The day that didn't work

Ever notice that some days are better then others? . I have been re-doing my main floor washroom this past week. I changed to a low flush toilet to save water. I also bought a vanity and faucet set. Well someone came by and hooked up the vanity. The next morning there was water on the bottom shelf of the wood vanity. Worse, the wood had swelled and cracked. Great, not even a day with something new and it looked terrible. So, I called my friend to come back and look at the leak. As he did we saw that the faucet was leaking. It seems that just a small little plastic piece had broken and now the vanity was ruined. The faucet upon closer inspection also had quite a few cheap plastic parts and it too would have to be replaced.


Later on I went to look at a camera I had received as a bonus for buying a printer. I put the batteries in and pressed the "On" button. Nothing happened. I took out the batteries and put them back in, given that I had obviously done it wrong the first time, and again nothing. I figured that perhaps the batteries were old so I replaced them with new ones. Nope still nothing. So, I went back to the first set of batteries, of course thinking that the prior two times were just my mistake. Nothing. Finally it sunk in that the brand new camera did not work.

Then I went to change a dimmer switch that turned on the kitchen lights. A few days ago it stopped working. Then a day ago it started again. Today it didn't work so I bought a new one and put it in. I checked all the wires in the box and it looked great. I then turned on the light. Nothing. I turned off the light and tried again. Nothing. Okay so maybe it was not the dimmer switch that was the problem. My thoughts turned to the light fixture so I set out to take it down. Just as I started I noticed that the dimmer was glowing. So I walked over and turned it on and this time the lights came on. That's great, but now I figure that there is a short problem in the fixture. When I went to take it down I must have moved something and the light connected again. This was good in that I now had a light again. It was bad because I now had to take down the fixture.

So now I have to take back the new faulty vanity and faucet. Then take back the camera and try and get a new one. And then take back the dimmer because the old one wasn't broken. .

I think I should just go to sleep now and wake up tomorrow. Perhaps things will be working again then.

Almost Finished

Just  400 stitches left to cast off and I will have finished my Lehe Shawl. Over the last month we have really become good friends. While we were friends it was funny because I couldn't wait till the time when we would part ways. Every day I worked so hard to get to that spot. But now that I am almost at that point in time, the end,  I don't feel happy but instead sad.

Sure, in just a few days I can proudly show off my friend to everyone.  Some will marvel at it, and others will not. From this point forward my friend will belong to the world. But one thing it will never be again is just my friend

Yes as I come to the end I know that the intimacy is about to end. No longer will my friend be there to soothe my aching mind by giving so freely of its stitches. It would no longer calm me with the rhythmical motion of our friendship. No. very soon I will have lost this friend to the world.

My mind races forward to what sorts of new friends I might find. There are many I know of waiting to meet. It's kind of like it own dating service, while that really does sound a bit "sic". And just like that I find myself losing the sadness and instead begin gaining hope. Hope of a new friend and new experience.

Who knew that knitting would prove to be so emotional.

My How Time Flies

It's almost mid way through January and it's been quite a while since I have blogged. December was a mitten and shawl and scarf month, making small projects for my kids and relatives. I also finished the Miralda Shawl from Nancy Bush that you see on the left.

Over the last few months I have been dealing with a few parental issues. Mainly this is that my parents have reached the time in their lives when it's time to get help. This means time to move out of their apartment and into a retirement place where things could be a bit easier.

It's funny how I just reached a point in my life where my kids have grown and are pretty independent but now my parents have replaced them in the "need help" part of life. My mom has some physical problems but generally is there mentally. If she would eat better and exercise more it would help a great deal.

My father on the other hand seems to be having some cognitive problems. Over the past few months they really seemed to have gotten worse. Sometimes it's quite sad to talk on the phone to him, which I have done everyday over the years, as it is like talking to a child. I don't know whether he is aware of what is going on. I still think this is the early stages of something but sometimes it's really hard to see it. I am pushing his doctor to get some tests done and for him to go to a memory clinic. We are just waiting for the referrals to go through.

Overall I am okay handling this stuff as it is what happens in life. It's time's like these that my knitting really helps to keep me calm and focused.

On the other side my daughter is doing great in her first year of University and I am so happy for her. It's still hard some days that she is not home and with me, but overall I am really proud of her. My Son also has been doing great in school and is about to get his drivers license (gulp).

As for me I have a few knitting classes to teach this month, and so many projects in my head that I want to get on my needles. I also have become the resident knitting teacher at work as a few of the girls have become knitters.

Happy New Year to all and I will try and not leave it so long before I write again.

A better way to do Fair Isle/Stranding?

 A while back I did some testing to see what was the easiest and most consistent way to knit "Fair Isle" or "Stranded Knitting. I decided to come back to that idea after hearing some of my students in a knitting class talk about how they had never tried this type of knitting. And others said they tried it but did not have alot of success.

 So it got me to thinking again about Portuguese Knitting and what I thought was a superior way to knit Fair Isle/Stranded (FI/ST).


This lead me to do some testing. On the swatch above, the two rows of snowflakes was done using Continental and English. In other words holding one yarn in each hand. The first thing I really wanted to test was which color would sit above the other in the work. What I found was that the yarn held in my left hand is the one that sits a bit higher and that comes out the most. You can see how with the yellow strand in my left hand the bottom row shows a well defined snowflake. When I put the rust color yarn in my left, in the second row, you can see how the snowflakes disappear and are really not well defined.

The problem however that kept bothering me was that the stitches were not even. I did another gauge test and saw that my continental was much looser than my english stitches.. This bothered me as I felt I was not getting an even work.

The other problem here was that many people could not knit with both hands. And because of this they either slogged through doing FI/ST with one hand or just passed on it.

The next idea I had was to use a combination of Continental in my left hand with Portuguese knitting in my right. This worked great, however again the continental stitch was looser and again I had the same problem.

This left me trying portuguese style in both hands. Portuguese is a very interesting style of knitting. The yarn goes through a pin on ones shoulder and then sits on top of the needle. Knitting a stitch is as easy as moving the yarn over the needle with your thumb. If you want a demonstration go to Portuguese Knitting.

What I found and you can see it on the top two rows of the above swatch, is that my stitches were very even in tension with portuguese. Not only that but it was really easy to hold both yarns for getting tension. And finally choosing a color to knit was as simple as picking up the right color with your thumb. I hope that I can soon show some pictures of how I set it up.

In the mitt to the right the bottom row was done with continental and PK. You can see how the snowflakes again are not well defined. This is because the continental stitches are larger or looser. I was holding the black yarn in my right hand. Now if I switched the black yarn to my left then the white color would have had better definition but they would also dominate the mitten. Here I really wanted the black yarn in my left hand. So I switched to doing PK in both hands and voila! The stitches are even.


So, if you are like me and struggle to have even gauge between continental and english or you just have trouble with Fair Isle knitting. Then my suggestion is to learn Portuguese knitting and you'll be amazed how easy it will be to accomplish great results in this style of knitting.

Saying bye to a good friend

Today is a very sad day for me in which I have to say goodbye to a good friend. This is not the type of friend who calls you on the phone or listens to you gripe. Instead it was a place. A place that I loved dearly. The one place where I was able to find peace, and solace. A place where I shared great memories with my kids.

I wish I did not have to say goodbye. And to tell you the truth I didn't. That is what makes this sadder. I owned this property with my brother. And over the 10 years that it was owned I had done the maintenance on the place and paid all the bills. Basically looked after the place. At times I would get upset thinking that it wasn't fair that I was doing most of the work. But I always said that it was family so let it go.

I am not going to go into the whole painful story, but the end works out that the same brother decided for a few thousand dollars difference that he wanted to sell it to someone else. So to accomplish this he went behind my back on numerous occasions in order to get this done. I can't count the number of ways that he went about screwing me. What makes it worse is that through it all, I kept hearing from my father that "that's just the way he is".  Well, the cottage has been sold and I am pretty devastated. Not just to lose it but to once again find that my family condoned the actions of bad behaviour.

So in the end I have not just lost the cottage but will lose part of my family. For I have come to the time where I can no longer take being slapped in the face because that is how people are. I have come to the time where I yell out STOP! Family or not that is not acceptable.

Today I sit realizing who exactly my family is and choosing that I will no longer consider them family. I will no longer put up with  people behaving poorly under the guise that "that is how they are". I mean is that what we should say about murderers and thieves. Don't put them in jail, because that is how they are?

As a parent I hope I have the strength to speak out if one of my kids is being unjust to the other. Not to keep silent with a fear that they might hate me. For as a parent I can't worry if my kid likes everything I do or say. I just have to make sure that what I do/say is right and moral.

I lost a good friend, which was my cottage. And with that I am okay. I had the memories that I wanted and now someone else can create some new memories. But I also will say goodbye to part of my family. And for this I don't have many good memories. Only painful ones. And although this makes me sad that this is the type of family that I have, I at least have a choice whether I accept it.

And today I don't.

Sorry for the rant but my heart really feels low today and maybe writing about it will help it a bit.

Final Thoughts on my Cat Sock

Well, I forced myself to finish my sock based on Cat Borhi's book. This new way of making the sock I earlier said I really did not enjoy knitting. Of course each person is entitled to their own likes and dislikes. That being said I finished it and tried it on. While it did fit nicely I still really did not like the way that the heel looked at all. For me I have decided to stick with my old tried and true method of cuff down socks. I guess though it is always a good thing to try.

I am working on another Nancy Bush shawl now. So far I have cast on twice and ripped out twice. Does it ever matter how long a person knits or is it just a fact of like that we knitters must rip things out. I read the yarn harlots blog and take solace that she seems to rip many things also. Well I have cast on for the third time and we'll see what happens. At present I am not sure I really like the yarn I am using. I bought it originally for the color as my SO said she would like something in that color. The yarn however really feels a bit rough and I am hoping that it gets softer once I block it. Well, back to work......

Mittens for Mom

Mom's Mitten Front

My mom's 77 and it's been a tough year for her. Some days she grows so weary of it all. She is staying home for the winter this year for the first time since I can remember. So, she asked if I could knit her a pair of mittens.

I have to say that when I was young mom knit quite a lot. Everyone remembers getting a blanket or sweater done beautifully from her. These days she does not knit anymore. She does say however she gets a big kick out of me knitting. And I like to knit things for her because she made so many memories for me.

So far I knit two pair of socks for her which she seems to love. Other than that though she really didn't want anything else.

So I was really happy to hear she could use some mittens. I had some great Lang New Angora yarn I bought on sale and found a pattern that I could utilize. Now the funny thing is that I love the look of the mitts, but the pattern name is "White Witches Mittens". And you would think this would make a funny name to give to your mother. Or any other women for that matter. But, I will just have to keep the pattern name quiet. And they really don't seem to fit the name anyways. I hope :).

Of course I had to go down to my LYS and purchase a great book on mittens. I seem to be the type that has to find out as much as I can about something when I do it.

I hope my mom likes them and that they fit. I finished one and will be seeing her on Thanksgiving (Canada style). to try it on.