I'm So Tangled

 A song from Pretty Woman movie is stuck in my head. "Oh, baby I'm so tangled". Apparently the singer was from the Go-Gos. I'll take the internet's word on that.

My tangling took much longer to solve, than looking up the song.

Daisy has been trying to play with this ball of yarn for awhile. I've had it well guarded, but I guess I let my guard down for a minute. Last week, I spent much of my knitting time, untangling that snarl.

And now it is 400m of usable yarn. I didn't even have to cut it anywhere (though at one point I thought I might.)

The yarn is Drops Lace, a discontinued yarn, that has been living in my stash. It is the second ball for a shawl I started. The shawl is called Ontario. It seemed appropriate.

I cast it on about 5 times before I got the cast on and foundation rows right. Now it is going quite well. Slow mindful knitting. And, yes, it will have beads.

I finished the baby socks, and they are just so cute.

I also made my first pair of mittens for 2026.

I think I can get a second pair from the ball of stash yarn. A friend just donated 10 more skeins to the hat and mitten stash.

Meanwhile, my sewing has been on hold but I hope to get back to it today. My summer buddy is only with us for a couple more weeks, before he goes back to school. We didn't get to half our plans.

Our new gardens are nearly ready. 

There are still more places to plant, but it is progressing. I am not a gardener. My job is to keep Daisy out of the garden, and supply cold drinks. I also do plant identification, the result of many years volunteering at summer camps.

I have some sewing stuff to show you, but I think that will wait for another day.

The Big Reveal!

 Not such a big reveal, just the bag I finished last weekend, and sent off to it's new home. I received confirmation that the parcel arrived, so I will reveal it to the world.

This is the Heidi Clutch by Swoon.  It started out as a scrap of fabric, that was asking to become a bag. This was further confirmed by the fact that I had everything I needed in my stash. If I needed more confirmation, I had the perfect cork fabric to match.

This is the back of the bag.

The phone pocket on the back, and the cute charm on the zipper.

The bag opens out.

The inside is open. Not my usual pockets on the inside.

Of course, this is the strap I showed you last time.

The strap is my own design, the pattern has a wrist strap, but a crossbody strap is so much more convenient.

Meanwhile, my 8 YO helper learned how to wind yarn into cakes this week, and a new pair of socks have been  started.

And we turned last week's jam into Strawberry JamJam muffins. (JamJams are a cookie popular cookie from the Newfoundland.)

The muffins have a dollop of jam in the middle. The recipe can be found here.

https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/canadian-goodness/recipes/yogurt-strawberry-jam-jam-muffins

Preparing and Minor Disasters

I got a funny message from a neighbour the other day: Could I knit or mend? So I replied yes and was told that the dog had been "playing" with her daughter's favourite hat. and they were hoping I could mend it.

This is what they brought me. Mudd offered to help.

The whole top of the hat was gone. To make it harder, the hat had a fleece lining. So, I took some double pointed needles and a crochet hook, and started trying to find the stitches.. Since I didn't want to disturb the fleece lining, I asked my young friend if she would settle for a knot on the top of her hat instead of the (now) sad looking pompom.  With Mudd's help we managed to get it fixed.

I didn't have any green yarn so I used grey instead.

We put up the Christmas tree and added lights.

Yesterday morning, we came down to this.

It is dark in the mornings, but if you click on the picture, you can see that Doug looks concerned. I think somebody jumped out of the tree and got tangled in the lights. She must have gone for a run to get free.

Though she is denying any knowledge of the light incident, we believe this is the suspect.

Now that the postal workers are back to work. I have started making cookies. I may have to make more before I can actually mail care parcels to the west.

These are hermit cookies made with the leftover fruit from the fruit cake.

I did some other knitting.

This is the finished Santa Hat using the pattern from the movie Red One. It is a quick and easy knit. The yarn is Brava from Knit Picks.

I also finished a mugmat that I found in my UFO bin. It has gone to a friend with a mug and hot chocolate bombs.

Last night I started knitting a hat with some gradient yarn, I finished the cast on only to find a knot, and the join was not in sequence. I cut the first piece off and started again, only to find a second splice out of sequence. 

Okay, this isn't going to work. I will find another ball and start again, hopefully with better results.

Still Chugging Away

 I had some fun the other day, with yarn I plan to use for a summer knit along. 

These are all pictures of the same two skeins, photographed under different lights. The top left is with indirect light from an east window in the middle of the morning. Top right is the same location but with a piece of blue tissue under the skeins. The bottom left is a south east window, with skylights and a white table.  The bottom right is in full direct sun, None of them look like the colours I see. 

I started my June socks, and got the first sock finished. I decided since it was summer, that I should make short leg socks, with a cotton, rayon and nylon blend. The lighting is not great, but the sock is cute.

It is kind of an adult version of my usual baby sock.

I was also asked to make a Princess Charlotte Bonnet. I've lost track of how many of these I have made. They are cute and not hard to make. This was my progress over the weekend.

The pink tubing will help with all the stiches that need to be picked up.

The waxed canvas Celosia bag is nearing completion. I am at the hardest part, putting the whole thing together. Today, I got the lining sewn to the gusset pieces.

It looks rather strange, since the bag is completely inside out at this stage. The exterior is next, then all that is left are the straps.

Look what Costco brought, with my order of coffee and oat milk. Hi, Emme!

 

The weather has turned hot again. I made most of supper, early this morning, before it got too hot. Just a bit of assembly left. 

Lots of Knitting

The weather has been dull and grey, not much sun for days. So, I have spent a lot of time by the fire. I have gotten knitting done, while I enjoy the heat.

Mittens and baby socks, both completed. There is a pair of adult socks that were finished last night, but I haven't taken a picture yet.

Next up is a hat, from this yarn that has been resting in my stash.

These dull days beg for bright colours.

I did some sewing, a sort of squirrel project. I made a sleep mask, as a gift.

The pattern is free from Sew Hungry Hippie. The fabric is a bit of Tula Pink. 

An on-line group was asking about our favourite yarn colour to knit with.  So here is mine.

I have said for awhile that my favourite colour is rainbow. It makes me smile! And yes, I have or have used up all those rainbow yarns, and more.

I have been looking for over a year for a metric rotary cutting ruler that I could buy in Canada. I was pleasantly surprised to find one at an on-line store not very far away,

Bag patterns from Europe and Australia use metric measurements, and sometimes, converting them to Imperial causes problems. I now have my very own. I actually don't have many rulers, but I have gotten to the point where I thought this one was necessary.

I have a question that maybe one of you know the answer. One of my followers can't comment on my blog using her iPad. Since I don't use Apple products, I am no help at all. Can somebody drop a note in the comments, if you use an iPad?

Meanwhile, I will leave you with a picture of our sunrise, on a rare sunny morning.

I Got Lost

 Since I hardly leave home, it seems hard to believe that I could get lost, but somehow, I have missed nearly 3 weeks, this month. 

First off, it has been hot. It is hard to doing any sewing or knitting when it gets up to 30C.  Much easier at -30C. 

I also spent some time, trying to figure out how to create a new mailing list for my blog. I've used Feedburner, but apparently Google is phasing it out. I downloaded my list and found over 1000 email addresses, most of which I suspect are spam. So now I need to filter out the spam and try to create a new list. Hopefully my email subscribers will only miss a couple of posts.

I went for my second vaccine, and my arm was sore for a few days, but otherwise, I had no problems (except, no crafting). 

A big obstacle was that I started reading The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. The book is 625 pages and I had to keep going. What a great story if you are into mystery and intrigue. I found out that the Duchess of Cambridge's grandmother worked at Bletchley Place during WWII.

Pictures! Let's have some pictures.

The hollyhocks are looking very good.

The neighbours took down the huge maple tree that shaded the back of our house. The tree was probably 60 years old, and had already damaged the their house. They were afraid it was no longer stable. the yard is now so bright that I am in search of new blinds for my family room. 

Fires in Northern Ontario are giving us blood in the moon. My camera tried, but this was the best I got.

A friend introduced me to a new shawl pattern, that is currently free as the designer runs a knit along on Instagram. It is called "Reach For the Stars"

It is progressing slowly. The yarn was in my stash, a hand dyed skein called "Stay Home For Christmas".

The designer of the shawl pattern is also a hand dyer in England. She created a colourway for the knit along. I managed to get two skeins of it.

Gorgeous, isn't it. I'm sure I can find a pattern to knit it into. Surprisingly, it got here faster than yarns I have ordered from Canadian suppliers.

Needless to say, the My Bag of the Month project is not moving forward, this month!

When Life Gets In The Way

I realize now that I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. However, dear ones, both two and four-legged, conspired to get in my way. I am here, now.

I really didn't intend to buy anything on black Friday. Then I got the newsletter from my favourite yarn shop. It wasn't a Black Friday sale, just their usual end of the month clearance. They had Cascade superwash wool for half price. What was I to do?

The Cascade is here, along with some other skeins I had that were in need of winding into balls. I did 12 skeins in rapid succession, and I don't recommend that. My arm was sore until today, from turning the ball winder. However, I have plans for lots of warm presents from this cache. It is a commentary on how dull winter is around here, when you look at all the colours I chose. My family and friends will be bright.

My 1001 Nights shawl is beginning to feel like I have been knitting on it for 1001 nights. Actually only 3 months, but it never ends.

The rows now take forever to knit. I have 11 more rows to go, so I know I can make it, but I have been picking it up lately and thinking "You, again?"

In other UFOs, I pulled one, this afternoon, that needs quilting.

Laurel Burch Bountiful Gifts from I've forgotten when. I did a lovely job of mitering the border. It has been in the pile so long that the next step will have to be a good pressing. I found some fabric for a backing. It isn't in keeping with the front side, but if I wait to get the perfect backing, it will continue to be a UFO. I am sure I have a binding that works.

Warm Fuzzies

I have slowly been working on my Water shawl. I finished clue #3 yesterday, 9 days after clue #4 was published.

This clue had some very scary intentionally dropped stitches.

The next clue has the option of adding beads, so I found some in my stash that look like they will work.

I am sprinkling them around the shawl to add a bit of weight to the bottom.

I swore I was not going to go to the big sale at the yarn shop this year, but I buckled under the strain.

5 balls of worsted wool and 7 balls of sock yarn. Isn't it pretty?

I am blaming this for my lack of knitting progress.

They look so innocent when they are asleep. They grab my yarn and the cable of my circular needle, when they are awake.

My Bag Workshop

When one is teaching it is difficult to remember to take pictures. I had 8 people making the Open Wide Zipper Pouch.  I managed to remember to take pictures of a few of finishes.

My yoga dogs are now a bag.

The first two finishes, by Pat and Ruth.

How did I miss getting some of this fabric? Sheila's bag was very cute.

I missed getting a picture of Corina's bag. It was her first attempt at something like this. I think we may have her hooked!

Yesterday, I finished a pair of baby socks, to go with the bear hat. However, I didn't get a picture and they have already gone to their expectant grandma. since my needles were empty, I dove into my sock yarn stash and came up with some yarn that I bought quite awhile ago, because it remineded me of  Dolly. Dolly is a Tricolour Blue Merle Australian Shepherd. Here she is helping me knit.

Here is the sock.

It is Regia Extra Twist Merino, a lovely yarn, they, of course, no longer make. The sock pattern is a modification of the Simple SKYP Sock.The pattern uses a slightly heavier yarn so I am using the men's size medium to make lady/narrow man's sock. Haven't decided who they are for yet. Best part is, the dog hair won't show!