A Bit of This and That and my new Yarn Swift & Stitch Markers

Well it has finally stopped snowing and the temps have finally gone above freezing, so now the snow that we got over the last two days is starting to melt off the roof and making it look like it is raining. LOL The weather man says the sun is going to come out tomorrow and that when Friday rolls around we will be getting rain.

On a good note our oldest son has been released from the hospital after spending 5 days there. He developed pneumonia, strep throat and was having headaches that completely incapacitated him. They were concerned that the headaches may be somehow related to the blood clot he developed after his knee surgery a few months ago so put him through the ringer with tests which thankfully all came back normal. They had him on IV with antibiotics until his fever broke on Monday and then put him on oral antibiotics. They released him home because his fever did not come back but he is on strict bed rest. Anyone who has had pneumonia knows how it just knocks you flat on your back.

Hubby is a wonderful handyman and kept saying that he was going to make me a yarn swift to go along with the ball winder that I got for Christmas, the only problem is that he never got around to it. LOL Instead he bought me one for Easter on EBay and I bought myself some gorgeous stitch markers on Etsy. I have my swift all set up to go and hope it works as great as it looks. I am slowly but surely getting my stash sorted out and into some semblance of order and now should be able to get all my hanks into wonderful centre pull balls. The seller has a couple more listed for sale.


The seller on Etsy makes these wonderful minatures using the fimo clay and then makes stitch markers, as soon as I save up a bit more I will be getting some more they are so cute.


When Dave & Laura came over with the kids for a walk, Trinity and Kirra just had to come inside to check out Smokey's kitten. Well Kirra named the kitten, so Smokey's kitten is now called Sprinkles. She is 4 weeks old and just a blast. She is playing with the toys and is very affectionate, even started purring the other day when I picked her up. I managed to get a couple of pictures of her and mom snoozing in the sun.

If this is Spring I'll Pass

Here are some pictures of what hubby and I woke up to this morning. It started snowing around 7 pm last night and the weatherman is saying that mother nature is going to continue with this snow for the rest of today and part of tomorrow.

Has been a really busy week and our oldest son was admitted to the hospital with viral pneumonia, strep throat and they are waiting for the results of his spinal tap.

Madison absolutely loved her owl hat and purse that I got knit up for her birthday. Here are a couple of pics of her wearing them.


We had a great Easter weekend with the kids and they had a blast finding their eggs and stuff that Shaun had hidden around the loft. Madison's were all pastel pinks, yellows, purples and Dylan's were footballs, baseballs, soccer balls.

I finally figured out the Owl Pattern in straight knitting to make a matching scarf and as soon as I get all my scribbles written up will post the pattern and a picture. The scarf pattern is a tad wider than I expected but that is because I added a 5 stitch border on each side and 4 owls in between. The Owl pattern is done over 11 stitches and 18 rows so the possibilities are endless for incorporating it into a pattern for scarves, sweaters, headbands etc.etc. The only limit is your imagination. When I went to the bead store the beads or beans as Madison calls them are sold in hanks, so I have lots of beads for the eyes on the scarf.

I just finished test knitting a dishcloth for one of the ladies on Rachel's yahoo group. I love cables and my grand daughter Hunter decided that this one looked like a tree.


Well since the weather outside is dreadful, I am going to do my daily walk inside the house and get to work on some of my knitting and crocheting projects. Is a good day to relax.

Hope everyone is having better weather than we are.

New Patterns

Well I made a trip into town last week to pick up some yarn that I had ordered from a local yarn store called Caryll's Yarns. Hubby better hope I never win the lottery because I would go crazy getting items here. The customer service is outstanding, the yarns available are outstanding and if she does not have enough on hand for your project she will order it for you. She also has a number of different handmade items on display some for sale, some not. One of the not for sale items on display was an owl hat with matching bag that had been done in Patons Canadian yarn. The person who had knitted it had left instructions with Caryll on how she had made it and I was able to figure it all out and made a set for my grand daughter Madison as her birthday is on April 15th. I hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed knitting it. I am now working on creating a matching scarf pattern. I have also posted the pattern for both items in my patterns.


Even though it is windy and below seasonal temperatures the sun has finally made an appearance today and hopefully we will not get anymore snow. The 50cm we got last week is enough, we have even delayed starting all our seeds for the garden because it sure looks like we will not be able to plant until late this year. I just hope we don't end up with a short growing season.

Hope everyone has a great day.

I learned how to make a Granny Square and Now It's Snow

Well believe it or not I have crocheted since well lets just say a long time like 40+ years and I have never learned how to do a granny square. LOL Well someone on my crochet partners yahoo group posted the most gorgeous picture of an afghan that was just one big granny square done in different colors. I got lots of help and suggestions for sites to check out on how to crochet a granny square. Well I did it, frogged the sucker 6 times but now I am well on my way to making my very first ever big granny square afghan. My stepson and his wife had twins in October 08 and for the first time ever I did not have an afghan crocheted and ready for the arrival of a grandchild well in this case grandchildren. The one I have started now will be for Arja and then I will start another for Ty and will use some blues and greens for the boy, better late than never I guess.



Well the freezing rain has finally stopped and now we are getting snow flurries. I guess Mother Nature missed that when March comes in like a lion it is supposed to go out like a lamb. I think the lion must have ate the lamb this year. LOL




Even Zeus the Rottie Cross doesn't want to be outside too much this week with all this crazy weather.

Besides hockey I also love Curling and Figure Skating, and with all this crazy weather I have been able to snuggle up on the couch and work on my different projects and get my fill of all three sports.

I thought it was supposed to be spring - anyone for skating

Well it appears that mother nature is going to make sure that the month of March is interesting. We have had huge snow storms and now the weatherman is predicting freezing rain right up to Thursday where it apparently will turn into snow flurries.

It started raining about noon and by the time 3 pm rolled around it had turned into ice pellets and when I got up this morning I have a driveway that the only way anyone will get in or out is if they are wearing ice skates. The windows are totally glazed over with ice and we cannot even see out of them and I guess we won't have any of it melting because we are under overcast skies, wind and the temperature is still below freezing. As I type this the freezing rain has stopped for now. The schools out here are all closed so the kids are getting extra March break days.

The worst part is that our outdoor boiler that heats the house went out sometime during the night and I don't know how we are going to be able to get it going again. Walking is precarious, thank goodness we do have a small wood stove in the house that we can use to add some warmth to the house, we also have a heater attachment that fits onto a propane tank and it helps warm things up inside too.






Well today is definitely going to be a day to stay bundled up on the couch working on some of my knitting and crochet projects. The fun part will be keeping the mooches aka Phoebe and Anya away when I decide to have lunch.

Happy 1st Day of Spring

Well apparently at 7:44 am it became the 1st day of Spring, so I decided to peek outside and take a couple of pictures from the deck as the sun was coming up over the pond.



Needless to say it will be quite a few more days of above freezing temperatures before we will actually see the pond and green grass.

A couple of weeks back Shaun borrowed my Dodge Grand Caravan so he could go to his physio therapy and then went over to his older brother's place. He parked the van at the front of the house and they went for a bit of exercise. Both of them are in physio after having surgery, Norm Jr. due to torn knee ligaments and Shaun because of his leg injury at work. Unfortunately my van was hit while it was parked out in front of Norm Jr.'s house. We are now calling his wife Calli after CSI Miami. Luckily for us she noticed some pieces of the wheel rim as the snow out front started to melt and with her checking around and also with the help of the Thunder Bay Police they were able to determine who had hit my van. My van is now in at Breeny's a local repair shop being fixed. Hopefully we will get it back all fixed next week. I just find it mind boggling that someone would smash into another vehicle and take off without leaving a note or anything. We have a Nissan Altima as a rental and boy oh boy talk about having to get used to new gadgets, it is one of these new keyless cars that you have to press a start button to get going. Here are some pictures of my smashed front end. Oh well next week I will have my van back all nice again.





Happy 1st day of Spring to everyone.

Let the Sunshine

Well I sure did not know what kind of day to expect today because when I woke up at 4 am it was -25 Celsius with a windchill in the mid -30's. It is now 1 pm the sun is shining brightly, the wind is down to 13 km/h and the temp has gone up to -8 Celsius. Even though the kids gave me their cold I am going to bundle up and try and go for my daily walk outside and get some fresh air. I am counting the days that we will finally be able to put all the screens in our windows and keep them open so that we always have fresh air :-)



I have 14 different projects on my knitting needles and/or crochet hooks and am slowly but surely making a dent in them all. If everything goes according to Hoyle I should be able to finish two more dishcloth KAL's. I got the Cables for Ireland a KAL with KnittingKnook finished earlier in the week and have got row 40 finished on the KnittingKnook March special. I only have 15 rows left to complete the February KAL X's and O's with Rachel's Knitting Group and am half way through the March KAL with Monthly Dishcloths. I am going to really put my needles in gear to get these items finished before the Mid March KAL's start on March 16th. Wish me luck. I will post pictures later.

Kahlua's family has gone to Florida so she is visiting with us a couple of weeks.



Have a great day.