Monday update

So it looks like I'll be blogging on Mondays. I may have more things to blog about this week but we'll see.

J had fun last week in his sailing school. It was hard work and there were nights when he fell asleep reading because he was so tired but he had a great time. This is week two of sailing school but he missed today. He has some kind of weird bite on his knee - we think it was some kind of bug bite. Last night he said it hurt but it looked fairly normal. This morning he woke up and there was a big white blister thing on it.

We decided to take him to the doctor because it didn't look good and in the past he's had an infected bug bite. Of course the blistery part popped before we made it to the doctor so she couldn't see what it looked like then. The doctor said it wasn't infected (yet) but she went ahead and gave us a topical antibiotic for it to prevent it from getting bad. It's making his knee sore so he stayed home from sailing today but he will go tomorrow. I won't share a picture of it because well, it's pretty gross.

Last week while J was at sailing, S and I went to check out a newly reopened toy store in town. Over a year ago there was a fire in the back part of their building. I don't think there was fire damage to the toy store part but I believe there was water/smoke damage. Also, the owner had to get the building up to the new codes. While we were there, S used some of her own money to buy a kit for making her own dinosaurs. We mixed up the plaster and poured it into the moulds and once they were dry she could paint them. This is the result:

They are very colourful! She had a great time painting them. At this point, all she has left to do is add a little glow-in-the-dark paint to them and they will be done. We should have some time to do that tomorrow.

On Friday I received my first clue for my Once and Future King MKAL. It seemed like a fairly simple clue until I started working with the yarn. I thought I had the right needles for the yarn based on what I used for the gauge swatch - they were bamboo needles. I don't know if it was the needles, or the lighting, or a combination of both, but I had to tear out my work at least 4 times on Friday. I finally gave up and put it away until Saturday. 

On Saturday I tried working in better light and it helped but I still felt like I was fighting with the yarn. I switched to some aluminum needles and suddenly I was doing a lot better. I had tried those needles when I did the gauge swatch and really had trouble with them. I've been using the aluminum needles since then and I have been making a lot of progress.

The shawl is worked from the ends into the center and then grafted together so I had a decision to make. Was I going to work this asymmetrically or symmetrically? To work it asymmetrically I would start with skein 1 for one end and skein 4 for the other and then work towards the center using skeins 1 and 2 for one half and 3 and 4 for the other. After some thought I decided to work it symmetrically. I decided to start with skein 4, so I split it up into two balls. I've worked one of the end patterns already and I've started on the second one. Both ends will look like this:

It's not the best picture but I didn't feel like trying to block this section already. I'll be picking up stitches with the next clue and actually working on the body of the shawl. Yes, that is a bamboo needle in the picture. I'm just using it as a holder right now while I use my aluminum circular for the other end panel. I think I'll be picking up a second set of aluminum circs so I don't have to keep moving my work onto holders. The chances of me dropping a stitch will increase with how many times I have to move my work from holders to needles.

Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting with a salesperson at a car dealership to see about getting a new car. We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

Summer has arrived!

Our summer weather has finally arrived. It has actually been hot a few days recently although my definition of hot has changed since we've moved up here. Here, hot is temperatures hitting the high 20sC (what would be around 80F). Back in Virginia at this time of year, an 80F day would be a cool day. Here we hit that temperature and we scurry off to the beach which is what we did today.

A friend of S's wanted us to come to the beach with her, her mom, and her sister so we packed up our stuff and headed out for our first real beach day. When we got there it was kind of cool still and of course the water still feels cold but the girls had a great time playing. They built sand castles, played on the edge of the water, and eventually built a pen to "save jellyfish'' which meant scooping them up out of the water and dumping them in the hole in the sand. They then spent time running back and forth to get water to pour over the jellyfish. The girls had fun (and no one was stung) although I don't know how much fun the jellyfish had. I thought I had a picture of the jellies but I don't. You can see what they look like here.

While S and I were off at the beach, J was having fun at his first day of sailing school. C picked him up at the end of the day and said he came off the dock with a big smile on his face. This morning he was nervous about it because it is something new for him and he didn't know anyone. But J makes friends easily and by the end of the first day he had already made a few friends. He also was pushed off the dock and into the water (joy!). It's a good thing they have the kids take a towel and a change of clothes. J learned how to tie a few knots and got to go out on a small sailboat with three other kids and cruise around the harbour. All the instructors were out there with them in Zodiac boats so they could keep an eye on the kids. J said he had a great time and is looking forward to going back tomorrow.

I know it's been a bit of time since my last blog. With summer here now we're often busy doing things or at least out and about in the neighbourhood and sitting down at my computer to blog isn't the top thing on my list of things to do. I'll try to post regularly but there may be gaps between posts and they may be short like this. I do have the new MKAL starting this weekend so I will have updates about that as I finish clues. Summer is short here and I want to take advantage of as much of the beautiful weather as I can. :-)

Vacation Yarn!

Knitters' Rule: Vacation Yarn does NOT count towards your stash. :-)

While we were away in Cape Breton I got a chance to stop by the yarn shop in Baddeck, NS. I had to giggle at the name of the place, Baadeck Yarns. For knitters out there, they have a Facebook page also where they share links to cool free patterns on Ravelry. If you ever get the chance, stop by the shop. They had a fantastic selection of yarns there, as you will see. :-)

I started wandering around the shop and saw a sample pair of thick wintery type socks that were really cool.

They are made with Mirasol's Hachito yarn which is a blend of 80% superwash wool and 20% nylon. Although the yarn seems heavier in weight, it turns out to only be a fingerling weight. Choosing a colour was hard, but this is what I ended up picking out:

I think it will make a nice set of winter socks. Not far from the socks there was another sample project using Mirasol's yarn. This one was a lovely shawl.

The sample was knit up in the same blue colour in the picture and it was so pretty. But when I started thinking about my winter wardrobe, I decided not to choose blue. Instead I chose grey:

That is Mirasol's Nuna Fina yarn which is a lace weight yarn. It is so soft with it's blend of 40% wool, 40% silk, and 20% bamboo. It should make a lightweight but very warm shawl. I love how it has a bit of shine to it.

I continued to wander around the shop and found they carry Malabrigo yarns. When it comes to colours, Malabrigo (along with The Unique Sheep and Fleece Artist) has some of my favourites. I have a hat pattern, Pumpkin Seeds, which can use Malabrigo Rasta yarn, which is a bulky weight merino wool. I had a hard time choosing just one skein but I did. The picture doesn't show off all the fantastic colours in this yarn. I cannot wait to start working on it although I will have to since I have two projects on the needles right now and a laceweight MKAL starting soon (more on that below!).

Now up until this point all the yarn I was buying had a project to go with it. I've been trying to only buy yarn to go with specific projects rather than just because it's pretty. Well, that all went out the window when I saw this gorgeous yarn from Handmaiden Fine Yarns:

The yarn is Sea Lace which is 70% lace and 30% SeaCell, which is made from seaweed. The colour is called Forge Fire and was specially dyed for Baadeck Yarns by Handmaiden to celebrate CanIRON X, a blacksmith convention (for lack of a better word) that happened in Baddeck over the weekend. Here is a news story about the event. I love being able to buy vacation yarn that has some ties to the place I bought it. The fact that this yarn was specifically dyed to tie into the blacksmith gathering is really cool. And the colours in the yarn are so beautiful - the red fades to a purplish grey to an almost black grey colour. I have no clue what I am going to make with it but I know it will end up being a beautiful project.

At this point I was all done buying yarn. But of course the people running the shop know what they are doing and they had yarn on display right by the cash register. As I was standing there waiting for my lovely yarns to be rung up, I noticed a whole display of Malabrigo sock yarn next to me. I tried...I tried really hard to resist but when I saw this yarn, I gave in:

It is sock yarn, so I will either use it for a pair of socks or more likely to make a shawl or cowl. I've found a lot of patterns recently that use fingerling (sock) weight yarn so I am sure I will find something to do with it.

As I mentioned I will be starting a new The Unique Sheep Mystery Knit-along on July 18. This is the one based on the book the Once and Future King. I had two sets of yarn to choose from. One was a 50/50 wool/silk blend (Eos) called Coral and Cream and the other was a 70 wool/30 silk blend (Ling) in a colour called The Fox and the Raven. After a lot of thought I decided to go with The Fox and the Raven for the MKAL. I got my gauge swatch finished this morning and now it is blocking. I got gauge - yay me!

I started with the lightest colour from the gradiance set so the blocking board colour kind of drowns out the subtle colours in the yarn. I'm glad they had us do a gauge swatch because it gave me a chance to try out different kinds of needles to see which worked best with this yarn - bamboo ended up being the winner. Although there is only a small percentage of silk in the yarn it has a more polished feel so the yarn is a little slippery to work with. The bamboo needles have just the right amount of grip to keep the yarn from slipping but I can still work easily with it. With my Snow Queen shawl I didn't bother with lifelines but with this yarn, I'm thinking lifelines sound like a very good idea. (Lifelines, for non-knitters, are threads/yarn run through the stitches at various points in the pattern. If you should drop a stitch your work will only unravel to the lifeline rather than all the way back to the beginning. Lifelines can save a project.)

Because I love TUS yarn, I signed up for their ABC club. One of their customers challenged them to create a colour for each letter of the alphabet and they accepted the challenge. It has been going on for a long time now as they are up to the letter T. This is what I received for it:

The colour is Terra Teal and it came with a Tie-Dyed Towel. I'm not sure what I'll use the towel for (it is a cotton towel, not terry cloth) but it is cute and I love the colours in the yarn. I'm already plotting what I'll be using the yarn for.

Well, that's it! I'm stocked up in yarn for a while so I better get back to knitting if I'm going to use up all this yarn before our next trip to Baddeck. The yarn shop there is going to become one of my regular stopping places when we go there I think. :-)

Holiday!

Wow, it's been a busy week! What have we been up to? A lot!

Wednesday was Canada Day. The kids spent the morning playing with their friends, C cut the lawn clover, and I was busy packing for our trip the next day. My friend and her hubby have a boat and they invited us to go sailing with them for a few hours. So we packed up and headed over to the marina. We cruised around the harbour and then out into open water. We saw quite a few seals which was really cool. Unfortunately S started saying her stomach felt funny so we headed back in. We had a great time and really appreciate our friends taking us out on their boat!

Wednesday night there were suppose to be fireworks for Canada Day but since we had to get up early for our trip the next day we decided not to go. It turned out to be too windy that evening for the fireworks so it wasn't such a big deal that we didn't take the kids. They were pretty tired from a hard day of play so they were okay with it too.

Thursday we got up early and took the ferry over to Nova Scotia. The crossing was smooth and there was a nice breeze blowing. I was glad the seas were calm because when it's rough it can cause my vertigo to act up. Being on our friends' boat didn't bother me the day before except when we were stopped. We arrived safely in Nova Scotia and started making our way towards Cape Breton. We stopped along the way and had lunch at a place called Mother Webb's. If you get the chance, stop there. They have a simple menu but it is tasty.

We made our way up the Ceilidh Trail. Along the way we stopped to enjoy the views. This was one of them:

By the time we reached the cottage we were staying at, S was saying her stomach was feeling bad again. She kept saying she was going to throw up and eventually she did a few times. :-( Not how we wanted to start our holiday! Thankfully once she got it all out she said she felt better. I don't know if she was feeling carsick or if she ate something that didn't agree with her. She got a good night's sleep and woke up the next morning feeling all better. 

Friday - since S was better we decided to head out to the Cabot Trail and make our way up to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. C wanted to hike a specific trail - the Skyline trail. We decided to give it a try. We parked and started making our way up the trail.

This doesn't look so bad...

The first part of the trail was easy, as you can see. It was pretty much a road. We followed it around until we came to a picnic shelter where a ranger was set up with information about the wildlife we could potentially see along the trail. The kids were excited to see how big moose antlers and skulls can be. Too bad we didn't see any moose this trip! But we did see a skunk on the way to the ferry (we didn't get sprayed!)

After listening to the ranger for a while, we started on the trail. It was narrower than the beginning but still a good sized trail. We hiked along and at the time the trail seemed fairly flat. Yeah, not so much. Coming back up the trail was a gradual climb. It was tough at times because I am out of practice for hiking (thanks winter) but I made it. As we hiked along, these are some things we saw.

I liked how the ferns and flowers were growing up around the stump

It's hard to tell from this picture but we're hiking along the top of a mountain

Yellow flower

These little white flowers were everywhere. I wish I knew what they were!

A pretty little waterfall

Eventually we came out of the trees and realized just how far up we were.

Egads, is that the road down there?

How high up are we?

Yeah, we're up high and that's the ocean out there

This is a boardwalk that goes down to some viewing platforms

Looking out at the ocean

Yeah, that is high. I think I will stay right here, thank you.

C and the kids went down there but not me!

There was a boardwalk that went down to viewing platforms. I stayed on the first one because I have a fear of heights, to the point that I have had panic attacks before on things like Ferris wheels. C and the kids went down there but I decided that it was better for me to stay up on the top rather than have a panic attack in front of the kids. The views were spectacular from where I was and I could pretend that I wasn't standing on the edge of a mountain. :-)

After this we headed back to the car, which was a good long hike uphill. We drove around a bit more and then headed back towards town. We stopped for supper along the way and then made our way back to our cottage. Everyone was worn out from that hike. It was fun but hard work! It was an early bedtime for everyone.

Saturday we headed the other way on the Cabot Trail and went to Baddeck. C got a cool new hat and I got to visit Baadeck Yarns. I'll do a yarn blog tomorrow to share what I bought. There were lupines blooming everywhere (both here on PEI and over in Cape Breton). I just had to get a picture of them because they are so pretty.

After lunch, we made the decision to drive the whole way around the Cabot Trail. A lot of the way was just beautiful wilderness but we did stop along the way at some of the overlooks. At this one we managed to spot at least one Minke whale. I couldn't get a picture of it because it was too far away but it was a really neat experience to see one in the wild.

After that we continued around the trail until we found a place for ice cream and a beach that the kids could play on. J was a crazy man and went into the icy cold water. S stayed on the shore because the water was too cold for her. I don't blame her! C took the kids to explore a waterfall that was next to the beach. 

We finished the drive with supper at a tasty restaurant and then headed back to the cottage. It was another early night since we were all tired from all the driving!

Sunday we headed back home. The ride on the ferry was nice and no one got sick. It was good to be back home. The kids immediately went out to the trampoline and wore themselves out. I think they missed the trampoline!

Monday (today) we got back into our regular routine. C went off to work and I took the kids out to find new shorts (not a whole lot of luck there). We went to the grocery store because we needed some groceries at least for the next few days. We also went out to a place that sells homemade baked goods. The Sugar Shack, run by Borrowed Kitchen, is run by the mom of one of S's classmates. All weekend long she was making lemon meringue pies. Since we were out of town I couldn't get one but I sent her a message and she was able to make one for us today. It looks delicious!

I also made some semi-homemade muffins. I used a blueberry muffin mix but I added strawberries to them. I had one and it was pretty darn tasty. We'll see what the kids think tomorrow morning.

The kids are pretty tired right now. Our neighbour invited us to come swim in her pool and we spent about two hours there. A good time was had by all! I think the kids will sleep well again tonight. I know I will!

Okay, I think I'm all caught up now. Tomorrow I will be sharing pictures of all the lovely yarn I have acquired recently. Until tomorrow then!

Fruit Roll-up Fail

A few weeks ago a friend shared around a link to a blog that had a bunch of DIY things on it. One of those things were homemade granola bars. I gave them a try and they are fantastic. So I figured other things on that site would be good too. There was a recipe for homemade fruit roll-ups and I thought, great! My kids are always begging for them so I figured making my own with nothing but fruit in them would be great.

The original recipe called for mangoes but they are expensive (and I could see S saying she didn't like them). Reading through the comments on the original blog I saw that you can make them with strawberries. Again I thought great! Strawberries were on sale this week so I picked up some. I followed the recipe - puree them in the food processor, spread them thin on a parchment lined cookie sheet (I don't have Silpat mats), and pop them into the oven.

After three hours I checked them and parts of them were dried to a crisp and others were still goopy. I left them in for a while longer in hopes that the goopy parts would dry out. Most of them did but of course that made the dried parts get crispier. Finally I pulled them out. Next I covered them with wax paper, just like the recipe says. I flipped it over and began to pull the parchment off. This is what I ended up with:

It doesn't look anything like what it's suppose to although it does taste good. J says it tastes a little sour to him so maybe I should have added some sugar to it. I was trying to figure out what went wrong and all I can come up with is that I had the puree spread too thin in some places and too thick in others. It looked like it was even but apparently it wasn't. Also, I think having a Silpat mat would have helped. Next time (if there is a next time) I may also spread all the puree in one tray rather than splitting it up. They will most likely end up more like fruit bars rather than roll-ups but that's okay with me.

C has a dinner meeting tonight so it was just the kids and me for supper. When I asked them what they wanted to eat their response was pizza. Now, ordering pizza and having it delivered here is expensive. And since I had to go to the grocery store anyway I picked up the stuff to make our own pizzas at home.

I picked up what I thought was just two crusts but there were actually two crusts per package so I had the potential to make a LOT of pizza. I ended up sticking one pack in the freezer. The other pizzas ended up being half cheese, half ham/pineapple (J's request). Here they are before baking and after:

Of course S pulled her "I'm full" routine which just means that she's tired of eating whatever it is we're having. She started saying that after her cheese came off and I refused to give her a new piece until she finished her current one (yeah, I'm mean that way). J gave the pizza two thumbs up. So at least I got that right today!

I had planned to make blueberry muffins today but the failed fruit roll-ups took so long that by the time they were done it was almost time for the pizzas to go in. I will make the muffins tomorrow. They aren't my homemade ones but I'll add some little touches to make them seem like more than just a mix. Sometimes you just have to go for easy over homemade!

Adventures in Camping

I survived camping. It was touch and go at times whether I'd survive but overall it was fun. The kids had a blast and C had a fantastic birthday weekend, so all is good. So, what happened? Let's find out!

Friday we arrived at the campsite and were greeted with this view.

Yes, our campsite overlooked the beach. I was a bit worried because the campsites were really close together but the waves created enough white noise to drown out the sound of the people around us. The kids were thrilled that there was a family next to us with kids around the same age. They were also thrilled that there was a playground across the street from our campsite. It kept the kids busy while we were busy putting up the tent.

We finished setting the tent up and realized we were all starving. So C got a fire started in this cute fire pit and we heated up some hot dogs over the fire. We only sacrificed one hot dog to the flames.

When we went to bed that night, I knew it was going to be cold. What none of us realized was how cold it was going to be. All of our sleeping bags are rated for summer and it felt like winter that night. I slept for maybe 2 hours at the most because I woke up shivering. S woke up very early (like around 4:30) and climbed into my sleeping bag with me because she was cold. We kept each other warm and were both able to sleep for a while. It was crazy how cold it got that night.

Saturday it was maybe 6:00 when I stumbled to the washrooms. I spooked some crows along the way and they took off flying. I was half asleep when a bird buzzed by me at head level, maybe 6 feet away from me. I figured it was a crow until I saw a large white tail flying away from me. I looked up into the tree and saw a very large bird sitting there.

It was pretty amazing to see a bald eagle just chilling in the tree outside the washrooms. She (or maybe he?) spent the morning sitting up there, just people watching. Even the park employees were fascinated by it because they said the bald eagles usually hang out by the entrance to the park rather than near the camp sites. I guess it just wanted to give us an up-close view of the wildlife.

While we were eating breakfast the fishing boats started coming around checking their lobster traps. It was fun to watch them. I hope they got a good catch!

For breakfast, C baked some biscuits in the new dutch oven we got. They actually turned out pretty good. While we cleaned up, the kids spent the morning playing with the kids from the campsite next to ours. Around lunchtime we decided to head into town to see what we could find to eat. We ended up at Avonlea which has a bunch of restaurants. The kids ended up with grilled cheeses and C and I had turkey clubs with chunks of roasted turkey on them. They were good! Afterwards the kids decided that we needed ice cream and I agreed. They were a bit chilly while eating so S and J sat in the sun to eat their ice cream. It was very cute!

After having ice cream the kids realized the ponies from the pony rides were back from their lunch. They begged us to let them ride the ponies, so we agreed.

After that we headed back to the campsite. C took S on a walk on the beach while J hung out in the tent and read his book. I sat out in the sun, knitting and watching an osprey hunt in the ocean, which was really neat. I also watched a family park their pop-up camper two sites down from us. As they were getting it set up, I thought I recognized the mom and son. When C and S got back from their walk, the boy came running over to S. Turns out that I did recognize them - the boy was in S's class this year. Both children were thrilled to see each over. They spent the rest of the day entertaining each other. S didn't go to bed until after 10:00 because she was in the boy's camper (with all the other kids) watching a movie.

Playing on the beach with a school buddy

While the kids were busy playing, C got the wood prepped for the evening fire. He was having fun splitting wood and getting to play with his hatchet.

We cooked some burgers on the lid of the dutch oven for supper and they turned out good. We finished up the meal with some delicious s'mores. I didn't get any pictures of them because they didn't stay around long enough. As soon as one was made someone was eating it!

At bedtime we made sure that everyone was bundled up a bit more than on Friday night, although it wasn't as cold. Everyone slept much better Saturday night, including me! I was wearing three layers of shirts, two of pants, socks, a hat, and C doubled up the blanket before putting it over me. I was toasty warm and got a decent night's sleep.

Sunday morning we had a simple breakfast of cereal and then the kids went off to play while C and I broke camp. We got the tent folded without too many problems and reloaded the cars (we brought two rather than try to stuff everything and everyone into mine). The kids had fun playing on the beach while we were working. Everyone was pretty tired when we got home but we all had a good weekend. 

That evening, no one wanted to cook so we headed out for an early supper. While we were eating, S's front tooth FINALLY came out. It was very loose earlier in the day but she refused to let anyone near it. She was blowing bubbles in her milk when it fell out. I am so glad that darn tooth is out. Now she can go back to eating normally instead of just on one side of her mouth. The Tooth Fairy was so tired last night that she forgot to come until this morning. Thankfully S was tired too and was still asleep when the Tooth Fairy showed up. That was a close one!

It was a busy, fun-filled weekend. We have another hopefully fun-filled weekend coming up when we return to Cape Breton in search of moose! But that's a few days away so I have some time to get ready. Now I think it's time for a nap - I'm still not recovered from my lack of sleep Friday night!