Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts

Sunday, 22 May 2016

Sleeve

Today the plan was to finish knitting the sleeve for my Wee Niece's Seamless Purple sweater.

Which I did.


Figured it would be best to pick up the stitches for the second sleeve at the same time so I wouldn't do something silly like use the needle for another project when this one's not yet finished.

Then I just started knitting the second sleeve and before I knew it I was finished the sweater. I was reading a book at the same time, e-books are great for this, maybe that explains it. Made this one solid with no second colour. Other than that it's exactly as the pattern is written; ummm, perhaps a bit longer. Hope it fits.

Pattern: Seamless Blue by Felicia Semple
Yarn: Easy Knit Tricot Facile (Marotex) Bébé Luv Baby Georga in Grape
Needle: 3.0mm & 2.5mm
Gauge: 26 stitches X 35 rows = 10cm


This is one of the nicest acrylics I've ever worked with, nice and soft.

Squish
Squish has been sick. He's not using the litterbox which is very upsetting. Took him to the vet yesterday and he clearly has some pain in his abdomen. He's got some painkillers and Mom will take him back to the vet on Tuesday so they can collect a urine sample to see if he has an infection.

After doing some reading on-line I also decided to replace the litterboxes. Not just the litter but the actual litterboxes. They're almost 15 years old (both the litterboxes and the cats) and accumulated odors could be a problem. Just bought the cheapest pans I could find since that's what my old kitties seem to want, no covers or anything. The litterboxes are in a storage room with a cat door for them to come and go through (this is so Ahab won't snack on cat poo which is totally gross), it's lit by a night-light and unsurprisingly they're using the one closest to the light the most. Go figure. I actually replaced the light recently too in case the poor old things are having a hard time seeing in the dark. Age y'know.

Ahab
Ahab earned his second Scent Hurdle title on May 7. Total surprise, I though he was still 20 or more points away from earning it.

Current Weather
5C and raining.
It has been raining all day, except for a few hours this morning when it snowed. We desperately needed the moisture so it's not a bad rain. But did it have to happen on the long weekend?

Thursday, 25 February 2016

Throwback Thursday

Kittens
Update on Ahab's Scent Hurdle points; he did earn his first title on Saturday. So proud of him. I suppose I can now introduce him as "Captain Ahab, SHD". Wait, that means he's got more letters after his name than I do. Figures. ;-)

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 7C.

Honestly, I thought this segment would be more interesting but the weather's been strangely predictable lately. I'm sure it'll pick up once the summer storm season hits. Or, maybe we'll get some wild spring snow soon.

Friday, 1 January 2016

2015 in Review


I thought I'd take a look back at some of the things that happened in 2015.

First up, Squish. His thyroid packed it in early in the year and he must now take medication for the rest of his life. 1 pill twice a day. Makes vacations tricky. Hopefully he'll be with me for many more years.

Squish

Next up, Ahab. In February he had to leave Scent Hurdle due to his missing paw and it took until December to get him back. This involved a major change to the rules of the game. He's back in action now though!

Whistler, Oliver, and Ahab at his last Scent Hurdle tournament of 2015
Continuing with health issues I had a major gallbladder attack early in the year which ended with it's removal in November. While I was getting that done Soccer had the worst ear infection ever which took over two months to clear up. I think that's it for heath crises in 2015.

Now for the fiber stuff!

Seamless Red
Fist project finished in 2015, although it was started in 2014 was a little red sweater for my Wee Niece, completed before I even new she was a Niece not a Nephew. It's sized for a toddler not an infant.




Grey Baby Blanket
Then a baby blanket for the same kid. The picture doesn't show the texture in it at all. I'm told Wee Niece quite liked this blanket as it's very soft. My sister likes it too because it's acrylic and easily washed. The grey yarn came from a commercial sweater of mine that fell apart and I scavenged the yarn for a future project. Well used I'd say. The yellow was pulled from the stash, a leftover from another baby blanket made years ago. I was unemployed while making this one, hence everything coming from the stash.

Cell Phone Case
Then I made myself a cell phone case. I used it for a while but found it inconvenient to have to fish my phone out of two pockets.







I found I needed something to hold treats for the boys so I made myself a bag to carry dog training treats in. It fastens to the belt loop on my pants.
Dog Treat Bag
Niece Socks

Followed by socks for my not-so-wee Niece. There were definitely socks for my Nephew completed around this time too but apparently I didn't put them in Ravelry or take pictures.



Then Wee Niece got an adorable little overall that ended up fitting her for about two weeks. Kids grow so dang fast at first.

Pepita
Got selfish and made some socks to keep my own toes warm. Actually, I don't think this counts as selfish. I need socks too after all.

Super warm socks

Mom and sweater
Followed by a sweater for my Mom. She wears it lots, which is really cool.


Knocked off a quick pair of booties to go with the overalls for the Wee Niece. Feedback regarding these says they stay on quite well, Wee Niece wasn't able to kick them off immediately.


More socks, this time Mother's Day socks for Mom.

Eventually, I got around to making another something for myself. A tank-top for hiking. Note to self: go hiking more so you can use this.

Papita II
I got worried about the little overalls not fitting the Wee Neice, with some subsequent justification I might add as she was a big baby, so I made a larger version of overalls for her. Although at this point I still didn't know she was a girl.

Had to interrupt all the baby knitting to make some Father's Day socks for my Dad.

Father's Day Socks

Then straight back to baby knitting for some booties to match the second overalls.


Found an adorable pattern for toy mice for the cats so Squish and Mouse got a catnip filled treat. Where they are now I couldn't say, under furniture I suspect.

 

Returning to baby knitting I couldn't resist making a hat to complete the set for the Wee Niece.

Sister socks.

Decided that a new mom might need some new socks too. The colour in this picture is all wrong, it's the same yarn as the Father's Day socks. 


Socks for BiL







And if a new mom needs new socks surely a new dad does too. Made these for my Scottish BiL. The colour in this picture is much closer to reality than the socks for my sister above.



Experimented with some Star Booties but ended up not liking them because I chose the wrong cast on. It's a neat pattern but I need to think about the cast on.


A$$ Juice Cozy
Got caught up in a record keeping mistake and ended up making an A$$ Juice Cozy for work. Modeled on a wine bottle here. Completed with only three days warning.


Another blanket for my Wee Niece. This time a Loom Knitting experiment. I like this technique I can see ways to do some really intricate colour work.

Loom Knitting

A random pair of socks that ended up going to Mom because I got caught up with baby stuff and ran out of time to make her a pair for her birthday in December. Good thing I had these in reserve.

Mossy

Then something for myself again, a green vest done in double moss stitch. Don't think I'll be doing that again in a hurry. Worked out though as I wear it a lot.





More baby stuff, this time for a different baby. The overalls and booties went to a co-worker for his baby. When I met his girlfriend at the office Christmas party she said she quite likes them.


 

Another vest for myself. This one from the same yarn as Mom's sweater.


Gallbladder
Because I had requests to bring in my gallbladder after it was removed I knitted one as it turns out they don't let you take your organs back after they've been removed. Imagine that. It's presently in a jam jar on my desk at work.


Christmas hats for the Canadian Niece and Nephew. I think these went over well as they wore them home after opening them.

 

And another a pair of socks for myself. In fact, I'm wearing them as I write this.


And to finish off, a final pair of socks for Dad for his birthday in January. Didn't notice how different the two skeins were when I started and ended up having to rip out the first sock back to the heel in order to make the heel and toes in the second skein.







Wow, 33 projects finished in one year. I sure hope I don't have to exceed this in 2016.

And I guess that pretty much sums up 2015. Looking forward to a great 2016.

Current Weather
Mostly sunny and 1C.

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

At Long Last

Something is finished.

Another Pepita for a coworker who is expecting a little one with his girlfriend. Modified the shoulder straps to have a single button on each side at the front; feedback from the first one I made indicates the small double button system is a bit awkward for new parents. The multi-generation button bin came through again for the buttons. Also lengthened the legs again as this kid stands a good chance of being long like my Wee Niece; my coworker is well over 6 feet tall. Expect I'll do some booties using the same yarn.

Pattern: Pepita by Martina Behm
Yarn: Georga Baby Luv
Needle: 2.25mm

Cuteness

The Wee Niece? She has definitely proven me right about being long and lean.

Weather

It snowed. Really glad I'm on vacation and didn't have to try and make it into work today. The hill road out front looks like a skating rink.

The backyard shortly after sunrise

Sunday, 6 September 2015

Starting Over

Started Blue Moss all over again. I think that one moss stitch vest will be enough and trying to do an entire sweater is madness. Plus I needed something to work on that did not involve moving the yarn back and forth every two stitches. That's hard on the poor wrist. I think I'll rename this one to Just Plain Blue. Check out the folded over cuffs.

Photo Bomb courtesy of Mouse.
Also finished up a pair of socks. I was going to keep these but Mom saw them and dropped a hint. I'll put them in the Finished Box for now until I decide if I can part with them or not.

Pattern: Improvised Basic Sock
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL
Needle: 2.0mm

No photo bombing cat this time.

The moss stitch vest has reached the waist decreases. Threw in a life-line just in case.

Or this time either.


And the final bit of news. It snowed last night. Not in and of itself anything unusual for September but it did linger on the north side of the house until after noon.

Poor Pansies

Monday, 24 August 2015

Smoke

We haven't been troubled much by smoke from the fires burning all around us this year. Until today. Today it was quite hazy with drifting forest fire smoke.