I am a Sunflower!

I am a Sunflower What Flower Are You?

"When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can't find something good about the world and your fellow human."

A Gab Session

Guilty sheep! For eating the snowman's nose. Baaaa-d sheep!

Hi! How goes the battle? It's Sunday and it is in fact sunny. Cold but sunny. All is right with the world. Well, almost all. Except for those nasty emissions that no one feels responsible for, or that they can do anything about. Good grief, people! Yes, you can make a difference. Walk for a change. It's not going to kill you! My hubby and I are constantly in a disagreement over this subject. Last night, I walked to my neighbour's house, to deliver milk, maybe half a kilometer round trip. I felt good doing it. It wasn't that cold. My hubby was completely incredulous: "You walked??" Well, it didn't kill me. Here I am. But when I suggest that he walk to his buddy's place, not quite a kilometer away, he looks at me like I'm a skein short of a sweater.

Not long ago I came across an older copy of Harrowsmith Country Life that had an article in it comparing city and country lifestyles, and which is healthier and more earth-friendly or some such. Get this: the country folks are apparently the biggest polluters and fat slobs (no, not a direct quote from the magazine, in case someone wants to get their panties all in a knot!). Yup, us country folk are bad. We drive everywhere, seeing how everything is so far away (pretty broad terms, eh?), and we don't even know what a gym membership is! But I am not going to launch into a big defense about how we actually KNOW where food comes from (no, dear. It doesn't just magically sprout on the supermarket shelf all wrapped in plastic!), and what it's actually supposed to taste like: you know, right with flavour, not made big and tasteless by chemicals. Oops, sorry about that. That was starting to sound a bit like a rant.

Let's change the subject.

I decided that this year I will actually learn to use my pretty spinning wheel. It's been gathering dust for the past year. Every so often I take it out for a spin, practice treadling, but get frustrated to the extreme when I try it with actual fleece, and it gets sucked away before I can get more. But this will be the turning point. I already acquired Fleece in Your Hands by Beverley Horne and Your Handspinning by Elsie G. Davenport from the library. AND: I will be crashing the Seniors' Library Cafe in March because a lady will be there talking about felting, spinning, and dyeing, AND giving hands-on demonstration/lesson. How cool is that! My apologies to all seniors in advance for crashing your party.

I'm knitting on the blanket in the round every day. The stash is decreasing little by little.

Lately I've been contemplating joining the Knit the Classics group. I signed out Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Now that I have less on the go, the gardening season is still a ways away, I will again try to get though a book and maybe a project. That's not to say I jumped right in and actually joined. Yet. Don't want my first attempt be a recorded failure.

In March, I've been invited to join the March Sweater Madness, courtesy of the Sweet Sheep. Another good opportunity to knit from the stash.

I will prevail.

Quickie

Ok, ok. So I'm not doing so great with the whole updating thing everyday. Or exercising. Or drinking gallons of water. But today, in my defense, I'm sick. Not so sick that I couldn't knit, mind you. Just a cold that clobbered me good this morning even before I got out of bed.

Progress is being made in the stash depletion department. Used up 2 ball of over 200 m each in the making of that wool crocheted blanket. Now it's folded up and put away until September when I can acquire more yarn (HA HA HA HA) in the proper colour way. Good one, eh?

I have started another blanket, this one being knit in cooler colours, in the round, on Addi Turbos. Approximately 280 stitches per row. I got the idea from the Morehouse Farm Merino Knits book, pattern on page 25. I will use more colours probably to use up more stash. Another two balls of about 200 m each went into that in the past couple days.

There was progress on the second Twinkletoes sock: I'm in the middle of turning the heel.

That's it. That's all. Now I must run. I'm missing Everwood re-runs to which I'm hopelessly addicted. Then there will be Grey's Anatomy.

Where's the Storm??

Last night I drove to Lapland to pick up more hay. Does it seem insane to anyone else but me that 45 km is kind of far to drive for good hay?? This stuff is green, dry, not moldy, good. Even a decent price. But man, oh, man 45 km is a long drive, and even longer when I can't go as fast on the way home. I managed to get 40 square bales on that pathetic excuse of a quarter-ton truck. A farmer with a short-box truck, and not even a 4 X 4. Good grief. But the half-ton (Bumps as it was affectionately called) is gone. It was falling apart so we sold it for parts. Better than rotting in our yard.

Hey, I got to sleep in today. That's a good thing. My back was killing me last night. And kids are being good this day of freedom from school. I still don't quite understand why school was cancelled. It's positively balmy out there. Snow and ice are melting. My water wasn't frozen in the barn for a change. The sheep didn't mind roaming outside. They did try to get into the molasses bucket the moment my back was turned. They're not as stupid as they appear. The exact time I turned to get Fudge to put her back in the pen, the sheep wandered in through the back door and were pushing through like a group of bouncers on a rowdy night clearing a path towards the "Prize". Brats, the three of them.

Did you visit Alison? Every time I try to post a message on her blog, I get booted. Maybe her blog knows just how technically challenged I am. Anyhoot. What I was going to tell her is this:
I will exercise, I will attempt to drink more water, I will try to post daily progress reports right here, I may even purchase a scale, all this as a show of my support. Because that's what friends do for each other. And even though I don't get a trip to Hawaii after all this torture, I will do my best to get on friendly terms with my manual tread mill. Because, dudes, she's my friend and this is the least I can do for her. Losing weight and getting in shape sucks. But at least I hope she won't feel so alone in her quest.

Today's progress report: 15 minutes fast walk on treadmill, some crunches (forgot to count), cool down and stretches. I am alive, though it didn't look good there for a while.


This here is my new and improved hair colour. Not so orange anymore (thank my lucky stars!). It was either a better colour or an intimate appointment with my scissors.


In knitting news, I finished one twinkletoe sock and started the second.



And finally, a stash flash for Alison. That rubbermaid box is still uncounted.

See?

See that? There's been knitting from the stash going on. Here's Sugar inspecting (through closed eyes!) a sleeve of a cotton sweater-to-be. I'm winging it. No pattern. I figure starting with the sleeves may see this sweater to completion. STOP THAT LAUGHING!! You, yes, you! Stop it. Laughing that hard is BAD for you.Moving right along, that's the Lopi sweater that I started during the Knitting Olympics last year. Probably why I didn't get the Gold Medal. Anyway, the back and one front are completely done and I have maybe six or seven rows to go before the other front is done.













This would be Sugar modeling my Twinkletoes sock. I had to rip back the toe because I screwed up. Thought the sock was longer than it really was.


And here is the hat from Jo-Anne's mohair. It's now done, done, done and delivered to Jo-Anne. Hey, what can I say. I work for yarn. As if you didn't know. So sue me.

I will start posting bits and pieces of the stash for Alison's perusal. Just to show off. Nice of me, eh??

And I may be putting together another bag of donations for FRC. I dropped off four bags today and I feel lighter already.

Stash Overload

I may have hinted at trying to cut back on stash enhancement. With good reason. I'll tell you in a moment.

Felt I had to join a stashalong (I'll provide a link later). You know, for moral support.

Because I am weak.

Because it May be wrong to have a stash so large, that if converted into money and food, it would support a small(ish) country for a good while.

The stashalong asks you to pick a goal. There are three categories to choose from. I couldn't decide so I thought it would be a good idea to start with an inventory. Yeah... Ok.... I'm not completely done yet. However, I am overwhelmed. Really.

Having separated most of the acrylic stuff that I've been turning my nose up at lately (do not ask me how so much of it made it into my home.... besides the words SALE SALE SALE screaming at me upon entering a store), and swiftly condemning it to garbage bags destined for FRC, there was SOOOO Much still left over to count. My inventory progressed by writing down the amount and type of yarn. So far, three pages full. For the sake a brevity, I added everything together: balls, hanks, skeins, cones large and small....

Are you ready??

Are you sitting down? (I highly recommend it!)

568+

Well then. That's not that much, is it? Do you really think I should be condemned to just working from my stash for an indefinite period of time? I mean, a good portion of that is only 50g balls, even though others may be about 400g or more.

Now to distract you all from the above revelations, a FO.

Irish Hiking Scarf in Noro Silk Garden (3 balls)

I bring to you this knitting update

This is my new barn hat. Very cozy and warm. It was knit with two strands, one being Patons Beehive Shetland chunky and the other being something with alpaca, mohair, wool, and acrylic (I think, since I lost the ball band). I used fairly big needles which I rarely do for a hat, and so only had to cast on 68 stitches, as opposed to the mohair one I'm working on that needed over a 100sts.


This neck muffler started as the Irish Hiking Scarf, but I ran out of yarn and overcame the temptation to run to the LYS and splurge on more since there is no stopping at just one extra ball when there is a whole store to be overwhelmed by. You all know what I mean. Just nod your heads.






That's my neckwarmer, barn style. Same Patons wool plus fuzzy yarn a la Dollar Store.





SEE??? New skill! First attempt at gloves, ever.
I am so proud of myself. This one just needs a thumb. I am too good.

This would be in 100% mohair, hand dyed by Jo-Anne Cooper from Angelwise Llama . Scarf in mistake rib, my old stand-by when I can't decide on a pattern. Love the colour, but this stuff is so slippery to work with, holy goat!

More pictures another day. Blogger has apparently had enough.

Hi! Did You Miss Me?

Has it really been three months? Good grief! Bad blogger (hangs head with shame)...

1. Happy New Year 2007! Did you get excited by that?? No? Me neither.
2. My knitting needles have forgiven me for abandoning them for so long. There has been knitting done (and small projects completed). Show and tell to follow.
3. After I gave notice at the sewing thing, it still took over a month and a half to find a replacement, but I was positively gleeful when that miracle occurred!
4. I quit being a diamond pusher a week before Christmas. I don't tolerate unprofessionalism from anyone, especially from co-workers that should know better, and double that in front of customers.
5. More additions to the farm: a Holstein moo named Moonlight and her offspring which I named Fudge. Happy, happy. Milk, anyone?
6. From the original ten, I'm now down to six chicks and I suspect that two are roosters.
7. New flooring on main floor of the homestead at long last. I am thrilled.
8. My daughter missed her cat so much and lamented her lack of a pet, that I allowed her to pick one from my hay dealer. That's Sugar, cuddled up to Fang (SPCA cat that still needs a home).

That time of the year again

Guess who won the season opener last night???

Here's a hint: it wasn't Toronto! LMOL

Senators RULE!!

A killer week is over. I gave my notice at the sewing place. I am hoping I'll be able to recognize my kids now that I'll actually be spending some time with them everyday. It really sucks not seeing your kids except for when they're sleeping. During the summer it wasn't so bad because they stayed up later and we'd spend a bit of quality time together after I would get home from work.

Now go see David. Better than chocolate cheesecake!

And if you've ever wanted to know what goes on down in Antarctica, Jules has a seriously cool (pardon the pun!) blog, complete with penguins. Go see for yourself.

No knitting took place all week. How is that for dreadful??