What to knit, oh, what to knit?

January floundering going on.

Now that all the Xmas knitting is complete and has been gifted I've not got any bright ideas of what to start next. Clearly August startitis doesn't carry over to January, where it would make so much more sense.

I could of course dig into the unfinished objects (UFO) pile and will likely get there eventually.  When I couldn't make up my mind this week what sweater I wanted to knit next I threw up my hands and dumped the inspirational knitting books back into a pile and started another pair of socks. Second pair of the year already.

There were so many sparkling ideas in late August and I should have written of them because now I can't remember what I was so excited about. I had to push ideas out of the way to make room for Xmas knitting so now they've completely decamped. Damn.

Before I know it there will be paid work to do and my wee window of knitting time will close to leave only the smallest amount of time to work on fibre projects.  Need those nifty sweater ideas back, pronto.

This calls for some hardcore Ravelry pattern search time. Wish me luck, I could be lost there for days....

A knitting she does go & go & go....

Shawl progress continues. As I get frustrated with one shawl or have to do endless frogging, I put that aside and pick up one of the others. Had to tink back several rows of the cashmere Feather & Fan that I'm working on when I missed a center stitch yarn over and threw the whole row into a muddle. Got that sorted and back on track to the tune of Disc 2 of To the Manor Born.

Next up last evening was the B'water shawl where I am in sight of the middle of the large garter stitch square I'm knitting. Had enough stitches to make a count. That I can knit to episodes of The Closer. The pattern requires I knit 215 garter stitches by increasing one stitch each row; then decreasing back down to one stitch. This requires fortitude and television.

The Traveling Woman shawl is at the lace pattern stage and needs attention this evening I think. And I'd like to put in a couple of hours on the current sweater project, perhaps even finishing the front bands on the otherwise completed sweater.  It is cool enough some mornings and later evenings that a light sweater would be a treat.

Meanwhile I've promised to sew up several wee barista aprons for Ms C while she cuts and pieces a felted bag under my direction. Should be a fun afternoon in the upstairs studio, aka guest room.

Now, if I don't want my name to be mud or worse, I need to get the ice cream freezer bucket into the freezer to make the girl some strawberry gelato this afternoon.

Onward.....

Wandering back...

A year has passed since I last wandered over to this blog and updated my fiber work. A busy year to be sure. And since it is August again I've got another bad case of 'startitis' going. It is actually a late summer ritual I thoroughly enjoy.

In the list this season are the following: three pairs of socks, three new shawls: Bridgewater by Jared Flood, The Elizabeth Zimmerman anniversary Pi called Hearts, and a honking big triangle in a mohair blend. The latter is the furthest along but it is currently too big to work on in August heat. Much easier to work on the center panel in B'water which, while lovely, is endless. Working that shawl in Misti Alpaca lace on 3.75mm needles, definitely endless garter stitch here. What makes this do-able and a pleasure is having a set of Signature needles to work it on. Bliss is possibly the better word here.

I have a strange passion for working circular shawls, but of the several I've done the only one I've kept is the Girasole. I did make an EZ Pi Shawl in handspun but I'm not liking it so much now and will rip that out to re-use the yarn for socks--as soon as I have another Pi to replace it with.

In the sweater department we have Peasy, only needs front bands and to re-do the cuffs where somehow I skipped a row of garter and the cuffs look weird. Current big project is Glenna C's Basic Black which I'm knitting in a dark navy cashmere/merino blend from Colourmart in the UK. Beautiful fiber making a gorgeous fabric--love working on this. Another heavier sweater is in time out until the evenings are a bit cooler and that only needs front bands and pockets to finish it.

Completed earlier this summer: Two versions of Wendy Johnson's Seaside Shawlette for gifts.

The best part of being under-employed in the earning way is I have loads of time to knit, and clearly I'm making damn good use of it. Taking EZ's advice to knit through crisis--actually makes the crisis disappear from the front of my mind at least while I focus on patterns and stitches. Better than therapy in my opinion.

Next task is to take some photos of works in progress and finished to show you what I've been up to.

Plan not to let this blog languish quite so much, easier to do when I don't have to go out to a day job. Have a writing job of course, but today this passes as my warm up exercise.

More anon....

August means--startitis!

Had a serious startitis attack yesterday. Began a sweater and then a pair of socks on 1.5mm needles. Why? Because I finished two large circular shawls in the last few weeks and I'm not finding anything in the WIP pile that gets me excited. I'll get back to all you languishing projects, truly. But I need inspiration.

And how could I not find inspiration in Ann Hanson's Highlander? I have a merino and cashmere yarn to knit it in and found even the set up for the thing vastly entertaining.

The backdrop to the project was the movie My Dinner with Andre. Such a rant, so long, with the occasional interesting idea/notion tossed in to keep me from turning off the thing. Can't say I didn't like it (enjoyed wouldn't be the right word here) but can't say I did like it either. Mostly I'm puzzled about why anyone would bother, doing this as a rant and not a movie, exploring the ideas. Very odd experience listening to this rant, there was nothing to 'watch' which made it good for starting a knitting project.

The other project I started yesterday is a sock in a fine alpaca yarn, probably the needles are too fine, but I wanted to try them, so here we go.

Now off to the doc's to get blood work checked out and see if my blood pressure is behaving itself.
Likely not, I'm on my second cup of decaf this morning and that can't be good.

Where I've been

It has been a bit of time, months! since I've posted here. That's because I've started two new blogs on Wordpress: Memoir Creator and Elder Life Design. I've also been working on my website, which is due to launch in the next few weeks: Memoir Creator

The Memoir Creator link has a coming soon page for the moment, check back in mid-August for the real thing.

Lots of fun and a great deal of work as I build an on-line presence as a preliminary to an on-line coaching business.

Join me on the journey if that interests you.

Knitter credentials

I read many, perhaps too many, knitting blogs. There's one thing I'm now certain of. To be a real knitter (RK) you need at least one cat. While I love the feline as an idea, my asthma and a friend's deadly allergy, prevent me from enjoying the live in company of my own cat. I need a virtual cat, and have yet to find one that I find satisfactory.

What to do about my lack of official credentials as an RK? I've knit enough I do believe that I should qualify, even without a resident moggie. Do the cats in my yard count? I have several regular visitors who are very enamored of the space beneath my garage, which I suspect is overflowing with good moggie prey. Said moggies are less amusing when the spray my woodpile however. Just saying.

So what I wonder might be an acceptable alternative to having my own cat?

Suggestions?

I'm concerned, I do want to be considered a RK, especially as I spend many hours each and every evening, knitting my wee fingers to nubbins. Another lace shawl Girasole nearly finished, which will bring me to five shawls so far this year. The Girasole is knit in a fine mohair and is truly luscious as well as great fun to knit. Just finishing up the knitted border, probably at least two more evenings of this until I'm done.

The weather (summer?) has been lovely and cool (I know that I'm weird in this!) so knitting a mohair shawl has been a perfect enterprise these last couple of months. As the weather is apparently changing to warmer, I'll move on to something a little less cozy once this piece is finished.

There are, after all, another five or six shawls in the queue....

Back from Gatorland

Well I did it, managed to get myself organized, packed, out of here and home again without any major crisis, financial or otherwise.  I'm so very pleased because I had serious doubts I could manage this without a melt down. It's been a decade since I've travelled anywhere by plane and I've never been to the US except once for 20 minutes to visit a health food store just across the border back in the era where you were just waved through and back. And then the wave and smile were even reasonably friendly.

Now Gatorland, aka Florida where I did see a gator though it wasn't as easy a quest as one might think, is not my personal go to place for anything except my family: G, E and baby C. Yes it was warm, how could that much concrete not be warm? That is, miles of roads, malls and suburbs. I wouldn't want to be poor in that sort of environment or without a car. Can't actually see what all the fuss is about, when people go all gooshy about Florida, except of course in the middle of a nasty Canadian winter.  But did I enjoy myself? Oh yes, it was a very interesting experience of another culture and made me more aware of just what the difference between Canadian and American culture is.  

What made the whole thing amazing though was the time spent with my grandson,
son and daughter-in-law. How very very fortunate I am in my family and the love we share. I miss them all more than I can say and I wish we lived much much closer to each other. Maybe that will happen and maybe it won't, but I won't let another ten years pass without finding a way to spend time with them again, because hey, now I have a passport!

Hurray, it's March!

March seems a lot more hopeful than January or February, if for no other reason than it is the down side of winter and today, there were definite indicators that spring will get here eventually. It was 10C in Nova Scotia today, sunny and breezy too. That's enough to get me outdoors, ever hopeful that a walk is possible but since I dressed for the weather and not for March, I found my attempt at a beach walk was rather short, because the wind off the water, go figure, is cold. It was grand to be there though, however short the exercise portion of the expedition. Nice 'rollers' and good brisk sea-ish air completed the pleasures of the jaunt.

Working on my Pippa sweater and really enjoying the knitting of it even as I twitch about whether it will in fact fit me when it is done. Made a decision in my twitchiness to go up a needle size, so maybe I can settle down and just knit the thing. I'm knitting it in one piece until the armholes, though the pattern is written for separate pieces. Rather than doing all the shaping and fudging to get it to go together as it ought from three pieces, left, right and back, if I do it in one piece everything works out so much better and there's very little sewing at the end.

Only have the collar of the Rhinebeck sweater and the darning in of ends to finish. I'm really pleased with it. Will make it again with hand spun some time but there are so many other sweaters in Lisa Lloyd's book, A Fine Fleece that I want to try, it might be a while.

Have a cahjillion things I need to do before I go visit my son and his baby son and I'm about dizzy with the thought of it all. I have lists of lists. The real fun of course is juggling money and covering all the stuff that needs covering without enough money to do that and no income during the weeks I'm away from home. How nice is that? Trying hard not to think of that, but it isn't working and I'm wearing out my calculator trying to make things add up differently. We're at that definition of insanity where you try the same thing over and over and still expect a different outcome. Is that insane or faint hope? Or am I priming the pump until some creative fix arrives or I simply recognize that no, I can't pay that damn bill until some time in the future when income arrives. Reality sucks.

But hey, I can knit and spin for months yet and not be through all my projects or stash, which, you'll be happy to hear, means I won't actually go round the bend. Or not so much that anybody will notice or take alarm.

Six weeks into winter and counting...

There have been a few, a very few, bright sunny and above zero celcius days. I welcome such days. For some reason this winter seems unduly long and relentlessly cold. Perhaps I'm simply noticing it more because I'm home this year so have more time to notice many things. I'm not a fan of winter, mostly because I can't see what you can do outdoors in a world of ice and snow. I'm not the outdoors type so don't do winter activities such as snow-shoeing or skiing. Any walking that I consider is put on hold until I can take a simple walk to the corner post-box without falling and breaking something. Apparently it will be a while before that's possible.

Meanwhile indoor activities of the knitting and spinning sort continue to flourish. I'm making progress on a sweater that only needs the second sleeve and the button band/collar; have a new sweater begun, have a Shetland style shawl underway and the usual collection of socks. On the spinning wheel we are making good progress with the lace weight qiviut which needs to be done before I go on my 'winter' vacation later in March, so I can knit it up before the end of May.

More needs to be done in the work project department but as there is more light every day outdoors and faint hints of spring eventually, so too will my project revive and unfold. Everything in due course.

Ringing in the new...

Oh, that ringing isn't still happening is it? I mean it is now the 9th of new and the ringing should have stopped by now. Or you had some party.

I have yet to get the butt in gear to get real work done, but I'm making the approach. Or so I tell myself in response to the query: self, you working yet? So, okay, as far as approach--wow, that's taking tremendous effort.

It is cold which of course slows me down some too, but really, truthfully(!) everything slows me down and I have to get over myself and get at it. The 'it' in question being working on project tasks and preparing for website, workshops, and book completion. Sigh. You can see why I curl up in a ball next to the wood stove and wait for spring or inspiration, whichever comes first.

Caffeine does help, even though I have to adulterate my cuppa with the decaf variety to ensure I actually sleep at night. 

Ah, then there's the birthday on Sunday. Somehow that always requires a significant amount of self-reflection and noodling in notebooks and I'm at least making a bit of progress there. Perhaps though, because I've been doing that for so many, many years, even that particular pleasure pales a bit eventually. I've got a couple of days to go however so I may yet come up to standard on this.

In other news the root ball of the uprooted pine tree that blew over in a storm mid December is slowly making its way back into the pit created by the uprooting. A friend came by with a chain saw a couple of days ago and cut the tree from the root ball so the thing could fall back into place. A pit that size in one's yard is dangerous to small animals of the two and four legged variety.

This brisk January day requires that I make a thick black bean soup and I can hardly wait to enjoy that deliciousness. Of course I will need biscuits to go with it for the perfect lunch. Off we go to putter in the kitchen then...

December in the Maritimes

One of my big reasons for moving to this part of Canada is that the bitterest cold usually doesn't arrive until January and then only lasts for a few weeks. The down side, there's always a down side to winter in Canada, is that in exchange we have days like today--freezing rain is forecast to last for many hours with potential for dramatic icing of power lines and tree limbs with the additional happy thought of all roads as curling rinks. And then tomorrow, it'll be +12C, with of course, more rain. I can never quite decide what clothing or foot gear will work for the entire day. 

For you prairie readers, I admit to enjoying the rain. I know that's hard to understand in the land of 'dry cold' but trust me, the dry cold thing is a myth, -35C with a hefty wind chill factor is simply unbearable. Oh, and I wear my parka a couple of times a winter.

In other news, the web site and project work for my new venture are both beginning to take shape. I'm very excited about the direction my life and work are taking. It's under wraps yet, but expect an announcement and launch some time in early 2009--once I sort out all my funding issues.

The Xmas knitting list is slowly acquiring check marks for finished projects/objects. Yay! Now if I could just figure out how to set up for regular photos of WIP and FO's I'd no doubt be able to create a much more interesting blog experience for you all. It's on the list, with a gazillion other things, but closer to the top than otherwise.

Time to get the wood stove going, which requires that I dump the ashes first, something I ought to do before I have to skate to the ash bin (see freezing rain, above). Then it is lunch, some soup from a rich chicken stock, decision on what exactly still pending and from there we'll go to Xmas knitting for the afternoon along with note taking for project tasks for the new venture.

Ciao.

Beef and a sturdy red wine

For close to 30 years I have cooked under the tutelage of books by Marcella Hazan. If, as she urges, you do exactly as she directs, you are assured of excellent results. I don't always have access to the wines she wants in her recipes--like I can afford to cook with a Barbera or Barolo? I can't even afford to drink it. While she would not approve, I'm certain, I substitute much lower end South American wines and occasionally an Australian. These wines, in the price range I can afford, often don't have the depth and richness of their Italian cousins, but they're pretty damn good even so.

Today I'm in quest of a good beef stew and Marcella's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking has the simplest and tastiest of anything I've made. Mine will be made with (gasp!) the heel of an Australian wine, but with the best beef I can buy at the butcher's (never the supermarket). It will be a stove top stew, as I still don't have a working oven. 

I do have a recurring but as yet unfulfilled dream of getting under the stove, via the drawer at the bottom, and seeing if I can remove the element prior to replacing it with a new one. It is one of those jobs that require contortions that make my 61 year old bones rebel at the very thought, never mind the reality. But I rebel even more at the idea of forking out a hundred and fifty bucks to find out that this still won't get the oven working. In truth I need a new stove. This very pricey unit, a mere 7 years old, now has a wipe off surface finish--a soft cloth removes the enamel (enamel I always believe adhered to metal, but now I learn what powder coat really means--that wipes off). 

A stove/oven rant could easily take up the rest of the day. I've been baking and cooking in a 'toaster' oven for 18 plus months. And yes, that's too much fun.

So, back to the beef stew in red wine and happier thoughts....all I need is 2 lbs of flank steak stew meat, a 'sturdy' red wine, onions, carrots, celery, peas and olive oil. Yum.

A white white world

First snow storm of the season arrived overnight and what a dump it was. Nothing is moving on the street, don't even think the plows have been through yet, or if they have it hasn't made a significant difference to the state of the road. I won't be getting out of the driveway any time soon either. There's a foot of snow blown up against the kitchen door which I opened (and got a face full of blowing snow) in an effort to see if I could make it to the ash can to dump a load of warm ashes from the wood stove. Nope, there needs to be shovelling to get to the ash can. Snow shovelling will ensue later in the day because I'll need to dump those ashes if I want to keep a fire going over the next few days. 

While it is very white, windy and surprisingly cold this morning I'm toasty beside the wood stove and won't be moving very far from it for the next five months or so. 

Ah, I hear a snow plow; there he is filling up the driveways as he passes and clears the street. How nice is that? Once I had a look, I'm not sure 'nice' even in a snarky way, quite covers the four foot high bank the plow deposited at the bottom of my driveway.

I can't actually shovel to any degree anymore, maybe make a little path to the ash can or remove an inch of snow from the back porch so I don't track it in when I fetch firewood. I'm hoping Doug my neighbour is still willing to do the big stuff, haven't talked to him in a while so I don't know if he's up for that this winter. Last winter he wasn't working but I think he's now back at work.

And there's no hope today of the lovely dinner I was invited to and so looking forward to at Trattoria della Nonna in Lunenburg. The weather's too icky and the roads will be a miserable slidey mess. Sadly it ain't worth the risk or aggravation. And neither Lisa or I have winter tires.

Meanwhile I'm knitting away on the arm warmers and little fingerless mitts that are really cute in left over Noro from the felted bag project of last summer. You know, my trombone bag. It has a role in my world as a stash bag, but would easily be useful as a trombone cosy. The proportions are all out of whack. Colour's nice though... Maybe I should make a hat from the Noro too?

Fibery decor

Today I propose to own up to the fact that all things fibre is my decorating standard. The sofa is completely overwhelmed with projects, there are baskets of yarn everywhere in my sitting room (the room with the wood stove). Slightly further afield, in the living room the spinning wheels, a drum carder, swift, ball winder, skein winder and rocking chair jostle for position with baskets of fleece or prepared fibre and more baskets of yarn. 

There's no way this decor could be considered tidy in my current application of it. I do live in hope of organizing the stash(es) one of these days, or perhaps simply creating space to move in each room. Every available surface in the living room holds fibre in some form: batts, roving, skeins, balls and bobbins. I'm a busy, and clearly very disorganized little worker bee. Oh, and do spider web swags count as fibery decor? And no, there will NOT be pictures!  

The kitchen is not immune from this decor style either. There's a bag of fresh fleece (fresh from the sheep!) by the door and a bucket of draining washed fleece by the sink. Gotta keep the supply coming, eh what?

Now if only I could figure out how to spin or knit in my sleep.

There's currently almost a sense of urgency to my efforts with fibre. I feel I've lost so much time. Time I've spent doing other things like making a living, and then not working on fibre projects. Then again, cruising to 62 and being a Capricorn messes with my sense of time anyway. Could be we need a bit of balance. And how bloody likely is that??? 

'Tis the season...

For 'startitis'. Oh but I have it baaaadddd! What else is a person to do with a lot of time attached to the sofa enduring a virus that simply will not let go? Come up with too many exciting projects, that's what. 

So far we have another version of the Eye of Partridge Shawl because the one I made last summer, and thought very little of at the time, has proven to be such a treasure in the wearing that I want/need to make another in a fun colour: purples, blues & lavenders. There's the Orkney Pi from a previous post.  There are three new pairs of socks, one pair completed. The arm warmers are making good progress, as is the Rhinebeck Sweater. A sweet little neck warmer in merino cashmere was done early in the week. The top down roll neck sweater in cochineal dyed merino has the neck portion done and miscellaneous other still orphaned socks get picked up and put down as I madly try to do a little of everything. It helps me feel that I just might live through this stupid endless virus. 

And just in case you are shaking your head at my knitting folly, please note that the Farmer's Almanac is calling for a 'numbingly cold' winter. I'm simply making sure that I have something to warm every single part of my person for the duration, with multiple layers should that prove necessary.

What I really want to be doing though is preparing content for my website project, but sadly there's nothing I can do to clear my head of virus & snot to make that possible at the moment.

I did spin on my Quebec wheel (aka Ida) for about 20 minutes a few days ago, but that was all I could manage for upright in several days. The new bobbins my friend Soren turned out on his lathe work wonderfully well and the wheel 'goes like stink'. Once we make friends a bit more, Ida and I, she'll be the dedicated sock yarn wheel because of her incredible speed. I'm still learning how to make my twist consistent, I think we need a good long draw technique--but she's a lovely old lady and we'll be fine once we spend more quality time together.  

Pictures of all of the above to be posted soon....

9 Gift Sock Scenarios

I recently forwarded a pair of hand knit socks to a friend, and for some as yet unknown reason I have not heard anything about how these have been received, except that the post office at least has done its part.  This leaves me with no reasonable option but to list the scenarios which have been running through my mind, namely:

1. Socks received, hated them on sight.

2. Socks received but feet have been abducted by aliens and socks don't fit the stumps.

3. Feet so precious now, married as they are, that hand knit socks from the past too embarrassing to own.

4. Socks have been wickedly 'short sheeted' so recipient can't get them on.

5. Sock recipient in a daze from recent pie eating event, can no longer find feet, so socks now irrelevant.

6. Socks immediately re-gifted (to the postman?) and original recipient too ashamed to own up to this.

7. Advancing age has made sock recipient forget that the postman brought a package, or where it was placed; possibly also forgot what socks are for?

8. Wearing socks on hands, so don't have to acknowledge socks, but will get around to saying something about the wonky mitts one of these days, working up to it.

9. Oh, those were socks? From you? Thought it was junk mail so put it in the blue box.  All gone now.

Knitting myself well

A blur of a week, what with trying to breathe past virus and the daily workout of coughing up my lungs. Significant improvement to my abs must result, as everything hurts enough.

A great week for mindless knitting to finish up projects however. Let it never be said that I do not make good use of my time, in whatever condition I find myself.

The down side of course is that as I begin to feel better, I have attacks of 'startitis' that are so frequent that more blurring takes place.  I began the Orkney Pi shawl in Zephyr wool & silk lace weight. In fact, I began it several times and may have to begin it again because I think the first round is a bit wonky and I don't want to knit thousands upon thousands of yards and millions of stitches only to see that the first dozen are wrong.  It's a ruddy trial to begin a circular shawl with ten tiny wee stitches on three needles that just won't behave.  Once I'm past the beginning it knits up beautifully.

I'm nearly done the Hemlock Ring blanket in blue mohair that I began in August.  I think I know who it will go to, but we'll have to give it a bath and make certain it 'works' before I announce the recipient.

Once I'm upright more of each day I'll finish the arm warmers, blend yarn with borrowed wool combs to spin for the socks that will go with them.  For now it continues to be sofa time in my household, so I can stay as close to the wood stove as possible without roasting body bits. It isn't as if I mind knitting time on this order, I only mind the virus and coughing all night. Hopefully the latter will be done soon.

Post-election blahs

Wouldn't you know it, all that exposure to electors made me sick! Not from them being electors of course, but because many of them were generously sharing viruses. My theory about a virus is that it won't leave me alone until I share it with you. 

The election itself was probably enough to make me sick. In the poll I worked the turn-out was, in a word, pathetic. Less than 50%. Either nobody cares that we have a democracy or as I also heard during the day, that people whose families have lived in the same place since before Confederation refused to vote if it required them to show picture ID. I mean really, people. What's the big deal? We show picture ID in lots of other contexts. Apparently elderly rural folk find this requirement beyond obnoxious. But while others in the poll knew these folks, I didn't. In an urban or any large poll you wouldn't know the people. A requirement for identification (and there were dozens upon dozens of options) hardly seems a good reason to stay home. I think what I find so appalling about the voter turn-out, whatever the reason for it is that in so many places in the world people pay with their lives to vote and we can't get our butts off the sofa to go do this? Sad, very, very sad.

And then there was the outcome. Not a surprise but a great disappointment to me. My wish (okay, fantasy) was for a NDP/Green party coalition to run the country, not a increased mandate (albeit still a minority one) for wacko Tories who don't get the urgency of environmental issues, and in fact deny there are issues at all. I was very impressed by the moxie of the Green Party leader. One of these days Canada will elect someone with vision. Meanwhile I promise not to hold my breath until that happens.

I took a jaunt to Wolfville on Friday to look for likely properties. I'd hoped to stay overnight in the valley but felt too rotten to inflict myself on dear friends, and didn't want to share my virus there. I prefer to share anonymously so you (whoever you are) can't track it back to me.  How very nice of me, eh?

One of the highlights of my day trip though was a view of a house that meets all my criteria in terms of cuteness, breathing space, location, size, studio and office space, but fails to meet the price range I'm working with by a mere $100K. Ah well, can't have everything I suppose--but it's good stuff to be dreaming on even so.

The other thing that was a spectacular first for me was apple picking. How is it I have lived 10 years in Nova Scotia and have never before been in an orchard to pick apples? We found a U-pick place where they had Northern Spy apples as well as the usual Cortland, Gravenstein, Macintosh, Ida Red, and Russet varieties. I now have 10 pounds of handpicked Northern Spys in my pantry and as soon as I share my virus with someone and it leaves me alone, I'll make something deliciously apple-y.

Finished the chocolate lama/mohair sweater coat and it is wonderful, everything I hoped it would be. I think there may be enough sunshine today to take some photos. The next spinning project: beige lama/mohair will make a good lap blankie. I have a pattern for one that uses a variety of gansey patterns. That might be fun. Need to track the pattern down so I can figure out how I need to spin the fibre for this. 

We had hard frost overnight so that's done in the geraniums I forgot to take in last night. Ah well, I felt too rotten to bother with them and believed the weather channel that the temperature wouldn't drop below freezing.

My only activity in the last 36 hours has been to throw logs into the wood stove to try to get warm. The ambient temperature is fine, but the virus tells me that I'm still cold. No amount of wool sweater layers seems to make a difference either. Some part of me believes that if I keep knitting sweaters I'll be warmer this winter. While that works once I'm up and dressed in same, it doesn't do a thing to get me out of bed on a morning when the house is cold. I still have the oil furnace thermostat set really low as it isn't winter, but I might have to reconsider for the duration of the virus.

In my quest to share my virus anonymously I believe I'll head to 'China-Tire' for a replacement wheel for my wheel barrow--one that can't go flat. Wish me luck?

Joblet

I have a joblet to do, as a poll clerk for Elections Canada. Who knew this was such a complex task that it required a 3 hour training session and a 100 page manual? 

It will also require considerable stamina. I must arrive at the polling station location, a rural fire hall, at 7:45 am and remain there until the ballots are counted, probably by 9:30 pm. To en-sure this, I will be called by someone at 6:15 (how nice is that?).  

I am required to bring sufficient food and water to get me through the entire day. I may have call-of-nature breaks but every time either I or the DRO are  away from the table, voting will stop until we are back. I have a long list of tasks, hence the 100 page manual. The only thing I don't have is the big responsibility and I'm grateful for that. For example I may not touch a ballot at any point in the process. That's the DRO's job. Thankfully I have plenty of other papers and forms to touch or I might have a problem with that (big grin!). 

I have already voted so I don't have to concern myself with my basic civic duty on the day, only the advanced version, aka poll clerk, which will make me the stunning amount of $167.00 which works out to what? $11-12 per hour? What I will say is that it is interesting to understand this part of the electoral process, and I expect to be a very, very tired old fart when it is done.

Okay, I have a 'thing' about....

...ripping out knitting projects. In the last few weeks I've ripped out three projects to keep myself on track with knitting everything twice. So far so good, eh?

...pens. As a writer I can never (never!) have too many nice, good, fancy, or expensive? pens. Same goes for notebooks, printer paper and watercolour paper.  Oh, and mechanical pencils (what's with that?)

...garlic. It's autumn. Winter isn't far away. One can never! have too much good garlic to approach a winter's worth of cooking and soup making.

...good olive oil. If I have several litres of the tasty stuff I'm rich, well olive oil, garlic, onions and chili flakes.

...blankies. I've been cold in winter, as a child and latterly as a younger adult. I have more blankies now than anyone requires, just in case.

...food in the freezer, even if it isn't edible. There's comfort in having a full freezer, even if it is mostly frozen compost now.  If push came to shove, I'd still be able to eat, I just wouldn't enjoy it all that much.

...the pantry. It should always contain plenty of canned tomatoes, tuna, beans and tetra packs of broth.

...having plenty of toilet paper on hand. Nothing worse than being too poor to have tp when you need it, that and tissues for one's runny nose.

...the fibre stash.  One can never have a stash of spinning fibre or knitting yarn too vast. I never know when inspiration will strike and in winter it can be days until the yarn store opens or the post-person delivers your project order.

...the wood pile and kindling.  Can you spell warm?

...hunkering down. As soon as the weather cools I knit sweaters, socks, hats and count my wealth in terms of all of the above.  Looking good this year, in spite of not having a job.