We got to talking about our projects past and present (you should see Lynns amazing shawls on Ravelry, lynn893 is her username, check out her beaded Aeolian) and Lynn reminded me of an old project we both have hibernating. Remember THIS PROJECT My beautiful beginning of the Lapin Noir Sweater? I was searching last night to find something easy to work on int he truck and figured nothing could be easier than 1×1 rib! Although this one had a few stitches to untwist I figured it would fit the bill very nicely. Well I picked it up this morning to work on the truck on the way to work and I don’t think its going to survive. I thought all was going well and then I hit some kind of weird funky spot where the world came unraveled and I ended up with several inches of slack yarn, I think I may have accidentally dropped down a row or something? frig I dont know. I’m not giving up though, I may try tonight to go around and pick up a row a few rows down and ravel down, I’ve not had much sucess with this method before but its worth a shot!

**UPDATE***

I got fed up with the mess, took the needles out and ripped back about 3 rows, picked up each one of those fuzzy black stitiches and now I’m about 5 inches along in my boring as hell ribbing and ready to start the argyle pattern. Ill bother to post photos once there is discernible Argyle to look at!

We love our summer BBQ season. We LOVE that we have a house and a yard now and the ability to BBQ. For some strange reason they dont permit you to store flamable materials 8 stories up in the air and light open flames. I dunno why. Pfft. So ever since we moved from high rise city living to the open air of the outer limits we have BBQ’d as often as possible. This past weekend we tried an oft recommended meal. Bear Can Chicken!

If you’ve never done this before you essentially take a whole chicken (the small 2-3lb roasters) wash and clean and season it. And open up the cavity and slide it on top of a beer can you have half emptied. We choose to use Stella Artois and I happily drank the unused portion of the beer while seasoning my soon to be tasty friend.

My mum gave a stand made for just this purpose, but we have friends that simply stand the chicken atop a foil pie plate on its beer can perch.
Then you put the whole thing in the BBQ

Close the lid and roast for 45 mins or so depending on the size.

Then, Enjoy!

It was so tasty and juicy and just like making your own swiss chalet chicken!!! Fantastic!

AND.. I’ve been knitting some socks for the Bean. sneak peek…

Right now I’m loving how my office space looks in the early morning, when the sun is streaming in

I’m loving how I can leave the machines setup mid-project and leave scraps on the floor and just ‘get back to it later’ (a luxury I didn’t have in the apartment)

I’m loving that I walked past the back door to find that this man had taken the Umbrella right off my patio set so that he could BBQ in the rain!

I’m not loving that these socks, although BEAUTIFUL and perfect in stitch, GREW when i washed them. EEEEEKKK, how will they ever fit the recipient now? WAH

I’m not loving that I have so many lingering projects… time to clean house

But anyhow. I’ve got friends in interesting places who didn’t mind lending a hand getting me back in when I had exhausted my surface knowledge and comfort with these things.

I HAVE SOME FINISHED OBJECTS! and some new ones to share. Photos soon, now that I’m back in to my admin panel

Anyhow, back to the more important things in life. like knitting. See you soon.

Recently we have seen a big big mamma bunny loping into our yard for some fresh greens and now all of a sudden I have seen some wee bunnies! Last night a particularly playful one was zooming in and around our yard jumping and frolicking and stopping to snack on my weeds (good bunny! eat ‘em up!)

Rena and I watched and enjoyed every delightful jump and decided to see how close we could get.

I see you little bunny…

Rena wonders if she can get a closer look…

A Little Closer…

A Little Closer…

A Little Closer Still…

TOO CLOSE!

Rena insisted we leave a carrot by the bush for the bunny, because he may come back. How could I say no?
And shortly there after when I resumed doing the dishes, he came hopping back in the yard again to race around the pool and enjoy my fine weeds!

A quick browse through my bookmarks reminded me of all the things I have really wanted to get to, like some lunch box equipment revamping with things like These Sandwich Wraps and These Take Along Lunch mats with Utensil holders! Definitely some of These awesome snack sacks And no lunch box is complete without some Homemade Napkins to keep with the green theme.

I’ve posted some of these links before, with grand ambitions for re-jigging our lunchtime gear, but I’m hoping to get some of these done before school starts up in September again. I’d love to send the girls back to school with super green lunch boxes!

A have a million other things floating around in my head, but today I wanted to put together all my lunchbox ideas about sewing so I can come back here and find all my consolidated links

There are only so many hours in a day and I wish I could devote more of them to my domestic pursuits but alas, money must be made to keep the lights in the house on and the roof paid for !

We have done a lot of visiting with friends. Enjoying having good friends and family over to the house to enjoy a day together.

And of course with good friends and a little time comes some good food and drink… (like the amazing Jerk Chicken pictured below)

And we have even done a little night swimming, when it was hot. And enjoyed our little backyard fire pit.

Shane and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary. And he finally got it right and took me out to a lovely dinner and surprised, really truly surprised me, with this

We took some time to explore our new neighborhood, including our local library. Which we ALL LOVE!! WOW the Library in Whitby is nice nice nice. So we’ve been spending some time finding quiet spaces in the house to enjoy a good book.

I have been knitting, but not tons. And I miss my spinning wheels something awful. I feel that itch and suspect it will be scratched very soon. I hope whatever you are doing its cooler than the heatwave we are having in T.O right now. Enjoy!

Who is she? My new Vanity

I have wanted an antique vanity for so long and have been searching Kijiji for anything local under 300 bucks. But nothing came up. At the same time my Step dad has been telling me to take this ‘old dresser’ from the storage shed and put it in the house and my mom kept saying, ‘oh you dont want it, its old and damaged’ Turns out, it was a GORGEOUS ANTIQUE VANITY!!!!

When i got it, it looked like this, all dirty and dusty, neglected and full of spiders.

The wood was so dry but I loved all the details, like this carved center piece..

And she has all her original drawer pulls !

After a thorough vacuuming, a bath in Murphys Soap oil and then a thorough polish down with some lemon oil she looks like this

There are some minor age spots on the mirror, and there is a crack in the wood from neglect that can never be repaired, but I think her character is shines through and whats important is she is exactly what I wanted. (and I got her FREE)

I will love and cherish this piece for as long as I can.

I’m really enjoying these socks. I find the pattern logical enough for me to memorize without looking at the instructions for every row. I can tell by the previous rows YO where I need to make the next one and there are little lines of purls running up the sock that act like markers dividing each ‘section’ or chart repeat. I love how they look as well! I think I may try to modify the pattern a little to make a child size version of these as well as I seem to make quicker progress with these then any other sock pattern I’ve ever done!