Day 19

The room upstairs is now covered with cut up jeans legs, but there's not really much that's exciting to show just yet. 

I made a hat, did I show you? This yarn came in my box of stuff from Claudio and it's chunky and fluffy and brown. The pattern is simple and managed to use the whole ball. Charity box. I think it will be warm with the bit of alpaca, although the yarn is 70% acrylic. 

I also took apart a hat I made in the past few months. 

It is a child's size. I just can't leave it sitting around waiting for an 8-year-old to appear, and I love the colours so much that I will make a big one for me! 

The last piece of super-exciting news I have is that I made a new muffin recipe. Zucchini Cheese Bran! You soak All-Bran cereal in buttermilk, add the usual flour, egg, a bit of sugar, and a cup of grated cheese and a cup of grated zucchini. 

Tasty and good for you. Breakfast-appropriate and lunch-ready. 

What have I gotten myself into?

I did go and look at my collection of old jeans. I think I have enough to make a cover for our king-size bed! 

Along with the Gee's Bend quilts, I am thinking of Sean Scully paintings. So many seem knittable, and quiltable! 

I have lots of black and blue, and I have one pair of purple pants and some rosy denim that I could use for the colourful insert. 

This one looks simple, but the white squares would be a problem, and the excellence in this is the blurred and smudged lines, hard to do with my fabric and my skills. 

This is my floor just now. Time to do something, that's for sure! (I think I will ignore the butter-yellow pants. They are of a lighter and stretchier fabric and not quite right here.)

 

Here are the roses! I think it might have once been a curtain flounce or something. I imagine I got it at the Textile Museum sale, but who can say? The brownish thing is a cushion cover or maybe a piece that goes over the arm of an armchair? Also of dubious provenance. I often think of just putting handles on it and calling it a shopping bag. The denim is a cut-up pair of capris. 

Somehow I will cut the pants into bits and then rearrange all the bits in some artful way. That is the plan! 

Meanwhile, in the bathroom: 

And in the garden: 

There were bits of snow falling today, although it didn't stick and now the sun is shining. More than halfway through November!

Time to make a list

1. It's a month and a bit till Christmas.
2. I have mailed away the only gift I have to mail, but I guess I should nag my husband about his side of the family. 
3. I have to write some cards. Cards to family and friends, and eventually cards to complete strangers via Ravelry. I think this year people need cheerful cards, and lots of them. 
4. I have not acquired all the gifts I want to give to family, because I am not sure what they want/need. 
5. All this decluttering and non-keeping makes gift-giving more stressful than it should be. Not everyone wants a piece of cheese (although a nice piece of cheese has sort of become a go-to present around here). 
6. I like to have Christmas cookies around but Stephen can't really eat them. I asked him what he wanted for treats and snacks and he says potato chips and wine. I suggest carrots and celery. He scoffs.
7. There are other things to think about as well; this is supposed to be a to-do list. 
8. Knitting: the fancy mitten should take precedence, but it does require constant attention and so I have to have a back-up knit as well. 
9. I would love to sew all my old jeans up into a nice big blanket. 

This stunner was made by Mary Lee Bendolph. I think I'll go sort out my pile of old jeans now. 

Finished

The big floofy cowl is done. 

It is very stretchy and loose and can fit over my shoulders, but it is not really long enough to pull up over my head, and still keep the back of my neck covered. Now I understand why people make cowls so long! 

I had a tiny bit of yarn left over. Maybe I could have got another round out of the yellow, but maybe not. 

Yesterday was spent watching the new series of the Crown on Netflix, but I did manage to get some baking done so I can mail sweets off to my poor wee daughter who's finishing up her university term sitting alone in a room with a computer. This COVID stuff is so hard on the young'uns. And us old folks and everyone! Wash your hands and stay home!

Day 14

A year ago I went to London. 

I can hardly imagine! 

Today I took another couple of bags of stuff to the secondhand store, but it was a nice, sunny day and it took me at least half an hour to get off our street, because I kept running into neighbours. One person is out there raking leaves and everyone stops for a natter, people come and go, all the gossip is learned. For example, one neighbour is 80 years old today! 

Eventually I went on my way. I walked almost three and a half kilometres, got rid of my junk and rode a bike back. I took no pictures. The leaves are mostly done so I didn't stop in my tracks to take a picture of a lovely tree, and I had my hands full of bags so couldn't just snap a photo of anything as I walked along. 

Let's hope for more exciting news tomorrow! 

Actual knitting content

Ten days ago, I posted a picture of my brioche cowl. I am pleased to say that it is much bigger now. 

I worked on it at the cottage, but, really, it does get a bit same-ish after a while. 

So I stuck in some increases, and now we just have to wait till it's finished to see what that does. I imagine a gentle point, or sort of a wave.

I am knitting as fast as I can, while doing all the other things. 

Yesterday was mostly filled with escorting Kid #1 to the dental surgeon and home again, minus their wisdom teeth! Today I made soup so the poor baby didn't have to live on ice cream. 

Not to mention the broken dishwasher and the hand-washing of the dishes. 

Onward and upward!

Back in the saddle

I went away for a couple of days and didn't pre-write posts to amuse you in my absence. Now I'd best just get back here and say something, to get the NaBloPoMo ball rolling again!

We went to a cottage on Georgian Bay. It was right on the water, and instead of the storms of November, we had gorgeous, warm, sunny weather! 

We didn't have anything special to see or do, but there are a few highlights. 

Practically next door to us was the Hibou conservation area. The parking lot was closed for the winter, but we were able to walk in. Rocks, trees and water. 

Evidence of woodpeckers. 

We took a drive to Big Bay, the stone skipping capital of Canada. I'm sorry for the crappy picture! Get the photographer's shadow out of the frame! 

Lots of big flat stones. I am not a stone-skipper, but I do like to sort through and find the nice ones. 

The nice ones at this beach are full of fossils! 

Another day we went to Owen Sound for lunch, mainly because we were running out of food! I think we brought back a few cloves of garlic and some crackers, but we'd packed pretty efficiently. 

We went to the Mudtown Station, a brewpub in the old train station. Because Owen Sound doesn't have many COVID-19 cases, one could eat inside, but the weather was lovely and the whole idea of being indoors with other people was not appealing. I wonder when we will get back to the old ways. 

On the last morning, I was up early enough to see the gathering of the geese. They all arrived on the water -- a hundred or more -- honked and quacked for a bit, and then took off, in groups of a dozen or so, until the last group all took off at once. 

As you can see, it was a bit overcast, and as we drove home, we did hit a bit of rain. We were in Wasaga Beach and as we passed a road to the beach we saw a rainbow. 

Just lovely! One thing we don't have in Toronto is wide open space. 

That is enough for now. Tomorrow I might show you the knitting progress I made. 

I went to the lake

A friend and I went for a walk to the lakeshore on Friday. Access to the lake is one of the big failings of Toronto civic policy over the years, I think. We went to a park, walked through a parking lot, climbed over a railing and scrambled down a pile of broken old sidewalks and concrete rubble to get to the lake. Lakeshore Boulevard zoomed by behind us. Not the way I'd like to be at a lakeshore. 

But, what the heck, it ended up being quite nice to sit and look at the water. 

My brother is the king of water pictures, but I always give it a shot. The sun is so low these winter days (although it was almost 20ºC) and it was shimmering on the water. 

Best entertainment by far: the ducks. These two mallards (tails in the air), and what I think is a wood duck, bobbed around for quite some time. Very delightful. 

We got quite a walk in, as we went west along the bike path for a while. Finally we got hungry for lunch and actually sat on a patio and ordered food. Living life on the edge, that's me. 

A thing in the mail

Once upon a time, someone on Ravelry received a box in the mail, from a sender whose name she didn't recognize, Claudio Sanchez. It held a package of candy apples, but it was a pack of three, containing only two. It turned out that Claudio was the guy in mail room and the Raveler's boyfriend's aunt thought it would be nice to send these two apples to two people, and ... it was all fine, but a bit weird. 

So people on Ravelry who heard this story thought it would be fun to send each other boxes of random junk. They've been doing this Claudio Sanchez exchange for several years now, and I learned about it before we went to England just last year. I had no junk in England, so I couldn't really participate, but this year I filled a box with some yarn I wasn't going to use, some pencils, some fabric, a telephone handset that plugs into your cell phone, a single sock I had found at the side of the road that had Michelangelo's David on... whatever. I wish I had taken pictures before I sent it, but alas, one can't do everything. 

Today I received my box in turn! And boy, does it contain some random stuff!

These pictures are in a pretty random order, as well. Here goes. 

First up, some yarn! The alpaca blend will probably make me sneeze, but it will make a nice warm hat for someone, even though it is 70% acrylic. The cone is 6 or 7 different strands all together, will look nice. 

This is my fave! A little box with all the Christmas baby Jesus cast. They are very tiny. I will find some way to show them off at the appropriate time. 

Let's see: a festive garland of felt leaves, thank you stickers, a little book about an opossum, some things that I thought were paper straws but actually, somehow you can make a robot, and a mask with sushi fabric! And more...

The mask! 

Most things were in ziplock bags in the box, but these were sort of thrown in at the last minute, from the look of things. Craft sticks, a water bottle and a very important Fall Risk bracelet. I hope I don't need that! 

Well! Some rubber ducks, some sunglasses, many key chains, beads, a little pink pouch. 

Ahem, some chocolate! 

It was so well packed, I couldn't get it all back in the box! 

The box itself was tastefully decorated with sparkly rainbow tape, and the rest of the roll was included inside. 

I won't keep all of this stuff (some people keep the things they don't want and send them on the following year. I don't think I'll do that, because maybe once was enough for this), but it is always fun to get stuff in the mail, and now I have a rubber duck in a Flash suit, so it's all good! 

Day Five

It is crazy, isn't it? We all are worried about the same virus, we are all eagerly awaiting the results of the American election. Globalization of stressors. 

Kid #1 had a COVID-19 test today! For a few years we've been thinking about the wisdom teeth, and they are finally getting dealt with next week, so the surgeon just wants to be sure that the teeth are the only problem. Apparently it is not too awful to have that thing stuck up your nose. Results... sometime in the next few days, if all goes well. 

I am sitting here refreshing Twitter like mad, because I thought something was going to happen at noon today. It is 16 minutes past and I want to know those results from Nevada! Jeez. 

In other news, I've noticed for a while now that my Christmas cactus is going to bloom! It is in the bathroom, the best place for sunshine to come in the window, and somehow I rarely have my camera/phone with me in there. So I made a special trip. 

Three little buds. 

The colour is so bright and pink and amazing, my camera has a bit of trouble with it! I will be sure to track the progress of this through the month.  

The other neato thing I'll show you today is my avocado plant, which got very long and lanky, striving toward the window. I dangle a bauble off a chandelier in the window, which makes little spectra all over the place at the right time of day. You can see some on the big leaf. 

It even burnt a spot on the leaf before I moved things a wee bit. 

I'll go back to my Twittering. Something has to happen...

The day after

I stayed up a bit late last night, but soon realized nothing was going to be known about the election results. I did, however, have my phone by the bed, which I don't usually do, and when I woke up at 3 am, I did have a peek at CNN. Alas, still nothing. 

It's been a day of doom-scrolling, but I did get out for a coffee with my neighbour at lunch time. 

Muffin Monday on a Tuesday

Once upon a time I was working my way through my muffin recipe book. I guess that ball got dropped along the way, but today I made some muffins so, here we are. 

These are orange-pineapple! My family thinks that's a bit odd, so clearly I haven't made these enough in the past. 

They also have All-Bran flakes in them. I was worried about the flakiness of them, but they turn to mush in orange juice, so one hardly notices them. 

See the little bits of pineapple? 

Here's the recipe, from Muffins by Joan and Marilyn, best yard sale score ever. 

Orange Pineapple Muffins

1/2 cup all-bran cereal

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup shortening (I used margarine)

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1.75 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

1 cup drained crushed pineapple

In a small bowl, mix cereal and orange juice.

In large bowl, beat shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat until light. 

Sift in dry ingredients alternately with milk and bran mixture.

Stir in crushed pineapple.

Fill 12 muffin cups. 

Bake at 400ºF for 20 minutes.

I like them! They are a bit cakey, not dense and "healthy" textured, but quite tasty. 

A week or so ago, I also made muffins! These are whole-wheat applesauce muffins, and I threw in half a cup of chocolate chips in an obvious bid to get my (grown-up) kids to eat them. 

Of course, it worked and they are all gone. 

Whole Wheat Applesauce

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 or 2 eggs

2/3 cup applesauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cups whole-wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

In small bowl mix all wet ingredients. 

In large bowl combine all dry ingredients.

Add wet to dry, stir just until blended.

Fill 12 muffin cups and bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes. 

I have more cooking to do today, as someone took a large rump roast out of the freezer yesterday. Since it'll go in the oven for several hours, I'd best get on with that! 

I hope that tomorrow we all wake up in a non-Trump world, but I am worried about it all. Fingers crossed!

Since this is a knitting blog

Let's talk about knitting. 

I have "my" chair in the living room, and you can tell it's mine because of the piles of yarn strewn about it. Right now I have three projects on the go.

I'd love to have the second mitten done. 

I am not fast with the two colours, and we start with corrugated ribbing, where the knits are one colour and the purls are the other, so it takes me forever. And then I get fed up and move on to project number two. As you see, great progress has been made. 

Thing #2 is a cowl in sort of cheater's brioche. 

It makes exactly the same fabric as brioche, but you knit into the row below, to get a stitch and another thread over the top of that stitch, instead of slipping the stitch with a yarnover and knitting both together on the next row. 

This works well in the round, but I did the slipping and yarnovers on the Stripified shawl I just knit, which was flat, and both come out just fine. Fixing an error is a pain no matter which way you do it, though! 

I started making a Dissent cowl when RBG died, but didn't like it, and switched to this. (I am just now at the end of yarn I frogged from that project!) I just grabbed a needle I thought was the right size, but it should really be a bit smaller, I think. Anyways, a big, bright, warm cowl will appear one day.

I also have this wee scarf, that is really a make-it-up-as-you-go thing. 

Next time I work on it I might have a different idea, so who knows what it will turn out like!

What will be finished by the end of the month?

It's that time again

Well, who knows if anyone is out there, but I will attempt NaBloPoMo again, for the maybe 8th time... 

Let's have a look. 

In 2010, I NaBloPoMo'd for the first time. 

2011

In 2012 I posted twice in November, so that was a bust!

2013

In 2014 I posted 18 times, although with the best intentions. 

2015 semi-successful again

2016

2017

2018

2019

I'd say this was my 10th NaBloPoMo! I should do something special, like post every day for a month! 

Stay tuned.