Sale in my Etsy shop

I'm having a 20% off hand-dyed yarn sale in my Etsy shop until the end of October. Click on the link to the left for more information if you're interested.

finally, a show pic

Here's the show photo from Bentley's wins in Yorkton in August. The picture just came today because the first time it was sent it went AWOL in the mail. B is a handsome little dude, isn't he? I wish I had more time to show him while he's still a puppy but work interferes with that notion. Also, there are fewer shows near home every year so I would have to travel a good distance to get to a show. It's unfortunate but the small dog clubs just don't find it feasible to host shows any more.

fiber and other updates

Still Life With Spindles

There has not been much knitting or other fiber activities happening around here because of everything else that was going on in September but I do have a few things to share. I envy those of you who have such beautiful artistic photos on your blogs. My Still Life With Spindles is about as artistic as I get. On the left is a Kundert spindle and on the right is a Bosworth. They're both wonderful but I especially like the Kundert.

I finished this sock and am currently working on its twin. On Line Supersocke Winter 6-Ply, plain vanilla. Bentley in the picture, as usual.

I was invited to join Ravelry, and did, but I have no idea when I will get around to putting all of my stuff there. It could be a full-time job. Ravelry is a very cool concept and will likely be very interesting when I find the time to do it justice. My Ravelry name is doglover for those of you who are also members.

In the meantime, I've had the knitting blahs and a bad case of startitis lately. Rather than finishing things, I keep casting on new socks. I started a pair of socks using the Queen Kahuna Crazy Toes and Heels method with Apple Laine yarn. Although I prefer knitting socks top-down I really like the way the QK socks fit me. Her Aloha toe is the sturdiest one that I've found. The Apple Laine yarn is wonderfully soft.

I got Cat Bordhi's new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, and made the Little Sky Sock. I'm not sure how much I'll use these new patterns. I don't think I have the energy to be enthused about them just now. They're certainly interesting.

Cat Bordhi likes to double strand Trekking yarn to make socks so I thought I'd try it with these two skeins that I had in my stash. The subtle color changes in the Trekking yarns, this one and that one, are very attractive together. Again, just another plain vanilla pattern that will be warm for winter.

I had a couple of skeins of JoJoLand Melody yarn so I doubled it for this sock in the Spiralling Socks pattern. It's too heavy to do justice to this beautiful pattern so it will be frogged and started over using one strand.

I carded a bit of the sheltie undercoat that I've been saving with some merino using the new Strauch carder. It's gorgeous! I love my new carder. Here is some spun up...

And finally, we welcomed a new little critter into our already pet-friendly home. This is Carmen's 4 month old kitten. The kids named him Nightmare, which I refuse to call him. He is cuddly and friendly and laid-back; Nightmare is a stupid name for this little love. My dogs haven't met any cats before and they are most interested in this one. Unfortunately, the way they are showing their interest is by barking like idiots at him so he is understandably wary of them and spends most of his time downstairs past the baby gate that blocks the dogs from going down. He's ventured up a few times so I know that he'd like to join us but it will take time for all of the animals to get used to each other.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! We truly have much to be thankful for, living in this country.

Saturday in the back yard

I haven't posted any dog pictures for a long time so I thought I would take advantage of a nice day and do so. It also helped that Dan raked up the leaves the evening before so that we could actually see the grass for a few hours before the wind blew down the next wave of leaves.

Harrison giving his "come hither" look. Actually he loves being outside and is always checking out whether there may be birds that need to be watched and/or herded so I have to call him to get his face in the pictures.

In recent days Bentley has decided that he is a mountain goat and has been climbing and perching calmly on anything that he can. Maybe I should think about doing agility with this boy.

Austin's party trick is "Where's your tail?" In addition to doing it on request he sometimes does it just to draw attention to himself, as he is here.

Robbie mid-bark. I love the tongue - it makes him look so sophisticated, don't you think?

And finally, Pocus, posing for the camera as usual.

Autumn in Saskatchewan

The funeral for Dallas' mom was on Thursday afternoon in the tiny town of Spy Hill, Saskatchewan, near the Manitoba border. If I remember correctly, Spy Hill has about 200 inhabitants. There were approximately 350 people at the funeral. I guess that sums up how people felt about Bev Orth. She was a special lady.

It was a typical fall day on the prairies so I snapped lots of pictures as we drove. Autumn is my favorite time of year. The sun still has warmth but the air is cool. There was a good breeze that blew clouds across the broad expanse of the sky.

Near Regina the land is basically flat. The crops are harvested and the night frosts have turned many of the grasses and trees various shades of gold. Most farms enjoyed a good crop this year. Judging by the number of hay bales that we saw, the cattle should eat well this winter.

All of the land is not flat. There are a number of lovely valleys scattered throughout the southern landscape as well. Most of the time, they appear as pleasant surprises as you drive along the highway. The next picture shows one that surprised us shortly after we turned north of the town of Whitewood.

Spy Hill is near the town of Esterhazy. Esterhazy is home to most of the miners who work at the Mosaic Potash Mine, one of the largest in the world. It's difficult to capture the size of the mine on a picture. Seeing the large trucks and equipment crawling like ants on the side of the outside of the mine makes you realize just how vast it is. Apparently, it is way bigger underground.

The sun sets early now. This obligatory sunset pic was taken at about 7:20pm as we drove home.

more goodbyes

My brother-in-law Dallas' mom passed away last evening after a brave battle with pancreatic cancer. She will be missed.

We also lost a friend of the family, Bob Farmer, last week. We spent many hours with Bob and his family when we were kids. Bob and his wife Marj were very good friends of my parents. Their children, Joanne and Neil, were almost like siblings to me and my sister.

I don't know why but life often throws us a lot of losses at once. Sigh.

the gory pic

Geoff got his injury photo off of his phone by emailing it to himself. If you have a strong stomach and want to see how an arm looks after it gets eaten by a miter saw, click this link to take you to the pic in Flickr. Dan says it looks like pictures that he's seen of shark bite injuries.

a close call

My son Geoff works for an installations company and was installing new carpet and lino in an apartment yesterday. Late in the afternoon, as he was finishing putting the baseboards up, he had an accident with the table power saw. It tore through his forearm to the bone. He was taken by ambulance to the emergency ward at the nearest hospital, shocky from losing a significant amount of blood. We didn't find out about the accident until he was at the hospital.

He is a very lucky young man (although I don't think he feels terribly lucky just now because of all the pain that he's in)! After consulting with specialists it was determined that the saw somehow missed the ligaments and tendons and the damage was confined to the muscles. This news was wonderful as it meant that he didn't lose the function of his hand and doesn't need surgery to repair the injury. He did need several layers of stitches to close the wound. The doctor was fine with Dan and I watching as they stitched up the gash and it was a shock to actually see the damage but it could have been so much worse!

Geoff had the doctor take a picture of the wound with his camera phone and I was all for posting it on this blog but we are lacking the proper software to get the picture off of his phone so you are spared the gory sight.

Apparently the new carpet took a hit from all the blood. Geoff said that it looked like a murder scene on CSI. I'm sure it did as an artery was severed. He was quite concerned that he damaged the new carpet. We assured him that the carpet is the least of anyone's worry; we're just so glad that he will be okay.

At this point, I would officially like to tell the fates that we have had more than enough excitement around here for the month of September and we are ready to go back to our dull, ordinary lives now.

By the way, the dogs are always interested in wounds. Their superior sense of smell alerts them to the odor of the blood (from quite far away). You can see Harrison trying to get closer to Geoff's arm in the picture.

I'm so excited!

Look what the mailman brought me today - my new Strauch Petite drum carder!

There's also a bonus bag of fiber from Copper Moose. I'm really pleased with the transaction and highly recommend this company! The carder was delivered very quickly.

Unfortunately, I had to go to work (and try to catch up at school because I was on compassionate leave last week because of my grandmother's funeral) and didn't have time to play with my new toy yet. I'll post more when I've had a chance to try it out.

On another subject, we in Saskatchewan live in a land of extremes. Last Thursday was cold and windy. We almost froze while at the cemetery for the interment after the funeral. That night we had a hard frost. It dipped to -8 degrees C (about 15 F). We turned on the furnace. Yesterday, Sunday, the temperature climbed to 30 C (86 F)! I thought about turning on the air conditioner but couldn't bring myself to do it after all the cold weather a couple of days earlier. When I went to work at lunchtime today it was beautiful: sunny, calm, and 22 C (room temperature). When I left school at 6 pm it was overcast, windy, and 12 C (about 55 F). I wished that I had brought a jacket. There is a saying around here that if you don't like the weather, wait a half hour. It sure has been true this last week.

goodbye

My grandmother, Elsie Pawchuk, passed away peacefully on Sunday, September 9, 2007. She is pictured with her great-grandchildren Katie and Christopher.

Granny was born in 1912 in Insinger SK, the second child of John and Rosie Copan, who were immigrants from the Ukraine. Her parents raised their children to work hard and be respectful and she held those values throughout her life. She told us stories about how strict her parents were, especially her father, but also how loving they were. In later years, she accompanied me to the Royal Red Arabian Horse Show annually in Regina and shared anecdotes about her father being a “horse man” and how well he trained and curried the horses.

She was always very close to her siblings, brothers Bill, Gordon, and Steve, and her sister Marian and, later, to their spouses Elsie, Ella, Tillie, and John, and their families. We’re very happy that she had a visit from Steve and Marian in June from their homes in B.C. She talked to her sister Marian by phone nearly every day, even when both of their hearing problems made phone conversations difficult. It seemed enough that they both knew the other was on the line at the same time.

Granny only finished grade 8 of her schooling because she needed to go to work as a housekeeper but she kept a thirst for learning until her death. She loved to play Scrabble and Brainteasers with her friends at Pioneer Village. She was fiercely independent and her mind was sharp to the end.

We are fortunate that she left a written heirloom for us by completing a book of recollections. In it she tells that she had happy teen years but they were too short. Her favorite activities were going for long walks and going to dances. She began dating Matt Pawchuk when she was sixteen. In the memory book, granny wrote that she liked him because he was very nice company and was popular. He also had beautiful dark brown curly hair. They were married in June 1930, over the objections of her parents who thought that she was too young. Upon her marriage she became a mother to Eleanor, Matt’s daughter, whose mother had died when she was very young. They lived with Matt’s parents in Theodore for four years before they rented a farm and moved into a little house by themselves. They eventually opened a small grocery store in Mozart SK and had two children, Gwen and Earl.

Once the children were into their teens they moved to Regina. Granny worked at Simpsons Department Store in the housewares and sewing departments. She sewed a lot of clothing for her children and grandchildren while working. Her grandchildren, Susan, Darcie, Bill, and Donna, knew that they would receive new, hand-sewn pyjamas each Christmas Eve. She also enjoyed knitting and crocheting. Granny was a fastidious housekeeper who liked to clean house and do laundry and ironing. She often told us how much she liked to iron and she ironed EVERYTHING, including sheets, pillowcases, tea towels, and underwear! As she became older and her eyesight deteriorated, her grandchildren could relax more when she visited, as she didn’t always notice that their housekeeping wasn’t up to her exacting standards.

Granny also cooked and baked for her family. They loved her bread, perogies, cabbage rolls and beet rolls. She kept their freezers stocked and also cooked with the ladies of the church for the various functions that they served. We have yet to taste a store-bought perogy that can compare to granny’s but Donna is continuing the tradition of making them for others. Granny’s favorite foods were bread and juicy, garden-ripened tomatoes.

Granny’s Ukrainian heritage was important to her and she taught her family many of the customs, especially those involving celebrations, by feeding everyone traditional dishes. After having the food baskets blessed on Easter Sunday, everyone went to her place to eat the contents. She had the family over for Ukrainian Christmas Eve as long as she was able to cook. She would often take her little grandchildren to church with her. They didn’t understand any of the services in Ukrainian but were fascinated by the singing and the splendor of the church.

Granny regarded spouses of her children and grandchildren as her own kids. She remembered everyone’s birthday and anniversary, and managed to find cards that were specific to the recipient. When she became unable to shop for specific-enough cards, she wrote the necessary ‘grand’s, ‘in-law’s, and ‘great’s on them herself. She delighted in her great-grandchildren Geoffrey, Carly, Brant, Christopher, and Katie. She was so pleased that her youngest great-grandchild, Kathryn Elizabeth, is also her namesake.

There are many happy memories of granny and grandpa dancing with the grandchildren to Ukrainian and old-time dance music. They would start them young by carrying the babies in their arms while they danced. When Don Messer’s Jubilee and The Tommy Hunter shows came on T.V. it was time to push the furniture out of the way and start dancing. They also taught the children various card games, always with great patience. Granny spent many happy times teaching grandchildren to cook and bake. When the little ones were in the room, Granny and Grandpa would slip into the Ukrainian language for the parts of the conversation that they didn’t want the kids to understand. Unfortunately, that practice didn’t help anyone to learn to speak or understand Ukrainian very well.

Granny’s religious faith was very strong and it helped her weather the difficult times in her life including the deaths of her husband Matt, her daughters Eleanor and Gwen, her brothers Bill and Gordon, her sister-in-law Elsie, her brother-in-law John, and her sons-in-law Geoff and Stan. Circulation problems necessitated the amputation of both of her legs and confined her to a wheelchair for the last few years. Her faith comforted her and she often told us that she didn’t fear death.

In closing, I’d like to share the following words that she wrote in the memory book.

How the World Has Changed Since I Was a Little Girl

They invented radio and television.

They discovered immunization.

They succeeded in preventing children from getting

some diseases.

When man landed on the moon I watched on TV and could

hardly believe it.

Timesavers my mother never had are automatic washing machines and microwave ovens.

Women today are better educated and hold better positions in the working world but are not respected as much.

Some movies today are educational but some are violent and should not be seen by children.

Dating today is different because there are so many things to do – a lot more than there were when I was young.

I still like the old-fashioned ways of dating, dancing, and visiting.

My wish for the future is for you to be happy, healthy, and content.

The Spindolyn

Drop spindles and I have a love/hate relationship. I love the way they look, I love their history and traditions, I love that there are so many options like size, weight, top whorl, bottom whorl, wood, stone, etc. I hate that I have to co-ordinate my spinning while battling gravity. Most of the time gravity wins and my carefully spun singles go rolling and unraveling as my yarn breaks and the spindle drops to the ground. So I got this: The Spindolyn. It takes the drop out of drop spindles. It is a support spindle and you draft the fiber away from the hook. Way cool and pretty reasonable. I've been spinning sheltie hair with it and it's great for fine fibers. It will never challenge my love affair with my spinning wheel but it's a neat option for portability. The only hitch is that my weak shoulder can't keep up the drafting for very long.

I want to spin a combination of wool and sheltie hair. I think that adding wool to the dog fur will improve its wearability and make it easier to knit by providing some elasticity to the yarn. I hand carded a bit of the combination but my weak shoulder complained viciously about the hand carding process. I couldn't get too into it mentally either because it felt like I was doing more grooming on hair that had already been groomed off the dogs. Like I don't have enough grooming on my plate already. So I researched drum carders for several weeks as I waited for September so that there would be a paycheque before the credit card bill arrived. Teachers don't get paid over the summer.

Behold this! I ordered it yesterday. I can hardly wait for it to arrive!

Sale on hand-painted yarn in Etsy shop

All hand-painted yarns in my Etsy shop are on sale for 10% off until Sunday, Sept. 9/07. You can get there from the side bar if you're interested.

It never rains but it pours...

As if things weren't crazy enough around here this past week, we got a phone call from the nurses at my grandmother's senior care home on Thursday afternoon telling us that she was doing very poorly and that she wanted us to come and say good-bye. She really did look dreadful and we sat with her for the better part of two days. Family arrived from Manitoba on Friday. On Saturday she was sitting up, eating a bit, and looking better. By later in the day, she was playing cribbage. She is 94 1/2 years old and it seems that her heart is going to last a little longer after all. We love her dearly but she has been ready to die for a while now and we know that she would have been happy to go. She has a lot of faith and is looking forward to being reunited with passed loved ones. She is quite annoyed that she is getting better. She's obviously made of good pioneer stock. At least we had a chance to visit with family this weekend.

a quick brag

I started back to school today. The kids start on Wednesday so we teachers are busy preparing for their first day back. I'm teaching grade one this year. I've only taught grade one once before so I'll be busy.

I went to Yorkton SK dog shows on the weekend. I am exhausted and it was probably not the wisest move before heading back to work. However, Bentley had an awesome weekend! There were six shows in three days and between ten and twelve mini long dachsies entered at each one. Bentley and his sister Chloe split the Best of Breed wins between them (at the tender age of just barely nine months old), each of them also won a Group 4th placement, and Bentley won one Best Puppy in Group and Chloe won two Best Puppy in Groups! Bentley's breeder Daphne has a theory that Bentley wins in the mornings at shows and Chloe wins in the afternoons and it certainly held true for the weekend.

I have lots of pictures to sort through and am too tired and busy to worry about it today but I will post some in the near future.

In search of the perfect purled sole

I have sensitive feet and I also have diabetes. Most socks that have stocking stitch on the sole bother my feet because of the purl bumps. So I have been on the lookout for a way to knit the perfect purled sole.

I started by purling all of the heel turn, gusset and sole stitches on this sock, Baby Cable Ribs from Sensational Knitted Socks. I used 2mm needles with the Socks That Rock lightweight yarn.

It worked but frankly, it was a pain. I got tired of substituting SSPs for the SSKs and P2togs for the K2togs. SSPs are fiddly.

So then I tried this.

I decided to purl the heel turn and then gradually increase the purl stitches on the sole of this Monkey sock while keeping the gusset decreases in stocking stitch. It works but it looks kind of odd. I think that I'll frog it. Poor Monkey sock and I have had our issues and this is not the first time it has been frogged. Yarn is Lisa Souza's Delft colorway, also knit on 2mm needles.

Then I discovered Lynn H.'s Fast Florida Footies pattern. (Cascade Fixation on 3mm needles.)

The heel turn continues the slip stitch heel pattern, then one row of knit stitches are used for picking up the gusset. All but four of the sole stitches are purled (two on each side of the sole). Lynn is obviously a very bright person! It looks neat, is easy on the feet, and the fiddly gusset decreases are done in knit stitches.

So now I have used Lynn's technique on this vanilla sock in Skacel Trampoline Stretch (leg knit on 2.5mm needles, foot on 2.0mm needles).

I didn't use Lynn's No Purl Heel Stitch, just a regular slip stitch heel flap, then continued it through the heel turn. You can see the start of the gusset. All but four of the sole stitches are purled, then there is a marker between the sole and gusset stitches. There's another marker between the gusset and the stocking stitch instep stitches so that it's easy to remember where to do the decreases.

It wasn't easy to find information to do this technique. Most references are casual and just say to purl the sole stitches. I was a sock knitting newbie when I started looking for help to do this and was frustrated by the lack of information. Hopefully this little tutorial will help someone else. Thank you to Lynn H. for publishing instructions for her FFF pattern!!

more dyeing done

I dyed five more skeins of sock yarn yesterday and put them in my Etsy store. Please have a peek. This dyeing stuff is way cool fun!

another pair done

Regia Cotton Surf for me; plain vanilla pattern on 2.0 mm double points. I love how they look with my faded jeans.

(edit: I machine washed and dried these socks after taking these pictures and they are even softer now. Very comfortable, cool socks!)

I did it!!

I set up shop on Etsy! Please come by and have a peek at Dog Lover's Yarn shop.

more yarn to dye for....

Nodding Violet

Caribbean

Rio

Tranquility
This picture doesn't do this yarn justice. It is mercerized wool and absorbed the dye beautifully. It has a wonderful lustrous sheen.

I'm happy with these. My results are becoming more consistent and I'm learning how to mix and combine the colors to my satisfaction. I'm seriously thinking about opening an Etsy shop when I have more skeins ready to go.

Geoff's socks

Geoff wanted short socks so short socks I made. They are the Socks That Rock yarn in the Monsoon colorway which was one of the STR club shipments from the spring made into a plain vanilla sock. I made them ankle length at his request but, as you can see in the top picture, he's even folding the cuff down on this length. The color does camouflage nicely in the grass. As usual, Bentley saw a person sitting and had to sneak in for a cuddle. We don't call him a love-sponge for nothing.