Knitting stuff and going on and on.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Saturday Sky with a laugh.

It is another grey spring day.

So rather than another post lamenting the length of winter,

I leave you this quote heard on Dragon the other day:

Dragon: [sitting on couch knitting (throwing style) muttering to himself] "Knit 1, Purl 2. Knit 1, Purl 2 ..."

Narrator: "Dragon wasn't sure what he was knitting just yet, but he liked his new hobby."

Friday, March 30, 2007

Heer be knitting! Aarrr!

The scurvy has addled the brain of this heer landlubber.

She be knitting on a square

and a vest, but this be the hat, written by Gina, the scurvy landlubber ought to get her needles in ere she walks the plank! Aarrr!

Winter be here again and this pirate hat don't be keeping the head of this pirate warm.

It be meltin fast, but it could be coming back again!

The landlubber's sister came by and frightened this old pirate with some flowers. How's a pirate supposed to keep a scurvy ship uh, scurvy with flowers on it?! Aarrr! The landlubber was happy with them though. I may make her walk the plank yet!

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Random day today.

I did some knitting, but due to an unhappiness with how the design was coming out, it got ripped. Sadly that means nothing knit-like to show off. Look at the snow out the window. It's really starting to go now!


Project Spectrum's first colour combo is ending on Saturday. I really like this combo since they are all colours I can wear fairly well, but I haven't been very inspired by the blue/grey/white combo for the last few weeks due to spring fever. While I have many blue/white/grey things I can start/finish, right now, I need bright, warm colour and lots of it to help keep the fever down. I don't think things would be this bad for me if we weren't in limbo like we have been. It isn't really cold out and there isn't much snow, but that leaves not a whole lot to do outside. Too cold to garden, play on the swings or have a barbeque. Not enough snow to build snowmen, make snow angels, go sliding, or build forts. Too wet to go skating and still a bit too much melting snow to play games on the grass. If I were into snowmachines or skiing I would be out of luck there too since the ice on the lakes is a bit precarious and the snow on the trails isn't deep enough or good enough to sled or ski on without bogging down. The weather is iffy too. Will it rain? Sleet? Snow? Will the wind be up and be too strong coming in off the damp ice on the lakes to be warm? You know, limbo. Sigh. Soon enough summer will be here and I'll get to whine about it being too hot to go outside. There just isn't pleasing some folks.

Anyway... A bit of winter pretty for all of you to enjoy.

Looking toward the town beach.

On the town beach. Pretty sandy, eh?

Near the town beach looking toward the train tracks.

Across the road from our neighbour's house after January's ice storm.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Fits and Starts.

That describes my knitting progress. Knit a little, wander off and clean/fold/sort/put away/throw out stuff, rip some knitting, knit some more, wander off go for a walk/run errands, tink some knitting, knit some more ...

Although there was much tinking and ripping and fixing of mis-crossed cables, I have gotten to the point where I can put away the chart for this and just eyeball what needs to be done. That doesn't mean I'm getting it right, just that I know what I did wrong right away. Now four more repeats and then onto the body pieces.

Yesterday the light was coming in just right and although my knitting spot is rarely organized or tidy, it just struck me as a really nice place to sit. There is just something about a big ball of chunky yarn that seems so comfortable. Of course a pillow, blanket and purring cat don't hurt the image either.

The little Mr. was sick yesterday so it was just Girly and I hanging out. That meant all kinds of things to do that just aren't a good idea with two or three competitive only children. Apollo approved of having another pair of hands to scratch his ears.

"Hey, watch the manicure, lady."

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Wormhole Central here.

Anyone know how to chase off the wormhole? Apparently it really likes it around here. See this? It's a mess. Not only did I make a mess of the cables, but I managed to forget which side is the right side and which is the wrong side. Apparently when following charts, that matters.

The result, start over.

Anyone see what's wrong here? Mmm-hm. When cabling without a cable needle, it is very easy to forget the construction of a cable and make a mess of it. This is on the front of the vest right across a zipper from the other end. So out it comes, again. Wormhole = yarn goes in, crap comes out. I hope today is even a little better. It would be nice to be able to keep some of the knitting, knit.


The snow is melting fast and the birds are coming back. There are all kinds of little ones chirping around in the bush. Yay!

Tree buds though are still pretty closed.


This bud looks ready to open. It's on the southwest side of the house. So if I stay on that side, spring will come sooner.

There are little blades of new grass under here too. Of course I'm not sure if this is new growth or last year's grass that got caught in the snow so soon it just didn't turn brown. I'm choosing to believe that it's new growth.

I like the pineapple look these trees get.


Thank you on the compliments about my yarn dyeing yesterday. It was done with food dye, powdered citric acid and vinegar. There is a great tutorial on how to do it here. Although my skeins are nowhere near that long.

Sky photo #8 won the most votes so it goes in the queue. I am working on the project and hopefully getting somewhere with it.

Know what else wormholes make you do? They make you put this post on the wrong blog. Instead of posting to your very own personal blog, you will put posts on your group blog. The biggest one you are in. Then they will make you forget that you should click on Edit Post instead of View Post before you copy and paste so that you lose all your picture and link data. You will also Delete Post before you remember that little tidbit of easy moving stuff around. That way you can do things the hard way.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Knitting Wormhole, like the black hole, but different.

This weekend was one of those weekends on the knitting front. Everything I knit did not work. Yarn went into the wormhole and came out the other side useless. I have been trying to design a lace scarf with some really nice Fleece Artist sock yarn and so far, it is not even close to looking like the picture in my head. Yarn in, frog out. I wanted to make it as a gift, but the amount of swearing that has gone into this yarn makes me not happy about giving it as a gift in this form. A gift should have far more happiness going into it than swearing. Happiness like walking into a knick knack shop two weeks before Christmas and finding that teacup your favourite aunt broke years ago. You know the one in that discontinued china pattern that is so crazy hard to find, her tea set hasn't been complete since and this teacup is priced for $5.00. That kind of happy. This scarf does not have that kind of happy. Even if the pattern works out, it won't balance out. So I've changed my mind. I'm going to try a different scarf altogether and hope that works out, but if it doesn't, I have a backup plan.

This square too, it is supposed to be 8" wide. I could have sworn it was 8" wide on Friday when I measured. One pattern repeat later, it is 8 1/2" wide. WTH?! So this can't be sent off. I'll keep at it and turn it into a dishcloth. Not completely uselss, but not what I had wanted.

So I dyed some white B&L Atlantic I had leftover from another project and I'm hoping this turns out better. I don't want the wormhole moving over someone else's knitting, but it would be nice if it wasn't over mine anymore.

Then there is this. This is some Bulky Lopi. I've been eyeing up Invested for a while and now is the perfect time for a warm vest that won't take forever to knit. Although, I'm afraid to start knitting just in case that wormhole is still hanging around.


Spring is definitely here. This mist was alternating between this and thicker all day yesterday and it's still there this morning. The Mr. laughs every time I say things like "Wow, it's really thick out there." apparently the Atlantic throws off fog thick enough you can't see the tip of your nose. That sounds cool.

The best thing about spring though, puddles.

Even if you have to walk nearly under the car to splash in them.



Planning on going to Boston's Independant Film Festival in April? Check out the website Frecklegirl's Casey set up. I wish I had had guides this organized for some of the events I've been at. I wouldn't have missed the things I really wanted to see while watching something else until I figured out what it was supposed to be/do/say.

I am so decisive.

Not a whole lot of knitting to show off again today. Just the beginning of another purse. You know, because there isn't enough on the needles already.

The results of the vote: 2, 4, 5 and 8 are the big winners although 3 and 4 were pretty close. I'm planning something for Daffodil month. The Canadian Cancer Society sells Daffodils to raise money for all the things they do to help cancer patients get to treatment, have help around the house, buy medications for people who are having trouble affording them and fund research. So all will be revealed on April 1st. That's only a week away and I hope to have it ready or very close to, by then.

Meantime, this picture won in it's vote yesterday, but I was looking through my photo files and found more cool skies and I only want one sky photo in my project. So... now which one do you like best?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

A different kind of whine now.

Did you know that even with a really good husband who doesn't mind helping out around the house that the chores still pile up while you are sick? Hmm-hmm. Still no knitting content. Apparently the laundry/fur/paper-type clutter heard the pity party going on and wanted to join in on all the fun.

So, a vote instead.

Which of each pair do you like better?

#1.

or #2?

#3

or #4?

#5

or #6?

#7

or #8?

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Still on the pity party.

My whine is almost gone, please send more.

Thanks for the well wishes I'm feeling much better this morning and Sue H, the man is a good boy for food too. ;) Dipsy, careful what you wish for you just might get it when you least expect it. God has a very good sense of humour, at least according to him.

This is the sum total of nearly a week's worth of knitting. This is a vile cold people. Vile. The Boa for Girly (Too hard to knit while head and eyes ache, more whine?), sweater for Girly (At the colour change but that was too hard while sick, pass the cheese please.) and last square for Cindy before I mail them all out (Also too hard since there is a slight pattern and it required counting, anyone got crackers?).


Today is Walk with me Wednesday. Since it is supposed to rain/snow shower all day and I am still feeling sorry for myself, I more than likely won't get out of the house. So here are a couple of pictures of outside for you to peruse.

Friday evening's sky. I can't see a cool cloud formation now without reaching for the camera. I am maybe getting very weird. More so than before.

Another snow picture from yesterday's lot. Temperatures have come up quite a bit and with rain in the forecast, I can see the pretty in it a little more.


Something else I totally forgot to blog about. You know, what with the crazy jetsetting lifestyle and all, I have so much else to blab about.

I am helping to hostess this round of Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I nearly missed the sign ups since I wasn't watching the site as much as I thought I had been. If you missed out, I'm very sorry, I'll do better about posting when the next round starts up.

I won't be able to blogsurf quite as much, but I will do my best to check in on all of you at least once a week. Just know that I luvs ya!