The Deck

The deck and one of the back doors with the lovely green plastic chair that I sit in to drink my coffee - not this am due to rain but most every other day

Note to the frugal gardeners among you:

The Weeping Nootka False Cypress was in the hurt plant bin at Humber Nurseries at half price - must be 12 years or so ago - was 50.00 - bought it for 25.00. It was a mere stick and wobbled in the pot. TLC and a bit of water got it to its current state

The red Japanese Maple on the left was a 10.00 yearling bought at a Bonsai show several years ago - now about 12 feet tall

The Hosta in the green pot is a division (one of many many divisions) of one of my first Hostas bought 20 years ago or so - I have given away about 20 such divisions and have kept about 10. I think it originally cost 4.00. The pot was a Loblaws garden centre 9.95 deal

The green plastic chair was 20.00 at Dominion about 8 years ago - the last of the original 4 I bought at the time.

And this Redbud was from LEAF's backyard tree programme - a Toronto city funded initiative to get greenery into peoples' backyards - $25.00. Has your city/town/... a similar programme or have they thought about one?

Raindrops on Redbuds and whiskers on kittens.... These are a few of my favourite things.

Have any of you been watching "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" on CBC-TV - sundays and Mondays. John Barrowman is worth a look.......!!!!

All pictures taken using my Nikon D70s by my DD Katherine

Saying good bye to one laptop and hello to the new

My dear friend Ainslie (Hi Ainslie!),


has been longing for a blog post so here goes.

My old laptop which is a giant and acquired in a misguided quest to replace my desktop is leaving me tomorrow and will be replaced by a smaller, more compact version (Dell Vostro 1510 - Vostro because it still ships with Windows XP - and who ever thought that Windows XP would be more desirable when its first buggy version arrived on the scene but don't get me started on Vista......)

Very excited!

I just had a small deck put on the back of the house - just big enough for a few pots of plants and a chair for me to sit and have my morning coffee with Arthur (Golden Retriever) at my feet.

I can see these from my deck:

Clematis

and these will soon be open and happily playing with the clematis:



Sanguisorba

Puddles approves!

Been a while...

Such a long time since I last blogged.

Been knitting and all but not much to show for it as I have, as usual, too many projects on the go and I spread my time out ... a little bit of this and a little bit of that

Tonights bits were:

3 hexagons of the Spiral Swirl Scarf in JoJoLand Melody - lovely soft superwash fingering weight wool wit long, subtle colour changes. This was a Maryland Sheep and Wool impulse purchase . Great effect. I have 11 hexagons done (the first row is 18 and then it alternates between 20 and 18 for 4 more rows) so as I said on Ravelry, 11 down , 8 million to go

A few inches of colour work on my July SOTM in progress, experimenting with reversing colours. Not saying any more about that one so it'll be a surprize

A few rounds on my Vine Lace tank (Veronik Avery pattern). The rounds are pretty much endless and the yarn very fine so not much progress gets done.

Recently finished things are:

Danish Tie Shawl - knitted in Noro Kureyon Sock in garter stitch which even sout the yarn and softens it up a little. Nice colour striping action there. It isn't a secret that there will be a new Noro sock yarn soon - Silk Garden Sock. I am hoping that it will be as wonderful as Silk Garden and not as harsh on the hands as Kureyon Sock which is, although the colours are fab, not among my favourites.

Diamond lace triangular shawl in the beautiful Mountain Colours Bearfoot. Another MD S&W purchase - 2 red skeins that jumped out at me. Just needs to be blocked so I can photograph it and write up the pattern

Delve from Rowan 42 in Estelle 100% Silk (disappointingly discontinued) for me

The cats meow hello and Arthur says woof

Visitor and some lace

This guy came to lunch yesterday and I happened to have my camera around my neck and managed to get out my 300mm lens in time to get a shot of him before he flew off to greener pastures.
Still way too much snow in the garden - buying pansies this weekend might be premature. I think it will be about 2C on Saturday - the latest forecast is not as encouraging as earlier ones were.

This is my current wip - a Melissa Leapman pattern from Hot Knits - called Gayle.

The yarn is Rowan Calmer (oh my - nice to work with) - cotton and elite (stretchiness)


Nearly at the armhole decreases now so not too long to go with the body and the sleeves should go quickly too.

A demain

Friday evening and the weekend stretches before me

I have mentioned before how I love Friday and the endless possibilities for knitting that Saturday and Sunday bring.

How many times have I started something new on Friday and bunged it up so badly that I had to restart the next day? Many many. I must resist the urge

Finished my Woodland Shawl/Scarf yesterday and it is 40 inches long and 9 inches wide unblocked so a pretty good size for a single ball of sock yarn. I will block it once I get more foam squares - the ones I have are now serving as a floor for my office ( I know - what a concept! Flooring on a floor and not blocking boards!)

Received the new Spin-Off today. There is an ad for a new spindle from Robin Wheels . And they will be at Maryland so I may be in a little danger there.

I also noticed that Demetrio Bautista Lazo will be there. He was at Rhinebeck with his beautifully dyed and woven rugs. And he also brings natural dyes to sell.

I am so looking forward to going this year especially after missing last year.

Have great weekend all. I will be watching Season 3 of Battlestar Gallactica and, of course, knitting

It isn't that I

haven't been knitting - because I have!

Woodland shawl - a sample for the Frolic (April 26th)

Yarn is Mega Boots Stretch and the pattern can be found through Ravelry:


Another sample - Landscape Scarf (Fiber Trends) in Hand Maiden Flaxen:


And for me:

Rowan 43 - Delve - in Estelle 100% Silk - now discontinued but the same yarn is available from Elann


and another sample - this is a new Hemp yarn from HempforKnitting - AllHemp6Lux is a very high quality hemp with a gorgeous lustre - I dont' have it yet but I have ordered it. The colours are wonderful (Fiber Trends Landscape Scarf again)


Arthur has pretty much completely recovered from his pneumonia - that was quite a scare - he was SO sick!

Cats are well too.

Go knit!

Am working up a few lace patterned socks for a future SOTM and just finished the 2nd one. Did the sample in Jitterbug Elephant's Dream on the tiniest needle - a 1.5mm. Hadn't planned to use it but must have slipped it into my 2.0mm package and thought it was pointier than normal but didn't check until I needed to get another needle out to do the toe.

Its a firm one!

Gearing up for a nice long weekend of knitting and deciding which of my many UFOs to revive.

Arthur had a checkup at the vet and there are still some shadows on his lungs so 2 more weeks of antibiotics. He's asleep on the couch covered in a blanket and is living the life of Reilly!