a good day if you're a duck

We got thumped with a massive rain system over the last 24 hours.  It was like someone was emptying a bucket right on top of us, constantly, for hours.  After a wet summer last year and a winter with a lot of snow, the poor soil just can't absorb much more water so it pooled where it could and flooded anywhere low lying.

Portions of my back yard had small lakes sitting on top of the grass/rocks.

 Cooper just had to taste the water.

(If you click to embiggen, you can see his tongue lapping the water.  It cracks me up.  Apparently I'm easily entertained.)

Bentley was interested in what lurked in the puddles.

Soggy Austin and Robbie were less impressed.

 

 

The water dripping off of the lilac blooms was pretty.  I love lilacs!

 The wind picked up this afternoon and blew heavy, water-logged branches off of the trees.  The yard is completely covered in litter but clean up will have to wait until the wind dies down.  It would sure be nice to see some real summer weather for a good stretch now.

 And it's been an exciting couple of days because we have been attending Dan's formal retirement functions.  At the end of June he will officially be retired from his thirty year teaching career.  Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great for pictures and this is the only one that turned out sort of okay.

It was a crazy day for Dan.  He was in a rush to get to a dental appointment after school and found that one of his tires was flat so there he was in the pouring rain changing his tire.  It was a definite case of Murphy's Law.  He was a little late to the dentist and very wet by the time he got there.  Then he rushed home to shower and change to make it across the city through flooded intersections to the banquet and presentations.  He's glad that tomorrow is Saturday so he can take the offending tire to be fixed.

After two evenings of dressing up and going out, my jaws hurt from visiting with colleagues, and my feet, knees, and hips hurt from wearing heels.  Jeesh, I feel very old some days.

seeded

Here's the start of the first Watermelon Stripes sock.

 It's a fun pattern with the color changes and the two rows of knitting with both colors at each change.  I'm glad that I learned to knit with two colors using the Philosopher's Wool method.  Here is the inside of the sock.

 All of the ends are woven in already.  Because the yarn is superwash, I  left the tails of yarn from each color change.  I will thread a needle to pierce each end into a couple of strands on the back before I wash the socks.  That should anchor them for good and then I will snip off the ends.

Trish posted on her blog about buying a new dining table and then discovering that she couldn't clamp her ball winder and swift to it.  I have the same problem with every table in our house.  I solved it simply by buying an inexpensive tabletop ironing board.  It works great and it's portable.  I thought that I would share this in case other people have the problem.

 When Geoff moved out, I took over this table in the basement to use as a winding station.  It's nice to have everything ready to go when needed.

what Bentley's wearing

For those that asked in the last post about what Bentley is wearing in the picture, it's a belly band.

A belly band is just a strip of fabric with a fastener, in this case it's velcro, to wrap around a male dog's belly.  Having several males over the years that were show dogs for a few years before being neutered, I've had boys "marking" (lifting their legs) in the house.  Some breeds are worse than others.  You can tuck some protection, usually a sanitary pad or an incontinence pad, in the belly band and it protects the house from spritzes.  It's a terrific little fashion accessory!

Although shelties are very good about not lifting their legs in the house, the bichons and the dachshund - not so much.  In fact the dachshund is hard to catch in the act because of those little short legs and furry underside making it pretty tough to know when a leg is being lifted at all.  So it's belly band to the rescue!  B wears his in the house all the time and my carpet and furniture are grateful.  When we stayed in hotels with the dogs, I always mentioned that the dogs wore them in the hotel room and they were very appreciative when I explained what they were.  I can remember one desk manager who was thrilled and stated that they should keep a supply to hand out to dog owners.

The downside is standing in the checkout line at the store with the jumbo box of Poise pads.  I'm sure people look at me and wonder why someone as "young" as myself needs them.  Of course, checking out with sanitary pads probably also has people wondering why an "old" lady such as myself needs those too!

life is good

Although the rainy, cool weather persists, Bentley is very happy that it's warm enough to be in the sunroom.  When he's in his favorite spot, he can relax and keep an eye on his world.  Everyone should have life this good.

mmm, watermelon!

Thanks for all of the well-wishes left on the last post.  It has been a rough week but I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm nearing the end of the pain flare.  The migraine left me a couple of days ago which was a huge relief.  Chronic pain can certainly take the joy out of life.

Anyway, it's been easier to dye yarn than to sit in one position for long.  The latest dyeing was for a specific project.

I decided to make the colors a little stronger than the ones in the picture which looks like a baby sock to me.  If all goes as planned, the Watermelon Stripes Socks will be a gift for a certain young lady.

And I will leave you with some pictures of Mr. Greenjeans.  No, not the lovely cardigan pattern - Cooper.  Dan cut the lawn then went to do some garden chores.  Cooper watched him and raced around on the grass as a light rain fell, making his white legs a lively shade of chlorophyll green.

Here's a close-up.

yarn love

I dyed some yarn last week. I'm very happy with the results. More info about them can be found on my Stash page on Ravelry.

First up are a couple of superwash BFL/nylon. The yarn is high-twist making it perfect for socks.

I also dyed some superwash merino/nylon in my favorite Delft blues.

And I finished some handspun laceweight BFL/Tussah Silk from a Spinning Awesome Good roving.

I've been dealing with a pain flare and migraines so I'm in a fog and haven't decided whether I will sell these skeins or keep them.

Our weather has been cool and rainy which isn't helping my pain. The forecast is for more of the same. I don't know how many more days of this pain that I can cope with.

this and that

I finished weaving the (acrylic!) baby throw. It was a lot of fun and I'm happy with the result. Here it's posing in the new little leaves of a lilac bush. Too bad the lilacs aren't blooming yet because they would totally match.

Now on to the sock update. The new pattern stitch isn't working with the yarn so I'm considering reverting to plan one after all.
The Scrolls pattern on the right is very pretty but it gets lost in the mottled colors. I'll save it for a solid colored yarn. The thickly textured lace on the left (Giotto/Go With The Flow mash-up) doesn't disappear in the swarm of pink and white.

Dan and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary on the 20th. It sure doesn't feel like it's been 33 years and I thank my lucky stars that we found each other so long ago. I dearly love the sweet man. His birthday is tomorrow and we are going to see Burton Cummings in the evening. That not only dates us but also demonstrates our Canadian-ness.

I'll end with this photo of the cool bug I noticed on my kitchen window sill last week. I wanted to set him free outside and debated how to do that without hurting those fragile long legs. I ended up putting a small bowl over him and gently sliding him over another bowl until he was trapped inside. It worked and he was set free without harm.
Life is so much more interesting when the weather warms up.

floofy

My latest weaving project is another baby blanket but this time I'm using acrylic baby yarn (!) including some novelty stuff. It was a pain to warp the loom with the acrylic yarn but I'm delighted with the weaving process.

I generally hate working with acrylic yarn but, as this will be a gift for someone who likely doesn't want to hand wash baby items, it seems like a practical plan. It's great fun to just weave random stripes of the different colors and textures. I know I would hate to knit the floofy yarn but weaving with it is easy.

I dyed some sock yarn to make girly socks for myself. I'm not a very girly girl but I want pink lace socks for some reason that I don't understand. I started Giotto for the cuff but switched to Go With the Flow for the leg because I think the Giotto stitch count would make it pretty big for me.
Quite lovely but something about this just wasn't sitting well with me. Even though the yarn is delectably soft, the lace pattern was making the sock fabric very textured and dense. I don't think it would be comfortable on the top of my feet because I have these sissy, wimpy, need-to-be-babied diabetic feet. I abandoned this sock start in favor of a new start using the Scrolls pattern. I haven't knit enough of it yet to know if I'm going to like it better. I didn't frog the first sock start, just cut the yarn, so I can go back to it in case I change my mind again.

Last night Dan and I were lucky enough to go to our second Elton John concert! It was just as wonderful as the first time we heard him live. I tried to get some pictures but most of them didn't turn out at all. These two were the best of a poor bunch.

This is actually the large screen shot. It turned out better.


And finally, in the totally random weirdness category:

If a tree falls in the forest, do more people eat pizza?
These Pizza Hut flyers were in our newspaper the other day, all 22 of them! It makes you wonder what went wrong with this plan. Good thing we recycle.

the little tea towel that could

My latest weaving project was a learning experience to say the least.

I was aiming for a baby throw and I wanted to plan the warp and weft to get a gingham effect. I used stash yarn, TLC Cotton Plus(discontinued) in Spruce and White and got this:
much more resembling a tea towel than a baby throw.

I debated crocheting an edging all around it but it just didn't feel right. This went into time-out for a while because I was disgusted with it.

Once I thought more about it, I pulled it back out and twisted the fringe then cut it very short so it wouldn't get caught in baby fingers. Then I decided to cross stitch something onto it. That turned out to be a bigger project than I thought.

I surfed the web for some suitable cross stitch patterns for a baby garment. Then I realized that my woven squares aren't square at all - they're rectangles. So I found knitter's graph paper and turned it on its side so the "squares" were taller than wide. I then had to trace my pattern outline onto the graph paper or it would have been distorted, and flip the pattern for a symmetrical match.

My first pattern of spindling sheep ended up not looking like sheep at all so it was back to the drawing board. Ducks worked much better. I tried using leftover perle cotton from my Hardanger days for the cross stitching but it didn't pop on this fabric. Splitting the TLC Cotton Plus yarn in half (two of four plies) worked much better.

The result:
much better; not what I had in mind but less like a tea towel for sure.

I've tucked this away and will pull it out when a baby gift is needed. I made a trip to Michaels and bought baby yarn to try another throw. There will be more texture in the next try. I'll keep you posted.

so much water!

Southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba have serious flooding problems due to the unusually wet and snowy condition of the last year. Lakes and rivers are at record high levels causing many home and cottage owners major grief.

Even our own Wascana Creek which meanders though our neighborhood has turned into a swiftly flowing lake.

I took this photo in November, 2008. Here's how the same field looked late this afternoon (taken with my crappy phone camera).
Beautiful to look at but not good at all.

Our weather has turned into summer. The last couple of days have been absolutely gorgeous! We are so enjoying the balmy, sunny warmth! The downside is that I have smacked two mosquitoes already. All of the water could make this a fertile mosquito breeding season. I hope not.

2011 rhubarb pic

Happily, yesterday's snow melted and the weather forecast is much improved for the next few days.

I noticed the first rosy shoots of rhubarb poking their little noses out of the cold, wet earth today. About time.
You have to look really hard to see them because they're still very small. I drew pink arrows to show where they are

I took a look back in the blog to see when the rhubarb came up in previous years. Last year it was April 3. I missed taking one in 2009 and 2007 apparently. Here is 2008 and 2006. I was surprised that the 2008 pic was taken on the same date as today's although the rhubarb was much further along then. Early April is more common for the start of spring.

I noticed from the sun room that one of the dogs had sneaked a rawhide outside. Austin was chewing it and Cooper used the situation to make a game of it, getting goofy and running in circles around him.
Coop is such a happy dog! Austin was enjoying the situation too.

pretty little nests

A few weeks ago, I took a bunch of fiber and dyed it in the oven. It was a mix of Corriedale/Outaouais and Targhee locks, merino, silk, and nylon. I have been slowly combing it on hand combs to remove vm. Then last week these showed up at my door.

Blue Mountain Handcrafts 4 pitch English style Wool Comb and Hackle set. I ordered this set with the hybrid comb shortly after Christmas (well before all the expenditures lately that have caused an acquisition embargo around here) and it was worth the wait. I motored through combing and blending the fiber and this is the result.
I have about an equal amount of fiber left over from the combing that will go through the carder one of these days. The chaffy stuff went into the compost pile. There may be blue fluff in the birds' nests this year*.

I was afraid that my body would protest about using the hefty comb for several hours. Although I had a sore shoulder muscle the next day, it didn't trigger a flare so I am impressed. I think the comb is well balanced and heavy enough to do most of the work for me.

This set is extremely well made and beautiful! I'm sure it will get a lot of use.

I took the above pictures this afternoon in the sun room. Although it wasn't warm outside, the sun was shining and it was pleasant. Then I looked outside at supper time and it was raining ice pellets which soon turned to snow. Again.
Click to embiggen if you want to see the snow more clearly. You know, if you have masochistic tendencies.

After I took this picture the snow got heavy and we now have a few centimeters on the ground. Winter just will not go away. I wonder if it will ever warm up enough to plant the garden this year.

*I heard the screams of Peregrine Falcons the last couple of days. I hope that they move elsewhere before the other birds have nests of babies.

phooey

After we had a few days of near normal temps, a lot of the snow had melted and thoughts had definitely turned to spring.

The downside is that the quick melt has caused major flooding in many parts of the province. The valleys are huge lakes and some people have had to evacuate their homes. There are busy highways and roads that are under several feet of fast moving flood water. It's not good.

The last couple of days have been cooler which should have been a good chance to slow down the flooding and let the ground soak up some of the water.

Instead, this is going on.
Just what we need - more moisture that the ground can't absorb.

The dogs don't seem to mind though.

five new wheels

Really. Not an April Fool's Joke.

I sold the Roberta espinner a few weeks ago, then used the funds to buy a Majacraft Suzie Pro.
It was a bit of a gamble. I sold my Majacraft Rose because it was causing knee pain. I was operating on the assumption that Suzie Pro's heavier drive wheel would provide greater momentum and my knees wouldn't have to push the treadles to keep it going.

So far, so good. I haven't spun a lot on the Suzie Pro yet but my knees have been fine with it. The Majacrafts are such lovely wheels, both esthetically and mechanically.

It was just after I bought this wheel that we learned that a major home builder here in Regina has offered our son a big painting contract. So we have been setting him up in his own business. It's an exciting time!

Dan's van, which is in good condition considering its birthdate is 1994, will now become Geoff's shop vehicle. Dan will take the 1998 van that I currently drive because he needs the room to transport his hockey equipment. That meant shopping for a vehicle for me.

The criteria was comfort. It needs to be comfortable for me to get in and out and to sit in because there are fibromyalgia days when I don't move very well. We decided to check out new vehicles so that we would get a sense of each manufacturer's seating.

That was a mistake.

After sitting in a GMC Terrain, nothing could compare. The Terrain was first produced in 2010 so there aren't used ones floating around yet. We bit the bullet and bought a new one. Here are my other four new wheels.
This was a huge purchase for us. We aren't new car people. We usually maintain and drive our vehicles until they are almost held together with twist ties. But oh, what a sweet ride it is! It has AWD for our winter roads, a back-up camera, Bluetooth, OnStar, XM radio, and heated leather seats. I can plug my ipod into its port and get my music through the "infotainment center".

I found a nifty fabric barrier that goes behind the front seats to keep the dogs in the back and a seat cover to protect the back seat from them.

All of this means that there will be no more impulse spinning wheel buying for me. I'm glad that I already have my fiber tools because my budget will be much, much slimmer in the future.

You can see in the above picture that we still have a lot of snow but it has been warm enough the last couple of days to melt quite a bit of it. There is a huge lake in the back yard. Lest we get too excited about the late arrival of Spring though, the forecast is for a huge snow storm on the weekend. Like we need any more precipitation in these parts. Sigh.