Knitting books from the library

I have three library books this week which will interest the knitters among you. The first is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Things I Learned from Knitting...whether I wanted to or not.

This is quite a small book (perfect perhaps for tucking inside your knitting bag or giving as a gift). It is written in the Yarn Harlot's usual entertaining style. She takes many popular quotes and expands on them from her knitter's point of view. This is a quick read and I'm glad I waited to get it via the library rather than buy it myself.


For the outdoors types, there's this book - How to Knit in the Woods: 20 Projects for the Great Outdoors by Shannon Okey. The book includes tips for how to choose yarn and projects for travelling and how to pack. The patterns are grouped according to type, and include a hoodie, blankets, socks, marshmallow stick holders, a washcloth and hanging towel. I don't plan to make anything from the book, but I can see many knitters enjoying making these projects. Great colour photos.


The Knitting Patterns for Dummies book by Kristi Porter is written in the usual "for Dummies" style. It's black and white except for a colour photo section in the centre. The patterns are very comprehensively explained. The assumption is that you already know the basics of knitting - casting on, binding off, knit, purl, etc (though there is a skills appendix at the end). There are chapters on stitch patterns, colour, patterns using rectangles, triangles, circles. As a fairly experienced knitter, most of the patterns in the book would be simple for me, but I do want to make the top-down ribbed cardigan, if only I can find just the right yarn that'll knit up at 4 stitches to the inch. There are also scarves, potholders, tops, hats, jackets, shawls, bags, baby things, men's sweaters...a good range for any knitter.

Love this yarn

SO much that when I finished these...


I went back to the yarn store and bought another skein so I could make a matching hat...

which I started at the beach today...


I did plan to knit this hat top down, and fiddled around with a few stitches on my double pointed needles, but I wasn't sure whether my attempts to increase for the crown were going to result in a nice smooth rounded result or a weird bumpy effect. In the end, I whipped out my #5 (3.75 mm) Boye interchangeables and just cast on 120 stitches (I think my gauge is 6 sts to the inch, but I didn't have a ruler or tape measure with me to check the gauge on the mitts).

This evening, while watching a British police drama on DVD, I made much more progress - about three inches total now (an inch of ribbing, then stockinette).

Which reminds me....I wanted to tell you how I measure things when I don't have a ruler around. My hand, from the crease at the wrist to the base of my middle finger, measures 4 inches. Then each section of my middle finger measures one inch. So I can quite accurately measure 4, 5, 6 or 7 inches by just using my hand. (Ahem, I use it to measure my KNITTING, so stop that tittering in the back there!)

Mamma Mia!

I went to see Mamma Mia this afternoon with my friend Anne. It stars Meryl Streep (looking absolutely amazing by the way), Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and Julie Walters, among others.

Colin was looking a little tubby, but with that face, who cares! And I saw more of him in this movie than ever before - yes, he has his shirt off a number of times! Pierce was gorgeous. And who'd have thought all these actors and actresses could sing so well.

The songs are all Abba songs, delivered with such feeling. I guarantee you'll be laughing, crying and wanting to sing along.

Oh, and don't leave the theatre too quickly at the end. There's a couple more songs, one with the three women, and another accompanied by the three men dressed as you've never seen them before (and never will again)!

Birthday gifts progress

I finished the garter stitch scarf in the romantically labelled MT1 colourway of the James C Brett Marble yarn. One gift done.


I went out for tea with two friends today. They weren't at the coffeeshop when I arrived, so I cast on for some fingerless mitts (pattern in sidebar). This colour is MT4, a more feminine colour for a feminine girl (not me)!

The photo above shows my progress this afternoon.

I finished the first mitt tonight, sitting out on my deck.


One down, one to go.

Anyone know anyone in Russia?

I have been looking at the results from Google Analytics and I see that I have visitors from many countries and every continent. However I have had no visits from anyone in Russia. I have a challenge for my readers - if you know someone who lives there, or know someone who knows someone, then I'd really appreciate it if you'd ask them to come take a look at my blog and maybe even leave a comment.

Just for fun!

Thanks :o)

Sushi and jam

I spent the afternoon pitting a huge mountain of cherries. Not from my tree - I have very few cherries on my tree this year, and what I do have is full of worms! No, these are from a friend's tree, and I brought home three buckets and five bowls full on Thursday, not really thinking about how we were going to use them all.

I ate a lot the first day. The second day I gave a bowlful to another friend. I ate a few more. Computer Geek ate some too. The third day I ate some more! Today, I made 12 jars of jam and froze some for later. I use Pomona's Pectin, which is quite expensive (nearly $5 a packet) but always sets the jam well with minimal sugar. Instead of Certo, which often requires more sugar than fruit, the Pomona recipe recommends between three-quarters of a cup to two cups of sugar per four cups of fruit. I used one cup per four cups, and made a quadruple batch.


As soon as I had the jam finished and the kitchen cleaned up, it was time to make dinner. Occasionally, we have sushi, obviously without fish. I sometimes use white sushi rice, but prefer to use brown short grain - it works OK. When it's cooked, I stir in a little agave and rice vinegar (or lemon juice) and then leave it to cool. I roll it up in the nori sheets with thin strips of avocado, cucumber, carrot and green onion. My sushi isn't very dainty, but Computer Geek and Tai Chi Man enjoy it with wasabi and tamari. It's easy to make, if a little time-consuming.

And finally...

My fourth post tonight! If you subscribe via Bloglines, then you know there are four to read. Otherwise, make sure you scroll down for ALL of my entries today.

This is the progress on the garter stitch scarf. Very easy knitting. I love the way this yarn changes as you knit with it. I was at a party last Friday night and pulled out my knitting while I was there - it was certainly a good conversation starter. I know so many people who knit that it surprised me that other people thought it unusual that I was knitting in public!

Lexographer First Class

Staying up until 1am has its benefits. 677200 points and the title Lexographer First Class. I love Bookworm!

Radical Forgiveness

I have just re-read this book, Radical Forgiveness, by Colin C Tipping. I read it a few years ago, then was reminded of it when Amanda mentioned it. I believe in synchronicity. I put the book on hold at the library and have enjoyed reading it a second time.

I don't subscribe to any organised religion. My beliefs are an eclectic mix, and I have respect for some of the beliefs from various cultures including Buddhism, Wicca and Native American. Having an open mind is important while reading this book.

The book talks about people as being spiritual beings having a human experience. It says that we decide on the learning experience that we will have on earth before we are born into our physical bodies. If we are upset by someone, we are being given the chance to heal past hurts. We need to get away from the victim mentality and recognise that everything that happens to us is created by us for a reason.

Towards the end of the book, the author gives a worksheet to enable the reader to work through a specific problem. Long before I reached that worksheet, I had already found myself at a place where I was able to see that the strife with my friends a few months ago was meant to happen - I created it, even though I didn't see it at the time. I have played the victim role, complaining about what happened, and my internal dialogue was making me miserable.

I have now moved on to a state of radical forgiveness, which is unlike traditional forgiveness. Radical Forgiveness involves realising that there is nothing to forgive - my friends and I played our roles as we were meant to. If for some reason I do not learn my life lesson this time, then I will continue to attract similar situations until I succeed.

I have no doubt that anger and resentment can cause disease in the body. I have had to visit the doctor recently and, whilst he treated the symptoms, he made no indication of knowing the real cause of my problem. But I do. It was emotional stress and tension. Now that I have dealt with the real cause, my physical problem is going away.

I don't know what will happen to the relationships that were affected by all this "personal growth", but I am feeling better in myself, I feel happy again, and I am no longer dwelling on the past or making assumptions about the future. I definitely recommend this book!

Energy bars

I made up this recipe the other day. Three out of five of us voted in favour! If you'd like to make them, or a variation, here it is.....

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups wholewheat pastry flour
half teaspoon salt (Celtic, sea or Himalayan)
half cup sunflower seeds
half cup coconut
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup ground almonds
three quarters of a cup coconut oil
three quarters of a cup agave (or maple or rice syrup)

Mix all together, press into a 9 x 13 inch pan lined with baking parchment, bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Very easy and good for snacking.

Win a beautiful quilt

You may have noticed a new picture over on the left - I have temporarily added it to my sidebar to tell you about this contest AND to get myself more entries into the contest!

Dana at Old Red Barn Co is giving away this beautiful quilt - I don't know how she can part with it - she admits herself she loves it so much she wishes she could keep it!

Go visit her blog and leave a comment.....but bear in mind there are over 1000 entries already.

My gratitude list

I keep a virtual post-it note on my computer desktop that has a list of some of things for which I'm grateful. Here's the current list, not in any particular order...

husband
sons
being alive
sunshine
rain
comfortable home
duvets
pillows
deep green grass
flowers
trees
hammocks
swings
modern plumbing
fire
clouds
friends
family
snow
knitting
warm clothes
scarves
hats
mittens
ocean
mountains
photos
good memories
good health
airplanes
bicycles
clean air
clean water
the sound of a creek
birdsong
evening walks
hot baths
hand-knitted socks

What are YOU grateful for?

At the beach

The day after the storm, the sun was hot, the sky was blue, the lake was.....cool! I guess the cooler temperature and the strong wind stirred up the lake on Thursday.

We met our friend at the beach and spent three lovely hours here.


It's a small beach access, no facilities except a dock, some sand and a couple of picnic tables.


We took a picnic lunch.


We swam off the dock (and hey, no weeds or slime).


Lots of time was spent collecting rocks.

The boys enjoyed digging a channel in the sand, making dams with sand, rocks and a brick, and then pouring water down.


We enjoyed it so much, we're going to do it again soon! (Even though I did get a little bit of a sunburn.)

Storm

We had a huge storm come through the valley today. The boys and I were at the dining room table this morning doing "schooly" stuff when we noticed the trees getting blown about, then the rain came. (That link will take you to the local news website.)

We had to rescue a few things off the deck so they didn't blow away. My laundry was out, carefully pegged to ensure it didn't blow away, but of course it's now wetter than it was before!

We have heard sirens on a regular basis - the emergency services going out for fallen trees, car accidents, grass fires.

I walked up to the bakery in the rain to find the shops at the plaza closed or closing as they had no power. I just made it in time to pick up my sub buns for dinner - luckily I had cash as they had no way of accepting plastic.

I just checked the forecast for tomorrow, as I have arranged to meet a friend at the beach, and it's supposed to be sunny and 30 degrees Celsius, so that's good.

Ninja Boy, Lego Nut and I had a productive morning, once Lego Nut got over his resistance to doing his math. I wouldn't back down, he had to do the pages I gave him, and it eventually was finished. We finished reading about Rome and the Romans in our Usborne Time Travellers book, and I gave them a spelling test of 15 words each - aimed to challenge them a little. They then went next door to watch movies with the neighbour's boy, taking some popcorn with them.

The weather seems to have settled down now. Time for me to have a little game of Bookworm...

New yarn, new inspiration

When I get stalled on my knitting, it usually means I'm bored with my current project. And as I only have one project on the go, I felt I needed to inject a bit more interest by ......

buying more yarn!

I don't keep a stash, so a visit to a yarn store was necessary. Such hardship!

I knew what I wanted. Something girly and something masculine for two birthdays coming up later in the year.

I bought this yarn on the way to the beach today and made sure I took the right size needles with me so I was able to cast on for this scarf straight away. This is one of my favourite yarns - James Brett Marble, 4.5mm/#7 US Boye Interchangeable needles, 35 stitches, basic garter stitch - makes a lovely scarf.

The pink shade will become fingerless mitts - my basic pattern over in the sidebar.

Abbreviations, acronyms and annoyances

Someone left a comment, anonymously, on one of my posts the other day. They told me that "by the way" should be "btw".

Regular readers will undoubtedly have noticed that I tend not to use abbreviations, shortcuts and acronyms. Many people are new to blog reading and would be totally confused by LOL, DH, IMHO etc. In addition, LOL really irritates me!

There's a great thread on Ravelry where people post about things that bug them on forums in general. It's good to see that other people (not just me) are annoyed by crappy spelling and grammar!

TTYL!

Our little car is well again

Our Ford Festiva is back on the road. My usual mechanic gave it a terminal diagnosis after looking it over - it was running like it had lumps in the gas! Something about cylinders and unequal pressure and all that. So it sat in the carport for a few weeks while we used the van, paying out way more in gas, while we considered our next move.

We ended up taking it to a local automotive place - when I say local, I mean 5 minutes away and no bridge crossing! They did a lot of work on it - the total bill was around $1500, about half of which was labour - and I happily drove it home last night. I am thinking of buying it new seat covers as a treat, and of course washing and vacuuming it so it looks as good as it sounds.

Whoosh!

Isn't homeschooling great? Ninja Boy and Lego Nut whizzed through Grade 3 in three weeks. Two or three pages a day and they're done. We're starting Grade 4 tomorrow!

Reading...

I finished reading Farewell, My Subaru, that I talked about last week. It was a quick read, an amusing book about the author's initial challenges getting into a greener way of living in New Mexico. There is also a website, though I haven't visited it - farewellmysubaru.com.

I have also just finished a 645 page novel by Robert McCammon called The Queen of Bedlam. This was a gamble, picked up at random off the library shelf. I wasn't sure whether I'd like it at first, but it soon became evident that it was a compelling story (in the detective genre) set in New York in the early 1700s and I loved it, especially the main character, Matthew Corbett. This sort of book, along with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series and Jack Whyte's Skystone series, are now my preferred reading, rather than the paperback fluff I used to consume.

A big hole...

...in the ceiling. Tai Chi Man and I arrived home from buying the groceries today to find water pouring through the ceiling in the basement. Thankfully, the only damage was to the ceiling - there is a vinyl floor below with a mat on it, and the mat went outside to be dried.

We had to quickly turn off the water supply (if only we had shown the kids how to do it that before now)! Then part of the ceiling had to come down to let the rest of the water drip out and to find the problem. It wasn't hard to find - a pipe was spotted, squirting out water.

A weekend call to the plumber costs $120 an hour these days - ouch! Thankfully, we found a plumber who could come straight away and the job was completed in an hour, so we were out of pocket only about $140.

Of course, the repair of the ceiling will take a little longer, and won't be done until the area has been left open to dry out. With our current summer temperatures, that shouldn't take long.

By the way, I have good news. My mum and dad now have a computer and we can now email each other. They'll be able to read my blog so here's a quick virtual wave to mum and dad!

Addicted

Yes, I admit it. I'm addicted to this game I found on puzzler.com. It's called Bookworm. Click here and look down the page to Top Word Games. Bookworm is the first one. Allow yourself at least half an hour, and as you get better you'll need more time.

My top score is 446260 and my title is Wordhoarder.

I was risking it playing tonight as we've had a thunderstorm pass right overhead. A thunderbolt cracked very close to my window - hopefully none of my neighbours' houses have been hit.

There are lots of rain showers about, even some hail. It fell on two of the boys as they enjoyed getting soaked through out on the trampoline. Thankfully they were indoors at the time the storm was right above us. The temperature has dropped to a very pleasant level so hopefully we won't need the ceiling fan on tonight when we're trying to sleep.

Fireworks

I learned something new last night. My digital camera has a "fireworks" setting. I think it would work better on a tripod, as any camera shake makes for a very wobbly image.


We drove to a vantage point across the lake from the city. We had a great view of the city lights and the Canada Day fireworks, and an equally great view of Mother Nature's fireworks - the lightning flashes in the clouds above the city and mountains. Very impressive.

Canada Day

Canada Day was a quiet one for us, mostly hanging around the house, getting some cleaning done (I'm ahead of schedule for my "spring cleaning" and all my mason jars are sorted and tidy) and the boys did some writing, math and listening to more Story of the World. This evening, after a walk around the neighbourhood, we read from an excellent library book, The Illustrated Book of Myths, retold by Neil Philip.


This is a beautifully illustrated book and I counted 68 myths in the contents at the front of the book. They are drawn from many old cultures, from Sumerian to Greek to Celtic to Australian Aboriginal. Today we read a few of the Sumerian and Greek myths, as they fitted in with our reading from Story of the World. I don't often say this, but I think this would be a great book to own.

Nilesh Mistry's fantastic illustrations make it visually appealing to me and to the children.

Tonight we plan to go and see the fireworks display for Canada Day which will be happening over Okanagan Lake. We haven't bothered for a few years, but this one is apparently going to be twice as good as they are making up for cancelling it last year. I think it was too hot and dry last year to risk sparks setting off forest fires.

We've had very hot weather the last few days, plus thunderstorms and raindrops the size of golfballs, and lightning did start a small forest fire which I believe is under control. I'll be glad when the temperature dips back into the 20s again - it'll seem cool after this!