Monday 27 April 2009

too tired to add much















I am home and recovering from two retreats. I will write more tomorrow and add titles to the photos.

Saturday 11 April 2009

dying

Silk that is. I don't know if you remember me talking about the day we made a mess at Iris' but when we were cleaning up there was some dye left over. We put some wet silk batting in plastic bags and added dye in varying amounts. No measuring so of course the results can't be repeated ........................... LOL ............................ I really don't mind this. I like surprises as long as they are nice ones.

Iris tells us to take the bags home and leave them somewhere warm for 24 hours .................. OH OH Iris e-mails .......... there is no soda ash in the dye so it won't set ........................ A week later I manage to remember to buy soda ash .......... add it to the baggies, leave by the heat overnight and this is what the result was:




Now there was still some dye in the bags so I thought OKAY I can dye some more silk............ Right ............................... NOT REALLY .................. I forgot that there was a limited "life span" for these dyes. So what I got was anemic celery, pathetic pewter, baby puke yellow and insipid orange.




I NEEDED A COLOUR FIX SO .............................. food colouring and vinegar gave me this:



Now I am wishing this silk was nice enough to spin .................... except for the wishy-washy stuff that is. Oh well I will have to find some thing interesting to do with the lovely colours.

So WNK at the pool hall was fun. There was 9 of us and a wee one. I worked on the BLACK fingerless gloves for DD #2 . Fortunately there is no pattern just 4X2 ribbing. I really dislike working with black as I really can't see it well any more......... So what colour do all my children choose for the projects I am making them ???.................. Well BLACK of course ............. it is nice that 2 out of 3 of the future in-laws have chosen colours. Liz likes red and Aaron likes blue.

No knit night at Knitopia but I met Gail there about 4:30. She hadn't been to the sale so found some yarn she couldn't live without. I paid for the yarn Lynne had put aside for me, after I shared some of the yarn with Gail and Doris. Doris bought a lot of cotton yarn. (I was really good ............... honest ............ I only spent $10.00.)
After all that shopping Gail offered to take me for coffee so we went to McBernies and chatted until 6:30.

Friday,I stayed home other than going for groceries. I did make some more stitch markers and did some laundry.
I have almost finished the shawl I am test knitting , then to finish the sample shawl. It will be nice to have these finished so I can start another shawl or maybe even finish one that has been resting.
Whoops, my turn to go for the coffee, back in a moment.

Okay I am back with coffee and a sandwich. DH didn't want a sandwich so is going to look after himself. I am glad I married a man who cooks.
We are watching "Clear and Present Danger" on TV and critiquing the continuity and the foolish things the characters do.
Like Jeff Foxworthy says " don't they listen to the music" ............................... they always play "scary music" when something bad is going to happen.

Well I should really go and do some ..................... are you ready for this ............................ are you sure ...............................
I ..... yes I ... am going to do some housework. We need clean clothes although people might pay us to put clothes on if we go out naked. On the other hand we might get arrested which wouldn't be good so I am off to do LAUNDRY.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Catching Up

Well I checked and it is only a week since my last post. I have been so busy it feels like two weeks. So lets review.

Last Wednesday I went to the sale at Knitopia for maybe 2 hours (give or take an hour) and purchased many balls of lovely wool yarn at $1.00/ball ........................ yea you read that right. Don't you love a sale like that. I know Lynne didn't make any money on me just cleared some space. You really can't tell that she cleared any space because more stuff came in from the storage unit. You could go every day and see different yarns. So that night at the Pool Hall I showed a sampling of what I bought (there was too much to take it all) Believe it or not DH sent me to the sale , NO YOU CAN"T HAVE HIM. Socklady Lynne joined us for the evening. It was very nice to see her again. She and Gail were going to the Whidby Island Spin-in. I was supposed to go as well but had to go to DD stagette inside, but that story is coming.

This brings us to Thursday:
Kim and I had coffee in Ft Langley and I was 1 hour late.................... darn #*^# Ferry. I don't know why all those people have to take the ferry when I have to be some place on time. If I had been thinking I would only have been 1/2 late because I would have taken the free-way. If I had been more together I would have read the time correctly and not have been late at all. Do you ever have one of those days when you get up ................. look at the clock and think ....... OH 7:55............. I have time to have coffee, eat breakfast, read my e-mail , get dressed and be in Ft. Langley by 9:30. Well maybe your not going to Ft. Langley but you know what I mean.
Kim and I had a lovely visit and caught up on what we had been doing for the last 3-4 years and promised each other to stay in better contact. Then we both had to go ........... she was teaching a class and I was helping teach 8 year olds to knit at DGD school. That was fun and I get to do it again this Thursday. I think the plan is the children make a scarf for Mother's Day. Shelby was doing very well as I had already taught her to knit......... her Mother and I both asked her not to brag about how many rows she had done........... secretly I was very proud and I did tell her later.

Thursday evening I was at Knitopia for fibre night (knitting, spinning or rug hooking your choice of activity) and I just happened to browse through the yarn I hadn't seen the day before. Sharon bought most of the Briggs and Little that was there
and I was very restrained and only bought a few balls of $1.00 yarn.

Friday was quite Bill and I spent some time together and I had a nap in the afternoon as I was still recovering from the sinus infection. Does anyone else find that antibiotics "knock the S#$% out of them?????????? It sure does me.

Saturday:- I think I did some dishes and laundry, worked on my knitting, and went to Cory's stagette. We met at Bailey's Pub for drinks and then went to the Gourmet Hide-a-way ( actually the downstairs lounge - the upstairs requires more formal attire) had some food and the plan was to go on to Shooters. I didn't have my medication and developed A STUPID SINUS HEADACHE AND AN EAR ACHE AND HAD TO GO HOIME. I WAS HAVING A GREAT TIME. Anyway here is one not very good photo of me with Cory and three of the girls that were there. I think there was about 12-15 of us. It was hard to keep track as some of the girls came and went and came back. I didn't know all of them and couldn't remember all the names. They on the other had just called me MOM so didn't have to remember my name. They did think Cory had a COOL MOM.





Sunday- Shelby had spent the night. After breakfast she and I went out and worked on her playhouse. We put up some curtains and shelves. I will have to remember to take a photo as soon as DH MOVES THE TRUCK OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE YARD. We have always had different views on what a yard is for. I think it is a place to watch children play, garden, relax, entertain friends ( when the weather is nice unless they are friends you don't want any more). Bill on the other hand thinks it is a place to store parts and park vehicles. I am bound and determined to win this time around and NOT have vehicles parked on the grass. He has a drive way to park vehicles and 2 YES TWO shed to store STUFF.

Well that brings us to today. Oh yes my car doors work when the weather is nice. I mean really they do. Yesterday Shelby went to get something out of the car for me and opened the drivers side door ................ NO PROBLEM...... Today it is nice and sunny again and the driver's side door opens just fine. IT DOESN"T LIKE THE RAIN............................ only I would get a car that doesn't like rain.
I went to Inge's 65th Birthday party at my FORMER work place. It was fun and I saw some of the people I have missed. It was interesting though. I told Bill I was going to a party at the Hospital, before I would have said at work even though I had retired. ............ I guess this means my brain has finally realized that I am retired from there........... nothing slow about me.
It is now 5:17 am and I am going back to bed. My asthma has settled down and I should be able to get some more sleep before I have to getup and do some house work around here. The cleaning fairies just don't seem to be doing their job