To make things simpler, I have decided to standardise the way I refer to my family members. My husband will be known as Tai Chi Man, my oldest son (currently 16) will be MacAddict (previously Computer Geek), middle son (currently 13) will be Ninja Boy, and my youngest (aged 10) will be Lego Nut.
Free knitting patterns (no restrictions on using but please give me the credit)
We have never been a trick-or-treating family at Halloween. Bringing up vegan children, any candy that they might collect would most likely not be vegan so would have to be given or thrown away. However that doesn't mean that the kids haven't enjoyed dressing up and carving pumpkins.
A couple of years ago, rather than hide in a dark house to avoid any kids coming to the door (Bah, Humbug!), I decided we needed a ritual that we could enjoy without the excessive candy element. So now we celebrate Samhain, the pagan festival that Halloween is, after all, based upon. It is a time to remember our ancestors, celebrate the harvest and make predictions for the coming year.
Today we carved jack o'lanterns and roasted the pumpkin seeds with oil, sugar and spices.
I finished making cloaks for the two younger boys. And tomorrow we're going to have a mini-pumpkin hunt in the garden....though the mini-pumpkins are actually satsuma oranges on which we have drawn jack o'lantern type faces. Not only is it cheaper to buy satsumas but we can actually eat them afterwards!
Some of our pumpkins are reversible with designs on both sides....here they are...
My order from elann arrived in the mail today - ten lovely bright balls of elann esprit for five pairs of socks. I have three sets of 4mm dpns so when I get started on the socks I think I will knit two at a time.
Not only did I have the pleasure of yarn in the mail, but my husband brought home ten skeins of James C Brett Marble. The photos don't do it justice - it's made up of shades of brown with a hint of turquoise. I made a scarf with this once and gave it away and then had trouble getting more. So I special-ordered ten skeins from a local yarn store. It took ages to arrive, but I had a call this morning from the shop and then called Tai Chi Man to see if he could pick it up for me. Synchronicity rocks! He was, at the time of my call, sitting in traffic just waiting to turn into the very street where the yarn store is! Really! Within a few minutes of my call, he had picked it up - I'll have to go in there next time I'm over that way to get my frequent shopper card stamped. In the meantime, I have lots of knitting time planned.
And I will have a little more knitting time than usual in the next two months as Ninja Boy and I decided to take a break from Taekwon-do for November and December. I felt like a break, and Ninja Boy was quite happy to go along with it. I consider it a mild protest on my part - we still haven't received our embroidered black belts and I am expected to buy another dobok (uniform) since we changed our alliance to ITF. So the break will save us a couple of months fees and we intend to go back in January.
During this time, I also plan to try out a yoga class with a couple of friends, and finally (something I have been promising the kids for a couple of years) get to the indoor climbing gym.
And finally, I keep meaning to mention that I have Nan to thank for the xxtraordinary blogger award in my sidebar.
It's the Morgan driving cap, of course, and since I took this photo it has grown a little more. I have finished the flat top and the ridge that runs around the edge of the top and am now shaping the body of the hat.
I was looking at the different versions of this hat that people on Ravelry had made, and one lady was from Yorkshire (England). She calls it a Flat 'at, because it's, well, a flat hat, and I can just imagine the accent she would use as well. Think of one of the old fogeys in Last of the Summer Wine talking about his flat 'at and you'll know what I mean.
It was another beautiful sunny day today and I couldn't resist a walk around my neighbourhood. Whilst I appreciate the sun and mild temperatures, I am disappointed that it's not really cold enough to wear lots of knitting! (Though my Sunrise Circle Jacket is getting lots of use.)
I found this yarn at Zellers....the odd thing is that it doesn't appear on Coats and Clark's website, so I can't link to it. It's Red Heart Artesano......98% acrylic, 2% polyamide, rated a bulky yarn, suggested needle size 6mm/10US. I swatched on two 4.5mm/7US circulars for this pattern and my gauge was good.
The tight knitting and "make 1 right" increases are tough on the hands but I like the tweedy look of the yarn. I'm looking forward to seeing the cap take shape - the pattern is 6 pages long, but I don't think it's too difficult.
I have had my eye on one of these for a long time....
I first saw them online. They also have them at my local yarn store. The local price (in Canadian dollars) was quite a bit more than the US dollar price online, but once I did the conversion and factored in a bit extra for shipping and charges as it came over the border, I decided to just buy it from the shop in town and support my LYS.
I knew that Lego Nut would love to play with it! We tested it out with some plain Bernat sock yarn (it only takes lightweight yarns, though I'm going to try out different thicknesses to see how they work).
Now to come up with some imaginative ideas for yards and yards of i-cord!
I was up early this morning and hoped to post about these finished socks, but MacAddict had borrowed the camera cable and I couldn't find it anywhere so I couldn't hook the camera up to the computer.
As you can tell, I didn't try to match up the stripes! I'm quite happy with "almost matching" socks. Yarn is Berroco Comfort Sock, knitted on 3.25 mm double pointed needles, 60 stitches circumference.
Many of the elann esprit socks that I knitted 2 or 3 years ago are wearing out and have been darned. I promised myself that when these socks were done I would order some more Esprit. Unfortunately they don't have any of the "print" yarn in, only the plain, so I ordered two balls each of jade, tapestry blue, african violet, ruby and grand canyon. Five pairs of socks, all for me. Love the cotton with the elastic in it. The socks fit so well. And I only have to cast on 48 stitches on 4mm needles, so they are faster to knit.
Just to show you some of the elann esprit print socks I have made, here are some old photos...
I'm very aware that I haven't blogged since Monday. However there is a good reason for that. My blog is my homepage - every time I have clicked into Firefox in the last few days, there's been that great photo of Hugh looking out at me and I haven't had the heart to replace him!
However I suppose I can't leave him there forever, so here's an update.
I'm in the middle of reading a book called If Women Ruled the World: How to Create the World We Want to Live In. This is a collection of essays by women from many different backgrounds. I'm really enjoying it. In fact, I'm enjoying it so much that I'd love it if each of my female blogging readers would write a post entitled If Women Ruled the World and give their version of how they see things being different. It would be great if each person who takes up this challenge could challenge their own readers to do the same. So if you're reading this, please think about writing a post and telling others about it. Pass it on!
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Off topic, my oldest son has a new name - instead of Computer Geek, to which he objected in the comments the other day, he is now to be known as MacAddict. That's Mac as in Apple Macintosh computers. We've always been a Mac family but when MacAddict wanted his own computer last year he ended up building a desktop PC. He did an awesome job. This was followed up by the acquisition of a laptop PC - he just HAD to have one for our holiday in the spring, and a PC was cheaper. However I have lost count of the number of complaints I have heard from him about PCs, Windows, Microsoft et al over the last few months. I have learned many new computer terms from him, one of them being "the blue screen of death" (which is what you get when your PC crashes - which it has done, many times).
Now he has spent the last dime that he had left on the planet (and a few of ours) to get a refurbished Macbook Pro. A laptop with a 15 inch screen and lots of capacity. He's loving it! He may have had plenty of "learning experiences" with the PCs, but he also had a lot of stress. Having been over to the Dark Side, he has now seen the light and fully appreciates the beauty, functionality and user-friendliness of a Mac.
Oh yes, and he also bought an iPod Touch. This makes, let's see, the third iPod so far. The other two were only Nanos though!
I found out something amazing yesterday. When I actually pick up my sock and knit on it, it grows quite fast! I am almost as far as the heel flap on the second sock. Obviously I don't knit socks as fast as Torrance. This crazy lady made four pairs of socks in five days. Wow!
This week's DVD watching has been season 4 of Corner Gas. This is a great little comedy set in a little town in Saskatchewan, Canada. After all the episodes of House MD and various British murder mysteries, it is a refreshing change - no dead bodies, at least! (I can't believe I just googled House MD and it came up on Wikipedia!)
Talking about House, here's a little bit of Hugh for you...Ahem...attention, please. Thank you.
Anyway, what was I saying. Oh yes, this evening was another sweaty session at Taekwon-do. We didn't go at all last week. Today I was vacillating about going, feeling lazy, not wanting to go out on a cold dark night, but as usual Ninja Boy and I made the effort and really enjoyed it. Ninja Boy finally received his new instructor-type dobok (uniform) which has a black edging to the jacket. The club recently switched from ICTF to ITF affiliation (International Chang Hon Taekwon-do Federation to International Taekwon-do Federation) which means everyone's doboks have the wrong logo on them and have to be changed. However Ninja Boy's new one is the new style and it fits him perfectly - I don't have to shorten the arms or legs.
In theory, I should buy an ITF dobok, but am reluctant to do so at the moment. We still haven't received our embroidered belts and certificates, even though we passed our test at the end of April. I am reluctant to pay out more money until I have received the outstanding items, and have told the senior instructor so.
The class tonight was a "conditioning" one, which translated means "I'm gonna make you sweat and get you fit whatever it takes". Lots of jab punches, dizzying combinations of kicks, push-ups, sit-ups, stretches. I feel great - when it's over! I told the instructor that he should be my personal trainer and make me do that sort of workout every other day, because I certainly don't make that amount of effort at home!
Maybe if I sent the kids to school and hired a maid, I'd have enough time in my day for everything I'd rather be doing. Just kidding ;o)
I was talked into making it when Lego Nut was looking over my shoulder while I was reading my blogs the other day. He saw a picture of this cake, asked me to click on it, and the recipe sounded so appealing he wanted me to make one.
I don't make many desserts these days, so I didn't think it would hurt!
Of course with three hungry boys, each with a "sweet tooth", I had to double the recipe (though I didn't double the salt or the vanilla). I use the Himalayan salt and I usually need half as much as most recipes recommend.
I also made it in a 9 by 13-inch lasagna pan and cooked it for 30 minutes instead of 25.
They loved it (knew they would). I had a small piece (ahem, and then another one) and it was really sweet. Even Lego Nut admitted it was almost too sweet. I would make this again, keep the same amount of agave in the batter, but halve the cinnamon sugar (I'd just sprinkle it on top but not in the middle).
What was great about this recipe was that it was VEGAN and so I didn't have to muck about substituting ingredients.
I have just finished reading this book. Eckhart Tolle's latest publication, A New Earth. He is well-known for his previous book, The Power of Now.
This is a thought-provoking book. He talks about the power of the ego and how it is responsible for the suffering we see in the world today. The trouble with being so caught up in the ego is that we forget that the life we live on the earth is only half of who we are. We are so taken up with Form and Doing that we forget about Spirit and Being.
Think of the things that make us miserable - comparing what we have to what others have, complaining when things don't go just right, having to be right all the time (and making others wrong), creating drama where there could be peace, needing to feel superior to others. All Ego.
He helps you to see what your ego is doing, and when you can see that, when you can see even a little tiny part of what he's talking about, you can start to become more aware, and even laugh at yourself when you catch yourself stuck in your ego again.
This moment is really all there is. So many of us are stuck in the past, rehashing situations (oh boy, I was doing that again last night instead of just relaxing into sleep!) and getting all stressed about it. Or living in the future, saying that we'll be happy "when...". So much of our life is passing us by as our heads are stuck in the "past" or the "future" instead of enjoying the present moment.
My impression is that we should be more child-like. A child observes with wonder but doesn't judge. A toddler points with a fat little finger at a dog, just looking and absorbing the image. A child plays with a toy, not worrying about something that happened yesterday or what will happen in five minutes time. So much of MY time is spent telling my kids to pick up after themselves, or brush their teeth, or whatever, that I sometimes forget to just spend time being around them without nagging at them - this is not conducive to a peaceful atmosphere or open communication.
Tolle says we need to find our inner space. Just watching our breath can help us do that. Noticing the gaps between the breaths. Stopping our "monkey mind" from running away with thoughts all the time.
And finally his three "modalities" for living a purposeful life - acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. Think of something you'd rather not do. Maybe washing the dinner dishes. Maybe enjoying the job is a stretch, but if you can do it with acceptance then it will be more pleasant than banging and stomping about the kitchen, muttering to yourself about the unhelpfulness of your family and how you're taken for granted, etc etc! Without at least one of these modalities, you are creating suffering. Stuck in a traffic jam? Yes, I could enjoy that - if the traffic was stopped, I could pick up the knitting that I always have with me and knit a bit, and the waiting would immediately be enjoyable. Better than sitting there fuming with anger and worrying about how I'll be late for something.
Aaah, the excitement of finishing a sock. The toe is the best part - you know you're almost there, the rounds get shorter and shorter, and before you know it the sock is on your foot. Of course, there is still another one to knit :o)
There seem to be elections everywhere this week, so I thought I'd add a couple of my own votes to some great music and books. The above book, The Fall, has my vote for Book of the Week. The sub-title is "The evidence for a Golden Age, 6000 years of insanity, and the dawning of a new era."
This is a well-researched book that explains the type of culture that existed in "pre-civilisation" times (matriarchal, peaceful, artistic, close to nature) and then goes on to show how things changed (patriarchal, warlike, material). I haven't read much of it yet but the summary on the back promises to suggest action we can take to return our society to a state of harmony.
The sub-title should, I think, be "It doesn't have to be like this"! It is very apparent from my reading with the children (Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer) that the last 6000 years have been a period of one war after another, male domination and oppression of women, children and nature, constant fighting for power, land, wealth. All in all, a miserable state of affairs, but one which I hope we can change by not accepting that it is normal or natural for human beings to live like this. Why can't we return to a time of peace, co-operation, equality? I can always hope.
My exercise this week has been on my rebounder (mini-trampoline) and following the yoga poses in this book. Some of them I can do and others are more challenging, but I enjoy trying. I especially love the Salute to the Sun (video from YouTube below)...
You can do this one any time, anywhere, and I usually do a few in a row, as I find I get more flexible with each one. It really makes the energy zing!
While I was on the rebounder, I was listening to my current favourite music - Afro Celt Sound System. This stuff is effing brilliant - a fusion of African drumming and Celtic fiddling, great vocals, a beat to make you want to get up and dance. I borrowed all three CDs that I could find at the library and I wish I had more.
I just found a video of one of my favourite tracks - it's called Release and features Sinead O'Connor's voice.
Well, a long post, but lots of food for thought. Enjoy the music!
baked butternut squash filled with a mixture of basmati rice, onion, garlic, red bell pepper and home-grown walnuts; roast potatoes and parsnips...
and the centrepiece - just to look pretty - lots of our little peppers (we picked about 7 pounds of them off our plants the night before a frost), some pears, apples, walnuts and hazelnuts.
I also made apple sauce and sauteed some sliced-up Tofurkey sausage for the kids (knowing they probably wouldn't eat the squash!).
There has been quite a lot of discussion of vegan issues on Ravelry this week. Not just within the usual vegetarian and vegan groups, but in the Yarn forum. Someone asked about vegan yarns for knitting baby things and the thread evolved into a discussion of all things vegan, from what we eat, to what we knit with, to what we wear, to whether we have pets.
As it's Canadian Thanksgiving Day tomorrow (Monday) I thought this would be a good chance for me to stand up for the billions of animals who are slaughtered every year to feed our society's meat addiction and refer you to this page. Lots of vegan recipes for special occasions.
Anyone wondering what the heck we can possibly find to eat when we remove animal products from our diet would do well to read this.
Wishing you (and the animals) a Happy Thanksgiving.
I haven't made socks in a while, but this skein of Berroco Comfort Sock yarn was languishing in my sewing room, so I decided it was time to take the plunge. It always seems to need that extra bit of enthusiasm to start something knitted on such skinny needles. I am even going to put aside my natural laziness and rib the whole leg, and maybe even the instep, to give these socks a bit more "hug". It's a little slower than plain knitting, but I think the result will be worth it.
This odd piece of work was an experiment that my brain came up with one night as I was lying there, waiting for sleep. I used some brown Bernat Satin, knitted up a rectangle on my Bond knitting machine at a large gauge, then used lengths of Lion Brand Homespun to weave back and forth through the stitches.
It was enjoyable to do on a small piece like this, though I certainly wouldn't want to tackle a large project using this method!
Which House character are you? For those who don't know, Hugh Laurie (yes, the British guy from "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" and "Jeeves and Wooster") plays a grizzled snarky doctor in a medical drama in the States.....with an American accent. We're hooked on this show, though as we don't have cable we have to rely on library DVDs to get our fix. Here's a fun quiz for you to try.
Which House Md Character are you?
Your Result: Eric Foreman
Congratulations, you're Dr. Eric Foreman. You're tough and smart. You don't take crap from anyone and are proud of who you are. You don't let House's remarks get to you much and you aren't afraid to do what you want most times.
My friend Doris is going to be 80 next Saturday. ( I hope she doesn't read my blog as her gift won't be a surprise.) I spent one evening and one afternoon making this throw. I love this shade of Homespun - I want to make something for myself with it now!
Doris’s throw Finished size approx 70 x 35 inches
This is a really “bare bones” pattern for those who are familiar with the Bond. I wanted to make it available on the blog, but also write it down for myself in case I want to make another in future.
Bond knitting machine: keyplate #4 Lion Brand Homespun 6 skeins (I used Sierra) crochet hook 6.5mm darning needle
Gauge: about 9.5 sts and 15 rows to 4 inches
Cast on (e-wrap) every other needle 50 sts Knit 150 rows Bind off using needle and backstitch method
Make two more panels the same way
Lay panels out on the floor, all cast on edges at same side Flip middle panel over so that the reverse stockinette side is showing Use a crochet hook and single crochet (double crochet in UK) to join panels together - **work into 3 sts, skip one** across (I used wooden clothes pins to hold the edges together)
Crochet around whole edge in sc (dc) - at the corners, work 3 sc (dc) into corner st
At top and bottom edges of pieces, work 1 crochet st into each knit st At side edges, work 3 crochet sts for each 4 knit sts
Then crochet around whole edge in double crochet (treble in UK) - at the corners, **2 dc (tr), 1 ch, 2dc (tr)** into corner st Machine wash (delicates) and dry (low heat) to soften throw and minimise curling
I love that phrase! It means "I'm going to die of shame" in French. For a bit of fun, the boys and I have been reading Robert Munsch books from the library. We have been getting them as book/CD kits, so we listen to a page then I do a rough translation (my French is a little rusty), pointing out particular French words to them. In the book "Ma Mere Exagere" the boy is dying of shame on almost every page, thanks to his mother's behaviour at the mall.
Anyway, tonight I noticed that I, the queen of criticism when it comes to spelling mistakes, typos, grammatical errors, et al, made a mistake in one of the sidebar page elements. Oops! I have corrected it, and while I was at it I updated middle son's age, as he recently had a birthday.
For those who wish to email me rather than leave a comment on the blog, I have added a clickable link below my profile on the left which will automatically take you into your email program and insert my email address (a new gmail account that I have set up especially for the purpose). I hope this won't increase my spam! Kudos to my Computer Geek son for knowing the html code to type in to get this set up :-)
That's the name of this hand-dyed cotton I've been knitting with this week. The tarot card bag used a rather lovely mix of blues - this green/brown mixture I'm not so crazy about.
One of my kids calls it "swamp" - I call it army camo! Anything that makes me think of the military turns me off, however I had to knit something with this, so I cast on twice as many stitches as I did for the small bag, worked a row of yarnovers near the beginning for a drawstring, and I'm just going to knit until I run out of yarn. I can always find a use for another bag!
In fact, when I sew up the bottom of the bag, I shall probably make the reverse stockinette side the outside. I think that garter and rev stockinette show off variegated yarns so well.
Tomorrow I will show you the machine-knit throw that I have made for a friend's birthday. I need to wash and dry it to get the curl out, and photograph it in the daylight so you can appreciate the colours.
