Goodbye

Sorry for not being a good blogger. It seems that I either have something to say and no time to say it in or I have time and nothing to say. I have to acknowledge that it is highly unlikely that I will post to this blog. Thanks to all of you who have written to me. Take care and keep knitting.
Rochelle

green green everywhere green

I carry on like a fool every Spring, getting all excited about things coming up from the ground. I know that in the Spring the leaves will show up on the trees and that bulbs and plants that have been under the ground will suddenly put shoots above the ground; but each year this activity fills me with wonder. Every morning I do a check of the flower garden front and back to see what is new and which blooms have had their day. Each day hold surprises. I know that I put many of these bulbs, plants, bushes and trees in the ground so they would grew and blossom but I am always surprised when they do. The Peonies are opening, the ants have done their part and the buds are opening. These plants came with the house and last year when they opened I was really surprised as they were not the Peonies that I was used to. There is one that is single petal all around in a delicate white with pale pink, another that is double petals which is a rose colour and the other is the one I am more familar with, the multi petaled bloom in a bright fuscia colour. They are standing about 3 1/2 feet high and are a wonder to see, close to 50 blooms per plant. If I could figure out how to get pictures in here I would share the current garden's blooms with you.
I wish my knitting was growing as fast as the plants. I am in the home stretch on the Beach sweater. I find it hard to knit with the cotton in a DK weight, it doesn't seem to have much give and each stitch is an effort. I am working on the lower band and get about 3 to 5 rows done at a sitting. When this is finished I have a sweater kit that I got from Buffy that I am itching to get at but I think I want something light and fluffy on smaller needles that will not be so heavy. I have a wonderful skein of Suri-blue from Fleece Artist that I want to do something with but I haven't decided what I want to make with it. It would make a wonderful shawl or scarf but I don't tend to get dressed up very often so they sit in a drawer. I suppose I could make it and give it to my sister for Christmas but I really do like the colourway for me. Back the Beach sweater for me.

How time does fly or having fun on the run

It is hard to believe that my last post was April 4 and today is the 21st. I have been digging holes in my back garden since early this morning. I am planting flowering bushes that will bloom at different times throughout the summer. So far I planted a flowering Almond, variegated leaf Hydrangea,variegated leaf French Lilac and Black Knight Buddelia. I have another I haven't planted yet and I forget its name. I went to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton a couple of weeks ago for their Tulip fest and the Flowering Almond Bushes/trees were in bloom and they were magnificent so I had to find out what they were and then I went looking for a nursery that had some.
It is about 4pm and the sun was cooking me so I decided to take a break and work in the cool office on the Newsletter that I am trying to get out this week. Something reminded me that I hadn't checked my blog recently and I found that Deb had memed me, which I will get to very soon even if I am late doing it and that it had been a long time since I had written anything. Since the first of April I have done two shows and the work before and after a show is totally time consuming and if physically draining. It leaves me aware that I am not a spring chicken and that it take me longer to recover from all the physical work.
I am back working on the Beach cardigan and just have the bands and 1 cuff left to do. whoppee, I may get to wear it this Spring. I have a number of things knit and ready for the Fall Show which is the next big hurdle.
In the meantime I try to spend at least a small part of every day in the garden. After the last show I realized that my strength was not there; in terms of lugging stuff for the shows. So I went off and joined a fitness club (first time in my life)that is just two blocks away from my house (no excuse about it being to far). It has Yoga, Aguafit, and a full range of exercise programs and machines and stuff plus a personal trainer to get you started. I started slow with Yoga. I haven't done Yoga in about 3 years and it is hard to believe how stiff and un-plyable my body has become in those three years. Oh well I guess I just need to keep at it until I manage to stretch things a bit more. I really can't do anything the rest of the class are doing, this is definitely not a beginner class. I won't be posting any picture of me working out but I might post some pictures of the yard from time to time. I have a wonderful shot of my neighbour's flowering tree across the street that I would like to share if I can figure out how to save pictures to add to the blog. The Iris' are ready to open and the Peonies are getting bigger and bigger buds. I think I like gardening and growing things as much as I like knitting.
If you would like to receive the Grand River Yarns' Newsletter please feel free to drop me a note at info@grandriveryarns.com.

Open house

I survived the first annual open house. Cleaned like a maniac for a week before. I had all those boxes of odds and ends of yarn, and things that I had not found a place for in the new set up that I eventually found homes for. Finally on Friday night about 1am I gave it the thumbs up and crashed. The alarm went off at 7 so I could get a start on the day. I had signs to put out, balloons to put up and cats and dogs to set up in a separate room with food water etc. My friend Yvonne arrived and we sat down to wait for people to show up. I decided we should have rented a couple movies just in case so we could sit and knit and watch movies. The time of the open house was 10 to 6 and at 5 after 10 a customer showed up. I showed her around and more peoples showed up, then more and more. My place is tiny when you have 6 to 10 people in it at one time. They seemed to be having a good time, talking with each other discussing projects etc. I was kept busy running back and forth until about 4 pm. At which time I was getting a bit cranky they were all having a good time, I was tired, had not eaten, not had a bathroom break or sat down all day. Once I got off my feet I got into the mood that everyone seemed to be in and enjoyed myself. Sunday was slower getting started. I think everyone went out to Brunch before they came over but soon the place was full of knitters and the conversation was going strong. It was a fun two days and I would probably do it again.
After it was over Yvonne took me out to dinner. I should have been taking her out to dinner for all her help but she insisted and didn't argue too hard. We went to Jack Astors for dinner. Not a nice quite relaxing place, little noisy for my taste but their baked apple pie that is served right out of the oven is worth the trip. Yum just talking about it has me salivating. All in all a fun two days with great knitters, friends and some new customers.

March blahs

Like most Canadians I am fixated on weather. We had two wonderful warm days this week and saw up to 4 feet of accumulated snow in my back yarn turn into water. The grass was visible and a check of the flower beds saw tiny green shoots pushing through the now very wet soil with promises of Spring. Yesterday they were calling for a drop in temperature and snow flurries (you know those tiny specks of snow that fall and sometimes melt before they even hit the ground). Well this morning the shovels were back out and so was I, digging out of probably a 6" snow fall but of course there were high winds and it had blown in driffs and it was that heavy wet snow that is hard to shovel. The good part is that the world is covered with a clean white blanket covering up the grime collected over the Winter and the sun is out which makes for a sparkling covering.

I read the little blurb that I wrote to describe me and the blog and asked myself how much "spice" have I added to my life since I move to Hamilton. It sure hasn't been a boring year, lots to keep me busy but I haven't gotten out to meet new people. Not sure how you do that. I had the idea that maybe I would join a lot of groups and meet people that way. I did try a couple of groups who had similar ideas and values but I quickly remembered that I hate sitting in meeting. 'Doing' is my thing not listening passively to commitee reports so that idea got scratched. Maybe if I keep an eye open for "active" things that people are doing and see if I can join in that might do it. I think summer is an easier time to get involved so I will let you know if I find any 'spice' in my life.
I am getting ready for an open house at the end of March which involves creating new projects and kits for people to see and touch and also finding homes for those last item that are still sitting in boxes in the corner of the room. I knit up a small shoulder capelet in some really fun yarn that I had. They just struck me as a good combination, the colours in the yarn include blue, green, pink, gold, brown, black. I also knit a long stole in Babi which is a hand dyed boucle mohair yarn that ended up being 26 inches wide and more than 8 feet long with the fringe. I used the full 250 gram skeins because I wanted to know how far one skein would go.
I am working with some very nice white rayon viscose that I thought would work as a lacy sleeveless summer top that would be worn over a t-shirt. So far it is working out fine but I really won't know until it is finished and tried on by someone to see if it hangs correctly. Well guess I had better get back to putting things in order.
If you live in the area please check out the web site for details on the open house and join us.

February blahs

We are just recuperating from a very large snow fall, I think what happened is that we had almost no snow for most of the winter then it all came down in a two day period. These kind of storms make for a good neighbours. There are about 4 snow blower owners in my block and they all came out early in the morning, did there own driveways and sidewalks and then just kept going; doing their neighbours driveways and sidewalks. My driveway is a wide one and I was not looking forward to clearing it. When I tried to open the back door to let the dogs out in the morning it had drifted about 3 to 4 feet high on the door. So on when the winter clothes over PJ's, hats, mitts tall boots. Luckily the snow was light enough that I could push a passage way with door so that I could get out and start shoveling. The dogs were jumping around inside wondering why I was outside and they were inside when it was them that needed to go outside. It was way too deep for them to play in so they came back in quickly. Soon the sun was out and the world looked quite clean and wonderful. Out street did not get ploughed out for another couple days so we had lots of fun pushing cars out that thought they could drive though it.
Great weather for knitting, movie watching and warm toasty inside stuff. There were lots of people on the street digging, shoveling, leaning on shovels discussing the state of the world no doubt but I prefer to watch it all from indoors. Also I was busy packing order for the sweater sale on the Classy Cable wool pullover. I had just sent a flyer out announcing the sale and the response was really good. If you did not hear about it there are still kits available under kits in www.grandriveryarns.com.
Tonight is Oscar night and I must admit to being a fan both of the Oscars and movies in general. I don't think I have missed too many over the years. I try to see as many of the movies as I can before hand so that I have some idea of what is being talked about. I haven't seen as many as I usually do but I have seen the Last King of Scotland, Notes on a Scandal, Half Nelson, The Queen. I enjoyed all of them. I belong to a film club and get to see some truly wonderful movies that way. Recently saw Voliver (sp?) which was great fun, loved all the noisy kissing and next week they are showing Snowcake which is supposed to be a really good movie.

The fairisle sweater is progressing slowly. I was whipping along on the sleeves and then I thought to compare it to the other sleeve and had to ripe a lot of it out. The yarn I am using does not knit to the same tension, particularly the rows and I forgot that when I did the first sleeve I adjusted stitches as I went and if I did write down what I had done the note is long gone so now I am redoing the second sleeve and matching it row by row to the first. I don't know why I can't remember that I don't remember things. I always assume that I will remember what I did. And on that note I am off to get busy writing a newsletter for Grand River Yarns. If you want to receive my newsletter drop me a note at info@grandriveryarns.com and I will add you to the list.

30 bobbins bobbing

It took me longer to get back here than I thought. I wanted to share my enthusiasm for a cardigan that I have been working on for ever, it seems. I think I am finally coming into the home stretch on it , or at least I am about two thirds of the way there. (I think). I started knitting on this about 7 years ago and I would get it out once in awhile and then something that I just had to do for the store or a show would take precidence and it would go back in the basket. I am using close to 30 different colours of Rowan Cotton yarn. In most fairisle knitting you use 2 or 3 different colours in one row but in the zig zag pattern running up the back and and down the front (it is knit sideways) almost all the colours are used in each of the rows. That was quite mad, 30 bobbins hanging off the back and no matter how short I kept them they got tangled. I loved it, in fact I love multicoloured knitting whether it is fairisle or intarsia. My favourite sweaters are multi-coloured and sometimes multi textured as well. I am hoping that I can keep at it and maybe get to wear it this Spring and summer. This week I have had to put it aside to knit with a new sock yarn that is called Seawool and is made from wool and sea weed (kelp). I expect to have it my site this Spring and just got a sample to work with. It has a nice hand and works up very nicely.

Thanks for the words of encouragement from those who posted comments. For the person who wanted a picture of my cat Jazmin she is on my web page but as soon as the weather warms up I will get the handy little digital camera out and start snapping.
We finally got Winter and it has become very cold, so cold that we have had just a dusting of snow each day. Today the wind chill factor makes it -25 which is pretty nippy for those of us who live in the southern part of Ontario. The people who get the real winter up north think we are wimps and I would agree I felt pretty wimpy yesterday. The dogs and cats are making very short trips outside so short in fact I don't even leave the doorway, just open it to let them out and then in. Being a born optimist the really good part of the cold weather means that Spring must be on its way, with no Winter it felt like we were stuck in weather doldrums, now we can move on. Spring means shows and that is always exciting.