jamiemccanless

[jamiemccanless]

San Juan Island

One of the last days of spring, birds singing, breeze playing my wind chimes, a few blooms still to be found in my yard.

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One of the Gang for Sure

One of the Gang for Sure: The Behavior of Goats

The goats’ patterns of behavior are interesting to watch. 😋

Another anecdote from Jeanne McCanless' tales of sheep and angora goats.

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Pirate Socks

Completing WIPs like these scrappy pirate socks. Helical knitting in the ankle, foot, and toe transforms leftover yarn as if by magic!

The first half of the foot is yarn from the pair at top of 3rd photo and some blue tonal and marled Trekking XXL. I like it so much that I’m seriously thinking of frogging and reknitting the old socks.

The rest of the foot is colorful but somewhat dark Regia in jewel tones and an antique yellow yarn Sugarplum Circus. All of the colors leap to life and make me think of 19th century carnivals.

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Sock Knitting

I’m particularly pleased by this cheery pair of sport/short socks. It doesn’t matter that they’ll be hidden inside my shoes. 😛 The first pair used almost exactly half the ball of yarn, so I’ve started a second pair. There will be yarn chicken.

I’m always on the lookout for cotton/wool sock yarn. Unfortunately, it looks like this yarn is discontinued. The manufacturer’s site doesn’t list it and online stores all say it’s out of stock.

Universal Yarn Filly, 103 Butterfly (46/33/12/9 Cotton/Superwash Merino/Nylon/Polyester

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Island Life

After a day of questioning whether headlines are factual, here’s one thing that actually happened. A close up of a small white clover blossom in my yard.

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Pride 2025

Happy Pride to all the letters. No exceptions. No excuses. Pride feels more real to me this year, more like my first celebrations 45 years ago.

One definition of pride reads, “a feeling of gratification arising from association with something good or laudable.” This June I think it’s worth telling the 2SLGBTQIA+ people in our lives how proud we are of them.

Please excuse me. I have messages to send. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

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Sock Knitting

The top-down, heel flap, and gusset sock I began knitting on the interisland ferry is coming along nicely. The lighthearted colorway reminds me of sunrises.

I’m always on the lookout for cotton/wool sock yarn. Unfortunately, it looks like this yarn is discontinued. The manufacturer’s site doesn’t list it and online stores all say it’s out of stock. 🫤

Universal Yarn Filly, 103 Butterfly (46/33/12/9 Cotton/Superwash Merino/Polymide/PBT

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Ferry Knitting

One of my favorite things to do here is walk onto the interisland ferry and knit as it travels to Orcas Island, Shaw Island, Lopez Island, and back to San Juan Island. This time I finished turning the heel of what will be a nice pair of warm weather short/sport socks.

p.s. Ferries are noisy.

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Spring Flowers

My iris are blooming like crazy. I wrote “my” but they were planted long before I called this home. All manner of other things are also flowering, although I don’t know what they are. Some are so very tiny and cute. All are beautiful.

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Pirate Socks

Pirate socks! To display the Opal yarn of the cuffs to its best advantage, I decided to use helical knitting to spread out the patterned yarn. This Zitron Trekking Pro Natura yarn picks up the red in the Opal colorway nicely. The results are magnificent! On double pointed needles, of course. 😋

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IDAHOBIT

Today. International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. “Phobia” smacks of “gay panic” but it’s the word in current use. No matter how few or many of us there are, each and every one is a full-fledged person endowed with certain unalienable rights. We’re here to stay.

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One of the Gang for Sure

One of the Gang for Sure: Bumper

Bumper, born and named. He was Florenza’s first kid.

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Christmas Cactus

Oh ffs. Silly Christmas cactus, it’s MAY. 😜

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Mother's Day

I spent this Mother’s Day with kind memories, drinking the coconut cocoa tea she introduced me to and starting pirate socks the way she taught me, using leftover Opal yarn I inherited from her stash. I can see her eyes in the mirror and her hands, knitting, when I look down at my own.

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Spring Flowers

While I quietly do knitting things behind the scenes, enjoy a selection of spring flowers blooming in my corner of the island. I’ve come to appreciate the character of my little wild yard. I know I’ll spend time battling creeping buttercup, blackberries, and damnable Galium aparine, but for just a moment I’ll pretend they’re just as pretty as the iris, Camilla, lilac, Geranium pusillum, flowering dogwood, red hot poker plant, wisteria, and even dandelions.

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One of the Gang for Sure

One of the Gang for Sure: Dicus and Hannah

Dicus and Hannah were the first Angora twins born on the acreage.

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Pirate Gloves: Casting on Stitches

I have been working on my scrappy pirate gloves. They’re going well, but it’s time to divide stitches for the fingers. For the thumb I used the backward loop method, and I’ve got to say I just don’t like it. I’ve used it for years, but it’s just flimsy.

I was thinking, gee, I wish there was something like the cable cast on where you insert the right needle between the last two stitches on the left needle, wrap the yarn around the needle, pull it through, and place it onto the left needle. Why isn’t there a way to do that with the right needle? And I thought, WAIT A MINUTE.

Of course you can insert the left needle between the last two stitches on the right needle, wrap the yarn around, pull a loop through, and place it on the RIGHT needle. You can do it as many times as you need! The working yarn is at the correct end, and you continue with the stitches on the left needle and keep going!

I did this, in fact, for the thumb of the other glove. You can see that I added five stitches with the cable cast on on the right needle.

Now, I don’t know whether this is something that people already know. I couldn’t find it online. So tell me. Do you already know about this? This is so cool!