Yopping Update #35 - Ta-Da x 3

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

I finished knitting my gansey on Wednesday, and got it on the blocking mat Thursday.  It should be dried and off the mat tomorrow and then I can sew in the ends and get my photographer (aka dh) to take some photos of it on me.

I couldn't quite face putting Maisie the Pig together (sewing toys together is sooooo fiddly), so instead I cast on her little dress. 

back of dress with little pink pearl buttons

With nothing else to procrastinate with on my needles I spent yesterday afternoon and evening putting Maisie together.  Soooo....here she is:

Maisie wants to show you her curly tail

I then cast on her cardigan, so that is my knitting plan for the next few days. 

I took the Shetland Knitting belt class on Wednesday which was very good and informative and then on Thursday morning my belt and needles arrived in the mail.  

Purple of course

I spent much of Thursday and Friday playing around with the belt, watching how-to videos and practicing some more.  I am slowly getting the hang of it.  While poking around the internet for videos I came across videos of Hazel Tindall knitting.  She has the title of fastest knitter in the world, and it is mind boggling to watch her knit.  She also had some good tips on using the knitting belt.  I am enjoying learnng a new skill and now that I have finished my sample piece I think I will start a dish cloth as my first project using the new technique, and then I have a plan to start a toque with the leftover wool from my gansey to continue learning the technique while knitting in the round. 

Besides knitting I did get out for a few walks to continue to convince myself that Spring is coming.

and after a fish and chip lunch at the beach I saw this fellow fishing for his lunch.

I have company coming for lunch today!  Real company!!  My two nephews will be arriving in a few hours for lunch and I am almost giddy.  Company!  I hope I know how to hold a conversation for longer than a few minutes with someone other than my dh.  Wish me luck. 

I am working hard at holding my anxiety in check with the news coming in hard and fast from Ukraine.  I pray for all.  It is all I can do. 

I think I feel like the one in the middle

Yopping Update #34 - Bit and Pieces

Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

A quick update today.  

I have finished all the patterning on my gansey and just have plain knitting to do as I finish the sleeve decreases and then the ribbed cuffs. 

It was put into hibernation midway through the week because both my Scheepjes orders arrived!  Thank you YarnCanada and Trendy or What Knot for such speedy delivery.

two more layers under this one - 48 skeins in all!

I entered it all into my Ravelry Stash and then cast on Maisie the Pig.

two legs to go and then assembling can begin

I also finished my next round of edits on the novel (Home and Away) I wrote last November.  I have sent it off to my sister and daughter as first readers so stay tuned. 

Alas, while editting said novel on Tuesday I was hit with a Migraine and that was that for the next two days.  I came out of the dark by Thursday and each day since then I have been feeling better.  Still a bit light-headed, but all-in-all things are improving. 

My third amaryllis is blooming and it is a stunner.

On my daily (except Tuesday and Wednesday) walks there are more and more ducks in the pond, birds in the trees and squirrels in the bushes. 

this little one even posed for me

I am looking forward to a zoom class on Knitting with a Shetland Knitting belt next Wednesday.  Highlandheffalump (Liz) alerted me to the class, and I am hoping my supplies arrive in time.  However if they don't the class doesn't require you knit along during the presentation and it does includes six videos that I can access over the next six months as well as a monthly Q and A session with the instructor.  I am so looking forward to learning this new technique. You can get more details on the class by Janette Budge here. 

My son seems interested in me making him a  gansey so the pattern choices will begin soon.  I got Gladys Thompson's book Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans from the library and it is an interesting read on the different areas where Ganseys were found and the meanings behind their motifs.  There is a cool motif called Print o' the Hoof that I hope to incorporate in his or another gansey in the future. 

I forgot to post my only FO for the week.  Little gnome #4

Okay that is it for me this week.  I have legs to knit, sleeves to finish and a Pig to assemble. (Not necessarily in that order.)

Take care all. Things are looking up.  And when I looked up a few days ago on my walk this was my view. 

blue sky!

Yopping Update #33 - Oh oh

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

Well, I forgot to mention a yarn acquisition last week, that now seems very tame compared to this week. 

I needed some hemp to make some double-knit kitchen potholders.  I usually buy the hemp at knitting shows, and since I haven't been to one for a couple of years now it seemed time.  It arrived quickly, and is waiting for my gansey to be finished before I get going on a zodiac potholder or two....or three. 

And yes, the dragon gansey is progressing.  I am on the sleeves, knitting them two at a time, and I have already started the decreasing.  No point posting a picture because progress pics don't look that much different than last week.  

I did take an evening to work on my third advent gnome

However, while on The Net Loft's zoom meeting this week, and last, someone talked about a toy they were knitting and talked about this book.

I snapped it up on Amazon on Thursday, and it arrived Friday afternoon.  

Oh My Goodness but the patterns are sooooo cute and each of the twelve animals comes with a wardrobe you can knit for them too. 

Of course I could use the random colours of Brava Sport I have in my stash, but the designer had used this cotton yarn, Scheepjes, and, well.......

After a visit to Yarn Canada, and then finding another local yarn shop that sold the colours that Yarn Canada didn't have I may have (ok I did) order close to three hundred dollars worth of yarn to add to my stash. 

I want to make ALL the animals in the book, and I have to admit I haven't been this excited about a new set of projects since I made the rabbit and elephants for my grandnieces and grandnephews a number of years ago. I ordered ALL the colours, and I can't wait for them to arrive so I can get going on my first one.  Of course I haven't decided which one will be the first one - so stay tuned. 

Little Cotton Rabbits design by Julie Williams

There was also a knitpicks order for some sock yarn, because, well, I can never not be knitting socks, and anyways I needed more Red Brava Sport for the Christmas Tree Skirt I am making.  I gave up waiting for the White Brava sport to be in stock (the website keeps saying SOON, and then changing the SOON to a date further into the future.  I ordered some Cascade 220 washable white wool instead and that will do for the balance of the skirt. 

After I ordered the Hawthorne sock yarn in a pack of seven colours called Arctic Lights fade, I realized that these were the same colours I ordered last year.  I guess I really do love those colours!

Oh, yes, and my leather knitting pouch and long needles have been shipped, although with all the nonsense at our borders with the trucker convoys I imagine getting it delivered will be delayed.  

Speaking of delays - it seems that organic brown rice has been hard to keep in stock on the grocery shelves and whenever we do our grocery orders the stores are more often that not out of it.  So dh decided to take matters in hand and ordered 25 pounds!  It too needs to be shipped but at least it is within Canada and not having to come across the border.  We will be okay for brown rice for the rest of the year I imagine!

My week was busy with medical appointments but I survived them all.  I don't get the results of the echo until March 11, but my teeth are cleaned and shiny (although I do need a crown replaced), and my eye infection seems to be on the mend.  

We have had a few sunny and warm days in a row and besides walking we did prune back our apple trees from encroaching on the neighbours yard (and hopefully deter Mr. Bear), and we sawed up our Christmas tree along with some other deadfall in the backyard.  We now have two bins of debris to be picked up and three more boxes of fire wood.  My husband also saved some on the apple wood for the barbeque.  Nothing like planning ahead. 

It really does look like Spring is not too far away.  Crocuses are springing up (see what I did there?) all over our front yard.

Just in time for Valentine's day, by red Amaryllis has come out in bloom. 

And of course, no Sunday post would be complete without this little gem

Happy Super Bowl Sunday - go Bengals go!

And Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow.  

Let's make this a good, or even great, week!

Yopping Update #32 - Two dragons down, one to go

Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

Well, they are done.  A dragon on the front and back of my latest gansey. It took eight days and as my husband pointed out there may have been a curse word or two, and a LOT of counting stitches.  

Tahesha - the dragoness

It is a brilliant pattern, well-written, well-explained and worth every penny.  

Of course I can't rest on my laurels too long.  Tonight I have been doing the math so I can start the gansey shoulder straps.  The charting is done so I might cast on a few rows.  Or maybe I'll just knit a wee little advent gnome. 

As far as the dragon formerly known as my mental health - well, that dragon has been more of a tussle. I am thankful for Tahesha to let me focus on her instead of the fact I stayed in my pjs much of the week.  

However, on the bright side - literally - it was a beautiful warm and sunny day today and we went to the beach where I walked for a couple of miles on the rocky shore and found a lovely cove with a hidden access where I plan to swim.  It is quite private, away from the crowds, and the access has parking at the top so my dh can follow me down and be my lifeguard while I swim.  I was tempted to go in today, but alas I didn't have my swimsuit on and it wasn't so private that skinny dipping would have been a good idea.  

Next time I will be prepared. 

My first two of four amaryllis blossoms have come out, and I did wash my kitchen windows this past week, so my garden nook is quite stupendous if I do say so myself. 

Of course nothing could cheer me up more than a video chat with my dear granddaughter.  I watched her play with her Peppa Pig playhouse and she showed her Grandpa how the topsy-turvy doll I made her for Christmas worked.  It was a lovely way to be woken up yesterday.  

And then today this popped up on my phone

Dear granddaughter capturing my heart as she wades in the February sea

So that is my week.  I have a doctor appointment tomorrow for this chronic eye infection I am dealing with, an echocardiogram on Tuesday (a yearly follow-up), and a dental hygiene appointment on Wednesday!  Oh joy, O rapture! (Not.)

So life goes on and I go along with it.

Also, I have become a Wordle addict.  It is all the rage these days on facebook - my baby brother got me hooked, and now I have discovered a Croatian version and a French version so I can practice my second and third languages. I also spend far too much time playing Wordscapes.

Do you play Wordle?  Or any other word games I should know about?  

Let me know in the comments.