End of the Month

At first it didn't look so good for my June spinning, but in the end I still go more done than I thought I would.

So, here it is, my June handspun yarn.


I still have to show two colorways on my Friday posts.

Here's a look at my Tour de Fleece fiber. I'm not certain that I'll spin it all, but I sure will give my best. There are three braids, several years old, but all are from FatCatKnits.



My Secret, Falkland, 4oz (an old colorway)
Toadstool, Merino, 8oz (another old colorway)
Esther, BFL, 8oz
Peacock, Falkland, 4oz
Pedal Pusher, Falkland, 8oz
Henry, Falkland, 8oz
Mixed Blessings Fiber Club Fall 2010, November, Merino, Bamboo, Nylon, 10oz
Mixed Blessings Fiber Club Winter 2011, Merino, 10oz

I can't wait to dig in!
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June 2011 socks

My private sock club socks for June are done! Have been for some time now. It was really hard to finish them. All of a sudden I almost could not muster the will to do the color work on the second sock. Serious second sock syndrome had befallen me, but I clenched my teeth, and finished them anyway. Need a break form color work for the next socks. (by the time I'm casting on for the July socks, I might have changed my mind), but I DO love them!


There's no pattern for these. I found the color work chart in the book "Estonian sock patterns all around the world" on page 79. I just made the socks up as I knit the first one, and it's easy to work the second, when you have stripes like that.



I love knitting socks with Wandering Cat Yarns Tabby Cat (the store is open again, I just realized)! It feels nice to me, even though it's not really that soft, and the colors are just wonderful.


I'm looking forward to colder weather so I can wear them.


Yesterday evening, I took the dogs out one by one, just before it got dark, and took some pictures.
First out was Happy, he was already crossing his legs, desperate to GO. He's such a sweetheart, sitting pretty for me.


Then came Maggie, she looks, and acts like a deer, so skittish. One moment she was here, the next she was gone.


Denny was last, but he was always on the move, and would not stand still for a photo. But I took this photo earlier, him being a hog again, and taking away the toys, leaving Happy looking confused and sad.


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There's lots going on here right now. I'm test knitting something secret, for a Mystery KAL, and I can't show anything until the KAL is over. I've finished my Through The Loops shawl for the Summer of Shawls KAL today, and it's blocking right now. Oh how I dislike blocking!
I've got a lot of cleaning to do over the next few days. I've selected my fiber for Tour de Fleece, all FatCatKnits fiber of course. I'll show a picture of it next blog post.

It's my DD Hannah's birthday tomorrow, but I need to catch her on the phone tonight, since it will be tomorrow in Sydney later today (I know, I'm just starting to get the time difference). Happy Birthday, Sweetie! (she does read here now and then)

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Handspun Friday - Gunslinger

Gunslinger: SCF May 2011 Fiber Club, Oatmeal BFL, 3.9oz







I've got 277yds, 3-ply. It's actually a little darker, but the camera wouldn't cooperate. At least this way one can see all the colors nicely. I like spinning any kind of BFL.

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I've joined another KAL, just could not help myself. It's Through The Loops Summer Shawl KAL. You have to be a member of Kirsten's Raverly group though. There will be prizes at the end. I have chosen to knit Andrea's shawl. I've had this pattern for quite some time, and never got around to knitting it. I'm using some handspun yarn.



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The pups are fine. We've had thunderstorms every day, and also during the nights. The pool filled up with rain water. Denny was a little spooked by thunder, and snuggled close to me. Nothing out of the ordinary happened with the pups. I've found out that Denny is grumpy whenever I'm grumpy, and vice versa. Happy has learned to open the lid where the filter basket of the pool is, because his floating toys get trapped there. I still have to get it out for him though.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

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So, what about Maggie

O.K. as I mentioned before, she'll live. What happened was, that Maggie was chasing after Denny, and he's had to work hard to stay ahead. They came zipping down from the upper part of our back yard, when Maggie was too fast to go around the pool steps, and thought she could clear it, lengthwise, with one leap. Not! She almost made it, but as the following skid marks show, she had a bad landing.
Poor baby!


Here you see tiny hairs from her front leg, hind leg, and from the underside of her jaw. That's were we found her wounds. We were sure she's broken something or other, crushed her rib cage, it looked horrible.



I know they are hard to see, but they are so tiny! We held our breath, and I had one hand in front of my mouth, my heart dropped, and I felt faint. Maggie though, just collected herself, and continued on, on her hunt for Denny. We watched her for the rest of the day, for limping etc. but she didn't seem worse for wear. Thank goodness!

Next day, I found Happy licking HER wounds, and she was just relaxing, letting him. Denny was licking her ears.



Well, and I wanted to take pictures of these blooming bushes (once again, no clue what they are called), but Denny thought it needed some pup in the picture to be interesting.



I always thought those bushes are nothing special, until I took this close up today. Wow, what a beauty! Looks like there are silver beads at the ends, so pretty.



And the other day, these two ducks landed in the pool, just to hop out of it right away, and waddled under the trees, to take a long nap.


They stayed there for more than a couple of hours. I didn't let the dogs out, when I saw them, didn't want to scare them. I thought they deserved a safe, nice nap.

I also found out, that we have baby bunnies in one of our high flower beds again. I was watering them, when two tiny ones took off, scared from the ice cold water. Even with three dogs, the bunnies still love to come into our backyard. At least it's not skunks!

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After I saw Claudia's beautiful presentation of the Rustic Raspberry Tart, I had to get the recipe and give it a try. There's a lot of room for improvement though. I haven't done this kind of dough in a while, and I used fresh raspberries, and after the dough was all golden brown, the berries were still very watery. I still could hardly wait to cut a piece and dig in. Wow, those fruits were sour, I'm still puckering my mouth, just thinking of it. Would have been nice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but there wasn't any in my freezer. How about that?!



Well, that's it for today. :o)

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Cerasifera shawl

I finally can show you Kirsten Kapur's newest shawl design. Cerasifera shawl, which I was lucky enough to test knit for her, was released yesterday.







I loved the main part with the mesh stitch pattern. But first I had to get some addi lace circs in the right size. The ones I had before where too blunt, and a pain to work with.



The yarn is 50/50 merino/silk, and has a wonderful drape. I love the feel of it, when I have this shawl in my hands.



There's Maggie whizzing by in the back ground. That girl is always on the move.


Since this is a rather small shawl, I'm going to use it as a scarf. (it might go to Hannah though, she likes my grey shawls, and I'm going to let her pick and chose one).



Kirsten's patterns are always so very well written, and easy to follow.



pattern: Cerasifera shawl by Kirsten Kapur
yarn: Wandering Cat Yarns Slinky Cat , I used 1.08 skeins = 469.8yds. (unfortunately the shop is closed right now, until Canada Post strike/lockout is resolved)
needles: 4.5mm addi lace circs (very much needed for this shawl)
size after blocking: 23" x 54"
start-finish: May 31 - June 4, 2011

***
And just a little fact about the pups. They made me laugh again this morning. With three dogs, it happens that the water bowl gets dry from time to time. Once that happens, instinct kicks in, and Denny (or Maggie, not Happy so far) dig in the bowl for water. While I was filling it up again, I saw Maggie digging at the spot where the bowl usually stands. Maybe Denny had it wrong, and the right spot is under the bowl?
Next time I'll tell you about Maggie's accident yesterday, I want to show you something, but don't have the photo on this computer yet. Let's just say, she'll live, but she scared the hell out of us.

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FatcatKnits TdF 2011

FatcatKnits TdF 2011, a photo by FatCatKnits on Flickr.

I've never participated in such a thing, but today I've decided I want to give it a try. So I signed up with the FatCatKnit's TdF group on Ravelry.



This is just a reminder for myself : Start July 2 - Finish 24

We'll see how much FatCatKnits fiber I can spin during that time.

Handspun Friday - Time Lord

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Just the right temperatures. Of course the dogs enjoyed a swim or two. Denny destroyed another floating toy, and Maggie got some swimming lessons. First we had to put the boys inside. I had to put a collar on her, so I could grab her. I picked her up, and put her in my son's arms, who was waiting in the pool. She did not struggle at first. I must say, she's not a natural swimmer. She pawed the water in panic, and ALWAYS went for the edge, instead of the stairs. We tried it three times, she can swim, but does not enjoy it so far. Anyway, we'll try again another day. She obviously had had enough for the day.



After everybody got good and wet, we go upstairs to sit on the deck for a while to get dry. It can get pretty hot up there.

I had to go back down to get something, and when I returned, Denny made some god awful noise, as if I'd been away for a week. I wish you could hear him, it's embarrassing sometimes, the way he yaps on, and on.





I'm not spinning as much these days, but sure would love to do more. I still get things done, although at a slower pace.

This is Time Lord, a Southern Cross Fiber May 2011 Fiber club offering. It's oatmeal BFL.









I chain plied it, and got 314yds.
I'm working on the second colorway right now. This should make some nice socks some day.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

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A June morning ...

Yesterday morning, after we had breakfast, after I trained Maggie (and Denny, and Happy, because they watched her, and were eager to go through the motions as well), after horsing around for a while, they finally settled down for a couple of minutes.


Maggie was chewing a bone, and the boys just chilled. I think Denny is a little under the weather from the shots he got last Friday.
We've removed the old sofa, which Denny destroyed, and rearranged the crates, and the red sofa. The two little ones get to be in the Giant sized crates when we are gone, and Happy uses the sofa, but all of them sleep on it during the day. We hung some black fabric in front of the back window, to keep the heat out. They now have a lot more room to run around inside, which is especially great on rainy days.

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I've also finished another shawl. It's Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur. A pleasurable knit, which begs to be repeated. So many color choices to choose from, hard to decide.



I was told, that this shawl looks old fashioned, but even if it does, I think it's still nice looking.



I really like working with grey at the moment. It's so easy to pair it with other colors.



pattern: Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur
yarn: Wandering Cat Yarns in WCY Slinky Cat (light grey), WCY Alley Cat (dark grey), and WCY Slinky Cat (natural), and some green left over from another project.
size after blocking: 23" x 53"
needles used: 4.5mm

It's got super drape, and feels wonderful. Slinky Cat is 50/50 merino/silk, just lovely.


The loopy edge took some time to knit, and I didn't mind (it's the same I used for my Mohana shawl btw), but if I knit this shawl again, I'll just do a simple picot edge or a crochet one. Other than that, it's another beautiful pattern by Kirsten, and well written.

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Now I'm focusing on getting some gift knitting done, like socks, mittens, hats etc. I finished my June socks as well, but it was hard to work on them, I didn't feel like doing colorwork at all.

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What to do on a rainy day?

First, bake something, like a pan of double chocolate brownies!



Delish with fresh, hot tea!

Amongst other nick names this is my double fudge "Brownie", watching the world go by.


And my sugar hon, has the most wonderful brown eyes!



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Handspun Friday - Gemstone & Absolute Gecko

I've finished these yarns some time ago. Even before I've finished my first Taygete shawl, I started spinning for a second one, but now I don't know if I really want to knit another one.

The fiber is Spinning Awesome Good, merino/tussah silk, Aboslute Gecko and


Gemstone in merino/tussah silk.


I've decided to spin them together, 2-ply, 256yds,

and 447yds,


plus 188yds for the lace part.


I like seeing them together.


I've also finished, and sent off Hannah's birthday socks. They are nothing special. I used Regia Bamboo, they are so soft, and shiny, and machine washable, which is a big bonus. I don't really like the colorway, but all my nice looking yarn is not machine washable, and since I have a lot of
Regia in my stash, it needs to be knit up as well.

They are knit with 56 sts, with ribbing on the back of the legs. They will be useful, and hidden in boots anyway. I hope they'll arrive on time.

Today's a doctors day, with one appointment in the morning for me, and with Happy and Denny in the afternoon, for booster shots. Bleh.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

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