Monday, May 26, 2008

The cat in a glass......


What's up with my cat....she thinks everybody's glass is hers to drink out of. In the middle of the night I can hear the glass moving along the desktop. Knowing full well, even in my sleep, Noodles has her head locked in there and is on the way to tipping it over.

Now this isn't the only glass of water on this night table. She's got her own huge bowl sitting there. It only takes once for her to see me drinking out of that glass and she sneakily heads to her bowl, but oh....what's this, this glass of water looks better, and in goes her head.

Aaaah...but I love her quirks and all.


Things are happening in the garden but slowly.....

Do to a family member's illness I'm gardening in bits and spurts. We've been having some great weather with some sunshine here, and a little rain there. So things are really growing fast.

We bought a few extra plants for the pond. Angel moss, Duckweed, Hyacinthe, hornwort. We just haven't added the fish yet as the water still needs time to balance.











Progress on knitting is also happening when time allows. I'm still on the first sock of Country Girl Socks pattern from Heart Strings Fibre Arts. So far I'm on the heel flap. The colour isn't quite right in this picture. The colourway of the yarn is more burgundy. Yarn: Knit Picks Risata, colour-Burgundy. I've been taking it along to the hospital, and I can get a few rows done, but not much more. Socks, as it turns out, are a great take along project.

I finished Dr. G's Memory vest, pattern by Through the Loops. After following the links Kristen has on her blog, and making a donation to the Alzheimer's Research Foundation, Kristen will forward a pdf of the pattern.

Knitpicks : Wool of the Andes, colour: Arctic Pool Heather 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. Some adjustments were made in the length of the vest, but other than that everything went like clockwork. I started this vest at the end of March thinking that I could get it done in a couple months. With medication Uncle Otto was doing really well, but unfortunately within the last three weeks this insidious disease has taken hold of him, and it's not possible for him right now to try on the vest.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Uncle Otto, and as well with the many families around the world coping with, and caring for family members who are living with Alzheimers/Dementia.










We love you Otto

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Fibre Friday......

It's been raining all week, and on Friday the sun finally broke through, so we headed to Brightbank Finnsheep Farm.













I had heard about Kathy Playdon's finnsheep through another knitting blog, Gypsy Spinner. I couldn't believe my luck in finding a locally produced fleece from someone in Ontario....another one of the amazing things of the online knitting community. Good news travels fast.

Anyway I dragged DH along with me, and we had a great time meeting Kathy and getting a tour of the farm. I took a few pictures.......


























So I'll be trying my hand at this fleece cleaning thing again, and then processing it so that I can eventually spin it. I'm so looking forward to working with this finnsheep fleece....














Here's the fleece in all it's glory.....the left pic is the inside all white and fluffy showing the marvelous crimp the finnsheep have. The pic on the right (sorry for the weird angle camera shot) is showing part of the exterior which is the side where all the dirt and vm is. Looks pretty dirty....it may take me some time to get to cleaning this.....stay tuned.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

This is no Extreme Makeover Home Edition......


Though I would like to have all those people helping. Especially when we were hauling all of the concrete, and dirt out.

DH was jack hammering pretty much for three days, on and off. It started out as this small hole, but there is plans for it to get bigger.




A little bit bigger here with all the old marble tile taken off. Some people might think, 'What? Taking out marble?' But it was put in by the previous owner over 26 years ago. He was a tile layer by trade so what was put in our bathroom was all the leftover stuff he had from other jobs.








The excavation part is now close to being done. You can still see the tiles from the old shower. Again that's the previous owners method of tiling onto the foundation wall. No wonder it was always freezing in there.

Speaking of freezing, it's not freezing outside here anymore. We had a great weekend of weather which allowed us to get a lot of work done outside. The pond is now cleaned out and running. No fish yet as we've got to get all the bacteria levels balanced. This picture looks like it's kind of murky water, but it's the peat moss pellets and barley we put in to keep down the algae growth.

Unfortunately hardly any knitting or spinning has been done. I'm still working on Dr. G's memory vest which I'm hoping to get done before this weekend. One project that I finished awhile ago, but didn't post about, is the finished Sugarplum Shrug.

Modelled by DD.









I wore the shrug on the plane to Las Vegas. It was just enough to keep from freezing from the air conditioning, and light enough that I wasn't sweltering when we landed in Vegas.

Speaking of sweltering. The cutie patootie living next door, Seika, was rolling around enjoying the summer breeze. That's what I call living in the moment.

She abruptly stopped, as soon as she heard the camera clicking, giving me this shy look saying....'What's the big deal? Haven't you ever rolled in the grass before?'










Have a great day!!!!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Beginning of Spring......

I've been envious of all the blooming pictures from our southern neighbours that I went out to snap a few of my own.....


Delphiniums. Amazing that they're growing so well with Noodles adopting that area as her personal fertilizing zone.






A few more shots of springiness.......


=Courtland Apple Blossom



Peonie, white variety=





=Tulips





I promised pictures of the alpaca that I had processed at Custom Woollen Mill, and here they are......


100% 2ply handspun alpaca. 18 wpi. Sport weight.

I'd love to make a shawl out of this which is why I've been trying to spin a lighter weight yarn. I don't have a pattern yet, but I figure that I'll be safe with a shawl design because it doesn't have to be an exact gauge.




One of two finished hanks....the other one is still drying. Total meterage for both is 256.5 meters, total weight for both is 4.5oz.



After all this blogging and counting and calculating it makes a girl thirsty....



Quote for the day:

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading....
Henny Youngman (1906-1998)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Short and Sweet.......

That was our trip to Las Vegas....I went with good intentions to visit a yarn store called Wooly Wonders, but alas it wasn't meant to be. We arrived there on a Saturday, and it was crazy with traffic so the car rental got put on hold. As it turned out for the next three days we basically walked our feet off. I had a tourist guide, and we saw half of the destinations listed. There's too much to do in just four days. Next time we're going for a week.

Mom and DD gambling at the Bellagio.

Front Entrance to the Bellagio.
Beautiful hand blown glass...........



Mom, DS, and DD (half of her).
Resting our aching feet at Bills Gamblin Hall and Saloon. We had such a good time there. Good live entertainment, and cheap beer.






















New York, New York at night, and my sock knitting with a view from our hotel room.

Our last night in Vegas was visiting Fremont Street. Loved the Golden Nugget.

Last day we visited the Star Trek experience at The Hilton. I live with a bunch of trekkie nerds and this was an absolute must on the to see list. We had fun and it was actually quite informative. This is probably the last time I'll ever sit beside a blue alien.





So....since being home we started on the bathroom reno downstairs.

And since Sunday this is where it is now after three days of demolition.










Then on Sunday DD and I went to the Allied Beauty Association trade show held here once a year. DD was asked to be a hair model for one of the distributors FHI.......

They were showcasing their curling irons. DD's hair is normally straight, and then after about 20 min. it was curly.













Wow all that in seven days. It's a lot condensed down into a couple pictures. Next post I'll hope to show progress on my spinning of the alpaca that I had processed at the mill.

Monday, May 05, 2008

I'm home now from a short and brief holiday in Las Vegas.....gathering photo's, and my thoughts, to show what I've accomplished in the last week...which is basically a big fat nothing.....I'll be back