knitting, greyhounds, Crossfit, be creative, self care, healthy, happy
I’ve been self-teaching watercolours for about half a year or so. Some look not too bad. Others … ugh.
This is a pivotal scene from one of my most (if not -the- most) favourite movies, The Best Years of Our Lives. I used graphite paper to trace the shapes and wanted to paint it in monochrome or tonal values. It all went horribly awry 🤣🤣. Oh, well. It’s a process.
My mom asked for a donation to her church’s silent auction. I didn’t feel like donating a hat or anything like that, so I made a size 2T Flax sweater. Such a great pattern! I really love the Flax I made for myself a few years ago (and I intend to make myself another one soon).
Ravelry project page is here. I used an easy-care acrylic (Lion Brand Pound of Love), but it’s very soft. I hope some little kid is warm!
I had this yarn for a while – Sweet Georgia Yarns superwash worsted. I tried making a scarf, I tried making a hooded cowl, but nothing really wowed me.
I’ve made this hat before and used the same mods. Ravelry project page is here. I did buy a big fluffy white pom pon, but it’s too heavy and pulls the hat weirdly. I need to find one that doesn’t have a solid core.
The yarn is great – nice hand to it and the stitch definition is lovely. I have another couple of skeins of this yarn in different colourways, so I will most likely use them for hats.
I added this project to my Ravelry page when I didn’t have the pattern in front of me. I knew it was some odd name, in my mind it came up as “Orange Surprise”. The actual pattern is called “Pink Memories”. 😀
I had this Madelinetosh Tosh DK that I had bought years ago to make a short sleeved sweater. I decided I wanted to use it for this, so I had to source come other yarn so I would have enough. I found some at Hawthorne and Wool and love how it complements the orange.
I made my usual modifications to the sweater (longer in the torso, longer in the sleeves). Instead of doing the colourblock option that the pattern has, I decided to add some contrast colour stripes/bands. I like how it turned out.
I also did my preferred method of waist shaping. The original pattern calls for an A-line shaped body, but I didn’t want that. It also has garter stitch sections, and a pocket. I ignored all of those.
Again, I was off with my measurements and it’s a bit roomier than I had anticipated. I washed the sweater when I got back from my trip to Vancouver, and it became quite loose and drapey. I put it in the dryer for a while and that tightened things up a bit.
The colour of the yarns is most like the second photo.
The yarn was nice to work with, but the orange bled a lot onto my hands and needles. It certainly is different after washing. I am starting a new project with another colourway of this same yarn, so I did my gauge swatch and then washed it and dried flat. It bloomed and softened.
I’d seen this sweater a lot on Instagram. Most of the projects were made with speckled yarns, but I have a lot of solids, striped and tonal sock yarns, and I’m trying to use them up. So I chose five balls of Sweet Georgia Yarn Tough Love Sock yarn.
As usual, I added length to the torso and sleeves. The pattern is a top-down raglan, with some front neck shaping, which I like. The colour melting/fading is done by striping the two colours over 10 rows. With variegated and/or speckled yarns, it’s fairly subtle, but more noticeable with the tonals (the last two colours).
The sweater I made before this (I’ll do a later post about it) I did the same thing. Still not accustomed to my new measurements. (I’ve lost some inches on my torso.) My shoulders/chest are a fair bit larger than my waist.
This turned out great and I’m sure I’ll make another one. I -do- have enough sock yarn to use up. 😀
Instead of doing the waist shaping on the side “seams”, this method has the front and back divided into thirds, and the shaping is done on the front/back of the torso. I quite like it. I think this is the fifth sweater on which I have utilized it.
My Ravelry project page is here.
I haven’t given this blog any attention for months and months. It took us a while to adjust to having a household without Ava. The boys were sad for a while, and looked for her for a few weeks after.
We took a short road trip end of September to Duluth, just to see what was there. Unfortunately (for me) they were having a heat wave and the temp one day was 39°C, and that was down by the lake. Ugh. I didn’t enjoy that very much. We decided to go the end of September anticipating lovely cool autumn days, but that didn’t happen. It was fun to get out of town and do some driving, though. But always nice to get back home. Chopper did better on this trip than he did his first one in 2014 (just weeks after he came home to us), but he is definitely a homebody dog. Not as seasoned traveler like the rest of our hounds have been.
We had a nice drive once we got past Winnipeg. Boring flat southern Canada. We decided to go via Kenora, Ontario, then south through Sioux Lookout, etc.
I’ve been trying do spend more time in creative pursuits. I’ve started learning watercolour painting. That’s really hit and miss, but I enjoy working at it. Have done some knitting as well. I will make some individual posts with some of the projects I’ve done recently.
March 1, hopefully we will start to see some milder temps and weather. This winter has been horrible for wind and extreme temperatures. 😦
It’s been a couple of weeks and we are still very sad and missing our Ava. Â I will share what I posted on the Facebook greyhound group:
Our sweet old lady greyhound Ava (Jimbo Beach) left us on Monday morning (June 19) to meet Sabrina and Apollo over the bridge. Rufus and Chopper are missing her sorely.
When our first greyhound, Sabrina (tall, lean and lanky Supermodel) left us, Apollo was bereft. It wasn’t long before we brought Ava home. Her kennel name was Peanut, but we felt she needed something a little more refined. So Ava it was. She took over the role that Sabrina left vacant and Apollo was happy to let her lead.
When Apollo passed, Ava was very lost without him, so a week later Rufus came home to be bossed around by her. Rufus isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and he looked to Ava for direction and approval. They had a great relationship, but as Ava aged, she couldn’t go for long walks any more, and her romps in the yard were shortened.
So along came Chopper. He was an impulse adoption, as we never intended to have a three dog pack. He fit right in and became a great companion to Rufie, but also was devoted to Ava, making her love him. Ha ha!
Ava had some various “little” medical issues over the past several months, but in the past two weeks, she had become lame on one front leg, and last week began having nose bleeds. She deteriorated quite quickly over the weekend. Sunday night she slept motionless with Chopper by her side. She called out in the night a few times when she shifted and was in pain.
Monday morning she was unable to get up, and when we tried to assist her, she cried out in pain. She was trembling and her eyes were defeated. So we carefully bundled her up in her favourite blanket, drove to the vets and they were able to come to the van and help her on her way. It was very calm, quiet and peaceful. We had both the van doors open, the sun was shining on her beautiful grey/brindle face and there was a warm breeze.
RIP, our little girl. 2 February 2004 to 19 June 2017.
Here is the very first photo I took of her:
and the last:
