Aurora Watching

For a few days, around October 10, the Aurora Borealis created a glorious light show that was seen in most of North America (and Europe). 

I live on the edge of a major Canadian city, where light pollution makes it so the sky isn't really ever dark, but this is what we saw.

 I want a nail polish in that colour!

My son, in Northern Alberta, sent his sky at the same time.

Much further north and away from any big cities.

So, I got some fabric that help my granddogs remember the lights.

I am making them bandanas.

I am also making them Halloween bandanas.

This is called Little Tricksters.

Fall is here, but last week, I got one last treat of late raspberries at the farm stand. 

My last summer breakfast until spring, raspberries, granola and Greek yogourt.

It was a chilly morning, so I added a DIY Cafe Mocha.

I just add milk free hot cocoa powder to brewed coffee and add some "squirty" cream.

The trees are at their best. winter will be here soon. It is already snowing in the north.

So I started a winter cowl in the same colours. This is a really mindful project, requiring a lot of concentration.

I am actually further along than this, but it will be and interesting knit. The yarn is called "French River- PEI" from Ancient Arts Yarn. The pattern is called Shocktopus and is by Kim O'Brien Evans.

I am continuing to sort through my craft supplies. I have a bag for the garbage, today, as well as 4 bags of donations to groups and friends. I saw somebody refer it it as Swedish "I Will Have To Move, Someday" Cleaning, and I think that is a great description.

October, Already

 

It is that time, again. The leaves are starting to change colour. The air has a chill in the mornings. It is the time that knitters know as Woolie Season.

I finished my September socks on the last day of the month.

They are nearly perfectly identical. I am calling them Posh Socks since the colours look like a Burberry scarf.

I had an appointment on Friday at the clinic where I know there will always be a wait. I cast on a mitten the night before, and I finished the cuff while I waited. The wait is much more tolerable when you can knit.

The pair of mitts is now finished.

My goal with the sock knitting was to get the lid closed in my sock yarn bin.

Mission accomplished. I do have a bag of odds and ends that I know I will never use, so I am giving those away. There is still quite a bit of yarn in the bin, but I can see it all now.

I discovered at the bottom of the bin, a lone sock. It doesn't have a mate, and there is no yarn to make a mate. I have no memory of knitting it. I think it must have been very early in my sock knitting journey because it is knit toe up with a darted heel. I nearly always do my socks top down, and I never liked a darted heel. I think it is destined to become a sock puppet.

I feel the pull of sewing again. I saw some interesting fabric awhile ago. It was a custom print, so I've been waiting for it to come. It arrived recently, and I am considering what it should be.

It is "solar punk" fabric. It is one of those fabrics where every time I look at it, I see something else. It is canvas, so it will definitely become a bag (or two or three).

I am about to start my annual sort through my stuff. I always start with good intentions but get waylaid. Maybe I'll get a bit further this time. Wish me luck!

Some Knitting Advice

 I learned to knit when I was about 6. Since my mother didn't knit, I had multiple teachers, and books as my guides. Some things I just had to figure out for myself.

Interestingly, the thing I knit the most is socks and my sock knitting is entirely self taught. I bought a book, then another book, and worked it out from there. My first pair looked a bit odd, and I didn't think anyone would wear them. However, my big kid thought they were perfect and wore them happily. So now I am a sock knitter. 

One thing I was slow to learn, was how to keep track of the notions I use over and over again. I have more than one project bag and they could be in any of them, or some in one and some in another. 

Last year, I made this little Dumpling bag. It sat for awhile, wanting to be useful. Then I realized it was the perfect size for my sock notions.

It easily holds my little scissors, my tape measure, the case with my yarn needles, a little double ended crochet hook, and a bodkin. The case is small enough to fit into my project bag. Now I can quickly finish a sock and cast on the second sock of the pair.

It is currently moving between my sock bag, and my mitten bag. 

This is the start of the September socks.

These are in DK weight sock yarn. They knit up quickly.

This is the current mitten.

And the pair from the last blog are finished.

The needles are flying!

We are enjoying the last truly summer weather. The days are pleasantly warm and the nights are cool. The garden is flourishing.

The bees are really enjoying the sedum.

An End of Summer Field Trip

Much of my summer has been spent in the company of my grandson. We celebrated the end of summer with a field trip.  At his request, we went to see different Rideau Canal locks than the ones we visited last year.

This is Hogs Back. From here to the Ottawa River, the Rideau River is separate from the Rideau Canal, with the canal moving calmly toward Downtown Ottawa, and the Rideau River rushing over rocks and rapids to meet the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls. You can read more about it here.

https://www.rideau-info.com/canal/history/rideau-route/hogsback.html

Here we can see wild rushing rapids, as they pass over rocks that were compared to giant hogs in the river. The rapids have been transformed, by a dam, into beautiful waterfalls.

In the midst of this, we saw ducks sunning themselves on the rocks.

Find the ducks!

After climbing to the top of the dam, and walking across, we climbed down to the river and calmer water. It was a gorgeous day. 

We did watch the boats lock through, in the channel to the west of the dam, but that wasn't as exciting as the rocks and the falls.

Some knitting was done. My August socks have been finished.

Because this is Canada, and we know that summer will soon give way to cooler days, I started knitting mittens.

I was gifted this gorgeous yarn and a bunch more like it, so I expect I can make a lot of mittens.

Debby Drops In

The remains of tropical storm Debby decided to visit us yesterday. Apparently we got all of the rainfall for August in one day.  We normally get about 88 mm of rain for the whole month and yesterday, we got over 90 mm, in our little corner of the city. The airport, that is south of the city got half that amount. 

The poor dog does not like to get wet, and was going to the door, we would open the door, he would stick his head out, and turn around. He just couldn't believe it was still raining really hard.

We were all safe and dry. There was flooding, but our recent repairs kept the water on the outside. 

I spent much of the afternoon, knitting (and watching an old movie).

I turned the heel on my first sock of the August pair. 

Feeling silly last night, I called this Rainbow Trout. It seemed appropriate after all the rain. The yarn is my favourite Turtle Purl. The pattern is a new one to me called Amaretti. Because it is my first attempt at this pattern, I am following it carefully as written. I think if I make it again, I'll change a couple of things.

I was looking for something in my yarn stash and found a project that was started a long while ago. I got realistic and decided I would never finish it, so I frogged the project and reclaimed the materials.

I now have back 2 cables for interchangeable needles and 8 stitch markers, that I made some years ago. I also have some lace yarn I can use to make something else. I think it is alpaca. It is very liberating to decide that it isn't working and free up the supplies.

 

August Holiday Weekend

 The first Monday of August is a holiday "at local option" in much of Canada. It is called various things depending on where you live. In Ontario, each municipality gives it a name, so in Ottawa it is "Col. By Day" . Col. By was the engineer responsible for the building of the Rideau Canal. Without the Rideau Canal, Ottawa would never have been chosen as the Capital of Canada. The other sites recommended for the capital were considered to be too close to the US border. 

The summer has been cruising along. I have done a lot of knitting but not much else creative (unless you count making salads that use up the contents of our basket of CSA vegetables, every week). Last night we were watching fireflies in the backyard with our favourite small person.

I had two finishes in the past week.

This is the Get Set and Go shawl. Under the Olive Tree Knits is having a summer knit along, and I joined in again this summer. The pattern is on Ravelry and on her web site, free until the end of August.

Here is a closer view of the yarn colour. I have yarn leftover. Maybe some gloves to match.

I also needed some knitting for video chatting, so I made another pair of baby socks.

The yarn is leftovers from my April socks and is TurtlePurl in Joy. They are actually identical!

Solar activity this past week lead to some spectacular Aurora sightings. I live in the big city where the sky is too bright, but my son lives in Northern Alberta, far from the big city lights.

These pictures were taken early Tuesday morning and are used with his permission. I have seen the Aurora Borealis myself. When we first lived here our neighbourhood was at the edge of the city, but it has grown up around us. The pictures don't actually do them justice. They move and change constantly. My son said that these were like an umbrella over them so you saw them everywhere you looked.

 

Summer Standard Time

Life moves at a different pace in the summer. It is easy to lose track of the passing of time. It has been hot. We have had rain, both normal showers and the edge of Hurricane Beryl. School is out, so my grandson spends time with us, when he isn't at day camp. We call those days Camp Nana and Grandad.

Last week's camp activity included making strawberry yogourt popsicles.

He chopped and measured the berries, and pureed them in the food processor. Then he added yogourt and mixed it all together. After they were frozen, he gave them a 10/10.

Before he finished school, I made strawberry jam. It will taste wonderful in February.

The knitting continues. I finished my June socks.

I also finished the Charlotte bonnet. Here it is with my other recent finishes.

My July knitting is a shawl (It counts towards my July sock of the month because the yarn is sock yarn, and this is my challenge so my rules,) The Pattern is "Get Set and Go" and it is free for the summer on Ravelry, as a Knit Along from Under the Olive Tree. The yarn is darker than I expected, so the lace has disappeared. It will return with blocking.

Sewing is moving very slowly. My sewing room is too hot most days, so I sew in short bursts. 

Meanwhile, Emme has the right idea.