Hallowe'en High Jinx

What's a girl to do - I am in the wooly business after all.  So...couldn't resist yarn bombing the jack O'lantern.  The witch got into the act.

This is the before picture - nice grin on the old boy's face eh?  The carving is courtesy of my wonderful Son, Scott who can wield a sharp carving knife with the best of them.

I  designed, and crocheted miss Witchy a few years ago.    This is definitely her time of year to shine.  I love her purple hair - very stylish.

Believe it or not those are geraniums still in bloom...at the end of October...in Calgary..  And there is NO SNOW!  Matter of fact a big chinook arch is hanging in the western sky and the little ghosties and goblins won't have to wear their snow suits under their costumes tonight.

  I hope there are no firecrackers.  Libby isn't fond of them.  She doesn't mind the little kids in the costumes though, as long as I hang on to her.  Makes for a bit of a juggle - hanging on to the leash and handing out the goodies.

I have so many things on the needles at the moment - I'm keeping them separated in plastic bags along with their patterns - otherwise I'd lose track.  I have socks, of course, and scarves, and toques, and a shawl.  When I get over half way with one project, the others take a back seat while that one gets finished.  It seems to be working.

We have had a stressful couple weeks in my country - we lost two lovely soldiers, to what the Government is calling terrorist acts, we had a shoot out in our Parliament buildings, and found another hero in our brave Sergeant at Arms, Keven Vickers who took down the gunman.
We lost a CBC radio host when his ugly can of worms got opened, and we found out US satirist, Steven Colbert likes us now.   Oh...and daylight savings is cancelled this weekend. 

Thank goodness for knitting.   Happy Hallowe'en to you all.

Thanksgiving Rainbow

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue and Indigo

And Violet

All the colours of the rainbow are in the garden these days.  Autumn is full on, and my garden is quietly going to sleep for the winter.   I still need to cut some perennials down, and cover them in their beds of leaf mulch.  Go to sleep little plant, see you in the spring...hopefully.

Inside Stash Needle Art Lounge beautiful fall yarns are on display to tempt knitters and crocheters alike.  The classroom is bursting with students eager to learn to knit, to upgrade their skills, to learn something new and to just have a good time.

And at home - the work table is full of projects half done or near completion or waiting to be started in the same selection of fall colours reflected in the garden.  It's a good time of year.  The days are sunny and warm, the nights and mornings are cool.  Yesterday there was frost on the roof of the garage next door - a sure sign the next season is waiting in wings.  My lovely geraniums are crowded up against the back door under the eves of the house in hopes I can keep them alive and blooming a while longer.  If the nights get too cold, I'll start bringing them in, just to hold on to the colour a while longer.  But really, I can't save them in this climate...not all winter anyway.  It is too cold for too long, and the house is too warm.  I always try though.
This weekend if Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada - a time to be thankful for many things, and to celebrate the harvest and the change of seasons .  I do love Thanksgiving.  So, a happy one to you where ever you live.  The Turkey goes in the oven in the morning.  Cheers!

Celebrating Autumn in the Country

We took a break from the knitting, and drove  into the country today,  west along highway 1A, through Cochrane, on to Ghost Lake and then took the eastern road across to Big Hill Springs Provincial Park  which is north of Airdrie, the turned  back west again,  to stop at Glenbow Provincial Park  to enjoy the fall scenery.   Libby enjoyed Ghost Lake, as you see, rolled in a cow pie at Big Hill Springs Provincial Park and had to be dunked into the spring to wash off, but managed not to get into trouble at Glenbow Park..  Travelling with a Border Collie is never dull,   Most provincial and federal parks are onleash for dogs, so we stick pretty close to each other, which means I narrowly missed stepping in the cow pie that she was busy rolling in.   None the less, we had a great time exploring today.  It really is a pretty time of year.

Socks and Knitting tales

The travelling socks are finally finished  And it was a squeeker let me tell you.  I blithely cast on my usual 56 stitches, did my 3 inch rib cuff and moved on down the leg for 8 inches which I like, never thinking that this Lang Jawoll Cotton Stretch colour only had 330m on it.  One sock down, the second one down almost to the toe and I started to panic.

This little tangle is all the scrap I had left.  I didn't use the spool of coloured nylon so kindly provided by Lang in every one of their balls of sock yarn.  I don't think it would have made a difference in any case.  There was just enough yarn - and they are fraternal twins, these socks, not identical twins, but that's Ok too.
I like the Lang sock yarns - they have a nice twist and are easy to work with and I'm really in love with my new steel tipped, carbonized sock needles by Knitter's Pride.  But I was surprised that the Cotton Stretch has about 100 meters less on the ball than the regular Jawoll Colour.  No idea why that is.

Here is the latest shot of my problem child shawl.  I've now ripped this lovely yarn back twice - but this time, I think things will work.  Both rips were because I wasn't paying enough attention to the quantities of yarn required for the shawl pattern I had chosen.  Let that be a lesson to me - I'm beginning to see a pattern here.   At any rate..  I do like this pattern - crochet  - called the BFF Shawl and in Interweave Crochet Accessories Special issue 2014.  It's a four row pattern repeat guaranteed to keep my interest as I plow through it.   I was pleased to see the designer not only gave me the number of chains on, but told me it was a multiple of 12 stitches plus 2.  Once I discovered that the shawl would be way too wide I was able to do the math, cut to 72 stitches and one ball of this delightful manos Del Uruguay Alegria yarn named Botanico will do the trick..  Good thing - it's all I've got.
Today is a good day for knitting.

This is why.  Welcome to my snowy world.  Libby is, of course, ecstatic.  We took the Rav to the garage for it's tune up this morning, and walked back home via the park.  She was doing stop, drop and rolls in the falling snow about every three feet.  There is enough on the ground at the moment to make really good, big snowballs to throw for her this afternoon.  But my, its early for this stuff.  I hope it will melt and the warm temperatures will come back.  I'm just not sure if the plants will survive this wet snow.  That's all for now.  Time for a cup of tea.

The Company of Plants...

The Company of plants is always soothing - a quote by Claire Fraser in Diana Gabaldon's latest book "Written In My Own Heart's Blood"

Raindrops look like pieces of glass on the green leaves

Tiny mushrooms sprouting in the grass are food for somebody  - the rampaging squirrel perhaps?

 The garlic scapes are decorated with water drops and looking quite ethereal.

Chive flowers look like tiny stars through the close up lens of the camera

Weekend Girl Style

I've been cleaning out my closet.  It seemed like a good day to do it - raining, cool, a nip of premature fall in the air.   Getting rid of old clothes that don't work anymore is a bit like cleaning out a former life.  No, I lie - it is exactly like cleaning out a former life.

There is a pile of clothes ready for sorting and giving away to "Good Will".  These clothes just don't work for me now, in this life I have and I'm tired of them.  They used to work.  There are memories in the clothes of that former life - but it's time to let go.

Why all this?  Well, I happened upon an episode of  the Marilyn Denis show - Marilyn is slightly obsessed with making over women, and I suppose, making them remember who they have sort of forgotten who they are.  She had on her show Fashionista, Gretta Monahan, who has written a book - a primer really -  defining four types of dress - the girlie girl, sophisticated girl, Sexy girl and Weekend girl.

So, what spoke to me at this time of my life? 

Behold the weekend girl


" This girl prefers comfort and, to her, everyday is a weekend "-( well that might be going a tad far.) . "She is most often found in casual pieces that don't look like she's trying too hard. This girl's style icons are Jennifer Anniston, Katie Holmes and Cameron Diaz" (.Actually I think I'm a bit old to worry about Jennifer or Katie or Cameron but she nailed it about the casual comfort thing)

This is what I'm aiming for when clothes shopping is on the agenda, and now that I've purged the closet, I feel justified.  I guess it's true that in order for a new thing to come into your life, you must get rid of something.  Empty hangers await.   The next clean out is the sweater chest!

Knowing when to fold 'em

I have been fighting with this latest shawl for long enough - today it is coming out - right out - the entire thing - out.  I did it to myself - I picked the wrong pattern, didn't look at how much meterage was needed, grabbed this lovely ball of Allegria from the Manos Del Uruguay company and a 5.5mm hook and got started.

The shawl pattern is called Morning Webs Shawl, designed by Kathryn White, published by Interweave Press,  and there is no doubt it is a gorgeous pattern - just not for one ball of Allegria Botanico (sigh ). 

It was going well, too,  until I came to the border and realized I was facing two entire rounds of double crochet clusters and chains, guaranteed to gobble up yarn.  That was when I put down the hook, went back to the beginning and actually read the yarn requirements - and realized I was some 400 meters short to make the project.  I have 425 meters - the pattern calls for 796.    That's what I get for being in a hurry I guess.

I consulted my books for border ideas thinking I just might be able to pull the project out of the fire.
But you know, no matter how I look at this - and I have been looking at it believe me, I don't like it, can't get into finishing it.  So it has been sitting, waiting patiently, and today while Libby and I were walking and playing at the river, I realized it is time to start over with a new pattern that will actually fit the amount of yarn I have to play with. 

Sometimes you just have to know when to fold 'em.