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.

Notes on Being

Well, I am finally taking the plunge. Customers, friends kept asking if I had gotten around to creating a blog. It seems like January 1 is a good day to start. I would like to start by wishing everyone a happy, healthy and successful 2007.
I made another big move in my life this past May. I moved from a lovely small village that runs along the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario to the bustling metropolis of Hamilton, Ontario situated on the west end of Lake Ontario. Hamilton has long been known as Steel town, with its tall smoke stacks that have flames shooting out of them. Many people would be trying to move from the big city to the small town but I turned 66 last year and the small town has little to offer for a single, workaholic, senior woman. So off I moved to Hamilton; it was my intent to move into the center of town to find a community of like minded people to join. I wanted to be within walking distance of theatre and galleries and shopping and parks, etc. But there was a major problem with my plan; to house the amount of yarn that I have for the store I needed at least 1,000 square feet just for the yarn. There were lots of really nice houses with that much space but they were 2 1/2 storey houses and it would mean storing the yarn on the 2nd and 3rd floor and using the basement as a shipping and winding, dying place. I don't know about you but I know that my knees would not take the pounding of going up and down those stairs many times a day and also just the thought of lugging heavy bags of yarn up attic stair (which tend to be straight up) had me more than a little concerned.
Two days ago I got a call from a supplier that said he was starting the process of going out of business by closing one location so if I wanted any of it I had better get there that day because it was going. So I did and I ended up bringing home over 600 pounds of wool which I have been lugging into the house and finding places for it a bag at a time. So much for my New Years resolution of downsizing my yarn. It wasn't even New Years and I broke it. Oh well I will start again today with the word for 2007 being downsize.
Oops, I am rambling, back to the house. I discovered that to get a one story house with a big basement I needed to go to the suburbs, so I ended up in lovely Stoney Creek. It is at the eastern end of Hamilton and use to be a village before the amalgamation of lots of small communities into the bigger city they surrounded. Stoney Creek abuts Hamilton with nothing to indicate that you left one area and entered the other but there is a distinctness about Stoney Creek that I really like. It is as if I have the best of both worlds, I am near one major highway and a couple minor ones to be able to travel into and out of the city. I also can get to downtown Hamilton in about 10 to 15 minutes. I feel surrounded by all that a big city offers and I am in a house with a double lot and a huge fenced yard for the dogs and cat to play in.

I was concerned about the cat as she had always been an outdoor cat but I lived near the end of a dead end street that was surrounded by field so she would go for walk with the dogs and I and I never worried about her outside because there was little in the way of traffic. But here I am about 200 feet away from a very, very busy highway and so I decided at 10 years of age she would have to learn to stay in. After a couple weeks I let her out in the yard when I was there and she just curled up in the sun. She has made no attempt to go over the fence but would walk out the gate given the opportunity. I watched her from the kitchen window the other morning when I put her outside. It was a crisp sunny day. The yarn is about 120 feet wide and she took off to one end of it at top speed did a somersault in the air and came back full tilt;, she did this about 3 times before she ran out of steam. She is happier than I have every seen her. She spends most of the day outside laying in the sun, sniffing out whatever it is that cats sniff ( I think there are other critters who go through the yard at night because the dogs do a full circuit each morning sniffing everything).

My intention to get involved in the community has not been so successful; but I will keep trying this year. I think I may sign up for Yoga classes as I have been so busy getting settled that I have not been taking care of me.Well I had better get back to lugging in some of that 600 pounds of wool that needs to come in out of the shed. Next time I will not be so wordy.
Rochelle Smith –Grand River Yarns