Fall Retreat 2014

Throwing caution to the wind, I left Doug and Dolly with my husband, and set off to the Nav Centre in Cornwall for a weekend of quilting till we wilted.

This was the view from my room in the residence.

Of course, sunrise was about the only chance I had to see this view of the St. Lawrence River, because I was in the sewing room from about 9 AM until 11 PM.

However, it wasn't a total hardship. The staff delivered snacks.

I got lots of work done.

I made 4 pillowcases for the Warm Hands Network, to send to children in the Canadian north.

The red fabric has Inukshuks, and the blue has snowflakes. The two at the top are for a boy and girl aged 14, the lower left is for a girl aged 4 and the lower right is for a girl aged 9.

I made a new design of 60 degree table runner.

And I got a start on a bag, based on the Trail Tote from Noodlehead.

I will tell more, when I am finished.

Others at the retreat did some fun things.

A good time was had by all!

A New Puppy

We are currently kitten-less, so we decided it was a good time to introduce a new puppy into our household. We have been talking about this for awhile, and when we saw this sweetheart on the web, it seemed like a good fit.

Meet Doug (or Dug) . We haven't agreed on the spelling yet, but we think the name is perfect.

If asked, we say his breed is "farm". He is 10 months old, and he worships Dolly.

Note the family resemblance. They have the same colour eyes.

It's Not Rocket Science

Last night, a friend was here, to get some knitting help. She is starting a new shawl, and she needed a bit of  ''encouragement" to get it started. She did a great job on the garter stitch tab that begins the pattern and was starting into the body. As she was trying to figure out what the pattern was telling her to do, I heard her say to herself, "Come on, this is not rocket science!"

http://www.vecteezy.com/

I have been thinking about this. In my younger days, I actually studied rocket science. The mathematics of rocket science is fairly advanced, but there are some physical laws that govern it, an agreed vocabulary, and set of conventions that allow engineers in many different places to understand each others work.

Knitting, on the other hand, is not always that simple. There are regional differences in how things are done. There can be more then one way to knit the stitches to get the same results. To make a left leaning decrease, a pattern may ask you to slip, slip, knit, or slip one, knit one, pass the slip stitch over, or knit two stitches together, through the back loop. All will serve the same function, making a left leaning decrease, and when the sock is finished, it is hard to tell which one was used.
In the case of the shawl pattern, the passage confusing my friend was "knit to marker,m1r, SM, k1, SM, m1l". I don't blame her for being confused. M is used both the mean the marker and to indicate where an increase is required.
I helped her understand, and she finished the row, and did a few more. The shawl is going to be awesome!
No, Michelle, it's not rocket science. Sometimes, it's even harder to understand.

Thanksgiving 2014

This is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Since there is often snow on the ground here, by the time our southern neighbours celebrate Thanksgiving, I can understand why ours is in October.

Things have been fairly quiet around Arts and Socks. Dolly started our weekend off with a bang, by having a close and personal encounter with a skunk in our backyard. Now, I would think that a bright girl, who has had a skunk encounter before, would have sense enough to run the other way, instead of running up to the skunk, barking! Now, every time we leave the house, we are sniffing our clothes and shoes and wondering if they smell, since our noses can no longer smell anything.

My "grandcat" Mike is spending the weekend, while his people are away. He is having a bit of a problem trying to decide where he would like to have his personal "spot".

Here he is trying out my antique Singer machine.

He is a big boy, and I think he decided that the sewing machine cabinet was a bit small for his liking.

So here he is, trying out the top of the bookcase.

Much roomier! We put a blanket up there for him.

I have been making a pair of yoga socks. Since I couldn't find a pattern I liked, I combined some ideas from other patterns.
Michelle kindly modeled them for me, at Knit Knight.

I can't guarantee they are both the same, because I didn't take very good notes on the first sock and had to try and count my rows from the first for the second.  The Knit Knight ladies liked them, so I guess they will do.