Still August

 I am wondering how I have managed to fritter away so much time.  Yes, I have been doing some sailing.  Yes, we have visited friends out of town.  Yes, I did get to see a variety of tug boats that have been dolled up to the nines and look like shiny new condos.  (Midland Tugboat Festival, and it was great fun!)  Yes, I have enjoyed plenty of Thursday nights at the store.  But still ... How in the world has summer slipped away so quickly???

I have been doing some tai chi videos since last March.  I wasn't expecting at all that very fabulous body transformation all the tai chi adverts promise.  AI all the way.  I was just hoping to strengthen my ankles and improve my balance.  Surprise!  Shorts that I couldn't wear at all last summer now fit -- and comfortably!  Definitely worth the effort.  Doug still thinks tai chi is just a bunch of women waving their arms around, but I am sold.  The videos I found are from Dr. Adam Potts, and his youtube channel is "Begin with Breath."  I definitely recommend him. 

In knitting news -- there has been lots of knitting, with even a few finished objects!  First, I have FINALLY finished the Central Park Hoodie from last fall -- but without the hoodie. 

I used Mirasol Sisa for this project, in the colourway #03.  Alpaca, spun in Peru.  Sadly for me, this bag of yarn had been in my stash for entirely too long.  Almost half the skeins had moth damage.  The wool then spent time alternating between the deep freeze and the hot car, and I had the joy of weaving in a zillion ends.  Because I was tired of joining yarn, I opted to make a collar instead of a hood.  In hindsight, I should have worked increases across the back of the neck so that the collar would lay nicely at all times.  Oh well.  Oh yeah -- 4.5 and 5,50mm needles and then everything seamed together with mattress stitch. 

For the folks who follow the store on Facebook, the next picture will look familiar.  I played yarn chicken, and lost. 

Fortunately for me, my friends persuaded me to NOT toss them straight into the trash, nor should I frog them.  Instead I went home and searched just a little bit to find some similar colour and weight wool.  Viola!  

There is an assortment of wools in these mittens -- Haynes Creek Heathers, Pure Wool from Wendy Yarns, Patons Classic, and finally a mystery sock wool.  I triple-stranded the black sock wool to get the proper weight of wool, and these mittens finished up nicely.  The pattern is from Saltwater Mittens ... the Nor'Easter.  I used a 4.00mm needle, and my gauge was a bit off so these will be gifted to my son.  

Inventory at the store happened last month.  This resulted in three store projects which needed doing to showcase some very nice wool/yarn.  I started a hooded sweatshirt from Knitting Pure & Simple.  I planned to check my gauge after working a few rows.  And promptly forgot.  So after splitting for the sleeves and finishing the body, I realised that my gauge was a wee bit tight.  What to do, what to do.  It was SO close to fitting.  I decided to add a border at the fronts, and have a zipper installed.  

And victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat!  Onto the sleeves.  As I was working the sleeves, however, conversation slid into some political waters and my gauge tightened.  Really tightened.  Really, really tightened.  So I frogged the sleeve back to the start and carefully placed the project into time out.  After a couple of weeks, I brought it back into rotation and was knitting happily.  Well, until the conversation became political yet again.  I can be taught, however, and regretfully switched to something else.  The wool is Firenze and the colourful wool is Alpaca, but apparently discontinued.  In any event, these wools come to us by way of a warehouse in the US, so no restocks will be happening for a while. 

In other knitting  ... we taught a sock class.  Of course, I had to play along.  We had folks in the afternoon and the evening, so I "had" to start two socks.  In the same colour, of course.  Which means that by the end of the class I had another pair of socks finished!  This is a worsted weight Opal sock yarn, and it feels as nice as it looks!

Because someone had commented on-line about a sock pattern featuring a "strong heel" ... I downloaded the pattern and gave it a knit.  This wool is a Zauberball I believe, but it came to me without a tag so I cannot be sure. 

The sock has a two-stitch purl section going down the back of the leg.  It then widens to become the heel gusset and heel turn.  I have not yet worn them, so I cannot say for sure that I will like the fit.  I do feel that the heel flap is a bit limp, but that is a me problem.  (I generally do a slip 1, knit 1 and purl back heel flap.)  We shall see.  (For the record, that is 5 finished pairs for the year.)

And finally, we had decided that 2026 would be the year of Saltwater projects at the store.  I have managed 4 projects so far ... so in my head it is still May.  (What?  It doesn't work that way?:)  The project designated for May is the Signal Hill Vamps with Sweetheart Soles, which requires two or three colours of worsted or aran weight wool.  Once again, I went stash diving and found ample wool. 

 After going for a stash dive twice in the last two weeks, I just have this to say -- I have a LOT of stash in both complete balls and partials.  Possibly more than any one woman should have.  However, I am determined to keep knitting through it!   Three of the four projects above, not counting the one not yet started, are from stash.  There is also a lovely silk lace scarf currently being knit upon that is also from stash.  There may be hope, but I suspect I will need to live to be 200 to finish it all. 

Providing I don't enhance it ...

 

 

Time is flying away

 I am having a very difficult time keeping things together and done in a timely manner.  Witness, for one, this blog.  I have such good intentions, and then mis-manage my time.  I HAVE been busy, in my defense.  

We generally invite a Canadian family to our place for the Canada Day weekend.  It is a father and friend, three sons and their families.  Over the years, the kids have grown and now include partners.  In any given year, we could have anywhere from 5 to 15 people camping in our front yard.  It is a good time -- music, camp fires, sailing, swimming, sometimes fishing, canoeing, and lots of good food.  

When the holiday falls on a  Wednesday, deciding which weekend is always a challenge.  This year we decided it would be the previous weekend.  (My son and his family from the US were planning to visit the next weekend.)  We laid in some extra food (mostly breakfast foods) and drinking water ... and the front yard sprouted tents.  Additionally, the dock sprouted boats.  For such a small dock, it can hold a multitude of boats!

Here you see Tim's Walker Bay, Mark"s Hobiecat (peeking out at the left side of the dock), my Itty-Bitty, Doug's Sunfish, the family CL-14 and tied off to the CL-14 is a canoe!  Overnight, Itty-Bitty and the Sunfish were loaded onto their respective lifts and the green canoe tied alongside the dock.  That's a LOT of boats!

It was a delightful weekend.  Not so much music and camp fires, but still a great time.  It is always nice to spend time with good friends.  

In the couple days of down time after that family departed, I looked over the side of the steps down to the dock and found this amazing mushroom! 

Our friend John would have been able to identify it immediately.  He would know how to process it to make a medicinal drink.  He was very good with mushrooms.  Sadly he passed away just over a year ago, and we miss him.  A lot.  His wife and daughter came for a visit and we showed them the picture.  Liz knew exactly what it was and how to process it.  Having absolutely no experience, however, we all decided to leave it be.  It is positively amazing though. 

The following weekend my son and his family arrived.  We had pizza, fun at a trampoline park, visited Repitilia, shopped downtown Port, went swimming and sailing, had lovely food at a Chinese restaurant in Whitby, more swimming and sailing, and a movie at their B&B.  

 The kids loved swimming.  The first sail was more of a drift, and they were bored out of their minds.  Doug entertained the younger one with a detailed description of the parts of the boat.  I had the elder in my Itty-Bitty.  We talked about school, his favourite video games, which high school he hopes to attend ... things like that.  We also had the "privilege" of the Durham Police boat cruising by and thanking us for wearing life jackets.  Duh.  Of course we had life jackets. 

The next day there was more wind.  We rigged the CL-14 and away we went.  Now, please understand that Doug's opinion on sailing is that you should go as fast as you possibly can -- not that I disagree.  The youngsters had worried faces when the boat heeled just a little bit in the beginning.  That changed as the sail progressed.  By the time we were done, they had figured out that they could hook their feet under the hiking strap and get their heads wet!  They were also enamoured with the idea of jumping overboard!  And when Doug decided to take a quick sail down the lake to look for the wandering football, they both volunteered to go with him.  Willingly and happily. This visit was everything I hoped it would be.  

I have also been spending time with them on-line playing Minecraft Dungeons.  They have had more time playing and are far more advanced than I.  Their father claims that they enjoy playing with me and look forward to our time together.  I find this time to be extremely rewarding.  They are so encouraging of me and my efforts.  I have progressed from "I'm dead!" to "I hit him!  I'm dead!"  After each mission, they tell me they can see how much I have improved.  These times are priceless and I hate to think they will end. 

In the meantime, I have done SOME knitting.  We had a class at the store where we made the "Mix and Match Tee" from a 2013 issue of Creative Knitting. 

I used 5 skeins of Cascade Anchor Bay Hand Paints.  This is an acrylic/merino blend and it is supremely soft and fabulous with which to work.  We taught this project many years ago, and I still have that tee, made from Cascade Ultra Pima.  I debated using a different 8-stitch lace pattern, but expediency won out.  Maybe next time. 

Another recent finish (as in this past week) are these Vamps from Saltwater Classics. Barb and I had such big plans for 2026 -- a Saltwater project for each month of the year.  This project was from ... March.

I used Patons Classic Wool for the black and Wendy Wool for the grey -- both from stash.  Even making the smallest size, these are too big for me.  I will drop them into the "gift or donate" box.  In the meantime, I have used a wee bit of yarn from stash, so that is good.  I do still have some leftover of both these yarns and some white Croftland Aran.  Rather than tossing them back into storage, I think I will make some mittens with the intention to donate them this fall. 

In other knitting news ... we generally are requested by the Uxbridge Library to teach a class in the fall.  The students from the spring session were saying that they really wanted a more simple project ... we went looking and found this:

I cannot find the pattern right now -- it is at the store and apparently not in my Ravelry library.  Harrumph!  In any event, it is a collection of textured stitches and quite meditative to create.  I used James Brett Croftland Aran for this -- and it required just one skein.  This will be a delightful gift idea come fall. 

Finally, I finished another store sample using Creative Lazy Hazy Summer Cotton DK and the Estelle Simple Top Down Tee pattern. To make my size required six balls of yarn, at $10 each.  I perhaps could have made a size smaller, but I wanted a loose, relaxed fit. 

I thought I was making a blue tee shirt, but when worked up the colour definitely leans green.  Not a problem, as I love the colour and fit.  Both the front and back have a scooped hem with a broken rib edging.  Very nice. 

Another activity I have been devoting time to is Tai Chi.  I had taken a class in Uxbridge way back before Covid.  After the world loosened up, that class never reappeared.  To say I missed it would be an under-statement.  A friend (Hi  Liz!) loaned me several videos with Tai Chi programs.  However, I didn't have a player that would accommodate them.  With all the advertising for "chair" Tai Chi, or "walking" Tai Chi, I went down a rabbit hole to find something I could play on my I-Pad. 

I found Adam Potts .  I listened to a podcast where he was the guest interviewed by the host.  Things clicked.  Since mid-February (and with the exception of two weeks in March), I have been doing a video pretty much every day.  Sometimes I skip a day, and when I do I really miss it.  He ends every instruction with a benediction of peace and good health to the world, kindness to yourself, and the idea of placing a smile onto your heart.  He has a multitude of videos ranging fro 5 minutes to 45 minutes, with various foci on parts of the body.  I am not looking for one of those miraculous body reformations you see on the Tai Chi walking ads (those are AI, for the record).  I just want to tone things up a bit, improve my balance and strengthen my ankles.  When I walked with my son, he commented on how much more confidently I was striding.  My shorts that were uncomfortable last summer are now quite comfortable.  Jeans that were slightly tight are now loose.  I have even been sailing or walking after work!  And I am able to fly the jib sail easily this year!  A win all around! 

In short, if you are looking for an intro to Tai Chi, I recommend Dr. Potts.  He has free videos for many different levels of practitioners as well as a subscription program for more intense training. 

 That's what's been happening in my life since the previous update.  I am still jonesing to get the mountain bikes out ... hopefully that will happen this week.  In the meantime, happy stitching!

April 55 -- or May 25

 I really do not know where the month of April went.  I do have the luxury, if one can call it that, of blaming the loss of time on a traumatic brain injury.  The reality is that I just ... existed in a daze of brain fog.  I know that I have had previous concussions, and that medical science says the damage is cumulative.  To that end, I will endeavour to not knock my head again.  

I know that I was getting ready to make a blog post in April.  I took photos in preparation.  Sadly, The Blog, Google and my tablet are not speaking kindly to each other.  Every blog post involves taking photos, selecting photos, e-mailing them to myself on the desktop computer, fighting with Yahoo/Google to get access to my Yahoo e-mail account ... saving the photos to a folder on the computer, fighting with Blogspot/Google/Yahoo to get access to The Blog.  This is an exercise in frustration, and possibly the universe attempting to teach me some patience.  Who knows, because I surely do not. 

I can happily report that at the current time I have 9 projects with needles in place.  Several are included here, and the nine do not include the finishes detailed below.  

We taught a class at the Uxbridge Library last fall.  The project was a Nightshift shawl.  I finally got it finished!

 I will freely admit this is a bad photo.  Can I blame the TBI for it?  I thought not.  In any event, this was made with stash wool.  The background is a mystery wool; I don't even recall from whence it came.  The colourwork was done with wool that was gifted to me by ... well, several degrees of separation.  It was hand-dyed and possibly hand-spun.  All I know is that the shawl is beautiful, colourful, and there will never be another one like it.  For the record, the design is from Andrea Mowry. 

My Central Park Hoodie ... well, again, this was stash wool.  It is Sisa from Mirasol, and was ignored for far too long in an exposed state.  There was some moth damage to many of the ten skeins.  I thought I had enough tho ... what you see is a back, two fronts, and most of one sleeve.   

 I was not certain that there was enough wool to finish this poor, lonesome project.  Fortunately, I did find one more skein in a relatively undamaged condition.  I should be able to finish, altho it will not have a hood.  That's OK.  I find I am not a big hood person.  The design is from Interweave Knits. 

This spring we were once again invited to teach a class at the Uxbridge Library.  We decided on the Athena Scarf  by Tonia Barry.  Actually, this was a two-for-one -- we used the same pattern for a class at the store.  The combination of 4 weeks at the store and 6 weeks at the library (albeit with some overlap) should have been enough time to finish the scarf.  However, when you consider that most of the first 4 weeks of that time was spent assisting our students ... I am approximately one-third of the way to the finish line. 

The wool is a beautiful blue 100% silk lace-weight from Madeline Tosh that my daughter was silly enough to abandon when she moved out west.  She didn't mind at all that I snatched that skein from the "donate" pile, laughing like a mad-woman.  I have doubled the strands so that it is closer to a fingering weight.  And I keep knitting away.  It is going to be stunning when finished. 

 Another recent finish is the Besties Cardigan from Tin Can Knits.  We wanted to teach a fairly basic cardigan for our June class and this one fits the bill.  We especially like Tin Can Knits designs for the clarity of the pattern writing and we love the design esthetic. 

The sleeves look short ... as in really short.  They do match the schematic provided tho ... The beauty of this design is that it starts at a newborn size and goes up to 6XL in both men's and women's sizes.  Size inclusivity is them!  I used King Cole Emotions and Estelle Spark for the trim and a 3.75mm needle for the body.  An interesting note here -- the folks at Tin Can Knits do not like to use a smaller needle for the bottom ribs on their designs.  I followed directions.  Not sure whether I like it or not, but time will tell. 

Finally, I also finished this little teddy bear whom I have named Grady.  He was knit with King Cole Velveteen with scraps of pink and black.  There really is a mouth, but the fluff kind of overpowers it.  He is soft, cuddly and huggable.  I expect my granddaughter will get this little guy.  

And here we are at the end of May.  My sock knitting is sorely lacking this year.  I have one pair finished, and the first sock of the next pair underway.  This may become a problem, but not until December!

In other news -- summer is here!  Itty-Bitty was launched yesterday and I sailed it home.  There was rain threatening, but it never materialized.  The wind was ... not steady, but also not overpowering.  All in all, it was a great first sail.  I am still grinning.  

And so, I am off to do some sailing, some video gaming with my grandsons via the internet, and finish up the evening with some knitting on the afore-mentioned nine WIPS.  Cheerio! 

 

Vacation -- done ... interesting and well!

My daughter has relocated to Alberta as of July 2025.  Since then, we have been visiting via video calls, but it just isn't the same.  The family came back to Ontario in September for a friend's wedding, and I got to spend time with them.  It was delightful.  It was heavenly. It was not nearly enough.

 

And so when Daughter called and asked if I/we could assist with some childcare in March, my agreement to do so was done so fast she didn't even get to finish her sentence!  Her husband has been the primary caregiver for the granddaughter so far, and he had landed an acting role.  The daycare situation was only for part-time, and she needed to work. The in-laws were away traveling.  

 

We flew out on March 1st, arriving in the early evening.  Monday was great; Daughter had taken a day off work so that she could spend time with us.  Lots of laughter, lots of good time.  Granddaughter was playing shy, which was totally expected. Over night Monday into Tuesday morning is when things got ... interesting. 

 

I have been treating high blood pressure for many years.  I am currently taking three medications.  When I get out of bed, or even stand up from a chair, I have to pause and wait for my head to stop spinning.  I have been doing so for at least six months, so nothing new.  However, things got more serious in Alberta.  I passed out -- twice -- hitting my head on a hard, ceramic floor once and on the lip of a walk-in shower the second time.  I remember vaguely wondering if I might be better off staying on the bathroom floor, but eventually made my way back to bed and to sleep.  When Doug woke up in the morning, I told him of my adventures.  We decided that I should be seen by medical professionals, and that even tho the emergency room would be an all-day adventure that was where I should go.  As he escorted me to the bathroom, I managed to pass out again; this time, he was right behind me and gently lowered me to the floor.  Whew. 

 

I was correct in that we spent all day in the emergency room.  Thankfully I was not a high priority patient -- which means it wasn't THAT serious.  I had figured that at a minimum there would be x-rays, and possibly a CT scan.  I was correct.  Those were both clear, and the bloodwork did not indicate a heart attack.  Thankfully.  

 

Turns out that high altitude and high blood pressure are not a good combination and that sometimes people faint.  Nice to not be a medical mystery.  We are assuming a concussion, even tho the discharge paperwork did not indicate so.  Concussion protocol means limiting my screen time, reading, high-level concentration tasks, and reading.  Now, after two weeks, I am mostly recovered.  I still get tired easily and I do note my concentration is not as good as it could be.  But better than two weeks ago.  Thank heavens.  

 

Now ... on to the better part of vacation!

 

We spent time with the granddaughter and her parents. I know she is 2 years old.  Really, I do.  It is still startling to see her acting like a big girl though!  She loves colouring and painting. She also loves her stuffies and books.  

 

 She absolutely despises her car seat, her winter coat and any sweaters. And socks.  Consequently, we did most of our adventuring near to home, but that was OK.  We managed a walk almost every day, and there are several playgrounds nearby. 

 

One "excuse" for the trip was to deliver the Christmas (!) gifts, albeit late.  Daughter received a lovely silk cowl; Son-in-Law loved his double-knit mittens and used them while shoveling snow.  Granddaughter loved her dress, but the sweaters all had mixed reviews.  The socks, though --

 were received with great delight.  The yarn for the grown-up socks is Laines du Nord Summer Socks, which is a delightful cotton in a fingering weight.  I used a 2.5mm needle and a standard 60 stitch sock for Daughter, and 64 stitches for Son-in-Law.  The Granddaughter socks are one sock from her mama's colourway and one from her papa's.  She even caught on to what I had done.  The parents were absolutely tickled pink. 

 

While out west, we stayed in the in-laws' house, which is nearby.  As a host/hostess gift, I gave the mother-in-law a lovely alpaca cabled cowl.  For the father-in-law, I knit up a hat with a skein of wool which the store had been gifted as a test skein -- Juniper Moon Farms Moonshine. 

 This is a truly delightful alpaca blend wool, and well worth the cost.  Sadly, we are not able to bring it into the store because of the tariff uncertainty and ... well, politics.  I expect you all know just where I stand.  In any event, the pattern is Two by Two and it worked up every bit as well as I hoped it would.  Interesting, though, is that I read the pattern carefully and discovered that I was supposed to be using a 4.0mm needle.  No wonder my previous hats have been on the large size!

 

In other knitting news -- the Mountain Forest sweater (from Knitty) is finished!

 I am so very pleased with how it turned out!  My gauge was ever-so-slightly large so I ended up making a Medium and it is just perfect for me.  I opted to do the colourwork only around the yoke as I felt that having it at my hips and cuffs would make me look short and dumpy.  Maybe, maybe not.  I used two balls of James Brett Croftland for the solid colour, and one ball of Estelle 50 for the multi-colour part.  You will note that the sleeves are -- gasp -- delightfully long enough!  Patience is a virtue, and I displayed a fair bit of it as I knit the sleeves three inches longer than the pattern requested!  Yippee!  I love it! I keep pondering a second sweater, with all the colourwork included.  Time will tell.

 

Flying back home from Alberta was bittersweet.  I got the most delightful hug and kiss from the Granddaughter. 

And I was sent home with refrigerator art!

 

 Needless to say, I am plotting my next trip west with great delight!

 

 

 

 

Happy Family Day!

 My Family Day started out really well — with a video call from my daughter in Calgary.  Yippee!  The wee one was mostly playing shy and not looking, but every once in a while she would peek and give me a big smile.  I also realized that it is exactly two weeks yesterday that I am flying out to spend some time with them all.  To claim that I am excited would be such a drastic understatement!

On another note, the situation in the States is not improving.  Not even a little bit.  One of my store ladies has a friend living in Minneapolis.  This friend says that things are so much worse than is being reported in the news.  I have no idea how that happens — both being worse and not being reported. 

On the other hand, coverage of the Peace Walk has given me hope.  The idea that people would walk from Austin, Texas, to Washington DC just blew my mind.  The monks set out, with no expectations.  Just the thought in their minds to restore peace to the earth by way of their intentional meditations as they walked.  I know some folks see it as an attention-grabbing action, or useless.  The community responses that I observed gave me hope that somehow the world and the US will come through this safely.

And courtesy of Google and my love of electronics and fricking passwords ... I have just spent the last hour and a half trying to get pictures uploaded from my tablet to my blog.  It seems that when I removed the recovery telephone number from my Google account, I lost permission to my very own photos.  I have tried everything the accursed Google tells me to try.  I can access photos within Chat, I can finally access Meeting again ... but not the photos.  I am, however, a clever girl.  I e-mailed the selected photos to another e-mail account and here I am.  Life should not be this difficult.  

And now, the reason for the blog.  I have knitting and crochet to show off!  The cowl made with designs from a doodle deck and crocheted waistcoat stitch is finished. I used wool from my stash, and actually used most of it up, so I am pleased.  Waistcoat stitch is an unusually tight stitch, and it was recommended that you use a hook two to three sizes larger than the ball band recommends.  Consequently, I used a 6.5mm hook with my worsted weight wool.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  For me?  Not necessarily, as I have a multitude of scarves and cowls already.  I will put this in a gift box and someone will be lucky next winter. 

We published a newsletter at the store, wherein I had to admit that I was not actually making any progress at all on my Star of Logy Bay mittens.  How embarrassing.  So I dug around and found the proper needles and cast on.  This particular pattern asks you to do the ribbing in a 3.25mm needle and then switch to a 3.5mm needle.  I made a rookie mistake ... 

I worked across the first half of the mitten, with one end of the next needle.  And then I worked across the second half with the second end of the next needle.  What you almost see there is that the needles are ... each pointing a different direction.   I diligently slipped stitches and got things properly aligned, and made more progress. 

The wool is, once again, from stash.  I am hoping to have enough to complete the mittens -- but I have a cunning plan if it looks like I am falling short.  (The gold is Haynes Creek Heathers, the brown is Noro Viola, and the light is Estelle Worsted -- all the same as used in last month's hat.)  Once I finish the star chart on the hand, I will start the second mitt.  If I am running short, they can become fingerless mitts.  

At the store, we started a knit-along of the Mountain Forest pullover from Knitty.com.  It is a beautiful sweater as designed, with fair isle colourwork across the bottom of the sweater and bottom of the sleeves as well as the yoke.  Being a slight bit vertically challenged (as in short and losing height), I opted to only do the colourwork on the yoke.  Here you see the current state of my project: 

The body is complete up to where the sleeves will be attached.  I am approximately half way done with the first sleeve ... So much stockinette ...

Our February class is double-knit mittens and so, of course, I had to start a pair.  These are really delightful mittens and Doug absolutely loves them.  He usually wears through a pair every winter because of the cross-country skiing he does.  This year I pulled a skein of Katia DeGrade sock yarn out of stash and cast on.  I am hoping that the nylon component will help the mittens last a bit longer.  Of course, having started them later in the year will assist as well.  (This reminds me of a corny joke from one of my kids' books -- How do you make a pair of pants last longer?  You make the coat first!  Thank you, Dr. Seuess.)

I am quite pleased with the progress.  Even better, without even trying, I have managed to get them to match!  These should be done well before the end of the month. 

I have also been knitting a bit on the Nightshift Shawl that was started back when we were teaching at the Uxbridge Library.  No pictures of it at the moment, because I thought this was enough pictures.  And with the fighting I have done to get the photos up onto the blog, that was enough frustration to be getting on with. 

I am now off to enjoy the remainder of Family Day by having a lovely dinner with Doug, and then some TV watching and knitting.  Hope you all have had a good day, with FAR LESS frustration than me!

 

 

January 2026

 2026 is off to a start.  Not a great start.  Will the “incinerate the year” idea work on a monthly basis?  I definitely hope so, because I already have slips of paper with writing on them.  In the world at large, I am heartsick at the happenings in the US.  As a white woman, I have always felt a tad safer than, for instance, my daughter-in-law.  She is a naturalized US citizen who was born in Hong Kong.  The murder of Renee Good has made that assumption of safety fly right out the window.  The unprovoked attack on the capital of Venezuela and the rendition of its president have shaken me tremendously.  Turns out I was relatively confident that the military would not blindly follow the regime’s orders; I was wrong.  And now listening to all the sabre rattling about Iceland, Cuba, Canada … I am genuinely fearful that my beloved grandchildren will not have the chance to grow up.  Period, never mind in peace.

In an attempt to change the subject and provide distraction, let me turn to fibre-related thoughts …

2026 has been declared The Year of Saltwater Knits.  This means that Barb and I will be starting (and hopefully completing) a project from one of the Saltwater books each month.  For January, we decided to knit the Star of Logy Bay Cap.  It is a stranded colour-work beanie representing the stars above the Logy Bay, Newfoundland.  I rifled through my stash and found three balls of the proper weight and cast on! 

I am about a quarter through the chart, making quite nice progress.  The wools being used are Haynes Creek Heathers (gold), Noro Viola (brown), and Estelle Worsted (tan), and a 4.5mm needle.  Delightful!

My next project is … unusual for me.  It is a crocheted cowl!  Crochet!   Me!  Last year a very cool idea for “Doodle Decks” occurred to some enterprising ladies, and a craze was born.

A doodle deck is a collection of cards (deck of cards) with charted motifs — collections of themed motifs.  Holidays, cats, dinosaurs, dogs, various hobbies, etc.  These were quickly adopted by knitters as a small card is easier to tote around than a large book.  Additionally, the cards stay put unlike a book which tries to close up at the worst times possible.  

Crocheters felt very left out.  The charts were perfect for knitters, but what about crocheters?  We went looking, and found a crochet stitch called “waistcoat” stitch.  For all the world, it looks like a knit stitch.  AND even better, it works like a knit stitch.  Barb figured out the numbers and we are now teaching a class using crochet and Doodle Decks.  It is very well received.

Going back to my project, though, I am not satisfied.  The grey and white work together just fine.  But, be honest — does that look like a candy cane?  I thought not.  I will frog back to the border and go find some geometric shapes and life will be good.  The wools are Wendy Wool Pure Wool (grey) and Croftland Aran (white) from my stash.  i am using a 6.00mm hook and so far very happy with the fabric.

We also have started a KAL for the Mountain Forest pullover from the new Knitty.com.  It uses a worsted/medium/#4 weight, so it asks for 4.5 or 5.00mm needles.  I happily opened up my Addi i/c needle kit … and noted the absence of a number of sets of needles, including the necessary sizes.  Not a problem because I have another Lykke i/c kit.  Except that kit was also missing a multitude of needles, including the sizes for which I was looking.

This necessitated a review of projects underway.  There are so many!  Ten, in fact.  For a girl who struggled with more than two projects underway, this is incredible!  So, in no particular order, we have:

1.  The hat shown above.

2.  The cowl shown above.

3.  A pair of socks for a grandchild.

4.  The Mountain Forest pullover.

5.  Central Park Hoodie

6.  A top-down raglan pullover for Doug.

7.  A lace jacket I am finishing for a friend.

8.  A brioche scarf which started life as a shawl, until I sold one of the necessary skeins of wool.

9.  The Nightshift shawl started with the Uxbridge Library class.

10.  The Berroco Mystery Blanket KAL.

Oops.  I just remembered another —

11.  Lace shawl made from some beautiful alpaca lace-weight given to me by my daughter.

I can be found in my craft room, on the futon, surrounded by my knitting.  Decision paralysis is a thing, but I will persevere.  Really.  Because there are more projects just waiting for my attention.

December 2025

 It may be the very last day of December, but it is STILL December.  And this means it is the very last day of 2025.  This past year has had good times and memories.  It has also been a cluster-f**k of major proportions.  To celebrate its end, I have procured a box, labelled 2025.  I have been writing things on slips of paper, things I wish had not happened, that brought pain to me or the folks I love, and to the world in general.  That box will be incinerated with prejudice tonight before I go to bed.  Additionally, the front door and the old bathroom window will be opened for 5 very long and cold minutes to welcome 2026 and be sure that 2025 is well and truly gone.  Does this all count if I do it before midnight?  

Having gotten that off my chest, let us move on to an actual knitting post!  

A while back I had a customer inquire about having an afghan knit from combings from her recently deceased dogs which had been combined and spun with sheep wool.  Because she was a fan of Aran styles (one of my favourite styles) and loved the picture I showed her, I agreed to make it for the princely sum of $25 per skein.  There were 12 full skeins of 125g and one smaller skein.  

Back in September I cast on.  The original pattern suggested making 5 panels, two with bobbles.  Once I started a bobble panel, I realized I would be woefully short of wool.  I rather grudgingly frogged the 4 skeins worth of knitting.  I reworked the pattern to make it a bit more narrow, and to be knit in one piece.  

And started again.  The customer was hoping to have the blanket by Christmas.  I did not promise, was knocked back by a month due to the restart, but was close.

To get this close to finishing, I had to devote myself to this project.  Every night I was home, every day I was off work.  My own sock knitting suffered tremendously.  I still have three pair of children’s sock to finish … at least I have started the first of them.

Since this was not store wool, I had to work on a separate project there.  We had received a beautiful superwash wool from Lang, and it definitely needed a sample.

This is the Multidirectional Scarf, worked in Infinity on a 5.0mm needle.  I even worked the optional square ending!  This wool is SO pretty and soft.  I heartily recommend it for all kinds of uses!

At home I was still devoted to the afghan.  I knit, and I knit, and I knit.  Looked at the remains of the 12th full skein and realized it was time to be done.  Top border completed.  Maybe enough left to finish the bottom border?  Yeah, no.  and silly woman that I am, I didn’t start by doing the bottom border so I had to pick up all those stitches.

(And just like that, I have lost the formatting.  Argh!  Technology is a pain in my tush!). I am done! Not wanting this afghan to clog up the recently cleaned washing machine, I opted to take it outside and roll the blanket around in the freshly fallen snow.  Doug’s comment was that least the dogs got one last romp in the snow!

Careful inspection of the blanket reveals that it is indeed combings from two different dogs.  There was no way around it, and it was not visible until it got laid flat over the bathtub.  In my knitting corner the variations were far less visible.  Attributed to not great lighting, even.

The pattern is Aran-Stripe Afghan published in McCall’s Super-Book of Afghans, circa 1975 or thereabouts.  I loved this publication and have made several projects from its pages.  I loved it so much that it fell apart, as magazines are prone to doing.  I loved it so much that I kept the magazine even tho it was falling apart.  I loved that magazine so much that I found another copy on e-bay and purchased that one too!  Some collections are just too precious to let go.

Any way, I am done.  To my absolute surprise and joy, I won Yarn Chicken!

I will close by wishing everyone a very safe evening of celebration, and with hopes that 2026 brings the world and those in it much joy.