be SAD with me...

there are some conversations you should never be having. but, here we are. 

me: oh, good! the balcony door appears to be unfrozen today, so i can finally get a few shots in the snow of that yarn i just spent the weekend spinning in a desperate attempt at hanging on to some thread of sanity amidst all this gloom and misery you call a country. 

him: okay, but make sure you hurry up and do that... before the Arctic Rain starts.

seriously!

so, i wrapped myself up in my favorite fleecy blanket, and went silently out into the (slightly less) gloom and cold. i considered weeping, but tears would just freeze. 

how much do i love this man, you ask?

yes! 

so, i took my photos.

those tracks in the snow belong to Norbert. we have lunch together some days. like i said... stuff should not be happening. but, here we are.

then i went back indoors, to reexamine (yet again) every single decision i have ever made in my entire existence.

craziest part is... i keep commenting about how mild this Winter is, relatively speaking. sure, we had TWO ice storms last week, but they did not even bother closing the schools or anything. so, really... no big deal, right? i mean... we have not had a single Polar Vortex yet. that is when the locals become concerned. until then... it is just me here... alone... losing my mind one gray, sunless day at a time. 

did i mention that we had like ten days of anything resembling "sunshine" for the entire month of January? madness.

so, please.... come be SAD with me, as i endeavor on a month of daily posts (which i am already regretting). there will be a lot of complaining about the absence of joy that is Winter in Montreal, but (mostly) it will be me documenting the random nonsense i do in the name of Sanity. 

Jultember in a single word...

to be perfectly honest... i briefly considered doing a post-a-day during Jultember. however, as i have been genuinely struggling to find the will to get out of bed some days, said effort was doomed to failure before it even started. so, i took the occasional photo of the random nonsense i got up to over the course of a month that began in one season and ended in another.

this year's balcony garden project has been a literal oasis. beyond being lovely to look at, living like we do in an apartment in the middle of the city, it is especially nice to occasionally harvest something just moments before it ends up on the dinner table.

the inclusion of more flowers in this year's garden meant that there were even more colorful creatures stopping by for a visit. i was (pleasantly) shocked to see a ruby-throated hummingbird zipping around one afternoon (the visit was too brief to get a photo). one almost forgets that there is (non-squirrel) wildlife in the city, and we will definitely be planting even more welcoming flowers in next Summer's garden.

i did have to rescue a visiting cicada from potential death-by-adorable-cat. i formed a human shield between the two, until the cicada eventually climbed back through the netting and  flew away... then i spent the rest of the day threatening to climb a tree to strangle a cicada (perhaps it was the same one) whose noisy antics was driving me up a wall.

the animator was most amused.

him: if you hate that noise so much, why didn't you just let the cat kill it?
me: that would be cruel. they're annoying, but they're cute.

i found myself in need of a quick pick-me-up one random afternoon, so i made some candles. this was my first time using wooden wicks. i am hooked!

the light is stronger than with the cotton wicks, but the candle burns so slowly that it feels like it will last forever. i burned this one for close to twelve hours, and the jar was still near-full. i approve.

i have been neglecting my knitting projects, partly because it was too hot to be bothered, but mostly because i just stopped caring. this top was intended to be part of my Summer wardrobe. maybe next year.

that is some of my own hand-dyed yarn. i will talk more about the genius/lunacy involved in getting this effect on a cotton-based yarn if/when i finish the top.

 

i did manage to (finally) complete another pair of socks (more about that some other day) for the animator, which i started back in April. i also finished spinning the charcoal-grey yarn that i talked about in that same post. there is enough of this to make a whole garment, so now i just have to find a pattern that is worthy of this special yarn.

it is hard to maintain consistency across such a large spin, but i am satisfied with the end result. this is begging to be turned into a comfy cardigan.

i added some new yarns to my stash. i got a sweater's quantity of each color. they knit up into such a beautiful fabric. the fiber is a cotton-acrylic blend that will make for some comfy allergy-free sweaters for me.

i usually avoid wearing browns, but this warm gold was created to be worn next to my skin. this just screams AUTUMN!!!

we consumed a ridiculous amount of iced tea earlier in the month. there was a stretch of a couple-few weeks were the temperature in the middle of the city was hovering around 40°C (104°F), with the "feels like" temperature a few degrees above that. it was... brutal.

this was a particularly hot, dry Summer, so it was a great relief when the rain finally came about halfway through the month. which brings me to the point of this pointless thing...

if i had to summarize this past Jultember in a single word, it would be "tomato".

we got a large box of veggies from his parents' garden, including about twenty-five pounds of tomatoes... because his father is that lunatic. i roasted half of them (like i did last Summer), and the rest were turned into many tomato salads. [random aside: that plate with the chip is older than both of us.]

that particular salad was served along with a heaping plate of Greek-style lemon chicken and potatoes (made by the animator). said dish was flavored with fresh oregano and thyme from our little garden. the leftovers were equally amazing the next day.

we sent a photo of the salad to his dad, who was impressed by my neat arrangement of the slices... then he immediately began amassing another box of tomatoes. you know, in case we were in danger of running out of the stuff.

meanwhile, every now and then, one of us would step out onto the balcony, and return with a handful of freshly-harvested tomatoes. there is presently a large container of fresh tomatoes occupying half a shelf in the fridge, along with three containers of garlic-roasted tomatoes, all waiting to be used up. it is at the point where we are putting tomatoes into just about everything we consume.

the veggie haul from his parents' backyard also included several heads of celery. i chopped a few stalks at a time, and stored them in the freezer for the coming soup season.

we transplanted a couple of the smaller celery plants to the balcony garden project...

and i placed the bottom of one of the chopped up heads of celery into a pot of soil, where it promptly started to grow new leaves.

then, without warning, Jultember was through... and with it went Summer.

now we are racing toward the part of the year that i love most of all. i ventured halfway across town this past weekend to get my first taste of this year's harvest of concord grapes. i actually bought three containers of the stuff, but the first one disappeared within minutes of getting them home.

but the best bit came when the animator was checking the weather forecast earlier today.

him: apparently there is a typhoon forming somewhere in Asia that is going to bring an early Fall to Canada.
me: that must be one powerful typhoon.
him: it's the butterfly effect.
me: yeh, but with like every butterfly on the planet flapping extra hard. 
him: the last three words of this article should make you smile. you ready for this?
me: go ahead.
him: "definitely sweater weather."

yep. still smiling.

i only "eh" in jest...

i climbed out of bed unapologetically late today to find that it had rained while i was asleep. this was a most welcome sight, as Eastern Canada is in the grips of a sweltering heat-wave. the rain brought a brief respite, prompting the appearance of some much-needed pollinators who have been mostly laying low over the past week.

the animator caught a shot of a butterfly resting on a rain-drenched squash leaf in this year's balcony garden project... which he promptly turned into a jigsaw puzzle.

there was some dispute regarding the use of said image.

me: i'm gonna put that picture in my blog post.
him: did you ask for my permission to use it?
me: did you ask for my permission to use my camera?
him: [silence]
me: exactly! my camera. my photo. 
him: but i took it.
me: good luck proving that.

there has also been a spike in the number of wildfires across Quebec, which makes sense with all this heat. however, forestry experts have identified an additional, wholly-unexpected factor that is contributing to there being twice as many forest fires as usual at this time of the year.

you guessed it...it's the covid!

people are stuck at home, with little by way of distraction/entertainment, so the great outdoors presents itself as an attractive destination for anyone seeking to escape the confinement (while maintaining the common sense avoidance of other human beings). as a result, a lot more of them than usual are coming to the same dangerous conclusion.

"let's go camping, eh?"

now, i feel a need to pause here for a moment to address anyone who may have read that last sentence, and are now concerned that i may have gone native. i assure you that no such thing has occurred. i could not stop sounding like i spent most of my life in New York City, no matter how hard i might try. that quintessentially Canadian noise only ever escapes my face when i am joking about the place. trust me... i only "eh" in jest.

where was i again?

oh, yes... more people going camping, which means more irresponsible campfires, which means more forest fires. so now there is one more thing to worry about in what is already shaping up to be the most stress-inducing year in recorded history.

speaking of stress...

'twould seem i am doing a particularly bad job at keeping mine in check of late. i actually found myself on the receiving end of a bit of (wholly professional) medical advice that is unlike any i have encountered before. "you need to calm the hell down," he said. so now i can add that the list of things to (try not to) stress about. good grief!

i began my quest for calm by harassing a farmer about some sheep, and eventually purchasing a couple fleeces from the good people over at Kinnaird Farm. yes, i did recently get two fleeces (from a different farm). however, i really wanted some naturally-colored grey/black wool, so i convinced myself that this purchase was totally justified.

the only disappointment was that i could not go pick them up in person, as a visit to a sheep farm would definitely have knocked my stress levels down a few notches. the animator was prepared to turn the drive into a fun day trip. however, i am taking the whole 'common sense avoidance of other human beings' thing most seriously, so i ended up having the fleeces shipped to me... and the box sat unopened in a corner for several days.

him: you're not gonna open your package?
me: nope!
him: i thought you were so excited to get your fleece.
me: i am.
him: so why don't you open it?
me: the covid. 
him: i see.

it was like every gift-giving holiday rolled into one when i finally broke the seal on that box.

then i broke the vacuum seal on the biggest ziploc bag i have ever seen, and stood there in awe as the fiber expanded. everyone is entitled to their brand of crazy, and i totally embrace mine.

first there was Frosty, a North Country Cheviot/Blue-faced Leicester/Romney/Rideau Arcott cross. i have never worked with purebred Romney or Rideau Arcott wool, but i can see the definite influence in the cross. Frosty is a "hogget", which means a sheep that is in its second year. the term can also apply to the wool and the meat from the animal. yes, i do take my hobby very seriously.

i laid Frosty's fleece out (tip-side up) on a painting tarp that i commandeered for this very purpose. ten points if you spot the ridiculous cat. that is Cordy. she will show up again... and again.

i grabbed a few locks from different parts of the fleece. this one should have been called "Jacob", on account of the coat of many colors. it is insane that all of this came from the same sheep.

next came Blackie. this one is a NCC-BFL cross, and the fleece is finer and more springy than Frosty's. as with most naturally "black" sheep, the color of the wool is actually a super-dark, greyish brown.

i was trying to get a shot with my dark-grey kitty Philly for comparison, but she was more interested in running around like a lunatic.

i forgot to get a photo of Blackie's fleece opened out on the tarp, so i had to pause composing this post to do so (cut-side up this time) .

i took fewer samples from this one, as there was less variation across the whole thing. it is a mostly-uniform dark color with a tweedy patch that left me wondering if this sheep might be related to Don King. [disclaimer for legal purposes: i am in no way suggesting that Don King has engaged in any activity that might have resulted in his DNA being part of a sheep's lineage.]

as per usual, i grabbed some hot, soapy water...

and gave the sample fibers a wash, keeping them covered to maintain the heat in the water. the yogurt containers from last time have already gone into the recycling, so i am using takeout containers this time around... if you need all the details.

those greyscale colors really come alive after a wash. Frosty is on the top row, and Blackie is on the bottom. i really love those silvery-grey sections of Frosty's fleece. it would be nice to find a whole fleece that color.

i decided to wash Frosty's fleece first. i want to keep the locks intact, so i have been carefully laying them out in plastic mesh baskets that i keep for this very purpose, and washing them one basket at a time.

yes, it does take longer than if i divided the fleece in a couple-few batches and washed it like that, but there is something indescribably calming about sitting cross-legged on the floor, carefully organizing chunks of dirty wool into neat rows. that calm was, after all, the point of this whole thing.

unfortunately, Cordy (the Little One of our furry trio) keeps hanging around, trying to eat bits of the wool, and keeping her out of trouble is definitely cutting into the relaxing part of this exercise. try explaining to a cat that the doctor says you need to "calm the hell down". she is as troublesome as she is adorable.

i tied pieces of bird netting to a collapsible laundry rack to make a two-tiered wool-drying rack.

i would have added a third layer of netting to the bottom of the rack, but this setup doubles as a cat trap, so that would have been a very most terribly bad idea. she is seriously my favorite cat.

i want to fill the bathtub with this stuff, and dive in head-first. it is so lovely!

you can see the difference between the tips (left) and the cut-end (right) of the fiber. i wonder if this was the first time Frosty got a haircut. [addendum: the farmer said Frosty also had a haircut last year.]

i am about halfway done with this fleece, then i will move on to washing Blackie's. hopefully my poor cat will survive the over-stimulation.

there has also been quite a bit of spinning in between playing with dirty wool. i mentioned back in April that i had started spinning up the fiber i bought at last Summer's Twist Fibre Festival. [naturally, said festival is cancelled this year... which was another excuse for buying two more fleeces.] that got pushed to the side for a while, but i want to free up the wheel to start spinning all the fleece i have been accumulating of late.

i have two full jumbo bobbins so far, with about half a bobbin's worth of that fiber left to go, which should (hopefully) be enough for a simple sweater of some sort for self.

oh, and there was also a calendar at the bottom of the box of fleeces, and it is filled (naturally) with photos of happy sheep. one of those days was my birthday. it was total rubbish. perhaps i will get around to celebrating it some other day when life is slightly less insane.

it seems to be raining again. i am going to resume sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing with dirty fleece, with at least one cat close at hand to keep me company. i would not have it any other way.

hate is a welcomed distraction...

(half of the photos from this post disappeared for some odd reason, so i had to re-upload them.)

it is roughly six-thirty in the morning, and i am beginning the day with the odd combination of a cup of coffee and a bowl of corn. this is the contents of a can of Green Giant Niblets, to be precise. i mention this only as this is the sole exception i make to my strict rule of only ever eating  fresh corn (i.e., before it is dried and turned into popcorn or cornmeal/flour) as Nature intended it... right off the cob, and only during the month or two when it is in peak season.

i blame the existence of this rule entirely on my mom's sister, who is fond of turning up at family gatherings with mountains of previously-frozen cobs of corn. i made the immense mistake of giving it a try once, which led to me politely passing on all such future offerings. i love my aunt, but those mushy kernels are a crime against humanity. then i discovered Niblets, so now i can satisfy my longing for corn-season by opening a can every couple-few months. no, it really does not take much to keep me satisfied.

oh, and i should add a special note regarding creamed corn. just... NO! should anyone ever offer you some of that stuff, start running like your very existence depends on it, because it just might.

it is shaping up to be a potentially sunny day here in Montreal, although that is subject to change with very little notice. we actually had snow... yes snow... one day last week, so i hesitate to get too excited as to how this day might play out. as for the day itself, i am fairly certain that it is Easter, but i really cannot be bothered to take two or three seconds to verify said fact. we are not religious, and we have no children for whom we need to maintain the facade of holiday cheer, so these days tend to be spent like all others. it is a Sunday (i think), and we are healthy and alive, which seems like more than enough to be cheerful about at this point.

i had lofty plans to spend some of this social-distancing time doing a bit of the long-overdue reorganizing we keep talking about, but that was quickly abandoned for what i like to think of as 'tag-team distraction'. basically, i start one activity, and continue with it for as long as it manages to keep my thoughts from wandering into frightening places. once a given distraction starts to fall apart, i abandon it for some other thing, then rinse-and-repeat as many times as is necessary during the course of a day.

that is where you will find me most days, in the midst of about a dozen incomplete things, while desperately seeking even-greater levels of distraction.

i took my spinning wheel down from its usual storage spot atop the chest of drawers that is referred to by members of our household—all both of us—simply as the unit. that is a story unto itself... which i will get around to telling one of these days.

this is the start of turning that charcoal-grey merino wool from last year's Twist Fibre Festival into yarn that will (hopefully) be soft enough to be worn by an allergic-to-all-the-things snowflake like me.

and i am housing the waiting-to-be-spun bundles of wool in the lovely bag i also purchased at said festival. however, i have to keep the bag stashed atop my crafting bookcase when not in use, as my littlest kitty is far too eager to destroy the thing.

while i absolutely love my spinning wheel and all the distraction it has afforded me over the years, i have to admit that my eyes keep wandering to the Schacht Matchless. one of these days!

so i toiled away at my spinning, until that too started to wane in its ability to distract me, so i had to call in the big guns. turns out that doing something you really despise can be a highly effective way of keeping your head (and hands) occupied.

that is correct... i knit a pair of socks for a certain animator. they are seen here, draped across the storage bag that was intended to contain his new hand saw, but i have claimed said vessel for my own use. he and his saw will get over it.

my regular readers—all both of you—might recall me mentioning that making such things usually qualifies as torture in my universe. however, this seemed like a good time to try something new. spoiler alert: i still hate knitting socks, but that hate is a welcomed distraction at the moment.

these socks began life as a hundred-gram ball of self-striping yarn i purchased from the yarn store around the corner (which seems to have shut abruptly, long before the apocalypse hit). i wound it into two fifty-gram balls, then i started knitting the socks from wherever each ball was within the stripe sequence.

him: i didn't know you could do something like that. how are you going to cope with the unevenness?
me: the world is in complete chaos, so this seems like a good time to forget about OCD.

so i made (non-matching) socks...

then i grabbed some of my own precious hand-dyed yarn, and cast on for another pair. i call this colorway 'koi pond'. pretty, no?

i was afraid that the pretty cable pattern would be lost in all that color, but it seems to be working out just fine. not gonna lie... i was a little tempted at this point to add a thumb and turn them into pretty mittens for myself, but i promised him koi pond socks, so koi pond socks he will get.

him: it takes a pandemic for you to finally knit socks?
me: apparently.

then i proceeded to hurt my wrist from a combination of how tightly a loose knitter like me has to hold the needles to achieve such tiny stitches, and all the extra tension i have been experiencing of late. so i had to abandon all knitting for a while and turn my attention elsewhere in the unending search from sanity-saving distraction.

what could possibly go wrong... right?