Life's a Stitch

Life seems to wierdify weekly. Quite the year we've had. Despite the loss of Gracee  I'm still taking my daily walk to the local dog park to watch the dear tail wagging beasts and their owners. As if by magic one Friday, a Scottie appeared, something I had never seen in all the years I've walked that trail. It felt so good to interact with one again.

The next Friday, at the same time as the previous week, I returned hoping to happen upon Hamish and his owner. No luck. Instead, out of the blue,  uprovoked,  a little poodle with sharp teeth attempted to make me his lunch;  effectively chomping through my jeans, making it the fourth dog bite of my life – two German Shepherds, a Westie and now, a Poodle. What made this incident all the more bizarre was the owner was a former next door neighbour, having acquired the dog after her move. 

On to the cat. I am not a cat person, however there have been several in my life that behave distinctly doglike, enamouring me to certain specimens of the species. Yesterday, walking in our yard I was surprised by movement in the Weeping Katsura. Lo and behold, it was our neighbour's Gracee coloured cat. Charlie was quite content to hang out in his hidey spot, rolling over for belly rubs just like a dog.

The fang marked and bruised leg have me laying low, but the finger has healed enough to wield a hook of the crocheting kind, and I've put that Jojoland Rhythm to good use for a New Wave Throw:

 

The Gates was an impressive art installation, comprised of 7503 "gates" over 23 miles of Central Park, by artists "Christo and Jean Claude." What I found amazing was the effort for a 15 day exhibit. During that time it snowed, adding dramatic contrast to the orange flags. Not sure if this was taken before or after the major snow:

My sister turned 50 five years ago and when I asked her what she wanted for a gift,  she requested that I paint her a picture. I wrote about it in a post not too long ago. Knowing how much she enjoyed the Gates that seemed the perfect subject. Problem: I had never painted snow. For heaven's sake, for all the watercolour classes I'd taken to that point, only one painting had ever felt worthy of a frame. 

It took time, but here's my attempt to simplify and adapt the above scene into the day of the storm:

Painting, like knitting, is good therapy. And I like painting snow, soon there will be one more in this snow series of three.

Thanks to all  for your supportive comments. Gracee lived as long as as our first Scottie, almost to the day and really, it was on borrowed time. She was supposed to be put down at six months, but we took her in with serious health issues. We were told she would live until age 7 or 8 due to her lifelong prednisone dose and we had her for 11 1/2. 

I miss her company and the way, when she occasionally slept on the foot of our bed, she would use my ankle as a pillow. I still expect to see her when I enter a room. You welcome a dog into your family and the inevitable heartbreak eventually happens.  It's the difficult part of dog ownership.

No knitting yet, the finger is not quite healed, but I engaged in some therapeutic shopping with a yarn purchase. Elann.com had Jojoland Rhythm on sale and I bought enough for a blanket. A comfort purchase indeed.

Someone in my life, with whom I am very close, has a fear of birds stemming from an English childhood pigeon incident. You know who you are 😉 and it's best that you leave. I miss the birds of my east coast childhood. The red cardinals and the jays lighter in colour than our deep blue Steller's Jays. Still there is enough variety here to keep me bird enthused. These are the birds of my neighbourhood(s):

Eagle on the ground:

Same eagle in flight – reminds me of a story when my son was two, lying on the kitchen floor, looking out the skyight above him. "Mommy Mommy, airplanes!" They were, in fact, three bald eagles swooping above.

Steller's Jay:

And our new desert neighourhood bird, a Roadrunner:

While hiking in the woods the other day we saw a Pileated Woodpecker, but he wouldn't pose for me. And my most memorable neighbourhood bird sighting was a Barred Owl with a rat still squirming in his claws. A reminder of  how close to nature we live. 

Two in short succession. The first one was so quick and satisfying, thought I'd throw in the always fascinating self striping factor.

Pattern: Summer Flies by Donna Griffin, with variations explained below, different from my first Summer Flies with Variations.

Yarn: Drops Delight, 2 skeins, colour 05. Goes well with the blog theme colours, doesn't it? About the yarn, which is a self striping yarn similar to Noro, there are differences:

• there was only one knot in two skeins
• this yarn didn't pull apart in the fluffier areas
• although not as exotic a blend, the Delight being wool and polyamid, it is a reasonably priced alternative
• the gauge is comparable to Silk Garden Sock, but  knits up a bit loftier.

Needles: US size 8, last row and bind off in size 9.

Finished blocked size: 55.5" (along the top edge) x 12.75" at its deepest point.

Thoughts: Almost as fun as the first time, again knitted the knotted openwork loosely. I admit, I preferred knitting with the Madelinetosh Pashmina. Reality check: this yarn cost $13 in total. Alternating between the two skeins as the project grew helped make some of the stripes thicker, but resulted in many ends to weave in. 

My variations:

1. After the knotted openwork I added another section of ridged eyelet.

2. I added one section of a Feather and Fan stitch (an 18 stitch repeat), still starting and ending with the K3 and y/o's.

3. I finished with a tailored ribbed ruffle as follows:

Row 1: Knit all stitches, increasing until you end up with a multiple of 8 stitches. I needed to add three stitches across the row.

Row 2 and 3: K 4, P 4 to the end of the row.

Row 4: *K1, K to the front and back of the next stitch, K2, then P1, P to the front and back of the next stitch, P2* repeat across the row.

Row 5 and 6: K 5, P 5 to the end of the row.

Row 7: *K2, K to the front and back of the next stitch, K2, then P2, P to the front and back of the next stitch, P2* repeat across the row.

Row 8 and 9: K 6, P 6 to the end of the row.

Row 12: Bind off in knit and purl. 

You could make it longer, but again, weighing my yarn prior each of the last few rows, this was the end result. 

 

No knitting here for a bit, having done a poor job of chopping an apple, slicing the finger instead. The result? Eight stitches, antibiotics and a tetanus shot. I still plan on posting the recent FO once the pictures are taken. No photos required on this post however, you do not want to see it.

That's the beauty of the Palm Springs area in the springtime:

Vacation pictures, part 2:

White wine spritzer with a palm tree swizzle stick.

Compared to life in Canada, everything seems bigger in the US – Marilyn Monroe, for example.

Margaritas at Macarios:

Hamentashen at Sherman's Deli. Hamentashen on steroids, that's a Canadian toonie, a very large coin next to it:

For that matter anything at Sherman's. The sandwiches, sides of chicken livers and latkes:

And their dessert selection:

You have to do a lot of knitting to burn off a trip to Sherman's 😉  Next post: another finished project.

 

 

We're renovating the blog, and it may take a bit to get it right. So far, so good. What do you think? Big thanks to the son.

The older my kids get, the possiblity of everyone tgether on vacation seems like a remote possibility. We were fortunate to have it happen. Seven if us, including Baby Rye, in our two bedroom condo in Palm Springs. Cozy but fun. On our last night together we talked of our highlights:

Two of my S'sIL were in Phoenix celebrating C's brother's 80th birthday. We couldn't go so they brought the party to us even though it was a brief visit the end of their trip, so appreciated:

We picked grapefruit in an abandoned orchard and made grapefruit mimosas the next morning:

 

We hiked to an oasis:

Ms. M edited her Master's thesis, which she successfully defended this week and starting May 1st she is officially a PhD student:

You go, girl!

And we were bouyed by baby smiles:

Part 2 to follow, including the best sky picture ever.