I think I love the Mailman

Today he brought me the 2 Books I ordered from Chapters ................. Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas and The Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann by Nancy Nehring. I also got a siggy block from Susanne in Switzerland. It is so nice when I can feed most of my fibre addictions in one day.

Rousted by the Police

Last night there was a group of us at Knitopia, some spinning , some knitting and some just visiting. Lynn was telling us a story about her work and I guess we were laughing very loudly because 4.............. yes FOUR......................... police officers came walking down the street to check out where all the noise was coming from. They said they could hear us around the corner and halfway up the block. One of them contacted dispatch to tell them what the noise was about, they chatted for awhile, ate some of the brownies we shared with them and then went on their way. As they were walking away Lynn said," It's a good thing the hookers aren't here tonight". This resulted in more laughter but they never did tell us to be quiet.

Wednesday was quilting at "Country Folk " and then WNK in the evening at the Pool hall. I really must tell the Children that I spend Wednesday nights in the pool hall and Thursday nights with the hookers and see what kind of reaction I get............. Jill knows I am knitting so I won't get too much from her but the other 2 may react.

I have been slowly getting all the dandelions out of the front lawn with my trusty puller. My weed picker-upper has gone to her other Grandparents for 2 weeks so I guess I will have to pick them up myself.

My Wendy sister phoned the other night to say her daughter is engaged and they are getting married in March 2009 ................... some place tropical so I guess we won't be at the wedding. I think there is going to be something in Ft. St. John when they get back so hopefully I can go to that. Wendy also said they are planning to start a family right away so my sister will be a grandmother soon ................ FINALLY................. she really wants Grandchildren.

What else is new............... HUM .................... the underground watering system for my garden is fixed, we are thinking of getting a cat as the mouse problem seems to come and go.

My knitting projects are going slow.I made a mistake on my SB1 shawl and had to ripe out 6 rows but only on the one half. By the time I was finished fixing it I think it might have been easier to ripe the whole thing back 6 rows. It is only about 200 stitches so far.

I haven't ripped out the socks the mouse chewed but I will . I think I only have 4 pairs of socks on the needles, one afghan, 1 adult surprise jacket, and 3 shawls.

Quilting: I have 3 1/2 blocks out of 10 done for Rosa, I still need to do binding on 2 quilts and finish a baby quilt. This week Sandy sent me a baby quilt pattern to test for her so I really need to sort THE ROOM.

THE ROOM has more than a pathway through to the french doors and I can reach most areas of the room. I have made myself do a little each day and it is working...................... slowly but it is working. DH is very happy the the 36 inch floor loom is out of the kitchen ........................ funny man to let that bother him ............. LOL

weeds, weeds, everywhere

Well I was up this morning pulling weeds from the front lawn. Half the lawn seems to be these weeds with tall stalks and yellow flowers similar to dandelions. I have this new gizmo that on a long pole that lets you pull them without bending over.
The weather has been hot and sunny for days so I haven't had to add lawn mowing to my list of things to do. It is getting a little brown but that is okay. Then the neighbour says to me this morning that we can water the grass on Thursday and Sunday. I don't want to water the grass............... it will grow and I will have to mow it.
Yesterday was runaround and get the car insured. This meant picking up the registration at the shop, getting a 1-day permit, going back to get the car, driving Jill home after she dropped her car off at Jamie's work, put REALLY expensive gas in the car and drive around for a while.,,......... go to air care and then insure the car. Between all this plus shopping , doing a survey for Jill's friend, going to the looney store with Shelby and waiting 40 minutes for one of the pilot cars to show up so I could show him where to go, I got home about 5:30. Had to put all the groceries away and then take a break before I made supper. Oh yes I dropped Shelby off at home and drove Jill to work. At 6:40 the phone rings. It is Gail wondering if I am going to Wednesday night Knitting. That was a bit of a shock............. I thought it was Tuesday all day

The mouse ate a hole ................

in it .................. look at it ............................. this is one of the socks I am knitting for Bill. This sock was almost finished ......... I was on the ribbing ........................ and there is a HOLE............ DH said "Just mend it. I don't mind." MEND IT ........I haven't even finished knitting it ............. I hate mending at the best of times never mind mending a sock I haven't even finished knitting. I mean who wants to mend something before you finish making it. No I am going to rip it out and start over on this sock. The 2nd sock is started and has not been gnawed on by a mouse. I checked.......



































Last week was busy. Shelby was here for three days and 2 nights at the being of the week. She manages to keep me very busy. One night (not a Shelby night) I was sitting chatting with Bill when my phone made this funny noise. I checked it out and it said WNK........................ I looked at him and said WNK ................................... read BLANK LOOK on my face. He said "Wednesday Night Knitting "........................... OOOOOOHHHH my gosh I forgot what day it was. I quickly made dinner and off I went to WNK. I took my goddess mystery shawl and 1 ball of blue sock yarn. I can't find the other ball of blue yarn but I know it is in THE ROOM. I worked on the sock as I couldn't work on my shawl. I left the PATTERN AT HOME. What can I say.

Thursday night was fibre night at Knitopia. Sharon and Gail were supposed to meet me there but neither of them came. Sharon was worried about the wind and I forget Gail's reason. I had fun anyway.

Nothing eventful Friday or Saturday.
Sunday Iris, Gail and I got together to do fabric embellishment. Here are the 2 items I worked on. They are going to be postcards when I am finished.

































This is my Slow Bee 1 shawl. I have just finished clue 4. Clue 5 is a little shorter than clue 4 but there are more stitches to each row. I don't know if I will ever catch up on this KAL but I will get it done.

You can't make some-mores with crackers

I got up this morning to the smell of some thing burnt. I thought at first it was my dressing gown retaining the smell of burnt supper from last night. I was really annoyed with myself for doing that. I haven't burnt supper for years. In fact the last time I can remember was when I was pregnant with my son Che who is now 37. In my last month of that pregnancy I burnt some part of dinner every night.............................. For those that are wondering NO I AM NOT PREGNANT........... I maybe slightly crazy but I am not totally out of my mind. At 61 I would shoot myself if I was pregnant........... No I take that back ....... I am such a bad shoot I would get some one like Glen to shoot me. He's a really good shot................... anyway back to the some-mores. Shelby was up before me and thought she would try to make some-mores with crackers, marshmallows and chocolate chips. The problem occurred when she put the in the microwave for 2 minutes. The glass dish is now soaking in the hopes that everything will come off............. Shelby has remarked that she will have to tell her friend Paulina, that you can't make some-mores with crackers.
My Slow bee mystery shawl is progressing slowly as is my goddess knits anniversary shawl.

This is the Anniversary Shawl but it is more purple than blue in real life.











I have plans to make a dragon shawl out of the re-cycled red silk and I found another merino sweater to re-cycle. This one is "Chocolate brown", no plans for it as yet. Too bad I can't knit as fast as I can think of new patterns to do.
On the quilting front I have 2 1/2 out of 10 blocks done for Rosa and nothing else done. I figure if I can at least get my machine set up in the craft room I might get some more quilting done.............................. I do have a new plan on how to tackle that room. I really have to do something as DH wants the floor loom out of the kitchen........ imagine that........

I thought I killed it

I was mowing the lawn last Thursday when the mower just stopped. Yes stopped dead ........ nothing........ I was sure it was dead ............................................. AAAAARRUUGGGGHHHH.............................. I would have to use the gas one in future......... I hate gas mowers ............. and that was before gas was so high. It's DH's job to ensure it is running .............. he refuses to mow grass. Says " It doesn't bother me so why should I bother it." Good thing I actually like mowing the grass. Sure beats house work as you can mow the grass and don't have to do it for 1-3 weeks depending on the weather. House work you can do in the morning and again in the evening ........... especially when the DGD has been here. I don't know how one small child can make the house look like a tornado has been thought it. WOW was that a tangent or what??????????????
Anyway back to gas mowers............... They need a new spark plug every spring,(DH'S JOB) then you have to mix the gas and oil,(DH'S JOB) but the worse thing is pulling the rope to get it started (MY JOB). It is a royal pain in the .............................. shoulder ( but you thought I was going to say 'butt'). Not only that but DH BROKE HIS ROUND TUIT. That means these things take for ever to get "around to it" .................... like sometimes never.

DD and friend came over on the weekend and mowed some of the backyard with the mower.............. HURRAH................ I didn't kill it. They put up the swimming pool for the DGD as the weather is very warm here and she has been bugging me to do it. I hurt my back on Friday and Saturday it was really , really sore. Didn't even feel like going quilting. Couldn't do much knitting as my brain was fogged due to the drugs and the pain ................. I mean more than usual. Today I am doing much better, not as many drugs and moving much better although I am still very cautious about what I do.

DH had a really bad tooth ache on Sunday. It ad been bothering him all week so of course it is worse on Sunday . He managed to find a dentist that worked on Sunday and they pulled it. It was a wisdom tooth that had broken off and he hadn't gone to get it looked at. He is on a liquid diet for a few days. Right now he has gone off to play in a checkers tournament with some friends. He says he isn't doing very well because he hasn't played checkers in years , poor dear.

I was in the Value Village last week and found treasure :-a swing for the swing set, three sweaters to take apart for the yarn in colours I love. and two plastic see through bags for knitting bags ( .99) Here are the sweaters.

This sweater is 100% merino and what a gorgeous colour. The sweater is so soft. (If you click on the photo it will enlarge and you can see the price I paid for each sweater)
















This is lamb's wool . It is much coarser than the merino but still very nice.




















This one is cashmere.


















This is a merino sweater I purchased a while back. I dyed it using blue and green food dyes. It didn't turn out quit the way I expected but when I unraveled the sleeve the yarn was lovely. It is a lace weight that I am going to make ...............................
................................... a ............ you guessed it ........... a shawl