Tag Archives: snow

Home!

Standard

It was a snowy night and when we drove home this morning the first 15 minutes involved some pretty deep snow on the road.

Once we got to the highway, it was just wet so it was a straightforward drive, going through rain by the lake and then finding ourselves back above the snowline at home.

It’s falling now and looks like it’s set in for the day.

One of the first things I did when I got back was line my beanie. Crochet lets the wind through a bit too much when it’s below freezing so I found a remnant of turquoise fleece, measured my hat, and ran up a quick liner.

I measured the circumference at the brim, with the hat lying flat on the table. It was 23 inches. I also measured the depth from brim to centre top which was about 7.5 inches. So I cut a strip of fleece (with the stretch going the long way) that was 23 x 8. I wanted the finished circumference of the lining to be a bit smaller than the hat, and once I’d sewn the two short ends together with a half-inch seam allowance it was just right. Once the seam was sewn, I laid the tube on the table with the seam at one side and eyeballed a curved corner at the top right. I folded it in half so I could cut the opposite corner the same. And then I opened it up and refolded it so the uncut corners were at right and left and cut them the same way. Then I sewed two sections together along the curve, followed by the opposite two sections, and finally the seam that went across the top of the head.

It worked perfectly and all I had to do after that was turn a small hem and handstitch it in along the brim.

My Elevation cardigan by Make and Do Crew is coming along. I’ve finished the first 200 gram skein of brown and now I’m onto the cinnamon.

And I have opened today’s Advent yarn…

The colours are so pretty together.

Snow, sew, and stash

Standard

Winter has arrived!

We’ve had a fair amount of snow in the last few days and as usual it feels like it took everyone by surprise. The roads are icy and not everyone has their winter tires on yet!

I just had a couple of days off and made sure that one of those days was a Sewing Day which I totally embraced by wearing my Hello Kitty fleece onesie ALL DAY!

I sewed three zipper pouches and three drawstring bags (they don’t have strings yet) out of some really cool nylon or polyester fabric that my son brought home from work one day, ages ago. The fabric panels used to hang in a computer store and have some great colours in them.

I also made this Reader’s Wrap from a ribbed velour. It has two pockets and since taking this photo I have added a label embroidered using text on my sewing machine. It’s for my mum who is having a bit of a health crisis right now.

And the stash has been enhanced with the addition of some Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn in autumnal colours. A friend just had a holiday south of the border and she asked me if there was anything I’d like from Hobby Lobby or Joann’s and I suggested this yarn. I’ve heard it mentioned a lot online. It feels pretty nice and I can make something 70s inspired or some fall decor maybe.

My Wool Warehouse order is on its way which is very exciting. When it arrives I’ll be able to put together this year’s Advent collection for myself.

Falling into winter

Standard
Falling into winter

What a difference a day makes! Top photo, the large walnut was still glowing yellow. Today, with a dip in the temperature below freezing, the leaves went Whoomp! Yes, that is a technical term.

I had a good long walk around the neighbourhood yesterday and couldn’t resist whipping out my phone for some photos.

Loving the fall colours.

Tonight Mr Fixit and I went to the gym for a class. There were a few snowflakes blowing around when we arrived but by the time we came out it was a blizzard. It’ll be interesting to see if it sticks overnight.

I am pleased that I remembered to make my Christmas mincemeat already. This lovely mixture of dried fruit and spices is an annual essential for me and the recipe I use calls for you to make it 6 weeks ahead.

So that’s what I did!

Now that I have a good supply of dried fruit in the pantry, I wonder if it’s too early to make a fruit cake 🤔

Happy New Year

Standard

Hello 2022. My brain is having a hard time catching up to the fact that it’s two years since we first heard about The Disease That Shall Not Be Named. It wasn’t last year that my workplace was shut down for 7 weeks, it was two years ago. I feel like 2020 and 2021 have just blended into one long year. A VERY long year!

Anyway let’s focus on the here and now.

Shall we talk about the fact that our winter has been bitterly cold in recent weeks? I think the lowest was -30°C but mostly it was around -17 for quite some time. When it warmed up to -5 the last couple of days it was quite pleasant!

We’ve had lots of snow that’s not had a chance to melt between falls so the roads have been icy and the piles along the sides of the roads and driveways have just got higher.

Mr Fixit is back at work after his week off. Oldest son has had a month off due to his workplace accident but should be back at work tomorrow. Youngest had two weeks off and returned yesterday.

I just had a bonus 4 day stretch – my first New Year’s Day off in 7 years!

Last night three friends came over to knit and drink tea and generally be loud and funny.

The ‘Fuck the Cold’ hat is coming along (pattern is a free download on Ravelry). I cast on on the 1st and I’m halfway through the trees/moose section. Some of my friends are also making this – we are having a knitted colourwork makealong.

And my stashbusting worsted weight granny blanket has grown to 23 inches across in just a few days. My colour order is black/colour/grey/colour. I’m expecting to use up all my random medium weight yarn and hopefully end up with a king size blanket.

As I sit here on the couch writing this before heading down to my sewing room I see snow falling again, the neighbour clearing his drive again, and I’m glad I don’t have to go anywhere today.

Be careful out there!

Blogmas Day 16

Standard

I woke early this morning, around 6.30, and it was still dark. I went to the kitchen, made a cup of tea, fetched a large glass of lemon water, my laptop, phone and library book, and crawled back under the duvet.

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours checking my emails, Ravelry and the other usual things, and when I decided to open the curtains I realised it was snowing.

Horizontal blowing snow.

Poor Mr Fixit had to go out of town today so I’m sure he just loved the driving conditions! At least it brightened up in the afternoon and I only had to clear about an inch off the driveway before he came home and compressed it with his tires.

This is the pattern I bought yesterday. It’s a good basic vest that I can use to make lots of versions in various fabrics.

This is View D. Medium length, size large. I left off the optional tie. The fabric is a quilting cotton with a wintry theme to wear around Christmas. I’m thinking of making a fluffy chenille one next.

Bright orange yarn and two beads today.

Dinner is in the oven and things are quiet. One son is home but in his room, the other two sons went out together for Christmas shopping and Mr Fixit has a class at the gym. Mrs Lazy, aka me, I’m sitting on the couch and appreciating my day!

Blogmas Day 4

Standard

We woke up to snow this morning. That was a surprise for me as I rarely look at the forecast.

It snowed most of the day. I was at work today and it wasn’t crazy busy so maybe the snow put some people off the drive.

Today’s Advent yarn is a soft pink. Not as bright as the photo makes it look. Plus another seahorse bead and a round blue one.

Mr Fixit and ds3 just went out and bought a Christmas tree which will sit downstairs overnight to acclimatise to the indoors. Then tomorrow it can be set up and decorated. I may not have a hand in that because I’ll be at work until 5 or so then I’ll go straight to the restaurant where we are having our staff party.

We didn’t have one last year because of the plague (!) so this will be my first meal out since early 2020. I need to wrap my Secret Santa gift tonight.

Talk to you again tomorrow.

Snow!

Standard

The morning after out big storm, we woke up to a light dusting of snow. And today, a couple of days later, I was at work and there was light snow falling most of the day, enough that I had to brush it off my windows before driving home tonight.

The temperature is hovering around freezing but it’s supposed to reach 4°C tomorrow so I doubt the snow will be around for long. Thanks to Mr Fixit my winter tires have been on my car for a few weeks already.

The alien worm is shrinking. I reached the end of the lavender section tonight. So far, I have 16″ knitted.

I am finding this O’go yarn very pleasant to work with. It’s soft, not splitty, and I’m pleased to say that the transition from one colour to the next is done with dye, not a knot.

This is perfect Netflix knitting. Every row is the same!

Window on the Weather – Day 10

Standard

I caught the light just right yesterday, about 4.20pm on Wednesday, as it was getting dark. I had switched on the fairy lights around the deck and there was a golden glow coming from the houses across the way.

This morning, yes, more snow!

(The walnut tree dwarfing the apricot tree on the left, and our massive maple in the front yard on the right.)

It took quite an effort to clear the driveway yesterday but it felt good to have the exercise, and I went to the gym for a half hour on the elliptical too.

Writing this in the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, the sun is shining and everything is looking very sparkly and pretty. I went and had a look in a couple of shops, as my favourite jeans wore out on Monday – suddenly, there were holes when the previous day there hadn’t been any – and I found some nice-fitting Levis at Mark’s. Of course I couldn’t just buy jeans, and I ended up with T shirts and sweaters too! But the last time I bought new clothes was back in May and I do need to look reasonably well turned out for work, even though we can wear jeans. It’s not like I’ve been spending much money on anything else in 2020!

The plan for dinner is a lentil chestnut loaf, potatoes oreganata (sliced, layered and baked with oregano and olive oil), broccoli, and salad, followed by mince pies, but fancier ones with phyllo/filo pastry. I bought a pack the other day so that I can recreate something I made years ago. It won’t be a late night as I’m working tomorrow, and anyway I can’t keep my eyes open past 11pm these days.

I wish you all a Happy New Year. Let’s wish for covid to be crushed, masks to be tossed in the bin, and a time when we can again meet up in cafes and tea shops and chat for hours with our friends, preferably with a yarny project in hand.

Happy December!

Standard

Do you love this time of year? So many people grumble about the cold and the snow, but my attitude is that the weather is not something you can change so you might as well enjoy it. Or at least accept it with grace! (Or move south, I guess!)

Yesterday was Sunday December 1st and we had our first proper snowfall. It wasn’t very deep but it was enough to make the roads a little slippery and turn everything into a prettier version of itself.

IMG_20191202_073250

Cold weather makes you count your blessings – we have a warm house, cosy beds, plenty of food, appropriate clothing. The temperatures dropped well below freezing in the last week and I know there are people in my town who are sleeping outside.

The drawstring bag I showed you a couple of posts ago was part of my Secret Santa gift for last night’s work’s Christmas Party. I also made a couple of coordinating gnomes (the two in the centre of this photo).

IMG_20191125_151359 (1)

I’m happy to report the bag and gnomes were much appreciated and were “stolen” twice in our Secret Santa game. The bag ended up with a knitter for her projects and the gnomes ended up with another person for her grandkids. It’s nice when people make a little effort for these things because there’s always someone who you feel sorry for because they ended up with a crappy thing!

IMG_20191202_082710

Another of my favourite things this season is that my Christmas cacti, of which I have about six, are flowering beautifully. I have found that if I put them outside on my covered deck in the summer, where they get a reasonable amount of light and fresh air, and then bring them in when the nights start to get cold, they flourish.

I had my sewing machine serviced this week and also invested in a new walking foot. The old one was about 20 years old and was loosening so much when I sewed that I kept breaking a needle when it hit the foot that had shifted below it. It is sewing like a dream again and I finished this little bag yesterday.

It’s small because I was limited by the length of the zipper. It’s called a Continuous Zipper Pouch and the tutorial is here. It’s a nifty way of using one side of the zipper (if you want, the other half can be used for a wrist strap) but obviously you need a zipper that’s twice the width of your intended bag and I only had short ones.

I love watching bag tutorials. WhitneySews is a channel that’s new to me (she has been making tutorials for ten years, so I don’t know how I missed her before) and she has lots of useful videos.

I also experimented with this Scandinavian fabric star. It’s a photo tutorial and after the first step, when you flip the piece over, it took me a minute to figure out what I was supposed to do, but I did, and it worked, and I managed to finish a reasonably neat star.

IMG_20191202_082500

I won’t post a photo of my Advent Meditation CAL ornament yet as I don’t want to spoil the surprise for others who haven’t got around to making it yet.

I think that’s enough of my warbling for now. I hope you are having a great day. Talk to you again soon.

Activities and acquisitions

Standard
Activities and acquisitions

Hi all. Another Sunday has rolled around and I’m glad to say I didn’t have a shift today. It’s been a beautiful sunny day and Tai Chi Man and I were able to walk along the city waterfront with just sweaters, no coats required. My car’s thermometer read 12 degrees Celsius in the sunshine.

We followed up our walk with a long sit at our favourite tea shop. I brought crochet with me, of course, and before leaving home I picked out a pretty ball of Loops & Threads Facets in Light Azore to take with me. My plan worked out. While drinking two delicious Cowboy Fogs (tea lattes) I made a cowl and was able to give it to the owner of the tea shop before we left. She loved it and put it on immediately.

img_20190127_134347

It was just simple double crochet in the round, using a 9mm hook, with a row of shells along the edge before fastening off. The sewn bag in the photo is one I made last year. It’s designed to hold a ball of yarn and you thread the yarn through the hole in the top flap. It worked well! The only downside to something like this is that there are no extra pockets for hooks and things, or anywhere to put a project-in-progress. However the hanging loop was handy for attaching it to my handbag with a carabiner.

There was much excitement this week when my Wool Warehouse order arrived. Here it is!

img_7910

A box of gorgeousness! Scheepjes Stonewashed and Riverwashed XL (aran weight), 15 gram balls in all 50 shades. No specific plans for this yet. And…

img_7909

Five 50 gram balls of the Stonewashed in Moon Stone as a neutral, should I decide to use it with the colours in the box. It rounded my order nicely up to 1000 grams of yarn. And the bonus was, it only took 15 days to arrive.

My friend went to Vancouver Island last week and we met up for a cup of tea afterwards. She bought me this lovely stuff.

img_7917

Universal Yarn Bamboo Pop in the colour Ocean. She knows me so well! Fifty percent bamboo, 50% cotton, so it fits in with my 2019 goal of more natural plant fibres.

My heel is no better, though wearing the shoes all the time means it (mostly) doesn’t hurt. However last night we went to a friend’s house for a potluck and our hands were full with food going in, so I left my gym shoes with the special insoles in the car. By the time I had been sitting at the dining table for a while and got up to walk back to the kitchen, the pain was back and I was limping.

I did 45 minutes on the elliptical at the gym yesterday morning, while Tai Chi Man did weights, and today we are going back for more weights. I am alternating weights/cardio as I have four days off and if I am good and go every day then I need to mix things up.

My weight loss program, started about nine days ago, involves pretty much eating half of what I usually do. It worked well the first week with a 4lb loss. Last night’s potluck meant a lot of calories going on so I’m being extra careful today and eating just fruit and vegetables.

Finally, we had a big dump of wet snow this week, which looked lovely but left our road axle deep in snow. We are third level (out of three) priority for the graders, but as long as we clear our driveway we only have about 100 metres to drive to get to the clearer road.

I am grateful that Tai Chi Man did the clearing because my right wrist would have complained bitterly at shifting all that wet snow.

It’s almost time to get changed for the gym so I’ll say Auf Wiedersehen for now. Talk to you again soon.