I joined another KAL..... Selbuvotter Knitalong
It's a wonderful book, and Terri has a great website. I've got two mittens on the needles already I just have to finish the mates to them.

Also another highlight of my day was finding out Interweave Knits posted their preview of the Holiday Gifts 2007 Interweave has outdone themselves again....so many nice patterns. There's at least 10 patterns I want to make out of it. So it's worth a look at....pass it on...

I'll be posting more knitting after October 13/14 weekend. It's my DH 50th birthday coming up and I'm planning a party for that Saturday, and I've been racing to get his vest done in time.....I've been getting some major dental work done the last couple of weeks in between all this planning for birthdays, etc. Seven hours total so far in the dentist chair. I could have gotten a lot of knitting done whilst sitting there. Does anyone bring their knitting to the dentist?

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend everybody!!

Have you ever had one of those days where you're looking at a door, and wishing you could kick it?

Well today I think I may have finally fixed it, my painting problems that is, with my back door. It all started with us installing a new screen door, and I took a look at the other door and it needed a paint job and new window, hardware, etc. So I thought okay, I'm going to do this right. I'll get the right paint for a metal door. I chose a leading paint (which I won't mention unless somebody wants to email me and find out) and started painting. You know with the first swipe whether things are going right or wrong. Well it wasn't going right...air bubbles all over the door...so off to The Depot, and I was given some good advice to try with a new roller that works better with oil based paints.....I should've known something was up when I was de-linting the roller and it wouldn't stop shedding. I thought I was ready and started with this roller and once again.....roller lint mixed in with paint is not a good thing. So I let it dry, I then sanded the one side where all the lint bumps were, and headed back to The Depot. I bought some other paint that has never failed me and went back to using the inexpensive roller, and as of this morning the door is done and ready for all the hardware to get put back on. What a schmozzle, which explains why the knitting has been put on hold this past week.

In amongst all this door angst, I had some dental work done. I took pictures of that, but I'm not showing them....it's more for my personal before and after pic's. I'm not the greatest with dentist appointments, but I've found a great dentist that I'm so grateful for. Dr. Leah Gully is her name, and she works out of the Whitemud Dental Centre. I was getting a temporary bridge put in and that meant pulling out a nasty back molar, which included grinding down the two neighbouring teeth in preparation for crowns. It was a marathon dentist appointment, 2 1/2 hours in the chair, but with the excellent staff I was made to feel comfortable with absolutely no pain.

Also I had promised to post pictures of when we got the fish in the indoor tank....another thing checked off the 'to do' list this week....So here they are....

~The two Koi which are inseparable

3 Shubunkin, 9 Goldfish

So now add one baby to the mix. What he is we don't know yet....we were draining the outdoor pond and my dh caught a glimpse of something moving....low and behold it was this little trooper. For now he has his own tank, he's too small to put in with the others, he would just get eaten. We're still thinking up a name for him.

In regards to the knitting front I've found my first KAL I just joined....Bag Style Knitalong. It was mentioned at Knitting Daily. It started from Pam Allen and Ann Budd's book Bag Style. Premise of the KAL is to pick something from the book, or make your own pattern using some of the techniques from the book.....it looks like fun, and I can't seem to get enough knitting bags.

I promise I'll be posting more pictures of knitting, but for now all I've got is this.... I finally got my invitation to Ravelry and it spurred me on to try and get things organized to post on there. I cleaned out my craft closet which was a mix of fabric material and yarn. It's the yarn that doesn't look so pretty right now all in bags.

Have a great weekend!!

Another year bites the dust.....As I was telling all my relatives, 'I'm 30 years old with 17 years experience.' Wink wink
The day started when I went for lunch with my daughter and her workmate Serena. Good time, good company.

Went and did some shopping for a door scope. Couldn't find one, I think I'll be getting it off of ebay. It's a large peephole for our front door. I can't stand squinting through those little viewers to look if there's somebody on the otherside of the door. This ultravision door viewer/scope solves that.

The day carried on to meeting up with DD, DS, DH at a sports bar, Shanks. What can I say I'm easy to please, and I never was to the place before, it's very casual, and it has good beer, and good food. We'll probably be back again for wing night.

The night ended with getting together with relatives and instead of cake my dd picked up these delicious cupcakes for everyone from the The Cupcake ...yummy!!

Happy Birthday to all the September people!! I'll close with a quote I thought funny.....
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic.

Welcome to my new back screendoor. How bad is it when I can get excited about something like that? We've lived in this house for 25 years, and it always feels great to replace something like an old aluminium screendoor that had to be the original going back 40 years.

My DH worked for approx. three days with this door as the exterior brickmould had to be taken out and sided with some metal to match the screendoor. Then came fitting all the deadbolts, and the new door handle on the inside metal door. So we were home, but felt like we didn't see each other......because.....

My DD and I went shopping on Saturday and headed to Michael's craft store.....I don't generally do my yarn shopping there, but I came upon something that I had to have and not in just a couple of colours, but several. It's SWS from Patons. SWS stands for Soy Wool Strips. 70% wool/30% soy, approx. 110yds, 2.8 oz, I started a new hat pattern (in colours Natural Geranium and (solid) Natural Berry) that was designed by Danny Ouellette. Danny has a Diamond waffle sock pattern featured in Knitty Fall 2007.

I was up to 2:00am Saturday night figuring out the Travelling Rib hat pattern which has some knitting techniques I've never worked with before. It was not hard, but I was so intriqued with the design that I couldn't put it down. He also has several other patterns for sale on his website and I got another one called Easy Head Hugger Hat.

I've been also slogging along on the vest for my DH's birthday. It's going fast, but I'm trying to knit on it when he's not around. So it's going slow, but the back is just about done....

I've also been sidetracked by getting our indoor fishtank ready for when we bring in our koi and goldfish from the outside pond. Our old indoor tank was too small to house them all over winter so we've had to get a bigger tank. We only have 12 fish, but some of them have doubled in size. So the new tank is ready to go now. We're looking forward to bringing them in and seeing how they've grown. I'll post pictures when we eventually do that.

125 Gallon Oceanic tank,
Eheim Professional II water filter,
Eheim Classic 2213 water filter.


The cats will have some new entertainment watching the fish when they're in here..........


Which brings me to another cute toy for cats....do it yourself homemade bendy straw cat toys from Wendy Knits

Our Anna had a crazy great time with these little triangles!

You Are a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors. You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius. Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way. While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme. Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Here's a few pictures of my girls......

Annabelle

Noodles

Annabelle's look of bliss

My blog's namesake

I'll be posting more updates on knitting, but I'm fighting a knitting malaise right now.....After getting over my cold the last week, and now allergies are kicking in, my concentration has left the building.

Where did the weekend go? I could have used another couple of days out at the farm.

This is the farmstead which if I've got my dates right, we'll be celebrating it's 80th anniversary next year spring. In asking Uncle Otto how old the farm is he replied that he's got receipts showing the purchase of some pigs back in the spring of 1920...so we're going with that date.

.......I'm sucking at getting any knitting done lately.....I'm great at getting projects started, but I've been preoccupied lately with household stuff, and the days are disappearing. We've got to install two new screen doors, and four new basement windows. We're hoping for a warm fall in order to get it all done, yeah right ;)

It was one of the nicest September long weekends. Our brother-in-law Ray rented a cherry picker and we got some tree trimming done, as well as ran a power feed from the overhead power line to a junction box for future under ground power lines. (This technical jargon is courtesy of DH) Who is standing in the red shirt on the ground.


An aerial view from the picker. Our camp is the farthest in the picture (Our silver Mazda is parked next to the motorhome). The kids didn't come out with us this time....there was a tattoo convention in Calgary. It was nice not to have to pack so much, but I missed having them along. I'm grateful for cellphones and text messaging for communication. It gets unnerving when the whole family is on the road going in different directions on a busy long weekend.
One of my most favourite places to knit is around our camp at the farm. No housecleaning, no phone, no tv...just sitting and visiting. Yep that's me...the lonely knitter in the red chair.....Which brings me to ask...'Where is your favourite place to knit?' I'm curious :)

While on the way out for the long weekend I started this idea I had for a little hemp purse. I saw this hemp at Wool Revival, and thought it would be very sturdy for such a project, and it is. I tried pulling apart a piece of it, and I now know why they make ropes out of it. It feels a bit like a heavy cotton, but there's no elasticity what so ever to it. Hemp Yarn made in China, color Chili Red.

I'm not following a purse pattern, but rather the 2 x 2 rib smocking pattern in Nicky Epstein's book, Knitting on the Edge. As of Wednesday this is how far I've gotten. I'll have to knit one and half times more than what's in this picture so that I can wrap around and sew up the seams and install a zipper, and possibly a lining will be needed, but I'll see how it goes.

Collection of Mountain Ash Berries for the birds

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....