a total mess

Well, everyone in this house is healthy this week so the kitchen is getting painted. Dan steamed off the old 80's wallpaper and Geoff applied the primer today. I also have decided to toss the curtains on the windows in the dining room (that has never served as a dining room and should more accurately be called a computer room) and the living room, and paint the window walls the same Aztec gold color as the kitchen. There is a mess everywhere now that all the pictures have been taken down, the bookshelves emptied and moved out of the way, and appliances etc. shoved aside.

See?

Notice the tired husband crashed in front of the TV.

I don't function well in a total mess and will be very glad when all is put straight again. I don't know how people survive major home renos.

In other news, between a complete physical exam and eye exam on Tuesday, I have been thoroughly examined inside and out, if you get my drift. Did you know that the new medical exam tables don't have stirrups? As someone who went through infertility tests in the '80s, it seemed very strange to get an internal exam without one. I feel like I spent a good deal of my earlier life with my feet in the air.

In addition to the blood and urine work at the lab I had the dubious pleasure of being handed the take home slides for a fecal occult test. Whoa. For those of you who have not had to do this test and might face it in the future, I have advice for you that will make it much easier (courtesy of google): put plastic food wrap between you and toilet bowl. Eww.

Both Dan and I had good news at the optometrist's office. His eyes lost their astigmatism, a lot, which is so rare that they repeated the test three times to be sure. That explains why he couldn't read anything for a while. And I have somehow managed to lose a cataract in the last two years. Good. We both have new glasses in the works so we will look much more trendy when they're ready.

happy dance!

Happy dance, oh happy dance!

Elizabeth is now on her way to her new home and I am so happy that it's such a good one! Monika and I have been internet friends for a while and Elizabeth is joining her family. Monika is an amazing spinner and knitter (and dog lover) and you can see her delightful blog here. I'm happy dancing because Elizabeth will be loved by someone who will be able to spend more quality time with her than my body was allowing me.

just call me gimpy

It's Elizabeth's fault. My sister Darcie decided that she would rather save up to buy herself a Majacraft Rose than buy my Ashford Elizabeth**. She already has the Maja Pioneer and she likes the idea of the accessories being interchangeable between her wheels. So the Elizabeth came home after a long sleepover.

I sat down to do some plying on her last weekend. When my right knee started to complain about the single treadle I just put both of my feet on the treadle to finish. So not a good idea. I woke up the next morning with tender butt muscles. Then I leaned over to pick up the Ladybug and something snapped. I seriously pulled my left butt muscle (I think the real name for it is the gluteous maximus). Whatever it is called, it hurts! I had no idea how much that muscle is used in everyday life until I hurt it.

At first, I thought it was kind of funny that I pulled my butt and figured a couple of days of going easy on it would do the trick. I am now at the seriously grumpy stage of this injury. It is showing no sign of healing and has developed this spasm issue that is going to drive me to drink. Meanwhile, Dan got sick, really sick for him, and went to the doctor yesterday to learn that he now has a sinus infection as a result of whatever virus he had (not H1N1, thank goodness). We have been a fine pair.

Then Geoff came home from work on Monday with a swollen ankle. He was coming down off of a ladder and didn't see a clear light bulb that someone had carelessly left on the floor, stepped on it, and rolled his ankle. The light bulb remained unharmed though which is weird. He was quite ticked that the light bulb didn't break because then his ankle wouldn't have rolled. His painting partner heard a pop and thought it was the light bulb but it was Geoff's ankle.

The original plan for this week was to strip the '80s wallpaper off of my kitchen and give it fresh coat of paint. Needless to say, none of us has been up to doing this so I don't think it's going to get done this summer. Oh well. My garden is also ridiculously over-run with weeds and perfectly good vegetables are getting old without being picked and there's nothing any of us can do about it.

Here is where I've been stationed for most of the week.
The seat cushion is memory foam and is the most comfortable place for my injured tush. Bentley is unimpressed that I haven't been able to lift the foot rest of the lazyboy chair so there hasn't been room on my lap for him.

To occupy my mind while dealing with a spasming butt muscle, I started to make the Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket. I'm using handspun superwash merino.
It is a very interesting little project. I have the how-to video to follow because EZ's instructions assume knitting knowledge that I don't have. I have been tempted to fast forward to where Meg Swanson shows how to fold it to make a cardigan but I've resisted so that I can try to figure out the puzzle myself as I go along. I think I can see how all this is to happen but I won't know if I'm right until the end. The handspun merino is lovely for this project - soft and squishy in garter stitch.

**Elizabeth is for sale again. $700 takes the whole shebang.

and just when you thought you've seen everything...

busty bride

and the polar opposite...

Ugh.

frou frou wedding

now that's a wedding dress!

I am blown away!

wooly wedding gown

just hanging around

Our weather has been decidedly unsummery. It's been much cooler than normal. Most people are upset by this fact but I like it. I'm not a heat person so the temps. suit me very well. We've only had the air conditioner running 3 or 4 days so far. Usually it runs most of July.

Aside from some minor home renovations, we've been pretty boring people lately. I've had trouble finding anything blog-worthy. So I took the camera to the sunroom to show you how the dogs pass their time.

Austin

Bentley

Pocus, posing for the camera as usual. He turned 12 a few days ago. He looks pretty good for an old dog, doesn't he?

I'm not sure where Robbie was when I had the camera out. He must have been snoozing in the house.

'all growed up'

I love to see what my hand-dyed yarn looks like when it's 'all growed up' so I was delighted to get an email from Ruth (ruthieknits on Ravelry) today. She sent me a picture of her recently completed River Rapids socks that she made using the Aubergine yarn that she bought from me before I closed the Dog Lover's Yarn Etsy shop.

I think she did a beautiful job on these socks! Her niece will be the lucky recipient. There are more pictures of these socks in Ruth's Ravelry projects.

And here's a pic of the Aubergine yarn in the skein. It was one of my favorites.

While we're on the subject of newly finished socks, here are the Van Dyke socks fresh off the needles. I liked this pattern a lot and will try making a toe-up pair from Wendy's book, Socks From The Toe Up, for myself with this gusset heel.

Tour de Fleece and sock

I have been able to stick to my goal of spinning every day of the Tour de Fleece including the rest days. It hasn't been difficult due to my total addiction to spinning anyway.

Here's the latest spinning in progress.

Spunky Eclectic "Selfish" shetland (June club fiber) being spun for navajo plied sock yarn. These are not really colors that I would have picked out but I'm enjoying spinning the fiber. Shetland is so easy to draft. It's fun to watch the colors pop on the bobbin.


BeeMiceElf "Daydream" merino. Yummy! It will be Navajo plied as well. I'm not sure what project it will be knit into yet.


Lakehouse Loft "Lavender Fields" Corriedale. This is also destined to become socks, 3 ply.


And I finished one sock of the pair that will be gifted to my wonderful friend and vet, Jo-Ann Liebe.
I used the BFL/nylon yarn that I dyed and then chain-plied to make it a heavier weight. The pattern is Van Dyke from Socks From the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson. Great pattern, love the sock! Now onto sock #2.

the hungry Moosie

My Moosie devours yarn! I have trouble putting it down. It's such a lovely spindle.

Tour de Fleece

I have been spinning for the Tour de Fleece. I have spun every day - some days a lot and other days a little. Here are some of the spinning projects from the first week.

SW Merino, Scenic colorway, from beemiceelf on Etsy. I split the fiber in half lengthwise and spun one half as it presented itself. I split the other half into thin strips and spun them for the second single. Plied together, one single has long color repeats and the other has very short color repeats. It was the first time I've tried using the fractal stripes prep for fiber. I don't think the striping patterns are very evident until the yarn is knit up. I'm planning to knit an EZ Baby Surprise sweater with it.

Some Romney top (Odysseus colorway, Sheepish Creations on Etsy)on the Golding spindle.

I dyed some BFL fingering weight yarn to knit socks for my friend and vet-extraordinaire, Jo-Ann Liebe, using her color choices. It's very pretty but I had a terrible time swatching it. It's very fine yarn and, to get a gauge swatch that I liked, I would have had to use 1.5mm needles or finer. So I decided to add twist to the yarn and ply the two 2-plied yarns together to make a cabled yarn. I'm much happier with it now.

And my Bosworth Moosie arrived in the mail! I've been on a waiting list for it. The spindle is made from shed moose antlers.
I raided my stash and found the perfect fiber for the Moosie's first spinning assignment. It's an Abby's Batt in the First Frost colorway - merino, baby alpaca, silk, and firestar - and it's the most beautiful batt I've ever seen! I bought it from someone destashing on Ravelry a while back. It's demanding to be spun laceweight.

Sunday at home

I cleaned off all three wheels the other day in preparation for the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. I joined with the modest goal of spinning every day. I usually spin every day anyway so it's not a big challenge. My problem is usually stopping spinning once I get going. I spin until my body aches tell me to back away from the wheel.

Anyway, here are a couple of finished yarns off the wheels.

This is the Spunky Eclectic club Soul Windows, a SW Corriedale and nylon blend. I three-plied it for sock yarn - 23 wpi.

This is some more sheltie blend yarn. It's about 30% sheltie and 70% Cormo, two ply - 13 wpi. It's posing with one of peonies that's still blooming in the back yard.

I convinced Robbie to pose with it too. Cute, don't you think?

And on a completely unrelated note, one of my former grade 2 students posted on Facebook today that she was celebrating her 12th anniversary!! Egads! I can't possibly be that old, can I?!

Happy Canada Day!

The friendly neighborhood gargoyle is sporting his Canada hat today. We're glad to see him back after a serious accident beheaded him this winter. (Whoever is to blame for this act of vandalism, get a life!) We were wondering if he would be able to recover from this unfortunate incident. However, once the weather warmed up enough for the mending adhesive to work, he was back at his station as the neighborhood beacon. Love ya, gargoyle dude!

Happy 142nd birthday, Canada! I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

sunny Sunday

It was a pretty day today! Not too hot and just a little breeze to keep the mosquitoes from being pesky. I drove out to Craven to take a look at a couple of Golden Retriever puppies at Jean Juno's place. I had the forethought to throw my camera in my purse before I left but totally forgot to take pictures of the puppies because I was entranced and distracted by them. They are so cute I am apologizing now for forgetting to get a picture to share with you. I did remember to take this picture before I left though. It was taken in front of Jean's house overlooking the valley. Imagine the smell of sun-warmed grass with faint but distinct whiffs of sage in the mix. Summer.

I finished the skein of sheltie and Targhee plied with pin-drafted Cormo.

And finally, this picture has been lurking in my camera since last Sunday. I took it just before I picked the cucumber and shared it with Dan. It's definitely the earliest that we've eaten a home-grown cucumber. The cucumber plants in the garden are still babies. I bought this plant at Costco and it sits on the deck where it's sheltered and sunny. Unfortunately the plant's leaves are getting moldy-looking and I think that this one cuke might be its only harvest.

storms

Now that the weather is heating up, we're getting thunderstorms. I love thunderstorms as long as they don't bring damaging winds or hail. So far, we've just have lots of lightning, thunder, rain, and wonderful energy in the air.

I snapped this pic on my cell phone camera while I was heading into the medical clinic for a doctor's appointment this afternoon.

Myrtle

I finished spinning up Myrtle, the brown BFL from the March Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club shipment.

3-ply, about 300 yds., 88 g, 19 wpi. I'm thinking socks.

I'm not a huge fan of monthly clubs but this one is wonderful! The fibers are beautiful, spin up easily, and you can join or opt out at any time. The payment is monthly and you're not locked in for a set period of time. This shipment is a good example of why you should join a club once in a while. I probably wouldn't have bought this fiber if I had seen it advertised; it was quite drab with blotches of red, blue, and green. However, once it arrived I was delighted with its texture and I think the finished yarn is so pretty! The Spunky Eclectic fibers aren't overprocessed and the club allows me to try some fibers that I don't have local access to.

Targhee

I don't usually spin from fibers that I've prepared from raw fleece. I'm allergic to a lot of weeds and grasses and can't handle most fleeces without a reaction because of the vegetable matter. However, some wool is okay if the sheep haven't been pastured with any of the specific green stuff that triggers my allergies. There's no way for me to know which fleeces will cause me problems without my handling some of it.

Sharon at Golden Willow (Rav link) had a bit of washed Targhee for sale. I bought it, picked some of it, and knew it wouldn't cause a reaction so I bought some of the raw fleece. Here's how it looks before a bath.

After several hot baths in a lingerie bag in hot water with no agitation, I can now start to play with it. (I used Orvus Paste for the first couple of baths, then washed it and rinsed it with Unicorn Fibre products which I love, love, love!) Here's a lock to show you the lovely crimp in this wool.

My hands hurt when I tease fiber so I combed it which helps trap the vm in the short noils left in the combs...

and opens up the fibers into this yummy pouf.

If I diz off the fiber, I get a lovely little nest of top like this.

Because I'm carding the fiber with sheltie undercoat, I don't need to diz off the fiber so I can take it off the comb and feed it into the drum carder. I put a layer of wool, then a layer of sheltie fluff, then another layer of wool; I find that keeping the sheltie fluff in the middle of the 'sandwich' helps to card it evenly.
Eventually, I end up with lovely pillows of batts ready to spin.
I can't imagine doing a lot of this preparation for most of my spinning but the end result of clean, bouncy, fresh fiber makes it worth doing every now and then.

a cute pic

My sister Darcie snapped this photo of Bentley this evening.

Hard to believe that innocent face was responsible for this crime scene the other day, huh?

just out walking the....

cat.

A new family moved into our neighborhood a few months ago. They have three little boys and a cat. I've seen the cat in our yard and it seems incredibly mellow. It continued to walk along the top of our fence even though the dogs were barking like mad.

I saw one of the boys in the park today. He had leashed the cat to a yellow rope and was out for a stroll. Talk about a good-natured cat.

no sun Saturday

It's raining here in Saskatchewan. It's supposed to continue to rain for a couple of more days too. It's also chilly. My fingertips were going numb this afternoon (slight bit of Raynaud's Syndrome) so I caved and turned on the furnace. It could be worse - Calgary got a dump of snow.

I finished the first Zigzag Anklet from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn.
I used Panda Wool in the Hydrangea colorway. It comes in 50 g skeins with only 170 yds. and I bought two skeins from Little Knits a while ago. I figured there would be enough for anklets. I hadn't thought about the fact that this pattern's anklet folds over itself so isn't really a short sock yarnwise.
After the heel turn, I started to panic about running short and ordered one more skein. I had enough after all. There is a whopping 8 g left of the skein.

I've been spinning up some merino from Sheepish Creations on Etsy. It's the Maid Marion colorway. The plan is to keep the color order while spinning the singles and then navajo ply it.

I left it for a few minutes while I took a phone call this afternoon and came back to this:
Apparently it was too much temptation for a small Dachshund on a rainy day.

Now this is what I have to organize to keep the color sequence going.
Sigh.