Unexpected Buttons

A view from the end of the garden:



Newly installed in the back of the garden, a Droll Yankees Ultimate Pole System, one of many gifts for my birthday (the 13th). I've been trying to feed the birds since the end of the deck reno this past July, but I was finding the birds too rough for my "adorable" bird feeders. Between the squirrels and the blue jays, there were two wooden bird feeders broken into pieces within three weeks, and there was always a terrible mess of grocery-store-bought birdseed all over the garden. So, after checking the phone book, I headed out to The Preferred Perch in south St. Vital and purchased the lovely and sturdy tube feeder you can see in the photo (it's the largest feeder), and was told that the grocery-store-bought birdseed is mostly filler of wheat, which most backyard birds won't eat, except for ducks.

***no ducks allowed, that's an inside joke for immediate family members.***

Anyhoo...I bought plain black sunflower seed, which I was told to try, and if it attracted the neighbourhood birds, it was a good place to start, though, they told me, the sparrows prefer white millet and may be angry at the change. I was also told it could take days or weeks for the local birds to adjust to the change of feeder and feed. Well, in less than an hour nuthatches, chickadees and squirrels were all happily feasting, however, when I turned 'round the side of the house, there were about twenty sparrows perched on the fence in a huff.

I went back to the shop the next day and bought a big bag of white millet and appeased the sparrows by setting handfuls down along the garden path - apparently sparrows prefer to eat off the ground. I also bought a bag of peanuts (for the squirrels) and the corn feeder and cobs of corn (for the blue jays and squirrels). Everyone seemed very happy - and now with the installation of the "Ultimate Pole System", everything is central and can be viewed from any of the back windows. Joy!

And now for a few finished projects...

Stitched from a kit from Button and Needlework Boutique in Victoria, a bookmark of thistles.



I've already sent it to Mum, seeing as she's Scottish and likes to read. I love these little cross-stitch bookmark kits, they're quick and easy and pretty, made by Textile Heritage, they have lots of choices... perfect little Christmas gifts... for me... hint, hint....Nigel? Elly? Hello?


Another project, out of the knitting basket, finally, are the Harvest Mice by Alan Dart, started way back in February. I would have never guessed that I wouldn't get around to finishing them until the day after Thanksgiving.



The knitting was easy enough, that can be done in an evening, but it's the sewing, stuffing, embroidering, constructing of props, gluing, etc., etc...

Mine are nowhere near as cute as Mr. Dart's, I suspect I make the mistake of using bits and pieces of beautiful, sumptuous DK merinos, rather than the brutal acrylics that Dart uses. My Dart toys are always too floppy and soft. I keep meaning to learn that lesson, but forget every time I'm assembling yarns for one of his patterns. Perhaps next time.

Also off the needles recently, is any easy, peasy garter stitch stole.



Made from two skeins of Bamboo Bloom using 15mm needles. Yup, 15 mm, those are one and a half centimetres diameter. Very big...and awkward.



It gives an interesting overall effect, the spun and unspun sections of yarn make for a lot of textural interest, and the choice of black gives it a decidedly Haloowe'eny look (which was what I was after). I'm fairly happy with this project.

Also recently off the needles, another Storm Water Shawl, knit up in Swiss Silk by Handmaiden. I made one back in 2008, from this post, and had always intended to make another.

***I find it amusing that the first lines of that old blog post are apologising for my laziness in blogging - have you noticed I'm even too lazy to apologise now?***



The Swiss Silk yarn is very lovely, the colourway I used is called Orchid, which to me should be pale purples, but this blend is a beautiful mix of pinks and creams. This yarn doesn't appear on the Handmaiden website yet, even though I purchased it back before Christmas. I suppose I'm not the only lazy updater out there!

Lastly, off the needles, three Trekkie Dishcloths.



Worked up in Cascade Ultra Pima, in the classic Star Trek colours of gold, red and blue, and edged all around in black cotton. I'd like to point out right now that the edging was crocheted! Yes, that's right, all by me! Swish! These little lovelies are winging their way to Jane and family in Toronto, as I know they're fans of the series.

I've finished another knitted project recently, a pair of gloves, but I'm going to refrain from posting about them until later in the month, in order to tie-in with another post on another website...are you intrigued?

I'd like to share a :::Friday Find::: which was found on a Friday (the 7th of October) and intended to blog about yesterday (which would have been Friday, but the day ended without me blogging, but I'm not waiting until next Friday, when I'll be out of town anyway, blah, blah, blah - let's just look at this new treasure...)



Lotto, found in a local antiques store (Black's, if you want to know), a fabulous board game I suspect from the 1920's or earlier.



Amazingly, all the tiny numbered discs remain, after all the years this thing has been kicking around!

I suspect there originally would have been a cloth pouch to draw the numbers from, which has since gone missing, and only a few of the original plain wooden markers are left, but what did someone long ago replace them with?



well, buttons of course!



Buttons, light and dark. How perfect a game is this? Love!

Robert Smith Frills

The peonies were spectacular this year, it's a shame they don't last longer in the garden. No sooner are they there, but they're gone.

This year we've added a more permanent piece of loveliness to the garden. Her name is Yolande and she's a cast stone sculpture made by an American company called Campania, from they're "Mythical" series of garden sculptures.



There is a long, ugly story attached to the acquisition of Yolande; the kind of story that makes me look bad, so I'm not going to share. An abbreviated version goes something like: first ordered over two years ago, three order mix-ups, one gigantic hissy fit (that would be me), a hefty price tag, and a shop that I will never shop at again.

However...

how gorgeous is she? She hides herself away in the corner of the garden and watches the back of house - I could stare at her all day. I think she's going to look quite majestic year-round.

Also new and majestic, is our new Betta, he's deepest black all over with shots of midnight blue running through his long, frilly fins. I've named him Robert Smith, after the lead singer of The Cure.



Oooo...how lovely? (Tricky to photograph, unfortunately).

Recently off the needles is a mermaid based on the Minnowmaid pattern by Amy Florence (that's a Ravelry link).



She's a tad on the hideous side, I think living under the sea is to blame, it's made her pasty-looking and all the swimming has given her shoulders like a linebacker.

Great hair and tail though, yes?

Also off the needles recently is Abrazo made from the Sweet Georgia Lace I blogged about back in March. This pattern only used about half of the hank, so another project may eventually appear in the future.



It turned out beautifully, though I miscounted the lace pattern the first go-round and had to rip it out and start again. I found the orange very cheery to knit with, but it's not a colour I can wear. I will have to gift it to someone...hmmm....I wonder who...?

A friend and I will be undertaking a major project tomorrow. We are going to sort and categorise my buttons.

I sincerely doubt we'll make it through all of them, since when all set out on the dining-room table I can't photograph them all at once.



Clearly, the amassed buttons are calling for a wide-angle lens.

In a brief effort to make use of a few I put together a bracelet this afternoon using some of the shell buttons.



It's not bad, but about two buttons too long.

I shall try again.

While I work on that, here's a look at the real Robert Smith in all his black, frilly-ness:

Done and Done

Daily, I make lists for myself. Things that have to be done, things that should be done and things that I would like to do. I keep a small notebook for myself with all things listed. Just about anything can make it to the list, from the perpetual, "laundry", to the less likely, "lose weight". As projects are accomplished (or abandoned) they are crossed off the list, until the list is an unreadable mess of scratches, then I tear the page from the book, destroy the old page (or pages), and start fresh with a new page and a new list. I always find the tearing up of the old list a small, cathartic experience. Three or four times a year I start a new notebook which is very cathartic. I feel a sense of progression and moving forward.

The downside, I've realised, is that because there is always a list of what needs to be done, and no clear list of what's been finished, I've often found myself feeling that I'm running in circles and accomplishing nothing.

So...recently, I started, not one new notebook, but three!

I have a "book of to do" notebook - all the things I'd like to do, a "whenever", "no-time-line", "I-have-the-rest-of-my-life-and-if-nothing-gets-done-no-one-will-care" list of projects.

I have my regular notebook of things that I'm actually working on, a "book of doing" - laundry and grass mowing will make that list, as well as which ever project I happen to be tackling - the garden is a current favourite.

And I've started a "book of done". Not everything will make it into this notebook, but I think having a tangible list that I can hold and read and say "ah, yes, so that's what I've been doing all this time" will put to rest the feeling that nothing is happening.

The first thing to make the list was a re-covering of an old office chair.



It use to be fuzzy, grey and tired. Now it's bright and spiffy, and makes me very happy!

Also finished, but not making the list of done, is the simple ribbed scarf started way back in April. It didn't make the list because it's on my Ravelry page, where all my knitting projects reside.



Also making the list, is a new dress for Kiltie!



Kiltie is one of my Sasha Dolls, her new dress is made from one of Nigel's old shirts. This is the first time Kiltie's been out of her original clothes, you can see her here.

I've made new togs for both of the other Sasha dolls too. Here's Baby Gregor Sasha, Mum bought him for me on a trip to Scotland back in 1976 (or there-abouts).



I knit him some undergarments out of white crochet cotton on fine needles. He's had other clothes in the past, but I've no idea what happened to them. He's here in his original togs.

Marina Sasha also has a new outfit knit from the same white crochet cotton. I wound off some length of the yarn and dyed it in a strong tea bath to make the undergarments. Knickers...



petticoat...



and dress...



The knitted clothes didn't make it into the new notebook either, since they're also on my Ravelry page, but Marina's outfit was a major work, for the dress front you cast on 192 stitches, and that's just the front, it's the same for the back, and then the petticoat has 160-ish stitches for front, and then again for the back. Wheeeee.....

She looks lovely though! Here she is in her original clothes which she's never removed.

The major work is the back garden, which is almost, completely finished...



a path of crushed granite leading to the air conditioner...



the not-yet-finished trellis against the garage...



a bed of hydrangeas...



crushed granite under the spruce trees...



a raised bed with a few tiny plants...



the south side of the deck with railing...



and, the north side with trellis, clematis and impatiens.

Now , we wait for the plants to grow.

Of Mice and Monsters

Pretty flowers in the garden.



This is the new view from the upstairs hall window. Certain views make the reno look enormous, others make it look too small. Perhaps that means that it's JUUUUST right.



Walls being assembled on the second story.



Work is beginning on the rooftop. This is very tricky. The house has sunk a bit on one side (very common around here - did you know Winnipeg was built over underground rivers and an awful lot of swamp land?), every measurement has to be spot on if the reno is going to be level. All day yesterday and today there has been the sound of mad hammering and sawing and then silence as they get out their pencils and papers to calculate the next series of cuts.



Let's all give a round of cheers for professional carpenters who know what they're doing. Hoorah! Worth every penny.

I finished four characters from the Alan Dart Medieval series.



Three knights and the nursemaid.

Here's the nursemaid before:



and after:



Mum fell in love with these little mice and wanted to make them all for Thea and Aaron when they came to visit, but knowing that she couldn't finish them all before yesterday (when they arrived), she instructed me to make a few. Mum made eight, I made just the four. They were tons of work - sewing all those tiny pieces together! Quite sweet though. I've been instructed to send them on to Toronto for their return.

I also finished my creature I had mentioned in this post.



He's made with a wire armature and then a skin is knitted on to his frame (Gads! THAT was fiddly work!). I had had a vision of him in my head for a long time, and as he got closer and closer to being completed I liked him less and less.



Does that make me a terrible mother? If I think my little monster is ugly?

I keep putting him away, then looking at him again a couple of days later to see if I've fallen in like with him. It hasn't happened yet. He's still ugly.

Perhaps he needs bigger buttons for his eyes...I shall think on it...

So as not to dwell on this, I started a new Clapotis. This one is being done in Handmaiden Sea Silk in a colour called Stardust. It's a beautiful, deep, shimmering charcoal-petrol colour. I had ordered the yarn from Wolseley Wardrobe and it took weeks to arrive. They tell me it was specially dyed just for me.



This I know I like.

Going By in a Blur

The summer, which seemed to take forever to start, is now going by at high speed.



Wednesday past was Canada Day as well as wee Ian's 13th birthday, and now he's off in Toronto on his first solo journey - to see his cousins. The trip seemed a long way away when I booked it back in March, but suddenly it was upon us. In the rush to get all things ready to go I neglected to give him his Auntie's phone number in Toronto. It was a tense moment while I waited for a call saying they'd recognised him at the airport (there's a big difference between last year's 12 year old and this year's teenager - in appearance only, his personality is still goofy as you can see in the snap). All ended well though, or rather, all began well. We'll have to wait and hear how things go.

I promised in the last post that I would weed the side bed (which I did!) and show off the lovely perennial garden that's been with the house for years; sadly, the one-two punch of the early spring thaw and late spring cold snap seems to have left little more than weeds (which I removed). I dashed out and bought and planted replacements for what I remembered had been there, but I'm afraid they don't look like much at the moment.

Here's an annual instead:



It's some kind of daisy, I'm not sure of the name. I think it should be called Mid-20th Century Daisy, as it's got that crazy sunburst/quasar thing going on.

One perennial that survived was this blue pelargonium:



a beautiful blue.

Our ceramic ducks survived.



To be fair though, they survived because I brought them in for the winter.

I was out thrift shopping earlier this week and came across two ceramic cookie jars.



One shaped like a wee cottage. Quite, quite adorable, but not vintage.



Also, this one. A true vintage one, Elly agreed that the deer eating the fruit was absolutely superior to the cottage, which, though very sweet, is a tad bland. Now sister Jane and brother Ian can correct me (since they're older and therefore have more childhood memories than me), but I'm certain we had a cookie jar identical to this growing up. Please confirm.

Everyone knows that the last thing I need is a new project, but I've only just heard about this one, which started sometime back in 2005. 101 goals in 1001 Days. The gist of it being, you set yourself 101 goals to be achieved in 1001 days - very straight forward. Since 1001 days is a little over two and a half years you're expected to set a few lofty goals as well as some easy ones. For example, someone might plan to run a marathon (not me) and also plan to read every Harry Potter book (already did that). Also popular choices are one's that challenge you to do things that are, perhaps, out of character, say, a shy person setting a goal to strike up conversations with three strangers.

As I turned this over in my mind, I thought it might be good to get some perspective on my weaknesses, so I asked Nigel, "What do you think is my worst quality?". After a long pause he said carefully, "...but you're perfect in every way." Since this wasn't the answer I was looking for I thought I'd put it to the kids. Immediately Ian chirped up, "I know! It's your temper!", to which Elly replied, "No, no. She's too fat!"

Ah, kids...good thing I didn't get mad, or I would've had to sit on them.