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.

Memories of a Birthday

The little town of Middleton where I live celebrated its Centennial on July 17 & 18th.

On Friday evening there was a parade that very nearly got rained out but had a great turnout nevertheless.

There were lots of cool floats plus
dancing dogs in dresses,

clowns,

hunky firemen,

and pretty princesses.

On Saturday morning was the 4-H Dog Wash Fundraiser to raise money for our brand-spanking new club, The Lucky Stars.

At the end of the four hours I could barely stand up straight. The kids were good sports but started losing interest once they realized how much work was involved and each following dog started to get less and less attention, leaving the adults to do more and more. Getting each other wet was a lot more fun for the kids! We had a professional groomer who volunteered to help out as well, and without Kelly I know we wouldn't have raised even half the amount that we did.

There were some great concerts throughout the afternoon at the Rotary Park, but my family only attended the last couple by Cape Breton natives. We may have snuck a longish nap after the dog washing. We were all completely wiped out.

Slowcoaster was fantastic!

Matt Minglewood played for almost two hours! What an awesome party!

At the end there was an incredible fireworks display that seemed to last forever!

And because I knit during the concerts, by the end of the evening I finished Colin's socks. What a bonus!

No Talent for Stripping

Talk about a loaded title, eh? Now get your mind out of the gutter. I'm still working on renovating the bathroom, on the cheap since money is always in short supply. Hence the stripping. I never considered it would be such hard work! I've had the drawers and doors off the vanity for two weeks now, working up to getting to work on the whole stripping thing; let me rephrase: refinishing thing. The vanity cabinet is home made, I have no idea how old, just that it's in decent shape but for the poor varnish job. I've undertaken to refinishing rather than replacing the cabinet since I haven't been able to find what I want to put in its place, and what has come close has been ridiculously expensive and not even made of real wood.

Let me tell you this: doing the preparation work prior to applying the lovely new finish I picked out is going to take a LOT of time and effort and energy, some of which aren't always readily available. So far I've got two door down to bare wood (I hope) and a third is about half done. I started by sanding but that was taking forever and wasn't terrifically effective, so hubby pulled out the chemicals for the shed. Eeeek! The very stuff I've been hoping to avoid. Granted it worked faster with much less effort. But you know me, Mrs. As-Natural-and-Organic-as-Possible. I'm realizing that sometimes I need to bend my rules, for the sake of my own sanity. The grooves were especially difficult to deal with. I may have to come up with a different plan for actual cabinet which is attached to the wall. I really don't think I will be able to use that wood stripper inside without frying about a gazillion brain cells. I'll try to employ hubby's ancient palm sander for that job.

I've been exceedingly lazy in updating this blog, although there's been lots to write about. Complete updates soon. Honest.

Happy to Oblige

"Five minute cake? Oh, I need that", wrote Holly. Here it is, Holly. Enjoy.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous). And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Spicy Update

It's getting to the "I am sick and tired of this thing" point, but at 104cm x 119.5cm (41" x 47"), it's not quite big enough to call it quits, plus I still have quite a bit of yarn left. AliP suggested matching slippers to go with the blanket, and I must admit to the brilliance of her advice. Slippers would be much more manageable than endless stitches of garter stitch on one needle.

Sam and Pandora having a snooze fest. Doesn't Sam look like he has a major cranky on for having to share the love seat with her? In Pandora's defence, she was there first.

Fabulous Find

I'm so excited! No, really? Yes!!

I read a lot. I'm a slow reader but I make time to read. My tastes in books vary widely and when I get hung up on any particular subject, I read anything about it I can get my hands on. The funny thing is that reading sometimes takes me on the interesting journey . I borrowed Stitched In Time by Alicia Paulson from my local library. I love it. Such cute projects! What's more, I discovered that Alicia Paulson blogs at Posie Gets Cozy and the blog is even better than the book. Seriously! You should check it out. It kind of reminds of Victoria magazine. So pretty, so feminine. So flowery and old fashioned. I love it deeply.

Oh, and may I mention here how evil my boy kid is. All day he kept bugging me for the 5-minute cake recipe. I finally found it and printed it from an old email from AliP(wicked, wicked woman). Naturally as soon as the youngest one found out he was going to make one, she wanted to make one too. No big deal until I smelled that cooking cocoa. I only went upstairs to check that they weren't trashing the kitchen, honest. Now, 10 minutes later, inexplicably I find myself eating a mugful of cake with whipped cream (because, really, you can't have cake without whipped cream!). Damn. And I was doing so good. Let me tell you this, and I know it may be a big fat lie because that's what bathroom scales do, but since hubby left on his fishing trip I've lost (and don't want to find again) five pounds! Yeah. I was feeling pretty good about it until this cake incident. I've been walking everyday, and yesterday even biked and swam. Maybe tomorrow I can redeem myself.

Blue Skies, Nothing but Blue Skies

Finally. Blue skies and sunshine.

Nothing like blue skies to put a positive spin on the crap-tastic. Yesterday I sewed a pair of nice, cozy sweatpants for myself. Too damn cold for shorts and skirts! Today? Check out that picture. F*ck a duck. I don't know when, I don't know how I managed to get them stained already. My positively delusional brain tells me that I will be able to get them clean. We'll see soon enough.

Just for the record, I am not competing with the grandmother of Mat's fiance. Now check out these bitty socks. Perfect for a newborn, and wool/nylon blend so they'll be warm but also washable by young parents that have no respect for wool.




In my renewed attempt to get fit, I decided to start walking every day. The introductory foray into exercise lasted over an hour and a half, as the kids and I walked and talked and stopped along the way to take pictures of flowers and trees and bugs. All told we did about a 5km circuit. We even had fun! Wow. Today we'll be better prepared with water for our trek. Cheers.

Leaving the 70s Behind

My husband is an avid fisherman, particularly enjoying fly fishing for salmon and trout. He ties his own flies and keeps busy off season tying special orders for other ardent fishermen. Every year he embarks on a week long trip to the Marimichi in New Brunswick with his best friend where they're up before dawn and don't quit until well after sunset to try their wits again the mighty salmon. A bit fanatical if you ask me. Especially if you knew of the preparations that go into this coveted seven day retreat from responsibility.

A couple years ago the best friend purchased a 30 year old camper trailer to make their adventure more comfortable. It wasn't long before their realized its shortcomings, like the leaky roof. Since they weren't able to make their annual trek last year due to work commitments, it seemed like prime opportunity to get some work done on it and so the trailer ended up in our yard. Time, and enough cursing, is what it takes to fix things apparently. You know how it is when you start to fix something, and underneath that problem you discover another one, and another? Yeah. I thought it was never going to end. But it did and when all the necessary things where as they should be, it seemed a waste not to gussy the trailer up. My very talented husband gave it a funky new paint job, and I was hired to update the curtains and seat covers from the 70's special of orange and brown.

Before: After:

Damn, it turned out good! Perfect for a couple outdoorsy kind of dudes.

Fun When There's No Sun

First an oops to show you. Sometimes it really doesn't pay to knit while watching a movie, even if it's only garter stitch. I found the dropped stitch last night, about three inches past the offense. Since I really didn't want to re-knit three inches worth of garter stitch, I dropped the stitch beside it (I should have dropped at least two or three looking back on it) and picked up two in the space of the one. It came out a bit tight, that's why I should have dropped an extra one or two, but at the time I just wanted to fix it and move on. You can hardly blame me. It will be a big blanket and I hope the oops won't show so much when it's all done. I decided I will call this blanket Spicy, for the colours that are so well represented in my spice cabinet: curry, cinnamon, mustard, ginger, cayenne pepper, cocoa. Puts me in a baking mood.

School finished yesterday morning for summer break, and today the kids are already getting on mine and each other's nerves. Grrrrr. So I decided to put them to work. Child labour be damned. They were actually eager to get started. Whether they will complete the job is another matter.

I knew I wanted that ugly, dark wallpaper gone from the moment we moved in. I don't think a better opportunity would have presented itself if I waited another year. So far they've got the worst of it off, and now have to start working on removing the backing. It's going to be a long process that I am not prepared to start right now, since I have to find a tool that will be safe to use in the kids' hands without them gouging a bunch of holes in the drywall. Touchy.

I am suddenly inspired to knit a Kitty Pi bed. It's all Caroline's fault. Her kitty looks so comfy and the bed so pretty. Did I mention that it will use up lots of stash if I make one for each of my kitties? HA HA HA HA