At last!

No, not my presence...I have finished the rug I've been working on for what seems like years. I think it's only months, though. The background looks simple but actually takes a lot of time. And I'm such a control freak, I can't just have hit and miss with random strips. Oh, no; I must use only 7 or 8 different fabrics and they all have to relate to the picture. But, enough whinging.

I love it and, more important, Anne loves it - since it was made for her. It's on the white plank floor of the sewing/hooking room now. Looks pretty good there, too.

Just thinkin'...

Ain't Facebook grand? The other day, I opened up my page and there was a note from a childhood friend. I have not seen this person in 50 years and I was immediately lost in a sea of flashbacks. Most did not involve her at all but went even further back. I started to think about what we used to do as kids.
I remember making these wonderful mud pies and cakes with my friend, Beverley. We'd decorate them lavishly with dandelion flowers - some looked like yellow furballs - and present them to our younger brothers. We only fooled them the first time, though. At six and seven, we were so much more sophisticated but those little guys caught on pretty quick.

Once, Beverley went to a wedding and we played brides for days afterwards. And we loved to make parades. We'd decorate our tricycles with paper and whatever else we could find. Lots of greenery and field flowers were available so I think that they must have been used in abundance. Then we'd ride solemnly down our country road - all two of us. Sometimes, Bev decided to be the Queen of the parade and wore a crown and carried a sheaf of gladioli. This sounds very posh but these flowers grew thickly along her both sides of her long drive. We thought nothing of them except that they looked like something a queen would carry.

We played school which I loved. And store which I didn't. I guess I was never much of a merchant. I do like to shop but selling is painful. The money part was always fun, though. We would make our own paper money - this was before anybody had a Monopoly game - and share it amongst the kids playing that day. School was good because I could be the teacher. Since, we'd only just started school, our notions of how it really worked were kind of hazy. But I do remember 'teaching' spelling to the kids. My own kids will agree that I never really stopped doing that.

Dress-up was an occasional game but it wasn't shared with my friends. It must have been a rainy day activity and I think my mother was part of it. She would provide me with a party dress of hers and a pair of dressy shoes to stumble about in. I guess the thinking was that I was inside the house and couldn't hurt them as long as she was supervising. There was a navy dress with sheer sleeves and overskirt that I remember. And open-toed pumps in a dark red. It was just the clothes, though. No lipstick or hairdo's. Definitely NO nailpolish. Of course, when pretending to be 'a lady', I had to have a hat, gloves and a handbag. I have a vague memory of the hat having a little veil.

But, I don't actually remember any rainy days when I was a child. All the games were played outside in glorious sunshine. Even the winter time was sunny. Funny, that. Given our climate, there must have been a lot of wet days but I really can't even imagine them. Sunny days and hours of freedom to play whatever we could dream up. We had very little in the way of toys but we had a lot of creativity and our parents expected us to use it.

*photo is of my mother and her cousins.

Farms, music and garage sales

This is what baby goats do when they have an audience. This kid was happily munching at the bits of straw which were stuck on mom's hair.
We went with Becky & Charlie to visit the animals. Charlie loved the rabbits and Becky was happy patting the sheep. Maybe a future spinner/knitter? We also liked the colorful birds although, strictly speaking, they aren't farm animals. But there they were and the macaw said 'hello' to us much to Charlie's surprise. After the farm, we came home to eat our picnic lunch. It was hot and we'd walked and looked long enough.

Last night, we went to the first ever free concert at the new Lynn Valley Village Center. It was a rousing set of R&B a la Blues Bros delivered by Jake and Elwood. Lots of fun and lots of people. The weather was perfect: hot and summer-y and party inspiring. The little girls (about 5 years old) were having a great time dancing at the front of the stage for most of the hour-long set..

We noted that most folks had brought their own chairs and since we were close to the shops, ran in and bought a couple (on sale, wahoo!) to tale home with us. We figured we'd know if we could carry them comfortably on the walk to and from the event. Success - and readiness for next Friday night.

This morning, we started really early on the huge list of garage sales listed. Our first two yielded lots of interesting stuff. Then it wasn't as good until the end. And I bought a Barbie cruise ship! I had to have it...we think it would make a good 'bank' to encourage donations to our cruise fund LOL No plans but best to be prepared, right?

Oh, and I got lots of Barbie clothes and - best part - a bag of shoes.

We've been home washing and finding storage for the rest of the day.

Eek! A steek!

Frogging was going so well and the weather was so nice. I had just finished the black/fuschia sweater outside where the fibers wouldn't bother anyone. Now, all I have to do is skein, wash and dry the yarn. Sunshine is good for all that, too.

I was having such a good time, I decided to frog another sweater that someone had given me for rug hooking. The knitting was actually too heavy to be fulled for hooking. But the sweater was a beautiful Fair Isle yoke design in blues on an off-white body that I thought would make lovely soakers for the babies. The yarn was a lovely soft shetland wool. Perfect.

I stated to take it apart and was horrified to find that this sweater had been done in a very traditional way for this style of knitting. It had been steeked. There were no intact edges anywhere and each row would just come off as a single piece of yarn. Now, I have spent time in the past carefully knotting each piece as I knit. But, I guess I'm too old now and have way too much stash to fuss with it no matter how perfect it could be. Since I hadn't destroyed the sweater, it could be recycled in another way. So be it.

I am mourning the loss, though.

Frog heaven

This really is a good frog session...

I found a really nice wool sweater today which had some unfortunate raggy ends on the bottom ribbing. I have spent 2 hours taking it apart and I have yarn wound from the neckband and half a sleeve. This may take longer than I thought - and will probably need four hands. The sweater was knit with a strand of black worsted and a strand of fuschia lace weight. Of course, I'm separating the strands.

I've got it down to a system but it would be better if there was another person working on half the yarn. I've been frogging, then separating then winding each yarn into a ball. Surprisingly, I haven't had a lot of tangles. But, my arms are tired now. Resting for the night...I'll seek out a peaceful tree branch or maybe a lily pad.

Practise...

...makes perfect. Well, as close to perfect as I ever get. Yesterday afternoon, I was knitting happily on the Angora Triangles sweater. I was even happy knitting angora in the heat. And I was looking forward to being finished the body of the pullover and getting started on the sleeves. As I reviewed how I would be picking up the stitches, I took a very close look at the photo illustration. The construction on this is very different from anything I've ever made. I was going to say weird but that's just too judgmental.

Anyway, I was peering at the photo trying to figure out how the words went with the picture. And then I saw it...the fundamental error I had made halfway through the front. Oh, rats! Sometimes a picture is worth so much more than a 1000 words. Rippit, rippit, rippit.

It's a good thing I was having a really peaceful day. I was either reading, knitting or hooking on the rug that seems to be taking forever. Maybe a bit less focus on that reading stuff. Pictured is the view that contributed to my serenity while I read or hooked ...

It really was a special day. Even us retired folks benefit from a day when there is no place that needs our presence.