Princess meet Pumpkin

It's hard to believe that 8 glorious days have come and gone. This trip has been just what the doctor ordered. For different reasons, my father and I are in a very similar place emotionally. We are both busy taking care of others and get very little time to just chill and do what we want to do. For the last week - it's just been the two of us. We've sometimes gone for hours without speaking. We've talked politics, family and taken long walks and sipped wine. The weather has been glorious. And now; I have to get up at 3:30 am to catch a plane back to Toronto. On the up side - I'll adjust back to Ontario time quickly.

The other thing we did was shop. Dad was very generous in taking me to my favourite fibre haunts. The first stop was to see Jane Stafford on Salt Spring Island. Her weaving retreats are amazing. I've taken her pushing the boundaries of plain weave and would love to take the one on colour theory. I picked up some cones of her organic cotton to make dish towels. These are some of the happiest colours I've ever seen and Jane kindly wrote out the warping order for her dish towels.

In Nanaimo at Ewe Knit, I bought a skein of Shepherd Sock by Lorna's Laces. This is a beautiful tonal yarn in greens called Skyway. I keep thinking it's called "Skyfall" instead so I think I'll rename it. It's somewhat manly so I'm hoping to make a pair of socks for dad (shhhhhh).

Lastly, I stopped in the Loom yarn store in Duncan BC. I snagged 17 balls of the recently, dearly departed Rowan Denim. I've always coveted the Mary cardigan from the original Rowan Denim book. It's apparently a nightmare of a pattern with lots of errors and one size only but it's gorgeous and this shade of blue is stunning.

We'll see if I can keep up the blogging when I get home. The bloggin app helps - just gotta make the time.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Blue Skies

I can't quite believe that it's now day 6 of my vacation. Somewhere around 9:23 Monday night I managed to begin to decompress and detach. Not checking work e mails on my iPhone helps. I can't really be that important.

Royale by Glenna C is blossoming into a beautiful sweater. I'm working with an Aran weight yarn by Indigodragonfly in the colourway "Then Buffy Staked Edward...The end.". It's a lovely, smoky teal with kisses of a purple veil. I'm alternating skeins to ensure an even distribution of the variegation. This is a semi-solid shade but I

like to ensure that pooling is mitigated by alternating skeins. This project and I had a few false starts. It was totally me. The pattern is just fine - very well written. I just kept losing my focus when I cast on. First I dropped a stitch and then tried to pick it up and didn't like it. Then I used the wrong size needles for the ribbing. Next I twisted the join and didn't notice for several rounds. I think I made every mistake twice and the sixth time I cast on seemed to be a charm. I'm zipping along and all seems fine. The twisted stitches are lovely and I can't wait to finish it. I had a chance to try on Glenna's sample a couple of years ago at Rhinebeck. It's one sexy sweater!Every morning I've taken to trekking down to the waterfront near where dad lives. The incline is about 80 degrees so walking back up offers a nice workout. This morning I decided to go and sit by the water and listen to my favourite knitting podcast Knit 1 Geek 2 whilst working on Royale. Knit 1 Geek 2 is hosted by a couple of my knit night buddies Karen and Maggie. If you haven't listened to it yet - go for it. You'll enjoy it I promise.

I took a few glamour shots of Royale by the ocean. I'm taking advantage of this time to play with my camera a bit more. I have a D3100 by Nikon. It's more camera than I need right now but I'm hoping to grow into it. I took this shot of this lovely orange flower because I liked the way it looked next to the rocks. I'm playing with depth of field too - hence the slightly out of focus background. Here is Royale beside the orange flowers just to tie it all together.

I ended up sitting by the water for a couple of hours. I say it was the fabulous view, podcast and knitting project but truth be told - I was not looking forward to the walk back up.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Gone Fishing

 

I'm a bad,bad blogger...but then you knew that already. Life continues to roll at warp speed. I fall down the rabbit hole at regular intervals. I work - long hours and have a busy family life. My fibrey pursuits often take a back seat to duty (sigh).

Currently, however- I'm off the grid. I've flown to Vancouver Island for a week to hang out with dad and sleep and knit. Dad prodded me earlier today to blog more so as I sit on a sunny coffee house patio it occurs to me that this might be a bloggable moment. Here is my sock. Yes...you read that right. A. Sock. I've only ever finished one pair and I gifted those when I needed a last minute present. I believe that the holy trinity of pattern, needles and yarn make for a successful finish. If the pattern is too boring or too complicated- other things will attract me. I think I've found the right combo. Here I have Turtle Purl sock yarn in the Purple Purl anniversary colourway. The needles are the lovely Signature double points (expensive but worth it) and the pattern is the Vanilla Latte sock by Virginia-Rose Jeanes.

Blissfully alone with the sunshine, my latte and my knitting. Life's good.

 

Posted with Blogsy