You've Got Mail

When BF came home a few weeks ago she came with a friend who was originally from Germany and had never been out this way. I teased Hubs cuz this new friends is an Oilers fan, and Hubs is a die-hard Flames fan. She teased that when she got home she was sending me an Oilers t-shirt. Last week when I got the mail the parcel was there, but it was an official jersey, not just a t-shirt! The plan was to not let on I had it and wear it out to Hubs's birthday party Saturday night, but he found it in the back of my closet when he was searching for his SingStar Country that we got him (the Littlest One couldn't find it), so my plot was foiled. He said I could wear it anyways so he could throw things at me all evening. But it was too hot, I didn't wear it.

Then today I get the mail, and there was this present awaiting! I sent some sock yarn leftovers off to Wandering Cat Studio for her crackghan, and in return she sent me some Top Cat in a gorgeous blue (which made me think of Nova Knitter, lol!) It's sooooooo soft and squishy, I can't wait to make myself a pair of socks out of this little baby.

Last week Hubs got his new moose bumper installed on the truck. They're pricey but definitely worth it when you drive in moose territory and also if people decide to not stay on their side of the road. Luckily the company he hauls for pays for half of it. That doesn't hurt so bad.

So Hubs's birthday is technically tomorrow, July 27. Saturday night we had a party for him and his cousin who had a birthday a week ago. We had a visitor that I didn't even know lived around here, don't think I've ever seen one in person. It was a cute little flying squirrel. I think he has a home in one of my trees cuz there is a bunch of wood shavings on the ground that weren't there a couple of days ago when I weed whacked. I can see a round hole waaaayyyy up in the tree, too. The poor thing was scared to death with all the noise, the poor thing wedged itself under the siding on the garage. The Oldest One had soda crackers, and this little guy snatched one up pronto, but I think it was out of fear, he didn't eat it. He stayed there way too long, but he eventually right himself. It had gotten pitch black out, so I didn't want to blind the little guy with the flash, so I wouldn't take any more pictures. I ended up taking a container, gently scooped him up into it and used the flashlight to keep him from jumping out, and took him to the big tree with the wood shavings around it. I had peanuts in that tree (we've had a normal squirrel coming to the bird feeders) and set him beside a couple of them. I left him alone, but when I went back about 10 minutes later he was gone. Haven't seen him since, but then again they are nocturnal, and I don't go trolling around the yard in the dark - well, not normally. My boys LOVE squirrels and chipmunks, so they are super excited. My parents live up around the corner a ways from us, and she has all kinds that come to her feeders. They are tame enough that they'll eat out of they boys' hands.

And speaking of the party... Hubs has a 1973 Cadillac Fleetwood that belonged to his father. When his father died, he inherited the car. It needs some work, definitely needs some bodywork and a paint job. Anyhoo, the parties are usually held in our two-car garage, and to make more room he always puts the car outside and the 4-wheeler. Sunday he goes out to put the car back in the garage, and after it idles for a bit, it dies. He figures it ran out of gas, so off he went to get some in my lawn mower jug. I'm in the kitchen, fan blowing, can't hear anything, then all of a sudden the Littlest One comes running, "The Cadillac is on fire! The Cadillac is on fire!" Now he's prone to exaggeration, but I got up and went to his bedroom window anyways. As soon as I got through the door all I could see was smoke, and there was Hubs with a fire extinguisher, trying to put out the flames shooting out of the engine! I called 911, but by the time the fire truck got here he had it out. He had to use the extinguisher in the garage and the one from his truck before he finally got it out. My Dad came down and looked at it after he hosed off the extinguisher dust, and he said it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Some paint is bubbled on the hood, but it didn't get into the dash or firewall or anything. We figure the fuel line popped off when he put it in drive, he only moved about 6" when he heard a noise and was like, "uh, oh". Good thing it wasn't in the garage when it happened. And good thing Hubs can move fast when required so to do. He's a retired fire department member, so they all know us, they knew right away it was our house when they got the call, and they were thankful that it wasn't the big truck that was on fire! It left a big black scorch mark on my lawn, too.

And after all this I'll leave you with a shot of Maggie and Jewel's nemesis. See that cat on the far right? That's the neighbor's cat that insists on sitting just outside the fence, across the road, or in one of my driveways to drive the dogs insane. It also likes to poop in my yard all the freaking time.

Happy knitting!

Painted Skeins

Don't ask me why this first picture keeps uploading vertically - it's horizontal in my pictures folder. Oh, well. This is the prize I won from the SAM9 KAL. It's a skein of Painted Skeins Superwash Merino Sock Yarn in the zutano colorway. Also included was a sock blocker keychain and pattern, very cute! I've been in every SAM KAL since the very first one, never missed a month, and this is only the second time I've won anything in it since the very first one. I won this in the very first KAL, for the same thing, I think (completing a pair of socks in each month). I still have it in the stash.

I'll have to ponder on what to make with this.

Well it's back to hot and muggy pretty much. We got a lot of thunder and lightning the other night through the night, it went on for ages. Yesterday was beautiful, our evening walk was perfect. However, today it's getting back to the oven, and the humidity is the killer. Better get up and get going for our walk now before I get settled and can't get up, lol.

Happy knitting!

Weekend Socks Part 2

Some of you may have noticed or will notice that I have enabled comment moderation. I just wanna say that it was nothing personal about any of the legit readers and commenters I get, but I was tired of having to delete links to Asian porn sites off of every single post I make lately. It's kind of a pain to do it this way, but it is saving me more hassle in the end.

I finished up the second pair of Weekend Socks, Ravelry details here on this pair, on the first pair here. They striped the same as the first pair (even though I didn't plan it), except this pair's toes ended with yellow instead of green. These ones were started July 11, finished the 18th, these are just standard 60-stitch vanillas on 2.5mm bamboo dpns. The yarn is Kertzer On Your Toes 4ply in the weekend print colorway.

Sometimes some of my Knit Nite friends get good deals at a couple of the chain stores in a town about 1/2 hour drive from here. I rarely see anything good when I go. However, I did snag some Patons Classic Wool last week. The benefits of being a knitter and working in a yarn shop is that you can identify a lot of times what the "Mystery Yarn" is, lol. At $4.50 plus tax a bag I couldn't pass it up. There is enough of the Forest colorway to probably make two pairs of felted slippers, the other colorway in this bag is Harvest, but that will need a contrasting color in order to make slippers.

The second bag has a bit of Rosewood, I'll need a contrasting color for slippers, too. The other colorway was a mystery to me, but by the looks of it, it's one of the new colors, Lotus. Probably enough there for two pairs of slippers as well.

There were a couple of bags of Shetland Chunky Tweeds, too, but they had been ripped open and were kind of in a mess, so I passed on them. All in all not a bad haul for the price. Probably four full pairs of slippers and two half pairs (or two kids pairs) for $10.35.

Happy knitting!

Ribby

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of knitting after not doing much of it at all while BFF was home for vacation. These socks were started on June 14 and finally finished on July 10. They're bluey-grey, hard to tell here, it rained all weekend, so no outdoor shots. They're just a basic 2x2 rib in Invicta sock yarn, mens size 10, for step-FIL's belated Father's Day gift. Haven't seen him since FD, so I don't feel so bad about them being late. Ravelry details here.

I've started the second pair of Weekend Socks for a customer, she supplied the yarn, I knit the socks. I didn't plan it, just started knitting, and they are striping exactly like the first pair! Too weird.

Happy knitting!

Vacation

Vacation is over, so knitting will resume again. BFF left to go home today, so it's a sad day. I only worked two days while she was here. One day it rained, so they did inside touristy things, and I had to work this Saturday gone by. I work today, too, but they left at noontime for the airport. They stopped by to see me on the way. My Littlest One was so pitiful last night. Once we got home he cried for an hour that he wanted her to stay, and I mean cry. He went from wanting her to stay for two more days to ten more days, then it was a month, for the summer, and then a year. By the time he was done he wanted her to move home today, lol.

There were many walks over the trail in town. This was the first night they were here, her Oldest One and my Oldest One. They were picking berries off of a tree, no idea what they're called, when we were kids we called them Indian Pears, but they don't look like any Indian Pears that show up on Google. Whatever they are they're good.

There was swimming in her parents' pool.

We went to her parents' trailer on the lake. This is her Oldest One, lover of animals, bugs, etc, with a frog she caught.

Her Oldest One and my Youngest One in the pedal boat.

The Littlest One getting ready to swim.

There's a little dock with a slide on it. Here's her Oldest One in a mid-air jump.

We also went to the beach where the kids took turns getting buried in the sand. Even my BFF got buried in the sand. Ever since we were kids she'd go to the beach and lay in the sand, no towel or blanket, she loves it.

Yesterday it was foggy and cold on the coast, so we went geocaching with one of her brothers and his kids.

And last night it was our final trail walk. From left to right is my Oldest One, her nephew, her Oldest One, BFF, her niece, and my Littlest One.

We went to Halifax last Friday, and I worked on some socks in the car. That was an adventure in itself -- Maggie was going to be dropped off at the vet to be spayed, I think she sabotaged the car the night before. We just got up on the highway, and Hubs says, "I smell prestone." He pulls over, and there's prestone all over the engine - one of the hoses sprung a leak. We called the garage and managed to get the car back there just as it was nearing the red line on the temperature gauge. Of course, it's a specialty hose, so it had to be ordered. So Maggie got to go home, we borrowed BIL's car, one of those squat, sporty things with a low body kit and European tires that are solid rubber, no air. That was just like driving an iron-tired wagon. My back killed me the next day, I was so crippled up from that car. (Little Miss Maggie is going tomorrow morning to the vet -- my car is temporarily repaired til the part comes, gotta love black electrical tape, lol. Hopefully she holds together or else I'll be calling Daddy to come get me.)

The only FOs I have are the dishcloths that I knit for the teachers for their year end gifts. Ravelry details here. (BTW - The Oldest One graded into grade 5 with all As and a B in phys ed. The Littlest One graded into grade 2 with all As and Bs.)

I guess I'm a winner, too. I won a prize in the final draws for the SAM9 KAL. I've been in all of them, and I haven't won anything since the very first SAM KAL. (And I still have the yarn!)

Happy knitting!

PS BFF got her socks and her bag and loves them all. Apparently she only had one pair of socks left that I knit for her, the rest she wore out. I also gave her Oldest One a pair of ankle socks and her friend that came home with her a pair, too.

Happy Canada Day!

Today is a holiday in Canada, it's Canada Day. There are some festivities in town today, and there will be some fireworks tonight. Tomorrow is the start of three days of Privateer Days, a yearly celebration in our town, and there are fireworks again on Sunday night. My BFF is home from Alberta til next Tuesday, and unfortunately I have to work Saturday (parade day). I tried to get it off, but no one bit. She'll take my boys to the parade. We'll lock up at work and go out to watch the parade - no one shops during the parade.




There has been little knitting going on lately. Not much time with BFF here. I did finish up the teachers' dishcloths, but my camera won't transfer anything to the computer, or I should say the computer won't transfer anything off of my camera. It has been causing me grief lately, been really hard to transfer stuff. I updated the software, but it still won't work. I even tried a different program, that didn't work. Next week I will have my new machine, and I'm taking the camera to work that day to make sure they have it transferring before I bring the new machine home. I also have to get them to set up my bookkeeping programs. They are old (still on floppies! but they work for my purposes), and if worst comes to worst then I will have to keep them set up on this old beast and use if for bookkeeping.



It's 10:30, and the kids are still asleep! We were out with BFF last night and a bunch, up to her brother's place. We didn't get home til 2:30am, the boys outlasted all the other kids. (But most of them didn't fall asleep til shortly before we left.) They had a blast sining karaoke, so now they want it for their PS2. And I have to soon split to go get my car at her parents' place. Tomorrow is a busy day, too. My little Miss Maggie is going to be spayed, then we are off to Peggy's Cove with the gang and do some other fun stuff in the city. BFF's boyfriend has to leave tomorrow night, his flight leaves at 8pm. BFF, her daughter, and the friend they came here with don't leave til Tuesday. The friend is from Germany, and she's never been to Nova Scotia, so we're trying to show her lots of stuff.

I will leave this post with a picture that I did manage to transfer last week. It's the first night that BFF was here, and we walked around the local walking trail. Pretty sunset over the river.

Happy knitting!

(As I end the post the beasts have awakened, lol!)