TWEAKING THE SOCK

I'm making a pair of socks for my friend, Marcy in AZ.  By our last week there the first sock of the pair was finished and I asked Marcy to come try it on.  The foot part fit very well, but I noticed the leg part was a little short and a little tight.  I "unknit" the sock to the ankle and reknit it with needles one size larger.  I also added four stitches to the round, in the purl section between the cables.

Yesterday I finished the sock again, this time with a picot edge rather than a ribbed cuff.  The picot edge didn't look right; it needed about five rows of stockinette before the picot row.  So I "unknit" that part.  Then thought to try the sock on.  It was really too big around the leg.  I doubt that Marcy's legs are any bigger around than mine, so the sock needed to be "unknit" right down to the increase row.


A cable pattern could be a little difficult to pick up from a ravelled section, so I found the row I wanted to "unknit" to and picked up all the stitches with the smallest size dpns that I have.  They're a U.S. size 0, a metric size 2.00 mm.

After that it was easy to go from there.  This is the third time through this section of this sock!

Another thing I realized from trying on the sock was that I wanted to knit one more repeat of the cable before finishing and binding off.  I'll post a picture when this pair is completed.

Those stripped socks that I was working on?  They were finished the day before we left, as they were a present for my sister.  I just didn't find time to take a picture of them.

A PRODUCTIVE DAY

Today was a holiday for most of U.S. and Canada.  In the U.S. it was President's Day, the current form of what we celebrated in February when I was growing up: Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday.  Though, as I remember it, we did not have a day off from school for either one, and I think it's now a Federal holiday, so most people, including teachers and students, have a day off.

When we lived in Salem, Oregon, we took the kids to a mountainous area one time on President's Day and went "tubing" down a slope.  It was fun, but was a little too warm that day, and we all got soaking wet from the melting snow.  We warmed up by going to the Organ Grinder Pizza place in Portland for supper.  That was a memorable day!

Here in Alberta it was "Family Day."  We didn't take the day off because we had already enjoyed a very relaxed Saturday and Sunday.  Plus, the weather was beautiful--a good opportunity to get some work done!

Today, as so often happens after a night of sleep cut short--my day started a 3 a.m.--I had an unusually productive day.  I don't know how that works, but it often turns out that way!  I spent some hours in the kitchen:

I finally got around to making a pot of "Best Cheesy Broccoli Soup"--a recipe that I've had for some time, don't even remember where it came from.  You can see we've lowered the level somewhat.  It was delicious!

After lunch I just had to take advantage of the fabulous weather: blue skies, strong sunshine and no wind combined to make it a perfect time to do a quick window wash.  This house is built into a berm, and the windows that would be too high to reach are very easily taken care of because there's a balcony surrounding that side of the second floor.  In the back, the second floor is ground level.  

If you look carefully at that photo you can just see the imprint at the top of the window of a bird's wing.  What you can't see, because of the sun shining through is that there is an imprint of the whole body and other wing beneath that.

Birds must be very dusty!  There were several imprints of bird impacts on the living room windows.  I'll have to ask S. if she found any dead birds on the balcony while we were away.  It's always such a pity when that happens!  I feel so sorry for the birds.  Quite often they can just careen off the window and be gone, but sometimes they lay stunned on the balcony for several minutes before shaking themselves off and leaving. Occasionally it's the end of that bird's life. 

SORRY, BIRDS!

A TERRIFIC GIFT

My friend S., who started quilting just 2 1/2 years ago, has defined her area of interest: she loves to appliqué, and she makes some amazing appliquéd quilts.  Her latest project is a birthday present for a grandson who will be two in March.

She simply used her own ideas for this project, very loosely based on pictures she's seen. I think any two year-old would be thrilled with this play-mat, let alone a two year-old who has "vroom-vroomed" since he could toddle around!

HOME-HOME AGAIN

This past week has been one of sorting, packing and cleaning.  We had a request to rent out our condo in AZ for the spring months, so that meant sorting out our personal effects for storage, packing all the odds and ends we wanted to take back to Alberta, and giving the condo a good cleaning in preparation for the renter moving in.  He was due to arrive yesterday.  So it was a busy week, but I was thankful to have more time than last year, when the arrangement to rent was made just two days before we left for "home-home," a useful term I learned this winter to distinguish between our home in Alberta and our home in AZ.

We left on Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. and got all the way to Provo, Utah by 6:30 that evening.  We were fortunate to get the last room in a Days Inn there, a very nice room, and quiet.  Unfortunately, I woke up by 12:30 because I was too cold and had to go turn on the heating unit.  After that I slept only in fits and starts, a bad night!

Saturday morning we drove through Salt Lake City in very moderate traffic.  We follow Interstate 15 all the way from Las Vegas to the Canadian border, and the unfortunate part is that we have to go right through Salt Lake City.  We try to do that early on a weekend morning, and that seems to work quite well.

We were very blessed with good roads, all the way until the last 20 miles of Idaho and the first 10 miles of Montana.  That's the first time (out of three) that I 15 crosses the continental divide, and that section was slush covered and then whiteout conditions with blowing snow.  The Dear One did a great job of careful driving and we came out into blue skies and sunshine for most of the drive through Montana, with the exception of another 10 or so miles north of Butte.

This was our view for a good portion of our drive.  In Utah the landscape was all snow-covered, but the roads were clear and dry.  This photo was taken in northern Montana, not too far from the border.

Saturday evening found us in Helena by 4:30 in the afternoon, ready to take a room in another Days Inn.  That's an excellent motel, just off the Interstate in Helena.  They advertise "an awesome breakfast" and fully lived up to that claim.  It was great.

There are some curvy, mountainous parts to the road north of Helena, but not for long.  North of Boulder, Montana, you've got good open spaces.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and blue skies.  We reached home-home by 3:30 p.m., grateful for a VERY good winter-time drive home.

Now to unpack and catch up on the piles of mail on the dining room table.  Need to go grocery shopping, too and stock up the pantry again.

A CANTATA

This afternoon our church choir gave a cantata about light and darkness that our conductor, Dave Lien, had put together from various sources.  It was dramatic and very successful.  A wonderful finish for me to this year's involvement in the music program at Lord of Life Lutheran.  It's been a big blessing to me to be part of that church.  I've been made to feel very welcome and have been able to use my (meagre) talents in the services, both in the choir and with violin playing.

We had our final rehearsal for the cantata yesterday, Saturday afternoon.  I was sorry to miss the chance for another swim in our community pool, but Jim took advantage of the sunshine and warm weather to sit in the sun at poolside and enjoy reading his library book.

Thanks to Barb Hunter for the picture!

SEWING LESSONS

My friend Marcy is learning to sew.  I'm helping her.  We started last year with a simple, cotton A-line shift.  She was very, very careful and it turned out well.  Then I had to go home to Alberta, so more lessons were postponed.

This fall we actually finished that first project.  She was game for another, and this time she chose to make a bag.  She had some very attractive fabric from Hawaii, but it was fairly thin.  We decided to line the bag with the same material.  There were a few problems with this project--but they were really my fault.  She just soldiered right on and finished it.  And dove into her next project.

Wish I had pictures of the earlier two projects, but here is her third sewing project, finished this past Saturday:

A very cute "swing" jacket.  Getting much more complicated, but STILL turning out well because she is so careful with all her seams and pressing.

She wrote me an email earlier this week saying "I've had three requests for my jacket today."  What a compliment to her achievement!

She has another pattern for another "swingy" wrap, but I'm out of time.  Either she can find someone else to help her decipher the directions, or it will be a project for next fall.  

Our time together is always so pleasant and productive, I hope she's willing to wait 'til I come back! 

WELL, I GUESS NOT...

After taking turns with the flu this week (2 bouts each) the Dear One and I took advantage of a nice sunny day to relax at poolside for a few hours this afternoon.  He took his book, I took my knitting and we found a two empty chairs.  The nice weather had drawn a large crowd--so different from even 5º to 8º cooler when just a few of us brave souls still go swimming.

The water volley ball gang was out in full force, having a great time.  Folks were chatting, just sunning, swimming, and even perhaps napping.  Then someone turned on a portable radio, and not at a low volume.

It's impossible for me to NOT listen to music--even though what I was hearing sounded to me (and I know this is a little snooty) like just so much noise.  After a while it was giving me a headache.

A friend of mine was sitting a ways away on the pool deck.  I thought, I'll go have a chat with her and see if she will come with me to find out who this "yahoo" is and politely suggest that we don't all want to be forced to listen to that "music."

I put down my knitting.  Jim looked up inquiringly and I said, I'm just going to take a little walk around.

When I approached my friend I realized, Oh no!  It's her husband who has the radio on loud enough for half the pool area to be a captive audience!  Well, I guess that plan can be dumped….

I walked past, chatted a bit with another friend, visited the water fountain and went back to my knitting.

Then something serendipitous happened.  Someone stopped by to visit with "radio man." The radio was turned off and they chatted until it was time for them to leave.

I was THANKFUL!