Blooming Flowers and LIam

Just pictures today.... from a beautiful sunny day last week in between all the clouds and rain we have been getting. My clematis - probably one of my top favourite flowers..some cosmos...and of course the baby of the family, Liam...now almost 18 months old.

More dyed wool!

It was a wild evening yesterday - weatherwise! Sheets of rain - local flooding, downed trees, lightning and thunder with the promise of relief from the extremely high humidity we have been experiencing. Well that relief lasted a few hours and now climbing back up.
Since I have AC (absolutely necessary for doing dye runs) I decided to dye another batch of wools... love all these colours! They are going to be bundled with some Rebecca Erb wools and sold on my website.

The hibiscus is in full bloom and looking gorgeous. I am usually partial to red flowers but these yellow ones are so pretty. I thought I would expand my palette :)

 Ok I have to admit I am not much of a gardener. I prefer to be sitting down hooking a rug or doing some other needlework. I always said if I won a million dollars - a gardener would be on the top of the list. It just takes away from my sewing time. Maybe if I was not working out of the home I'd feel different, but I do love to have pretty flowers around me. Having said all that and admitting to not having much of  a green thumb I have to say my orchids are a feather in my cap. They seem to be the only things I can grown indoors. They seem to survive my winter care and as soon as the weather gets warmer out they go.  What I love about them is they bloom for months! My kind of flower :) Have a great summery day!

Orchids and Summer's End

Oh my it has turned cold - where did the summer go -I think we had two weekends of summer weather and the rest has been pretty dismal. They say we are going to have a warm winter well that means ice. Because we are surrounded by water in a valley we have been getting more rain during the winter that turns to freezing rain. The bane of my existence. I hate the stuff - it is dangerous and every Montrealer cringes with fear at the mention of freezing rain - hearkening back to that one terrible January years ago when we had freezing rain and is forever more known as THE ICE STORM...hearts flutter in fear.

But hey it is still officially summer and my orchids are still outside and have been blooming since Spring. It is the only indoor plant I can grow can you believe it!

I am working on some special projects right now but did happen to get together a few things to sell on The Primitive Gathering on Sept,1st. Here is a sneak preview of them with the thought of Halloween just around the corner. I have already started making my Christmas gifts. We sort of informally agreed that giftgiving would be handmade stuff this year which I am only too happy to do. It can be homemade edibles or any craft item. We are all pretty crafty and love to cook so there will some really great wowers to be found under the Christmas tree. I just love a gift that says "I thought about you!"

Tomorrow is sock washing day - have to block all those handmade socks to be put on Etsy next month - next month is a couple of days isn't it LOL! I am trying a new wool soap so I will let you know how it goes with that. Time to make raspberry pie tomorrow. I think this is the last crop of the season and we have been eating them all summer just plain - so delicious like that but one pie has to be made.

It's 1:00am and Roby (my dog) is making his nest which means time to go bed. I wonder why dogs do that. He scratches and paws and rearranges his blankets and just plops himself down with a big old sigh and as my mother-in-law once told me - Good ole bed - which I am thinking sounds just about right..

Good Ole Bed - G'nite.. Joni

A Typical Day

I think summer has finally arrived – hot and humid and the AC is on. The heat saps me and in order to do all my wool projects – air conditioning helps. I also dye wool at this time of the year and a hot stove with simmering water just needs cool air.

My pup loves it when I sit outside with him – so yesterday AM when the air was still relatively cool I sat and he prowled the perimeter of the property. He showed the cats who was boss by herding them and made sure everything was A ok in his world. What would we do without their funny faces and happy smiles!

So I walked around and took some pics of my flowers – a good reminder that yes I can grow something. Once tried a vegetable garden and that was a terrible disaster. It probably had something to do with the black walnut tree I have growing in the yard. Learnt years later than you should not plant a veggie garden near this type of tree. Don’t know if it is true or not but hey it was a good excuse rather that say my green thumb was sadly lacking in green.

Yay! I am almost finished the MIL socks. I get to the end of the foot and think about what luscious yarn I am going to use next. What part do I like best about knitting socks? Hmmm… I get confused with the cast on and doing the joining – there invariably is a gap but I read about a little trick where you switch your stitches the first and the last and it locks the round. It’s just trying to make sure your cast on stitches don’t twist. The leg and all those variations in stitches are a delight. I love lace knitting! The heel is pretty routine though I vary the finish – but it is really a cast off and then a cast on. The foot itself is the longest part – round and round we go but then I try to carry the pattern down.. and dare I say it the toe – Ok I have a thing about toes – the Kitchener stitch scared the heck out of me – but it really does have a beautiful finish – seamless. Now I am getting the hang of it. It demands full concentration and absolute quiet. Peter gets hushed with “I’m doing the toes – shhhhhh” and Roby gets a cookie to put him in heavenly bliss. Done!! The second sock is always faster – you know what to expect with the peaks and valleys of the whole construction.

What was waiting in my e-mail box yesterday was an announcement from The Loopy Ewe for a wool sale. Ahhh…immediately click to the site – the credit card was whipped out and I am now a happy owner of more Dream in Color Smooshy Yarn ( delectable colours) and yes more sock patterns. I think I am seriously addicted to socks.

I went through my stash of The Gentle Arts cotton overdyed threads and reacquainted myself with their colour palette. Just gorgeous and the names are especially wonderful. I especially love their line of Shaker colours. I have been mostly designing with my wool threads (Red Island Threads) but thought the next design will be done with these instead. I have drawn the design out and will show it tomorrow – actually a couple I am looking at. But the one I want to try first is a cat on a crazy quilt background with cascading flowers. I love flowers in borders that contrast with linear elements. This one I will punch needle and then translate to a rug. I want it for in front of my favourite chair.

I use my rugs. At first I thought – hmmm no way – but they are durable and I do them in linen which is much sturdier. I laid one on the floor as an experiment – as you know I have a Sheltie and what do they do but herd those fluffy wooly 4-legged creatures. I have seen what he does to a ball of wool. I thought the cats could be bad but oh no – this ball of wool travelled the whole house – chewed and scattered to the four corners of the house. Lo and behold the rug has survived with nary a pulled loop and he is best friends with it. His bone (not a real bone –yuck) gets dropped on it, barked at, picked up and dropped at another location to be sniffed and chewed. Now does this look like the face of a rug chewing pooch?

Well I’ve had a good chat and I am off to do what needs doing for the day.

Have a great one - Joni

There is a time to be born and a time to die.
A time to laugh and a time to cry,
but there never seems to be enough time to knit

Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit, either. ~Elizabeth Zimmerman

Get Busy

It has been awhile and although I had the best intentions to blog more – life just happened to get in the way. June was spent going from home to the hospital for hours on end and putting everything else on hold. My better half came down with a serious illness and it meant his staying in the hospital for 3 weeks. Happy to report everything is fine and he is on his way to recovery. It was just a very scary time for me and blogging was the last thing on my mind.

July was just a month to get our life back in order and catch up on necessary chores and those endless things around the house that you wish would take care of themselves. The weather was rainy and cool – actually weather I don’t mind as I am not a summer person. I like the occasional hot day but too many is too much for this girl. People think I am crazy but I love our winters. I like the still quiet of a snowy day, the crispness of the air where the cold sears your lungs and especially the snuggling under a warm quilt while all the animals are peacefully snoozing in their various spots around me. What can I say but that I am a fall/winter kind of gal. I like that bliss of hibernation.

PS .. It gives me a good excuse to stay in the house and not feel guilty about being outside doing the outside chores – I can craft to my heart’s content.
Although I talk about not liking the outside chores I do have some flowers that do grow – I like the ones that take care of themselves.. Here are some poppies that I love and have been growing for years.

So while visiting for hours on end in the hospital these hands which are NEVER idle had to do something. What takes two needles and an endless hunk of beautiful hand dyed wool – but knitting. I used to knit years ago and I think I got so frustrated by the endless UFO’s of sweaters that lay around the house that I gave it up. Ahhh the impatience of youth – I wanted that sweater done quickly and invariably they never fit properly so what could I do that was quick, small in scope, practical and where I could explore all the different knitting techniques – dare I say socks were the solution to that. I know. How many socks can a person have – well lots I say! Especially when they are gorgeously rich hand dyed wools – using intricate lace patterns and for added pizzazz some beads thrown in.

The first purchase was a beautiful carrying bag for my projects. A plastic bag would not do for those luscious yarns. I love the Jordana Paige line of purses (simulated animal texture) and this colour had a WOW factor for me. They are big roomy bags that can carry everything and dressy enough that you can stick your essentials into it and use it as your everyday purse. Two in one – I like that.

So with socks knitting in mind come September I will be launching another ETSY shop called “Wooly Footsies - Hand knits for happy feet " - where you will find some of the socks I have been knitting. They are one of a kind – meaning I don’t repeat the sock in either yarn or pattern. I like working with different wools and there will also be exotic yarns for those that prefer something other than wool. I am not a particularly fast knitter yet and I do these to relax my weary brain in front of the TV (mind you the stuff on TV contributes to that mindless void) so as you see them on ETSY that is what I will have – no duplicates. I will be introducing them here on my blog and maybe showing a work in progress.

I have other projects on the go that I can’t say too much about here due to confidentiality issues but I am happy to say I am busy (which is a state I thrive in). The approach of September has always been the best time of year for me. I was one of those kids who loved going back to school – cracking open those new books with the crispness of fresh pages and the scratch of those pencils on a snowy white page. To me this time of year is when I wallow in creativity and the possibilities of new endeavours. It prepares me for the peace of winter which is when all these exciting projects see life.

I am excited and thankful. Always good to remember what you are thankful for – puts everything in perspective.
So if all goes well I hope to be blogging on a regular basis and have plans to set aside a time each day to chit chat about this and that.
Have a great day - Joni

We won 3!

Well it finally happened - we won 3 medals overnight in the space of 45 minutes. There was much despair in the family that Canada was not going to come home with any.

Our family are big Olympic fans. The TV is on the CBC channel night and day during the two weeks. It is probably the only time I watch sports constantly. I am not a big sports fan except at the Olympics and that is when I get my fill for 4 years. Vancouver, Canada will have the winter olympics in 2010. That will be something to look forward to. Can't decide whether I like the summer or the winter games. What the heck I love it all! Congrats all Olympians...

Checking out the orchids to see how they are doing. They are such unique flowers. I have just started my orchid collection and getting into it slowly. I want to make sure that this is something I can grow - knowing my green thumb. Right now they are spending the summer in the breezeway where I sit and read and can admire them. The winter will be the telling of whether it will be a success or not - indoor heating can be very temperamental - especially in our house where I like cool temps for my sanity and saving the $$$.

Off to make chocolate chip cookies with Ghiradelli semi-sweet morsels.. a treat. Watch more Olympics and finish up some punch needle.

Where is the Sun?

We have had a terrible wet spring and summer has not turned out to be much better. If we get two days of sun in a row - we can count ourselves lucky. It has been a very wet 8 months!

I did manage to take a picture of these beautiful gerbera daisies that I planted in my window boxes. They looked pretty good then but are a little scarce in the flower department now. Lots of green but that is about it. I heard on the radio the other morning that "green" is what is happening in the gardens around here. I hope I will get some beefsteak tomatoes, which make up my favourite sandwiches. I am sure they will be scarce and expensive!

I am working on some new punch needle patterns. I have two winter ones done but I am just now finishing up some commission pieces so the patterns are on the back burner. I promised myself that I would make sure they were published by the beginning of September. The days just seem to fly by!

Did manage to make a trip to Maine in May - I just love the ocean. It is where I go every year to find my piece of calmness in the hectic days of my life. The ocean will definitely be the place I want to spend my later years when a job is not such a necessity.

The dye pots are being prepared for Sunday. I have 8 new colours of hand dyed wool threads that I did recently. You can see them on my website http://www.fullywoolyprimitives.com but I have a plan to do some background colours in light and dark in a one step process so that all the lights blend but there are subtle variances. It will be an experiment and if it turns out I'll post them here.

I made a pledge to my self to be more diligent in posting to my blog, but life tends to get in the way but now that things have settled down with the family I see more time on my hands.