We need more.

I have not had much knitting time due to things like job interviews (this morning in the next town) and laundry (I needed clean, not jeans, type clothes for aforementioned interview). So what little progress I made is next best thing to unnoticeable. I need less laundry and more knitting time. Maybe a driver too, while I am asking for the impossible.

But there is still stuff to look at round here. Oh yes. Like how much we need more rain.

Because the mushrooms aren't big enough. They need more friends to hang with.

There are three or four varieties of mushroom in my yard and I don't know if any of them are edible. I am assuming that they are not though. Funny how much I miss my little Pentax. This HP might be a tough camera, but I need more megapixels now. I have become accustomed to the clarity, truer colours and macro shots. Spoiled, I know.

The colours of fall are spectacular now and see the more rain?
The colours are vibrant and varied even on the branches of the trees.

For Suzanne: This is what you saw in the corner of one of my photos. It isn't real, it just guards the rectangle of weeds I sometimes call a garden.

This is my real well. Not quite as pretty. One day I will get a fake well big enough to put over the real well and maybe we'll remember how to use the weed whacker too.

The Day after the Big Blank.

I'm here and I've been knitting. Yesterday was one of those days where I could talk to people, reply to something they'd written, but bring up a blank page for me to write something and my head filled with random words that didn't work together or make any sense.

Fortunately the words in your head don't have to make sense when it comes to the knitting. I've finished the second skein of charcoal on the Mr.'s sweater and discovered that I've misplaced my pattern book. It's either at my parent's house or at the yarn store. So I have to stop until I find it. Under the Water (the scarf) got the second skein joined and grew a little more. The sheet music is for the Festival of Carols community choir. I've joined again this year and Monday was the second practice. So far, we are doing pretty well.
Good thing there are a few more indoor things starting now. Except for two hot and muggy days on the weekend, it's been cool to cold.

The leaves are falling and signs of Halloween are cropping up here and there. Mainly in the costume and treat departments of the stores. Christmas stuff isn't far behind.

I have a plan for the crazy knitting at Christmas time though. It probably won't happen. One nephew got a crappy gift last year (we bought him a guitar kit thinking that he had a guitar, he doesn't) so I'm thinking of making him a skull hat this year to make up for it a little. Fifteen year old boys are hard to buy for when you won't consider all that crap people call games now.

I think he'll be the only one since I want to make washcloths for the women in the shelter again (if you want to send some, I won't turn them away and I won't complain email me at duchofb @ yahoo . ca if you want to help and I'll send you the address to mail them to, if you don't have it from last year) and I have the ISE 5 scarf, I promised a friend a pretty wedding garter for her upcoming wedding and I want to try to finish the Mr.'s sweater before it gets crazy cold. Then there is fixing Girly's halloween bag to get it to look better and maybe lining it. See, no crazy holiday knitting going on at all.

Psst, look familiar? Check out this L&V's Daily Chum post! I am a happy, happy girl.

Flounce

Girly loves her new dress. I love most of it, but will have to knit another one and tweak the pattern a little to get it to look just so, ya know?
The back. The ribbon is Sam the cat's favourite part.

The length of the skirt is perfect and that bit of a ruffle at the bottom makes me feel all happy and such like.


Not much else got done due to ISE 5 stuff, but hopefully things will begin to settle and I can put down the keyboard and pick up the needles again. I kind of miss that knitting thing already.

Hey, eyes are crossing here!

I am deep into match-ups and being a rather tactile person, I prefer to have everything where I can see it without having to scroll up, down sideways, and all over the dang place. I find a computer screen very limiting so paper I can touch, sort, read and reread for me! There has been very little visible progress on the knitting front but the paper is going strong.

In other news though. Here is one of many great things about Ravelry. If someone has a yarn they don't want anymore, they can mark it for trade or sell and anyone can buy it or trade something for it. I got this from Woolarina (warning: beautiful, luscious, handdyed, handspun yarns for sale) for an excellent price and I am loving it. I tend to stick to more tonal or solid colours when I buy yarn, but something about this struck my fancy and now that I have it in my hands, my fancy is even more tickled. Although the wool iron-on patch would have done that all by itself. Love it! So does Girly.

Hopefully my eyes will be ready for knitting once I get all this paper stuff sorted and ready to go. Good times are nearly here!

Busy, busy!

I have a few things on the go. Each of them will be getting some attention today. The paper stuff gets the most attention though.

Here have some pretty colours to look at while I go get busy. Enjoy your day.

Comfort and colour.

I was about to swear off sweaters and be happy about it until the Mr. started hinting that he would love to have a nice wool hunting sweater. He wants this one, but I told him if I spent that much money and time on a sweater for him and he came home with blood on it, I would have to cry. A lot. So we settled on this one as a hunting sweater. I'm using Briggs and Little's Super instead of the Bulky Lopi that way the whole thing only cost about $40.00. I will eventually make him the Fair Isle as a good sweater for his non-hunting days off. For some reason, to me, there is nothing so comfortable looking as a grey sweater.

Flounce is nearly done. I have to finish the last strap, add a small bit to the back with some buttonholes and weave in the ends. Girly thought it was great fun trying it on here and there. She sure loves helping Momma.

Things outside are getting more and more colourful.

Driving down the highway is a feast for the eyes and hopefully I can drive it again soon with a working camera to show you. In the meantime, with the crazy misty humidity yesterday and the cold bit of drizzle going on today, this is about as close to a walk as we'll get.

No pic-tuahs, Dah-link.

My little camera is off for a 6 week jaunt to a repair person. Even though it worked perfectly when I took it to the camera shop. Of course. I figured six weeks with my old HP will be worth it if they replace the computer chip in my Pentax and I get to have a camera for longer then a month or two past warranty. Funny how my 5 year old HP 715 works perfectly even after numerous drops and bangs, but my little Pentax tries quitting after less than one year. I think I will be looking at HP if I have to buy another camera some day.

So although I do still have camera capabilities I am too lazy today to take some. I have been knitting. I cast on for a new project (The Mr asked for a sweater!) and I am nearly finished with Girly's dress. The Under Water scarf has stalled as has the Not Plain Jane. No worries though. No plans other than cleaning for today so I should get loads of knitting done. ;)

Pictures tomorrow.

Sunny Days, chasing the clouds away...

Yesterday turned out to be a nice sunny warm day so we decided to get out of the house while the getting was still good.

Off we went, for a walk along the path most traveled.

The bridge into town. It cracks me up that while I was taking brown Project Spectrum pictures, an orange car drove into the picture.

The reeds around the lake are showing the cold nights.

Life on the beach. Human, dog and duck appear to be happy companions by their tracks.

My favourite leaf and one of the last pictures my little Pentax took before freezing up solid and refusing to work again.

I am off to the camera shop today. Fortunately, something actually broke before the warranty was up and not right after. It seems our luck with expensive electronics just may be turning!

Saturday Sky, back again.

First Friday afternoon just to show you how yellow some of the trees around here have gotten. With the sun hanging over them this morning, I can't get an accurately exposed picture.

This morning is bright and sunny. Something I have missed since it has been mostly overcast for the last week.

Some fun quizzes to kill a bit of time before Kindergym.

Hmmm, I'm odd but yummy. I think I can live with that. Revel in it, really. ;)

What Dorothy Means

D is for Dignified O is for Odd R is for Refreshing O is for Odd T is for Thoughtful H is for Helpful Y is for Yummy

What Does Your Name Mean?

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought that I had been around for all that long.

You're One Hundred Years of Solitude!

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Lonely and struggling, you've been around for a very long time.
Conflict has filled most of your life and torn apart nearly everyone you know. Yet there
is something majestic and even epic about your presence in the world. You love life all
the more for having seen its decimation. After all, it takes a village.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Not again.

That is exactly what it appears to be, snow. It has melted now and it's about 2*C/35*F outside. It appears that another early winter is on its way. Or is it? The forecast for Monday is 24*C/75*F.

I still don't have much mojo for writing or for knitting. Today is cleaning day and hopefully once my surroundings are neater and cleaner, my mojo will return.

The water is back on for now. Apparently our pipes keep cracking due to brittleness. It seems that although they are not old, relatively speaking, they are not good. The plumber said he can fix them and they should hold for a while, but we need to replace them in the spring.

Still haven't heard about the job. Sigh. Hopefully by the end of the day or Monday.

Mojo? Mojoooo!!!

Anyone seen my mojo? My writing hasn't been all that great lately and my knitting has been all over the place. I can't seem to focus and I think part of my problem is how cluttered and disorganized everything is around here. You know it's gotten crazy when you have to clear up before the plumber gets here.

So yesterday we decluttered and reorganized. My yarn corner hasn't been this empty since I first started using it.

I didn't think I had all that much yarn. Apparently I really haven't seen it all. I didn't know I had enough yarn to fill a tub this size and still have yarn left in my corner. Time to finish up everything I'm working on and turn all this yarn into something other than skeins. I have plans for much of it so that's a start.

We went for a walk in the dark last night. Someone loved it although she was cold and layered to heck. Apparently she has inherited my fashion sense.

Now, let's hope the plumber can get the pipes fixed today. I miss having water in my house. If ever you want to know how many times a day you wash your hands, turn off your water.

Was it Something I Said?

Was it so bad that I earned this cold shoulder from Mother Nature?

I'm very glad that the frost didn't kill or hurt these little flowers. We call them Catnip flowers, but I don't think that's what they are really called. Pretty little things though and my side yard is carpeted with them.

Good thing I have a couple of scarves on the needles with the first frost showing up so soon. This one is a play on double moss stitch that worked out much better than I could have hoped. There is more than likely a scarf pattern just like this out there somewhere. I think though, that I will name my scarf "Under Water" because it makes me think of how the sand looks just under the water's edge at a beach.

I haven't found a scarf pattern that looks like this yet. Although there is more than likely one out there. It's a reversible cable instead of ribbing scarf. I was going to call it "Cabled for Her", but Debbie Stoller has a Ribbed for her Pleasure scarf pattern in one of her books and that name is too close for me. So I'm thinking of "Plain Jane it Ain't".

Time too, to get going on this sweater for Girly again. Since my trick with all the DPNs worked out so well for the Capelet, I'm going to skip waiting for a 24" cable needle to show up in my budget and use the extra set of DPNs I have lying around with nothing on them. Hopefully it will work just as well this time as the first time.


Now say a prayer/send good karma that I get the job I interviewed for yesterday, would you? I got good vibes from them, but you never know. The pipes in the wall burst again and well, it's all fun all the time around here. We need to get a few things paid off so we can hire a good contractor to come in and redo the bathroom properly as well as a plumber to replace most of our pipes so this will quit happening.

Internet ready again.

I had a light, Project Spectrum-y knitting post all ready for today, but it doesn't seem right since today is the anniversary of the attack on the twin towers in New York.

Today marks the day that many people lost their lives and the men and women of the military were about to be changed forever. We have friends in Afghanistan now and one about to ship out. We have friends in Iraq too and it seems just wrong to be light and talking about knitting when they are in such peril thanks to the hate and intolerance of others.

So for today at least, let us each turn to the person next to us and accept them for who they are. Religious/Spiritual, Race, Sexuality, Political views, Meat/Vegan, Home/Homeless, whatever the difference for today at least, let it go. Hate and intolerance never changed anyone's mind.

When it isn't your day.

I have no internet today. It has finally crapped right out. We've been having issues for the last little while and today it has flipped me off and gone fishing. Lazy bugger.

I am at the library now and will be going home to knit stuff and sook soon. Hopefully there will be more words, pictures and less sooking tomorrow.

When words lead people astray.

Apparently I did not read my post from yesterday very well before publishing. I accidentally made it sound like my big thing is a knitting project. It's big and it's been keeping me busy for the last little bit, but it isn't a new knitting project. It has to do with knitting and crochet and weaving though. You're looking at the new hostess of ...



That's right! We're back and ready for sign ups. Just in time for it to be scarf weather around here again. So hurry over and sign up, my Inbox is already filling up. No, I'm not doing it all by myself though. I have some great co-hostesses lined up and raring to go too. Thank the Good Lord! I would be glued to this seat for the next few months if I tried to take on something this big by myself.

ETA: Just me fixing the button HTML.

There are Things Afoot.

I've been pretty busy lately with a big thing that I can't tell you about yet. Come back tomorrow for sure. It's big and it's good in a knit/crochet/weave kind of way.

In the meantime my knitting has suffered. I started this a few days ago and between fixing where I put the dang yo (this stuff is way harder to tink than laceweight) and my big thing, it hasn't gotten very far even on 10mm(US 15).

Girly's jumper hasn't gotten much bigger either. Apparently I want change, but I don't want it to be harder than plain knitting. It doesn't help that it's been so darn muggy that my hands are better at making lakes than allowing the yarn to glide along.


Thanks to Liz of Crossroad Knits, I recently discovered a cool podcast called Stash and Burn. They have a one skein contest going on right now. If you've made/will make an entire project with only one skein from August 17th to September 21st, go tell them about it here and add your photos to the Flickr group. I put Girly's cape in there. I love when something gets triple billing. It's from my stash so it's a stash buster, it's a single skein so it fits for this contest and it's perfect me and Girly.

Two-fer.

Not to be confused with the two-four. Two-four being a case of beer and two-fer being two for the price of one. Of course that would mean that the first one wasn't the price of two.

Walk with me Wednesday and Project Spectrum all in one post!

We took the path most traveled and found Autumn not far from where we started.

There was a path less traveled, but it looked like it might end up in someone's backyard so we couldn't take that one.

No matter, there was plenty to see anyway. Little "eggs" that were well examined, not touched.

A dragonfly came to pose with nature's laundry.

One of the few remaining Devil's Paintbrushes.

A fallen spruce trapping an old pine branch on some newer ones.

Some Purple Stemmed Asters with a bee desperately collecting the last bit of pollen for the long, hard winter ahead.

A plant with leaves so red they appear purple in the shade and along the veins.



By the way, the Kiddie Capelet, doesn't look half bad on me either. In a solid colour it could make a great cover up for those rare to never times I get all dressed up.