Fairy Light Rationalization

We spent yesterday redoing the LED Christmas lights on the shrubs across the front of the house. Now, very best parts of Christmas are:

a. Lucy Darling
b. White fairy lights outside
c. A tree with white fairy lights inside

And the worst aspect of Christmas is spending a cold day laying out extension cords to figure how to connect as many trees as possible to two different outlets on the property, with each set of lights on each tree meeting, and ending up with the right end of each extension cord reaching its final destination. This is complicated by the fact that some of our extension cords have three outlets and some have only one. Ah, the possible combinations and permutations! And having raw pain in gloveless hands - as circumstances never lead to the job being done on a balmy day. (This year, for example, I had to wait for the landscape company to finish work on the walkway.) So the decision to do the job twice in one week was reached after sober consideration.

We switched to LED a couple of years ago when I realized with horror while browsing the Internet that I ran the risk of burning the house down if I kept adding regular incandescent lights to our display each year. Just how does Chevy Chase manage to do it in that Christmas movie?? LED's use so little electricity, generate so little heat, and are so much better for the environment. But in terms of magic, they suck. Switching over was done with great reluctance - a personal sacrifice to help save the planet and a manoeuvre to make sure our safety wasn't compromised.

I lucked into an exceptionally warm day on Thursday and the chore was made so much easier this year because I had bundled the lights and extension cords last time with notes as to what cord connected to what set of lights so much of the planning and layout was already done.

But a trip to Canadian Tire on Friday to get just two extra small sets of lights led to the discovery of SUPER BRIGHT LED white fairy lights! Advanced technology was saving Christmas! Hallelujah! Now, LED lights are fearsomely expensive. To buy a significant quantity requires a sophisticated degree of rationalization and, here, we are champs! This is a dilemna we could sort out faster than that ol' exension cord business.

1. LED lights are much paler than the old style. It takes so many more to have the same impact.

2. The lights are so much softer that one lady commented in an article on the Internet that she feared this next generation of children would grow up associating Christmas with the fluorescent style lights hanging over the chair in a dentist's office. Therefore, adding brighter LED lights to the display is really a way of preserving the magic of Christmas for our children's children.

3. It was food drive day in the subdivision so we would give the little guy coming up the driveway a donation to the food bank equal to a large set of fairy lights so we felt we were feeding more than just souls that day.

4. We will give an equal amount to Isa's little girl in a far flung corner of the world who needs schooling and encouragement and a chance at a better life.

5. We would mix the old, softer LED white with the new SUPER BRIGHT. We would do even more shrubs, putting SUPER BRIGHT on the taller, back shrubs (the yews and threadleaf cyparus), and the older, soft white lights on the front shrubs (the nesting spruce, mugo pine, and boxwood). It's not as though we would be tossing LED lights into the landfill.

6. We are getting old. How many more Christmas holidays will we have? And, more importantly, who will spend an entire day setting up the lights when we are unable to do it?? No one we know at the present time! Better enjoy them while we can.

7.We spent so much money on the new walkway. It just doesn't make sense not to enhance it in every way possible.

8. The fairy light display increases our property value. Who knows when a potential buyer might stumble upon the place after dark, (hmmm...memo to self: maybe more lights??), fall in love, and offer scads of money for our corner of the woodland!

After dark, we plugged in both outlets (timers not set up yet) and, lo, the magic of Christmas was preserved - at least in our dark little corner of the world next to Crown forest.

New Walkway, New Sock

Pattern: Waffle Rib
Designer: Charlene Schurch - Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Cascade Heritage
Color: 5604

If I had to choose to keep only two books in my sock knitting library, one would be Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks and the other would be Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. They hold all the information and patterns anyone would ever need to endlessly produce socks.
This is my first time using Cascade Heritage sock yarn so it will be interesting to see how it holds up over time. It feels very much like Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and it gives excellent stitch definition. I have to confess to ordering it by mistake. I had several screens open while putting together an order at the Loopy Ewe prior to Christmas last year and I somehow managed to get into Cascade sock yarn when I intended to only order Cascade worsted for winter hats and mitts. I didn't realize my mistake until the box arrived in the mail but the sock yarn seemed quite nice and has been waiting in the yarn drawer for the right time and the right pattern.

Phase 3

Done! When they drove away on this blustery November day, the border beds on either side of the walkway looked as though they had never been disturbed. The area was left in immaculate condition. We are ready for winter. I like this business of leaving yard work to the professionals.

Replacing Litigation Lane - Phase 2

If not from the ashes of Litigation Lane, then at least from the dust, there emerges a more gracious, beautiful, and far better constructed walkway. I will leave the naming, upon completion, to Movita's quicksilvered tongue.

We have left, as well, the exact planning and pattern completely in the hands of the professionals. And in that regard, the gods are looking down upon us with great kindness since the head of our landscape crew just happens to be the extremely talented artist, Chris Wallace. While it is a loss to the art world that he finds the need to be a seasonal worker for a number of months each year, it is certainly our gain. And his co-worker is excellent at helping complete the master plan. And, oh, on a more mundane note, it surely feels good to have someone else hauling the wheelbarrow loads, doing the digging, replanting, and dressing with bark mulch. That may be a sign that I am getting old.

Unlocking The Secrets of Blocking - Part 2

Ishbel Blocked

On The Block - Knitting Lace

Knitting projects should be blocked upon completion - that is, they should be pinned on a flat surface to the correct measurements. They can either be pinned wet or pinned dry and steam pressed or sprayed with water and left to dry. Knitters use layers of towels on countertops, spare room beds, sheets on dining room tables, etc. It is infinitely easier to use a blocking board. The best boards are marked with one inch squares, are fairly heavy, and fold for storage. They are expensive ($79.99 American) and shipping costs are high ($41.00 American). A cheap and easy alternative is a set of four step squares from the flooring department of a building supply store. They are used for exercise mats, children's play areas, basement floors. They don't have marked measurements but they are light, fit together snugly, and take pins well. And they are cheap ($14.99 Canadian for a set of four).



Lace garments are not nearly as popular as they have been in centuries past but they are wonderful to knit. They are a challenge, require constant counting, and complete concentration. The finished project looks like a rumpled, crumpled, nondescript mess but knitters will wax poetic on the joy of seeing their lace knitting come to life after blocking. Scarves are practical, more up-to-date lace projects - who doesn't wear a scarf in a Canadian winter! This is a pattern I have been wanting to try for months now.
Pattern: Ishbel
Designer: Ysolda S. Teague
Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk
Color: Ocean
Needles: 4.0 mm. Addi Turbo lace circular

The End of Litigation Lane

Eleven years ago, the house was built at the end of a cul de sac cut out of the forest. We were the only ones on the new section of "street" and it was wonderful to be surrounded by trees and ferns. A slate walkway leading to the front door,with creeping thyme growing between the stones, seemed so romantic and appropriate in this natural setting. Alas. The thyme didn't want to grow between the stones - just too wet and shady for an herb that loves dry heat. Moss liked it. And unwanted grass. And in places where neither took hold, rain storms drove the soil down the walkway and the resulting erosion made the lane uneven and, yes, a tad unsightly. Because slate is rather slippery when wet or icy, Movita has always referred to it as Litigation Lane.
Well, no more.




Yesterday, two very nice men arrived to remove the stones, assess the lay of the land, and spray orange paint to mark their vision of how the new pathway should evolve. This morning, eight inches of soil was removed and stockpiled for me off the driveway (good garden soil just waiting for lawn patching and planting in the spring).


The materials for the new walkway were delivered.


And Litigation Lane gets another lease on life.

Wool Windings

Skeins from padded mailing envelopes to the swift and wool winder


to luscious bowls of yarn

November 1st: Time

1. The time changed in the wee hours of the morning, falling back by one hour. It is now not quite as late on the clock as it was at this point yesterday and I still have an extra hour to finish up the things I want to do. It would be wonderful if we could somehow gain an extra hour each and every day of the year. I have four yards of bark mulch being delivered tomorrow and have to get it hauled and in place in case Mother Nature plays a joke with a sudden cold spell, freezing the bark mulch into unmanageable lumps at the top of the driveway! And with an extra hour each day, I would certainly do a better job at getting seven days book loans returned to the library without fines.

2. It is interesting to think about the fact that this time next year, there will be another person in our midst whose name we don't yet know and whose face we have not yet seen. And this little person will quickly become part of the fabric of our lives.

3. Fred pointed out on Saturday that he has been cutting my hair for almost twenty years. He doesn't look much older.

4. The government did an excellent job of creating a heightened, if not exaggerated awareness of swine flu but may not deliver the vaccine in time to spare many people the illness. They now have a somewhat fearful population and after a great deal of bravado at press conferences, they pooped out on their assurance that Canada would be a country that could provide, and distribute efficiently, a vaccine for every citizen in fairly short order. I think we need to tamp down the axiety levels and look at better ways to coordinate services.

5. An RCMP officer, across the county line in Boutlier's Point, swears he saw a cougar recently near the community mailboxes. I may spend less time in the woods collecting evergreens before Christmas this year.