Hapi tales

Right now I am dealing with a stabbing headache, a gum infection and a sore tongue (from accidentally biting it) all on the left side of my head. I'm thinking this is stress-related. Usually I get these kinds of ailments after the stress has been mostly relieved so I suppose this is good news, I'm out of the woods. But it is not pleasant.

We're seeing some daylight at the end of the tunnel for my friend B. Her son who lives with her will see an increase in income, over $250/month, which will go a long way toward alleviating their financial situation. There is potential for more in the long term as well. Also I made contact with the Continuing Care people in the provincial government and they are going to assess B's situation to see if there is anything they can do to help. Bottom line, she is not invisible anymore; there will be people aware of her circumstances and troubles who actually have the power to do something about it. There is a Seniors department in the government but I couldn't see anything there worth pursuing. Seems to be mostly about "positive aging" and keeping fit.

Hapi's fur yarn and the woollen tail sock

My dog Hapi has been losing the fur on her wonderful tail, there is now a four-inch strip of exposed bare skin near the tip (see photo at top). I've taken her to the vet a couple of times and the diagnosis and treatment has been not so useful. I joked with friends about making her a "tail sock" to cover her bare patch in the wintertime, and this week I got serious about knitting one up for her. I remembered that I have a ball of yarn that was spun from her own undercoat fur a few years ago so I thought it would match her tail fur. It is very soft. I made a test tail sock from sheep wool that is not so soft and before winter I will make the final one, assuming that her tail fur does not miraculously grow back before then.

The Mighty Nordic Pole Walker Conquers Her World

Winter continues in a mild vein, a few cold days, a tiny bit of snow, and NO shovelling. Yay!

My own cold is gradually receding, but still there. The day I wake up with unplugged ears will be a major turning point.

Now Hapi is limping. Can't see anything, her paws look fine and when I palpate her leg she doesn't wince or pull back. In the morning the limp is almost non-existent but by evening she hobbles like an old lady. I'm thinking it's muscular or tendons. I am trying to cut back on her walks but it's hard to do, she loves her walk no matter what. Today I am going to resist her forlorn look and not walk her at all. Poor Hapi.

In January I tried to sign up for Triple-A (Acadia Active Aging), a Department of Kinesiology exercise program for older adults that some of my friends are raving about. However they were not accepting any newcomers because the people already in the program are not dropping out, they love it too much. But the woman running the program urged all of us who applied to participate in her new study on Nordic Pole Walking for Elders. I wasn't really interested but applied to the study anyway. Whew, talk about changing your life!

The initial assessment was pretty rigourous: how many sit-ups, how many push-ups, how long on a treadmill, how high you could jump, and a couple of other things, along with an extensive questionnaire covering health history, mental health and attitudes toward aging. Then a two-hour workshop on how to use the poles, a schedule of daily walks, and a set of free poles for the duration of the walk (unfortunately we don't get to keep them forever).

I have to say that walking with the poles is transforming, they are quite amazing. Basically, they transform you from a person to a dog: you lose your hands but you gain two more feet. I walk twice as fast, I easily traverse icy ground without cleats and steep hills are a snap. My arms are getting a serious workout, I can feel muscles I didn't know I had. They told us in the workshop that the poles take up to 30% of your weight off of your legs, which means less stress on arthritic joints.

Hapi was scared of the poles at first, she seemed to think I was going to whack her with them, but she's used to them now. I can walk as fast as her!

I am keeping an eye out for poles to buy for myself after this study is over. The great thing about pole walking is that you can do it any time of the year. My one and only complaint about the poles is that on really cold days I wear mittens over my gloves and it takes forever to get the hand straps over the mittens. I dare not take the poles off. My way around that I think is going to be not to use the hand straps on those days. Not strictly kosher but better than nothing.

I signed up for a one day workshop in Fair Isle mittens at Gaspereau Valley Fibres, I already know how to do Fair Isle knitting but being self-taught there are always things you can learn from an expert on how to do it properly, and besides, the mittens look wonderful (follow the link and scroll down about 3/4 of the page).

Yesterday I went to the shop to pick up the kit for the workshop and browse the shop. I ended up buying some Fleece Artist yarn on sale and a set of fleece soles to make slippers from. They are real fleece, leather on one side wool fleece on the other, cut into sole shape with holes punched around the edge. They come with a pattern for knitting the uppers to the soles. You can get them in every size from toddler to adult male.

The yarn I bought is not bulky enough for the slippers but I already have some suitable yarn for that. I got two skeins in slightly different colour ways, my plan is for a pair of socks in slightly different colours. Some day.

I went to the shop with a friend who wants to learn to knit. She has limited vision but is keen to learn, and she already has a project in mind. When we arrived at the shop we told the woman there the parameters: impaired vision, absolute beginner, specific project, acceptable colour range. She was immediately able to select an appropriate yarn which my friend was very happy with. She also selected the appropriate needles (in this case, a circular needle) and told my friend approximately how many stitches to cast on for the project.

After that we went for lunch at the Port Pub and bought some beer from brewmaster Randy to take home with us. Then we took our dogs for a walk along the Gaspereau Canal. My friend's dog is a male King Charles Cavalier who has a mad crush on Hapi. It is quite funny because Sidney is no bigger than a cat, Hapi hardly knows he exists. Sidney was in seventh heaven following Hapi along the canal trail, his tiny tail wagging just below Hapi's big malamute plume. Earlier, Hapi made Sid's day by chasing him around the dining table, after months of never noticing his existence at all.

Today I am going to the Brownbaggers Lunch at Acadia to hear a talk on Kluscap (often spelled Glooscap) and Wabenaki mythology. Hapi will mope at home.

Completed

In the last few days I have completed or almost completed two projects, a knitted beret and a woven scarf.






I took the photos of the beret while it was being blocked on a large plate. The bottom side shows a wave pattern.






On the top side of the beret are little pink fishing boats, and multiple Cape Splits. I am sure you would never recognize them if I hadn't told you.

In the centre is a star and it isn't really a stella maris because that would have five points not six.

Around the edge of the star are the words Baxters Harbour. I am sure you would never recognize them if I hadn't told you.


The scarf is in a pattern called 2/2 twill. I think that means that it is a twill pattern in which you lift two shafts at a time. Looking at this picture I see an error in the pattern that I hadn't noticed before. Oh well. I'm afraid there are a couple of places where I screwed up the pattern.

This scarf is not quite complete, I still have to weave in the weft ends and cut the fringe to even lengths.

I don't have time to start any more projects right now, this will be it for a while.

A weekend of nothing

Weaving and woodcarving classes at Mimico Adult Ed end on the 19th, I have two more classes left. I didn't think my weaving project would be done by then and our instructor wants everything off the looms because there are no classes in the summer and she wants everything to be ready for new students in September. So she let me take the loom---it's a collapsible table loom---home this week to try to get my project finished. It is not completed but it's on target.


My woodcarving is progressing, but I am at a point where I need to be referring to my plasticine model for direction. I haven't actually completed the model, I left parts of it rather vague. So I brought it home to work on as well. My subject is the Emily Carr painting, Big Raven. It's interesting, she translated a three-dimensional object into a two-dimensional painting, and now I am trying to translate her two-dimensional painting into a three-dimensional carving. Not as easy or as simple as it might sound!


The blob in the upper right corner is intended to become a tree. I may or may not finish that, I have already blocked the tree into my carving so I am not too worried about that part. The area that really needs work though is the bottom, particularly on the right hand side. I have a set of small carving tools that are not very sharp, but they are perfect for working the plasticine.

Also, I am knitting another beret, this one without a brim. I am knitting it for a friend in Nova Scotia, I promised it to her last year. The pattern is complicated, I have been working on designing it all weekend, and now there are bits of coloured graph paper everywhere. I think I have it worked out though, I just have to knit it. It will have waves and little fishing boats and Cape Split as seen from Baxter's Harbour, and an Acadian stella maris (gold star on blue background) on the top.


The stella maris is both the Star of the Sea and the Star of the Virgin Mary, the Acadian patron saint. I am not Catholic (or Acadian) but I have a bit of a fondness for the Virgin Mary. She has many titles, one of them is Queen of Heaven. Some say that this harks back to her previous incarnation as the Goddess. She is not all that she seems. The Catholic Church only reluctantly admitted her to their pantheon of saints, she came to be there by popular demand.


And in my spare time I am reading Aging Well by George Vaillant, a very interesting book. He's a doctor who spent a lifetime working on a project to follow several hundred men and women through their lifetimes, from the teen years well into their eighties, to study adult development. He says, "And so whenever ... I write pedantically of successful aging---think joy. The heart speaks with so much more vitality than the head."

My only quibble so far with this book is that it seems very skewed toward the masculine experience. Women are included in the project, but I sense a distinct masculine filter, even though he tries very hard to be non-sexist.

I have not been outdoors except for some grocery shopping, a trip to the library and a couple of trips to the dogpark. When I don't get outdoors I feel like I am not doing much. Somehow I equate going outside with doing things, doing stuff indoors doesn't count. So even though I actually have been quite busy, I feel like I haven't done a thing all weekend, except drink seemingly endless cups of tea.

We had a cold low pressure pass through yesterday, it brought strong winds and snow! Well, I didn't actually see the snow, it was late at night and Isaac says he saw it on his way home from work (he's working very late with the Hot Docs film festival). We actually had to turn the furnace back on, it's so cold.

Last weekend I took Dobby to the dogpark with a new toy, a kind of sausage-shaped ball on a rope tether. I would swing it around over my head and let Dobby jump for it, then throw it as far as I could. Well, on one particular throw, I was swinging the thing over my head and Dobby was leaping up trying to get it. He leapt up behind my back and missed, but as he came down one of his legs caught on my shoulder bag strap and he lost his balance. He fell backwards, with his leg still tangled in the shoulder bag strap, which of course brought me down backwards on top of him. I smacked my head hard against the ground.

I was OK, as was Dobby, but a bit shaken up. The next day my neck hurt and I didn't make the connection until a couple of days later when a neighbour suggested it might be whiplash from the fall. My neck still hurts and now I have a headache as well. There's no bruise or tender spot, just the headache and neck stiffness. What with all the other health issues I am reluctant to take aspirin or any other pain killer, so by evening I am just tired of the headache. I hope it clears up soon.

Needless to say, I am not playing with that dog toy anymore.

Floppy beret with brim, not shown

I finished a knitted cap yesterday. I am not showing a picture of it because it would not photograph well. I did it in a dark green chenille yarn which doesn't show the stitches well, and the shape is basically circular. So what you would see would be a fuzzy green circle.

I could wear it and photograph my reflection, but that just sounds like too much work. It's a winter cap, so I won't be wearing it any time soon, and I haven't decided yet whether I like it or not. I may end up ripping it out after a couple of wearings, not sure yet.

It is basically a very large floppy beret with a brim on the front. I like the look of floppiness but I think it might not stay on my head very well because of its floppiness. Also, I was trying for a hat with a brim to protect my glasses from falling snow, and had a hard time finding a pattern for a cap with a brim that I liked. I finally decided to combine two patterns, the floppy beret and a kind of knitted baseball cap.

After several goes at it, involving much ripping out and reknitting, I think I finally got the hang of how to knit a brim on a cap. The instructions I was following were overly complicated, I followed them anyway because I thought there might be a good reason for the complications, but it turns out there wasn't.

So in the future, here is what I would do.

Start the cap or beret with a provisional cast-on, using a crocheted chain in scrap yarn. When the cap is done, remove the crocheted chain and transfer all of the stitches to a circular needle one size smaller than the size you used for the cap. Bind off half the cast-on stitches in the following way: *k2tog, k1, move the stitches back to the left needle*, repeat until all desired stitches are bound off.

With the remaining stitches you will start the brim. Essentially you are knitting a very large sock toe in the toe-up short row method; you knit progressively shorter rows with wrap & turns (W&T) each time you turn a row. When the brim is the desired length (i.e., distance from the cap outward), you knit progressively longer rows until you have a brim-shaped pocket attached to the cap along one side. Cut out a piece of flexible plastic (a cheap plastic kid's placemat is perfect for this) to fit the pocket. Cut the yarn leaving a 20" tail. Insert the plastic stiffener into the pocket and sew up the pocket opening with the 20" tail.

This is not how I did my cap, the instructions I followed left me with two holes to sew up and a little more length on the cap at the brim than I really wanted. I am not sure what the purpose of that was.

My forest trail socks

In all the fuss over breathing, I forgot to mention that I finally finished my new pair of socks. The yarn is hand-dyed by Fleece Artist (Seastorm colourway), the design is my own.


It's a toe-up sock with a Magic Cast-on and a pattern called Spiral and Eyelet that I picked from a book of knitting patterns. Not a terribly imaginative name, but isn't the colour lovely?

Socks and tiers

I brought some knitting along with me from Toronto, but I have done very little work on it, too much else to do I guess. However I thought I'd show what I have done so far anyway.


This is a pair of socks in Fleece Artist sock yarn, Fleece Artist is Nova Scotian. I had quite a bit of the sock on the left done when I arrived and started the second sock here. The reason the two socks are still on needles is because I want to make both of them the same length (duh...) and don't know how far this ball of yarn will go.

It's hard to see the pattern, but basically it's kind of a leaf motif. You can make it out on the right side of the sock in the middle, the left side has the same motif in mirror-image. I found it in a book of knitting stitches and decided to try it out on a pair of socks. I love the colours!

These are toe-up socks, you start at the toe and work up. There is a technique for doing both socks at once, but I would have had to divide my yarn into two balls right at the beginning and use a very long (or maybe two very long) circular needle(s), but I didn't do that.

While in showing off mode, here is my neighbour's handiwork tiering wood. I've never heard that term before, I always say 'stacking' wood, but 'tiering' is the correct term around here.


Another neighbour thought this photo was a classic Nova Scotian fall dooryard scene: the squash (on the purple picnic table), the firewood, and the apple trees.


My neighbour is finished tiering, the last of the pile on the left is being burned now so no point moving it around. Great job, eh?

I found it

In a fit of despair I started packing up to leave last night, and I found it.

Should have cheered me up, should have made me feel like the universe was looking out for me after all, but it didn't.

I don't know how I am going to pack everything home, I had the truck full to the brim coming out here in the spring and now I have more stuff to take home. Oh well, starting to pack made me feel like I had accomplished something. Two boxes down, a million to go!

Lost notebook

It's driving me crazy so I am writing it here.

My knitting notebook has disappeared. I cannot find it anywhere.

I have turned the house and my truck upside down looking for it. I have attempted to retrace my steps and have called friends that I have stayed with to see if I took it there and left it, but so far no luck. I do not remember taking it anywhere.

This notebook contains instructions and measurements for all the stuff I have made over the past year. Most of it was stuff I designed myself, so I spent many hours knitting and ripping it out before I finally got it right and wrote it down.

All gone now.

Disappeared.

It is driving me crazy, I cannot believe I have just lost a year's worth of work.

And I have absolutely no idea how I lost it.

Birthday socks

Three Four out of the four five people living in this house have spring birthdays: Phelan (March), myself and Gretel (April), and Isaac (May). This past weekend it was Gretel's birthday.

I knit a pair of socks for her birthday.

I made her stand on a stool by the kitchen window to model them, so I could take a photo with natural light.

Phelan really likes the socks.












Tristan made beaded hair barrettes for her, in her favourite colours, green, brown and red.

His idea, his work, with a little help from Dad.






It was interesting knitting these socks, the variegated yarn made interesting patterns.















I used a heavier yarn than usual so they went really fast. I'm thinking that once I use up all my sock yarn I may just switch to the sports weight yarn because it knits up so fast and still looks and feels good.






Today is Josh's birthday, Happy Birthday Josh!

Hat slippers and sock

My second beret is finally done and I have worn it a couple of times.

It fits perfectly.

The original pattern I drew for this was completely unrealistic, it called for knitting up to four colours of yarn in the same row, and you're only supposed to do two. Which I learned the hard way. So I redrew the pattern with only two colours at a time, except for about three rows where the pink changes to blue near the top, but those rows are fairly short and so not too bad.

Three colours in a single row is barely doable but four is outrageous, as I found out.

I didn't think I would get a chance to wear it this spring because it seemed to be warming up so fast, but we've had a few chilly days so a nice woollen beret is just the ticket!

After a few uses, I had to tighten up the opening, it was starting to slide down over my eyes. I did one row of single crochet inside the brim to tighten it.







I also finished my slippers, finally finished punching holes in the leather so I could lace them onto the knitted slippers.

It took a long time because punching the holes was boring, so I would only do a dozen or so at a time.









The yarn needle in the picture is fantastic, it has a large loop at the tail-end instead of a tiny slot for threading the yarn onto it.

Very handy and easy to use!



I've now started a sock.

Next beret

I finished knitting a second beret and am blocking it now.

It was kind of an odd shape when it first came off the needles so I am hoping the blocking will have the desired effect.

However, it is taking a very long time, it's been wrapped around this plate for two days now and it's still not quite dry!


It's already warm enough to go hatless now, I may have missed my window of opportunity to show it off.

Assuming it fits...

My first beret

Finished my beret around 12.30 Monday morning.















About halfway along (sometime on Sunday afternoon) it was obviously turning out much too small, but I was so tired of ripping it out and starting over again that I decided to just plough on through and get it over with.


Glad I did.


It's pretty, I learned a lot from all the mistakes, the next one will go way faster.




And be bigger ;-)






I haven't quite finished, still have to weave in all the ends, but that is a matter of a few minutes.

Project progress reports

Right now I have two knitting projects on the go, slippers and a beret.

Here is the status of the beret project. I am working from a pattern in Anna Zilboorg's 45 Fine and Fanciful Hats to Knit, using Cascade yarn. I've been choosing the colours I want to work with, graphing them into a particular beret design in the book, doing up swatches in different needle sizes (the book calls for a 5 stitch per inch gauge) and experimenting a bit with how the colours will go together as well.

I graphed the design in black and white first, then redid it with coloured pencils to get a better idea of what it would look like with the modifications I was making.






Over the past year I have been buying skeins of Cascade Peruvian highland (Cascade 220 and The Heathers) yarn and stashing them away, four of these colours I used for Sam's toque. I use paper bags to hold the yarn balls I am currently working with, to keep them from rolling away and also to keep them clean.

The colours I chose for the beret are blue and green for the background and yellow and pink for the design elements. The beret is started on 3.25mm circular needle (lower left). In the centre are a series of swatches all knit together to test different needle sizes and see how some of the colours will go together.


The slippers are almost finished, the knitting part is done. I used Judy's Magic Cast-on and a toe-up short-row design that I got from Vogue's Ultimate Sock Book. The yarn is Atkinson yarn, a locally spun yarn that is not really good quality, it has a lot of dry grass in it and is quite coarse. But suitable for slippers.

For the toe, I started with 32 stitches total, 16 for the top and 16 for the bottom. Working the 16 bottom stitches, I shaped the toe using the short-row technique, until there were 6 stitches between yarn-overs, then back up to 16 stitches and then continued knitting in the round until I the point at which I wanted to split the cuff.

An inch before I reached the start of the leg (and two inches before the start of the heel), I switched from circular knitting to back and forth knitting, creating a gap in the rows to separate the cuffs. I increased at each end of every other row (the knit rows) until I had added an extra sixteen stitches to the row length.

I worked the heel exactly the same as the toe. When the heel was completed I began decreasing at the back of the heel, two decreases every four rows. In the meantime, after adding the 16 stitches at the front of the cuff I began to decrease, this time every row instead of every other row. I continued to decrease until there was only one stitch left on the needle, at the very back of the heel, and tied it off.

Many years ago my brother gave me some scraps of leather which I have saved "for a rainy day". Pack rat.

I don't know if you can see it so well, but right now the slippers are covered in Dobby dog hair. Them's the hazards around here!

My intention is to cut soles for the slippers and sew them on, in part to protect the bottom of the slippers (from wear and hair!) and in part to make them less slippery on the wood floor. But I need an awl or leather punch to make holes in the leather, so for the moment the project is on hold until I get one.




And as you can see, Phelan has already been by for a visit, the chickens have been put to bed in the living room. This time he didn't cover their heads, I guess for daytime naps he lets them peek out.

Almost done

I've been working on a hat for Sam's birthday. Of course, from what he tells me about the weather at his place, he won't get much use out of it before next winter.









The hat is modelled on an old hat of mine, one I made in the '70s. But because I used multiple colours and a softer yarn, the cable pattern does not show up as clearly as on the old hat. It gives it a nice textured look, but you can't really see the cables.

On the first go-round, I ended the top of the hat with a kind of beige and red bull's eye, but it didn't look right. So I redid it.













The old hat has faded a lot, you can see the difference in colour in this picture, with the brim unfolded.








There are still a few ends to weave in but it is otherwise done. I can send it off and move on to another project.

Nitwits and snowmen

A good fresh fall of wet snow, ideal for snowballs, snowforts and snowmen. Not so great for sliding, probably awful for driving.

At the dog park today, John (owner of Grover, a big Husky cross) and I made a snowman, John said it was probably his first snowman since the '70s!

The dogs were intensely interested, several wanting to pee on it before it was even constructed. As a result our snowman now has a bright yellow shoulder, four feet up from the ground.

Right now he only has a knob for a hat, maybe John will find an old hat to put on our snowman later today, when Grover feels the need to return to the scene of the crime.

Last night I went to KnitWits at the College-Shaw TPL branch. Jennifer was there, we greeted each other like long lost sisters, haven't seen her since the Parkdale Fabulous Knitters last spring. It was the first night of the season, so only four of us, but a good time had by all. Carole and Lily were regulars from before Christmas, Jennifer started the group in late October but didn't advertise it until the latest issue of What's On (at the TPL). Carole invited Lily and I to the Knitting Club on Saturday mornings at the Annette branch.

Sam asked me to make him a hat instead of socks, I asked the group for advice last night, and Jennifer suggested trying Noro yarn for a toque similar to the one I made back in the days. Way back in the days! She showed me mittens she made in Noro and I thought they were beautiful so I'm thinking I might try it. I was a bit reluctant to do another hat like my old one, I didn't think it was all that great, but they disagreed. It may be old but it has its good points.

Oh joy oh joy

My copy of 45 Fine and Fanciful Hats has arrived! Can't tell you how excited and pleased I am to own it now.

Now I just have to find (at a price I can afford!) Magnificent Mittens...

Socks

The last few days I've been sorting through my yarn stash and working on ideas for using it. I have several projects in mind, and have gone searching on the internet and in the library for patterns for those projects. But I am feeling a bit stymied by the sock I am currently working on.

Actually, I've been working on this sock since last winter, I took it with me to Nova Scotia and British Columbia last summer, and worked on it sporadically. Right now I am turning the heel, which means I am about halfway through it. Not a lot of progress.

The problem is, it is the second sock of a pair (the first sock I started several years ago, and only finished last March) and I am thoroughly thoroughly bored with it. But yet determined to finish it before starting anything else. So, I dream about new projects with new yarn and stare at the old project and old yarn, willing it to finish itself. Hasn't worked so far, but as the old saying goes, Perhaps the horse will learn to sing.

And my feet are cold, I really do need some nice warm socks! Socks figure large in my plans for that yarn stash.

I wanna go to sock camp

I'm about to take off for Barrie to visit my brother for a couple of days. It is totally gorgeous out. Yesterday it was so warm it felt like summer. No daffodils, no tulips no leaves on the trees, but it felt like summer! I Read some blogs this morning and apparently it's like this everywhere in the east. And I phoned a friend in Nova Scotia last night and they are having this weather too. The gods smile on the east.

Speaking of reading blogs, I was reading the Yarn Harlot, her second posting about sock camp on the "wet" coast, Orcas Island WA. She's on a book tour right now, but she's spending a week at this sock camp. I am so jealous! I yearn for a sock camp!

Last night at the Parkdale Library knitting group Rhonda and Rod were back, and we had a lively time talking about their move to Cape Breton next week, Jennifer's promotion to the Shaw and College Library at the end of the month, and a bit of the history of the group. Because they are thinking of disbanding it this summer. The group has been going for about three and a half years, it started when Lori walked into the library and offered her services as a knitting tutor. The library took her up on it. After all, this is what libraries are about, the loaning of information sources. Why shouldn't it be an 80-something knitting mentor?

All for now, I am just about packed, want to dig out my bike and load it onto the truck and then I'm off. Lake Simcoe here I come...

The inevitables: taxes and knitting

According to the weatherman this may be the last sunny day of the week, and I spent it hunched over the computer trying to do my income tax. Sigh.

Well, it doesn't look too bad. I have one question about one deduction and then it's done. Couldn't get through to the IRS of course, this being the month when taxes are due, so I'll give it one more shot tomorrow and then if I can't get through I'm going to just put the whole thing on hold until I get back from Belize. No matter what happens about that deduction I still get a refund so it doesn't matter if I'm a bit late. Looks like my tax refund will take a chunk out of the cost of the trip to Belize.

Lots of news at the knitting group tonight. Jennifer applied for and got a job as a permanent librarian, but at another branch. She's kind of down about it, she doesn't really want to leave Parkdale. But, it means she's permanent now so she has job security and all that.

The odd thing is that now that she has this new job, her old position at Parkdale is open, and even though she was not permanent when she was in that position, it will now become a permanent position. The way the system works she can apply to get her old job back, and provided no one senior to her applies for it, she could very well get it. So it's possible that she will only be at her new job for a few weeks and then return to her old job, but as a permanent librarian! That is what she would really like to happen. So she has to go to the other branch in order to become permanent, but she can come back as soon as she's permanent. Isn't bureaucracy grand.

The other bit of news is that Rhonda dropped by to say goodbye before moving to Cape Breton. She brought along her husband to meet all of us. Laurie jumps up and says "Ah, the infamous Rod! How nice to meet you!" Rod went around and shook everyone's hand, and then held court with one joke after another. He's got that Cape Breton accent and the sense of humour, it was fun to listen to him.

I asked him what he did for a job and he said he was a deep trench construction worker. He only does construction in deep trenches, up to 50 feet down! I said, there can't be much of that kind of work in Cape Breton and he agreed. Most of his work is out west in Alberta, putting in pipelines. He goes out there for 36 day stretches and then the company pays his way home for 9 days. Not bad!

Rhonda asked about the Long Tail Cast On and I ended up showing her how I do it. I apologized for not yet having learned the right way to do it, she could do it my way until somebody shows her how to do it right. Well I suppose if I teach enough people to do it the way I do, then it will be just as right as any other way. Hmmm. Maybe I could teach a course, MzOdell's Long Tail Cast On.

Jennifer was knitting a dish cloth like the one she did last week. When I arrived she said she was making it for herself, the last one was a birthday present for a friend. But then Rhonda came in to say good bye and Jennifer was almost finished the dish cloth, so she speeded it up and cast it off and wove in the ends and presented it to Rhonda as a housewarming gift. Rhonda said it was too beautiful to use as a dish cloth and Jennifer said then she wouldn't give it to her, if she wanted it then she had to use it as a dish cloth. I said to Rhonda that she could just use it on clean dishes.

So that's it, I almost have my taxes done but I still haven't learned to the Long Tail right, and maybe I'm not going to. But I will get the taxes done.