Yeah, yeah, yeah . . .


I know, been missing for a while. Nothing to report! Oh, yeah, there's one thing to report - my van is now in full working order, with no drips, no leaks. But, my poor plastic card is badly wounded. You know the old saw, One Step forward & Two Steps back?? Well, I'm Two Steps Back - Again!

In the end, after buying everything that might be needed, I needed MOST of it. Dave only works at night & my repairs took 7 hours! I arrived shortly before 8 & left about 3:30. In the AM. FOUR hours before I had to get up to go back to work. I debated about whether I was more tired or more hungry. Sleep won. And worked the next four days in a stupor. I'm too damned old to stay up all night! And if I didn't need that damned van for work . . . needless to say, all my spare cash this tax season will be paying down the credit card. And no, Dave's not a bad mechanic or a rip off - the bolts in the water pump were frozen. Some of the rad bolts were also frozen. I'm so glad he got the job because he's meticulous, he heated them, lubricated them, wiggled them, heated them again & eventually worked them loose. While the rad was the right one, he had to drill new holes in the frame to make it fit. It took 2 hours to unscrew/unbolt/undo all the bits to get to the job & one more to get it all back together again after the bolts were dealt with. I know, I was there.

So, I haven't knitted much of anything because I've been too damned tired. After staring at computer screens all day, well, I've been staggering home, eating something, sitting up like a Zombie for a couple of hours & going to bed. But the van runs like a charm.

It's been a Hellova Day

Life is NOT good at the moment. My radiator has been leaking since I got the Van. Not a biggie, I just check it once a week & fill up what's lost. To tell the truth, I thought it was the wonky Air Conditioner/heater module that was causing the system to use extra water! So, I notice I'm filling up more often with more water. Then it gets cold & I'm down to checking it every morning before I start it up - some mornings it needs a little & some mornings it needs a lot. So, I travel with three gallons of water & two of antifreeze & don't go too far. I know, I know, antifreeze is not really very good for the environment. But, I've had the hoses checked. And the clamps replaced. And the water pump checked. And the rad pressure checked - there's a small leak for sure - but no one can find it. The thermostat is fine. Apparently there's a sender unit in there somewhere but no one can tell me anything unless they charge me 4 hours to tear it all out. I threw in the towel today & ordered a water pump & new rad. My customer, the machine shop guy who builds his own equipment, says it's probably the plastic reservoir inside the rad that's become fatigued & cracked. Plastic??? Inside the rad?? It can't be fixed, the rad has to go. So, tomorrow evening, I will be in his shop getting it all checked out. To save time & money, I'm taking all the parts he thinks I may need to replace. I hope this fixes the leak.

And why wasn't I in the shop today?? Two reasons. One, an SUV beat me to it & because of the terrible conditions on the highway yesterday, the new tranny was still up the Valley till this morning. Two, I went to bed with a book & a big pile of pillows last night & fell asleep. Woke up with a pinched nerve that left me unable to turn my head to the right or lift my right arm without unbelievable pain in my upper back. I took drugs - where are illegal narcotics when you really need them?? - & went back to bed to sleep or die. I didn't really care which at the time.

Just a little Eye Candy


I'd forgotten how SOFT the handspun Shetland yarn is. It's like a cloud & yet it still has a lot of lanolin in it. This fleece - from a sheep named Arvik who has gone to the big pasture in the sky - was a patchwork of greys. I fell in love & bought her last two or three fleeces. At first, I divided up the colors but there just wasn't enough of any one color to do much so I just spun it up as it came. The greys range from very light to almost black with some brownish grey in there too. The pinks are hand dyed by a local artist somewhere in Washington State. I got the roving as a gift & it ranges from acid pink to a pinky chocolate - fun to spin & seems to work well with Arvik.

I'm using the top down technique from the Ribbon-O-Round sweater in the new Winter Knitter's. I thought it looked interesting - knit 2, yo - as increase rows instead of the usual rigid raglan style. I'm hoping this will work out better for my very large Apple shape that needs more width in body & a whole lot less in sleeve! So far it's almost a mindless knit except for making sure I knit BOTH strands when I make a stitch.


Other than that, still staggering if I get up too fast & definitely overworked this week. Somehow I even lost a day! I'm picking up mail, banking the cheques, pounding on the computer & hanging out with Pooches. The Pooches are happy & sad this week because a family member is sleeping over while their humans are away. He likes them but won't let them sleep or cuddle with him - he's a bit of a clean freak. He drags them out for a mile before breakfast & another before lunch & then is gone for the afternoon. I show up just after lunch, cuddle them, give treats & throw the balls for them outside. They usually SLEEP most of the afternoon while I work until he appears around 7 to drag them - quite unwilling by now - out for another mile before he & they settle in for the evening. They're too tired to chew anything up, bark & get into trouble. After all, they've gone from a walk around the block every evening if the weather isn't too bad to THREE miles a day plus afternoon fetch. And that fat little Daisy has visibly lost weight!

A New Project

Remember these??? Yeah, I can hear the hooting from here! Risen from the ashes - actually from the hodge podge on the BT's crappy old couch - a new project from the remains of several others. I've been slogging through work while wishing to be home in bed & dropping into my chair to veg in front of the tube for a couple of hours when I get home at night. Now some vegging is okay but I found myself NEEDING to do something while staring at that 14" black hole before falling into bed. I NEEDED something relatively mindless without any charts, complex instructions or certain way of doing things. And I needed it to be forgiving & have limited pieces to work with - socks are beyond me right now. I HAD been looking at a pile of Knitter's & Interweave Knitting mags - there's always a whole stack on the container in front of me that's supposed to hold garbage but ended up as a side table - and a couple of things jumped out at me. I've been wanting something light - nothing heavy that you can only wear two weeks of the year on the Wet Coast - something relatively mindless that can ride in the car as "waiting" knitting & go to Starbucks to coffee with the boys. And nothing white or pastel since I don't want to be washing WOOL every second day!! And I think I found it. I think I'll even be able to use up some of my leftovers - yeah, it's handspun leftovers on my Denise circs!!

No pictures, no promises


I AM vertical even though I'd prefer to be horizontal. Not much knitting going on these days but I did make it to Starbucks last night for a large, Skinny Mocha with my techie buddy Steve. Steve's usually ALWAYS ready for a trip to Starbucks unless he's only just come home & still has a full cup in his hand. He & my other Tech buddy Kelly are flashing their new Starbucks Aps to make me feel old & dumb. Well, phooey to both of you - I just LOVE my new Starbucks Chinese New Year CARD which is very difficult to photograph! Is it me or my camera?? Probably me. I keep getting the shakes or the fuzzies . . .

So, even though I feel like hell, I've been working my brains out at the office with the pooches. The pooches' Owners have been sick too - She's been flat on her tush for the last 3 out of 4 days & actually got dressed yesterday while He's slowly been getting worse & now has the cough. They're leaving this morning for the Caribbean for a 10 day cruise - I'll bet they spend most of it sleeping in a deck chair!! Meanwhile, I've been there every day banging on the keyboard, sending out paperwork, doing payroll at the last minute & trying my best to function. While they're gone, I'll be in charge of cuddling!! And bank deposits. Hallelujah!

Everybody is spinning &/or knitting with quivet these days. It seems to have become the fibre of the minute!! I haven't played with quivet yet but it seems to be very much like camel down which was available but quite expensive waaaaaaay back there when Romney Wools was in Vancouver. I loved Romney Wools. They had bins of local fleeces, fleeces from New Zealand, silk bricks from China, silk cocoons, nylon & raimie rovings, mysterious little bags of curls, red, blue & yellow wool rovings for blending, raw materials for dyeing like chrome, tin, iron etc which are considered toxic today!! I bought a lot of tussah silk & raime rovings & still have a bin full of the toxic 'natural' dye stuff I need to get rid of. One of the things they stocked was camel down. Still had the dandruff in it too! You had to separate the coarse hairs from it yourself & blend it with wool to get a very soft, yummy yarn. It was just too expensive to use on its own. Once I remember a down/silk/wool blend available in roving form - I still have a sample in my knit book!! A tiny 2" sample!! I bought enough to try but it was gone when I returned & they were never able to get any more in. I always wanted more so when quivit hit the market, I wanted some of that too. But the price, well, I decided I'd have to live without it.

Now my new husband - we're talking 20+ years ago here - & I went visiting my parents who hauled us off to the Okanagan Game Farm just down the road. We took huge bags of veggies - mom cleaned out the fridge & the excess in the garden too - because we were allowed to feed the animals but didn't want to pay for the little bits the dispensers gave out. The big male Giraffe sure knew a grocery bag when he saw one, the pig. He actually laid his head on my shoulder so his lips were closer to the bag & tried to muscle out the female & baby!! He loved the wrinkled celery!! And potatoes too. Now the Game Farm had several Musk Oxen & they were shedding huge slabs of hair. They looked really strange with them hanging on their sides & spent a lot of time rubbing against the posts in the centre of the compound. Now I, being a spinner, was interested in all the fur/feathers/hair dropped by all the animals in the pens but was not allowed in . So, when a muskox drifted over to see what we had in the bag, I offered goodies with one hand while tugging on his fur with the other. Oooops. Wrong thing to do. He charged the fence. We got out of there quickly. And the new husband & old parents wouldn't let me near another animal except the Giraffe. Damn.

Rubbing the Shine Off Already

Here it is, a nice, bright, shiny New Year & the shit starts hitting the fan already. I have three tax returns to finish - just couldn't get it in gear over the holidays to save my life. And I've got an ear infection - which explains the headaches I've had for that last few days - which has given me a sinus infection - blow, drip, blow, snuffle, sneeze, drip, blow. So, my eyes are puffy, the nose is red & my damn ear is sticky, yuck. Good thing dogs love ya no matter how bad you look - especially if you have treats. And then there's those tax returns . . .

Haven't felt much like knitting the last day or so - yesterday I slept in for some reason, see above - but did put a few rows on one sock project. I started the pink Kroy socks but got sidetracked when I had to churn out another pair of socks for my Motorcycle School Boss. But I got back to them this past weekend & turned the heels on both. I thought I took a picture of them with the heels turned but apparently I didn't. Oh well . . . trust me, I'm well on the way to the toes on one & decreasing for toes on the other!! Actually, I'm to the part where I start sweating because it looks like I won't have enough yarn to finish - as usual!!

The last pair of Christmas Sox have their heels turned & are at the toe decreases as well. They've taken a while to knit because they're ugly. And plain. I've always said that ugly socks take longer to knit than crazy socks. And these ones took some time. Yeah, I know they're not BLACK socks & they DO have some variation to them but they're still plain as a mud fence!! I like wild & crazy socks. But, since I won't be seeing Chris till later this week or next week I have a little more time to finish them. I want to wear those pink ones first!!!

My Pocho Pullover has been frogged already. I started off with navy yarn, added some scarlet for fun & intended to finish with the Anniversary yarn which is a barber pole of light & dark blue. Well, I took it to the Wednesday Nite Nitters & asked what THEY thought because it wasn't looking quite right somehow & I really didn't want to start over. We all agreed that the dark top with the lighter bottom did not look nearly as good as the lighter top with the darker bottom. The dark blue is a little purple while the lighter blue is definitely in the same denim family, just faded. You see the difference quite well in the two photos. The one with the red in it is the one I am NOW making! So I frogged it & wound it into nice centre pull balls once more. Hopefully, this will be the last time it gets frogged. Other than color choice, I think the pattern is a cinch & could be knit by any rank beginner with one hand!!

Postscript - For those who don't know who the BT is/was. I tend to be a serial monogamist & he was the 2000's man, commonly referred to as the BoyToy or BT because he was younger.

New Beginnings

I'm not going to get all teary eyed & sucky, but here's the chance to end it all with a smile & do it better next year. And I'm not talking Resolution, neither! No point in writing down all the things you know you should be doing but won't because it's too much trouble to actually DO all the things you know you should do or you'd have DONE them by now. I'm a Realist in a Dreamer's world. Resolutions are a waste of time & paper. I like one Blogger's idea of picking a WORD for the year. Nice Idea. Won't work for me. I have to be practical. So, I'm drinking a toast to all the mistakes I made in 2011 & kissing them goodbye like an old boyfriend with a wandering eye. I'm looking forward to some new opportunities in 2012. Nothing is written down, there's nothing to plan, no mistakes to worry about. It's all brand new. Like the shiny kitchen in a fancy new condo.

I'm hoping to complete some things I ignored in 2011 though.

-That Big Blue Afghan. It must be finished this coming year - I had no idea that it was started in 2005!! Yikes. It will go into the donation bin. And while I'm at it, I guess I should crochet those squares together too - they've also been around for years.
- The Purple Kyler's Kardigan. I need that damned sweater now.
- I must pull the BT's crappy old couch out from the corner under the window where it's been piled high with yarn & flotsam of all kinds & get it where I can use it. I'm stuck with it for a while yet so I'm gonna replace the worn seat cushions with a big slab of foam & put the red frog cover on it. So I can sleep on it. Or sit or lay on it. I might even buy one of those Couch Skins & make it look good!! If I had any brains at all, I'd push it outside in the spring & enjoy it out there all summer!!! hmmmmm . . . Now there's a thought
And that's it. Short, sweet & simple. Finish a few jobs.

It Ain't Over Yet

I always hate this week between the major holidays. I guess most people love it because they get to spend time with the family, go visiting or just plain shop till they drop!! I don't do the family thing - no one close enough if I wanted too, I don't want to visit anyone with a pile of kids & family hanging about & I wouldn't darken a mall if I was paid at this time of year!! I'm not even happy about going to Safeway for milk right now! The parking lots are jammed, people are running over each other to find bargains & it just isn't worth the hassle.

So, I went to work instead. Not surprisingly, I think the only places open for a square mile around me were fast food & the Pub. A haven of peace. So, I listened to a new Audio book - The Covenant of Genesis by Andy McDermott. The Covenant is a group of former Enemies, all of the three Abrahamic Religions, who are wiping out anyone connected to certain archeological discoveries. They not only slaughter every man, woman & child at the dig but destroy the animals, equipment, data & the dig itself. One Archeologist & her fiance survive to find out why. If you like spies, war, action & mayhem, this is the one for you!!

At my other job site, I'm listening to the Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. A total turnaround. The book is made up of letters written in 1946 between a young author & the people of Guernsey that she wishes to write a story about. The letters are read in multiple voices & tell the story of Guernsey under the Occupation. It's sad & terrible, happy & uplifting & will make you laugh out loud while you wipe away a tear. I highly recommend it to anyone.

And just so you don't think I've stopped completely - a new project!! I started on my Poncho Pullover on Christmas Day while my Italian Soup burbled in the pot & I watched Downton Abbey. I swatched & liked the fabric I got with the 4mm needle & the Briggs & Little Heritage. Problem was, it just didn't work in the actual usage. The garter collar was too tight & too small with the 4mm needles!! Okaaaay. I went up a size but found I liked the collar in the 6mm in the end. But, it's just a collar - right?? Nope, I didn't like the 4mm in stockinette neither in the round. So, I'm knitting the Poncho Pullover with the 6mm needles which is a little looser than I wanted but hey, I'll get to try it on as I go &  may not need to add a few more increase rows. The smaller needles are in the Kyler's Kardigan sleeve anyway. I left the neck open a little bit farther than the pattern does - I worried about it being too tight. And I added a little color for interest. I have one more ball of this darker solid blue & then I'll probably finish the sweater with the Anniversary Blue that I used for the Carpenter Wallaby. It's a barber pole of light & dark blue - I have lots of it - instead of multiple shades of blue as I go.

Twas the Day Before the Day Before . . .

I'm not sure I need to make my Annual Silly Season Rant this year since I can't find much to Rant about. Is it my imagination or is everything a little Low Key this year?? There doesn't seem to be any Public Debate on Political Correctness. I haven't heard a word about the Proper Greeting one must use if one is employed by any subset of the Government. And no one has made an Official Announcement about Decorations . . . everyone's just happily doing their own thing. Has the Government gone on Early Break to ski at Whistler?? Have we reverted to the Past somehow?? Everyone just seems to be enjoying themselves for a change. Why, I got a call from a Government Office this very morning & they said 'Merry Christmas'. Imagine my surprise!!

Meanwhile, on the Home Front, I've doled out the hats, socks & Port. Delivered a bottle of wine or two. Bought cheese, Triscuits, veggies & sausage & signed up for two 'classes' on Craftsy. I am going to do a Curvy Knits class & a Fit Your Knits class over the holidays. One class will take me through the basics of measuring & plotting out MY body on the basic diagram of the pattern & then adjusting it to fit while the other teaches me how to build in structure, choose the right pattern for my shape, choose yarns that flatter larger bodies and finally figure out where to put those damned darts & short rows. I know a lot of stuff will be similar in the courses but it seems they also teach a lot of stuff that's different too. I can FIT someone else - it's time to FIT myself for a change.

The ME Project

I bounced back & forth a little but made the final decision. The Poncho Pullover will be the Project & I'm using the Briggs & Little yarn. I have quite a collection of B&G skeins. Most of them are shades of blue - don't ask - and most of them are Heritage or Regal. I have a nice skein of Tuffy - the wool & nylon mix - which I've set aside for slippers. All the rest are 100% wool with bits of straw in them which I've been picking out as I wind the skeins into balls. Is it just me?? or is B&G dusty too??? It always seems so to me. The colors get brighter with a nice soak but then doesn't almost anything? It's nice Canadian wool, wears like iron & lasts forever!! You can't get better than that!!

The biggest pain in the ass is making all these skeins into balls. Once they're balls, I can easily rewind them into centre-pull balls which sit nicely on the floor instead of rolling around while I knit. But, with no skein holder I have to hold the skein in one hand & unwind with the other then lay the skein down to wind the ball! Since the B&G tends to cling to itself, it can get into an awful mess. Yeah, I've tried winding a ball right off the skein but it winds too loosely that way . . . and still clings to itself which causes a mess. But, there's lots of movies on right now so I'll just sit in front of the Tube & unwind skeins . . .

I haven't quite decided how all these blues will go together - I had purchased them with an Adult Surprise Jacket in mind - but I think a Poncho, knit in one piece from the top down, can handle a range of colors. Before I bought this pattern, I planned to use the Nashua in hot pink & purple. I didn't realize this pattern was written for 'chunky' yarn. But I love the pattern & I think it'll be fun & easy to wear. So, I'm going to try using the B&G. There's several skeins left over from a Wonderful Wallaby I knit for a friend a couple of years ago in the Anniversary color - a barber pole of light/dark blue. I knits up to a slightly heathery look. I may use the variety of blues in the yoke & the Anniversary color as a solid bottom. I'll see what the swatch looks like. Yes, in this case, I am going to knit a large swatch in several colors to see what I think before I take on the whole project. I intend to wash it & even toss it in the dryer for a few minutes on cool. Hey, that's what a swatch is for!!!

My Addiction Returns

I couldn't help it. I was overcome by yarn fumes once again & just had to get out the old sock needles & cast on another pair of socks. I really, really liked that pink Kroy that Karen found. Hell, I even like the orange Kroy. So I squirreled away a coupla balls of each into my Private Stock of sock yarns. There was this old black & white movie on the Turner Channel the other day & someone was knitting . . . I couldn't stand it & cast on another pair of the pink Kroy socks. These ones are for me this time. I'm knitting them on my bamboo skewer needles - the ones that I made - in 2.5mm. Kroy knits better with a slightly larger needle, I usually use 2mm with the thinner sock yarns, but Kroy is thicker & works better with the 2.5s. I do have a lot of socks but I notice a lot of them are getting really thin - they should after being worn & washed every couple of weeks for 5 to 10 years . . . Some of them like my purple Regia socks, ARE 10 years old. The first socks I knitted when I moved into my basement were Regia in purple stripes & a pair in rainbow stripes. And the red & blue Invicta socks which have felted somewhat & recently worn a hole in one toe. There was less nylon in the older yarns so we often reinforced the heels & toes but we sure don't have to do that anymore.

Of course, I'm not even talking about the socks-on-the-go that always ride in the car with me. Diehards always have a pair in the car for those 'waiting' emergencies!! Like when you drop off the Man to an appointment & he doesn't have a cell phone so you wait in the parking lot until he reappears. Or you arrived on time for your own appointment but the Doctor's running behind. Or waiting for Really Long Trains like the one in Langley. My current car socks are pale grey Regia in the Jet Set series. The yarn kinda fades from medium barber-pole to very light barber-pole & back again. Dull but manly. A special request from my Motorcycle School boss. It's taken him years - I've worked there part time for over 20 years - to notice I knit socks. He might even get a pair in blue to go with them!


I haven't cast on for my new sweater yet but I think it will be the Poncho Pullover from the Cabin Fever Girls. I also really like the Medocino Sweater & have already purchased it but I prefer the easy wear & the casual look of the Poncho Pullover for every day. I just have to figure out which yarn I'll use because it's a bit too cool out there for my fleece jackets!! I think the Poncho will make it easier to sit outside in the cold when I go to Starbucks. They 'remodeled" & the new chair are a pain in the butt, literally. They're the metal version of the Ice Cream Parlor chair & very uncomfortable. The outside chairs have always been nice to sit on - the only problem is the smoothness so you tend to slide but they're comfortable. And I can feed the little birds!!

Just Bitching

Today is a bitching day. For the third time in less than two weeks, I've had to disconnect a dog from a mouse trap. This isn't the 'hurtful' kind of trap that springs shut & breaks something but is, instead, one of those sticky monstrosities that an attached creature can't get out of when he gets stuck. It's a little rectangle of goop about a quarter of an inch deep that lurks in corners or by back doors where rodents might travel. But sometimes dogs travel in those places too. Especially little dogs. As stated before, I spend a lot of time in a basement office with three little dogs, Barksalot, Whinesalot & Eatstoomuchpaper. One is a toy poodle & the other two are maltipoos. One of the Maltis looks like a poodle & the other is very definitely a Holy Terrier. Eatstoomuchpaper, who looks like a terrier, is my personal fav. He's the bad boy who loves to go outside where he runs & runs & runs. He shakes floppy wet toys until his whole head is wet. And he chews all the squeaks out of everything else. He's a tough little bugger. He loves to wrestle, dig & fight. He nips the other dogs & pulls their facial hair to try to dominate them until he gets a boot in the butt. He steals all the bones if the others don't guard theirs closely. And he's just so damn cute. He's also so active that he has to be first all the time & that's why he keeps getting stuck on the mouse traps when we head outside. At least you can throw away the trap if the mouse gets stuck but prying a small, active pooch off the trap is almost impossible by yourself. Bad enough that they have to be there for mice! But guess why these ones are all over the place??? There are NO mice. Oh no. Those sticky bombs are there to trap spiders.

The Touques have left the building . . .

The touques & socks have gone to new homes! And I got three giant balls of some sort of yarn - none of them the same color of course - towards the next batch. But, I'm not gonna think about HATS anymore, I'm thinking about those Squares instead. The nice thing about a square is that you can make a whole lot of things with it. You might need a triangle here or there or need to crochet a little, but essentially, you can use squares to make just about anything. I've even seen socks made out of squares!!! Not that I'm thinking about anything other than blankets though!! Blankets are great. One size fits most. If it's too small - just add a couple more squares! If it's too big, hey - you kidding?? A blanket is never too big . . . They provide somewhere to hide. And somewhere to cuddle with your honey. And bring a sense of security. And colors that nature never meant to be together - they just WORK in a blanket! Leftovers work with new yarns. They can be knitted, crocheted, woven or sewed, cheap or expensive, pink or blue or some ungodly hue, but blankets are forever.

Back in the early 80s, my man of the decade traded a Mustang with a great paint job for 4 gold claims in Atlin, BC. He had the Fever soooo bad . . . he was told he could only stake 2 in his name so I gave permission for him to stake 2 in mine as well. He had to tramp into the bush to find the corner posts & put our tags on them & register them in town. Since he was going to do this while traveling to work a Placer mine in the Yukon for the summer & leaving in April, I decided to make him a wool blanket. I'd been spinning up some local dark grey fleece - probably Romney - & had crocheted several nice squares with the intention of making a blanket for the couch. Instead, I put the finished squares together & crocheted around them until the blanket almost fit a queen-sized bed. It weighed a ton!! We argued over that blanket. He refused to take it. He said it was too heavy. And people would laugh. He didn't want to get it dirty. He said he had an arctic sleeping bag. He found all kinds of reasons not to take it. But, at the last minute, he found room for it just to shut me up. I'm sure he saw Death in my eyes when I told him it better come back with him 'cause I just knew he would toss it off the truck the first chance he got . . . He called several weeks later & thanked me for making him take that blanket. Seems he just about froze that first night in Atlin in the tent until he remembered that unwanted blanket on the truck. 'Arctic' in Vancouver apparently doesn't mean the same as 'Arctic' on the Yukon/ BC border in April.

Over the years, I've crocheted a lot of blankets for other people. Usually they're the ubiquitous Granny Square or a version of it. Since I hate to sew things together, I often make ONE GIANT Granny square like the blue one or sew three Granny Squares in a strip & then crochet around them in one giant rectangle. I even have one Giant Granny on the back of my couch - first thing I made when I moved into my basement! It's in multiple rainbow shades using all the balls I could find in the Thrift Shops at the time. It's the sort of thing I've often made to cheer up newly Single friends in their empty apartments. I also knit blankets. My favorite is this Log Cabin construction created so I didn't have to do any sewing. I knit a big rectangle, cast off, turn it 90 degrees, pick up the stitches along one of the long sides & knit until my yarn runs out or I get tired of that color & cast off. Then I turn it 90 degrees, pick up stitches along that side & knit again. I keep knitting & turning & knitting until the blanket is the size I want. The blocks kind of spiral out from the middle, building one on top of the other. I often crochet around the entire outside edge in a solid color to finish it off. One big, wild, snuggly, blanket. No sewing.

Busy, Busy, Busy


So it was kind of a crappy weekend for me. I stayed home the whole time, made a big pot of Italian Soup & stayed in my housecoat!! While contemplating whether I'd ever see my navel again, I kept on knitting touques. I now have 17 finished & 1 still on the needles. At this rate, I think I'll go for a personal best & knit 20 before the weekend when I'll drop them off!! I actually found some 'manly' yarn in blue, green & black - there was some red & some rust but not enough to work with - so I thought I'd better use it up in a good cause - head coverings! I know they don't look like much but they come down over the ears, they're nice & stretchy & feel good on! The afghan of squares will just have to wait till later. I may finish it up over the Holidays while watching all the OLD MOVIES on the tube. 'It's a Wonderful Life' in the original black & white was on this past weekend. You just know we're getting close when they start running that one!!

And just so you don't think I'm stuck in a rut - I made a batch of soap too! I have my favorite soap molds which are rounded to fit in my hand in the shower. I'm not fond of square or rectangular bars but I do like the shape of the DOVE bar. So I make mine curved on one side to fit the hand & flat on the other to sit in the soap dish. I love my Beehive & Lady Bug molds which I tend to use almost exclusively. Once upon a time, I made soap from Beef Tallow or a mix of olive & coconut oils & Gillett's Flaked Lye. I used the recipe out of the Reader's Digest "Back to Basics" book. I let my soap almost set & rolled it into balls which I flattened on one side removing most of my fingerprints in the process.

Then I found Voyageur Soap & Candle Company & my soap life changed forever! I'm lazy these days, I use a soap mold & buy my oils in bottles, premeasured & premixed. The lye is also premeasured for the mixture of oils. The nice part of all this is that I can get several kinds of blends that would cost a fortune to mix myself from bulk stock for a fraction of the cost. A couple of times a year I stock up & that's it. Soaping is a lot of fun but when you make it from scratch with lye, it has to "AGE" for at least 2 weeks so that the lye stops working. I prefer to age it for 4 weeks so that I don't inadvertently give myself another facial 'PEEL' like the one I gave myself with two week old soap!! It should "AGE" for a couple more months so it lasts longer in the shower too. My soap sits atop the drying rack for a couple of weeks & then goes into an airy wicker basket to harden for several more months.

Another Grey Day


I woke up feeling a little achy & grouchy this morning. Even the weather was kind of grey & grouchy looking . . . no sparkle, no pizzazz! It's probably Touque Disease. I'm knitting them in my dreams. So, I decided to knit 3 more touques - that'll make 15 hats & 6 pairs of socks all together for charity - and then it's time to move on to something else this year!

It's also time to knit something for me. I have several options in the stash that would work. I bought enough baby blue & navy ETON yarn - this picture sucks - several years ago to knit Jared Flood's 'Cobblestone Pullover' for the BT. I really, really wanted to knit that sweater but the BT decided he wanted something with a deep V neck instead.The yarn went into the stash to marinate & I never found a pattern. I know, I know - I sure take a lousy picture!!!
Then I bought a whole bunch of Briggs & Little yarn out of a SALE bin at Knitopia - my favorite knitspot. It was in all kinds of blues in both sport & worsted weights. I also picked up one skein of bright red - for a little interest! I thought I might knit an Adult Surprise Jacket so the weight difference wouldn't matter but it was summer at the time so the yarn went into the stash to marinate with some left over skeins of Briggs & Little's Anniversary yarn in two-toned blue. It would all work together when it came time to knit the ASJ for moi!! Of course, another sale came along a year or so later & I bought some lovely Nashua 'IVY' in plum & hot pink for another sweater that caught my eye. Isn't it pretty??? I often open the bag & just squeeze it a couple of times!! And then there's a sweater's worth of Dalesman yarn in Fuchsia - same shade as that IVY - that I bought a skein at a time over several years because I couldn't afford it all at once. I ended up buying enough for TWO sweaters by the time I was done & even knit one - the Moss Stitch Blazer - from the Big Knits book. But there's leftovers crying to be used.

The Poncho Pullover by the Cabin Fever Girls, caught my eye & I just had to have it. It's worked from the neck down just like any Poncho but it divides for sleeves while leaving the front & back to dip into a deep V. With some fringe it would look very Western. It's so simple I don't know why I didn't think of it before I saw it on paper. I really want to knit the Poncho Pullover & I'd love to make it in the Nashua or the Eton but I suspect they're way too thin & I don't have enough to double up. I suppose the Poncho will have to be made with the Briggs & Little basket of Blues or the Dalesman yarn instead. If that happens, I have plans for the Nashua sometime this winter. There's at least two sweaters in the Winter Knitter's that're also calling my name!!

Turning out Touques - part 2


As advertised in a previous post, almost a touque an evening! I can't knit as fast or as comfortably when sitting outside at Starbucks like I did last night with my buddy Steve. Why were we outside at night, you ask?? Well, a large transformer melted down in Steve's neighborhood & superheated three blocks of wiring. His landlord was on the way home from work when it happened & said the wiring suddenly glowed like red hot streaks, the transformer went "POP" and everything fell to the ground setting off a major brush & grass fire. And blacked out the whole area, of course. Everyone, who wasn't blocked in by fire & hydro trucks, met at Starbucks to keep warm & drink deeply of hot seasonal coffees. We had no choice by the time we got there & had to sit outside on the cool but comfy chairs while everyone waited to go home to light & heat.

I continued working on the latest head topper until my fingers got too cold - it's impossible for me to work in gloves!! I have 11 at last count!! After taking this picture, I realized that most of my hats are kind of 'girly' - it's the yarn I suppose - but I think I better dig a little deeper in the bin to see if there's any 'manly' yarn buried in the bottom!!

Turning out Touques

So I'm cranking out a touque pretty much every evening right now. I've discovered that two strands of the donated yarn on a size 5mm needle in K2,P2 will produce a fast, comfy head warmer that should suit either sex nicely. Did you know that you lose 30% of your body heat through your scalp??? I shudder to think about all those men who shave their heads - even in the winter!! My cohort at the Motorcycle School shaves his head even when he's growing his November moustache for Prostate Cancer. At least he has a choice in his head covering. A lot of people with chronic disease who have thin, thinning or little hair due to disease, medication or poor diet have no choice. So a nice warm touque is important. This year I'm aiming to warm up a half dozen heads & toes & provide touques alone for at least another half dozen heads. Next year, I'll be able to warm the heads & toes of at least a dozen people all by myself.

And then there's all those 10" squares my Knitting Group was working on a few years back. I enjoy knitting squares & still crank out a few now & then. But the worst part of squares is sewing them all together. I hate sewing things together so they get stuffed back into a bin. I'm a starter not a finisher. Unfortunately, I can see them through the sheer side of the bin. And someone out there needs those squares sewed together so they'll get put together somehow for this Christmas. I think they would work with a quick crochet around each square in black or navy to make those colors pop before crocheting them together. Just think about the explosion of color when someone opens that parcel! Ha Ha

I have HEAT


Not to be melodramatic or anything but I HAVE HEAT. Not only that, but I have HEAT in less than FIVE, yup, FIVE minutes! Not to be sneezed at this week in the minus temps that we're having!!! It's pretty damned hard to clear the windshield in the morning without heat since vans are a little too tall to scrape with any satisfaction & scraping on a slippery drive is how I fell this time last year & dislocated my left wrist!!! THIS year, I get into the van, turn on the wiper defroster & blast the window with air on high while I read & drink a tea for a couple of minutes.

I decided once my snow tires were put on that I should have the whole system properly winterized since I don't know how my new-to-me van has been treated in the past. Without my mechanic of 30+ years, I'm on my own. So I went off to Mr Lube & went for the works. I wanted all the filters - including fuel - changed, oil changed, tranny flushed, anti-freeze replaced, hoses & belts checked. It was ugly in there!! They degunked. They cleaned. They checked EVERYTHING. The fuel filter was original from the factory!! OMG. It appeared the tranny had never been flushed. I knew the oil was bad even though it's only been just a bit under 5000 miles since the last change. I wondered if they even changed the filter at all!! Typical. But, now everything works just fine!! And I got them to disconnect the battery once more while I reset the system. Holy Crap. Everything works like clockwork. I just have to get another part time job to pay for it!!!


Since I spent money I didn't have on the Van this year, I'll be staying at home this holiday season - like I bother to celebrate anyway - & knitting up a whole bunch of this 'FREE' yarn I got from Lynne at Knitopia - a snug little yarn shop around the corner from the Buy Low in White Rock, BC. I've been cranking out hoodies for the Boomer project for the last couple of years but that project is ending so Lynne found a new Charity. She says the folks down at A Loving Spoonful - they provide nutrition support to people with AIDS in Vancouver - are seriously asking for donations for adults. Touques are the biggie on the wish list this year!! I've been knitting socks but when I finish the current pair - I've turned the heels on them - I'll crank out touques from now on. Why??? Well, I have two 135 litre bins full of donation yarn that I'd like to replace with a comfy recliner . . . Are ya listening Santa??? Make it BIG, SOFT & with side pockets for my junk . . . And unknitted yarn is wasted yarn when folks out there are cold.

Just a Pair of Cuffs

I replaced the battery in my van. You just know when you buy a new-to-you vehicle that they're gonna put the oldest battery in the joint in your New Baby. Surprisingly, it lasted almost a year! I always knew I had to replace it & had plans to do so with the pre-winter tune-up but it died before my appointment. Typical! But when the battery died, the air conditioning/heating/defrosting/wiping module - ya gotta bless the old modular system of doing things - reverted to some factory reset. All the lights flashed all the time. The air conditioning became dominant. And no one knew how to fix it. "You can bring it in & we'll take a look" they say. Yeah, right. We all know that means $200 to mess around & it'll still flash! I didn't fall off the truck yesterday you know.

I discovered this is a common problem when batteries are replaced in the Caravan/Voyager series. Grand Caravan owners on down to cheapo 1990 Voyagers all have the same problem if they have air conditioning. Most mechanics & shops haven't a clue what to do. They tell you it will reset in 15 minutes by itself. Lies!! The lights still flash & make you crazy for 15 minutes every time you restart the car. It never permanently resets. People have bought new control modules, rewired things, installed new air conditioning & paid out hundreds of dollars for "Servicing". One woman just duct taped over the lights!! Apparently, all it takes is pushing buttons in the right sequence to reset the whole system. A nice mechanic in Chilliwack solved the problem & put it on the net. The solution doesn't always work for everyone the first time, sometimes you have to reset it several times! And sometimes, you still have two blinking buttons that you have to live with. But it's better than 7 blinking buttons & no heat!!!


And what has all this to do with cuffs you ask?? Well, without the button solution I had a mixture of heat & air all the time. Yeah, the buttons stopped flashing after 15 minutes but the air never actually shut down so I had a cold draft up top with heat underneath. And those damned flashing buttons. So I used the sequence to reset the whole thing. The first reset gave me heat on command but 2 buttons kept on flashing. I just couldn't leave well enough alone so I had to fiddle with it until ALL the buttons went off. And now, I don't have ANY heat for the first 15 minutes every morning. When I do get heat it's a mixture of heat & air or it fluctuates between the two. If it was summer, who cares but it's winter dammit or the start of winter. And I have to keep not only myself defrosted in the morning but my windshield as well & keep it that way too.
I'm freezing. My hands are cold & that air conditioning goes right up the sleeves of my jacket. A light bulb came on & I dropped everything to knit a pair of silk & merino cuffs to wear under my jacket. They work a treat!! And I love them. The heat is isn't fixed but by gawd, I'm a hellova lot warmer!!!

Still Crazy with Knitting


I've turned both heels on the latest orange socks & I'm just about to the toe shaping. This was yesterday's picture but you get the idea! They should be finished this weekend & hopefully, the grey socks will have their heels turned by then too. I have time to churn out another pair of 'manly' socks before the end of the month for sure & maybe even another if I have an extra week - we'll see. Trying to make a living beating on a keyboard & still churn out as many pairs of socks as I can for Christmas is a bit of a tear. Next year, I'll be knitting a pair a month & tossing them into the 'Basket'.

When the BT was still around, I used to knit at least 8 pairs of socks a year for birthday's, Christmas & the Parent's Anniversary. You know how these things work, once you find the 'Perfect Gift' you stay with it until you find something better. They all loved socks so I just knit all the time & tossed the result in the 'Basket'. I bought cards that caught my eye at the Dollar Store & tossed them into the 'Basket' too. When something significant came up, I shopped in the basket. One stop shopping, that's my motto.

Since they were removed from the Gift List, I've been filling my own sock basket. I had the flu & it dragged on so long that I didn't do any laundry until I ran out of socks. To my surprise, when I pulled them out of the washer & hung them up - well, I had 28 pairs of socks on the hangers. And that didn't include the short summer socks that were tucked away till next year. TWENTY EIGHT!! That's a heck of a lot of socks for one person! No wonder I've only had one toe wear out in the last 11 years of sock making! Perhaps it's time to just fill someone else's basket with socks instead. A NEW BASKET, something interesting that can sit out on my coffee table all year long & just collect warm socks & hats.