Just in the Knit of Time: July 2005

Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock eBay purchase. Socks for me!

Look at this crazy black cloud and the blue sky behind it! It was weird weather on Sunday. We were going to the Pocket Wilderness for a walk, but when we left the house it had started to rain. We drove to Summerville (about 10 minutes away), and it absolutely poured. When we got to the beach it fine, but you could hear the thunder off in the distance. Then this cloud rolled in, so we ate our lunch under one of the covered picnic tables, then just when we were leaving it started raining - huge drops. Got back into town and it was sunny again!

Good Progress

I made good progress this weekend on a baby set I am making to bring in to the store. It's one of my patterns (feather and fan). I finished the bonnet and have made it to "divide for armholes" on the jacket. (My jackets are worked in one piece to the raglan armholes.) I should be able to finish it off tonight, so that would just leave the sleeve and booties, plus regular finishing. I figure it should be finished and ready to bring in on Thursday. I will be sure to take a pic to post.

I got some great advice on the Kool-Aid dye incidents from Knitabulous (Pick Up Sticks). Thanks a whole lot. See, I didn't think and plan carefully enough. Next time I will try two colors that will blend well if they run together, and try her "ball and cup" method. In the meantime, I bought enough grape to re-dye the last flop. It was just a really a not-so-nice, weird mauvish-purpley color. (See previous posts re: Kool Aid dyeing for her comments.)

I have some other pictures not transferred to the computer yet. Will try to get to them this evening.

Happy Knitting!

Finished Trellis. Turned out quite nicely.

Boys on the big truck.

My asiatic lily. Also have white and red.

My astilbe. I also have white, pink, and burgundy.

Chunky freezer jam -- yummy!

I Give Up

I give up. I got another skein of wool and tried the Kool-Aid dyeing thing again. I followed the instructions, and it started looking like it was going okay, but my three colors (purple, red, green) ended up melding into a pukey purplish color. This time I think I will get some grape Kool-Aid and re-dye it. I am going to pass (at least temporarily) on the variagated yarn. I did wind the first yarn I dyed into a ball last night. I will use that for some mittens for next year's Dulaan Project, which is hopefully going to happen again.

Took the boys to the beach today. I didn't take the camera. Had too much to carry, as hubby took my duffle bag and didn't return it, so when I wanted it it was in the truck with him somewhere between here and Halifax. They had a blast, but of course every time I decide to go to the beach, no matter how hot it is, it's always foggy and a heck of a lot cooler. We stayed for about two hours. Both went to sleep a lot earlier than usual, especially Darren. (Mental note - poop 'em out really well at the beach or some place similar for a nice, quiet evening.) The next couple of days it's going to be really hot - the "stay inside" kind of day, let the boys play outside in the evening when it's cooler.

I finished Trellis today. It is blocking as we speak (or should I say I type). Will take a pic tomorrow in its totally finished stage. It turned out really nice. Think I will do my own cabled pattern of about the same size loosely based on this one. I want to do different cable panels and modify the cuffs and waistband somewhat. We'll see. On my too-long "To Do" list.

One of the girls at work went strawberry picking last night. I bought a flat from her. I love strawberries. I could probably eat that flat in one day. I ended up freezing three boxes, cut up three boxes for strawberry shortcake and just plain eating, and used the last six boxes for my first-time freezer jam. I got 12-250ml jar, had to dig an empty cheez whiz bottle out of the recyclables, plus had a little bit left I just threw into a plastic container. It tastes really good, but it could be a little firmer. I mashed two boxes of the berries and just cut the other four boxes up. I like chunky jam. Anyways, I guess freezer jam isn't as thick as cooked jam. This will do me fine. Some of them at work put it on ice cream. This would be really good for that. I will give Ma and Pa two jars, and I froze the other 10.

Well, must get going. I had way too much stuff to post tonight, both personal and business stuff that I let go for over a week. Plus I got the accountant to write out how I was to post all that crap so far for replacing the old truck with the new one. One thing doesn't look quite right to me, but the other couple of accounts involved look okay. Will have to get her to take a look. Everything must be done right. Darren's room looks like it blew up, gotta bath....

Happy knitting!

Kool Aid Flop

Tried Kool Aid dyeing the other night, but it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. It was supposed to be red, green, and purple, but I misread one step and didn't get enough water out of the yarn prior to dyeing, so it turned out like a light mauve-ish with a couple of light green spots. I was going to re-dye it a dark color, but I think I will keep it and make some mittens for next year's Dulaan Project. (I think we are doing it again.) Anyways, I picked up another skein of wool today and will try it again.

I ordered that ice cream maker ball (see yesterday's post), but it's back ordered until August 25. That sucks.

Stayed up til 12:30 this morning to finish the last sleeve of Trellis. Now all that is left is to sew it in and do the arm and sleeve seams, add buttons and block. Will post a picture when it's done.

Happy knitting!

Camping Fun

Went camping this weekend at Oakhill Pines Campground, about 40 minutes or less from home. It was nice except for having to chase Logan around constantly. I know I put about 20kms on the feet on Saturday. That was the second excursion in the camper. We may go in two weeks time again, but not sure exactly where. The mother-in-law wants us to come up with her, but that's a two-hour drive, and with Travis just getting back to work I don't know if we can swing it. We may have to go somewhere closer and just go up there once paycheques start rolling in again. (Of course he went back to work last week, and a container ship landed on Saturday, so now they don't have any paper to haul. Ships get loaded first, and they don't make container paper til it's gone.)

Didn't get much knitting done on the weekend. Did a very little bit on Logan's sweater after the boys went to bed Saturday night. I would like to get that last sleeve of Trellis finished tonight. We'll see. Need to finish up a couple of things I have on the go. My old policy was don't start something til I totally finish the current thing. Now I have like 4 or 5 things on the go.

I might get one of these neat little things for the boys:

http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?categoryId=41066&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&parentCategory=8333&cat4=8201&shop_method=pp&feat=ssdpb8201

Happy Knitting!

The new baby - 1999 International Eagle.

Oh, The Excitement!

We finally found another truck. We didn't get it at the place where we had set out for. When we got there that green Freightliner didn't look like the picture. Looked like it was in a smash-up derby, as did most of the trucks. It was banged up a lot, plus both windshields needed replacing. We drove a couple, didn't really like what they had, went to drive another one, which wouldn't start, so we were supposed to go back the next morning after they charged the batteries. Anywhooo, we ended up picking up a heavy equipment auto trader and were off in search of better things. He made a couple of calls, then we went for a drive. We happened to spot an International dealership off the highway and went to search for a way to get there. They had a lot of trucks, and one in particular caught our eye. It was a 1999 International Eagle. It was in really good shape, so we figured it was out of our price range. We ended up calling first thing in the morning and were shocked at the price and all of the work that had been done to it. Couldn't go wrong. It had been owned from new by a husband and wife team who looked after it extremely well. Even has laminate flooring (think they took a dog with them). Anyways, there she is in all of her yellow glory.

So let me tell you about our drive. Hartland is like 20 minutes from the US border. I have lived a very sheltered life and have never been to the US. So guess where we went for a few hours! Below are some pictures I took. Travis said I was driving him nuts with my excitement (imagine if I was there for a whole day or went down south or something!). We went to Wal-Mart, where I compared prices to back home, of course. Went and got some fuel (most places around here it's like $1.02 per litre for self serve - ridiculous!), took a little drive around, and stopped at a Chinese restaurant for supper. We were only there for a couple of hours, but it was fun! One of the guys I work with always picks at me because I have never been to the US or been on a plane. Now I can cross one of those things off the list!

It was a long drive up, about 8 hours. I finished the back of Logan's sweater and got about 1/4 of the way up the front. I had to drive home so Travis could bring the big rig, so by the time we got to Halifax it was dark, so no more knitting happened. Didn't get home til 12:30am.

Anyways, that was the excitement of the weekend. Oh, yes, and I was also bidding on some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Bittersweet on eBay, and I was happy to see that I won it. I'd been looking for that color for awhile and wasn't having much luck.

Happy knitting!

This truck came complete with it's own pet (look on top of the step - birdnest).

Some of the new trucks on the lot. Way out of our price range for what we do.

This was a gorgeous truck with maple leaves on the side. Brand new so it had a not-so-gorgeous price!

The highway bridge in Hartland, NB. The covered bridge is a little to the left.

World's longest covered bridge (1282') in Hartland, NB. You could see it from the motel where we stayed.

Duty free shop at the border on the Canadian side where we stopped to exchange some money. How the Canadian dollar has risen - $20CDN got us $16.07US.

US customs border crossing - in Maine!

Not so hot pic of the Shop 'n Save - in Maine! (sun was setting)

Irving station flying a US flag - in Maine!

Boston Red Sox neon sign in the window of the gas station where we filled up - in Maine! (At $46US compared to the $86 in Halifax when we got there.)

Travis cleaning the windshield - in Maine!

This is where we had our buffet supper - really good -- in Maine!

This one is a possibility. 1998 Freightliner FLD (dark green).

Finally Fixed

I ended up get the shoulder grafted on Trellis that I was having trouble with, but not until I had it done, didn't like how it looked, ripped it out, re-knit a few rows on the front piece and the back, and grafted it for a third time. (Third time lucky, so they say.) Now I am working on the neck edge, which will hopefully be done tonight, and then that will leave the sleeves to do. It needs five buttons. I have plastic ones that match the yarn nicely, and I also have wooden ones, but I don't know if I like them or not. I prefer the wood over the plastic, but I want to make sure the buttons I choose go well with the sweater. I will place them both on it dozens of times before I make my mind up I'm sure.

We may be off tomorrow to New Brunswick to get a new truck, so I may not be around for a few days. Depends on if we get the insurance cheque or not. Will post pics of the new truck when we get it. The place we are going has about 15 trucks in our price range. We have our eye on a 1998 Freightliner FLD (ours was a 1998 Freightliner Classic). We'll see. It's about an 8 hour drive, so we are coming back with something. Been two weeks today that he's been off work.

Happy knitting!

Grafting, Grrrrr!....

I hate grafting. I am getting better at it, but I still find it a pain in the butt. I grafted one shoulder of Trellis last night, but the other one didn't go together right. I undid it, started it again, still wasn't right, undid it again, and went to bed. I will try again tonight. I looked at the other shoulder, and it looks the same. I thought maybe I ended on a wrong row or something, but I don't think so. Will look closer tonight. I still have to do the sleeves, but I thought for a change I'd do the collar next.

I've posted some pictures I took at the fireworks Sunday night and some of the boys on the Go Gator ride. I took the boys Sunday to go on the rides. $15 for a bracelet. I bought Darren and Logan each one, and of course, Logan wanted nothing to do with any of it. There were only 4 rides that I would let either one go on (the rest were more for older teens and adults, stuff like Tilt a Whirl, Sizzler, Zipper). Darren basically went on Go Gator, the motorcycle Merry-Go_Round, tube/slide thing, and he didn't bother with the bouncy house. Anyways, Logan ended up wanting to go to the "boat park" (across from the rides - it looks like a big wooden boat in the middle of a giant sandbox with three slides on it - will take a picture). Nanny took him over, but before he got there he fell asleep. He woke up crabby and still didn't want to go on anything. Nanny ended up going home, and Darren was taking a last ride on Go Gator before we went home when Logan decided he wanted to try it. About 8 turns later and much kicking and screaming, I dragged him home, and we ended up going back down around 8pm so they could go on some more rides before the fireworks. I did get him to go on the motorcycle thing twice, but other than that he only wanted the Go Gator. At least I didn't end up wasting $15.

Anyways, Happy Knitting!

This was the start of the fireworks on the town bridge. There were spirally things at first, too, but I couldn't get a good shot of it til they were done.