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.