Kind of feeling lazy after this long weekend.......

Sat out in the backyard and visited with friends.New pictures of what's blooming in the yard.

When we were busy working around the yard, the girls got their couch time outside.

Went to see the Canada Day fireworks.

Saturday went to the downtown Farmers Market. Bought some cinnamon buns, and was looking to see if there was anything for sale fibre related.So Sunday it was the start of Tour de France. One of my favourite things to watch in the summer. In my last post I mentioned I started up with Tour de Fleece, Ravelry group Team Canada for spinning. I'm hoping it will get me back in the habit of spinning more frequently.
Here's a few pictures of fibre from my stash of which I'm hoping to at least get a couple bobbins of 2 ply each.

The above is super wash merino/tencel destined for some sock yarn, and the two pictures below I'm hoping to get a consistant 2ply in a DK weight, 12-14 wpi.

100% Black Alpaca top.

For now, I'm starting off with a partially filled bobbin with 100% Alpaca bought in roving form from my local yarn shop.

Happy Spinning!

 The weekend started with this.......

My lilacs finally opened up to the little bit of sunshine we got on Friday.  It quickly turned to this Saturday early morning.......

 Sleet, mixed with a bit of hail.  All the planted pots were put in the garage, and what plants I have planted outside basically fended for themselves.  

 Construction is still ongoing down in the basement, but on Sunday I finally (Finally!!) got to put the jumbo sliding hook flyer on my Ashford Traveller double drive.

 I have some very sturdy Icelandic Top that no way can go against my shoulders or neck.  So I started spinning thick singles which I'll double ply and knit up for slippers which I'll felt for hopefully even more strength.

 Love the jumbo bobbins for spinning thicker singles.

Everything goes that much better when a venti decaf vanilla iced caffe latte is sitting at the ready.  Who else is addicted to this stuff???

 Can I bend your ear?.........

This was supper last night with some honey garlic wings.  Quick and easy.  

That's how suppers have been around here as we're still working on basement renovations, and working in the garden.  Unfortunately any progress with knitting has been done in the evenings before Dale and I crash for the night.  There are some days/weekends where we've been so busy that I can't fall asleep.  The kind of exhaustion that as a knitter I can't even concentrate on knitting.  Which is very unusual.  Slowly as we finally start seeing progress in construction/demolition of renovating, I'll be posting more pictures of fibre goodness.  ;)

So in the meantime when I should be writing new posts on this blog, I've gone and found more knitters/bloggers (Carole Knits, Seed Stitch, The Woolen Rabbit, Under The Tulip Tree) who love to knit/garden.  It's been inspiring reading all of them, and makes me envious how far ahead their growing season is than mine up here in the Canadian north.  

So for now all I've got are pic's of what's growing in my garden......

The Primula or Primrose are up in full glory.

This is a highchair that is as old as I am, probably older.  I painted it a Chelsea Blue and it's now a plant stand in the garden. 

I'm hoping to plant my climbing nasturtiums at the base of the highchair so they can grow up the legs, but the weather is still dicey and my seedlings haven't hardened up enough yet.

Some sweetpeas.  Hopefully they'll be easy to transplant.  It's still an experiment as I haven't grown sweetpeas for ages.

The pond is up and running for this year, and we're waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before transferring the goldfish and koi.  It's always exciting watching them being put in the pond for the first time of the season.  If darting around like maniacs constitutes fish being excited, well, they're pretty darn excited then.  Hopefully I'll remember to take a video this time.

TGIF and the snow is slowly melting.......

 We managed to get the pond cleaned out before the snow came at the beginning of the week.  My delphiniums are taking a hit, but I'm hoping the cold temperatures won't stunt their growth.

In the meantime I've still got the sewing bug. This material was discounted to something like buy 1 metre get 2 free. So I bought 3 metre's and hoped that would be enough for something. I didn't know what I was going to use it for at that time, but upon looking at the daisy lace pattern on it I loved how it looked as a tablecloth and seat covers.

So I traced the seats of my kitchen chairs and cut out the pattern. Hopefully after I get finished posting this I'll start sewing them up today.

After some fussing and fitting I got the jean jacket finished. Pattern by Burda #7812.

Closeup of the pocket flap lining, and buttons.

 

Noodles investigating what's on the floor? Can I eat it mama?

I've got a really cute video of Noodles eating some leftover rice pudding in a little cup (She LOVES rice pudding), but the video is taking it's sweet ass time loading. I will post it asap when it finishes processing.

Here's the video....She didn't eat the whole thing just what I leave her which is about a teaspoon.  Rice pudding is very sticky.  Have to go clean Noodles whiskers now :)

Have a great weekend everyone,
and Happy Mother's Day to all!!

The rain brought more than we bargained for.......Spring will be here hopefully, again, by the end of this weekend. Anna and Noodles were crying to get outside to chow down on some grass, but they walked away in disgust when I opened the screen door to show them the wonderful whiteness. Now they're trying to sleep away the weather.Well one good thing that comes from this is that our overseeding of the lawn will get a boost from this moisture. Hopefully the farmers are welcoming this. I don't know how this snowfall falls into the management of their fields.

No knitting pic's for today. Still trying to finish ufo's. Hopefully will have something to post soon!

Rainy Wednesday..........

I don't have anything new started with knitting.  Just trying to concentrate on getting wip's finished which isn't easy at this time of year.  I've been purchasing bedding plants here and there as the quality seems to be really good right now.  Later on in June everything seems to be picked over so in the meantime I store them in the garage and pull them out during the day to get some sun.

Today I was scarifying (scarification) the sweet pea seeds, and also the nasturtium seeds.  The sweet pea's I've started in the tray pictured below.  The nasturtium's are soaking in luke warm water and tomorrow I'll plant them in trays as well.  So hopefully in 10 days I'll see some sprouts and in mid June transplant them outside.

 

I just realized that I have finished my Multnomah Shawl.  It's been so cold and rainy here today that I've been wearing it and totally forgot to blog about it.  This shawl was a fast knit, and I loved this yarn Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light.  Pattern:  Multnomah designed by Kate Flagg.  The shawl pin was bought from Twist of Fate out of Kamloops, British Columbia at Fibre Week in Olds, Alberta June 2009.  Hopefully I'll make it there again this year.

Here's hoping you are having better weather than we are....I'm looking forward to some sun after four days of rain.  

Take care and Happy Knitting!

TGIF.......

I have no pictures of knitting or spinning today. Just a few pictures of the work I've been slogging away at outside. Basically spring cleaning the flower garden, and I'm amazed at how it's starting to green up outside with a little bit of rain. Some garden Mum's breaking through the leaves.We have lived in the same neighbourhood for 29 years, and this is the first time I have had a little visitor of the squirrel kind. So Cute!DH and I are heading over to some friends for supper, and DH offered to bring dessert. Something decadent but light was requested so I came up with a recipe out of Company's Coming Christmas Celebrations by Jean Pare.I know it's in a Christmas cook book, but this Snow Angel Trifle translates well for an all year dessert. Snow Angel Trifle
4 cups Milk
2 Boxes of instant white chocolate (or vanilla) pudding powder (4 serving size, each)
17 oz. Commercial angel food cake, torn into 1 inch pieces.
8 0z. Package of cream-filled chocolate mini cookies (oreos), 12 cookies reserved for garnish
3 cups Sliced fresh strawberries
2 cups Frozen whipped topping, thawed

Beat milk and pudding powder on low in medium bowl for about 2 minutes until thickened.
Layer ingredients in large glass serving bowl as follows:
1. 1/2 of cake pieces
2. 1/2 of cookies
3. 1/2 of strawberry slices
4. 2 cups (500 ml) pudding, spread evenly
5. Remaining cake pieces
6. Remaining cookies
7. Remaining strawberry slices
8. Remaining pudding, spread evenly

Spread or pipe whipped topping in decorative pattern on top of pudding. Garnish with reserved cookies. Chill for at least 4 hours to blend flavours. Makes about 12 cups (3 L).

p.s.s.: For my picture above I doubled the amounts for the angel food cake and cookies. It seems like it's a lot, but when spreading the layers it all compacts down. The bakery section at PC Superstore is where I find the already baked angel food cake, and I use the mini oreo's for the chocolate cookies.

The actual picture out of the book just for reference.....Our weekend will be consisting of painting and doing yard work, but I'll get to visit my Monty. Here's a quick snippet. Don't mind the wiggly video, or my pink crocs, or the sounds I make to get Monty's attention. He's full of piss and vinegar Love and Cuddles. :)
Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm holding on.......

to this great weather we've been getting. ;) It's November 4 and the temp today is expected to hit +15C. Our average is around +1C, but hey the shorter winter is around here the better. I've been bitten by the touque bug, and the solution I've found is in 'One Skein' by Leigh Radford. Asymmetrical Cable Hat

I'm using some Drops Alpaca from my stash. Colour 6834, guage 23st x 30 rows, addi dpn's 4.0mm. This is more of a lace weight, but I loved the colour for a man's hat so I used all three skeins stranded together. I still had to increase my cast on to 81sts. to get the right guage for the circumference of the man's hat. This is going out in the mail today to my DD's boyfriend Nathan who is in hospital starting on another round of chemo.

Also in the same book there is a pattern for a baby hat. I have a friend who works in the maternity ward at one of our local hospitals and I thought I would love to do some stash busting and make up some to donate. So again I'm having to play around with gauge and I think I've got it down now.

Last but not least....updates on the basement reno. We've now got it insulated with rigid pink, and pink fibreglass. The framing was put back up along with the electrical back in place, and the vapour barrier. So now DH has been putting up the drywall. Slowly but surely the basement is coming back to us. I'm not sure if it'll be ready for Christmas though.

I have an azalea plant that was given to my mother-in-law back this spring. She lives on Vancouver Island, and didn't want to travel back there with it so she handed it over to me in full bloom. It was beautiful and I thought, oh I'm probably going to kill it with neglect. I generally don't keep houseplants because I'm constantly forgetting to water them. Anyways this thing loves my west facing window in my dinette. It's constantly blooming and it doesn't mind getting dried out. So far it's been the perfect plant! Who knew!

Next post I'll try to blog about our trip to Phoenix coming up this Saturday. I've got several yarn shops located on the GPS so hopefully DH won't mind coming along on my fibre hunt.

**An afterthought......I used Clover's Pom Pom maker to make the pom pom on the above mentioned blue touque. After some initial studying of instructions, and rotating it around and figuring out how it works I started winding the yarn on it. I couldn't contain my amazement at how wonderful that pom pom turned out. I've shown everyone who has been to my house. Like I'm hoping everyone tries this thing out because my exasperation at using half circle cardboard cut outs just never worked for me. So just a heads up if you see one and you've had the same problems making really nice round pom poms...you'll love this thing.