What a busy summer!! Where has the time gone? I say that now as I'm sitting in my housecoat hacking at the computer. I've been sick with a cold/cough, stuffed up nose, plugged ears. So for a change, this week seems to have gone on forever.

Here's something that's been making me feel better.

After being housebound for the last three days I ventured back to my LYS and exchanged the Ambiance Superwash yarn (picture in last post). I had it sitting on my ironing board and I kept looking at it, and rethinking the navy blue colour. "I've got a fevah, and the only prescription is more heather." (God bless C. Walken). I just couldn't face knitting the navy colour for the next month and a half. In the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits magazine they've got an article about going organic. It mentions that superwash is one of the most chemically treated yarns. I was surprised by that info, and I thought with my doubting the colour, and finding out something like that I was heading back to see Bonnie. Check out Interweave it's a good article. In it's place is Galway Heather, Irish Worsted Knitting Wool, colour brown heather, 18 st/24 row to 10cm/4in., 200 metres. As soon as I got home I started casting on. The pattern is designed by Elsebeth Lavold in her 'Book Nine, The Second Viking Knits Collection'. The name of the pattern I'm knitting is 'Ymer, man's vest'. With my brain fog/head cold I ended up frogging it about six times. I couldn't get my head around reverse stockinette stitch (purl side is right side), and the cables knitted on the purl side..geesh.

While at my lys I couldn't get out of my mind the Flower Scarf, designed by Nicky Epstein. It's in the new Vogueknitting Fall 2007, Silver Anniversary Collector's Issue. I had in my stash a couple balls of Watercolours by Estelle, and searching around Bonnie's store she had more of the same. So I added a couple more balls of the light tan, enough to eventually start on this scarf.

Watercolours is so soft, 50/50 Mohair, Acrylic.

Hold me back.....Bonnie then shows me what she's clearing out of....and of course do you think I could stop?

Sisik by Dalegarn, 30%wool, 30%mohair, 34%acrylic, 6%viscose. I'm thinking something along the lines of a vest maybe for me...we'll see. It feels great, and I'm thinking that's going to be the end of my buying for awhile....I've got to get at the actual knitting now.

I've been feeling guilty about not sharing equal time between both of our pets, so here's Anna and she doesn't care how much yarn I buy just as long as she gets fed, and let out of the house so she can have a roll on the pavement.

Anna is a finicky feline and she loves the guys, doesn't tolerate girls all that much. I met Anna when she was eight weeks old. I was working at a school and it was bring your pet, show and tell day. Well this little girl had this little grey ball of fluff and was throwing her down the playground slide. I couldn't stand the thought of the kitten being treated like that again so that afternoon I adopted her, and we've spoiled her ever since. It was destiny, and I really believe I didn't find Anna, but that she actually found us.

Either way she's been a great old girl for the past 15 years and she's still going strong.









Have a great Labour Day weekend!!!!!

I'm happy to say I got my 'you know what together' and remembered to bring my camera along so that I could share a couple pictures of my lys Wool Revival

Bonnie is proprietor of the shop, and you can see her tallying up my purchases behind the desk. She has a beautiful shop that I never seem to have enough time to look over everything. Idea's for projects are never ending here. Thanks Bonnie for letting me take pictures!

About a month ago I picked up Elsebeth Lavold's Book Nine of The Second Viking Knits Collection (another Maia referral). I love the book and it's wonderful photography. The patterns focus more on cable knitting and it's something I haven't done in a long time so I'm looking forward to starting. I'm hoping to do a couple of projects from the book, but the first one will be for dh's birthday coming up in October.

Even though the pattern shown here is in green, I've knitted a sweater for dh in green before so I went for this wonderful navy blue (colour 229) from Ambiance Superwash, 210 yards/190 m. I have been so tempted to start shopping online for this vest, but I keep holding back because I'm not sure of what I might be getting. I've spent hours online looking at wool, loaded up shopping carts to just decide it's not worth the chance. For myself I can't wear some wool it's just too itchy, but my dh can tolerate some itch, and I opted to go to the store this time. I just don't know enough about the different brands/makes of yarn/fibre to take that chance buying online. This navy yarn is called superwash it's pure new wool and it feels great. It's soft enough that I could wear it against my skin, but I wouldn't have known that from the online stores.....so I guess I just have to chaulk it up to experience and keep my eyes open for some good sales on superwash.

Something else I picked up and of course it's sockyarn from Trekking pro natura, 75% superwash, 25% bamboo, 100g, 459 yards, made in Germany.
This yarn feels great and has a wonderful sheen, could it be coming from the bamboo? I'm not sure if I'm going to use this on socks or a shawl....I better make up my mind as I'll need more for the latter...Geez I guess that means another visit to Bonnie....

Through the vastness of online knitting sites I came across this idea.....

Oh yes it was involving beads and knitting mwaaaahhh......knitting markers. To identify rows, or cables, reminders of any kind that come up in your knitting rows...I thought this was such a great idea and I found some animal print glass beads that will contrast with most colours I'll hopefully have time to be knitting with.....

That's only if the weeds slow down in the garden.....Sounds sort of like the phrase 'When hell freezes over'. Time... a precious commodity.

*update* Here's the beadmarkers all wired up and ready to go.

Good morning fibre artists.... :)

It's been awhile since last posting...I left with pictures of a unfinished wheel...so now here it is.....

All put together and sitting pretty. It took my DH and myself to get the thing together, and it was an education in part names and what they do, and where they go. Which is good, because it'll help me when spinning classes start.


This was all done just before the long weekend in August, and I had to start packing for the farm. It was raining, and wet for half of the weekend, but then warmed up of course the day we headed home. Got a fair amount of knitting done considering we did a lot of visiting with relatives.


One of my favourite parts of going out to the farm is picking rocks to put around the flower garden. The North Saskatchewan river borders along side the property, and the sky was huge that day.

My DH was home this last week and there seemed no time to get some posting done. We were getting caught up with work around the house and the upcoming Edmonton Folk Music Festival.

I did bring my knitting along with me and got another foot or so of my twining leaf scarf done. I have to say I've never knitted in public, and I felt like I was really out there. It sort of made me feel like I was categorizing myself to the public that yes I'm middle aged and yeah I like to knit, and I enjoy beer, but I don't have to sit in the beer gardens to have a good time. I didn't see not one other knitter out in amongst all these folksy people....where is everybody? I've only knitted in front of my relatives out at the farm, and even then I feel like maybe they might think it's rude to do so. Like I'm not being attentive to the ongoing conversation. I don't know....I'm still confused a little about my knitting boundaries. What's the etiquette considered in situations like these?

Either way we had a really good time. My son volunteers for the four day event, and he's met really nice people through the experience.

Here's a shot of my daughter Nicole and I sitting on the lawn in the beer gardens showing off our knitted socks.



It all ends too soon. The nighttime sky is soon lit up by the city lights and the candles that everyone holds while groovin to the music. (my daughter's just going to cringe by me using that phrase 'groovin') It's amazing sharing it with so many people. Peaceful.
Next post is some stash pictures....yes I'm waiting on some alpaca roving to spin, but of course I've got a couple of felting projects I'd like to do next which explains my latest purchases....

It has arrived!

I got the phone call last week and could hardly wait to pick it up. I was a little surprised at how small the box was, and I kept on asking Pam from Pam's Woolly Shoppe, "Are you sure everything is in here?" So in honour of Amy Singer from Knitty.com I wanted to document what it looks like when getting a wheel. Amy blogged when she received her Ashford Joy, and I loved seeing her pictures.

How it's packed, and the information booklet that is included.

It was neat getting a picture of the person who packed it up in the factory from New Zealand. She did a very good job. Everything in its place.

I chose the unfinished wood versus the lacquered finish on the wheel. The lacquered finish was $100 more and Pam said for a $100 you can save by finishing it yourself. So I took her advise, but a forewarning....it's taken me about a week to get it stained and urethaned. So I've had to bide my time waiting...tick tock tick tock.....no spinning , and I've got some corriedale roving just staring at me, waiting to be practised on.

This is just about finished. It's been fun thinking how I wanted to make it my own. So I decided to stain the legs red, as well as the maid uprights, and maiden bar supports.
*Update* This is now Thurs.Aug.2.
Everything is now thoroughly cured, and as soon as my DH comes home after work we'll be putting it together...more pictures to come.

Still working on the wristwarmers. Hopefully this August long weekend coming up we'll be heading out to the farm, and maybe I'll have the time to finish off a couple of projects that have been sitting in the wings while this wheel's been getting all the attention.

Just a note of amusement.....I was reading Posh Yarns blog, and she has an interesting take on Educating Public Sentiment Aug. 1 post..... I love the sarcasm....Go Posh Go!!

This past weekend was the beginning of a week long event which happens every summer here. So we partook in the activities on Saturday evening....


First was the Chuckwagon races.... Dodge is sponsering a tour of this race that runs throughout Alberta during the summer.

My daughter Nicole's place of employment sponsers one of the riders, and this is a picture of them rounding the barrels. We've never been to see the races before, but meeting the driver, and going behind the scenes gave us a new understanding of how much these animals are loved, and how these thoroughbreds love to run.

Here's one getting washed down in the paddock area.

After the races we went on to walk through the fairway......which is pretty self explanatory. Lots of people, food, noise, lights, music, and did I say food? The rage with most of the crowd is getting a pail of mini dougnuts. Yes I said a pail....it used to be a little bag of 15.

The finale of every evening is the fireworks. It may not be as big as some other cities, but it's a treat and enjoyed by many.

Oh yeah I did manage to get the green "Mrs. Beeton's" wrist warmers done......

Next on the needles are the pink/purple "Mrs. Beetons......

I've made the leap........I've ordered my spinning wheel...... The Ashford Traveller. Double drive, double treadle. Sounds to me like anything double is good.....mwahhhhhh....oh my god...now I have to see if I can spin.....I anticipate a lot of *#!?&@?!^!* while practicing that's until classes start up in October. (Next week eta of wheel)

I've done enough reviewing, reading, scouring libraries, talking to other spinner/knitters that I'm all spun out. Now that I've ordered it all what I've read and learned is probably going to fly out the window. I guess there's nothing better than just doing. Actual spinning whether it's crap or not, it's still practicing......Which brings me to add Urban Dictionaries definition of practice.......

The act of turning admired potential into envied ability. Contrary to popular belief, practice does not make "perfect", it conversely makes "permenant".

"I'd better practice my skating if I want to make enemies on the ice."
by James Bell, Vancouver, BC

Have a great weekend!

I feel like I'm repeating myself with these projects, but here goes.....I'm in the middle of the Victorian wrist warmers called Mrs. Beeton from Knitty.com (Winter 2005). I've been looking forward to working on this pattern because it has the potential to use up a lot of my leftover yarn stash.

Anyway I wanted to post about the joining of the two bell edgings. Apparently it's similar to the three-needle bind off, but instead you'll be knitting the stitches off both needles which will carry on to be the wrist part.












Well I've never done a three needle bind off, but I got the general meaning of what was needed to be done. I had to take a picture of it though......it's kind of a schmahzle*(new word) ;) There's six freakin dpn being used at this point. It sure is pretty though with the mohair and the beads. The pattern keeps my interest going, but I thought maybe it might be intimidating for some. It's slow going with the joining, but once that's over a pair of these warmers could easily be knit up in an evening.

Another batch of lilies that have opened up.....I wanted to also say how happy we are with our camera bought this past May. (I've been going snap happy with the garden this year.) It's a Nikon D80 SLR, and we would recommend it to anyone looking for a new camera.

Well the weekend has come and gone, and it was a mighty hot one. The temp inside our house didn't go below +28C at night and so with everyone heading to work this morning they're all feeling sort of punchy from lack of a good sleep.

This is noodles again hamming it up. She was performing a yawn for me, not a hiss, or a hairball. We were taken with the thought maybe she was really laughing hard at an inside joke. We can only imagine.


On Saturday we headed to Art Walk 2007 on Whyte Avenue. By 4:00pm on Saturday all the artists were pretty well done in by the heat. That's dedication.......or is it determination?


As the day ended we found ourselves strolling through the bussling Strathcona Farmer's Market.


We found ourselves thinking back to our visit to Seattle and Pike's Market. What a lot of colour!


















Here's another of my garden pretties~

Well it's been a long week of hot weather with the same forecast for the next week +30C=90F and I've been trying to water my plants to keep them alive. I was commenting on Maia's blog about her beautiful waterlilies and that my one waterlily was going to bloom, but now it looks like it's going back under the water.
What's not up with that??


Anyway back on the knitting front.....

I haven't been blogging because I've been finishing the Wine and Roses mitts....and I've got them done!!!

Since finishing the mitts I've not been able to contain myself with starting new projects.....I've got two sets of mittens started from the book Selbuvotter Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea.



Here's the first pair knit with Briggs and Little wool. Colour orange and red heather. Pattern #13. Also included is a peach schnapps smoothy which doesn't hurt when it's hot. A great drink when knitting outside.





Inside shot with thumb yet to be started.





Next pair on 2.0mm dpn is Briggs and Little 100% wool 1 ply sport. In a more traditional colour for Selbu mitts. Colour Washed White, and Dark Grey.









Next I'm going to cast on the two Victorian styled gauntlets (mentioned in fibre and beads) Mrs. Beeton from Knitty.com designed by Brenda Dayne. I feel like I'm a little out of control with the new start ups but isn't that the best part of a project? Aha there is a name for this affliction...."Startitis" found it on Baad Medicine's blog.

Here's a picture of the latest bloomer in my garden......