Into the Interior

Had a great trip to Kamloops in the middle of the week. This is Erin at her new Twist of Fate shop. She has a great connection with the yummiest of fibres. I bought a big bag of Fleece Artist.

When you drive two and a half hours away from the Fraser Valley, up the Coquihalla Canyon, you come to a semi-arid ranchland that has been my sister's cowboy dream.

These are the little dogs. She also has 3 big dogs. They love living on a ranch with horses and beef cattle.

The babies are already getting big.

She lives on a lake that took a big hit from the dry, hot season. I said it gave her more beach. She'll get lots of snow that will run off and fill up the lake again (we hope).

She has friends who have a weekly kayaking date. We joined them eventhough I am not seasoned. McConnel Lake was small and smooth. Just big enough for a group of ladies.

The serenity started to kick in.

We love her beautiful brown chickens and their large fresh eggs. D had great astronomy viewing and I even finished a baby sweater on the drive. This is the first sweater since the summer began that met my own knitting expectations. I'll have pictures of the pink sweetie and the stash enhancement as soon as I'm done with all the family gatherings this weekend.

When I go away, it's fun to catch up on all your blogging I missed, too.

Autmnal Denial

On the Sunday afternoon (between a day and a night shift) I gathered with 50 walkers to support our camp. The first days of autumn are sunny and warm here and more temperate and welcoming than any summer day.

They went up Teapot Hill while I tallied the sponsor money with one of the local ministers. They're all women up our end of the valley.

We had lots of fun and still I had enough energy to look after some of my favourite patients with some of my favourite nurses. It went well.

Today we drive up to Kamloops to see my sister at her ranch. I love taking pictures there! Looking forward to some good knitting on the drive. Lucille was growing at the rate of a new baby, so she had to be replaced. A simple stocking stitch rectangle seems to be the extent of my skills presently. J came over with lovely knitting that made me want to branch out, but her good advice is to just do something I won't be ripping out.

Set Up

The prayer shawl is off the needles. This is my first entrelac project. The wool is from a cone of single ply I bought on Saltspring and it still looks like a whole cone.

Dianna was vigourously blocked to 27 by 55 inches. I couldn't find my blocking wires. But I did find my keys (fell off in the car) and the little address book I bought to list my passwords.

I'll walk this over to Joy's house as soon as it's dry. Notice the black paw on the side. Carly is ticked off that I took the best patch of carpet.

I've already cast on Lucille in this inherited ancient Beehive baby yarn. I like the colour and it's really soft. The hospital doesn't want white sweaters because they don't photograph well. I have a ton of white, so if this one works out, I'll make another for a co-worker. As usual, I think it may be a bit big. But of the 8 I've already made, there are varying sizes.

I also cast on a brioche scarf for Scott (I'm sure he doesn't read this blog from university). The example at the store was chunky baby alpaca, but the Ambiance "Markoma, a 50/50 wool acrylic is plenty soft and teenage friendly. I'm still in the grey-brown colourway, but the softness overcomes that.

So I have two simple patterns for nights, yay.

I was supposed to walk up Teapot Hill today in preparation for our Camp Walk-a-thon, but I have retorn my heel and have to save my steps for work. I will get some good knitting done.

And tonight is bookclub. Yay. We have chosen our books for the year and I'm the moderator for the greek dinner meeting tonight (Three Cups of Tea and House of Mirth). We've tried to set up a more book focussed meeting and lost a member in the process. But we will still have lunch with her, like we did yesterday at the Airport Cafe. Diana loved her sock bag, the noro sock yarn and the highlighter tape that was her gift. What a blessing to have knitting friends.

Fall Welcome

A new planter at my front door to welcome the season and my guests. The orange pansies await the company of pumpkins next month.

My sunflowers have decided to be spectacular. They are all bouquet quality. Sorry birdies. But they greatly cheer up my sink.

The other fall flowers are grand here. I met a nurse from New York who was worried about getting all her hikes and walks done before the end of summer. No, the fall is one of our best seasons.

There is hope in knitting. I am working on the final row of the Dianna entrelac shawl. The little triangles are quick and she should be blocking soon. I so very badly need to get on with another project. There are some very charming points to this shawl, but was still bunging it up at the very end.

I need to knit two baby sweaters ASAP. I'm heading into a working weekend so I may be able to knit on my breaks and between care on nights.

I am just starting to feel the rhythm of my life return. No sleeping teenagers. No dodging the hot sun. More choices. Baking in the morning. MMMMuffins.

We will be eating a more salad-based diet with the young carnivore at university. I hope to get back to losing a bit of weight. I get my orthodics checked today, so I'll find out if I can get back to my long walks.

Yesterday I knocked myself out with writing minutes and reports and researching for my volunteer work that really ramps up in September. I hope to be investing to not work so hard in the future, but you know how some of us just do the work.

Right now I wish for the work to be knitting. Welcome Fall.

Shelving A Good Idea

Cheapo ladder shelving (fromWallmart) that suits my design aesthetic and a bedside table that I love. I did hide the cords after. This shelf, with previously bought fabric boxes, holds my hand-knit sweaters and shawls. Every time I reached above my clothes rod in the stubby closet, I would say, "I hate this." It only took 12 years to progress to this solution. The shelf is next to my adored armoire which I actually use for clothes (not TV). I had the most gorgeous little "Edward" help me get it in the van. All the supplies were in the box and they both went together as smooth as Kid Silk Haze.
What trouble trips up your day that could have a simple solution? I subscribe to Unclutterer
so I get lots of inspiration. Right now it's a bit exhausting as I've gone on an organizing streak. My pattern is to spend lots of time in the assessment phase and then go blitz.

I decided to buy the camera bag eventhough it wasn't on sale. I did a lot of research before I bought D his big case and I couldn't get my other choice for any price. The girl at London Drugs
(I must get her name!), who sold me the camera after all, went through the choices with my camera specifically. The Nikon D60 is a smallish SLR, but has the bump-out handle, so some bags are just too tight.

Lots of room. My camera is safer, and I already took it out for a shoot.

The entrelac shawl is all I'm working on. It is still slow going as I 've been running around like crazy. I gave blood on Friday and then went to a gigantic funeral. Do not do those activities in that order unless you want to be sitting on the back stairs with your head between your knees and making your bestfriend cross for missing the the tea because you're "feak and weeble".

It has been hot and cool. The morning dew is gaining momentum. I hope to make stricter lists in my In Box to not forget so much this week. If I'm lucky there will be some daytime knitting with full brain.

Seasonal Anticipation

The scarves are finished and blocking. These are more completed Christmas presents. The dog is drying, too. With the house to myself, I vacuumed, washed the floors and bathed the dog. Fresh start. Soon the doors and windows will be closed and I want it to smell appealing.

I picked a few of my reluctant sunflowers for my "by the sink" bouquet. This was a great idea last year to lift my spirits. I don't usually pick flowers in the summer, but these are in rows for cutting. I was worried I wouldn't get any flowers because they were planted late, but later is good. Gardening is like knitting: nothing immediate.

The corn is being harvested early. The skies rain in the morning and then clear up. I took my bike out last evening to do a few errands and it was so pleasant.

I printed the Nursing Unit (NU3) Newsletter for September yesterday and did the layout for October's this morning. I'm new to the unit, but I'm trying to reflect them back on themselves. People are responding positively. I made a Nursing Merit Badge with Grumpy's face to award those who are patient with difficult patients/ family/ staff. I kept the same cartoon of a doctor talking to a patient and just changed the words. This is fun.

The entrelac shawl got a bit of attention last night with no ripping. I have about 3 more rows to make a small prayer shawl for my petite friend. Each row grows in squares.

Hey Teach is upstairs but now I doubt I have enough yarn. Talk about a grumpy project. I have to cast on a baby sweater, but I really want to work on another alpaca scarf. Maybe I can convince myself I need it set up for my next set of shifts.

The turkey noodle soup is on the stove and it feels like autumn. I'm learning 2 new songs on the piano and setting up some guitar accompaniment for church.

I took out my sweaters and put them in new fabric boxes on the shelf. Now I must label the boxes. Every time I organize something, I give myself the gift of time to find it next time.
If only others would put things back like they do at work. OCD for good.

Start Again

First day of school here. Emily got up with encouragement and walked to school with (++) encouragement. In nursing, the plus, plus means I was a bit of a bully. They got home from San Fransisco last night and are exhausted as they head into this short week.
I had last night off because I had worked a shift for a friend already. So we had a great hen party with potluck that worked out before it was even thought of, the movie of our book club book (House of Mirth- not the best adaptation) and knitting!!
I finished the alpaca scarf and it is time to reassess my knitting queue.
November is nephew number 5's birthday so I should at least cast on the sweater I have rechosen to make him. It should not be too taxing. First I should finish the entrelac shawl. It is coming along well, but I was glad to cast off the scarf at the end of the movie so I didn't have to bring it out and stretch that part of my mind last night.
I must finish Hey Teach. It is starting to affect my knitting happiness. I'll get it out of the basement today and reassess my stumbling blocks.
I have a baby sweater to knit one of my nurses and the September charity sweater. Thanks to Stash and Burn One Skein September for a new vintage baby sweater. This is just the sort of friendly tip that makes me happy to be part of the on-line knitting community. Great pattern, great advice just when I need it.
Unfortunately I can't have too many projects on my needles or I get nervous. And right now I'm still needing something kind of simple.
Same thing with reading. I either knit lots or read lots. They steal from one another unless it's audio books. Thank goodness out library has lots to choose from.

Here's Scott at UVic. They have already had a few parties and done a walk through of their classes. The rest of the campus is very green and lush on the edge of the ocean with a freaky number of bunnies (formerly domestic) hopping about.
Good luck to everyone on this first step.

Seasons Change

Today is the first chilly rain in so many weeks. We're used to regular weekly rain and moderate temperatures, so this has been a very hot, dry summer. Lastnight I watered the plants at 10 pm by the light of the full moon. This morning God had given them a good soaking.

I like how the grey skies make the greens come out. It was sprinkling on Dan and Scott as they loaded his things into the van. Yes, Scott, my 18 year old son, moved to UVic this morning. I'm not sure he packed everything he needed, but it's his turn to learn those mistakes. They have stores in Victoria and he has a good room mate. They have spent all summer working on a video game that is almost ready to launch. His room mate is already making money on a "facebook application". They sure can ahndle one another's company.

I am confident that the small Engineering faculty will be a good nurturing ground.

The Tuscany shawl has started to behave and I'm anticipating the next stitches. This is a relief. The rows are too long to take to work tomorrow, so I'll carry the alpaca scarf, but I felt relaxed enough to pick up the entrelac Dianna shawl.

There is not a lot of knitting done on this shawl, but it represents a lot of learning. My dear friend was at a meeting with me yesterday ( a bit of a swirling, overwhelming meeting) and told me her husband loves his cashmere cozy. Now I'm motivated to finish this for her.

My daughter gave me a terrible ride on the teenage rollercoaster yesterday. I was lucky to survive intact and with the impression of supporting her. And bonus: I had dinner with my best friend and her son before he left for UBC. I don't know how to steady the teenage storm. I hope while she is the only child in the house she may mellow a bit. Grade 11 is the least stressful year of our highschool and she has lots of friends. She cleaned up her room (finally!!!).

I took her shopping for a few new clothes on Tuesday, and some for me.

Today I hope to relax a bit, prepare food for my work this weekend and go to an inservice at the hospital. Not too ambitious. Just riding the changes of the season.

Sta funzionando

That's Italian for "It is working". I had to look it up on babelfish. I can speak a smattering of German and can sometimes get by in French, but the only Italian I know is on a menu. This Tuscany shawl has already grown since the photo. That's because I took a day (or part of one) to recharge. I knit and listened to audio books and did some baking and writing and reading.
The pattern was there all along, I only needed to delve in deep enough to encorporate it into my knitting.

I took the herringbone scarf on nights with me but there was too much going on. I even oriented a new nurse from New York which is a bit of an iron given my new status. It was a good project for both of us. I am pretty thorough with my principles of teaching, and she knows a lot more about nursing than me.

Oooh. Soft. Ooooh. I'm making everyone touch it. It's local alpaca wool like this that may make knitters out of my co-workers.

I never showed you the fingerless mitts I was able to whip up from this Ravelry link . I bought the superwash wool in Bellingham. We're planning another visit next month.

I managed to work out some problems once my brain came back on line. I created a new to-do list for my "in box"in my planner. I had a neat pad from Michael's in Bellingham, a nice link from DIY Planner and good old sharpie and glue.

Speaking of sharpies: the red shoes are now black(ish). Red shoes are fun unless they are the only ones that fit your orthodics and you have to wear them everywhere. I would have bought black but they were out. I'm still wearing them two years later and can't afford to dye old shoes ($50). Can't find new ones, so I solved my own problem with a permanent marker.

I hope I can keep up with all the problems and creative solutions. So far, it's working.

Third Attempt

I'm trying to get the rhythm of the Tuscany shawl. I feel that, under normal circumstances, I would have taken off by now. But I am still blunted from my night shifts and tomorrow I go into another one. This means that, right now, these are normal circumstances. The good news is that I have learned a lot from the failed attempts. It's pretty tricky working with non-stretchy silk. This fabric is slippery. I had to go to a smaller needle, so there were actually more failed tries a few weeks ago.
But I think of wearing this shawl when we go out to dinner on our Hawaiian holiday in February. Yum. The summer morning is sweet and inviting. I did a lot of errands yesterday, so I hope to take it a bit easier today.

The corn is glorious. The sky is blue. I needed a sweater and sunglasses for my walk. That is a huge improvement over the heat and humidity and poor air quality of the last month.

We took our time rounding the block and taking photos. Carly was so happy to resume our old schedule. Me too.
I didn't frog the entrelac because in my present state of lethargy, I'm as apt to make a mistake in action as inaction. I'll review it later. Emily says it's soft enough. I'll see how soft it is in September.

Second Thoughts, Second Guessing

I had a very exciting second night shift with lots of heroics. The time went quickly, the lovely lady felt better and I learned a lot. The first time I have hung blood in twenty years, the first time this century. Of course there are things I would have done better, sooner, smoother.

I find the work so intense! Even when things are quiet there are so many new people and ideas and lives.

I feel that I miss a lot of my real life while I do my shifts. I could never work full time and I need to get into my degree so I can move into a position more suitable to my advanced age.

I picked up my knitting lastnight while watching Dollhouse . I had totally forgotten about the entrelac shawl. I spent a whole hour reorienting myself to the intricacies of the pattern and then decided it wasn't soft enough, it was never soft enough and it's pretty colour and pattern couldn't overcome the scratchiness. Boy that took a long time! So today I shall frog it and consider another yarn (from my stash?) to make a shawl for my friend. I may just go and buy some soft sock weight yarn. I don't know.

What's on the needles? The little green sweater was delivered to maternity next door on Sunday night.

I started Li's reverse herringbone tweed scarf in a local alpace with 42 stitches (patterns 8 st + 2). It is on the other far side of the softness scale. Perhaps I should blame the scarf for frogging the shawl. It is pretty simple. I am tired of needing "less than challenging" knitting. But obviously I am not up to speed yet.

Today, Wednesday is my re-entry day. I hope to enjoy the breezy sunshine, get a grasp of my kitchen, walk the dog and treat myself to casting on Tuscany in the silk I bought in October.

The Lonely Sweater

Maybe it's the heat. Maybe I'm still a bit oxygen starved from last month's pneumonia. Maybe it's just the problem of trying to grasp time during the long summer days, but I have been stymied.
This little sweater has been part of my life since I was born. My mother knit it to take me home from the hospital. It was one of the first things I ever knit. I have knit it more than 10 times. But this time, I hit road bumps including gauge, yardage, counting rows, measuring. Can you believe that after this picture, when I went to block it (at 5:45 am before I went to work) I noticed one of the sleeves was shorter than the other. Can you believe I think this is the first time I ever did that?
So last night, in an empty house, with a bit of a heavy heart for an old soul of a patient who died at the end of my shift, I unsewed the sleeve, knit it up properly and sewed it back on. All this for a baby who probably won't live through his or her first day.


I have alread cast on Li's reversible herringbone rib scarf in local alpaca as a simple knit for a Christmas present. I will try to knit toward hope of celebration, as well as revelling in the softness and the pertinence of the pattern.
Today I take it easy and prepare something (a tortilla torte?) for our night shift communal meal.

Inspired

What blogger would not be inspired by the Julie & Julia movie? I felt alone in my Julia Child obsession, watching reruns on PBS when the kids were small and even borrowing whole seasons from the library in the past few years. My daughter will watch them with me. Julia was such a contradiction in seriousness and mirth.
I was also aware of the Julie/Julia blog and read a few entries, so I was pleased to hear it was a successful movie with so much buzz. But I love Nora Ephron . She has taught me that just because something is a commercial success doesn't mean it can't touch your heart. I especially have loved "You've Got Mail".
This is my Paw's inspiring garden in his small back yard. It has taken my mom a bit of angst to give up the prize flower beds, but it brings him such quiet, constant joy. He is so quiet and constant. Lucky corn.
His best kitchen tip: don't pick the corn until the water is boiling. We used to take icecream out to the strawberry patch, too. Nothing like really fresh.

Mom's flowers still bloom for her.

And after I too a shot of the last sunset of the day. We are almost on the westcoast and you were all tucked into bed when this was speeding past my new camera lens.

The little green sweater is almost finished and I plan to take a break from baby sweaters and knit a Christmas gift scarf during my 4 nursing shifts.

Small Delights

The blackberries are in full berry and line the paths of my walk. I haven't had time or energy to pick a bucket yet. First I need to be scratched by my roses as I clean them up from their first big bloom.

I have been sewing little sock bags from this tutorial . I so appreciate the pattern support and the point of view of a knitter. This first bag was my trial.

This is a September birthday gift. I don't think she's a sock knitter, but she is a great knitter and these are the charming colours of her kitchen.

When it's closed, the smaller handle is the loop. I love it.

This is for an October birthday. She assures me she does not read blogs. I will try to keep it secret.

And this one is for me. I don't even remember who I made the patchwork fabric for. I'm sure I made a bag from it, though. The lining is very fine, but just leftovers from my headboard and bedskirt. This is almost too nice to keep for myself. But they are my own scraps. I'm sure I could make another group of these bags with my fabric stash. I just need knitting friends to make them for.

The Littlest One sweater has been wrangled into submission. I decided not to risk running out of the green, so I'm doing the yoke in white. The hospital doesn't want white because it doesn't photograph well, but I think I can use a bit. It's what I have most left over. Plus I'm getting really tired of this self-imposed knitting goal. I'm a bit over baby sweaters. I have a few to knit for nurses on my floor (not really friends, yet), so I bought some Berocco Comfort on sale. I also picked up the 100cm Addi's for sock knitting two at a time. I'll get there when I slash my stash and prune my queue.

The sun is back and I have a week to call my own. D is on course in Saskatoon. What shenanagins shall we get up to?