Welcome to Q6 2016

Well, we're in what feels like Q6 2016.  The disastrous year continues.  Crazy work continues.  Lack of crafting time continues.

Lots of stuff has happened, and not much has happened.

In the lots category, the Lad graduated with his BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts (because they don't do a major in printmaking) from NSCAD at the end of April.  Now he and Claire are off in Italy for the month of May.

I am so behind with my crafting that I'm not even sure what I've blogged and what I haven't. There has been some knitting of late, some yarn acquisition, and some general random stuff.

Once again, I'm going to go in photo order.  Prepare for randomness.

We moved our department to the other side of the building and up three floors in February.  We no longer have a view of the ocean. We have a view of some buildings and the roof and some transmissiony looking stuff.  But it's cool with the water droplets.

The down side of being on that side of the building is that it faces west, and it gets up to about 130 degrees in the afternoons.  It's bebominable.  As a middle-aged menopausal woman, that is not the epitome of fun.

Anyway, I mentioned way back in my last post (which was two months ago, so you are completely forgiven for having forgotten it) that I had ordered some yarn from Artistic Yarn by Abi.  It arrived, and I am pretty sure that I put pictures on Instagram, but I am going to repeat the glory right here because I can and because this is what I use to later update my Ravelry pages.

Not only did Abi send along the yarn, she sent along a bunch of cute little stitch markers as well.

The skeins I got are Dragonfruit, Cantaloupe, Not So Vanilla, and Rainbow Trout.  

Well, Typepad no longer keeps photographs in order, but whatever.  You get the idea.

I love these yarns.   I had forgotten how much I love yarn deliveries.

Here's a shot of Lilah and Bastian resting nicely on the ottoman together.

They're the picture of canine calmness.  He outweighs her by 20 pounds.  You'd never know that she savagely attacks him (primarily his legs).  She has literally had him hanging off my bed by his leg.  I almost couldn't get her jaws apart to release him.  This is not an uncommon occurrence and has resulted in all manner of punctures and wounds.  It's unbelievable.  She's like a pit bull.

That's why he and I landed at the Emergency Animal clinic yesterday.  She got him again.  This time it was so bad that the leg swelled up and he couldn't put any weight on it so he was hobbling around on three legs.

But more on that later.  We're going in photo order.

We had some freezing rain for a while.  This was the view out of my kitchen window to the backyard.

The stained glass fish is on the inside of the kitchen window.  

I finished the Vorticity socks. I must say, the String Theory Caper sock was lovely to work with.  And yes, I still seem to be on a blue kick.

They will be for Princess, I suspect.

Another thing I got myself (along with my Abi Grasso yarn) was some Artis brushes.  I got some of the regular ones for make-up and some of the Digit SC (which stands for skin care) for application of skin care products (moisturizer, serum etc.).  I love these brushes.

And now Quo has come out with a line of Artis knock-offs called Quo Professional.  There are 5 of them for $50.  They're not a bad dupe, but they're not as good as the originals.  (Ask me how I know).

The handles on the Digit brushes are much better and more sturdy than the regular Artis brushes. I think the Digit make-up brushes might be a nice option.  

And no, these are of course not available anywhere in Canada.  But I didn't get dinged for customs, and for that I am eternally grateful.

I was so excited by my Abi Grasso yarns, that I felt I had to immediately cast on a pair of the Dragonfruit socks.

Apparently I never took a picture with them on sock blockers or on Lola the Leg.  Must rectify that.  Anyway, they're done and I love them.

Annie Beth and I wandered over to the Teichart Gallery (formerly known as the Art Sales and Rental Gallery) one day at lunch to take a look at the new Zehava and Nicole Power art show.  I took some ph

otos of other works there before realizing there was a sign that said No Photos Allowed. Ooops.

There were some beautiful Paul Hannon works.

I love that second one.  If I could afford it, I would buy it. (Mind you, we're running out of wall space here at Casa Ross).  I think the top one is of some village in Italy somewhere.  Perhaps the Lad and Claire will see it.  

There were a ton of other lovely paintings.  Here are some landscapey ones.  I love the loose rhythm of the trees. 

Construction in Halifax is booming (pun intended).  There are cranes everywhere.  We stood at the window at work the other day and counted 8 or 9 cranes that we could see.

There is something being developed down on the waterfront. It's going to be an eyesore because of course it is going to be about 10 storeys or more, and is going to be COMPLETELY out of step with everything else down on the waterfront.  The waterfront buildings are generally only 1 or 2 storeys high (except the Law Courts which is a godawful monstrosity of a concrete building), so this new condo development is going to stick out like a sore thumb.  And they have started digging and whatnot.  It is blocking traffic on Lower Water Street and is playing havoc with the sidewalks.  I am so tired of the never ending construction.

I started a pair of socks for the Lad.  I have one done. I'm using some String Theory Wave in Chlorobium Tepidum. I really like the greens and the browns.  I used some other green for the heel flap. 

I used a 6x2 and 3x1 pattern for the leg and Eye of Partridge heel flap.  It fits and that's what counts.

I finished the first of the Hedgehog Fibres Sock Yarn socks in Monet and started the second.  That was a while ago.

 

I saw that Blue Moon Fiber Arts had brought in a new line of yarn called La Luna. It's an 85/15 blend of 19.5 micron merino and silk. I assume it's not superwash.  I am always on the hunt for perfect merino / silk sock yarn, so I grabbed two skeins.  I don't know why I ordered the rainbow one.  I think I was expecting it to be more speckley. 

The colours are Fuschia Rose and Rainbow Speckled Love. (Has anyone done a colourway named Back to the Fuschia?)

There are only 330 yards per skein, which is a bit of a bummer.  So they will have to be shorter socks than normal.

I've started the Rainbow Speckled Love skein.  I'm doing (gasp) toe-up socks on (gasp) magic loop.  I bought a SNA 2.25 mm middy point 32" needle.  So far I am liking it, but I still think that there is far too much time wasted with cord and needle management with magic loop.  DPNs are faster and more efficient.  

Oh, here's a slightly better photo of the Dragonfruit socks.  I apparently never got them on blockers or on Lola.  Oh well.

I saw a glorious magnolia bag on Prairie Bag Works on Etsy.  Can't remember if I was directed there by Instagram or not. Anyway, she didn't ship to Canada, so I PM'd her and asked whether she could do that.  Ask and ye shall receive. 

This is a beautiful drawstring bag. It's nice and big.  It's got a neat measuring tape thingy sewn inside, and there are rings and stitch markers.  The presentation was lovely and the bag itself is glorious.  If I were a sweater knitter, I could keep a sweater in there (or a blanket or whatever).  But since I'm a yarn collector, I am currently keeping skeins of yarn in it.  I love the fact that it's a drawstring and there are no zippers to fight with.

 

In addition to the stitch markers, Sue put in some gift tags as well, which is awfully sweet.  All in all, this is a big win.

There have been a ton of foggy days lately.  We often don't get to see Dartmouth on the other side of the harbour. (Not that it's a bad thing ...)

 

Hmm....I should really Instagram more.  Someone described it as "micro blogging" and I think that's accurate.

Here's poor little Sabastian at the vet yesterday.  

His tongue is approximately 43% of his body length.

This business of two iPhones gets the pictures all out of order.

Here are the finished Monet HF socks.

I did the second one completely on magic loop.  It got a big fiddly when I was doing the heel flap to gusset part, but it all worked out.  I'm still not 100% convinced about magic loop, but I do like the Signature needle.  The cord is nice and flexible.  The only thing I don't like is having to tug on the cord and then push the needle through.  I know not to pull the needle through, because that is a recipe for disaster and for having the cord break.

But here's my question:  if they can do middy points on the 2.25 mm ends for the circs, then WHY can't Signature Needle Arts do a set of DPNs with middy points? They've already got it set up.  

I would love a set of the DPNs in the middy point. I really like it.  

Anyway, the socks ...

Some of these seem to be duplicates.  Oh well.  Whatever.

We had more snow in April.

And now that Caitlyn is back in action, I ordered two skeins from her.  One was Impatiens, and the other is Orion Nebula.  They took longer than usual to get here. In fact, I forgot I had ordered them. Talk about yarnesia.

I think I will cast on the Impatiens soon. 

Bastian's leg is not broken.  It's punctured and there may be some soft tissue damage, but no bone damage.  The vet said to take him for x-rays if he's not able to bear weight on it by tomorrow.  But he's back to standing on it today, so I think he's in the clear. So it's antibiotics and MetaCam for him for another 5 days.  Sigh.  Dogs.

Okay, well, that's it for this time.  Now it's nap time. See you next month. Ha ha.

Comments

[Kristin/HLMauera]

I love the Rainbow Trout yarn! It's fantastic.I may have to get some but when I went to her website, there are a lot of fantastic colors...Whooo choices!

[Erica]

OMG those light poles in the pics of the fog. They are awesome!!!

I seriously love the look of speckled yarn when someone else knits it. I don't know why I don't love it when I'm knitting it. Bizarre, I know.

Glad to hear my boyfriend is on the mend. :)

[Leslie]

Love your dragonfruit socks.

[Anita]

Love the dragonfruit socks, actually all your new yarns.

[Christine]

Is there a reason I stayed away from your blog? I went to check out self striping yarn and I closed the window. Not shopping for sock yarn when I’m not knitting socks. Then, I checked out Prairie Bag Works. Whew, they didn’t have any fabric I must have. Closed window. And the first painting is of Manarola in Cinque Terre in Italy. I stayed at one of the houses on the cliff. It is a pink house with green shutters but the painted combined a few homes together. One of my fav places I’ve travelled to.