For a good cause...

My husband is doing a very good thing.

On just two wheels,

over two days,

covering 200 km,

he is joining other cyclists in the Ride to Conquer Cancer.

This fundraising event will benefit the world-renowned cancer centre, the Princess Margaret Hospital.


For more information, feel free to visit Rod's event website and of course, any donation would be gratefully appreciated!


I wonder if there are any patterns on Ravelry for bicycle seat covers? (Just kidding!)

A Trip to the Farm

On Friday I went to the open house at the Spinning Wheel Alpaca farm in Enniskillen and had the pleasure of meeting Nancy and Garth Hutchinson. On the guided tour, I met some of their amazing alpacas up close, as well as the rest of the farm menagerie. Besides the 30-40 alpacas, there were several dogs, cats, geese and ducks, and even a pot-bellied pig! But the alpacas in all their wooley finery stole the show.

I believe this one is called "Peek-a-boo"

Nancy knows, respects, and loves her alpacas. She is a great source of knowledge about these animals. I was also curious about the great white dogs who were in the field near the alpacas and Nancy informed me that they are a large livestock guard breed called Maremmas. Apparently these beauties are nocturnal and make excellent guard dogs for animals like sheep, goats, and alpacas.

After the farm tour, I visited Nancy and Garth's shop which had beautiful and soft mitts, capes, scarves, coats, etc. all made from alpaca. As well, you can purchase wool directly from Nancy and the skeins are labelled with the name of the alpaca who so graciously provided it!

I went home with a couple of souveniers....two skeins of lace weight alpaca/silk blend from "Opal and Trish."

What's a Clapotis

A picture is worth a thousand words and here is a picture of a beautiful finished Clapotis. The Clapotis-making phenomenon continues since it first hit Knitty in the fall of 2004. Four years later and I am just about to start mine using this beautifully soft wool from Berroco. It is Ultra Alpaca (50% alpaca, 50% wool), colour #6296 (Marsh Mix). Webs has a better view of the colour at their site.

March Break Trip ...Back in Time

Unlike the many who escaped to our friendly neighbour's southern -exposure backyard, our family stayed put for the week. That is to say, we didn't put 3000 km on our vehicle. We put on more like 300 km just by carting hoards of kids around back and forth to friends, malls, pools, and large white-covered hills for the best tobogganing ever seen in March Break. The highlight of our week was a trip to see my brother and sister-in-law and their two youngun's.2 kids - 1 kid (who doesn't even use one) = 6 soothers (?)

~Life favours the prepared~

Edna Mode on The Incredibles

Other than eating all their food, which by the way was a veritable feast, we headed out to Crawford Lake Conservation Area where we hiked around the lake and then visited the 15th century Iroquoian village.

The long house...

...yarn...before two pointy sticks and sheep!

...a little light snack...

...one adorable nephew!

...and last but not least .... nature's three-ply!

Happy Knitting Day

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Knitting on the Tilted Duster continues, albeit slowly. I am on the skirt part of the bottom of the sweater still but almost finished that. I can't wait to be done this project and then go on to start something new. There are so many great things to make, like the little mouse, "Lodewijk." I received an email today from his very talented designer, Annita. It was great news ~ she has made instructions for the wee fellow available in English. You can find her here.I also joined this:

...better late than never. I'm still looking for the right wool for this project.



I also have on my desk the book "And So To Bed" by Lucinda Guy. There are at least three collegues at work who are "on the nest" and this book is full of beautiful baby things to make.
What a day...and to top it all off, I got to do some sock knitting-along today with my wonderful friend Connie. It is the year of the sock .... or should I say, a sock in a year? Either way, we have one finished!