slipper. Then I sewed up the back heel, flipped the edge over like a cowl and tacked it down at center back. Done. I am much more pleased with this slipper. I plan on knitting the second one tonight and felting them a bit. Stay tuned.

Pretty Thing

The Yarn Harlot finally got off her arse and listed Pretty Thing for sale. I already purchased it! I can't wait to get knitting. It is indeed very pretty. I never tried a sewn bind off so that should be interesting learning experience. Mine, all mine!

Speaking of lovely patterns, have you checked out the new stuff over at Drops? As well as the Pretty Thing, this slipper pattern is in my sights.

Cabled Duffle Coat Update

I'm making good progress. Here is the back, complete with tea stain about half way down on the left. I'm hopeful that it will wash out. That will teach me for putting a mug (mostly empty or otherwise) in my knitting bag.Here is the left front. I'm almost to the armpit decreases. Very exciting.
Finally we have the two sleeves. Notice anything? Shape is good. Length is good. The cable pattern is not so good. I am trying to decide how anal I want to be about the whole thing. Remember how I ripped out the first, almost complete sleeve? Do I really want to do that to two complete sleeves because I crossed the cables every 8th row instead of every 6th? I didn't think I would be up to ripping and re-knitting that much work while the sleeves sat hidden in the bag, but now that I've hauled them out into the light of day... There is a big difference now that I have spread the pieces side by side. My hubby already accuses me of having OCD. The only question is whether or not I will prove him correct. Eeek.

Rylie Michael David

Born 29 Sept 2009 at 5:28am, weighing 8 lbs 12 oz.

BIG NEWS

Yeah! There is a baby, there is a baby, there is a new baby in our family!

Mathew called about 5:40am to announce the arrival of his first born son, Rylie. We don't know how much he weighed because the nurses weren't even done with him when he called. All he could tell us that the labour was extremely fast (approximately 6 hours) and that he's huge, with blond hair. I can't wait to meet the newest addition to our family!

A (Very) Brief Review

Progress was made and lost on the Cabled Duffle Coat. Feel to review my screw-up. Will I ever learn?

I finished reading The Shack this past weekend. It's an incredible book, with a brand-new, sparkly, shiny view point. If you keep an open mind and get through what I thought was a drawn out lead-up to the "good stuff", it will change your life. Or not. I like to think that reading it has already started to make me a nicer person (than I already was (HEH!)).

Yesterday, I finished reading another book I really enjoyed, Writing Personal Notes & Letters, by Jennifer Williams and the Editors of Victoria Magazine.

Last Day of Summer

Pandora guarding yarn for my new Cabled Duffle Coat. It's for the fall KAL over at the March Sweater Madness.

Couple weeks ago we sent the whole weekend with our friends at Lake Torment. We brought the kids' bikes with us so that provided them with extra freedom. They attempted swimming but the lake has already turned cold and they didn't stay in the water for any length of time. It was wonderfully relaxing, not having to rush home to feed animals or milk the cow. This was the first time that I experienced the up-side of not being tied to the farm. Not that I still don't miss it.

Saturday morning greeted me with an empty bird feeder. Again. That darned squirrel. Not a single seed left! Sneaky but beautiful thief! Hubby was very surprised to hear that we have grey squirrels here.

Yesterday my guys stacked kindling and split more wood.

Today hubby is starting to pick apples 7 day/week until the season is over. I may bake an apple crisp in his honour. Also, this evening is 4-H registration night. Brianna is taking on Outdoorsman again, as well as Foods, and Cake Decorating. Colin is also going into Outdoorsman, and going to try Sewing this year. That was the deal if he wanted free reign over my sewing machine. We spent some time on it about a month ago and he's hooked.

Before I Forget Again

Please join me at Middleton's Friday Night Knitting Club.

The knitting club will begin meeting bi-weekly at the Rosa M. Harvey Library on 45 Gates Ave in Middleton, NS starting this Friday from 6:45-8:30pm.

This drop-in event is open to anyone and everyone from the beginner to the experienced. This will be a meeting center for people to swap patterns, help one another, chat, and of course, knit.

Please join us!

Pat Pat on My Back

I couldn't resist the self-congratulatory pat on the back. I was mother-hear-me-roar this morning. In a good way.

Last night before going to bed I realized I didn't have any snacks left to pack for the kids' lunches. What a disaster, I thought to myself. I knew I didn't have any small change to give them to buy anything either. So. After husband delivered my morning coffee to me in bed, which I ignored for all of 5 minutes, I managed to crawl my arse out of bed, and tromped down to the kitchen. Conveniently I had borrowed a nifty book from the library that saved the morning. Company's Coming Most Loved Cookies by Jean Pare. If you find it in your travels, don't pass by without purchasing it. It rocks! After flipping through several pages for something quick, easy and most importantly that I had the ingredients for, I found the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Absolutely fabulous! Light and delicious. Divine! Honest.

Update in Pictures

Beach at Margaretsville.

No point being at the beach without building dams and getting wet.

On Saturday I drove to Upper Clements Park so the kids could take advantage of their fast passes (no pictures because I forgot the camera at home); unfortunately the roller coaster was out of commission (broken) and it being the last weekend of the park being open the lines for the rides were rather lengthy. The kids still had fun and were properly tuckered out by the time we got home.

On Sunday we watched the Arctic Tale (National Geographic Production) which I highly recommend. Funny as all get out and enlightening.

On Monday I put another coat of stain/varnish on the bathroom cabinet. It's starting to look quite good, but still needs at least one more coat. Then we drove into the city to pick up hubby who did not bring any fish home. I also finished knitting the Drops sweater (from March Sweater Madness). I didn't have enough yarn for a hood so I just knit on a small collar. Ironically enough, the fit is tight. Imagine that! Remember the ginormous monstrosity that it had begun as? Granted, I may have gained some weight but still... Good grief. I'll have to see if blocking will help any.

Yesterday I sewed on the buttons. I like it. It is quite nice. It even fits, with negative ease. It'll definitely be warm.

This morning was very emotional and very sad. Colin ran into the hallway after practically jumping out of bed (this in itself being highly unusual), saying that Sam was under his bed and making funny noises. I immediately went on high alert because things had seemed well the past few days. Although Sam had been ill in much the same way as Pointdexter, I got the same medicine for him, and he was starting to eat heartily-- mostly pure meat to get his energy back--as well as drinking plenty of water. He was starting to recover. He even jumped up on our laps for snuggles. Last night he decided to sleep next to Colin, and was purring when I went in to say good night. When I looked under Colin's bed my heart just about broke and I started to cry. Sam was laying under there stretched out, without any energy to lift his head. I pulled him out and wrapped him in a blanket and listened as he struggled to breathe. He was completely limp, and had a sad look in his eyes. As I sat with him on my lap stroking his head and crying freely, having sent the kids to their rooms, I kept murmuring how much I loved him and how much I would miss him. In less then 10 minutes he was gone. I called the kids down to say good bye and then I took him outside wrapped in my blanket. After they left for school, I went and made a spot for him at the back of the property beside his favourite rose bush. When I looked up I was surprised to see how the morning sun was burning the dampness off my sheets that I had hung the evening before. For some unknown reason this struck me as very beautiful and was enough to snap me out of my tears and sadness. Life goes on.

Rest in Peace, Sam.
Sept 2007 - Sept 2009

Tuckered Out

Wow. I excel at relaxation. I spent better part of the day "nesting" in bed with my knitting and watching old Buffy and CSI reruns. Sounds pathetic, but it was a better alternative to just sleeping the whole day away. I did manage a couple loads of laundry and putting away the dishes I washed yesterday. Oh, I also spied on the birds at my feeders at breakfast and lunch. In the morning after the kids left for school Mr. Cardinal brought the Mrs. over for breakfast. He even passed the seeds right to her beak! Very sweet. She never even approached the feeder, just sat on my honeysuckle vine and waited for him to bring over sunflower seeds! I was thrilled to bits watching them. Of course the other diners -blue jays, chickadees, goldfinches-completely ignored them.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post: I had an unexpected visitor that caused quite a commotion in the house after dinner. It so happened that a starling managed to get in the house via our fireplace chimney and was flying around the kitchen from door to windows, in a panicked attempt to free itself. I called my son down and after many "oh my gosh" and "holy cow" and "wow", and once the frightened bird finally rested on the end of the sink, I had Colin sneak by to prop the door open while I directed the bird towards it with a woolly duster! Oh, the excitement of it all! Hopefully it won't happen again any time soon.

Now that the kids are home for the weekend I think we'll drive to the shore at Margaretville and walk on the rocky beach. I love the ocean.

Full Day

It was bound to happen eventually. Since I don't work outside the home anymore I've gotten used to hanging around the house, getting things done in my own good time, meaning eventually, maybe. I do get these inexplicable bursts of energy, but honestly, not that often. That's when the floors get scrubbed to within an inch of their life; laundry gets washed, hung up (outside weather permitting), brought in, sorted, folded and put away in their respective owners' drawers; dishes and dishwasher get dealt with from start to finish (usually I wash pots and stuff too big for the dishwasher, and load the dishwasher since my family seems to be only capable of locating the counter above the dishwasher upon which to stack dirty dishes, and one kid dries the hand-washed stuff and the other unloads and puts away dishwasher stuff, not necessarily where they belong), and then the counters and washcloths even get bleached to kill any creepy crawlies (just because you can't see them doesn't mean they're not there!) During this energy bonanza I also tend to move furniture and clean/wash/vacuum under there (and what treasures I unearth sometimes). Even the dog stays out of my way as soon as she sees that bucket and mop! Beds linens get changed and beds made. Holy cow! I'm getting tired just writing about all this stuff! But then there is walking or biking to the post office (no home delivery) and the library, possibly the local grocery store. Getting dinner started. Even mixing up a batch of bread. Yes, I do have days like that, but as I stated earlier, not too often, thank goodness.

Now I do have a point here. See, on those extremely productive days, others can't help but notice that work that has been done. Today wasn't one of those days although I feel completely exhausted. Got up early to get kids ready for school and get myself ready for the road (it's not unusual for me to spend better part of the morning in jammies; after all, the vacuum doesn't care if I'm dressed up and neither does my washing machine). As soon as the kids took off, I grabbed my knitting and a book, and hurried out the door since hubby was already sitting in the truck waiting for me. We were to drive to the city with a pitstop at Sawler's for veggies (50lbs of beets, 25lbs of onions, 10lbs of carrots and turnips). All because hubby managed to squeeze in a 4-day fishing trip to the Miramichi with his buddy and didn't want to leave me without a vehicle. Very thoughtful. However, sitting on the highway for over half hour was not what I'd call a real treat. I know. I shouldn't complain. At least they are actually working on expanding that section before Windsor. Once we got into Sackville and I got a lecture on paying attention to the signs so I wouldn't get lost coming back that way on Monday, we arrived at his buddy's new home where I got a full tour of the new digs (very, very nice) and we visited for a short while. Then I had to get back on the road. A quick pitstop at Staples to pick up some forgotten school supplies first. Not enough time to swing into Bedford and take advantage of the sales at Fabricville. But that's not to say that I didn't take advantage of the Discount Fabric Store in Avonport which was right on the way. Unfortunately, it turned out that the powers-that-be decided to resurface the road leading to the store too, therefore making me sit and wait for the "Follow Me" truck, again, wasting precious time. After all that, sale fabric I did get, as well as having a slight falling down in the Briggs&Little section of the store. Then I chatted with the nice flag guy while waiting again for the "Follow Me" truck, and finally (almost directly) boogieing for home. Hey, we were all out of milk so I definitely needed to stop for that, and since good ice cream was on sale... Needless to say I haven't exactly been losing weight lately.

I got lucky. The kids beat me home only by 20 minutes and definitely luckily that wasn't enough time for them to set the house on fire. Good thing I thought to give the older, supposedly more responsible one, a key. Notice the nice fish guy is a couple doors down at a neighbours and trot over then for some very fresh Haddock. Yum. Supper planned just like that. By then it was barely 3:30pm. Unload the truck. Turns out that 50lbs of beets is quite a bit heavier than it looks. Check messages. Run back out to the post office and library. Cook supper. Send the kids out to play for an hour of peace to wash dishes and tidy up. Put on first pot of beets.

About the beets: I've discovered a few years back that if you cook the beets until they're about three quarters way done, then peal the skins off (wearing rubber gloves) while beets still very hot, which makes them slide off practically by themselves, bag and freeze them in meal-size portions. I love beets. I don't love buying imported beets out of season for a ridiculous price, so I store enough to last until next summer. Talk about local eating! That's what I do with carrots too, except I actually cut them up first and cook them much less, maybe only 5 minutes once they've come to a boil. Again, locally grown produce through the dead of winter.

So, the day is still not over. Change 25% of water in the fish tank and add medicine to the water. One of the fish has got weird spots on its body that didn't go away after the first treatment. If this doesn't cure it, I suspect that my son will be very sad, if you get my meaning. Check email. Kids not home at appointed time. Grab helmet and backpack, and bike to the park. Order kids home. A full moon is already visible even though the sun is just going down. Stop at grocery store for a couple things, walk out with more than planned on. Bike home, send one to the shower, the other to homework. Peel first batch of beets. Put second batch on to boil. Supervise homework. Scoop out ice cream for dessert, but virtuously bypass serving some to myself after remembering a donut indulgence this morning at a stop for coffee (oops). Stash first batch of beets in freeze (with much glee). Quick chat with hubby; they have arrived and are setting up the camper. Tuck and kiss kids good night. Check on Sam. He's once again on the downward slide, refusing all food. Very sad.

Updating blog. Beets should be cooled enough to handle. Must make self walk up stairs, finish beets and fall into bed. Not forget to set alarm.

Embroidery

Trying my hand at embroidery on unbleached muslin. I just have to figure out some kind of binding for this tea towel and it will be done. It took only a couple days, and didn't turn out too badly considering I haven't done any embroidery in over a decade. I was pleasantly reminded how much fun this is, how soothing. The pattern was free, courtesy of patternbee.com over at turkey feathers.

The bonus is that my daughter wants to learn how to embroider too, because according to her it looks cool. I've dusted off my all-time favourite stitch encyclopedia and once she settles into her school routine, I will arm her with fabric, needle and thread.

Finished

The blanket from hell is finished (aka Spicy). Believe it or not, it already got a test drive a couple days ago when it was so cold and rainy it no longer felt like summer. Seriously. Wool is good.Finished another pair of socks for Mathew's baby,

and a baby blanket. Knit in mistake rib, it's so squishy and cuddly I was momentarily tempted to keep it.

I finished another baby sweater too, chunky knit cardigan pattern from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. When I had all the pieces laid out for steaming I realized that this pattern could be improved. I didn't like how the sleeve caps had those obvious steps and how chunky the seams were. I may not be a big fan of seaming at the best of times but especially in wee little items for itty bitty humans it seems pointless. It is pretty darned cute though.

I am at work on another one for a friend that's expecting in about 3 weeks, and I am writing down the "tweaks" that I plan to post once finished.

Finally, what's finished is Weekend Designer, after 100 posts. Go visit. There may not be any more posts in the works but what is there is stellar.

New Favourites

Sew, Mama, Sew!
Sibling Craftery
Sarah Jane Studios
Sharon B's in a Minute Ago
Kleio's belly

Stood Up

What's a girl to do when she gets stood up by her goodliest friend? (AliP has since redeemed herself.)

Have a yarn diet fall down of course! Want to see what I got?

It's called Zohar Fingering, 65% superwash merino/35% bamboo rayon, 1120 yds worth per half pound skein. I got 2 of them! See how pretty and shiny it is? Only for me, that's for darned sure. I'm not sharing this stuff, no way, no how. I got 100 g of roving, too, since I do plan on dusting off my spinning wheel and attempting to learn to spin, again.
I let the kids pick out some wool to keep them busy while I wound my treasure. They both had made a good start on their scarves by the time I was ready to go. Brenda, the Gaspereau Valley Fibres owner, was quite impressed.