This and That!

So, Monday was not as bad, as I thought it would be. It often is like that. I expected the worst. Right in the morning, the electrician told us, that he would be done with his work around 3PM, but he didn't know when the power would be turned on again, from our electrical supplier. Well, We came home around 3PM, having been running errands, and going for a nice walk with the pups, having lunch in the car, with the view of a lovely park. We let the pups run around the back yard, for about an hour, and shortly after 4PM the power was back on! Not bad, eh?
Also, the weather held until 4PM, at which point it started raining.
I went to the Library to get some books to read (fiction), but also some knitting, and crochet books, to browse. That was Monday.
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Today, it rains, and rains, and rains. I feel cold. I didn't think to leave out enough warm clothing, when we put away our stuff into storage. I have only two pairs of knit socks, and one has developed a major hole at the toes. So I grabbed some lovely Wandering Cat Yarn in the colorway "Siamese Dreams", last night, and cast on a sock.


I like it very much, but it was hard to find a stitch pattern for it. I've tried to knit a cowl with it, but hated the look of it. I originally bought this yarn to knit a pooling scarf, but found out about myself, that I'm too impatient for that (right now). Maybe another time. So socks it is. I really need another pair, and fast. These socks are from "The little box of socks" by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott, and it's called "Faceted Rib Socks".


BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

I'm going to open my little online shop coming Saturday. You will be able to see what's for sale before that though. I hope you'll enjoy it! I'll be selling some of my handspun yarn, and with time, I'll put some original design knits up there as well. We'll see how it goes.

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I always wanted to show you these photos of the boys. I took them some time ago, when our old kitchen looked still like that. Denny was still little. I just liked the colors in these pictures.




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Della mittens!

I'm really missing the opportunity to go to my book shelves and look up something or other in my knitting books. I used to have them in a certain order, so that I would go there, grab the book I wanted, and browse through it.
Good thing, there are many free patterns to find. Like these lovely mittens called Della mitts. They are fingerless mitts, but I made them into full mittens. More useful I think. I sent them to my mom with these socks. She already wore the socks, and liked them, which makes me very happy.








specifics: Della mitts by Holly Terrel
yarn: Wandering Cat Yarns Alley Cat, colorway: Baby, sw merino/nylon
needles: 2.5mm
This was the pair of mittens, where I had to knit a third mitten, since Denny ate one, while they were laid out drying. I still had some yarn left over after finishing the third mitten.

I haven't knit a whole lot lately. I finished another pair of mittens, and on some evenings I picked up my "Surrounded" lap blanket. It will get done eventually, as long as I keep knitting on it. But other than that, I miss my stash. I want to do so many things, but all my yarn is boxed up somewhere. I left out some yarn, but only sock yarn. I thought I'd knit socks during the renos, but lost my sock mojo. It's really frustrating, to know it's all THERE, but I can't get to it. Oh well. I'll suck it up!

Meantime, I'm working on setting up an online shop, so I can sell some of my handspun yarn occasionally. I really would rather just create, and leave the "business" side of this to somebody else though! And that's what I've done the last weeks. A lot of spinning. There's enough fiber to keep me busy, and it never gets boring, with the different kinds of fiber, and colors.

So, as I said before, tomorrow will be a little hard on us, but we most likely will survive. Talk to you in a couple of days ...
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Aren't Lazy Boys comfortable chairs?
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Handspun Friday - Gay Abandon & Serenity

I'm very happy to be in David's Fiber Club. August's club fiber was Finn. It's not the softest of fibers. I would not put it near my neck, but it's good enough for socks, and mittens. I had a lot of trouble with that fiber. At first, Denny ate some of Serenity. I never got into a spinning flow either. I usually pre-draft the fiber, as I did with this one. David said, next time I should not pre-draft it. Well, I'm all for learning new things.



Serenity is the green/blue/ocker colorway. I've got ~168yds, navajo plied yarn of it.
Gay Abandon of course is the other colorway. I've got ~ 181yds, navajo plied yarn of this one. Both colorways are quite pretty, I think.
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Coming Monday the Electrician will be working in the house all day. They'll cut the power at 8:30AM until 6PM. I have no idea what we'll going to do during all those hours. We can't stay in, we would be in the way. We can't stay in the backyard all day either. There's only so many hours you can go somewhere, and go for walks, when you have dogs to think about too. I'm just hoping it wont rain!
They finished the wood floor in the living room. There's only the dining room floor left now, but they wont do it now, for whatever reason. There's other stuff they want to do first. Then there are the stairs, and railing etc. left to do.
Even though it's getting on our nerves, I love the way the floors, and the walls turned out. Exactly like I imagined it! :o)
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And here are the boys. I was playing fetch with Happy, when I told him to sit, before I threw the ball, and Denny thought he'd join us. It's impossible to get them to sit side by side, but I was tickled, that Denny would sit at all. He's the most stubborn dog ever!


Of course I had to hear all about it, making them sit. He just can't close his yap!


Wish you all a wonderful weekend!
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Thunderstorms

The last couple of days, and nights we had thunderstorms. The sky went from this

to this.




It gets really dark inside, while outside the rain comes down in buckets. But it's fun to watch, as long as we don't have to be outside.
I'm doing this: a lot of spinning:


and the boys are rummaging through the chew toy bin.

It used to be a wicker basket, but Denny started to chew it to pieces, so we replaced it with this blue bin. Trouble is, it's higher, and it's harder for them to get into it so we put a tool box in front of it. It's not filled up to the prim, because Denny has reduced the amount of toys by half with his energetic chewing. So, he has to work hard, to get something out of it. Every time I see him trying really hard, I have to laugh. But he's always victorious.


And the renos still continue, forever I think. They finished putting down the wooden floors upstairs, and started putting it down in the living room today. There is still soooooo much to do. Not a single room is totally finished. Either there's still some paint job to do, or some electrical stuff, back splash tiles in the kitchen, and hundred things more.
I'm getting really sick of the hammering. It's like they do it directly on my nerves. I just want it to be done already.
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Ze boyz!

Fall is as good as here, and I still have some photos to show from this summer. At the beginning of summer, right before the renovations started, we spent a lot of time out on the deck. Happy soon realized that our new chairs felt the same as their dog bed.
At first he put his paws, and his chew toys on the seat. It took him several days, and many tries, to find a comfortable position on a chair. I think he felt pretty proud of himself, when he did it.
Of course he could not enjoy it as much as he wanted to, due to the little annoying fur ball, biting his paws, and yapping away at him.












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Handspun Friday - Hydrangea

It's always a pleasure to spin SAG flowers into fine yarn. This time I decided on a real 3-ply yarn. I used a scale to divide it into three equal parts, or so I thought.


I've planted five Hydrangea in my front yard this year. There are blue ones, pink ones, and yellowish/white ones. We'll see what color they'll be next year, since it depends on the PH in the soil. I like them all.
When Shelby offered Hydrangea as a colorway, I could not resist.



The fiber base is BFL, 4oz, and I've got 231yds of 3-ply yarn. To my surprise I had left over singles on two bobbins, and navajo plied those into 46yds of left over yarn. The weight of the three parts before spinning was off by about 2grams; at a certain point you can't divide it anymore. So I guess even a couple of grams make a big difference, since the finished yarn was the same weight. It looks like I've spun it fairly even.
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Lately I've been thinking of selling some of my handspun yarn. I'm certainly producing more than I can kit right away. Would there be some interest in general?
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The boys are still swimming, after a good run in the back yard, even though the water is ice cold by now. Afterwards they do feel chilly, so they welcome a blanket until they are dry again.

Turns out, while I'm playing fetch with Happy, Denny is either digging or chewing on a branch. He's a lazy pup. He does not like to run around, and he has zero retrieving genes in him. Maybe once or twice while we are outside, he chases Happy, to bite his tail, or his hind leg (still, has not outgrown that stage), or they both chase a bird, of all things! They both hate birds, squirrels they don't care about as much. Even a little running, makes Denny feeling hot and tired, so he goes for a lovely swim in the pool. He seems really to enjoy just swimming around, while Happy always has to fetch something out of the water, and does not swim around just do cool off. He needs a purpose.



On the reno front: They've put in the wood floor in my bedroom. Now they can install the new closets and cabinets there as well. They didn't work on the kitchen yesterday, because they are waiting for the counter top to be delivered, and other little things. I don't care as long as they do SOMETHING. Today only a painter showed up to do touch ups, and a million other small painting things. I'm so glad I don't have to do this myself.
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I wish you all a wonderful weekend!
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PS I've been really bad in answering emails lately. I think it's because I don't have five minutes at times, without being interrupted. This drives me crazy, and makes me cranky. I hope to get back into it soon.
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Adrenalin

The boys gave me a big fright today. I'm still shaking. They were playing, and I was spinning, when Denny started to squeal, and Happy growled like a mad dog. At first I thought they started a real nasty fight, but soon discovered that it was something else.

Denny likes to grab Happy's collar and tug. This time his jaw got stuck somehow. It must have hurt, and Happy got mad, so Denny rolled on his back to be submissive, but that twisted the collar even more. Happy could hardly breath, and was standing over Denny, who squealed even more. I could not get to the snap, the collar was so tight, and I also couldn't find it. I think it was were Denny got stuck. Somehow I got his jaw loose, and they fell apart.

Denny had emptied his anal glands in fear. I took off the collars of both of them and put them in their crates to recover. When I let them out again, Denny immediately went into play position. They sniffed each other gingerly, and licked their muzzles, and finally tails wagged again, and they settled down underneath my desk.

I think I've never heard or seen such a horrible scene. From now on, they wont be wearing collars inside the house., that's for sure.

Our old house!

I'm so excited, I just have to share this with you! Our old house, the one we renovated for twelve years before we moved to Canada is on the market again. There are five photographs to look at, and one is of the kitchen! I loved this kitchen. We did most of the renovations ourselves, but the best part was the kitchen. It hasn't changed that much, except I never had such a mess. They even kept the kitchen table and the chairs. Some of the back splash tiles I put up myself. I've never been back to see the house inside. We just drove by, whenever we were in the neighborhood, when visiting Austria.

Here's the link to our old house.

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Since the link will not be there forever, here are the photos:

Take a hike!

I LOVE fall! I know it's not quite Fall yet, but summer is as good as over. The temperatures proof it! So Friday, we went to the park, but only to have lunch there. Before that we discovered a nice trail, which goes alongside the shallow East Holland River. The trail is called Nokiidaa trail. It's 35km long, stretching from Aurora to Holland Landing, but we only walked a short distance. We'll definitely will go back there, better prepared.


Even a rusty bridge can be beautiful! Too bad there was a tractor tire in the river. Way in the back there were hundreds of ducks.



Look at this perfectly behaved puppy! It was a pleasure to walk him. All this was accomplished by putting on the Barkbuster collar we got for Happy. I just had to put it on, and he was a changed dog. I don't even had to correct him. (After taking the collar off, he's the same old, wild Denny boy as ever.)


It was pretty hard for Denny to walk nicely, since I think it was the first time we went on a trail with him. So many smells, and sounds. Can you see he's getting cocky again? (tail up) There were many people with dogs, cyclists, people just walking. It could have been perfect, if it were not for all the dog poop left and right. NOBODY is picking up after their dogs, it looks like! DS stepped into a big heap, which he thinks must have come from a Great Dane. That's really too bad.


Happy was the leader, because whenever he had to walk behind me and Denny he was a whiny wreck.



I didn't get a good shot of the ducks. It was amazing to see so many of them.


Sitting still for a photo, when he'd rather chased the cyclists, other dogs, or the ducks. Anything, but sitting still, but he did it!
Unfortunately my camera batteries dyed, after this photo.
I can't wait to get back there!
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Handspun Friday-Ode to Sunflowers & Troublemaker

Well, even for me this orange flower ( first installment of SAG fiber club), was too much orange. As I was predrafting it, I felt overwhelmed by it, so I decided to grab the next bag of fiber, to ply it with. It happened to be Hello Yarn Fiber Club - Troublemaker, in variegated BFL.



It was fun to spin, both colorways. As you can see, the orange still came through strong, albeit a bit toned down.
I've got 2 skeins, 2-ply, total of 329yds.



This was taken shortly before we moved downstairs. Happy's big head in my lap, while I'm spinning.





Plus a photo of our Ninja puppy. The louse destroyed two leashes last night, within seconds. I know, it's all my fault, but at the rate he's going, he should spend all his time in a crate, and I just can't do that. But, I have to say, he's 100% better then he was, hard to believe isn't it?!
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We are off to spend time away from home, since the electrician is doing his work today. We've got some errands to run anyway, and we'll go to a park to walk the dogs.
I'm looking forward to the weekend without the workers around. Yesterday we had a set back, because we discovered that one of the kitchen cabinets was not as we ordered it, and the guy who did the ordering was pissed off, that we wouldn't take the one what was delivered. Also they unpacked glass cabinet doors, when we didn't ever want them in the first place. We even looked at them in place, but it's just not what I wanted, so they have to be replaced as well. So everybody was in a foul mood after that.
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Then we waited, and waited for a guy to show up to fix the gate at the side of the house. It was hard enough to find somebody who is willing to do repairs on a chain link fence. All except that one guy said, they don't do work under $ 300. Well, this guy didn't show up either, but he left us waiting. The only thing going well was the Eavesthrough guy. He came and worked until it was dark, so he could finish everything in one day. It looks good, and what's more important, rain can come now, it wont do harm to the house and garden anymore.
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We are getting ready to leave the house, but first I have to dispose of a dead bird I found, before the pups get a hold of it. Poor little sparrow.
I wish you all a wonderful weekend!
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Maia mittens!

I've purchased Romi Hill's e-book 7 small shawls to knit some time ago. Only with the purchase of this e-book will you get the pattern for these lovely fingerless mittens - Maia. They go with the Maia shawl, if one wants too. I have yet to knit the shawl, but I had to knit the mittens right away!



I usually don't like pooling, but I love these mittens. I had some beads left over, and still have more, maybe for another pair.


I made the longer version. The only regret I have is, that they are not full mittens. I think I'll make the next pair full mittens, since I use those more than fingerless mittens.



The yarn is Wandering Cat Yarns Alley Cat, colorway Iris. I used a little more than half a skein.



The long weekend is over. The workers didn't come on Friday at all. That was fine with us. It was a nice break from all of it. The plumber DID come on Friday and hooked up the washing machine, and the dryer, and installed the new laundry room sink. The laundry room still is not done, there's some painting left to do, and the boards around the window have to be installed.
They are working on the kitchen today. Can't wait to see what they did, at the end of the day.

Happy has to go in for a Vet's appointment, his yearly checkup. My son will take care of that. Meanwhile I'll do some training with Denny. He was driving me crazy, with his antics. He destroyed a pair of bamboo circs, but I was thankful, that he didn't chew on the blanket which was tangling off the circular needle.
We did however have a breakthrough with his training. We used Happy's Barkbuster collar on him. Happy does not need it anymore, and we were desperate to try something new. I only had to correct Denny twice, and he walked like a lamp to be slaughtered, no more jumping up, and pulling on the leash, sitting at once, when I stopped. He's a changed dog, as long as he has this collar on. After training I take it off, and he jumps around and yapps, like crazy, so happy to have it over with, until next time.
Well, I better get going. So much to do.
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Handspun Friday - Tomato and Aqua

This spring I dyed a few bumps of Norwegian fiber. This was one of them. Tomato & Aqua mainly. I love this color combo. I wanted to make sock yarn with it. Norwegian fiber is rough, but it will do for socks. My feet can take it.


It turned into over twisted navajo plied yarn. Looked at the cute curls on top! Well, over twisted yarn is hard yarn, rope like, even if it's fingering weight rope. I still wanted to knit socks with the yarn. (~ 243yds)


Since I thought 243yds would not give me a pair of socks for my size 11 feet, I made them toe up, and thought lets knit until I run out of yarn. I divided the yarn into two balls (with a scale). As I was sure I had not enough yarn, I looked for something in my stash for the cuffs and heels. I found some Regia sock yarn. I think it turned out O.K.

Here they are, toe up socks, with afterthought heels. It's a good example for over twisted yarn. See how the stitches slant to one side? I do love how the yarn striped however. I was surprised that I got full sized socks in the end. I don't really like anklets, so I was pleased.
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Meanwhile, we bought an electric nail trimmer. They boys are spooked when I turn it on. Neither one wants to let me near their feet with it. I turn it on several times a day, playing with it on the floor, letting them sniff it. Happy wanted to grab it and run away with it, even turned on. Denny just keeps his distance and barks at it. Hm.
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The renos: The tile floor in the hallway, kitchen, powder room, and laundry room is done, and I love it! It's exactly like I wanted it. Some rooms are finished painting, and some still are waiting for the last coat to be applied. The upstairs rooms got some very light gray, almost white, but not quite. The hallway got another shade of gray, and the kitchen, dining room, and my crafts room/living room got all the same shade of green.
First time around the green was not right (Jelly bean green), but the shade we got now is perfect. Pictures once everything looks nicer. It's still all a construction site right now. Today the electrician was hard at work. Only he installed the wrong pot lights. Too bad, but he'll have to remove them and put the right ones in. But the new lights in all the rooms are installed, just need the right size of light bulbs.
Anyway, coming Tuesday the kitchen cabinets will be installed. I'm sooooo looking forward to that! We've got the appliances delivered, which are now waiting in the garage. We'll be getting the laundry room done before the weekend as well! Big YEAH!
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Have a wonderful weekend! It's a long one for us in Canada!
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