March 30, 2012

Apolline's Birthday


 Golden Girl

How can this possibly be?

How can it be that a little person who didn't exist such a short time ago is two years old already? This little beauty, with the shy head lowering, and mischievous peeking back up, would have ousted Shirley Temple off the Silver Screen had she been born in another generation.

She walks and talks, eats grown up food, colors a little, listens to stories, plays with her loving and caring big sister, very occasionally (like her dear Aunt Haddums so long ago) bumps into walls (!), lugs dollys and furry animals, protests long train rides, plays on the deck and in the garden,  - oh, how can this possibly be!

Happy Birthday, Golden Girl. May the world always be at  your feet.

March 27, 2012

The Case of The Missing Sock


 2.0 is much perturbed because he is missing a sock - not just any sock - but a Mighty Fine Sock, hand knit just this past January with Lang Jawoll Solid navy sock yarn in the Thuja pattern.
2.0 loves his hand knitted socks and he is lamenting the loss.

Time Line:
The disappearance of the sock was first realized about a month ago at the end of a laundry cycle when only one navy hand knit sock came out with the rest of the load.

Supposed Scene of the Crime:
The laundry room

The Suspects:

Movita
Movita maintains the sock is simply caught up in a sheet or a towel, etc as 2.0 has a habit of mixing laundry loads and, one day, it will reappear.
2.0 protests that if the sock was simply attached to another item of laundry, it surely would have surfaced by now.

Is it possible Movita took the sock to teach 2.0 a lesson about proper laundry sorting??

Les Cats

Did the sock ever, in fact,  make it into the washing machine? Any one, or all three of these suspects, could have absconded with the sock - either during the transport of the laundry basket to the basement or before the sock was supposedly dropped into the bathroom laundry basket after a long day at work. Cats, after all, have been known to seek revenge when their owner is away from the house for any extended period of time.

Was it an Organized Crime with all three involved - The Furry Feline Gangstas?

And last but not least:
2.0
2.0 keeps trying to draw attention to the waste can that sits in the laundry room. His theory is that "someone" may have mistakenly dropped the sock into the waste can instead of the laundry hamper - a waste can that has a lid that requires opening by depressing the foot pedal -  allowing ample time for the dropee to consider the fact that it is, in fact, a waste can and not a laundry basket.

Was it 2.0 himself - angling for yet  another pair of socks...!!

March 26, 2012

Knot Impressed!

Pre-Easter Dinner
(Photo Credit: Movita)

April Sock

Pattern: Simple K3, P1 ribbing
Yarn: Punta Merisock Hand Painted
Colour: 58
Needles: Circular - 2.25 mm

This is the first time I have used the Merisock yarn. The colours are rich and pleasing. The yarn has a lovely feel and it is pleasant to knit. However, I came upon two knots while working on the first sock. Most annoying! I feel that companies should stop the winding process and set aside that part skein and sell it at a discount as opposed to packaging it and requiring the knitter to tink back a row and have an unnecessary join (or two!) in the garment.
I had originally purchased the yarn with the view to making a scarf or cowl but decided it would make a lovely pair of socks. Because it only has 5% nylon, I knit a partridge eye heel flap for greater durability and added Lang reinforcing thread when doing the heel turn.

March 21, 2012

Bits and Bobs


I got a wonderful postcard yesterday from one of my most favourite people in the entire world. It is from someone who said to me once "I love you SOOOOOOOO much, it makes me sneeze!" - Can you guess who it is??



Designer: Karen Scott
Yarn: Lang Yarns Jawoll Solid Superwash
Color: Black
Needles: Circular - 2.25 mm

I have too much yarn. Well, most knitters who love needlework have too much yarn! I resolved this year to knit twelve pairs of socks. That should deplete my sock yarn stash. Then I can buy more. These are my March socks. The pattern is labour intensive but worth it. Unfortunately, the black is so black that it is very difficult to show the pattern well in a photograph.

On Sunday, we walked the dykes around Wolfville and Grand Pre. The walk was flat and dry and seemingly endless. We walked for almost two hours and didn't cover a fraction of the dyke region. The downside of the hike is the lack of challenge in the flatness and, at this time of year, the golden brown scenery is interesting but not overly inspiring.



March 15, 2012

Happy Birthday, Isabelle

Our lovely French Girl, who completes the trio of The Girls 1.0,  is having a birthday today. I suspect she never fully realizes how much she has enriched our family with her presence - bringing her culture, her knowledge,  her organizational skills, her awesome ability to put together travel plans (on a split seconds notice if need be - ask family members stranded in Africa, Amsterdam, etc.!). She has a keen analytical mind and a passion for reading. Could we ask for anything more???


Happy Birthday, Isa.
May this birthday year be absolutely brilliant!

March 10, 2012

Quirky Finds

I dislike shopping. It is usually a tiresome journey through a retail land where nothing is as you see it in your mind's eye. But sometimes - rarely - there is a find that is unexpected and totally unrelated to the original reason for setting out! We bought a clock today for the room below stairs. It is a large clock. It is about 32 inches by 32 inches (81.2 cm). The style defies labelling - rustic French? rustic American wanna-be-French?? But I like it. It will fill a good size space on the wall. It brings in my beloved turquoise. And it is practical. It tells the time. With very large hands.


We also found a marvelous bistro in Mahone Bay today - Cafe Mateus. The chef is Cordon Bleu trained. The prices are more than reasonable. And the food is the sort that is so good, it makes you reluctant to put anything else in your mouth for the rest of the day for fear of losing the exquisite taste lingering on your palate. I had an Asian coleslaw on a bed of very green lettuce, topped with on-site smoked chicken, mint, cilantro and a delicate Asian dressing.

And I bought wool. No knitter can visit Mahone Bay without stopping in at Have A Yarn, one of the best yarn shops in eastern Canada. They sell Jamison's Shetland Spindrift now - as if we needed another reason for shopping there! Heather has knit and displayed a couple of Fair Isle tams that are simply gorgeous. Despite the fact that I am the older, I sometimes catch myself hoping that I will knit as well as Heather when I grow up.


March 06, 2012

The Little Snow Fairy Cardi

We have not had a real winter this year. We have had more rain than snow, milder air, and we didn't get that annual period of frigid temperatures that usually lasts a week or so in late January or February. But, darn it, we are a Northern People from "the true north strong and free", as the song says. We need a real winter. We expect a real winter. We prepare for a real winter. It makes us appreciate spring even more. This blurring of the seasons is dreary and dull.


I call this the Snow Fairy Cardi. It is being shipped to Toronto. It may or may not be really cold there next winter, but we Maritimers will help them to stay prepared and we'll send them the really snuggly stuff made with either wool or alpaca.

Pattern: Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater
Designer: Carole Barenys
Yarn: SandnesGarn Alpakka
Needles: Circular - 3.25 mm

And thanks to all you kind people who left comments on this blog and Movita's and sent cards to comfort us on the passing of Lucy Dog. It is much appreciated. Our home seems so very empty now. Sometimes, for a split second, I think I can hear her tail thumping and, sometimes, I think I have caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye, but, alas...

March 04, 2012

Sunday Ramblings


I was drawn to this shop front, with its unique door art, in Talmont, France back in 2007. Little did I know, when I took the photo, that our own Movita would one day be entering the world of bread and pastry chefs.


The Little Fair Isle Hat is finished but not yet blocked. It is a sweet pattern. I think, though, that the stranding section would have looked better, with better stitch uniformity and definition, if the yarns had been more traditional wool - Jamieson, Jamieson and Smith, etc. They have what stranded knitters refer to as a "sticky" quality that helps bond the different color stitches as the color pattern evolves. Most of these yarns, however, are not superwash and I am reluctant to knit a baby garment that requires a busy Mum to hand wash.

We did a 6 kilometer hike of the Bedford/Sackville Greenway Connector Trail this morning - good exercise but not an aesthetically pleasing walk as a major highway is on one side of the trail and a military rifle range on the other.


And after the walk - dim sum!!



March 01, 2012

The Robins Are Back and I'm Back To Knitting

The robins are back. They've been around for the past week or two despite the snow and cold weather. It seems so early - February in Nova Scotia.  I read recently what I had already suspected - that they return to the same areas each year - even the same gardens. I'm glad to see these old friends again but it was hard to tell them that Lucy isn't here anymore.


I have spent the past week, in what seems like a very empty house, tidying up some unfinished projects and experimenting with leftover yarn. This little cardigan was started last fall and finally has the buttons sewn on. And I'm working on a little fair isle hat pattern that I thought would make a great addition to the outfit - bringing in a touch of that ochre colour again.

Pattern: Korrigan
Designer: Solenn Couix-Loarer
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock
Colour: Ochre
Needles: Circular - 3.0 mm


Pattern: Little Fair Isle Hat
Designer: Purl Soho
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (natural); Handmaiden Fine Yarn, Casbah (cedar);
          Handmaiden Fine Yarn, Casbah (lettuce); Malabrigo Sock (ochre)
Needles: Circular - 3.0 mm and 3.25 mm


Stranded knitting - The inside story...