Bits and pieces

Stick with me for a knit storage innovation! But first: I was thinking I might do a New Year's list of things I hope to get to this year, like a To Be Read book pile but for knitting, and called To Be Finished. These little mitts missing only their thumbs and run-in ends would be tippy top of the list:

Only I did a thing like that last year, where I committed to finishing a project every month and only made it through about four months before the wheels came off.

Since then I had been under the impression I had run out of projects to wrap up. Ha! 

Over the Christmas break I did a big cleanup and found so. many. more. Most of which are socks I knit and just didn't run in the ends on (big category one), even though my sock drawer has tumbleweeds blowing through it owing to all the socks that need mending before I can wear them again (big category two.)

Ready for the innovation?

What I also found in that cleanup was heaps of Ziploc bags filled with yarn I kind of forgot I had, because Ziplocs are ugly and my main yarn storage cabinet was already full, so they were jammed into a bigger bag and stashed under a table in the basement. 

While in the meantime, in another room, a large shelf was was clogged up with empty Mason jars I hadn't needed after buying a case in each of two sizes to use for baking mixes.

(this might be another innovation: when you're measuring out the dry ingredients for a go-to recipe, bring out a series of Mason jars and measure out several more batches into them. When you seal the lid the expiry date stays the same as your least fresh ingredient, which is probably months away, and you only have to wash the measuring gear once!)

So I got to thinking... aren't Mason jars just another form of moth-proof storage for wool? And couldn't I give myself storage space in one area by removing the jars to go on display somewhere else?

Answer: YES. 

 

I was so excited to choose the yarns to put in each one, and arrange their beautiful tags so they'd show. I didn't even listen when Pete said they looked like lab specimen jars with pickled invertebrates inside. (To be fair, there's a basket with six more jars in it that really do look like that, which is why I have not enclosed a picture of same.)

Did you do any big cleanups over the break, I wonder? Or draw up a dream list of something you'd like to do this year?

Either way - thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next Saturday!

 

 

 

Stitch

I am still swamped and still not creating, but the attraction to string and yarn and thread is so real! I pulled some of my wool/mohair blend sock yarn scraps for a Bookstagram pic this week and it felt fabulous in my hands.

To get at it I had to shift a pair of jeans I'd dropped into the top of my work basket, and decided to stop what I was doing and pull out a ripper. I like these jeans a lot - the fit, the colour, the weight of the fabric - but I wasn't wearing them because they had a stupid cuff at the bottom that made them difficult to put on and take off. I mean sweatpants have cuffs, because they are stretchy! Denim is not stretchy. 

Check out the vast acreage I gained but ripping off the first cuff.

Now to decide how to stitch the hem. I *could* pull out my sewing machine, and if my cleanup plan for today goes well I'll have space to, but I could also get a needle and some thread and hand stitch it, couldn't I. Maybe even blanket stitch over top of that. I do love blanket stitch. And in a contrast colour - that might look fun?

Or I could do something else, and learn some other embroidery stitches.

In my travels online I have spotted more than a few embroidery kits that show up at your door with everything you need, including embroidery-friendly fabric which is the one component I don't currently have in the house. So far I'm resisting because it would be a tragedy to add yet another projects to my pile of incomplete and not-yet-started options. But...

Okay. I will take my leave, tackle the cleaning, and see if I can justify pulling my loom and its half-finished scarf out of storage. 

Or maybe even finish those birthday socks for Jan?

 

Have a great weekend all, and thanks for joining me. See you next week! 

Getting to gifties

The other day I noticed this little trio on a shelf and remembered how much fun I had making them for tiny pre-Christmas gifts:

These are the ones I kept, but I must have made twenty or more over the years. They're a quiet version of the Christmas pins every woman had to wear on the lapel of her cloth coat in December, in the 1940s right up to the 80s or even beyond. 

 

Really they were a gift to me, because cutting out the bits and stitching them together was such a pleasure.

I made gift ornaments this way too - baseballs with the recipient's initial stitched on the other side, and snowflakes, same - and let them do double duty as gift tags.

I made so many that nobody has room for any more, so I stopped doing them. And now I'm kinda craving a new stitchy project. 

(even though I *still* haven't finished those Christmas gift socks!!)

I'm also craving a good Icelandic sweater project. Knit one of those lately? I love how the pieces get bigger and bigger in your lap and then suddenly become a stranded colourwork project. It's ages since I made one and I kinda feel like I'm due.

Do you have an irresponsible giftie project you'd like to cram into the very few weeks left before the holidays?

Think about that and get back to me! Meanwhile, have a great weekend and I'll see you again next Saturday.

Leaf Crunching Wreath Making Season

I picked a misleading title for today's hug, but my whole day is unfolding under the weight of this cheery e-mailed sales message: 'Time to load up a tray with mugs and mince pies for a fun day of wreath-making and gift-wrapping!' Cue the panic, because I am still stuck at gift *making*...

It's progress though, right? Ugh. There is so much distance right now between me and wrapping, I could be hugging the Grand Canyon. But it's not even Remembrance Day so probably that's not as sad as it sounds.

I did get thinking though, isn't the cheery bit of the holiday season about making? Perhaps even making *time* for making? That's not something I've been doing lately (see: pathetically slow progress on gift sock, above.) 

So I'm spending part of today clearing off our dining room table, which is where most of the making happens, to reduce the barriers to creative activity. I keep reading in real estate articles that the dining room is a thing of the past but when you break it down, it's a room long enough for a big table in it, plus windows, and potentially even doors you can close off so you can leave it in a terrible mess, and what is that if not a super-essential making space? 

Not like you can cut dress pattern pieces on the floor (past the age of thirty.) Or spread out boughs for wreath-mak---

Okay I am not going to be making any wreaths. Every year around this time we *buy* a lush green boxwood wreath, hang it up over the living room mantel, and let it slowly dry out over the year.  In late spring it's generally faded to a refreshing sage green, and then there's a gradual shift to gold in time for December when we hang up the new one.

Last year the only option we could get in our preferred size was 'with red berries' and I wasn't sure how that would translate into spring and summer and fall, but lookit:

hmmmm it's kind of flat in this lighting, isn't it? In person, it's much more glowy and beautiful. 

 

Oh that's a bit terrifying isn't it, with the lamp on. 

 ... and back to blah. Oh well! Ricardo and Gwenny enjoy it so that's good enough for me.

Meanwhile, it's my favourite time of year: Leaf Crunching Season!

I'm still not 100% after last week's cold, but I am aiming to go out and enjoy it. Possibly even with this year's alpaca hat from the Royal Winter Fair...

Meadowview Alpaca Farm has new owners since we were last at their booth at the Fair, but the alpacas are producing the same gorgeous fibers as always and they are still making hats. Hopefully now that I've bought this one, I will be able to find the one I bought from there years ago, and misplaced? Nothing else has worked, so I'm crossing my fingers.

That's me for today, my friends. Hope you're all keeping well and lining up a lovely weekend, even though it's well into Saturday afternoon as I type this. Thanks again for stopping by and I'll see you next week!

I need an intervention

These SOCKS. When did I even start them? I used to be able to knit a pair of fingering-weight socks in a week, and this is many many months. With a deadline to finish / run in ends / wet block / dry / wrap in about five weeks.

What am I doing??? Other than going out and buying more vintage plates when I certainly don't need them. My love for vintage plates and interesting book cover art is catching up to the love of yarn stash acquisition which I'm still holding firmly in check. This is all wrong! And look, the second sock is still at the chompy stage. 

 

Watch out, orange fruit, that sock is comin' to get ya.

To think I am for once knitting in seasonal colours, and still can't get my act together. Le sigh.

Well at least the writing is going well. And the weather has been magnificent here in Toronto. Earlier this week Pete and I wrangled an extra long lunch so we could walk in the sunshine through part of the fabulous ravine park system we have in this city. And despite reports that this year's temperatures have dampened the colour brilliance among the turning leaves, we still got to see this:

From a forest trail above the creek

From a bridge over the creek

Aren't these gorgeous? I mean, even if you have a ton of knitting to do, seasons like this are once a year. You *have* to get out and enjoy them, amiright?

In fact I'm about to head off for another stroll shortly. Hope your weekend's full of good things, even if there are some less than stellar ones thrown in. See you next Saturday but in the meantime send good thoughts for these poor socks to learn to knit themselves - that may be their only chance!

I finally saw the Northern Lights

My bucket list is officially empty: seeing the Northern Lights was the only thing I ever had on it.

Mind you, since I saw them in Toronto over a haze of city lighting, they weren't as spectacular as you could get somewhere quieter. I couldn't hear the crackling that goes with, I couldn't see this much without the camera on my phone, and the photograph shows more than what I caught with my eyes. Still, super exciting. I was so lucky I had enough charge on my phone to grab this much of a chance!

I will totally try again, because I really want to hear that crackly sound in person. They're projected to be pretty visible pretty often for the next few years so fingers crossed it works out.

By day, I've been focusing on being outside in gorgeous autumn weather. I saw this on a ravine walk...

And this in the cemetery...

And as always, I can't help thinking these colour combos would be fantastic in a sweater. I'm not sure I've ever seen that shade of blue sky reproduced in yarn though, have you? You get such a glow from the sun.

I also restained some worn spots on our deck, so fingers crossed the wood'll hold up another year! No pictures of that, because nobody wants to watch paint dry, especially when it's white.

Oh! as a substitute for drying paint, you might enjoy these seventy-year-old Agatha Christie covers I posted and captioned on my Instagram feed yesterday:

It must've been a blast to be a commercial artist when everything was advertising, don't you think?

As to knitting, I'm getting A Little Concerned. The socks I'm delivering in a month are over the heel flap but not much farther, and at my current snail pace I am not gonna make it. I am going to have to build in more knitting time, which is awkward, because I've also had to pick up my writing time. Oh well - I'll figure it out!

Hope you have a great weekend figured out - thanks for dropping by and I look forward to seeing you next Saturday. Till then, another trio of Northern Lights pictures, looking north from a sandy spot on Toronto's port lands at the shore of Lake Ontario.

Sweet sweet lemonade

Hello again! I hope you've had a lovely couple of weeks? I caught up on quite a bit, if not everything, and finally had time to create a new cooking setup:

I know, the innovation! A spice rack. But it's an exciting change all the same. And not only because I love this shelf a ton and haven't had it in circulation for years, being wrongly convinced that it wouldn't fit under our cabinets.

*

Today's story begins unhappily, about two months ago when I noticed bugs lying dead on the counter I reserve for baking, or else staggering around on it. This was perplexing because there were a lot of them. When more appeared the next day, I realized they'd fallen from the cupboard above. 

Turns out I'd had the dumb luck of buying a bag of wheat berries infested with said bugs via a tiny hole I'd unknowingly positioned within about an inch of a can of cherry pie filling I hadn't gotten around to using, which in turn had a leak positioned in the direction of the tiny hole. 

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that if a can of anything leaks, it's very possibly because of a pressure buildup from botulism. In this case I would slide that scale to 'almost certainly'. Despite having a multi-year lifespan, these bugs were dying young after gorging themselves on the runoff.

So much for the yucky backstory: the result was, I had to decontaminate *every*thing in the cupboard and on the counter, leaving me heartbroken and procrastinating (for the aforementioned two months, during which I basically had caution tape around the whole area) until I realized that addressing the problem would give me a blank canvas for rebuilding the way I store things in the kitchen. 

Lemonade from lemons, is there anything better?

Plus, just in time for fall! Not to mention Canadian Thanksgiving, a foodfest that's happening next weekend already.

Over the summer, when I was mostly making salads, I'd started keeping a few staples like shallots and tiny tomatoes in a glass loaf pan on the cooking side of the counter, but I was still walking to the baking side to get any herbs and spices I wanted to throw in there, because I had no other place to stow them. 

Not any more! Having been forced to rebuild my supplies, I found my old red shelf could accommodate everything while going vertical. That's freed up the now-empty cupboards over the baking counter to accommodate some of the baking stuff I was crowding into the drawer below it. 

And if all this news isn't exciting enough for you: brace yourself.

Our coffee making is dying, and our kettle has decided it will only work if I hold my thumb on the power switch till it's finished boiling. 

So I'm gonna be totally overhauling the coffee and tea station as well.

Today.

But probably after a nap because all this change is a lot to take in.

In other news, I still have not finished the socks I started in spring and have to gift *next month.* but I did finish polishing the manuscript I started around the same time, so I might actually get them wrapped more than ten minutes before delivery. More on that next week, I hope.

Hope you have a lovely Saturday and thank you as always for dropping by, especially after a two-week break in the ol' routine!

Not quite the Northern Lights

My 'bucket list' has one thing on it: see the Northern Lights. 

not the Northern Lights, but a blur of harvest moon

In theory this should be achievable, but somehow it hasn't been. Even this past summer, when all our neighbours were blown away by what they saw from their cottages and other getaway locations, we were swamped and couldn't get out of the city for dark skies. 

So last night, when it seemed like there might be another chance, four of us piled into Pete's car and drove to the farm.

Spoiler alert: there were no Northern Lights.

What there was: 

A ninety-minute drive together, with much hilarity and life catchup.

A chance to see our tiny shed with the soft lights on.

A crunchy, then grassy and damp, walk to the pond, lit by four flashlights held in cluster mode.

A look at an incredibly beautiful frog, maybe half the size of my palm, which crossed our path and stopped when we shone a light on him. 

An awareness of many more leaping things, some of them bugs, some of them (a lot) more frogs, all living their lives as busy night creatures. 

A mysterious pocket of warm air halfway up the hill that lasted as long as five or six strides, then dissipated, but was still present when we came back down.

I also discovered that my phone camera can do a long exposure and capture a better look at the stars than we could with our own eyes, at least until we turned off the flashlights and got used to the dark. I know that last picture could just as easily be breadcrumbs on our soapstone counter, but it's stars, I promise.

Today I feel like a rag rung mostly dry, because we had to do the ninety minute drive home after a long time waiting and hoping, but it was such an unexpected delight to spend a Friday night together doing something spontaneous, if totally unrealistic. 

Speaking of unrealistic: I am not gonna get to anything crafty between now and the day I finish polishing my current manuscript, and said polishing is taking a lot of time and care. So I will be taking the rest of September to do that, and I'll be back to hang out again here at Hugs the first Saturday in October. 

Have a wonderful weekend, and two weeks after that equally so, and I'll see you October 5th! And thanks, as always, for spending time with me today.

For the love of wool

The temps are way down today and though the sun is pouring through our big south-facing window, the screen is letting in a breeze that's cool. I almost need a sweater. Yes, that's a happy sigh you're hearing from me.

I've left this photo at high resolution so you can click it and see the curly halo on that two-stripe heart. Isn't wool wonderful? I am so ready to wear it this autumn.

But first I gotta finish proofreading my current manuscript! 

When I have that job out of the way, I've lined up some books to read.

Maybe not this many... some of what's in those unopened packages are vintage Agatha Christie paperbacks. I'm kind of obsessed with the range of cover art on them, and might have bought a few, ahem, in a weak moment in July. 

I wrote about my August reading over on Instagram - no account required - and North and South was the standout. You may know this one from the BBC miniseries, which is so visually arresting you might not be able to knit through it all, even if you are knitting a stocking-stitch sock and don't need to pay a lot of attention to your needles. A large component of the story turns on cotton mills and the the scenes showing the conditions for workers as they weave cotton cloth are not to be missed by textile lovers and/or amateur historians. I must have watched the miniseries a dozen times but I think I loved the book even more.

There has been a lot more walking in the ravine lately, despite some days last week being unpleasantly humid. 

 

I find it so calming to be near water like this, though I do miss being near a lake! I spent the first 20 years or so of my life less than a block from Lake Ontario, which you can see to the other side of on a clear day. And since not every day is clear, you can feel like you're looking to infinity a lot of the time. A creek is not so much about infinity, but when the water eddies around rocks and moves on, you do get continuity.

Proofreading feels like this kind of continuity, a lot of the time. As in, it never seems to be finished, ARg.

But when I'm done, it'll be autumn, and I'll be wearing some wool. Hope you're getting the weather you like best this weekend, wherever you are... and thanks as always for spending a little time with me today. See you next Saturday!

How is it Labour Day Again

And here we are, back to another Labour Day Weekend! I always see this as a bigger reset than New Year's... fallout from all those school days I guess. Quick look at the fading days of summer here in beautiful sunny Toronto:

I love the autumn so much, and I'm not even a pumpkin spice girl. It's partly the sweater weather, partly the textured blue-greys of stormy skies, a lot the fact that I can get out and walk without slipping on ice or coming home sweaty. 

The last few years, with my head down writing, I've barely made time for outdoor activities, and last September thanks to a round of Covid that lingered with crushing fatigue, I missed the whole thing. This round, I am trying to maximize the ol' opportunities. 

After I clear up our pantry, ahem, and deal with a substantial laundry backload (again: head down writing!) I probably take Labour Day too literally, but the Overhaul Fest is how I spend it every time, sigh.

So today, since your options are pictures of jars moving to the front of cans by expiry date, or the walk I took last weekend with an out-of-town friend who drove in for the purpose, you're getting the walk. This time it features one of Toronto's gorgeous forest trails.

This lush path is right in the city, one of several that foster wetlands and interesting plant and insect species as they track the ravine system. You can go a *long* way doing that by bike or on foot, and we passed plenty of runners and dog-walking families too. 

Between the trails and forested areas there are huge swathes of picnic-friendly clearings, of which I do not currently have pictures to share. On weekends you'll often see extended family groups setting up for the day with a wagon full of coolers and equipment, the kids doing pickup sports while the grownups grill the day's meals and chat and unwind. 

The Sunnybrook Park component of the ravine system (where I took these pix) also features a huge flat area up a hill for sports grounds. It's got a shady path around the perimeter dotted with public-use outdoor fitness equipment like parallel bars, and setups for soccer and cricket. Families often set up for the day there too.

I kinda well up when I see how engaged our neighbours are and how much our city makes available for us all... I'm so grateful to live in a welcoming place where it's possible to access green space within range of public transit, if not your own two feet.

My fave spots are the shady leafy ones like this, where you can hear running water and trace the trunks and branches of the ravine's trees. Soon enough this path will be littered with colourful leaves and I totally intend to wade through them. 

Speaking of wading, how cute is this little sandbar at the side of the creek? You can climb down here easily and stand right at the water. Dogs must totally love this spot, which is I suspect the explanation for many a soggy canine I've seen in here.

Happy sigh. I can't wait to get back out there, maybe tomorrow when the weather cools down again. Today it is very hot, making it the perfect time to do some basement dwelling and tidy up to be ready for a new season. 

My personal goals for the next three months:

Getting at least two hours of outside time during daylight

Casting on a new non-sock knitting project

Or alternatively casting on mohair boot socks cause it's been too long

Setting up a spot for weaving and possibly even actual weaving

Reminding myself how to spin fiber - I might have to relearn entirely!

Finishing the revision on the next novel while I send out the current one

Starting a new writing project

Baking some yummy things

Eating some apple pie

 

That last one is such a craving right now for some reason. I feel like I might have to do an apple pie tasting tour of every place in the city that offers them.

Maybe this is too much to do in three months, but I'd rather aim high than not. Do you ever make plans for the fall?

No need to answer, we are a quiet bunch here at Hugs! But I so appreciate your coming by every week to spend a little time with me. Hope your Labour Day Weekend is lovely. See you next Saturday!

Sweater Weather Again

I've been trying to get outside more now that our heatwaves have passed, and this week I saw something that made me feel sweater weather is almost upon us:

Yes, I know, it's a cemetery, and it's more suggestive of Halloween being upon us... which we already knew because the stores are full of Halloween decor already. So maybe there was a little bit of October feels giving me the idea of cosying up in wool. Especially when the next picture I *had* to take was this one:

That's a lil spooky, if you ask me.

Even so, I think the end of August is a good time to think about knitting a sweater, especially if you've been knitting nothing but socks and hats for ten years, ahem. You, or I, might actually have time to finish by November if you, or I, start now.

This cemetery is a great place to walk, with or without a sweater, because it's huge and has long, winding roads and also some little cedar-chip paths. And it's lovely there with its impeccable landscaping and the occasional flowering plant.

 

But also because it doubles as an arboretum, and is super leafy and shady as a result. I liked the rigid clipping plan for this tree:

But maybe it's easier to see in this closeup:

Halfway home I saw this knockout, which shares some features with a 1970s fake Christmas tree in that all its foliage traces the rigid branch that juts out from the trunk:

I had to know what it was. 

It's a Ginkgo Biloba! I had no idea. In fact I had no idea Ginkgo Biloba was a tree at all. I've only read about it as a supplement. Yeesh. 

I tried to get a shot of the seeds...

... but I think all I got was more summery blue sky.

I mean it's still only August. We'll have warm weather another five weeks at least. And I'm trying to use up my yarn stash, which doesn't stretch to sweater quantities in any one, or even any compatible, colourway/s. So maybe a vest? I do like a good vest, and I might have time to hunt for a pattern soon because my writing project is wrapping up nicely.

Soon is maybe a good plan whether I'm done writing or not, because I saw this during my morning stroll today.

 

Yipes! 

Hope you're ready for the change in season, and if you have good vest pattern suggestions I am all ears. Thanks for dropping by this week and I'll see you next Saturday!