A ROOM FULL OF KNITTERS

I did it! I made it to the knitting guild meeting. I knew one person from my LYS so didn’t feel too shy and the knitters seemed to be a friendly bunch. It was very warm here in Ottawa last night and the venue was VERY hot and steamy with about 60 women, needles all clacking away. However, this meant that it was also warm enough to make knitting uncomfortable (you know, when your hands sweat and the yarn just won’t slide between your fingers?).

One very nice guild member lady assisted me in my quest for an explanation of the SSK stitch from my lace scarf pattern. I’m hoping to be able to try out this newly established knowledge on the project in the near future and before I forget it. Thank you very much to the lady whose name I didn’t catch!

At the guild meeting I learned that Debbie Bliss will be coming to Ottawa in October! UNFORTUNATELY, Patty will be in school. Patty is too much of a nerd to skip a morning class, even for Debbie Bliss. Patty may come to regret this decision…

And here’s the square for Annette’s blanket that I was working on at the guild meeting. Not bad for 2 hours of work! I’m estimating 4 more rows to the finish line. Happily, Samantha has already received square number one.

My drafting table is prepared for another night of drafting, sweet drafting. I am also pleased to announce that the rendered picture I mentioned a little while ago is now complete and number two is drawn, photocopied (we do the drawing on vellum, which is transparent, and then copy onto paper) and ready to be rendered as well. You’d never believe it but I'm being bugged when I render! Pesky little fruit flies LOVE the scent of my rendering markers! They drive me crazy when they’re dive-bombing me as I’m trying to work. Luckily, Lee Valley came to the rescue with their fruit fly traps. A friend and I have bought a box each as we’re both having the same problem. This must be a bad year; usually the fruit fly season is over by now.

And here’s a picture of our elderberry (from our backyard!) harvest. SD’s foot, leg and hands make their blogging debut! I picked the berries between class and going to the guild meeting last night and SD bottled (canned if you’re not from Newfoundland) 9 bottles of elderberry jelly for us last night!

If you’re a Monty Python fan, have seen "The Holy Grail" and remember the insult from the French soldiers telling the grail seekers that their ‘mother smelled of elderberries’, you might not want to eat elderberries. Believe it or not, they are delicious. However, it’s when you cook them that you realise how big an insult that soldier was throwing – elderberries REEK when they’re being boiled.