Impressions

Lesley asked which pattern I'm using for the baby blanket. Sorry I didn't put it in, but I wonder sometimes if I'm not boring you, dear reader, with repetition of patterns and yarn information and my slow production of finished objects. The 10 stitch blanket was found on Ravelry. I didn't want to use Noro- like an old best friend who captivated you with her bright fresh ideas and then spiralled into a two-dimensional diva, I am off Noro. Vegetable matter, knots, you know. The Mini Mochi is my new Noro. It is a slightly spun yarn that probably doesn't make good socks (according to Lala) but I love the softness and long colour repeats.

We loved Portland! These pics are from the farmers' market, held in the university grounds. We were able to walk all over the city, from wool shop to brew pub to enormous book store. All good.

Our hotel was pretty central and we apprectiated some of the local architcture.

This lion bas relif really captured me. I am a Leo and have always been drawn to the lions as gate keepers in museums and libraries.

The cold and rain have decided to recede for the rest of the week. I'm happy to have the summer-like conditions. I missed walking the dog. But she has a pretty painful shoulder. It has been gradually getting worse and now is not influenced by rest or activity. D is a dairy vet and says she will probably have to have xrays. We have her on anti-inflammatory meds (like me) but they are only a bit helpful. We'll have to get the vet's impressions.

Fasten Your Seatbelts

D and I went on a driving holiday to the Oregon Coast and Northern California. We had a few days in Portland first, which we loved, but I'll try to make an update later.
This is the coast as we first saw it. Very ocean and surf. We live in a river valley, so it's pretty exciting.

A real lighthouse at Heceta. (I think).

Very tall trees. These are the redwoods of the National Park just south of the Oregon border.

This is the surf of Brookings Oregon. Friendly people and lots of public space to walk.

We stayed in a hotel right on the beach. It's just out of the frame to the left.

A real California sunset from our restaurant.

We drove to Shelter Cove on a crazy windy road. There were few people on the shore, but lots of birds and seals.

I couldn't count all the seals and we didn't even see them all till the photos.

The lighthouse if from Mendocino, and very well restored in its move.

More Redwoods from Humbolt State Park. Great driving and walking among the giants.

After shopping at the outlet mall in Woodburn, we checked out Mt. St. Helens. I remember the day it blew, 30 years ago (!!). We thought the heifers had taken down the barn.

I finished my fingerless gloves on the second day. Great pattern. Now I want to try to adapt other sock patterns for gifts.

The Woodland shawl got lots of hours of driving knitting. It did get a bit tedious when I couldn't look at my hands and had to do a lot of counting. A few of the stretches were too windy even for that. I managed to get well into the third and last ball of Cascade Heritage sock yarn.
I'm not sure if I like the muted colours. It looked a lot better when I was knitting in my jeans than it did this summer in shorts and bright tshirts.

Then we were headed home, I switched to the baby blanket and started panicking. I'm still worried I won't make it by this Saturday. How did time travel so quickly? I just made beef stew, mushroom stew and vegetable soup to share with the new mom. Whew! The clean up took forever.

I used the Nordictrak this morning while watching the knitgirllls and got a great work out. But more stolen knitting time. Now is the time to settle infront of the DVDs and stay up late. Fasten your seatbelts.

Sunny, Sun, Sun

We are driving back from Northern California. There has been lots of driving and I even did some lastnight, but only after it was too dark to knit.
We enjoyed the livability and friendliness of Portland for a few days, drove to the Oregon Coast for some crazy weather, took the 101 south to Eureka, where we scoped out the tallest redwoods and then back here to Oregon.
It's fun to just make it up as we go along. The warm weather is happy. We are shopping a little and keeping our meals light and healthful, so we still feel good.
Sunday we will be home and I'll post some pictures of the surf, the trees and lots of boring driving knitting.

Packed and Ready.

We're heading out to Oregon and Northern California tomorrow in a facimile of our honeymoon. We didn't get to play in Portland, though. I hope to meet up with Sivia Harding before she heads off to teach. And there are wool shops and breweries to explore.
The weather, unfortunately has turned. I know that Environment Canada is no more accurate than reading pig spleens for forcasting, but we have packed lots of rain gear and warm socks.
The fingerless mitts above (Nutkin), have become necessary because a certain little girl walked off with my Cashmerino Fetchings when our fundraising hike for the camp turned into a torrential downpour. I will get them back. But I will probably have to make a replacement pair in purple for a six year old.
I love this cable pattern so very much. I have even wound off half a ball of very dark Trekking XXL to make the socks. First I went over the workshop in the new Knitscene, because I have trouble making socks that fit. There all many reasons, all of which have to do with accuracy and gauge. Le sigh.

These are the knitting bags I have lined up for the trip. Eventhough we are taking the car, I have no hope that D will allow this kind of excess. I will work on the mitts tomorrow. Then the Woodland Shawl who is always the last bridesmaid. Finally, baby deadline will have me working on the 10 stitch blanket all the way home.
I will try to post and share some of the photos, but we'll see if D is inclined to assisting with the whole laptop thingy.
Have a great week if I drop off the blogosphere. Think of me knitting on the road and in the pub.
Next up: attempting to revive our local knitting circle, getting in touch with my nursing classmates and sewing Wise Men costumes for our Christmas Pageant.
I already need a break.

Sweetie Pi

She is done. The Shetland Pi Shawl Knit A Long from Wendy Knits was finished Thursday. I had time to soak her and block her out before my first choir practice of the year- barely. This was a huge blocking project. I "blocked the crap out of her" and stretched it to 32 inches radius. That's 5 feet, 4 inches in total width (diameter). But so soft and drapey. she is small enough to wear as a scarf. I wish I had done her in a more autumn color so I could wear her everyday. But the turquoise- more true in the photo above- is pretty good with my chocolate brown.

This is Saturday's sunshine. Today the bird bath is overflowing and the there are ducks in the puddles in our driveway. It's disappointing weather for a fundraising Walk-a-thon. I wonder if anyone will come up to the camp?

Gratuitous shots.

Feel the love.

It will have to overcome another disappointment: the Diamond Fantasy Shawl. Yesterday I sat on the deck with only Bach to distract me and still I stumbled over the rows. This is a prickly black alpaca and it doesn't like the needles I picked either. Oops, I dropped the crochet hook when I was ripping out a beaded row (!!!). Oops, I tipped over the little tin of beads...onto the slatted deck. Somewhere there is a sparkly slug under our deck, trying to hide from the ducks. There were expletives. What was I to do?

A quick phone call to my dearest friend got my feathers in the right direction.

Then I cast on the Nutkin fingerless gloves in the Frog Creek Fibers Sonsie merino in Computer Blue. This was a prize from The Knitting Triathlete's Make a Wish fundraiser. Good karma.

Brilliant pattern! The 'cable' is from Knitzi's Nutkin sock. At first I thought that was all to confusing. But it just about knits itself.

Maybe I'm not a degenerate knitter!

I got one whole hand done after supper while D and I watched the last of the last season of Lost.
I was not disappointed with this. And especially pleased that my friends didn't spoil it for me.

I will wrap myself in my sweet new shawl today and get all smug by picking up UFO's and finishing them.

Rationing/Rationalizing

The corn is high. The blackberries are laden. This is a sweet smelling season. We often get a beautiful, hot September. But this summer was hot and dry anyway. The chill in the air is most welcome. Even if I am not going to give up the soundtrack of my summer, Sarah Harmer's Little Fire.

This corn is the field beside my highschool where D and I met on a debating team (more than nerdy) and our daughter is in grade 12. Whew! It's September! I forgot about Stash and Burn's Single Skein September, but am sort of in it anyway. I'm on the last skein of the Pi Shawl (also the last skein of the Woodland Shawl if I were knitting on it). The Diamond Fantasy Shawl is made of only one long skein. But I really want to pump out a few quick projects like blue fingerless gloves for me, and maybe the Gretel hat in the Malabrigo I bought at Three Bags Full.

Jean and I stumbled upon a new wool shop in Vancouver on West Broadway while moving her son into UBC: Gina Brown. Didn't I buy some white laceweight silk at Gina Brown in Calgary? Why yes I did. This is her granddaughter. How sweet. And a nice shop. But we just couldn't bring ourselves to buy more stuff for the bloated stash.

I, too, am bloated. Thanks to Lezley from KnitGirllls for encoraging us knitters to get off our behinys. The fog was rising as I rode my bike to day. I did my old weight program, but in the wisdom of starting slowly, I only used soup cans (1 lb) and did only one set of reps. It may feel wimpy, but the chances of me repeating it are inversely proportional to the pain of lactic acid building in my sorry muscles. I did beat one of the boy counsellors in an arm wrestle this summer to his ever-living shame. But I am a farm girl and combat trained to boot.

I am also on Weight Watchers ( I am qualified to be my own leader), so my treat will be listening to new knit podcasts and screaming away on the edging of my shawl. Rational? I can rationalize it.

Travelling Companions

The Shetland Pi Shawl KAL from Wendy Knits came to Victoria with us yesterday. This was the best knititng for travel! Just interesting enough, steady on the needles. The weather was clear with a hint of cool, the reservations made sure we made our ferries and the van was big enough to bring all of Scott's belongings and the food we stocked up for him.

I spent many summers, as a child with my Aunt Anna in Victoria, a very pleasant time. D stayed with his grandparents in Nanaimo. It is a sort of home coming. Unfortunately this time, I hadn't contacted our dear Island friends. There comes a time when you feel it is too late. But these are special people. We ran into one couple in the grocery store, who swept us up in a charming garden tea. The other family tracked us down and offered us supper. So kind.

We just ran out of energy after hauling stuff up 3 floors. And we ran out of time. Always the ferry. I will make an extra effort to meet with them at Thanksgiving. That means I get to come back.

In the garden, the parents of D's oldest best friend shared a wonderful visit. She is a knitter, and I'm excited to send her a few patterns for prayer shawls for her knitting group. She has inspired me to go ahead and try to get a knitting group together to make charity items.

This is the dorm room after the makeover. Cozy, no? The wall decal is from Byrdie Graphics.
He also has a book shelf for a standing work station. The "cluster" has four rooms, a kitchen, two baths and a dining/living room for 4 boys.
Today is Labour Day, which, ironically, is a day of rest. Em will come back from the PNE today and start Grade 12 tomorrow!

I can tell we're in transition because of the weird collection of dishes in the dishwasher. What kind of people live here?

Back to Pi. I have one more repeat on the 4th clue and then I start the edging!

Seasonal Changes

This is the reason I have spent so much of the summer on the highway. My daughter is playing "Louie, Louie" on the trumpet and is the lead tip of the drumline. They were interviewed for newspaper and televison, like City TV. D went in last night to listen to them and bring them home. He really enjoyed it and I'm so glad he got to experience the excitement.
Today we are taking my friend's son into UBC. On Sunday we take Scott back to UVIC. That will be such a big change! There are several big boys in my basement this morning.This is Aunt Wendy's garden. I don't think it shows the late summer stress that other gardens are wearing. Her daughter was my flowergirl and grandma had a lovely family shower on Sunday. Misty put her sweet baby in the pink blanket right away. They also want knitting coaching. Yay. I gave them some patterns and will have to reign myself in to not overwhelm them! We're going to try to meet at 88 Stitches.

The black Diamond Fantasy Shawl is coming along. I have done two of the ten repeats. The alpaca is soft in the wound cake, and in the shawl, but kind of scratchy while knitting. I love the beads which are black but with an oil slick covering of blue and shiny. I knit yesterday while watching some TV- continuing in my summer of Fantasy: Eureka! The show is partly filmed in Chilliwack, and Lala said we would like it. I love Serenity and Firefly (thanks Miss Violet). Then I watched Nanny McPhee at my mom's because she wants to see the new one.

I was able to walk the few blocks home in the cool dark last night and appreciate the changing season. Definitely shawl weather after supper. Welcoming the change.

Catching Up, Meeting Up

Some of you may recognize this beautiful smile from the Life's A Stitch blog. This was the first knitting blog I ever read and Li opened a world of wonderful people and wonderment to me. I was so lucky to find such a great writer, interesting knitter and just lovely person on my first stop.
After six or seven years, we finally met in person. She is even lovelier. She chose a cozy marina cafe that was (generously) easy to find. We were excited and silly and even philosophical at times. I know I will always enjoy a visit with her. She even gave me directions to the nearest Kal Tire to fix my flat tire. I drove the drumline in and, between the construction, the loud music and boy conversation, we were alerted to a rear flat. Never a dull moment.

Li and I exchanged gifts. Yay. I love gifts, they don't have to be for me. But this lilac wood shawl pin, made by her husband is a real treat. It looked great on my Taize Noro shawl. Thanks Li.

My trip last week to Three Bags Full during their sale was also exciting. The stash enhancement made up for the energy suck that is a stop at Ikea. I didn't fill three bags, but it felt like it. This is Mission Falls 136 Merino. It's dk and a new yarn to me. I bought enough to make Coraline.
This will replace my February Lady which is not made for someone my size. I do have a problem with knitting too big. Hopefully I can overcome it.

This malabrigo worsted is for Gretel. I bought a bunch of patterns when they were donating money to the Haitian relief. I need a hat for walking the dog when it gets cold. This may prove addicting.

And this is gorgeous Frog Creek Fibers that I won from the Knitting Triathlete's fundraising for Make A Wish Foundation. I heard about it from the Knit Girllls podcast and feel drawn to the chance to help pediatric patients (plus win wool!) You can see it's in my favourite colour.. What do you think about fingerless mitts for me?

I was too tired to walk today after hoofing it around the PNE till 10pm. D and I took the bikes out for a country block of riding. Trying to move every day. Trying to drink my water and make good, low fat, high fibre food choices.

Now I have lots of yarn choices, lots of knits in my queue and a virtual friend turned real.

Kitty Pi

To thank Wendyknits for the wonderful Pi Knit A Long (KAL) I made a Kitty Pi blanket for the local cat shelter, Safe Haven. Our local SPCA has been mired in politics and attitude and no longer serves this community. And yet there are animals in need. Some local people set this up and the city now has a contracted Dog Control who are awesome and actually love dogs. When I was young, we had a real dog catcher, Don Price. We kids were all afraid of him as he roamed the alleys in his van and there were wild accusations of kidnapped puppies. We didn't have a dog until we moved to the farm.
We always had cats! I miss them now, but Emily has allergies and when her last cat, Allegra Belle, had to be put down when she was about 10, we just decided not to replace her. Maybe I'll get D another persian some day.
I used the 9 stitch cast on, knit 4 rows, increased, knit 8 rows, increased, knit 12 rows of the swatch chart, increased, and then knit till I was out of yarn. I was aiming for 24 inches and came in just shy of that.

Here is my Pi KAL at the end of clue 2. The Ella Rae merino from Urban Yarns is so soft and just squishy enough. I have knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi shawl as a baby blanket many times. I've used Patons baby wool when it was the height of our shopping choices, then Lannett, especially nice in red. The last few have been in butterfly cotton with the spiral recipe that is written so you don't have to count rows.
This incarnation, a tribute to EZ, is just the right amount of new and familiar.

I received a Sweet Georgia pin with my yarn club delivery. And it's a good thing, because I was putting on my Merino Silk Lace Ishbel and had a shock.

My finger went right through a hole. I just about screamed. After blocking and wearing it for a month, I found a dropped stitch. I just captured it and set it aside. Jean said she would hold my hand while I got the little crochet hook out and worked it up the row. I may have to sew it? No idea. Not going there. I will turn to my Pi for now.

Enjoying the City

For Valentines, D gave me tickets to the Michael Buble concert. We went on Friday and it was so much fun. He really is a great performer. Plus he donated all the proceeds of that concert to the Children's Hospital. What a guy!
We went in on Thursday and stayed at our time-share, walked around, had dinner and did a bit of shopping. What a treat. There were cupcakes.

On Friday morning we walked across the Burrard Street Bridge. It's my favourite. We went to Granville Island, but it was very busy with tourists.
We went ot Sweet Georgia's studio to pick up our yarn club yarn. Her studio is so hip and I got to meet her mom. I wore my Ishbel made of her merino silk and they were both so sweet about loving it. The yarn is so exciting, but some members won't have theirs yet, so I'm not going to take a picture just yet. I may use it to make a Maia shawlette.

This is the bridge from below. The third tower from the right is where we stay.

On Saturday we went shoe shopping to the only shoe store D likes.
I even found a pair for my large orthodic hoppers.

In the afternoon we met up with friends from our UBC days. Great people. Smart, funny and successful. They are way behind on the kiddies, though, with collectively 4 under 7. I had to go to the PNE to pick up Emily from a drumline performane and she played with the kids nicely.

There were knitters. Yay.

The Pi shawl is definitely coming along and good car knitting (when I'm not driving).

This week I'm driving in again to carpool with the kids. Not part of the original deal! What I would really have liked is to have been asked and given some sort of a schedule instead of scrambling on the cell phone while shopping in Williams & Sonoma. Why am I always so unrealisitic? Plus I just mopped the floor after she baked while I was at work. This doesn't work for me either as all the baking is beyond my calorie limit and only served to the other drummers.

So tonight when I drive in to pick them up, I will allow myself a great listen (Stash and Burn- must save it) and a great coffee.

Enjoy the little things.

Making the Best of It

This is one of the best compliments of pattern and yarn that I have ever knit. It's the Toast Cosy by This is Knit. The super soft Baby Alpaca Sport by Luxury Collection is bulky but light. I made two hats of it for friends' boys when they were wee. I was looking for just the right yellow, but I knew I could find it in a ribbon. This is for a dear sweet knitter who is having back pains and could use a bit of comfort. It knit up in just over one day and the designing was impeccable.

It was my turn on Wednesday to brave the traffic of the highway construction- twinning the Port Mann Bridge- and deliver the drummers to their practice at the PNE fairgrounds. Despite the early start, the slow traffic and the van full of very big boys, we made it in good time. I got to tour their suite at the Pacific Coloseum- just like rock stars! And then I made the best of it and went wool shopping. This is a special bonus because now D doesn't have to trail behind. They should really put a computer store next to every wool shop, like a babysitting service.

I found Cheryl Oberle's book, Folk Shawls, at Three Bags Full. I don't think I've ever been in such a well organized shop. There were precisely 9 skeins of each colour of Cascade 220 in each cubby. The effect was entrancing. I bought the blue and grey for the bird cage mittens in 60 Quick Knits that I won from Grumperina. The Koigu was hung on the wall like a tapestry. You could feel so brave mixing colours! I didn't get the name of the lady, think it was the owner, but she showed us her Pi Shawl in progress. She's right: the Blackberry Ridge Yarn was the perfect match. I will buy some when they get the new colours in. Even the other customers were bery organized and friendly.

This is what I'm going to use to knit my Wendy Knits Pi Shawl Knit A Long. It's Ella Rae Lace Merino and machine washable. I loved the semi solid turquoise (although the blue in this picture is nice too). Wendy starts sharing the patterns on Sunday.
This I bought at Urban Yarns which is a whirlwind of happy knitting. Such a welcome and an overwhelming mix of colours and yarns. I love this store at the gate of UBC where I once was a student.

I also bought this Koigu from Three Bags Full because it reminded me of an iris garden. My Mom's name is Iris and I think I'll make a small shawl for her birthday.

I obviously should have posted earlier, because now I have to say hi to KelleBelle who came up to me at intermission of Kooza to say hi and ask about my Multnomah shawl. By name!! She even said hi to me on Ravelry! The show was awesome. The crowd was lots of fun! And I have met a new member of my tribe. That's surely making the best of it.