Great Googelly Moogelly

Well, I have over 1200 pics for August. So I guess I can't say we didn't do anything! Here, in no particular order, are my favorite pics from the last couple weeks.
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Amoryn on Goose Spit, in Comox. Her ability to camouflage herself is truly uncanny, right?

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I'm showing Amoryn a tadpole. This is shortly before she scared the bejeebers out of him.

(Amphitrite Point, Ucluelet. And yes, tadpoles do have bejeebers.)
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Fresh air leads to exhaustion. I like that Rowr is collapsed in the same way that Amoryn is.

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If you're think that this slide required concentration, you're reading Am's body language correctly.

(Tofino)
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One glorious naptime, I sat on the deck & swatched as the tide came in.

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I love swatching in the round - it's such a dog's breakfast on the reverse.

(The yarn is Hasmi's Rocky Mountain Dyeworks , by the way. Scrumptious. More on this project later.)
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What else can I say about this photo? Love, loving, loved.

(Butterfly gardens, Victoria.)
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I don't quite know why this one appeals to me so much - the flamingoes, the mist, the reflections, the absurd shade of pink...

(Also at the butterfly gardens.)

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Eleni just woke up, so I'd best be off. I'm taking it very easy today; mastitis struck yesterday, and while I'm improved, I wouldn't say that I'm better. Judicious application of Thai take out & baby snuggles & an avoidance of all household tasks seem to be helping.

Back From The Coast!

So, here's a random assortment of photos from the man's iPhone...

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Amoryn in Tofino. That's an ice cream cone she's holding.

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And this time, she's passed out in the minivan. (I didn't take a picture of her older cousin L__, who was also passed out.)

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"Tide comes in, girls go out."

(Cabin in Ucluelet.)
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Watching the wildlife...

(Deck in Ucluelet.)

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Hanging out, getting ready to go...

(Ucluelet cabin.)
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Eleni, passed out after a busy morning.

(I know, her neck looks like it's better supported. )
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More tomorrow, after I find the camera cables & get ahead of the laundry a little bit!

Razor Slouch Hat

Please meet the Razor Slouch Hat! This is an idea that's been simmering in my head for a long time. It's based on a traditional Shetland lace pattern known as razor shell. It’s sharp no matter what style of sock yarn you use; semi-solid, space-dyed, or hand painted. There are two sizes to knit, but four sizes in effect - the hat can be blocked larger or unblocked and left smaller.

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It's knit in the round from the brim up to the crown. Both written and charted instructions are included. There are four sizes (in effect) that range from smallest to largest as follows: small, unblocked; large, unblocked; small, blocked; large, blocked. The pink hat is a large & blocked; the green is large & unblocked, and the navy multi is small & blocked.
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The stitch pattern is well defined, so the blocking decision is strictly based on your size preferences. Requirements are: Small(Large) 195m/210yd(220m/240yd) fingering/sock yarn, and a 32” 3.0mm circular needle & a 32” US #7/4.5mm circular needle.
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It's available now for purchase now ($6.00USD); please check out my Ravelry pages for details on the individual hats!

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PS: Big thanks to GoodGriefLucy, for test knitting & making some great text suggestions.

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PPS: I was going to title this post "Women Go Crazy For A Sharp-Dressed Tam", but it's not really a tam, and it doesn't need to be dressed out. And how relevant is ZZ Top these days? Anyways.)

It Just Keeps Coming Back

The laundry, I mean. I got it all folded & even put away. And now... there's another stack on the loveseat. I'd ask how this happens, but I do recall something along these lines...

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(Oatmeal & cheerios.)

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And we went outside...

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And there was much crawling towards rocks to eat...

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And watering of plants... and other fun, summertime, messy things.

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Speaking of other fun things? I scored some fantastic fiber from Make 1 - some of Sweet Georgia's BFL & some Silk Tussah. I may post pics tomorrow, or I might be all tied up with the prepping & packing for Summer Holiday, part II!

It Ain't Gonna Fold Itself

The laundry piles that have been dominating my house for the last week or so have undergone a slight change - they're clean now.

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Still not folded though. I just can't scrape up the desire to fold it.

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You know what I have done?

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I turned this:

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Into this (spun in Saskatchewan, modelled on my piano).

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And then, on a whim, I turned the second half into this:

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Then I plyed them together and came up with about 230m of yum. I mean yarn. (Pigeonroof Studios, TLS Huckleberry, 4.5 oz, 80/10/10 merino/cashmere/nylon, 230m of sport-ish weight.)

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I think I know what I'm going to knit it into. In an effort to get done the laundry though, I'm not going to wind it up until we head for BC next week. It'll be great for holiday knitting.

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Now. Anyone seen any motivation? Because you don't need to be a spinner to see that this.....

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...is so much less tempting that this...

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or this....

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I remember once, when I was living with S____ in MJ, our apartment had a showing. We had a more laissez-faire style of housekeeping (snort), so there was a lot of panicked tidying in the 20 minutes that we had. I threw all the laundry - clean, dirty, miscellaneous - onto my bed and then tossed the comforter over it. Lumpy, but hidden. We put all the dirt dishes under the sink. Dirty, but hidden. It was fine until the potential new tenant looked under the sink to check for mice droppings... It was an important lesson about short cuts. Also, very very funny.

Cheerio Girl

Dear Eleni,

I love you very much and am very proud that you are crawling and feeding yourself.

I'd just like to let you know that when you find small random things* and stuff them into your mouth, I'm not stuffing my fingers into your mouth for you to use as a teething toy. Just sayin'.

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Also, Quit Freaking Biting Me When You Nurse. I respect that your teeth are bothering you; I give you lots of teething toys & cheerios. Please respect that THAT FREAKING HURTS, okay?

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I love you & your sister so much.

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(And I'm charmed that you love yarn so much, but please. Stop chewing on it. You're giving the cat ideas.)

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*Do you have any idea how long I vaccuumed for yesterday? I have no idea where she found that. Perhaps my prior tactic of letting a healthy amount of Cheerios stay on the floor as distractors was the better option. Crunchier underfoot, but that's all that Eleni would try to eat off of the floor.

A Day At The Spa

Rowr has had a busy summer; he's been all over the place. He was even forgotten in Maple Creek and had an exciting ride in a cardboard box, courtesy of Grampa & Canada Post. (When we moved him out of Ruby's way, we moved him out of sight. Moops.)

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As with any well-loved and busy stuffed toy, Rowr is starting to smell & look quite grimy. So, it was spa day.

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This is kind of a strange...

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...spa. This water could be warmer, you know.

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How cruel can you be? I can see you laughing at me! This isn't a spa!

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I wish that I could tell you that I didn't spend long, laughing at Rowr going around and around in the machine. Sadly, the new washer has a timer, so I know exactly how long I spent.

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Likewise, I wish that this was the first blog post that was about the anthropomorphization* & cleaning of a stuffed animal. But no. Sadly not. It's just that kind of blog.

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*Bite me, spellcheck.

And The Next Thing Is...

As I mentioned, we got home from Saskatchewan, & the washer broke. The man made the diagnosis, and the next day we went shopping for a new one.

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Because in a house with two small people, one of whom is (usually) in cloth diapers, you need a washing machine.

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We found a groovy new machine - top load HE with no center thinger & with a clear lid. I anticipate many happy hours - or at least a couple minutes - idly watching it wash. We also found a new fridge & stove, because the stove is a little dodgy (two elements work fine; one does not work at all, and one is, well, odd) and because I have been in love with C____'s fridge for a long time. The longer I loved her fridge, the less I liked ours. I'm tickled to be welcoming a french door/bottom drawer freezer into our home tomorrow, along with a stove with five elements that ALL work, and a washing machine that I can watch swish stuff around. Expect photos.

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Of course, the cable box has also just crapped out. I'd spent a little bit of the holiday missing the 'rewind' & 'pause' function for live tv. Now, it's dead. Sort of a permanent pause, I suspect. It's okay; it just feels like an expensive week.

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And I feel all achey and crappy, so at the risk of being the next thing in the house to break, I think I'm going to have a nap after I finish clearing off the top of the old fridge. I could spin (I'm totally digging the Ashford Joy thus far) or knit, but I don't really feel like it. Which is the biggest warning sign about impending ailments that I know of! To heck with taking my temperature! Offer me some yarn, and watch the response.

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I wonder if I should get a Medic Alert bracelet that notes "Highly Responsive to Fiber"?

Holiday! Part I

Part II of the holiday will be later this month, when we all head to BC to visit a different branch of the family tree. This was all in SW Saskatchewan, and I regret to say that I took hardly any photos. We were too busy enjoying the sun, and chasing both children around.

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I managed to knit, wash, & block a small gauge swatch. I had to use corn-cob stabbers to pin it down, but hey, when you're living rough, you're living rough.

I did get quite a lot of knitting/designing done on one project, and mom worked on a version of Thaylor. That'll likely be ready to publish early next month, I think. If it weren't for these kids that are around the house... and my other knitting project... and the need to sleep...
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These are the morning glories on my parents deck. I love, love, love that they matched the blue of the sky. I also love how confused dad was as I tried to fold myself - and the man's giant zoom lens - low enough to the ground to take this photo. It didn't work, so I got brave & changed the lens.

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I hadn't for these shots - so I was running across the yard backwards, with a giant camera & Eleni in my arms, trying to get far enough away to frame Gramma & Grampa & Amoryn on her First Horse Ride! (Thanks Whiskey.) (I was doing it backwards because I didn't want to miss seeing it either - and I was pretty sure that I remembered where the truck & tractors in the yard were.)

I'm very proud of how brave Am was - she started off a bit skittish, but after I took Eleni for a 'ride', she was willing to join me, then I could leave completely.
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Speaking of horses, here is the ugliest one I've ever seen. You can't really tell, but the light parts on his face are the exact color of cheese whiz. And his eyes are a really light, creepy blue. He's built nicely enough, and must have a great gait or temper or something, because really, he's really ugly.

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Aaaaaaand as your bonus for humoring me through the 'ugly horse' picture, here's a photo of Ruby.

She's the most charming puppy I've ever met. I could keep talking, but that covers it. Imagine a sweet, mild, quiet, fluffy puppy. I love Ruby. So does D____, which is good, as Ruby's her puppy!

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I'm off to get a couple more computer things done... my list of goals for today didn't get done, but that could be because of the lack of internet this afternoon, and because the new washer doesn't get delivered until Friday, so I'm spending a lot of time dodging around the Giant Piles Of Laundry.

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And one more project for tomorrow - we're also getting a new fridge (!!!), and I realized: I need to clean the top of the fridge off. I seriously have No Idea What All Is Up There. If you're lucky, I won't blog it. Although if it's entertaining enough, I just may.

A Quantum Leap

I just read an article which reminded me that a quantum is in fact a very small thing.

That put me in mind of my current obsession/knitting project. It’s going well, but my goodness. It’s slow. If you ever are working on a knitting project, and you feel like it’s going slowly, I suggest you try this easy three step process to find a project that will make your original project seem like it’s flying by.

First, are you knitting lace?

Second, are you beading your lace?

Third, are you making clear, replicable charted & written notations about your knitting?

I'm doing all of the above. Step three doesn’t sound that bad, until I found one little mistake that I’d made a row back. I was off by one stitch. Much like accounting, I’ve thoroughly established that it’s easier to find a big mistake than a small one. Forty-nine thousand dollars? No big. Thirty-two cents? Argh.*

I think that the only way that this could go slower was if I was knitting gossamer with no rest rows. If I ever get to that point, be assured: I will have actually stopped time in its tracks, and the physicists & the men from the funny farm should converge on me at about the same time.

(If you are knitting gossamer beaded lace with no rest rows, I stand in genuine awe of you.)

And we’re back from Saskatchewan! It was awesome, although I took very few photos, so you’ll mostly have to take my word for it. Highlights were boating, beaches, Fort Walsh, watching Eleni learn to crawl & climb, helping Amoryn ride a horse, and seeing the ugliest horse I’ve ever laid eyes on. It was so ugly that I actually took photos just to prove that there was in fact a horse that ugly. You may think that I’m exaggerating, but just you wait. You’ll see.

*I am pleased to note that the mental process feels exactly the same – the debate over sluffing it, even as I doggedly continue tracking down the glitch. And a small rush of relief when I finally find it. Not a large one – because you know, there are going to be more glitches out there.

Wherein We Escape

We're headed to the home country (ie: Saskatchewan) for a week or so, and the blessed quiet of no internet, no cel coverage. Because I love you, Intarweb, but sometimes a little distance & quiet is a good thing.

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And the best part is, a friend is staying here at the house, so I don't need to worry about the yard crisping.

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And even better - I'm the sole adult in charge of packing the jeep, which means that I don't have to feel sheepish about how much yarn I take along for a week at the cabin.

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Back to the packing!

Random Smattering Thursday

Yesterday, I was wildy sleep deprived & somewhat bemused about it. I wasn't taking it personally; it was just the way it was. A princess coffee helped a lot.

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Today, I've moved past that into an unfortunately unstable state. I is tired; I isn't angry at the littles who kept me awake. I wasn't angry after I took a lotion bottle away from Am & (re)instructed her to wash her hands. When the lotion bottle fell into the toilet, however, I did hit batsh1t rage for a second. I didn't act on my first impulse, which was to fish it out & throw it. Instead, I fished it out, washed it, and then threw it. I'm owning that crazy; throwing it made me feel better, and washing it made it hygienic.

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Eleni is napping, and I should probably join her, but I've got laundry & some digital chores to take care of. I need to let go of my affection for an upcoming pattern's current format; I know that I need to add in a smaller size. But right now, my page break is exactly where I want it!*

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I think I'll keep puttering unless I have another 'moops' moment. I'd settled in to work, then realized that I needed El's monitor, which is upstairs. My lizard brain took over on the brief jaunt, & I stopped just before I opened her door... need the baby's MONITOR, not the BABY. A fine & subtle distinction, to be sure!

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Wish me luck.

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(I typoed lick. You can wish me lick, too, if you really want. Pretty much a sure thing though, El's been really chewy & kissy lately.)

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*All you yearbook/school newspaper types know what I mean.

I Kinda Forgot About This Stage

Things that Eleni has tried, with varying success, to eat in the last 24 hours:

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1) my face

2) sweet potato

3) spaghetti

4) cell phone

5) remote control

6) strawberries

7) Addi cable

8) computer cable

9) purse handle (Amoryn's)

10) apple

11) blankie (Z's comfort blanket)

12) cat food

13) oatmeal

14) her toes

15) cheerios

16) yarn bits

17) anything else that she sees

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Sigh. At least Amoryn is on board for yanking things out of Eleni's grasp. Maybe a little too on board, but that's another story...

Best. Cell Phone. Ever.

No, I didn't get a new iphone. My phone - my old beater Motorola - is amazing though. I'd forgotten it on the roof of the Jeep*, and although it held on on Glenmore Trail, Crowchild was simply too much for it & it went flying.

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I only figured it out the next day. I beat my head on the wall, blushed, confessed to the man, then headed off for a fun day of lace design.** He suggested that I drive past & take a took, because it was still ringing so he figured it was okay.

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I figured that he was nuts, but I tried anyways. Didn't see anything.

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The man was so committed to his concept that he went for a drive the next morning - and he found it! Open, face down, on the side of the road. Still working. The battery hadn't even been wiggled loose.

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Most amazing cell phone ever. It lived through the car surfing and TWO rain storms. Awesome.

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(But I still kinda want an iphone.)

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*Yes, I know. I had other things on my mind.

**More about that later.

The Vorpal Blade Went Snicker-Snack

So I've been working on a small shawl/scarf made from Curious Creek Fiber's Etosha. It was going quite well, until I started to cast off.

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Turns out, I should have stopped one series of stripes earlier. I shrugged, cast off in yellow, and figured I'd try to cadge another 6m of the purple from someone who went to the yarn tasting.

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(The fateful join.)

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Then it occurred to me that that wasn't very re-creatable for a pattern, so I decided to pick back the bound off edge, go back to the prior stripe, and cast off again. No big.

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.....except have you ever tried to frog mohair? It's fiddly. Turns out that unpicking the bound-off edge of a mohair scarf leads to madness. The above photo (& its 4" of progress) took at least half an hour.

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So I got a little crazy. And I got the scissors.

Yes, those are my sewing shears to cut off the bound off edge. I figured that I'd lose one, maybe two rows, and still have enough purple to finish the edge.

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And if it didn't work, there's a firepit in the backyard.

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Are you shocked yet?

(Not for the faint of heart, no.) (Or the sane, possibly.)
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Now, the only part of the procedure that really made me think I was an idiot was the fact that I'd JUST vacuumed.

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I know that it looks quite tidy here, and almost like a finished edge in & of itself. However. This was before the yarn salvage operation began.

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Yea, and the mohair shreds fell like rain...
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This part, although messy, was quick enough. A little more fraught with tension; I was starting to wonder if I'd have enough yarn, and if a three inch piece of yarn was long enough to save for potential spit-splicing. I was also wondering how awful spit-splicing mohair would be - hairballs, they aren't just for cats anymore?
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I decided to make the cut-off length six inches. And after I vacuumed, I bound off. Again. And this time, there was enough yarn. Thank heavens. I didn't really want to light this on fire:

(Sneak peek of Thaylor, a striped scarf/shawl that has a crocheted neck edge. I stash-dove & used a wee bit of Oban - also from Curious Creek Fibers. Thaylor's release is coming soon; provided that we all survive Stampede!)
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(Yes, I crocheted. I figured after the scissors business that it would have to go well. I was right.)

Ah, I See

Yes, the piano is actually in mid air. The man is the one working the come-along.

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And no, I don't usually make Am wear rubbber boots to play the pisgano.