A Taste of Winter

Brrrrrrr - the weekend was positively freezing in my basement!! I ended up wearing the heavy duty hoodie I bought last winter in my office!! And then pulled out the big soup pot to make a winter batch of soup to warm up!! I was thrilled to run out & sit in my hot car yesterday when I saw the return of all that blue sky. It made me so happy I went off to Mcdonald's to have a chicken wrap & extra large coffee for lunch in my hot car too. I often sit in the corner of the parking lot in the shade & read while I drink my coffee, just to get away from the basement office. Today was not one of those relaxing lunches. Just as I got settled in with my coffee & ebook, the Gardeners arrived with gas powered trimmers & blowers & proceeded to manicure the bushes right next to my car which totally filled it with fumes .  .  .  .

Did I mention my new to me Janome sewing machine??? I've already rooted out all my old sewing patterns & peeped into my bins of fabric. I found three tunic tops all cut out & half finished. But it's the tropical raspberry rayon print fabric that really turns me on! And the 5 yards of equally wild hot pink/blue patterned rip-stop nylon that I bought for shopping bags!! I am seriously thinking of making small produce bags since I have plenty of big bags for heavy duty shopping. It's so exciting!! My poor old spinner will get forgotten again .  .  .

And back on the needles - finished one more pair of short summer socks that look just like the last pair. I used three balls of Knit Picks Felici sock to make two pairs of short socks in my favorite colorway, Goth Kitty. I do love that one!!! These are all mine, mine, mine. They don't disappear into the shoe when worn but show an inch of ribbing & two inches of plain knit above the heel so there's a little wild color showing above a grimy summer sneaker. The next pair - yes, I DO have two more balls of Goth Kitty - will be the standard sock of winter.

Pabaigh for Lara - well, it's still in the bottom of my bag. With Fall rapidly approaching, I'd better get it back on the needles!! It's been so damned hot that I couldn't knit outside on the west facing patio & good old Briggs & Little throws little 'bits' of debris into the air as I knit so I can't knit inside. Gawd, where did my normal lungs go???? So Pabaigh has languished in the bag all summer instead of being made .  .  .  .  But I have been shmoozing on the Starbucks patios with my favorite Techie boys lately - women are gone from their lives once more - so I can work on it while I admire their latest inventions  .   .   .

Is That Fall Outside??

My Winter Warmer

The last couple of days have been positively COLD for this time of year in the Vancouver burbs! I'm sitting in my WEST facing office with the blinds wide open & feeling a little too cool. I felt this way yesterday as well & actually dug out my old sweats!! Is summer over??? Or is this the result of all that smoke waaaay up in the stratosphere? I, personally, don't mind a little cool weather!! I'm still in love with this cowl from Knitter's!!!
 I have two lots of yarn spun up that could be used to make it. One lot was custom dyed for me in reds, pinks & blues which ended up a lot lighter than the pictured yarns but is still pretty nice. The other lot is in neon pink & lime green which I spun for a Stephen West shawl. Both of them would work up nicely with the custom dyed lot being pretty &  subdued while the pink & lime is right in your face! If it's cooler, then it's time to KNIT.

It's been a tough summer for me. Between the smoke. the pollution & the heat, I've found it hard to breathe. And if you can't breathe, you can't do much of anything!! Tuesday morning I went out early to do several errands while it was cool - I didn't get to finish all of them because it was much smokier than I realized. I was short of breath, started to cough, realized my puffer was in the knitting bag on my desk & had to go home. I coughed so much it made my ribs sore again & I thought I'd be sick in the car - thank gawd for icy air conditioning. And it's amazing how exhausted you feel after a bout of extreme coughing .  .  .  I slept like the dead for 3 hours!!

And if that wasn't enough, my favorite cafe is closed till the day after Labor Day!! Ack!! 

A Cooling Breeze

As everyone knows in the western part of North America, it's been too hot to move. I've pitied those who've had to move, especially those moving house in the Vancouver burbs where there's nowhere but the parks to move to. It was even too hot to breathe there for a while. With my newly acquired bad lungs, I stayed in the shade when I could , in air conditioning - the car is a wonder - when I had to go out & slept away the really bad late afternoons with the oscillating fan blowing on my lightly clad body.
It was even too hot to eat, knit or spin. So, I drank iced coffee & read the whole Anne of Green Gables series of books on my Kobo instead. It was nice sitting outside in the dark, late at night, reading & laughing about Anne's adventures. Megan Followes is the Anne that I remember from the series that ran on CBC & I couldn't help but see her face everywhere. Even though she's now a grandmother, she will always be Anne Shirley to me.

I successfully murdered my mice or it got too hot for them and they left the building. I really think the Rodenticide Pellets soaked in Sockeye salmon juices did the trick in the end. I mean what mouse in it's right mind could ignore SALMON juice??? Really???? Better than peanut butter or cheese!!!
                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Goth Kitty summer socks

The Rescue Fuchsia not only bushed out all over but is now flowering it's little head off. I thought it might be dead when I brought it home & it surely looked dead when I cut it all back before soaking it but it started sprouting within a day. It's now flowering once again & seems very happy at the back of the patio. Amazing what a little water will do for a flowering basket! I just wish I'd taken the other one as well when I had the chance .  .  .  . 

And speaking of rescue, I am now the proud owner of an old  Janome  sewing machine. It was a top-of-the-line machine when it's elderly owner bought it & has a lot of built in decorative as well as stretch stitches. All of the sewing 'feet' are in the machine as well as a zipper & button foot!! My only complaint is that it weighs a ton but that won't matter once I get it up onto my built-in sewing shelf in the bedroom. I already own a Janome serger which I bought back in the 80s when I took Stretch & Sew classes - my gawd, it sounds like a long time ago. But it seems that things were made to last back then - they certainly cost a lot more. But you weren't replacing them every 15 years like you do now! I may even get into some sewing projects this winter!!

Just a final picture of the latest Goth Kitty short socks. I really love this Knit Picks colorway & bought several balls. Most of my wardrobe consists of Pink/Purple with a little Red & Turquoise, it seemed the right combo to wear with almost everything.