Down To The Wire

We’re very nearly ready for our two-month adventure to begin! We’re almost packed (except the food and a few-last minute items). This time we hit upon the brilliant idea of putting the van in the garage to pack it so that we can lock it away from thieves and prying eyes. This saves us from having to do it all at the very last minute before we go. The poor MINI-Cooper gets to sit outside until we move the van out tomorrow and it can go back inside. There’s a reason we don’t usually park the van in the garage. It just barely fits! There’s less than 2” clearance on the roof and just enough space to shut the automatic door behind when its nose is bumping up in front. Like our house, the garage is old and they didn’t make vehicles that big 70+ years ago! The MINI fits much better. I’m betting however that we’ll feel the van is actually very small when we’ve been living in it for a couple of months.

In the spirit of the Sea-To-Sea Cross-Continental Trek (hereafter referred to as the S2S) we went down to Locarno Beach:

Yes, I know Burrard Inlet is not exactly the real Pacific Ocean but it’s salty and tidal and leads out eventually through the Salish Sea (aka Georgia Strait) then through the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the ocean. We didn’t have time to go all the way to Tofino!

The Flat Rats came to help with the ceremony:

They brought the jar and we waded into the water:

I had to hold the jar because the rats didn’t want to get wet.

They did help screw on the lid though. But I think poor Flatti was overcome with emotion:

Guess it was just so exciting!

We made sure to screw the lid on tight because this water has to come with us all the way to the Atlantic Ocean! Then we’ll swap it for some Atlantic water and bring it back again. Brilliant.

When we got home the Flat Rats kept themselves busy supervising the packing efforts:

They are so excited to leave that currently they’re inside the van in the garage tucked into my Navigational Notebook, that blue binder they’re sitting on in the photo. Maybe they’re reading all the maps to help me find our way to the East Coast?

One more sleep. Along with sorting out the food and picking up a few groceries, I have to get my hair cut today. I’m hoping it won’t drive me absolutely nuts before we get back but I’m bringing scissors to chop off my bangs if they get in my way. There’s no way I’m going to spend the time trying to find a hairdresser somewhere. I can cut hair. I do T-Man’s all the time. Admittedly it’s harder to cut one’s own. Pat, my hairdresser won’t approve but I can’t exactly bring her with us, can I? She’s more of a resort kind of woman anyway. Camping is too rustic.

So this is going to be the last post before the S2S. Sincerely, I will try to post as often as I can. I can at least write something without the internet and then send it off when/if we can get a connection. We’ll take lots of pictures. Warning. I think the rats have come up with a cunning plan to photobomb the sights.

Au revoir!

Frantic

Everything is getting down to the wire now! We officially leave next Thursday on the big Cross-Country Trek. I’ve been plotting our route (circular of course) from campground to campground and trying to make each hop a reasonable driving distance from the last one while keeping it interesting. It’s even harder than you might think! As much as possible I’m keeping to provincial and national parks and, since we’ll be going through the US on the way back, state parks. Our personal interests tend toward the natural world more than the manmade one, but I’ve also tried to include some history such as forts and living history museums and the like. However we’re mostly planning to avoid or just pass through any big cities. This will be an epic journey for sure! I’m kind of nervous about how far it is from home.

Happily we have a lovely woman who will be staying in our house and taking care of the garden while we’re gone. That’s a huge load off my stress factor not to have to worry about things like the mail and the watering. We haven’t had a lick of rain all July so it’s dry-dry-dry out there. That did not stop me from buying a new umbrella!

It has a UV coating so it also works as a parasol in the sun! This is a very special umbrella, made in Vancouver by a company that’s been in business since 1935, the Umbrella Shop. This is likely the last such company in North America. I’ve always wanted to check it out and when my old cheap foldie broke it was the perfect opportunity. I was served by the third-generation owner, Glen, who clearly loves his products. After I picked an umbrella out he carefully tested it and chose another in the same pattern that he said worked better and put the first one to be fixed. I love a true craftsman! Surprisingly it wasn’t as expensive as one would think for such as well-made umbrella and it also can be repaired for a reasonable cost as long as the cloth is still in good shape. It (usually) rains a lot here all year around so a good umbrella is not a luxury but a must-have accessory. Naturally I’m packing it to come with me.

Another unplanned project before we leave was a safe carry box for RJ, T-Man’s handmade cigar box guitar. You can’t exactly buy a pre-made case for these things and besides, that wouldn’t be in the spirit of “home-made”, would it? So between the two of us we pieced together this handsome custom case:

It’s made from a piece of green corrugated plastic box, packing tape, paper fasteners, electrician’s tape, a scrap of fun fur, a couple of small bits of industrial-strength stick-on Velcro, a plastic handle and a whole lot of spray glue. Nothing was purchased and the handle was found on the street when T was riding his bike home from his mom’s. Do not ask me why that fun fur was in my stash! I have no idea where it came from but this was the perfect use for it. It should keep RJ safe while we travel and T can entertain the neighbouring campers with his practising! I just hope the glue holds up.

So now we’re just finishing up whatever final chores are left to do. My knitting projects have been all ready to go for weeks. Next I need to pack clothes and books and all the electronic paraphernalia. And go fetch a bottle of Pacific sea water to take to the opposite ocean. Heh. Unfortunately there’s a bunch of stuff we can’t do until the very last minute, including mowing the lawn, making sure the garden is well-watered, getting my hair cut (it’s going to be in my eyes before I get back!) and some final groceries. Not to mention cleaning everything one final time. I think it’s going to be a nice rest after all this preparation, just sitting in the van and knitting while we drive along. And attempting to navigate us across 9 provinces and I haven’t counted how many states. (Poor Newfoundland gets left out this time. But one day…)

Yes, I’m Still Here

No, we haven’t left yet. Things have just been a little crazy. OK, crazier than normal. We spent two whole days that we hadn’t bargained on chopping up big branches from our chestnut tree and chipping and mulching the smaller bits. The mistake was allowing a guy to prune our huge nut trees. He cut branches that were way too much for him and ended up breaking part of the back fence. We paid him a minimum to go away and dealt with the resulting mess ourselves. Why do I trust people to have the skills they claim when they so obviously don’t? {smacks self in head} At least the garbage trucks can get down the alley without hitting the tree and the branches aren’t going to pull down the utility wires now. And we’re all cleaned up, the fence is repaired and we’re back in business. Sorry I didn’t take any photos. My hands were too occupied at the time.

Moving right along. I finished sewing the last two pairs of shorts. Methinks that’s all that’s going to get done until I get back. And no, I didn’t photograph them either. I did a lot more housecleaning and found evidence of m@ths in the attic storage where I keep my spinning fibres. Yikes! So that had to be sorted and cleaned out. Luckily the damage was confined to one bag of someone else’s naturally dyed dye sample skeins. It was right by the door. Now it’s gone to the trash. Another morning used up on unplanned but unavoidable cleaning. At least the beasts are not loose in the stash. Quelle horreur!

I’ve also been busy on what will be our home for the next two months. I sewed a screen for the van’s sliding side door. It attaches with earth magnets sewn into little pockets on all four sides. Now we can leave the door open for air and not fill up the inside with flies and mosquitoes. Not to mention mice. (Once we ended up with 2 different types, a field mouse and a deer mouse, running around our van all night long, nibbling our food and making nests in the insulation. They wouldn’t leave voluntarily and we couldn’t evict them so they had to be sadly dispatched. I prefer to avoid the situation.) I also repaired the screen for the skylight where the hook side of the velcro had worn out. We even got some new LED reading lights. Now if I could only figure out how we are going to get all the STUFF we need into the space available! Anybody know where I can get a shrinking ray gun?

Yesterday we made a visit to the BC Automobile Association for maps and guide books. The lady was very helpful and gave us a tonne of useful stuff. (Membership is so worth it.) Google Maps is great but we don’t have wifi out there on the road in the middle of nowhere. And no, we don’t have a GPS. I likes me a real paper map. I can read them just fine if they are accurate. There’s still a few more details to work out with our route but it’s starting to get really exciting!

Or it would be exciting if only things would stop going wrong! Today I have to make an unplanned visit to my audiologist because one of my hearing aids has decided to stop working. I am definitely not in the mood to have to buy a new one, assuming I can only get one and not have to replace them both. Not to mention they are stinkin’ expensive and we can’t really afford it right now! Kind of necessary to my functioning though. Not quite as necessary as glasses but close. I certainly hope it can be repaired. Quickly.

In between all the other kafuffle, we’ve been watching the antics of the baby crows in our back yard. They aren’t at all afraid of us and act just like little kids. So funny. T-Man put out a tray of water for them and they were just like small children in a wading pool, pushing and shoving and tossing in a leaf just to see if it floats:

These are northwestern crows. They’re smaller and deeper voiced than the American crows which are more common in other parts of the continent. They are smart and cheeky and I’m quite fond of them. Except when they wake me up in the morning with their racket!

Similar to the trio above are this lot:

Do not be fooled by those innocent looks. They also are smart and cheeky! Kept us old grandparents hopping, I’ll tell you. That was an exhausting day with all three but one that wasn’t wasted. Precious is the time we spend with the Grandbeasties. They grow up so fast. Hard to believe the biggest one is already turning 9 in a couple of weeks! We’ll unfortunately be away then. I’ll have to promise her a sewing session in compensation.

Time Marches On

Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.
~Ambrose Bierce

Today wasn’t exactly misspent – even if it did include a migraine on my part. Again. Blech. T-Man and I each had an appointment with our lovely dental hygienist Viktorya. So add up the walking both ways to the dentist’s office and lunch in the mall immediately after (because we were starving) and a quick grocery run on the way home, it took nearly 5 hours in total. So much for doing anything else today. I’m spending the rest of this very warm day nursing my headache in a breezy bedroom. And typing this post. If it sounds wackier than usual, you’ll forgive me, no?

On the walk I tested out one pair of my new apricot sleep shorts (unblogged as yet) for chub-rub protectors under my Stormy Dress. They were very comfortable but a tad loose in the elastic waist. I thought it was much tighter when I stitched it but elastic always seems to stretch out on me. I’d rather it didn’t dig in while I’m sleeping but I also don’t want the things falling down on me when walking. A fine line truly. I don’t think I’m going to take the elastic in, at least until I see how it is after laundering a time or two.

I also tested my first pair of Toe-Up Shorties socks in my gray shoes. They were just fine and didn’t slip down at the heel at all. Excellent! I thought I might have to slip in some elastic thread on the cuff but they are good. Next I need to walk-test the second pair of short toe-ups:

Fiesta Socks Toe-Up

Begun: June 30, 2013

Completed: July 14, 2013

Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett, 75% wool/25% nylon, colour 4455, 210m = 50g, 2 balls.

Needles: Clover Takumi bamboo dpns, 2mm.

Pattern: Toe-Up Socks with a Difference from Wendy D. Johnson, free pattern on Ravelry.

Mods: This time I tried knitting the m1’s on the toe one stitch further inward to make the toe box deeper so they are more like my top-downs. (Top of foot: k2, m1l, k to last 2 sts, m1r, k2. Repeat for Sole of foot.) I knit the rest the same as for the first shortie pair but with one or two less mistakes! Then I finished with a ruffled cuff:

R1: kfb in each st.
R2-7: garter in the round (k one round, p one round)
R8: k round
Bind off.

Comments: I’m still having trouble following this pattern unless I pay close attention and count a lot. There aren’t any “landmarks” the way my top-downs have. Or else I’m not recognising them yet. I do like the toe mods that I tried this time, experimenting with the shape. This pair is a wee bit loose on me, even looser than the first pair for some reason. I maybe should only go to 5.5” on the foot before beginning the gusset. They are very cute though and look adorable in my orange Keens!

I still have 2 more pair of stretch shorts to sew from the scrunch-dyed fabric I showed the other day. I’m not sure how much more sewing I’m going to get done before we leave. Que sera, sera. 

In the garden, I was totally wrong about the woad seeds not being mature. They were definitely already dry and ready to save. I just hope all the ones I dropped while pulling out the plants don’t decide to sprout everywhere! I already have a plethora of baby welds that I don’t need as it is. I also pulled out the garlic and am curing it on the deck before putting it in storage. I’ll probably have to bring them in the basement for them to finish curing before we leave. It was a little early to harvest them but I was trying for the best balance point between rust damage and curing time available. The plants suffered quite a lot of rust disease this year but it was late in coming on so the garlic heads are fine and big. Interestingly my walking onions don’t suffer from this ugly fungus but the leeks do. I didn’t grow any leeks this time however.

We have been spending some quality time planning our route to the East Coast. So far we’ve gotten 3 weeks of itinerary done and we’re only at Toronto. There’s still a long way to go to Nova Scotia! And then we have to come back again somehow, even if we take the “shorter” route through the US. We can take more time if we want to but then we’re into October and much more iffy weather. Park campsites and other amenities can be limited or closed. And truthfully I don’t know how long I can stand to be away from home. My roots are really deep in my own soil and they will be pretty stretched out after 2 months on the road! Living in a mobile shoebox is fun for awhile but it can get kind of onerous if the weather is crappy and everything is damp and grubby. This will be the absolute longest I have ever been away. But I’m determined to see as much of my own country as I can before I get too old to care anymore. Wish me luck!

Yeah. I Know!

OK. I’m just going to put it out there. I haven’t been feeling much like writing or even documenting my makes. I’ve actually sewn 3 whole garments and don’t have photos of any of them. One has even been worn and laundered already. Sheesh! Am I feeling alright? Running a temperature? No. Just preoccupied and busy. When I get some computer time I just want to passively read. I haven’t even done my usual mad googling to plan our big trip. I have a feeling this is just going to be a random unplanned road trip across the country. Unless I can start concentrating sometime very soon.

Meanwhile I’ll distract you with the fabrics for my next two pairs of shorts:

Yup, this is the same freebee fuchsia pink interlock knit that I made into a dress back in early spring. I had fun dyeing these but was a little disappointed that even though I used completely different dyes, the second piece turned out very similar to my dress. Guess it’ll be handy if I want to wear matching shorts underneath, huh? The original colour of the fabric is so intense that it’s not easy to change it unless you use very strong dye. I might have been better off to just try for an even all-over one-colour dye rather than a scrunch-dye effect that left an awful lot of fuchsia untouched. But happily I still have a couple of metres of this stuff left to play with! Later.

The weather has been fabulous – sunny but not too hot. In my world that is absolutely perfect! The only thing that would be more perfect would be a couple of hours of gentle rain each night, clearing up just in time for sunrise. Sadly although it’s close, it’s not Camelot. I end up spending some time watering every day but with T-Man’s help it’s not as onerous of a job as it could be.

Our truncated gardening this year has still produced some lovely veggies. Here’s one of the last of the lettuces:

Esmeralda is like an edible bouquet, isn’t she? This green butterhead variety performs really well in my garden. It grows nicely, heads up well, doesn’t get bug-infested and is slow to bolt without getting tough or bitter. Also it tastes very yummy! My favourite.

There’s not much else left in the veggie patch now except cabbages and kale. The garlic is just about ready to harvest, probably today or tomorrow. The peas are done and I have about a kilo of snap and snow peas in the fridge which get added to nearly every meal except breakfast (usually!). The walking onions are nodding down with their little bulblets reaching for the soil. I’m trying to walk them farther south in their bed but they always want to go their own way. Brats. Not as bad as the asparagus though. Their feathery fronds are taller than me now and they are everywhere around the centre cage where they were originally planted many years ago, except in the middle where I want them.

The blueberries are amazing this year. We have two large old bushes, one earlier and one later variety. The earlier one usually has fairly small berries but this year they are much bigger and the other one, though still mostly green, are like plums they’re so big. And just loaded. We are madly picking and freezing what we can, raspberries too. We sadly won’t be getting any of the blackberries but at least the alley side will attract the usual hunter-gathering neighbours. They just can’t control themselves. We don’t mind but it would be nice if they showed up when the prickly beasts need pruning too, wouldn’t it?

There are green tomatoes in the greenhouse but none have ripened yet. There are also flowers on all the beans but no beans yet. I really wanted some before we leave but time is short. I didn’t plant any squash or cucumbers because I knew they wouldn’t be ready for sure. Most importantly my precious Japanese indigo is doing very nicely and I will get one chance to use it with a friend from my guild. She’s coming over to learn how to dye with fresh indigo and I was happy to at least harvest it once. It just seems silly to grow a whole patch just for seeds for next year’s crop.

Speaking of which, the woad that I’ve left to flower has seeds that are slowly maturing. They aren’t ready yet and I may have to just leave them in until I get back. Though they might escape if I leave them too long! I already have many tiny weld plants that I don’t want. Maybe I can leave instructions with the house sitter? But not unless I have to. There might still be time but if I harvest the woad seeds too early they won’t be viable. Ask me how I know this.

I’m slowly getting the important things done. The kitchen and bathroom cupboards have been mucked out. I still have some cleaning and tidying but there’s no point until the last minute or I’ll be doing it again anyhow. We’re going out for a family BBQ this evening so I guess I should get something useful accomplished before then. More anon. Eventually…

Not So Lazy Days

Apologies! My posts are getting rather sparse, aren’t they? If only you could read the ones that I wrote in my head.

While summer might mean relaxing by the pool for some people it is definitely the busiest time of year for me. The garden is a huge time suck: watering, weeding, harvesting, pruning, tying-up, watering…you get the picture. Plus my Urge To Create grows with the light. Long bright days mean that I can actually see what I’m doing! That brightness also means that I can see the accumulations of dust and grunge and the Urge to Clean Battles with its creative sibling. There just aren’t enough hours in the day! But I shouldn’t complain. We all have the same number of daily hours, don’t we?

Currently my kitchen is in disarray while I muck out the cupboards and the accumulation of outdated foodstuffs. I hadn’t realised I was collecting so much crap but I do know I’ve been putting this off for far too long. Most of it has been caused by a shift in diet over the last few years while I try to figure out what my food sensitivities or allergies are. It still seems very elusive and I think I will need professional assistance with the detective work. But not until I get back from The Great Cross-Country Trek in the fall. Meanwhile at least I will know that the house sitter won’t be confronted by something labelled “Best Before Nov 2004”. Ewww…

In the Urge To Create area I’ve completed sewing two tops and cut out 5 pairs of shorts: one for swimming, 2 for sleeping and 2 for either sleeping or wearing under tunics and dresses. They shouldn’t take too long to sew up. And no, I have no photos yet. My camera has decided not to talk to my computer today for some reason.

I do have photos of my latest knitted FO:

Toe-Up Shorties

Begun:  June 17, 2013
Completed:  June 30, 2013

Yarn:  Patons Kroy Socks FX, 57110 Cadet Colors in blues, leftovers from a sweater for grandson Stargazer.

Needles:  Clover Takumi dpns, 2mm

Pattern:  Toe-Up Socks with a Difference from Wendy D. Johnson, free pattern on Ravelry.

Comments:  Normally I’m a confirmed top-down sock knitter but sometimes it’s nice to go the other way. I’ve been looking for a toe-up pattern that I can wear because the usual short-row heels are not comfortable on my narrow heels. I like a heel flap. This pattern has one and also has the gusset under the heel giving a nice snug conformity to the arch. It’s a little reminiscent of some of Cat Bordhi’s “sockitecture” but a lot more understandable, at least to me. (Am I the only one who finds Cat’s incredible creativeness completely incomprehensible? Must be my 2-dimensional brain.)

For the toe I experimented with Judy’s Magic Cast-On. Did you know that there are a number of slightly different variations on this nifty technique depending on how you begin and hold the yarns and which way around you wind? I did it on dpns and used the oldest method from Judy herself but then forgot to untwist the stitches on the second half. I’ve already begun a second pair with another variation that I like better. More on this later.

Anyway, I followed Wendy’s pattern but making several mistakes along the way which I just fudge-fixed instead of ripping back. I figured this was my first go-round and there is no way that I can be as nonchalant as I am with my top-downs which I have knitted countless of times and can do them in my sleep. These were experimental and I’m still attempting to absorb the pattern in my mind so it will become another autopilot knit.

I started the cuff right after the heel and used a k1/p1 rib so it would segue nicely from the heel stitch into the cuff. I wanted a pair of footlet socks to wear in my shoes for walking. They are quite comfortable and snug my ankle nicely though the heel flap is a little shorter than my usual ones. I haven’t tested them for a long walk yet hoping they will stay up and not slide down in my shoes but they seem good so far. I know the socks don’t match but I was using up scraps (only a few yards left over!) and in real life the difference is not quite so obvious as it seems in the photo.

So now I guess I’d best get back to the kitchen and finish mucking out. Time is getting very short and I’m trying to prioritise in a sensible – rather than totally panicked – way. You know how it is when you have company coming and you want to clean house? Well our house sitter is someone we don’t know well at all (a friend of a friend) and she will be living here for two whole months on her own. Unfortunately my overwhelming urge to deep-clean is brought up short by the lack of time and frankly, I think she doesn’t really care. At least I hope so. Because this is our home, not a rental or a B&B, and we’ve lived here for over 33 years. There’s a big chunk of our lives in this house and, much as we’ve been working on it, we aren’t free of the detritus collected over the passing years. It’s an ongoing process. I am going to write her up a little user manual though for the quirkier things like the fact that the cable modem/network goes out sometimes and there’s an easy fix. Or that the microwave loses its tiny mind every once in awhile and beeps and has odd messages on it’s little screen. Or how to fill the coffee maker so that water and coffee grounds don’t go everywhere. Or the tricks of our complex watering system in the garden. Or…

Back to work, damselfly.