Green(ish) Thumb

I was genuinely shocked when I returned to Dawson last Saturday and saw how green everything was.  When I left the buds were barely out on the trees and while it was summer in my heart, it looked like we had a long time to go before Nature was going to catch up.  But I almost didn't recognize the place when I got back.

It's growing like mad out there.  Lovely poppies like these have started to appear in my yard:

And whatever this is, it's blooming in the garden:

I hadn't thought I would do much with the garden this summer.  While this is the first time that I've actually had my very own outdoors, I don't see myself as much of a gardener and figured that I'd be happy to just let things go (with my landlady keeping the worst of the jungle weed-whacked).  But then last weekend Ben put a big planter with different varieties of mint on the porch, and I figured that if I was going to have to water that, then I might as well add a couple of pots of things I like.

I couldn't find any basil, but did get lavender and oregano.  I also put the rosebush outside because it was getting in the way on the windowsill.  It doesn't look like it plans to bloom again any time soon, but the new foliage has an equally lovely colour.

These few pots sit at the top of a slippery slope.  On Monday my landlady's partner showed up and did all sorts of raking and tidying up outside.  The yard looked so much better, I started to think about clearing out the dead flower stalks from last year and other debris from the flower beds.  Today the weather was so fabulous, and I was revelling in having an actual real weekend, and just... kinda sorta... bought a few seed packets and spent a few hours outside making things prettier.

I'm not sure it shows, but this is an "after" shot.  While it is still rough around the edges, and I didn't do nearly all the weeding I could have, it is a vast improvement.  Besides clearing out last year's dead stuff and some weeding, I planted flat-leaf parsley in the garden, added a planter of chives to the collection by the door, and planted cosmos in a half-barrel at the end of the driveway.

Cosmos must be lovely, if even the seeds look this interesting.  I also have a packet of moonflower seeds soaking in a cup of water (as per the package's directions) and will put them out tomorrow.  I also spread around some mystery seeds.  Some kind of flower that bloomed in the garden last year had all kinds of seeds lurking in its dried out pods, so I planted those.  And I discovered wildlife in the garden, too:

I'm not sure who belongs to this cat, but he was awfully affectionate--if very dirty from rolling around in the dust underneath the bench.

I don't really have high hopes for anything I planted, and fully expect my attention to wander to other projects long before the growing season is over.  I will probably keep watering the porch plants, if only because it is so refreshing.  It was a hot hot day today, and getting my feet all went in the early evening was remarkably refreshing.  And Ben did say something about mint juleps and mojitos when he planted all that mint...

Man Cave Curtain

Ben moved into staff accom recently--it's a scuzzy little room in an Atco trailer and really is rather...  well...  it's staff accom, and there is a reason I pay a premium for my lovely little cabin.  His room didn't even come with curtains for the two windows, so I whipped one up to cover the larger one, and will take care of the other small window when I get back from Alaska next week (ROAD TRIP!!!).

The curtain is actually a three-layer sandwich: the baseball print on the outside, with an old dark blue bedsheet in the middle to help block out the light.  It's my cheater black-out curtain method, and really I need to do this for my place, too.  Even though it's only May, it is still quite bright out late at night, and the sun comes up early--and it's only going to get worse...

The baseball print was in a bag of random fabric that an acquaintance gave me when she found out that I had bought a sewing machine and didn't have any sort of "stash" at all.  It was definitely a mixed bag, but fun to pull out something I wouldn't use otherwise for a project for my young man.  It was either baseball or teddy bears, and I wouldn't want all those dirt baggers and stakers out at the compound to laugh at his drapery.

Chill Day

It's really winter up here now--yesterday and today temperatures have been around the -40 mark.  Thursday is usually laundry, but my normally infalliable 1988 Toyota Tercel station wagon, the Inconvenience, ain't goin' nowheres today.  The car was plugged in for about two and a half hours, and still no luck--just lots of noises that didn't sound like they were doing anyone any good.  I'm quite surprised; last winter I never had any trouble with the Inconvenience.  Although last winter using the car was much more optional, as I was living in a room in the hotel where I worked, and everything I could possibly need with the exception of groceries was right down the hall.  Now that I am in an adorable little cabin, I am forced out of the house much more often.  The laundromat--and my boyfriend's house--are both about ten minutes out of town, so the car is getting pressed into use much more often.  I am already planning to walk out to my boyfriend's house more often (about 45 minutes on a packed-down but not plowed trail along the highway) and suspect that I should begin being prepared to hike out to the laundromat with my big packsack instead of driving.  It looks like the boyfriend will be coming to my rescue this week.  He got his car started and, provided the transmission wants to go, I'll be able to use his old beast to run out to the laundromat and back.  As much as I hate driving his car, there is no way I can survive without laundry.  My work clothes are a mess.

This morning I met with friends for breakfast and ran some errands (well-bundled up, I assure you), and meant to head out to take care of the laundry and visit Ben in the early afternoon.  When the lack of ignition derailed those plans, I got sucked into the vortex of the couch and started internetting.  Ignoring, of course, all the chores I could do around the house.  In the process of my lookin' and clickin', I found a couple of blogs I like.  Aesthetic Outburst, Door Sixteen and The Vintage Cabin have been great eye-candy on a bleak day.  They've actually almost guilted me into working on all the things around my place that need doing--but only almost.  I am still basking in the glory of a finished project:

It's not exciting to look at but hopefully will help keep the heating bill down.  I covered the back door (currently unused), as well as the bedroom and bathroom windows with sheets of pink styrofoam insulation (which is, yes, almost the same colour as my towels; they used to be a lovely smoky purple when I bought them almost ten years ago, but in the interval have faded and I doubt I will replace them until they are worn to shreds).  The door definitely needed to be covered, and as the curtains on the windows were never so much as shifted out of the way, covering the windows as well just seemed logical.  I may cut a peep-hole into the bedroom window if it gets claustrophobic-feeling, but for now I don't mind.  There is this consolation, at least:

The Magical Mystery Plant has put out new blooms (again!), and is a welcome touch of life and colour.  I have no idea what this plant is, but it seems to be thriving under my lacksadaisical care.

Happy Birthday to Me

Last week, shortly after my birthday, I received two great packages in the mail.  My purchases from Purl Soho arrived (finally).  Mail always takes a long time to get to Dawson, and things from the States can be quite bad.  I was quite impatient for this bundle of joy by the time it arrived.

That's my two skeins of Cascade Alpaca Lace, the contents of my Lovely Liberty Coin Purse Kit and the spare purse clasp.  The colour of the photo isn't great--everything is much prettier in real life.  The yarn is particularly lovely.  It's not a heathered or variegated yarn, but the alpaca fibres haven't absorbed the dye entirely evenly, which gives the blue-green colour a particular depth and interest.

I am using the yarn for a Laminaria shawl (Ravelry link).  I had mixed feelings about the pattern at first--as written, the Star chart isn't symmetrical on either side of the centre stitch, and while it was easy to fix this problem, the fact that it wasn't addressed in the pattern felt like a red flag for me.  It seems to me to be a fairly significant lack of attention to detail, and I worried that I would run into more trouble later on.  But having worked 4 repeats of the Star chart and moved onto the Blossom chart, I am much happier with the pattern.

The coin purse is on hold--not for any particular reason, except that maybe that work these days has left me unenthusiastic for much beyond sleeping.  Even my Laminaria is tough going sometimes, just because I'm too tired to remember the repeats properly.

The other package that arrived last week was my birthday present from my parents--the first exception ever to the usual long wait for mail.  Somehow a normal letter can take two weeks to get here from Salt Spring but a giant box (so big I could sit in it once it was empty [yes, I did]) takes only four business days.  My theory is that it was so big they sent it on quickly just to get it out of the way.  The real gift part of it was new sheets, with chocolates to go on the pillows.

Not terribly exciting to look at, but so comfy to sleep on.  They're hand made on Salt Spring and have a wonderful texture.

The sheets didn't need such a big box as my parents sent, but they just bought a new washer and dryer and since they had such good sturdy boxes, they decided to "fill the corners."  They did cut down the dryer box, to about ten inches high, but it was still massive and full of awesome things that I have been storing in the barn for a few years.

There's my muffin tins, old sheets for more rag rugs, my iron, and a chair cushion from the days when I decorated in purples--all tucked into my giant basket, which I will use to house works-in-progress.  Most of this stuff I had requested, but the basket was a great surprise.  I had wished for it but didn't think it could get sent because it's so big.  Now I just need to get around to sitting down to sew and make more rugs and whip up some muffins...

A Lick of Paint (and Then Some)

When I moved into my cabin a couple of weeks ago, my land lady casually mentioned that if I wanted to repaint, she would pay for the supplies.  I couldn't get the idea out of my head (actually, I have mentally renovated the kitchen over and over again) and came up with all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't, but then went and did it anyway.

Here's a before shot of the kitchen area:

The dirt-coloured paint did a good job of hiding the dirt, but it was rather dull to look at, and I expect would be rather depressing when we get only a few hours of daylight in mid-winter.  Other walls in the cabin are painted white, and are scuffed, full of old nail holes and draped with cobwebs.

The worst part (or, one of the worst parts) has been getting things clean enough to paint.  This is what it looked like behind the stove and refrigerator:

Another difficult part is dealing with the poor job that the previous painter did when she put up the dirt-grey:

Hiding all the poor edging is taking a lot of work because one coat of white isn't fixing things.  And unfortunately I am not the kind of person who can let it go.  I have been crawling into the cupboards wearing my headlamp in order to do a good job of even the least-visible corners.  It's not that I'm a perfectionist--I just have high standards (and a sore right shoulder--good thing my yoga classes started up again this week).

Here's what it looked like after one coat of the new colour, Nasturtium:

The colour is absolutely gorgeous--very much worth the absolute chaos that has reined in the cabin since I started this project.  Everything that was in the cupboards is now on the table and even simple meals have been a challenge.  I have also been painting the pony-wall that separates the kitchen/living area from the bed"room" (the cabin is pretty much a one-room deal), which made a mess of my closet space, too (and by closet space I mean a dowel hung from the ceiling by two chains and a large plastic bin).

Yesterday I put on the second coat of Nasturtium, and was able to move the fridge and stove back into place.  Today I painted the cupboards and trim on the pony wall--fortunately it is just a matter of a single coat--and now am just going to wait a couple of days for the paint to cure before I restore the kitchen.  And then it's on to the rest of the space.  I started with the hard parts, and am hoping that the remaining three walls will be a little easier, at least in terms of stuff in the room--less to move will be good.  I will also be repainting the bathroom, but as I start working full-time as of tomorrow, the repainting may be a longer term sort of project.

Oops

I didn't mean for this to happen, but somehow it did.

I bought a sewing machine.

Yesterday morning, I got up  bright and early to go to a garage sale.  Last weekend I had good luck at a sale, and found cute green and white curtains for my cabin, as well as a very pretty green, red and yellow bull's-eye plate--all for the low, low price of $4.50.  I went to yesterday's sale hoping for the same sort of luck: to find a few small, inexpensive and useful but attractive things for the home.  Major furniture was not part of the plan.

But when I spotted the sewing machine past the old skis, behind the tables of unappealing junk, perched on its own little hinge-top table, my heart skipped a beat and I just knew.  I had been thinking of getting a sewing machine--some plasticky new thing with a cover that could tuck away under the bed when not in use--but was reluctant to invest in another activity, when I've already got so much yarn and knitting projects on the go (not to mention this new rag rug thing, although I think rugging will be an infrequent venture).  I certainly didn't intend to buy a vintage sewing machine with its very own attached table.

Part of the appeal was definitely the retro look of the machine.  The model is very similar to the machine my mom has (I used to use it when I was in highschool to make pajama pants) and the table itself is just so pretty.  It didn't take me long to decide that the ugly, rickety set of shelves next to the door in the cabin was going to get moved outside to the shed, and that the sewing machine would easily take its place.

It just tucks into the corner underneath the coat hooks, behind the heater and without an inch to spare by the door.  For the most part it will stay burried under piles of books from the library, heaps of shawls, outgoing mail and materials for my radio show.

I will have to pull it out into the middle of the room in order to use it--adding wheels to the legs might be a good idea.  It did come with its original manual, and all sorts of different attachments, like a button-hole thingy and a few extra feet.

I even have a sewing project winging its way towards me.  Last weekend I ordered a birthday present for myself from Purl Soho (because if there is anything I know how to do, it is indulge): two skeins of Cascade Baby Alpaca in Pacific, and one of their adorable Lovely Liberty Coin Purse Kits in Amber, with an extra purse frame in Jade.  The coin purse looked small enough to hand-stitch without too much agony, and will now be a total breeze on my new machine.  Shipping from New York to the Yukon will probably take forever, but I think I have enough on the go at the moment!

The Rugs Beneath Her Feet

The floor in my cabin is painted plywood--painted grey, with bits of the weird flesh-tone it was previously painted showing through on the worn parts.  I don't mind the rough, mottled look, but it's chilly on the feet, even with socks or moccasins on, and even though it isn't even properly cold out yet.  The cheap and easy (if time consuming) solution is to make some rag rugs.

On Tuesday I hit up the thrift store and the free store at the dump, and brought home some old sheets to use for the project.  I did some googling and settled on the "toothbrush" or "Amish knot" method, mostly using these videos for instruction, with some reading from an assortment of random websites to add some theory.  I opted for a toothbrush rag rug versus a braided one because I didn't want to have to do any sewing, although really the toothbrush method is sewing--it's a buttonhole stitch repeated over and over again--using the rag strips as your thread.

I have completed one small rug already.  One bedsheet (queen or double, I am not sure which) yielded a round rug with a 20 inch diameter (roughly), to which I added a border using strips from a bedskirt.  It turned out a little wonky: it doesn't sit exactly flat.  I made two mistakes: I didn't do enough increases (or increase evenly), and then switched the material I was using for the inner "cord" when I got to the border.

Attempt two is going much better.  I am using two sheets for this one.  I am using this funky jungle print sheet to make the inner cord and the occasional accent stripe:

While this pretty floral sheet will form the main pattern of the rug:

It's going well so far.  I increased really agressively in the first few rounds, and made sure to do so evenly all around, so it is very even, flat and regular-looking.

It's not quite like getting to go to Ikea, but it is rather more satisfying. 

Just bragging...

Almost finished, but still lovely with shortened stems.