Early Surprise in the Field

My son and I take a walk everyday in the field outside the trailer we rent on a ranch in Alberta. One day we decided to walk all three fields with me pulling him on a sleigh. I went out to try identifying the various animal tracks in the snow. One other thing I did was check the animal poop to see how big these animals were. I seen many from deer and some from quite a large moose. Near some of the deer tracks I noticed a bit of what looked like a small bit of blood in the snow and I went to investigate. At first I thought that it was possibly a dead rabbit buried in the snow but it wasn't. I started kicking away the snow from around it and found a fresh antler shed. The part that looked like blood was from where it was attached to the head of the deer. Then my son found the other antler in the snow beside him.
The antlers are fairly thick which indicates that it's from an older deer. The shape of it shows us that it's from a white tail deer. They normally don't shed their antlers this early in the season but obviously is does happen. They shed them to grow back new ones that are thicker and bigger than the ones before.

Ugly Christmas Sweater (Grinch inspired)

I had to give away a Christmas present early so this one could be worn to all the Christmas events this year. This sweater has got it all. It's inspired by Jim Carey in "The Grinch". You know, the sweater intended to completely humiliate him?
If your looking a this and wondering, "How did she do it?"... let me break it down for you.

"The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns" allows you to make a custom design sweater in any gauge and any size. It may look incredibly intimidating to begin with but trust me, it's so easy! I went to the Raglan (adult) sweater pattern. I created my swatch to check what my gauge was, found out the chest size I needed and cast on.

The "HO HO HO" around the bottom edge was done afterwards so I didn't have to worry about it, I just followed the pattern until it came time to do the sleeves. The sleeves I simply made in red and white stripes with equal rows of each colour. I attached the sleeves and continued following the pattern to shape the raglan. This was all done on a circular needle so every row that had red on the sleeves was started new and cut every time I changed to white.

When the knitting was done I took the red thread and stitched the "HO HO HO" on the bottom (making sure I was giving equal spacing)

I bought a durable felted material from Value Village, washed it and cut it into the shape of the tree and three small trees for the back. I bought stiff felt from Michaels as well as 50 silver jingle bells and small battery powered LED lights.

I sewed silver beads all over the big tree and cut out "I (heart) X MAS" as well as the star for the top and "HO HO HO" for the back. Then I sewed on the felt pieces in the correct places.

to attach to the sweater I got a sharp darning needle and threaded it with the red yarn and sewed the trees and star on using hand sewing applique methods.

For the lights! I simply poked the lights through the knitting around the tree. For the battery pack, I created a pocket and sewed it on the inside of the sweater with a button loop and button so there's no way the battery pack could fall out

All loose ends get woven in.

Last is attaching the bells, these are sewn on around the red and white stripes of the arms.
This is last because it's much better on the ears than if it was one of the first things.

Walnut Husk Wool Dye

The beautiful rusty orange colour above is the result of my walnut husk dye project.

My great grandmother ran an orchard in Trout Creek that my family visited when I was younger. Among the cherries, apples, plums, and pears there were also walnut and hazelnut trees. I remember going out to visit in the fall when the walnuts were ready and seeing my great grandmother's hands were stained brown from removing the green hulls that encased the walnuts.
My Grandma has now taken over the orchard and the family still delights in the fruit and one of a kind "spencer" apples my great grandfather created when he worked at the Summerland research station.
This year when the walnuts began to fall from the tree, I asked if I could have the hulls. The hulls are not useful in any way to my grandma, in fact they're a bit of a nuisance because they are not allowed in the compost. Walnut husks have a chemical in them that kills off some plants, they're also not good to keep on the ground because they kill the grass too.
So she happily bagged up a whole bunch of the hulls and gave them to me to use as a dye. I figured if they dye your skin then they must dye wool quite well and it did!

I took one bag of the walnut hulls (I didn't weigh them) I put them in a nylon sock and soaked them in water for 3 days.
I washed my raw wool in three baths of detergent (greasy wool is not meant to dye well) I then boiled the water with the husks and 1 tbsp of alum for about half an hour. After I took it off the heat I took out the husks, strained the water and put the wool into the dye solution. I left the wool in overnight.
After taking the wool out I soaked it in a vinegar/water solution, rinsed and air dried.


Here's a picture of the hulls in the bag after I took them out of the freezer (freezing them keeps them from getting moldy)

whoa Nessie!

My new favorite book from the library is "Amigurumi Knits, patterns for 20 cute mini knits" by Hansi Singh. What sold it for me was the Nessie pattern. When asking my kids which cute and cuddly amigurumi they wanted the answer was, "the eggplant" and "the peas"... haven't made those yet due to lack of suitable yarn laying around the house... I can't exactly make Nessie colour peas in a pod or they might look like they've gone bad and a blue or red eggplant would just be wrong! I am planning on making the peas and the eggplant though so check back. Anyway I made Nessie here and thought it was going to be one of the hardest things for me to do but with the pictures and clear instructions in the book, I had absolutely no problem. I'd recommend the book to anybody. And see the background of tartan, it's the Heritage of Scotland tartan and is also my new kilt what you see is the pleats (back).

Also, I've been getting ready for Halloween! The countdown has begun and I'm already making my final stitches on everyone's costumes. This year it's going to be so good I bet one of them might even make the Christmas card photo.... I know you probably don't know what I mean but trust me it's going to be good!

A long awaited post on "plarn"

Now that I have my spinning wheel, I've been spinning and imagining spinning all sorts of different materials.
One of the things I've spun is "plarn" (plastic yarn) recycled from shopping bags. I cut the bags into long, thick stips. Then tied them together and spun. I filled up a couple of bobbins and proceeded to make a two ply plarn using half grey wal-mart bags and half white (mixed with blue and green) grocery bags.
I will then make a re-usable shopping bag.
go green :)

Kilt Business

A year later after our initial idea to start a kilt making business, finally we have started. Our business license has arrived and so far we have made two kilts under our business name with the promise of more kilts to come in the future. As the parade season dwindles to an end, pipe bands (as well as our own) take a break and start back up in the fall. Paul has been practicing his bagpipes with renewed enthusiasm by putting a positive outlook on the outcome of his efforts.



But back to kilts. We are ready to go with buckles, straps, canvas interfacing, cotton lining, threads and spare sewing needles lined up and ready for action. If you want to see some more pictures about our kilt making, I have designated a separate blog that will focus only on the business. Check it out at http://mcphailkilts.blogspot.com
All of our kilts are traditionally hand sewn. We go through two needles (both of different sizes) per kilt because after the amount of sewing it takes to make a kilt the needles get dull quickly and as Paul found out in Keith and the kilt making school, you should only use sharp needles.

Paul also designed and built a table specifically for kilt making with a long and wide table top and a shelf below for storage. (shown above)

As for the future of Rapid Panda Express... I will continue blog writing about personal adventures, wool spinning, knitting/crocheting, and anything else that arises that is interesting.

Making yarn while the sun shines!

Let me paint a romantic picture for you of me basking in the beautiful Okanagan sun, sitting in front of my spinning wheel wearing my floor length sun dress. A light breeze rustling the leaves of the trees, my bare feet treadling and my hands spinning soft white wool.... I don't think I can find anything more therapeutic than that!

Now, let me update my findings on my Turmeric Dye. I am 100% positive that there is no way to make Turmeric colourfast. One day left in the sun and the brilliant canary yellow turned to a dusty off-white that looks like it's yellowed from age. I was so disappointed, but alas! I have a solution. I will dye those items with onion skins which I am told by many sources is an excellent yellow dye.



Above is one of my recent projects. The wool is from a small farm in Alberta that I happened to come acquainted with while I was living out there. It's called Ravenwood Farm and they're well known for their meat and own a meat shop in the village of Caroline. All their meat is 100% ethically raised and 100% tasty!

As for the yarn itself. I spun it to be a kind of lumpy bumpy art yarn which is plied with a thin single ply and a chunky/lumpy single ply... not getting into anything technical here or anything. Anyway I made a lovely toque out of it that I may wear in the winter or give away as a gift... who knows.

Turmeric Dye

Above is the undyed wool yarn.

Turmeric is a widely used ingredient in curry as well as mustard. Have you ever had a mustard stain on your clothes? Or has curry ever stained your plastic ladles yellow? That's turmeric for you. Turmeric has been widely used as a natural dye and is the traditional dye for buddhist monk robes. Some also use turmeric for medicinal purposes, turning it into a paste and smearing their bodies with it.
So yesterday I used turmeric as a dye by filling up a pot of water and adding approximately 3 - 4 tablespoons full of ground turmeric into it. For dyes, the root itself is meant to be used because the ground turmeric doesn't dissolve. But the ground stuff is all I had so I used it.

I boiled then simmered the water/turmeric for about half an hour. It became a bright red colour. I tested the dye by dipping a strand of wool in. It instantly dyed yellow, so I stuck a whole skein of wool in. The dye was uneven because I didn't saturate the wool in water first but I like the slightly uneven look that it got.
After I took it out of the pot, I soaked it in vinegar as a mordant for the dye but I've read that turmeric fades with time (we'll see about that).

A Crafty Easter

Happy Easter blog readers!
This year was the first year I used the plastic shrink wrap egg covers and I couldn't believe how well they worked. It took a matter of seconds to decorate my hard boiled eggs by slipping the covers over the eggs and lowering them one by one into boiling water with a spoon. It was instantaneous. I thought I was going to have trouble but it was so simple, I barely had to do anything. They look so pretty.
Anyway, Easter morning consisted of an e'gg'citing egg hunt around the house, eating a breakfast of these adorable little hard boiled eggs with hot cross buns and driving our nearly hour drive to church for Easter celebrations. For lunch we had bacon sandwiches (a tradition worth repeating!) they were so good, I had mine with mustard and alfalfa sprouts.... yum!
We all just kind of chilled out around the house, eating chocolates, running around, reading, etc. Then I made a couple salads to bring over to my cousin's place for easter dinner. I made a raw vegan bean sprout salad and a broccoli cole slaw. All the food was delicious, we had a wide assortment of salads as well as the traditional ham, smoked turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.
After dinner we bottle fed some baby goats, I was given the honor of naming one of the goats. Two were already named Oreo and Cookie, so I veered off the food names and named the little goat "Winston" and it looked like a Winston too.
Then we searched all over the farm in a large scale outdoor egg hunt. The kids were climbing stacks of hay, onto tractors, into the wood pile, up trees and into the barns finding bags of eggs everywhere.
Then we settled down and I demonstrated how my carders and spinning wheel works. I found out that I must be more of a natural at fiber art than I thought I was.
All in all, the day was loads of fun. We brought the kids home and tucked them into bed. Paul and I watched The Passion Of the Christ. A very fitting movie for the easter season, obviously we wouldn't want the kids to watch it because it's far too brutal. It makes me cry nearly the whole way through, an awesome movie though. Paul amazingly fell asleep during the part when Jesus was carrying his cross. I don't know how anyone could fall asleep during that movie, but there you have it. It's not like Paul didn't like it or thought it was boring, he was just tired and falls asleep to every movie we watch together. I can never keep him awake.

Anyway, in the days before easter we did many different crafts with the school, with the library story group and at home. A memorable craft was a construction paper basket weaving project. The kids got coloured hard boiled eggs to put in it instead of chocolates, YES!!!! ten points to the one who thought that one up.


Also, a little project I did myself from the book, "Big Ass Book of Crafts" by Mark Montano. I highly recommend this book for enthusiastic crafters who want a new spin on paper mache or popsicle stick crafts. Behold, the popsicle stick cross! Good project for any time of year. In the book he calls for a wooden medallion for the centre but I couldn't find one. So I used a jewelry piece instead.

Meat Muffins

A delicious new recipe that I have just come across involves my very favorite tea biscuits and ground beef. It's very easy to make and it's delicious! The first time I made them, Paul called home from work and asked as he usually does, "what's for dinner?" This time I replied that we were having meat muffins he wasn't exactly enthusiastic. However, once he had a taste of them it's all he's been wanting. So needless to say, I've been making a lot of them lately.

Here's the recipe :)


Tea biscuits
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup margarine
2/3 cup cold milk

Filling
1lb lean ground beef
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup bbq sauce (I use a sauce called Roadkill BBQ sauce, use your favorite)

Stir together flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Cut in the margarine. Then add milk, mix together until a dough forms.
Roll into flat circles large enough to fit in the muffin tin. Press into the muffin tin forming the bottom and up the sides.

Fully cook the ground beef and remove to a bowl. Add the ketchup and bbq sauce. mix together and fill the muffin cups.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375F for 18 to 20 mins or until golden brown.

and voila! A meat muffin.

Small town Smack Down

I had never been to any sort of rodeo or bull riding competition in my life, but as they say, "when in Rome... go watch bull riding.." or something like that.
We took the whole family and none of us knew what to expect because it was everybody's first time. Some of the riders wore hockey helmets and face guards but most of them just wore cowboy hats on their heads, which was a little unnerving. I wasn't quite sure if we should have brought the kids with us just in case horrific accidents happened during these events. I wanted to say, don't worry they aren't going to get hurt but I really didn't believe that.
It was held in the local arena. Half the floor was used for the dance and drinking that came after the bull riding was over. They actually used the saying, "dance until the cows come home," after the event.
Anyway, it all started out by turning off all the lights and announcing the cowboys using strobe lights and a spotlight (one thing I wasn't expecting). There was a winner of the Calgary Stampede there which was pretty exciting. Then the bull riding started and I was terrified when the bull came out jumping all over the place with the guy riding him. It wasn't a question of if he was going to get flung off the bull, it was a question of when.
After a few of the cowboys were flung off the bulls unscathed I started not being so horrified anymore and really enjoyed it. There were, however, those scary moments when the bull started to charge at everybody and they had to run and climb up the gate to get away, but nobody got hurt.
But just as I was starting to become accustomed to the scene in front of me, they decided to do something else. Mexican poker! They set up four lawn chairs around a table in the bull riding ring (I think it's called that) and four men are selected to sit around the table. They put their hands on the table and the last one still sitting is the winner. In the mean time, they set loose a bull to run around them and charge at them. It took three bulls until they found the winner, only because the bull charged through the rest of them smashing everything in it's path. The man who won was the only one whose chair wasn't in pieces. The table was gone too and even though the bull crashed through the other guys, they seemed fine after, a little defeated but fine.
My daughter was distraught, as I was. She screamed and asked "Mommy, why? Why are they letting the mean bull do this!" But then my boy was loving it, he sat still and watched everything with a smile on his face. Paul said, "Wow, how do I sign up for next year!"
A very appropriate roll eyes and mutter something about boys and their intelligence moment.

Oh and by the way, Merry Spring! Ho Ho Ho

spinning wool

First of all I would like to mention a very important fact about finding and purchasing a spinning wheel for use, don't get an antique wheel unless you are a proficient craftsperson in the art of woodworking and already have tools such as a lathe. That being said, my antique spinning wheel will be nothing but an ornament at the present moment because there are many very important parts missing that I cannot replace unless I make them. Then again, buying an antique wouldn't be so bad if it came with all the parts (most of the time they don't).
But I do enjoy my antique wheel, it's a charming piece to have in my house and it gives the living room a nice country/homespun feel that I like. On the other hand, I needed something that could spin my wool. Using the drop spindle just wasn't cutting it anymore. I was getting so impatient that I chose a stool to sit on so I was higher off the ground and thus would spin more wool at one time. It probably wasn't very good form but I was desperate and it allowed me to make 200 yards of 2 ply sport weight yarn in a matter of a few days. My arms and wrists got quite the workout but I'm not complaining. At least I'll be able to knit for hours on end when I start up again without needing to stop for tired wrists (drumming helps those knitting muscles too as I've come to realize, just a tip).
Anyway, I've desired a working spinning wheel to get those jobs done faster and easier while watching tv (such as the Stanley Cup playoffs... Go Canucks!!!). So my unbelievably understandable husband Paul decided it was time for one. He drove the whole family to Calgary and got me a Lendrum foldable (for easy transportation) spinning wheel. It's made in Canada and came with all the little bits and bobs I need. Paul also made me get a drum carder to make the process all the more enjoyable. Now I can blend fibres with ease! Bring on the wool!
Before choosing to get a spinning wheel I was quite baffled and intimidated by them. A while ago I thought that the wool actually went around the wheel as it was getting spun, then I wondered how on earth that could spin it. It just didn't make any sense and it doesn't. The driver band goes around the wheel. A lady in a museum from here explained that it was made out of a candle wick material, (mine is made out of polyurethane). Anyway, the yarn is spun just like from a drop spindle but it winds on the bobbin itself and it's a faster process. It's not as hard to figure out as I once thought. And after spinning a bobbin full of yarn, I realized why it was so desirable to have a portable spinning wheel. I want to take it with me everywhere (as crazy as that sounds). I would be happy to take it to a coffee shop with a craft group, to my Mom and Dad's house, to a park on a nice sunny day, or maybe to a pub with a pint of guinness... just kidding! but then again...... ?
I love my spinning wheel, it sure keeps my mind off the latent snow that's been throwing up on us around here. I mean come on! It's mid April, shouldn't we have spring?

A few tips for storage of my spinning wheel was to never store it in a window (having worked in museums I should know this) direct sunlight is bad for the wood, never store the spinning wheel folded under the bed (then it will never be used and we can't have that now can we?), and use vaseline or sewing machine oil to lubricate the moving parts around the bobbin etc.

Sprinter - like Spring/Winter

No blogs for a while but I guess I have just been too busy spinning wool, twirling drum sticks, reading the Lord John series by Diana Gabaldon (because I can't wait for her eighth Outlander novel to come out), and lamenting over the fact that the snow has not yet melted. I do a lot more than that too but I'm not going to bore you with household chores. I did find a small patch of grass preserved by being encased in ice which was quite exciting. At least all the snow and icicles have finally fell off the roof and I now know that the front yard in fact does possess grass.

I am all excited for when I can take the family searching for antler shed by deer and for moose poop that I can dip into polyurethane to make jewelry with. There is so much to love about Alberta!

Speaking of moose, I have been doing my hunter's training course. I plan to go bow hunting sometime in the future so I can live my childhood fantasy of skulking around a forest like Robin Hood. I should have stuck it out in archery club when I was in high school, I don't know why I ever stopped going. Maybe it was the fear of drawing the bowstring too far over my chest that would trigger a series of very painful events that I don't think needs very much explanation.

On another topic, so far I have done two balls of plyed yarn with my drop spindle. I'm getting quite impatient with it and I can't wait until my spinning wheel is repaired, which will cut my spinning time in half. I'm planning three different patterns for winter including an idea given to me from a man who recalled his mother making him mitts with unwashed wool. At first I thought, "gross, unwashed smelly wool on a finished product", but then when winter in Alberta rolled around I saw the logic in it. My hands dried, cracked, bled and stuck to my mitts like velcro. Wouldn't it have been nice to have mitts all greased up with lanolin against the skin to moisturize and covered in leather to make them waterproof? Yes! Yes it would have, so for next winter I'm going to make as many greasy mitts as possible and I don't care if it smells or not. Besides, when it gets down to minus 20 to 40 degrees Celsius, the nose doesn't smell anything anyway.

I am also going to make some awesome chunky lumberjack hats dyed in coffee and lined with rabbit fur. They are going to be for a couple of real lumberjacks so I thought the idea of using a coffee dye would be quite the novel idea seeing as the hat depicts their occupation and coffee is probably a good staple food that goes along with it.
I once saw this great knit hat with rabbit fur in a sports store, it had a Canadian label on it and I thought, "great, a hat actually made in Canada sold in a department store", but no. It was a Canadian company and the hat was made in China. It was such a disappointment.
I'm also going to make a sweater for Paul that is a blend of Llama and sheep wool.

Anyway, stay posted for more on my new developments in knitting, spinning, sewing and whatnot. Oh and speaking of sewing!!!!! Paul is planning on getting his Canadian citizenship! Okay so you may not think that has to do with sewing, but to me it does. When the time comes we'll order the Canadian tartan and fashion a gorgeous kilt out of it for the ceremony. I'm thinking about taking pictures of the whole process and making an instructables out of it. It should be good.

Recipe for Bean Mash

Recently I've read an article in a triathlon magazine about nutrition. Gone are the ways of the past when we consumed large amounts of pasta, rice, potatoes etc. in order to get in the carbs. Now we're being told that we should be swapping the refined pasta for quinoa, the white rice for wild rice or barley, the mashed potatoes for mashed beans! As for the quinoa, sometimes it doesn't settle right in the stomach, I like it but Paul doesn't. The main point of swapping pasta out is to get creative in finding healthier alternatives for refined foods such as pasta (white pasta). I have tried whole wheat pasta before and it's just not the same so we went straight back to regular pasta because we knew we needed pasta and our mindset wasn't on an alternative. Every triathlete eats pasta, that's just the way it is. But not anymore.
Now I get to the mashed beans. I thought it was crazy to think of it as a substitute for mashed potatoes until I tried it. It tastes great and so I want to share it with everybody. Ideally you want to find some canned cannellini or butter beans but any kind of white bean would do. It doesn't have to be canned either, it can be dried but it's a longer process of soaking overnight and then cooking them until they're soft. Anyway, I got canned navy beans to try so here's my simple recipe.



1 can of navy beans
1 clove of garlic, chopped fine
extra virgin olive oil
dried thyme
sea salt

Drain the can of beans, rinse. Put in a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and heat the beans through. Drain the water. Add approximately a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, dried thyme and sea salt. Mash with a potato masher until the beans are of a smooth consistency.

And there you have it. It looks just like mashed potatoes, it tastes good and it's full of beany goodness.

Cross Stitch

My cross stitch pattern is finally complete. I got the pattern from wal-mart a few months ago intending to give it away as a Christmas gift to my cousin who is a dog breeder. The only ever cross stitch pattern I had done before was a small marvin the martian that I eventually stuck onto a pillow in high school. So I thought it would be easy as anything to cross stitch a dog. I was so wrong! I realized that it is so much easier to do something that is just one solid colour (like a cartoon) rather than make something lifelike and use multiple colours to fill in fur.
Now finally it is done, three months later. I'm actually glad this is a gift because I've looked at it enough, it's beautiful but I want it out of my sight. Which is probably the reason why I like giving things away so much. If I resolved not to give any of my items away I would probably not have got to where I am in my knitting, which I enjoy much more than cross stitch.
I guess I'll just stick to knitting then.

Did I mention I'm teaching Paul how to knit :) he's done two rows!!!! Go Paul!

Jiaogulan Tea

At Teaopia (one of my favorite places to visit) I tasted a very small sample of Jiaogulan tea. It didn't taste like anything at the time and it didn't smell too much either which is why I got it. Paul doesn't really enjoy sitting next to me if I have a particularly smelly tea. Anyway, I got this Jiaogulan tea and brought it home. It's pretty much some kind of Chinese herb stuck together and all balled up using "light sucrose"(a fancy name for sugar, but sucrose sounds much healthier doesn't it?). When it is steeped the ball comes apart showing off the leaves and stems of the tea.

This tea is described as the "immortality tea" probably because it is drank in the regions of China where many people exceed the age of 100. The tea was first discovered in 1406 as a plant to gather and eat in a time of famine in China. The Jiaogulan plant is a vine and grows like a weed there, but it is a very attractive looking plant. I wonder if I could get myself a little potted Jiaogulan shrub and have my own steady supply of "immortality". It kind of makes me laugh to write/say "immortality" it makes me think of that really cheesy film Highlander, the first one. The only thing I can remember from it is the beginning with his little wife growing old and he doesn't age. But then again she doesn't look like she's aging either, she's just the same person with a grey wig on. Maybe we can explain it by putting it down to the highland air... or maybe she had Chinese connections and was drinking their tea? who knows.
Anyway, back to the tea!
There are many health benefits associated with this kind of tea. One health benefit is that it is good for someone with a sore throat or even bronchitis, however, I've always thought any kind of tea would be sufficient in soothing sore throats.

But what about the taste? you may ask, is it worth it to drink this tea? Personally I think the tea tastes like dirt, but it smells nice so I kept drinking it and it got better over several steepings of the tea. It is meant to be steeped up to five times for about five minutes each time. As it's being steeped I think it kind of resembles a murky fish tank without the fish.

Spaceship Pretzel

I found a soft pretzel recipe the other day and decided I would like to make them... seeing as Paul likes them so much. It was also a child friendly recipe which encouraged to get the kids involved in kneading the dough and rolling it out to form the pretzel shapes. It was quite a messy business, kneading the dough. Countless hunks of dough fell to the floor, but it was fun and we still ended up with enough for all of us. The kids got to make fun shapes and I stuck with the traditional pretzel shape.

The taste was the same whether it looked like a space ship, snake, heart or pretzel.

Snow

Recently we haven't got much snow here in Alberta, but not too long ago I was in the house waiting for Paul to come back inside from being in the car. I looked out the front window not to find him walking up the walkway but in the front yard stepping around in the snow. I think he was trying to find the ground under it all but I doubt he succeeded. Anyway, I went outside into the freezing cold to take a picture of him.... mostly to take a picture of the magnitude of the snow though.

Valentine's day

Well, we had a very busy Valentine's day today in which I was woken up by the kids running through the house shouting "Happy Valentine's Day". There was a party at the school we all went to with crafts, snacks and card giving.

At home I made a card on the computer and printed it out for Paul :) then I made everyone some delicious heart shaped chocolate chip cookies. A few days ago I made heart shaped soft pretzels but they were too much of a hassle to make again. I made a playlist of love songs to listen to throughout the day including: Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts, Love Like Crazy by Lee Brice, Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, (Everything I do) I do it For You by Bryan Adams, From This Moment by Shania Twain etc.... Then I stuck in The Hockey Song by Stompin' Tom Conners in there too just because my son had hockey practice that same day.

Paul got off work just after the practice was finished and I made him big dinner of steak and potatoes. Afterwards he went on his bike rollers downstairs and my cousins came over with presents for the kids. They showed us their new baby goats that they just bought. The goats made so much noise but made up for it by looking cute.

Anyway, after the kids went to bed Paul and I watched the last couple parts of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. I think it's the best version even though it's over 5 hours long, I've spent approximately three days watching it. I'm not sure if Paul enjoys watching movies like that with me or not but I have found out that he did watch the movie version of Pride and Prejudice with Kierra Knightly in it when it was on TV a while back. He told me it didn't make any sense at all but made him laugh at the parts that made even less sense. I remember him telling me one day that he saw somebody walking down the street who looked and dressed exactly like Mr. Darcy... I wish I had seen it.

So then ends my thoughts on Valentines day. A lot of cleaning up candy wrappers and craft projects from yesterday this morning, but first I'll finish my tea. Paul gave me a really neat little contraption from Teaopia for our anniversary and I use it nearly everyday so I thought I would take a picture of it with a background of the view out our front window.

Scottish Wool hat

Remember when I washed, carded and spun a whole bunch of wool I got from a farmer in Scotland just outside of Selkirk? If not, I suggest you look back through the blog and refresh yourselves because I have finally made something out of the yarn that I made. It's the natural colour of the sheep, so it's from the yarn I made that I did not dye red/orange (that yarn is contemplating an uncertain future as a decoration amongst carding supplies etc on top of my bookcase).
The design of the hat was a bit of an improvisation. I had made fingerless gloves with a knotwork pattern before, so I took that pattern and changed the knotwork to make it look more like a continuous sailors knot... if it can be called that. I used two knitting needles to begin with and made a headband using my celtic knotwork pattern. Checking the size on my head to make sure it was the right size, I sewed the beginning and end together but it turned out too tight. I ripped it out and added more of the pattern. After I did this I used four double sided needles to make stitches around the top of the headband and create the top head part of the hat. I knitted along using the stockinette stitch and decreased when I felt like it needed it until I turned out with this (see picture).

Back In Canada

We'll we've been back in Canada for quite a number of months now. We actually have been doing some quite exciting things here that are worthy of being written on the blogspot, however, my laziness when it comes to writing has taken over until now.

I think I should start with the things I missed about Canada that I never knew I missed until we were actually here. Getting off the plane was a rushed kind of business as well as hitting the road from Vancouver for another long haul trip in the car. It was in the car that I realized that I had picked up one of those accents where it neither sounds Scottish or Canadian but Canadians thought it sounded distinctly Scottish or sounded like I was from Newfoundland depending on who was listening and what I was saying.
I could say that I was emotionally moved by the snow capped mountains of the distance, the smell of the air, the Canadian flags or even the size of the roads.... but those things all paled in comparison to our first visit to Timmies... yes Tim Hortons! We pulled into the Tim Hortons parking lot, piled out of the car and headed toward the doors (me with a huge smile on my face). Mom held the door open for me and then it hit me, the beautiful aroma of freshly brewed Tim Hortons coffee brought tears to my eyes. Now i know what you may be thinking.... but it wasn't the fact that the coffee smell was so strong it made my eyes water, that's not what I'm saying. It was all purely emotional, tears of joy, "I'm home" sort of thing. It was an emotional ordering of my usual large double double and everything bagel toasted with herb and garlic cream cheese.
I missed having cream in my coffee, in Scotland they only give you milk (and it's not because they're trying to be healthy, nobody's trying to be healthy there) I don't really know why they only give you milk, I think it's a tea thing.... and their coffee isn't right either (not that I'm complaining) but their fresh coffee is an americano (espresso and water), I never got a taste for those... and if they don't have an espresso machine it's instant coffee, instant never quite hits the spot. Then there's the bagels and cream cheese.... no, Scotland can't get them right either, my problem is that I demand perfection... so over there I became a tea drinker, simply because the coffee wasn't up to par, but the tea!!!!!! the tea there is perfect, and the chocolate there is excellent. I do miss the chocolate there, and it's taken me a long time to get over my addiction to pizza crunch (even though the amount of grease in it made me sick for at least a day), but that's a different story.