Solstice/Yule/Christmas

Time seems to have a knack for speeding along faster than I recall it doing. Perhaps it just seems that way though.
My granddaughter, once a emotionless bundle is now a lively little girl with very definite ideas of what she likes and dislikes.  On top of all that, she is starting to take some steps.  So, just when I figure it is safe to put out some things and leave cupboards unlocked, along come the granddaughter.

 The mobile monster-es

I started knitting a double knit lap blanket which, initially was to be ready in time for a certain fall wedding, although not as a wedding gift. When it became obvious that there was no chance of completion before that date, I set a new goal of completion by Solstice. I did not count on errors (all mine) or other obligations (Outdoor Club of Victoria, of which I'm on the board as chair of publications). Of course the error was noted after I just passed the halfway mark and it meant ripping nearly 3/4 of the completed blanket out. This all at 330 stitches per row.

Kelmscott Throw

In order to complete in time I would have to do 11 rows per day. I'm learning to relax and accept that it will get done when it is done, as long as I'm not still working on it in mid-summer.
Christmas/Yule/Solstice is coming up somewhat quickly so I decided to get my shopping done early. Hubby is done as is my daughter and son-in-law, and my mom. I still have to find clothes for the grand kids, a gift for my MIL, something for son and daughter-in-law, and stuff for my little nephews, niece, and grand niece. As far as my SILs, I'm stuck. I've been knocking myself out on creating gifts for them including home baking, crafts (weaving/knitting) in exchange for a box of chocolates which hubby then takes the chocolates to work since we don't eat them.
Question: what would you do? Buy chocolates/wine in exchange and shut up or ask them to not give chocolates and continue with the handcrafted/handmade gifts?

How we spent our summer vacation

It has certainly been a very long time and, as usual there is no excuse.
P and I did spent 10 wonderful days in Kananaskis with the OCV.  We hiked most days other than the Wednesday which we spent restocking groceries in Canmore and going for a shortened hike part way around Upper Kananaskis Lake.

Upper Kananaskis Lake

One other day P went to Rossum Lake with a group of hikers while I went horseback riding with some friends at Boundary Ranch.  I hadn't been on a horse for years but it came back fairly quickly.  My horse was a lazy girl.  When I tried to show her who was boss, and that I didn't plan to plod along slowly on the back of her, she tried to scrape me off of her by edging close to trees growing along the trail.  I was bossier.  

Another day P and I went to Chester Lakes with another couple from the OCV.  Not only did we see a momma moose with her baby and another adult moose, we also saw a grizzly bear.  

Chester Lake grizzly 

We had been heading back to the vehicle when we met up with a couple from Florida.  We stopped near the only outhouse in the park when a group of about 7 people came by warning us about a bear near the meadow in the direction we were heading for.  They continued on in the direction we had been going only to come running back yelling that the bear was swimming across the lake in our direction.  

Needless to say P, B, and I went running toward the bear who seemed to be fixated only on digging up some tasty ground squirrels.  S strongly suggested that we leave since she wasn't too comfortable with the bear.  We figure that Mr(s) Bear was about 100 meters or so from us.  (Yes, I know that they can out run us). 

The couple from Florida asked if they would be able to walk out with us, as did the group of 7 who had originally spotted the bear.  We agreed and headed off.  Unfortunately we hiked along at our usual hiking pace and left the others in our dirt.  

After leaving Kananaskis our group parted, some to head directly back home, some to visit friends and relatives.  

We had planned to visit our son and daughter-in-law in Edmonton.  On the way we stopped at Drumheller to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum.  P was thrilled and both he and I could have spent longer there but I was eager to see my son.  (Unfortunately my DIL was babysitting her brother's children in Hawaii while his wife visited her dying father).

E had made some plans to show us around Elk Island National Park which is a 45 minute drive away from his house.  We were going to do a 16 km loop hike, hopefully with some bison sightings.  

We saw lots of bison on the road into the park but none on the soggy trail.  There were billions of mosquitoes, a few coyotes, and some birds though. 

Coyotes

 The bottoms of my pants after trekking through foot deep marshes.  

Despite the mosquitoes and the wet hike, we had a great time.  Thank you again E.

E had to work on the day after the bison hike so P and I sat in the backyard and contemplated whether we wanted to walk around the area where E lived or do some sightseeing in Edmonton.  Before we could decide, E and A's neighbour peeked in and insisted on showing us around kidnapped us.  Don't get me wrong, she was very friendly.  She fed us lunch and then took us to Fort Edmonton, Edmonton's oldest schoolhouse, and the MacKay Avenue School.  By then it was long past dinner time and I had to contact my son to say that we'd been kidnapped and we would be late for dinner.
After we finally escaped the MacKay Avenue School our host insisted that we walk around the Alberta Legislative Building while she waited in the car.  We had just reached the front steps when, wouldn't ya know, it started to rain, so gosh darn it, we had to head back to the car without making the trek all the way around the building.
We figured that we were done but no, we then had to have a drive through town to see where not to go (too many druggies, etc.).
Well, enough for one day.  I'll try my best to be good and post more soon.

Time for an update

Well, things have been happening since my last posting.  I fell madly in love with yoga to the point that I got an unlimited pass and tend to attend about 4 sessions per week.
My dear father-in-law passed away suddenly on February 2nd at 88 years of age.  He and his wife were watching the news on television.  He stood up, adjusted the television, sat down in his rocker and very quietly died.  When we arrived he was still on the floor while the paramedics waited for the coroner to arrive, which is a normal thing in a sudden death.  I know that he will be missed by everyone who knew him.

My father-in-law getting ready for a boat ride

The good part was that my son and his wife came home for a few days, and then stayed a bit longer when I ended up getting sick with what turned out to be influenza. 

Now that life has returned to normal, I'm obsessed with sock knitting, or so it seems.  I joined a "Sock of the Month" club where I receive a yummy skein (or two) of yarn plus two patterns every two months.  On top of all that I purchased several sock knitting books including Cookie A's two books: "Sock Innovation", and "Knit, Sock, Love".

My grandson helped me in my obsession by requesting socks..... and mitts. 

After my trip to the emergency department I figured it was time to start working out again on my exercise bike.  We do hike a lot still but that generally happens about once a week due to yoga classes. 

On the grandchild front, my granddaughter is growing like a weed and my grandson is becoming quite a little chatterbox.  He's also figuring out stalling tactics to prevent mom from taking him home.  "Hug Grandma", run to doorway to go home, turn back to Grandma, "Kiss Grandma", repeat.  

Last week I went to Vancouver with my daughter and the grandkids in order to shop at Ikea.  My little grandson loved the "Boat" and enjoyed seeing the ocean outside the window.  My granddaughter didn't care where she was as long as she could use my fingers as teething toys. 

Yesterday my daughter and I together with the kids visited GGrandma.  While she was doing some chores in town with Uncle M, we went for a walk with my nephew, his wife, and their baby daughter. 

On returning to GGrandma's house and finding that Mom wanted to go home instead of visiting some more, Grandson announce that he wanted to see GGrandma.  We figured he wanted to give her a hug or to say goodbye but no, he ran in and announced that his stuffed bunny named Hop needed to have a bath (a variation on "Hop goes poop"). 

This morning my daughter phoned to say that my grandson had our evening planned.  Grandma and Grandpa were to take him to the pool.  Later on he planned on spending the weekend with Great Grandma.... and her piano.

Pictures of grandchildren and socks to follow soon. 

A new year

Happy New Year everyone! Here's hoping that the holiday was good to you.
The holiday was quite good to me.  I got a "woolee winder" to fit on my spinning wheel.  It is a gadget that allows your spun fibre to wind evenly onto your bobbin as you spin it.  I'd heard of this thing but wasn't sure if it was worth it.  After talking to some other spinners who'd either tried or had the woolee winder, I decided to go for it.  DH would have ordered it but, as he said, he has no idea about things like spinning wheels (He did build me another wheel about 30 years ago though).
The winder arrived shortly before Christmas and I did put it to use to ply some of my yarn.

It was great to see my daughter and her family over the holiday.  They are only an hour drive away from us so it isn't as if we rarely see them.  My son had talked about coming to visit but, at the last minute they changed their minds.  He/they is talking about coming for a visit in the Spring which could be a "mommy-appeasement" thing.  I guess we'll find out.

My daughter had mentioned that they wanted to get an easel for our grandson.  They couldn't find one so I got one for him instead.  They set it up for him once their Christmas tree was gone and he loves it.

Did Rembrandt start out like this?

After day after day of rains it was really nice for the weather to change to where you could trade the umbrella for mittens and toques.  The sunsets have been quite lovely.

It's chilly but clear out.  

Pat got a MEC gift certificate toward getting snowshoes.  He carefully researched them and then ordered them shortly after Christmas.  They arrived a few days ago and then he researched tire chains for when we go to Mt. Washington to snow shoe.  We bought the chains earlier today and tried them on the car.
We'll possibly try both chains and snowshoes some time next weekend, weather depending.

I loathe New Year's resolutions since, IMHO they are just meant to be broken so why make them but, I'm really hoping to be a bit more consistent with my blogging this year.  Then again this could just be another resolution meant to be broken. :-)

and more winter

Last Thursday, shortly before leaving for yoga, we had a slight dusting of snow that didn't amount to anything at all.  We joked that this would be it for the winter.  Right?  Well, the snow returned on the weekend causing several problems for my DH who's turn it was to be on the pager.

He got called shortly before 3 a.m. on Saturday morning and was done around 7 a.m.  I wasn't able to sleep so I sat up and knitted myself a hat.  By 6 a.m. I was falling asleep so crawled into my freezing cold bed. 

On Monday I thought I'd be the only person at yoga due to the snow and was pleased to see that 5 other persons came out.  I would have hated to be the only person there although I'm sure that I would have ended up with a customized yoga session just for me.  

On Friday I broke down and purchased an iPhone4.  I was debating putting this purchase off until my contract expired in July 2011 but my old Motorola phone had been dropped so many times that the battery cover didn't fit nicely on the back of the phone unless you lightly twisted the phone.  

Knitting wise all is going well but with the colder weather I keep finding more and more knitting projects to work on.  Then there is Yule and I want to make knitted gifts for hubby and my grandchildren.  

Tomten jacket for my granddaughter and modelled by her big brother.

Naturally I also found a cute shawl pattern to knit for myself and then I stumbled onto a display of pyjama pants at a local fabric store.  I just HAD to buy the pattern along with 3 different lengths of flannel to make myself 3 PAIRS!  Hello!!!!  What in tarnation do I need that many pairs of pyjama bottoms... really?  I've made one pair in size small (too big for me and too short for hubby) and have cut out another pair in xsmall for myself.  The 3rd length of fabric has Betty Boop all over it but I cannot imagine hubby being caught dead (or alive) in a pair of Betty Boop pjs.  

On that note I must sew my jammies, a perfect pastime for this kind of crappy weather. 

Excuse my rantings

Religious rant follows.  If you are offended, scroll down.

I recently was talking to someone about religion/spirituality which made me think about where I stand on that subject.  I was raised as a good little Christian girl.  We would read the Bible every evening after dinner, I'd say my prayers before bed and, every Sunday I'd take the Sunday School bus with my friends and sibling.  All went well until my father was asked to either quit smoking or quit the church.  Easy choice, we quit that particular church and went to a more accepting one.
Eventually we moved to Holland and didn't attend any churches for the 4+ years we lived there.  Coming back to Canada, we started going back to church... briefly.
As a teenager with friends who attended the church where my father was asked to leave, I decided to go to church with them.  I enjoyed the youth group and church until I met my future husband who did not attend church.  I was told by church members that I would never be happy with a "heathen", and one old soldier who had fought in France likened my to a whore he had known (I'm not sure if he was a happy customer or just knew her outside of her work).  Then I overheard my friend's mom tell her in Dutch, (which I was fluent in) that, if she were to continue to associate with me, I'd lead her straight to Hell.  All this because I was seeing a man from outside the church.  Wow, what power!
It was then that I realized that these people all attended church but didn't practice what the Bible told them: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another". (NIV, John 13:34-35)
Eventually I met a religious man who implied that he was a bit of a pedophile by word ("I saw little 12 year old girls in white blouses with their little breasts showing through the fabric") and deed (unsupervised sleep-overs with young family members who do not live with him).  Yet he criticizes non-members of his church for their lack of religion and isn't worried about his after-life.  My question is: if there is a God, how could he/she allow people such as this man into heaven and why does his particular church ignore this behaviour?  I suppose Catholics are similar in that priests who indulge in pedophilia are removed from their post and moved to a new one with fresh subjects to molest.
In answer to the question of whether I'm religious or spiritual: I do not believe in any one God but lately have been leaning to Paganism.

End of rant.

P and I are grandparents again.  At 3:35 a.m., October 21st, 2010 my daughter gave birth to:

Camryn Riley, 9 lbs. 1 oz. 

I think her big brother is getting used to having a new sibling around.

Speaking of big brother, he was a little lion for Halloween.  Isn't he the cutest lion you've seen?

As far as knitting is concerned, I've been knitting for my grandchildren plus have projects lined up for Christmas.  I want to make something (Hint: they have heels and toes - and are NOT shoes) for hubby as well as a jacket for my grandson.  My grandson has also requested socks and, according to his mom, he'd also like a toque.  

Of course I've found some more things that I'd like to make for me!  Ah, where to find the time. 

Knitting groups can be hazardous to your wallet

I recently joined a local knitting group that was formed through a Ravelry forum.  The knitters I have met so far are very nice.  The problem is that they have been inspiring me to purchase more yarn and patterns.  Not only that, but the group is a great place for sharing tips and information.  (Plus to prod me to check my blog.  Thanks Shaela!)
Who knew that you could do "Judy Becker's magic cast on" when my usual toe-up socks?  (Thanks Sue).
Of course then I just HAD to purchase more sock yarn to make a pair of socks for my hubby.
Next I had to order yarn for EZ's "100th Anniversary Camp Half-Circle" shawl after seeing another member of the knitting group's version of this.  Of course with a brand new grand-niece plus a granddaughter who is due to make her appearance any day, there has been and still is baby knitting going on.  The items for the grand-niece need to be finished a.s.a.p. since her grandma is heading out to visit her and her parents next week.  The jacket and matching pants I'm making for my granddaughter just need to be sewn up.  The dress I'm knitting for her is a 12 month size.
On top of all that I discovered that I still can spin which led to the purchase of fleece.  In a way I'm pleased that fall is here since summer isn't really conducive to fibre related hobbies plus my knitting tends to get dirty when we backpack/hike during the summer months.
Our grandson is constantly growing.  He is still able to clear out our Tupperware cupboard in record time but is now able to reach the door knob for the hall closet.  It is just a matter of time before he's opening the rest of the doors.  He does know how to slam the kitchen door and he gets quite irate when we open the door to let ourselves back in.
Grandson A also quite enjoys Grandma's knitting projects.  One yoga sock was slipped on A's feet as if it were a pair of deformed pants.  Just imagine a sock without toes and heels.  The space for the heel was like the crotch of the pants and the cast-on and bound-off ends were the bottom hems.  Yeah, you'd have to see it to know what I'm saying.  His mom told me that she finished a crocheted hat for his sister-to-be and A ran off with it.  Cheeky monkey!
I'm actually looking forward to having the little guy spend time with us overnight or for a weekend.  My kids used to spend time with my sister-in-law and her husband.  They'd watch videos, shop, and probably eat junk food.  Whatever they did, they loved it!  I'm not too sure if I'd fill the little guy up with junk food but watching movies and staying up later than at home sounds like fun.
Well, the whole object of this updated blog was to show that I'm still around and I promise pictures soon, possibly of the new grandchild.