Waiting for the Snow to Stop

Another dump of snow started last night. This was the snow meter yesterday morning, 

last night, 

and an hour ago.

It’s still snowing at but should let up in a couple of hours.

In the meantime I’ve been finishing up the Musselburgh hat.

I grafted the crown to the ‘tube’ - 124 stitches. I keep my fingers between the two needles to keep the grafting stretched out. It’s so easy to pull too tight and create a ridge.

This is all the yarn I had left from the 100g ball.

The brim is nice and deep for extra protection over the ears.

It’s a very clever, yet simple design - a tube closed at both ends. Then the one end is shoved into the other end.

I’m pretty proud of the grafting I did.

I started this so long ago (June of last year) that I couldn’t remember it was Malabrigo sock yarn in the Abril colourway.

I’m not sure why they call it sock yarn as there’s no nylon in it for strength. The heels would wear through so quickly without something to reinforce the yarn. 

Knitting Both Ends

I’ve been working on another Musselburgh hat off and on these past few months. My hope is to use up as much of the 100g skein of yarn with very little left over. 

One way I could have done that was weigh the skein before starting then weigh it again once the increases were completed. The difference would have told me how much yarn to leave at the end to complete the decreases. Problem is, I didn’t do either. 

I could also just knit the tube until I guess how much yarn I need to complete the decreases. Then it occurred to me that I could start a second crown starting with the other end of the skein and knit until the yarn is almost used up, then graft it to the tube knit from the other end. 

The outside of the ball of yarn goes to the ‘tube’ and the inside of the ball goes to the second crown.

The result will be a nice, long tube closed at both ends. When the one end is pushed into the other the brim will be nice and deep, creating 4 layers for over the ears. The only downside I see is the striping pattern will probably be interrupted where the twe sections are grafted. I can live with that.

Today, Jeanette had us over for some stitching. The timing was great because I was just starting to miss my stitching peeps as I had missed her stitching day a week and a half ago due to a prior appointment. We cut the afternoon’s stitching short because the anticipated snowfall had started and we wanted to head for home before driving conditions got too challenging. 

When I got home, I cleared the chunks of icy snow at the bottom of my driveway that were left a couple of days ago. One real cold snap could have turned them into almost concrete-like obstacles. I’m not sure we got enough snow for the snow clearing company to come and do their magic. If they don’t come, I’ll have to deal with it myself. By then the snow will be very heavy and wet. 

While at Jeanette’s I continued to work on the cardinal piece.

Jeanette is planning to have a ‘Finishing February’. I should do something like that too. Not sure how far I’ll get with that concept, though.

- I watched the new Bridget Jones movie ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’ on Amazon Prime. Surprisingly a bit of a tear-jerker but I recommend it.

Snow Day!

We had a big dump of snow overnight. I awoke this morning to the sounds of my driveway and sidewalks being cleared of snow.  I ran over to the window and got this shot. 

I cannot tell you what peace of mind it gives me to have this taken care of whether I’m home or not. 

Before going to bed last night my snow meter read about 7”. This was it this morning:

While continuing to snuggle in my cozy bed, I saw a notice on Facebook that the schools were closed in most of the greater Toronto area including Durham Region where I live. This is a BIG DEAL. Since I moved to this area in 1989, I only remember one time when the school was closed for snow and that was only after classes had started. I remember because I was stuck in my driveway and called the school to let them know I wasn’t going to make it in until much later. Only then I was told the board was shutting the schools. I then started calling colleagues who lived in Toronto (including Skip at the time) to tell them not to even try to get to work as our schools were going to be closed.

Buses will frequently get cancelled but schools remain open to receive students who get there on foot of who are dropped off by their parents who have to get to work. Teachers are expected to risk their lives to get there regardless.

I had no occasion to leave my home so decided to have a pyjama day and have fun doing whatever I wanted - basically like a usual day as a retiree. LOL.

I did some work on the Winter’s Cardinal. It’s going quite quickly. I really like the colours. I may finish this as a flatfold.

 

I’m using 34ct fabric from my stash. It was a fat quarter I had purchased at The Old Tattered Flag on a road trip with my girlies pre-COVID. It was only $10! 

I’m using two strands and am finding the coverage to be rather dense. I probably could have gotten away with one strand but I was already too far in to start over. I had already tried 40ct fabric and was having lots of trouble finding the holes.

I also knit a second Nordic hat and used the leftover yarn from the one I did earlier this week. It’s the free Nordic Hat pattern on Ravelry from Mònica Cifuentes. 

I started it with the natural-coloured yarn as I didn’t think I had enough of the grey yarn to use as the main colour. It’s was a very quick knit. I used slightly larger needles than I used on the previous hat - 4mm for the ribbing and 4.5mm for the rest.

Scooter was supposed to fly to Lisbon last night but his flight got cancelled. He was rebooked for tonight and finally took off almost two hours late. He will be travelling around Europe for almost 3 months. I am very excited for him and will live vicariously. 

I guess tomorrow I’ll get dressed and actually leave the house. 

I Knit a Hat Today!

After stitching at Alda’s this morning and lunch at Arby’s, I headed over to the new Michaels in north Whitby at Taunton and Garden. It’s in the corner of the plaza near Marks. The official opening will be this Saturday. 

I bought a couple of balls of Patons Classic Wool Worsted yarn for a Nordic hat I wanted to knit - Dark Gray Mix and Aran. I was happy that these two colours were available because I’m finding Michaels are replacing most Lion Brand and Patons yarns with their Loops & Threads yarns. The Classic Wool Worsted is one of my favourite commercial yarns. It’s 100% wool, not scratchy and lovely to work with.

With our upcoming Iceland/Norway trip, an iconic pattern seemed like a good thing to do. I used a free pattern from Drops Design, 219-14 Winter’s Night Enchantment Hat.

It’s written for DK weight yarn so I modified the pattern for worsted weight by casting on only 96 sts. This is the number of sts I usually cast on for a hat for myself with worsted weight. The chart is 6 sts wide so that works well as 96 is divisible by 6 for the chart, and by 4 for the ribbing. I used 3.75mm needles for the ribbing and 4mm needles for the rest.

I knit the ribbing almost twice as long so it would fold up for extra ear protection.

I skipped the pattern for the crown and began the decreases right away - every other round to 12 sts between stitch markers, then every round until 8 stitches remained. Then I ran the yarn through the remaining sts and secured the yarn. Because I doubled the ribbing I used a little more than half the 100g ball - 56g. If I had done the regular 4cm ribbing, I probably could have had enough to knit a second hat this size. If I reverse the colours, I could get a second hat from the remaining yarn. 

Skipping the crown chart, I also omitted the random ‘lice’ stitches. I also omitted the pom pom.

While I was at Michaels I bought the last skein I needed for my Cardinal’s Winter project (DMC3765) and a skein I needed for my needlepoint project. Thanks to my DMC thread colour chart, I was able to match the light yellow green floss I misplaced with DMC 704.

While at stitching this morning, I finished stitching most of this clandestine project.

I’m going to finish it as a little pillow. It’s on 32ct linen using 2 strands over two threads.

On the Hunt for Tamales

I visited my family in Lambton County this week. I combined the visit with breakfast with some former colleagues from a school I taught at from 1978 to 1989. The ladies meet the first Friday of the month and call the event the ‘Breakfast Club’.

Dolores will turn 92 in a couple of weeks and brought cupcakes to share with us for the festive occasion. I try to time most visits to see my family with the first Friday of the month. It’s so nice to see these ladies and get somewhat caught up on life events.

Afterwards I picked up my niece, Ana, and we headed to the greater Blenheim area to Pastime Pieces.

It is a lovely quilt shop with lots of models on display. Marlene also has a decent, up-to-date inventory of cross-stitch, embroidery, and wool felt appliqué patterns.

I purchased a skein of WDW Grits and a pack of #26 Pony tapestry needles. The needles are black and the top third is painted white. The bi-coloured needles make it a bit easier to find a dropped one as it will show up on both dark and light surfaces. It's always good to have a telescoping magnet, too.

I also bought the Robin Pickens chart, Cardinal’s Winter. I really like the colours.

The model is framed in an interesting way with the mounted piece centred on a green background.

Yesterday evening my two nieces and I enjoyed take-out Indian food for supper and spent the evening together chatting about family lore.

This morning I slept in a bit (called hurkle-durkling, apparently), then headed for home by way of Strathroy and Mexicolombian Market, a little Latin American shop. I wanted to pick up some tamales to take home. I haven’t found a supplier near my place other than a couple of phone numbers I have to call to order them. I make my own corn tortillas from scratch using tortilla flour sold at Metro but making tamales is a much more intricate process. 

These tamales come frozen in packs of 3.

I picked up 2 each of beef and pork. Fortuitously, I had a freezer bag in the car so stuffed them in there with a fleece lap blanket for additional insulation and zipped up the bag. The bonus is that Strathroy is directly on one of the regular routes home from my niece’s place.

The traffic on both the 401 and 407 was very light and the roads were dry - great driving conditions. I had a new audiobook to entertain me. 

I was glad to get home and pop the tamales into the freezer. I’ll enjoy a couple of the pork ones for supper tonight.

A nice surprise awaiting me at home was that one of my orchids finally bloomed.

It’s been in bud for a couple of weeks and I’d been anxiously waiting for it to bloom. It’s a “Piccola” species. The bloom is only about 3cm wide. 

I’ve had very good luck with my orchids as they thrive on neglect. I water this one once a week by sitting the bottom of the inner pot in a bowl of water for 15 minutes once a week - just to moisten the medium with its moss and bark. I have a full-sized one that is also growing a spike with nodules which will become buds in a few weeks. It will be the third or fourth time that one will have bloomed under my care. It only gets watered once every two weeks. Apparently they don’t like to be too wet. I know it’s healthy because it has many, healthy air roots.

And now… time for a nap.

Update... the pork tamale was delicious!

Finishing the Fifth Mitten

I finished the thumbs of the two mittens last night whilst continuing to binge-watch Yellowstone on Netflix. 

Mittens with thumb gussets fit much better than peasant thumbs which are basically openings in the palm from which the thumbs are knit. Like this:

I’m going to frog the first three attempts I made to knit these mittens. There will certainly be enough yarn to knit another pair of  another design. 

Yesterday was the guild’s stitch day. I circulated to the various tables to visit with the various members and even got some stitching done. 

Afterwards, I picked up Scooter from the GO station and brought him home for a good visit. We get together every month or so just to check in. I appreciate his efforts to come all the way out here to see me. I also meet him in the city from time to time. He is leaving for 3 months in Europe, visiting many countries primarily by train. He works online so has the luxury of being able to continue earning money while enjoying different sights and locales. I am so excited for him. And for 3 of those weeks, we’ll both be on the same continent when I’m on my epic tour of Iceland and Norwegian cruise!

I served us a Chef’s Plate meal that turned out quite well:

Portions are always so generous that I even got an extra serving after we both ate all we could. But holy, moley did this recipe ever use a lot of kitchen vessels and utensils!

I am so bummed out about Trump’s bullying. I know almost half of US folks are, too. We will need to tighten our belts, shop more carefully, and help out those who are already pushed to their budget limits for groceries. We recently have received a couple of government cheques - our Carbon Tax rebate and bribe from our provincial government with the upcoming election. Hopefully folks who can spare the money will donate to their local food banks and other charities that will be harder pressed to help those less fortunate.

Changing gears drastically…

I made avocado toast for the first time this morning. It was OK but future attempts will involve more seasoning. It’s quite different having something savoury for breakfast. We ate lots of avocados when we lived in Mexico. The house we rented included an orchard on the other half of the lot. Avocados, mangos, and limes grew there. When the fruit was ripe, my dad used to sic our dog on the folks who would jump the fence to steal the fruit. Mom loved going out and picking fresh limes for her gin and tonics. I’m not sure how this practice came about but we used to halve avocados, take out the pit, and sprinkle Worcestershire sauce in the hollow and eat them that way with a spoon. Such good childhood memories.

And now, I’m going to soothe myself by doing something enjoyable.

And Yet Another

As mentioned in the previous post, I was doing well, almost having completed the second Trondheim mitten only to realize I had knit two right mittens. After frogging the second one, I started a third one, this time a left-hand mitten. They were a bit snug so I was devising in my mind how to make mitten blockers out of foam core covered in plastic wrap. I almost had it finished.

I then wondered how much looser they’d be if I went up a needle size. I liberated a 2.75mm circular needle from a long-abandoned project and cast on a fourth mitten. I also used a skein of black Happy Feet sock yarn from Plymouth Yarn Company. It was probably a skein I bought at Rhinebeck a few years ago. Definitely a while back as the 50g skein of superwash merino/nylon yarn was only $6US - purchased from Hillcreek Yarn Shop.

 I again used the modified intarsia method for the windows.

To say it was tricky dealing with all those yarn ends would be an understatement. Yet I persevered.

The resulting mitten fits much better. Quite the contrast in size with only one size larger knitting needle.

So now I’ll start the 5th and hopefully final mitten.