Nesting Make Over

The sunroom off our kitchen could be called a breakfast knook. But I have taken up residence because I value sunlight. I have given up calling it my "office" and have switched to the more chaotic appellation of "lab".

My favourite chair is called a "dog and man" chair, but my dog is too big to share and is no longer allowed on the furniture. We got it free when we bought a freezer and it turned out to be "just like" my friend's grandmother's chair that was promised to her. No, it was the actual chair. Whoops. But it is mine now and already needs to be recovered again.

In order to include my husband more in our morning coffee and to open up the space, I finally found the chairs have wanted since we had breakfast in the Denman Street Bread Garden about five years ago.

They are slipper chairs or armless chairs and very comfortable. I found a "roundy" table to put our coffee on.

The dresser is actually a file cabinet. Yay. I have much more stuff to put away and I need to find a flow of yarn in use and in queue. I like to have projects "in play" which means if it is out of sight, it is out of mind. Plus I can take quite a while to come up with the best idea and need little reminders.

The cold weather makes me want to feather my nest. When you come over, we can have our tea in the sunroom now.

Neglected But Not Forgotten

You know those bananas you put in the freezer when they go brown so you can use them in muffins? Well, mine were threatening to take over the kitchen. It was time for action. My recipe uses dessert tofu instead of eggs and they turn out pretty yummy. I made a 4X batch on Sunday.

With the excuse of muffins in the oven, I was able to turn to my Hey Teach as "Primary Knitting". It took a lot of time to put the button bands and collar on. Then on Monday I pieced the sleeves and this morning I finished all the ends. I'm not much of a project knitter, but the soft cotton/wool helped me with the excrutiating process. This sweater clubbed me over the head this summer, but I want to wear it at Christmas for family gatherings and darned if I wasn't going to finish it. Next stop: buttons.

I also reknit the Baby Surprise Jacket so the picked up stitches weren't right on the front by the button holes. This is important when it is a gift for a very thorough nurse whom I care about a lot. She was my mentor last year this time when I was trying to get back to nursing. I can only hope that she'll return soon after having the lovely baby. Any day now.

Flip Flop

Yesterday was beautiful and sunny and quite warm: just a polarfleece top-no jacket required- for walking the dog. Today is grey and cold and very rainy.

The sun tried to warm the wet ground in the local stream beds. We are on flood watch.

These are snow geese or trumpeter swans. My sisters would know which. I was switching back from night shifts and happy to have enough feet left for a good walk.

But I should not be allowed to pick up my knitting. I had dropped a stitch on night shift and picked it up rather poorly. When I finished the sweater- yes bound off and starting to sew the sleeve seams- I was unhappy with the job. First thing in the morning I started "fixing" it. I ripped back to row 64 from 113!!! The whole nights knittings. Man I was disappointed. Still I couldn't give this sweater to a nurse (and my preceptor) when the mistake ended up right on the front. With the baby surprise jacket I'm never sure what's what till the end. Harumph.

Em and I were invited to a baby shower and there was no way we could fit it in. But I said yes and lastnight I knit the baby hat from Leigh Radford's One Skein. Such an amazing book. I'm taking another look at the other projects now.

J picked up the Made in Brooklyn for me at Urban Yarns when she picked up her UBC student. Thanks so much. She'll probably make the first pattern from it. I also got the Patons Street Smart when I stopped in town to get needles. I picked up some chunky wool for Em and she's already knit her boyfriend a great pair of slippers. There's enough to knit a pair for herself, too. She's been home sick. Not the same as homesick. I hope she's better to go to the shower.
That is if the rain hold off.

Organized and Controlled.

Yes, I managed to fix the fingerless mitts, er gloves. I have heard the rant. I have been ranted at. I was a rantee. My sister insists that, as mittens do not have fingers to begin with, there is no such thing as fingerless mitts. These are fingerless gloves. I was also accused of cheating as if I didn't want to finish kniting the fingers. I sure hope they don't mind these as presents.
My one sister did wear the jaywalker socks I knit her and they are almost worn out. I should make her another pair. If they are just a titch too small for me, they will fit her.

I am conquering the "Hey Teach". Not without a tussle, but I completed both fronts in the last few days. Now I cast on for the sleeves. I am going to knit them simultaneously so that the fudging of the lace pattern (as you lose stitches in shaping) is symmetrical.

I also resurrected the woodland shawl. I knit this on the ferry last month and took it to the ice rink yesterday. Emily played O Canada for the Remembrance Day ceremony before the hockey game. She also drummed in the city parade with D piping. I took a picture with my phone, and it may be lost in cyberspace.

On Tuesday I helped a Joyful friend make juice from the grapes I picked in September. We made about 25 litres. Whew! Another phone picture. It will be used as the Communion wine. I don't care for canning and it was exhausting, but I feel it is enough of a blessing to use the gift of the grapes. It was great to see all the beautiful purple jars lined up on the counter, but I don't think I'd like to do it again.

We loved the Singing Revolution sent to me through Mason-Dixon. History in our time that we barely know about. Everyone I've talked to about it is so surprised. I hope it makes it quickly to the next knitter.

It is the season of cleaning and organizing as we get ready to cocoon. The kitchen is sanitized. The basement is being reboxed. And my sunroom is eagerly anticipating a makeover. It'll have to wait until after my set of shifts this weekend, but it should be good to organize the knitting/writing space.

A Study in Contrasts

Don't knit in the dark. Don't knit charcoal black wool in the dark. This is the work of a rather experienced knitter. This is the third time this fall I've knit this pattern. I do remember thinking what a wool suck the second one was. I admit I compared them at least 3 times and didn't catch this mistake. It is fixed with a rip-back and Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn cast off.
When I am accused of being a wonderful knitter, I now say that I can do it because I have already made that mistake. I walked down the street to take a picture of the dropping snow line. Mt. Cheam has her white shawl on and the temperature is seriously dropping. I am so thankful for my new bright green dog-walking parka and the reflective leash.
I found a blooming azalea. Poor brave thing. There was nothing I could do but take a picture. With the impending freezing temperatures, these blossoms will be sacrificed.

There's the snow. Hopefully it will stay on the mountains this year (sorry 2010 Winter Olympics)

We had a really fun time at the photo shoot on Saturday. It was so good to see my three sisters and Brenda from Norman's Photographic encouraged us to be ourselves. Maybe that was my biggest worry: that I would have to pretend to be someone else. We are such big personalities, it's hard to cover. We also had a lovely dinner out with the kids we could wrestle up.

Dan was so excited about this knitting/science link I am charmed that he is looking for areas of intersection in our interests. We are both busy with music, medicine and volunteering, but we don't do much together. Right now we're making a video with the Youth Group for a Christmas story based on a greedy innkeeper (cue the Olympic music).

Just In Time

I can't believe I got the Mason-Dixon epic journey vid-a-long DVD so soon! Thanks to Anne and the readers for sharing. This afternoon I'm going to donate blood, so I can malinger on the couch (it really knocks me a whallop) with this inspiration. If I'm lucky I'll be joined by J. who is also very interested. What I won't be doing is knitting the Shalom.

I was so excited to be done in just 2 1/2 days that I took a picture before I even wove in the ends. The Nashua Creative Focus Chunky is so soft. I was hoping to wear it tomorrow for a photo with my mom and sisters, but now I guess we're wearing "earth tones". We shall see. I am the baby and apt to do what I'm told to please the rest.

I will be knitting on the BSJ in Cadenza, the last Christmas mitts or the Woodland shawl. We'll see how I feel this time.

Time Change

The weather turned cold after Hallowe'en. I worked both the spooky evening and the time change night. Thankful blessed extra hour of sleep. Because I switched to nights, the single hour change was baby sandbox stuff. I did warn the nurses that the Monday morning after the time change (when we're driving home at 0700hours after a 12 hour shift) is the most dangerous time of the year to be on the roads. We still have sunny periods in which to walk the dog.
And the first thing I did when I got off work was go back and print this month's newsletter. I'm really enjoying it.

Finished the nephew sweater #5. The good news is that he is quite a bit bigger than Scott. It was also good news that Scott was home for a Halloween party. This sweater is too big for him, but he didn't want to take it off.

He wouldn't model my next finished sweater.

The whirligig shrug. It's for a nurse's baby that is probably 3 months old now. I knit the three month size, but used bigger yarn and got a nice 12 month(ish) size. The Berroco Comfort is a dream (especially on sale). The pattern from the new Interweave Knits Weekend Knits is well written and so quick.

I knit on the Cadenza Baby Surprise on nights and it went quite quickly. I also helped a friend figure out piecing her afghan together. It was fun. I also made a new friend through the turmoil of being short staffed with such ill patients. We worked well together.

Thismorning I cast on Shalom .
In a crazy move, I'm trying to get it knit for a photo shoot with my sisters and mom this Saturday. I need you to stretch the hours between now and then for our own time change.