from afar

I have been celebrating from afar.

Back in 2014, I wrote about Hillary Clinton's visit to Winnipeg.  At the time, it seemed amazing to me how quick the reporting and the name-calling became inappropriate.  Somehow, if a well-respected, well-known man visits and his speech demands a high speaking fee, it is not always news.

Unfortunately, in the last couple of years, the rhetorical race to the bottom has been speedy, with lots of horrible, inappropriate, undignified things being said... but now, I think it is safe and ok to say that I am thrilled that a woman has gotten the Democratic party's nomination for president.

It's been a quiet month around here, lots of medical appointments and things to take care of, but I woke up this morning and I still wanted a little something.  A celebration.

Yesterday, we celebrated at home because the Professor helped host the twins' summer camp for the day.  They had a visit to the biology department, the greenhouse, the museum, and to sit in a real life university auditorium and hear their daddy talk about his work with bugs.  The boys were thrilled.   Their dad was pleased.  We ate dessert on a weeknight--ice cream and sorbet--and celebrated.  (And yes, my boys play with their Bug Finger Puppets...and your kids can, too!  Download a pattern on sale and get knitting your own dragonfly!)

So, I wore Gigadistal with a dress I'd made and new leggings with flowers on them!  I went out to lunch with a friend who is an amazingly capable person (and mom of five kids...).  I wrote like crazy and I am hopeful that at least one and maybe two new articles will come out soon.  I am trying to make the most of my work time, because camp ends on Friday!  Full-court press twin summer activities begin right afterwards....and we'll be playing soccer, going to the wading pool, trying out our bike training wheels and generally having fun outside, I hope.  Have I mixed my sports metaphors enough for now?  (klutzy writer here, SO not a sports-fan...)

So I am ending July with a celebratory flash sale on Ravelry.  Get 20% off all my Ravelry designs until the end of July with this coupon code:
Julyflash


I hope your meadows are full of Doug the Dragonfly and not Manny the Mosquito.  Maybe at night you will see Luna the moth?

And all the time, we can celebrate that the first woman has earned the US presidential nomination.  No matter your politics, it is a super first for equality and equal representation under law.  It's about time.

doing my job

As some of you know, I have really missed having a professional work life since the birth of the twins.  I have been working constantly--sometimes feeding and changing and comforting twins for many more hours a day than seems possible--but it wasn't writing or designing, that's for sure.

Summer is the season of houseguests here (we've had 9 since May, I think, and more on the horizon) and lots of other things going on.

However, on the work front...here are a couple of steps in the right direction:

This was published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Saturday:
Garbage Loopholes are Trash
(I didn't choose the title, though it fits!)

....AND, after a long hiatus, I have published a new pattern, Slippy the Cowl.  It's a multi-gauge pattern,which means that you can knit it in any gauge from 3 stitches to the inch to 6 stitches to the inch.  Perfect for using up stash, odd amounts of handspun, or that really expensive cashmere you've been saving for a rainy day.  There's also a special deal on until the beginning of September--knit it in any gauge that hasn't been posted yet on Ravelry, do a couple of other things...and you'll be reimbursed for the pattern.  Check out the details on the Ravelry pattern page.
(Photos courtesy of the Professor and some of his stunning summer research students...Gorgeous, and they study butterfly genetics, too!)

 It's unisex...

 It's a hood, scarf and hat...

It uses roughly 200-600 yards of any yarn from sportweight to bulky weight.

The pattern is available here on Ravelry, if you're interested.  (I hope you will be!)

Ice in the puddles

We've had a pretty warm fall here. As a result, the birds hung around later than usual. Winnipeg is in the middle of the continent, so you can see all sorts of interesting bird migrations. A spinner friend of mine in Kentucky (who is also a biologist) asked me about the migrations, and although I'd always looked casually, this caused me to pay more attention. Now I'm a fan of the late summer and fall sky activity.

For weeks before actually migrating, I watch the Canadian geese in particular. They do these funny practice runs, getting ready to migrate. There wouldn't be a full V of lined up birds or even a sort of haphazard one. There's maybe a basic "back slash" in the sky.
(I have to spell this out because this blogspot software thinks I'm doing coding and deletes the post when I really use a sideways V or backslash...)
Then I end up imagining the coaching sessions, complete with what the honking means:
--Guys! Guys! Let's get started! Pull to the Right! Go on! You can DO IT!

--Joe?? Where's Joe? Joe, come back here. Get yourself in line. Where are you....JOE??

(Joe drops lower, lower, lower until he falls beyond the other geese, beyond the horizon, likely taking a rest in some schoolyard...he's skipping practice again. How will he EVER do in the big game?)

In the back of line, maybe those honks were two geese (Eloise and Mildred? Albert and Stan?) who were catching everybody else's air. Maybe they were cruising along and gossiping about things. You know, like the next place they'd rest, some sports game they saw from the air, or maybe the excellent tail feathers of the goose just up ahead. I could come up with a whole imaginary community life story for these geese...except--

Usually I'm walking the dogs while I do this, so I have to pay attention to things like street corners, cars, and other excitement...other dogs, cats, and bunnies. (Bunnies can really cause a serious yank on the end of the leash, along with a hound-y, beagle-y, bird dog sound that is like no other...but I was talking about geese. Right?)

The professor went off to Fort Whyte recently with some friends to see the sunset and take photos of the birds. The photos here are his. I asked particularly after Canadian geese and Snow geese but he said there were also a lot of sea gulls in the mix, but that it was worth seeing.

I should note here that I too was invited to go off to see the geese. I am still feeling a bit under the weather, so I enjoyed the warmth of the couch and the company of Harry and Sally, the dogs, while he had a night out.

Today, for the very first time this fall, there was ice in the puddles I saw as I walked the dogs. A change in season is upon us! I am actually quite excited. Part of my health issues have been some bad allergies/asthma--and frost kills the leaf molds with which I appear to struggle. Bring on the frost! (Breathing is fun! Breathing is fundamental!)

Thought you'd enjoy the professor's lovely images as you imagine fall weather up here in Manitoba. Oh, and when you see the geese farther on their way south? Say hi from me. I'll miss their conversations while I'm on the daily dog walk.

Edmonton without me

My camera went along to Edmonton to a Biology of Butterflies conference while I stayed home. The professor and our resident student went along to a field trip afterwards to see some of those big mountains-- Canadian Rockies. This is good, because so far our resident student has seen Winnipeg. That would be --the flat flat flat (did I say flat?) prairie around here..and a couple of beautiful rivers.

The field trip involved climbing mountains. Our resident student apparently fell several times into great mounds of snow (in early July) and got a little cold. She seems no worse the wear though, and it was definitely an adventure.


Also, the field trip was something like 35 biologists, and they did not hesitate when they saw this sign at the trail head. Apparently they all headed right down that trail. Word was they kept looking around to see if there was anyone slower nearby who they could leave as a snack to distract the bears while they ran away.

I heard all 35 biologists also came out alive at the end of the hike, so I guess the bears thought biologists were too chewy or something.



Even though cell phone access was a little dodgy and internet wasn't available for the second half of the trip, I could tell that the Professor was always thinking of us when I saw these photos. Harry and Sally, our dogs, are great fans of rabbits. In fact, at last count, we think they have caught (and eaten some or all of) three rabbits in our little Winnipeg backyard just this spring. A--not very smart-- mommy bunny seems to have nested underneath our shed and we're hoping the rest of the family moves far away really soon. The problem is that the dogs are very fast so it is hard to rescue bunnies from them. Also, I get the sense that these bunnies are top notch snacks. Like sushi for dogs. Rabbit jerky? Rabbit BBQ? Rabbit Steak? (Well, you know what I mean, with apologies to Peter Rabbit. I do feel bad about this...but there are a lot of bunnies around here...and it's about thirty seconds between an excited bark and the gulp that comes after that. Hard to stop sometimes.)

The Professor and his student saw a great many jack rabbits on the University of Alberta campus. Unlike the Manitoba variety, they weren't afraid of people and just sat there, posing for photos. Even though Harry and Sally the dogs don't really see photos all that well, the Professor just kept shooting photos of rabbits. You know, like how you'd take a photo of a really appetizing sushi platter, or some delicious barbeque? Yep. Mmmm good. (ahh, the call of the wild...)

I hope to get back to fiber arts posts in a while, but right now it's just beginning to be berry season, so along with teaching and editing, I feel some canning activity coming on...so prepare yourself for strawberry shots some day soon!