rip it---rip it

!@#$%... what else could one say when you have to rip out 27 @#$%^&^ rows of knitting that you have struggled to figure out... and it is not a hard pattern, very simple, but lots of stitches (over 300)..i restarted it again last night and was one stitch out.. so ripped it out again... Larry told me to just leave the original mistake, but it was a very GLARING mistake, and no could miss it..he throws out scroll saw work if there is one tiny mistake that no one but him can see...I have 6 weeks to finish this, so i do have lots of time... and i will use the stitch markers from the beginning this time, and hopefully i won't make any more mistakes... i read the Yarn harlot http://www.blogger.com/Yarn%20Harlot, and she had the same problem, but it was over a week of mistakes..which i thought was really funny, until it happens to me..

spring day

What a beautiful day..+9 today and sunshine..Had to go into town for finally T4 stuff...got that done and then went to the Pool for an hour, just about wore me right out... and then 10 minutes in the hot tub... which was really nice...then to the bank to deposit Desert Mesa stuff and then home... had lunch and then fell asleep for half an hour... i knew that i would.. always do when i haven't been to the pool for awhile..trying to get into shape...
Larry and i went to Kamloops on Friday to visit an old couple that have been our friends for almost 40 years... they are 86 now.. Elsie had a couple of heart attacks and then had a stroke and is in an assisted living home, and her Hubby Danny lives in a seniors apartment right next door to the home... her new home is brand new and very lovely.. bright and shining..she is sharing a large twin room with her sister, which is good for both of them... Elsie lost her voice with the stroke and Florence can't walk too good, so Elsie does the hard things for Florence and Florence talks for Elsie...we had lunch with them, in a lovely private dining area... and as we were having lunch..9 beautiful Mule Deer walked thru the back lawn of the home..they were so special, especially for the old folks..Danny has always been really bossy, although when Elsie had her voice, she didn't take any guff from him, but now he does all the talking... Larry took him out for a bit, and i really enjoyed it as us girls could have a nice chat... well Florence and i talked and Elsie listened... Elsie taught me just about every thing i know about living on a ranch...how to make butter, milk a cow, kill a chicken, make cottage cheese, and ice cream, and i still use a lot of her recipes... her Spud Nut doughnut recipe is to die for...it breaks my heart that she can't talk...
Still working on the last shawl... girls at the Dream Spin suggested i use stitch markers to keep track of my stitches, and it works like a hot damn..thanks you guys..only got 400 yards of yarn left, so will have to call it quits soon, then i have a couple more to do for 60th birthdays... one to do for my friend living in the bush and Annie gave me some spun wool, beautiful coral colour, thought i would make another one for my mom..."feroses" spelling ..
Jesse and i are off to Agility trial on Sunday...15 of Maureen's class will be there...should be a good day... Jesse and I are doing better as we have been at it for 18 months.. I have quit taking Dixie as she just likes to visit... so Larry has been taking her to town with him... she just jumps in the truck when he warms it up... what a pair.... take care will write soon...

Marie's shawl

Toni just sent me the pictures she took of Marie's 60th Birthday shawl...a month or so early but i wasn't going to see her again... she wanted it made out of some of her own alpaca fibre... this was a white/black cria fleece that when carded together made a truly lovely grey...the pattern is "hanging flower garden" by Evelyn A Clark... it was free, but is now ya have to pay for it...lucky for me i did save it... I have made several of these... and they are easy to knit..

Nothing exciting around here, other than it SNOWED ... only a skiff, but just enough to make things muddy again...Larry left one of the cats in last night... and she drove us nuts... he never learns..it isn't too bad if she had been outside during the day, but when she is in all day sleeping, by bed time she is starting to wake up and wants to play...he is going to put her out really early tonight...and maybe we will sleep... sun is shining, so hopefully the snow will be gone soon... am watching the Scotties tournament... boy those women can curl..used to curl when i was a kid... lived in army bases, so they always had things for us to do... used to curl for $2 a year...

Dianne from Manitoba sent me this link to the "wild fibres" juried show... check it out

http://www.hwsda.org/photos/conference_2007_juried_show she did the felted critters...really interesting stuff.... better go and clean off my desk.... see ya soon

pictures

Hi... Andrea just sent me the pictures of the fingerless gloves we knit... they are all from Andrea's fibre...(half bred i think it was) don't they look good

two days in a row

Holy Smoke, two days in a row...i took some pictures of my recent spinnings... does anyone really mess up a project...Kathy Mc and I had a challenge two years ago when i went to Dream Spin, I didn't make it last year as "His Highness" was laid up with his broken leg, and the Coq and the Fraser Canyon were closed down..so she showed up with her project, and i didn't, so i took it this year... silk scarf, "hanging basket pattern"..so anyway we decided on another project... she had spun up some lovely multi colour silk, so i decided to do the same, I wanted to keep the colours together, so i decided to Navajo ply it... what a mess...i had stripped the silk too fine, and the colours were too close together, and as i don't normally Navajo ply, it wasn't pretty... way too over spun... i could tow a pickup with the stuff

I love the colours, but as you can see way too over spun...i had divided the 100 grams into two , and this is the second try
very much better, i am going to wet the first skein and take it out to Larry's shop, he says he has a weight that i can hang on it... he says it weights 50 lbs...
these are the two skeins side by side..the one on the left it the tow rope...the next picture is of a wonderful hand woven T towel, from Sheila S of our guild, she is very new to weaving and does a wonderful job... we traded a scroll sawed train(made by Larry) for the tea towel... i am delighted with it... don't ya love the colours... orange and black...she is a born weaver...
this next picture is of some silk i spun, way heavier than i usually do... the guild are working on some projects for our turn in the Arts gallery in September..we did the fingerless gloves, and the next project is a cowl ... so this will be my cowl project yarn... have to decide where to dye it or leave it natural... going to make it for my girlfriend who rides a Harley... will keep her neck warm
this next one is a skein of alpaca... one of my fibre boys.. Sparky who we lost a couple of years ago... a nice boy... this project is for a shawl for a friend who lives in the BUSH, near Wells... she lives without water, or hydro...so this will be a very simple, non frilly shawl... very practical..huge and warm...
Andrea took pictures of our fingerless gloves... so she will send them to me when her hubby is finished fixing them up, and Toni is going to send me pictures of Marie and her 60th birthday shawl, which turned out really good.... take care and see ya soon............

Wonderful island trip

Left for the coast Wednesday morning last week... went out for Chinese food with my Mom and my baby boy(28 years old) we had a great time... even went out to the Casino for an hour...i made a few bucks but not enough to build me a new house... I left for Toni's about 8 am... i didn't want to miss the ferry, so had a long wait when i got to the Terminal... but it was fine, wondered around the Quay and had a cuppa chia tea, and then read my book for a while..Met Toni at her place, went to visit her Mom, Maria who is a real sweet... I had picked up some roses for Maria, and she loved them...had a cuppa with her and then headed into town for a quick visit with Melody at a great wool shop... can't remember the name... i did buy a pair of bamboo circular needles for my new KAL shawl pattern... then we headed back to Toni's for a nice evening with her hubby... a sweet guy... Then Friday morning we headed into Chemainish (spelling)... wandered thru some neat little shops and then met Melody, Marie, and Cindy for a nice lunch...then headed off to the Retreat... nice drive out there...someday we will head right out to the west coast ... road was a little slippery and muddy going in... but it was great to be there... Had a nice surprise, Anita J was there from N Van, and Jan L was there from Shawnigan Lake... she used to live at Turtle Valley near Chase, and we hadn't seen each other for a couple of years... was great to see Anita again too...hopefully they will both be able to come up to Desert Mesa soon... Marie wasn't able to make it to the Retreat so we had Cindy stay with us...a really sweetie...I almost froze the first night... had pj bottoms, night gown, socks, sweat shirt and i was still cold.. so i went and stole a blanket off another bed... that helped...Great meals while we were there, roast, Yorkshire, veggies, gravy...one night then ham and scalloped spuds the second night... they also had the really great granola, i don't usually like granola, but everyone was raving about it so i tried some, and it was really good, the best i have ever tried... going to make myself some..

I took some great pictures...this is Melody modelling the shawl she made for her sister in law..feather and fan pattern on a circular shape...

This is a couple of kids who came to play for us...sorry can't remember their names... but they played foot stomping, toe tapping music.. they were great...

She was a skinny little thing,,, hope they do well

This is Melody resting and icing her very sore foot... she wore a ski boot type thingy all weekend... poor baby

This is Toni dancing in her chair... i sure wish i had used my video thingy on my camera... i will just have to learn to use it...It was a great weekend... I stayed overnight at Toni's and headed back to Mom for the night... Matt came over and we went out to the Olive Garden for supper... really great food...headed home around 9 am and was home by lunch... it was really great to get home and back to my new bed.. we had a guild meeting today, Andrea took pictures of the fingerless gloves we make... i will post them as soon as i get the pictures... see ya

where does the time go

Sorry i have been so long in writing, i sure don't know where the time goes these days... I don't get to town much these days, so life is pretty boring, we were having company on Saturday nite for cards, so i needed to wash floors, tidy up, get supper organized, make dessert, all that good stuff... we had pulled pork, 24 hour coleslaw, Caesar salad, home made buns, raw veggies and dip, and devilled eggs, and carrot cake... turned out really good...Dave and Steve love devilled eggs, so they really cleaned them up... We went to Kelowna on Thursday, as Larry had to go for an assessment on his ankle for Work Safe... what a joke, they tested his strength in his hands, and asked if that hurt his ankle, can you imagine...it was a lovely drive, and we had lunch at the pub next door...

Did i tell you we finally got our new bedroom suite, and new bed...got it on our anniversary.. Feb 2..room sure looks better, and we each have a dresser now... instead of just sharing one for 30 years...i even have empty drawers..it is so nice to be able to put things away after doing laundry... i was really bad at that...this is Larry's dresser... and the end of the sleigh bed..you would not believe the height of the bed, neither Larry or I are very tall, so it takes a jump to get into the bed... it is at least 36 inches off the floor... but it is very nice to sleep on...we haven't had a new bed for years and years... what a treat...


this is my dresser... don't ya love all the drawers...
this is another 60th birthday shawl... made with alpaca cria, in a lovely shade of grey... it is for Marie... who will be 60 the first of April, but she will get it on Thursday, as she isn't going to the retreat at lake Cowichan or coming to Desert Mesa in April... i usually buy the fibre, but she wanted one out of her aplaca fibre... i will take a picture of her in it on Thursday... hope she likes it...

this is Jackson and Dixie rough housing during the winter... they really get along well.. I am off to the coast on Wednesday, spending the night with my Mom and youngest son Matt is coming over for supper and then catching the ferry on Thursday, meeting up with Toni and Isabel and Marie for lunch and then over to Toni's for the night, and off to the retreat on Friday... back to Toni's on Sunday, and then on the ferry back to Moms on Monday, and then home on Tuesday... Wednesday is guild meeting... so the next week and a bit will be pretty busy...

I took Larry to M & M's so he had something easy to cook while i was gone, he is a terrible cook, so i hope he doesn't starve... he lives on eggs and bacon, and toast and beans... poor boy...

i did make him some bread today... don't they look good..I even bought some new loaf pans... glass ones, and they do a really good job...well i had better go get supper started... sweet and sour chicken with stir fried veggies... take care will take lots of pictures at the retreat....