I got a bargain


I dropped into the local Farm Market to pick up something to snack on at work on Saturday. I thought some cherries - if there were any left - would make work go a little faster & help me avoid fast food. I also went armed with the unabridged audio version of DUNE to ease my pain!
Tomatoes are ripe. Lovely, big, firm, field tomatoes. Gawd, I used to can boxes of them every year when I lived with someone but haven't done any canning since I became single. Domesticity reared its ancient head & I ended up buying two flats of spotty tomatoes at a bargain price!! Then spent Sunday canning a few jars of tomatoes with rosemary, sage & lots of cracked pepper in them. I cooked them down till they got nice & thick in my old soup pot & bottled them up into all those nice expensive spaghetti sauce jars I've been saving. Yes, Virginia, I did them in the old open kettle method! I only do this with tomatoes & jam though. These will be wonderful as sauce or soup base this winter!!


I finally finished my flock of socks. There's 19 pairs in the basket to be sent off this week - I may do one more pair if I have time. I may even continue making a pair or two here & there with the leftovers from adult socks I constantly knit It's been fun but I'm sick & tired of baby socks at this point - it's time to move onto something else for a change! My sock gift basket is almost empty & it's time to fill it up again. I've had three birthdays in the past couple of months & it was great to have gifts already in the basket - thank you Gail for that little idea!!

I actually knit a couple of new washcloths for the bathroom - I wanted a sunny yellow & white combo for a change but Wal-Mart wouldn't co-operate. I ended up with the least offensive of the colors available in the large balls - those little ones are waaaaay too expensive!!! I don't mind this pink, blue & green combo but would've preferred the yellow/white combo or even the purple/green/white just because they go with everything. I'll have to admit though, it was nice knitting ANYTHING other than baby socks! And these are certainly cheerful.


Tomorrow I'm going to get back to my Arvik sweater. I started it in the Legal Loopholes pattern, by Medrith Glover, from the top down. Legal Loopholes has a neat way of increasing an extra 12 stitches in the front & back without increasing the sleeves. This makes a sweater bigger around without giving you armholes to your waist. I'm hoping to learn to use short rows to give extra boobage room as well so the fronts & back will end up the same length for a change . . . . I keep looking at lace but decided it's too hard watching the History Channel or the Antiques Roadshow & trying to knit lace too. I think I prefer Ganseys or Aran knits instead - at least you can SEE your patterns without a bright light.

They Asked for my Opinion


Gee, I won at Starbucks yesterday. I got the BIG receipt that gives me the opportunity to tell the Big Cheese at Head Office what I think of Starbucks. This could take a while . . . . . I have to admit I used to be an addict. The BT & I LIVED at the place for a couple of years waaaay back when we were bums for a summer. We knew everyone who came & went. We socialized with the girls who worked there. For one golden summer everyone got along with everyone else & the whole crowd pulled together to solve not only a security problem at the store but helped each other personally. From cop to drug dealer, we all coffee'd together in perfect harmony & worked on our tans. It was the most incredible social club I've ever joined. Of course, as with anything wonderful, it eventually all fell apart. And we stopped going there. Yesterday we went back for a coffee. Didn't recognize anyone working or sitting there. Half the tables are gone. The bathroom is locked. There's a hot air blower instead of paper towels in the bathroom. And the coffee has changed. They say you can't ever go back . . . And they want me to give my opinion!!!

Haven't done much this week but knit baby socks. I now have 17 pairs completed & will probably have 20+ pairs when they get mailed next week. Right now I'm aiming for 20. I still can't find diaper pins so I may just buy large safety pins instead. I have to fasten my socks together in pairs so I thought I'd do it with something handy like pins! I WAS a good idea at the time!!!

I think I'll use my greyed Purple for the Icelandic Shawl pattern. I thought the pattern would stand out better in the softer color - I think there's too much color in the other two & well, I'd like a color that goes with just about anything - I may even wear it!!

When all this sock madness is behind me, I want to get back to my top-down cardigan in Arvik as well. I intend to wear that sweater this fall to the Desert Mesa retreat, dammit!! Even if I have to finish it in the car on the way - Gail can drive!!!!

Where'd it Go???


Nothing like losing a whole Post!! I hate this word verification thing that Blogger has tagged onto my Blog - it appeared all of a sudden & drives me crazy. I lose more postings to this thing!! Hopefully, I've kicked it off for good!!!!

Haven't accomplished much of anything this past week. I've become addicted to a stupid puzzle game & I finally gave it the boot this afternoon as well. I just hate it when a game devourers all your time & energy & nothing gets done. Begone, evil game - I DID enjoy blowing up all those bombs though . . . .

I've finished another four pair of baby socks! These ones are just a wee bit tinier than the previous ones - they're asking for 2.5 to 3.5" foot - these ones are 2.5" for sure! And soooo cute. I think I could turn out a real big boxfull at the rate I'm going. I may just keep on churning these out as a sideline with all the leftovers I'm producing with my Adult socks.

I've joined the Icelandic Shawl KAL. I really liked the shawl when I first saw it a couple of months ago & sent a copy to Gail when she was looking for a shawl to knit. I bumped into it again & thought, Why Not?? And then I discovered the Yahoogroup! So, what the heck . . . . I haven't decided exactly what to knit it with - I could spin & dye my own yarn but I'm not really fussy about browns, tans & their Autumnal ilk. I'm a Summer person & I like hot pinks, purples, blued reds, turquoise & bright blues. But, I suspect the true charms of the shawl lay in it's natural color palette. Having said that, there's no point in spending all that time knitting something that's not flattering. So, I decided to check the basket to see if I have any handspun which might fit the bill.

I could knit it with Arvik. I have lots of skeins already spun up & its somewhere between lace & fingering in weight. It has a large range of color from light grey to almost black BUT, I didn't separate the colors & the yarn is varregated & a little rustic looking. I wanted rustic when I spun it, I wasn't thinking of fancy lace shawls at the time.


I have the Aurelia Purple Passion. It's merino & silk with a soft, lovely feel & wants to be a shawl according to Gail. Although it's sock weight SIZE, I think it'll knit up more like a sport weight because it's quite fluffy.

I have another, lighter Purple which has a lot of pink & blue combined with it. It's also silk & merino but spun much thinner so it should knit to a sock weight. I don't have as much as I do of the Purple Passion but it should be pretty close.

My third Purple is a greyed purple. It's merino & has undertones of pale pink, garnet & blue. I originally bought it for socks but thought it much too soft & pretty for them after I spun it up. There's the same weight as the lighter Purple & should be enough for a shawl.


So many decisions & soooooo little time. As if I didn't have enough to do - one of the gals from my sock group came back from holidays with some gorgeous Alpaca yarn. She bought enough to knit an AFGHAN!! We talked her out of that & suggested she knit a simple cardigan instead. Mind you, she did say it was to be HER afghan to snuggle into when she's reading . . . Anyway, she brought back a bag of Alpaca fleece - she got it for free! It ended up coming home with ME.

Oho - Have you heard the news????


Knitopia from White Rock has run off to downtown Langley in the Value Village 'hood! This is just a little too close for comfort!!

It's Almost the Weekend Again!


Well, this has been the week that was! I hauled MORE boxes yesterday, the BT finally has pillows & pots. I even gave in & bought milk, eggs, cheese, coke, bread, coffee & margerine for his empty, empty fridge. I'll get back there with the frozen stuff later on tonite I guess & toss in the two patio chairs taking up half my patio as well. My life is almost back to normal!! Maybe I can get some spinning done this weekend!

Speaking of Spinning - Gail & I were talking about all the fibre we've been accumulating in the last couple of years. We have the good, the bad & the ornery. Both of us have some fleece bought before we really knew what good wool was - I really hate to throw anything useful away! I have the yummy Arvik which is earmarked for a specific use. And, although we love our Merino/Silk blends & some of the gorgeous stuff we've splurged on at Spin-Ins, Fibre events & Retreats, we decided the Brown Sheep mill ends from the Sheep Shed were the best deal around.

I'm turning the heels on sock #12 for the dozen or so pairs of baby socks I promised for the Afghanistan box. They've got to be the cutest little things you ever saw!!! I managed to get three pairs out of this purple. I actually have about 6 pairs in various shades of purple if you count the ones made out of my Opal 'FISH' leftovers. What a great way to use up all the leftover sock yarns - who knows, I may just keep on knitting them for a couple local charity boxes!! After all, charity begins at home!



Haven't done a thing on my Arvik sweater beyond the first set of increases. I HAVE fondled the little I DID get time to knit but didn't get to add anything more to it. I have the feeling I'll have forgotten the pattern by the time I get back there . . . . . sigh.

I pre-ordered (read PRE-PAID!!) the new Twisted Sisters Sweater book! And I can't wait till it actually gets here! Had a sneak peak at a little of it when Knitters Magazine sent me a preview. Got to SEE a few pictures & LOOK at some text but I can't actually READ it. Not very nice to show me pages I can't read . . . good thing I have their first book & know how great their stuff is! I feel like a kid waiting for Hallowe'en, dammit. I want it & I want it NOW!!!!

It's been a LOOOOOONG Weekend


The BT is finally moved. For over a month, he had a space he could've started moving into a little at a time but he did nothing till he found out the landlord-to-be had another tenant in the wings. Then it was GO GO GO for two days until he exhausted & crippled himself. Found him Friday morning bent over, spasming, sleep deprived & starving. He found some canned goods but couldn't find anything to open them with, lost his pillows & finally called for help. He also remembered that he'd promised to house-sit over the long weekend back when he was supposed to have moved by July 15th . . . . . And guess who was nominated to clean out the roomette he'd abandoned???
Yeah, you guess it.

His mom & I went in on Saturday to find all his electronic wires still plugged into the walls - not going to hook up that surround sound tv, stereo or computer any time soon without them, his wallet & fanny pack on the shelf & all the bathroom stuff still in the cabinet. Apparently no one cleaned out the fridge either. She & I worked for 4 hours till it got too hot. I worked again on Sunday till it got too hot. I've packed & moved all the boxes, hauled the garbage & cleaned the bathroom. I hope he gets a BIG SETTLEMENT from ICBC because a BIG chunk of it's going to be coming to me so I can have a nice LONG WEEKEND somewhere far, far away from him!


I'm too tired to do ANYTHING with fibre !!