Category Archives: Out and about

11:57 am - December 28, 2012 - AngelaH

All over but the Kahlua

Yesterday, I flew back to Toronto from Nova Scotia. As you may have heard, the East Coast (as well as Ontario, Quebec, and the American Midwest) got rather a lot of snow yesterday, so my flight was delayed. Since my mum drove me to the airport in a snowstorm, a delayed flight was a welcome excuse not to rush, and we got there in time to have dinner in the airport pub before hugging goodbye at security. My flight didn’t board for another hour and a bit, but I was knitting and it wasn’t cancelled, so I wasn’t upset.

In journalism, three instances or examples of something in a reasonable period of time is considered a trend, and if that’s the benchmark I think it’s fair to say that delays during holiday travel have become an annual tradition for me. Not a tradition of my own making (I’m not missing flights or anything), but nonetheless, I’m getting good at waiting patiently in airports, not freaking out about bad weather, and mentally preparing for cancellations.

So, delayed flight? No problem. I had a snack in my carry on; I had a sock to finish and another ball of yarn wound and ready in case I needed it; I had two books – in short, I was not worried. The flight boarded and when the woman I was sitting next to asked me to put away my knitting for take off, I said “no problem” and leafed through the in-flight magazine until she said she was okay with me knitting again (I was quietly annoyed, but it was a bumpy flight and she seemed nervous about everything, so whatever, it’s the holidays). I knit through the turbulence all the way to Ottawa (an hour and 45 minutes or so). My nervous neighbour disembarked. I knit while we sat on the ground. I knit through the announcement that the flight was going to be diverted to Hamilton.

Let’s pause here so I can point out that, when the plane lands at the Toronto Island airport, I’m 20 minutes from home, but when it lands in Hamilton, I’m nearly two hours from home. I knit through that and despite being annoyed, decided that it was better than having to spend the night in Ottawa. The airline said they’d have a free shuttle to bring us to Toronto, so I was still going to get home. In bad weather, this is what you have to cling to.

I finished knitting my sock on that flight and then proceeded to sew in the ends. All fifty million little ends (well, there were 12, but that felt like a lot). The light was bad, but by the time we landed, I was almost done. I picked up my luggage (both bags made it!) and got on the warm and waiting shuttle. I finished sewing in my ends, had a nap, arrived in Toronto, grabbed the second cab that pulled up, and was home by 2 a.m. Yes, that’s later than I was expecting to be there, but honestly, only by about two hours, so I considered myself lucky. L and Ganymede aren’t home yet, so our apartment was dark, but it was warm, and there was lots of fun mail, so it wasn’t a terrible homecoming.

It was when I opened my bag to get out my pajamas and whatnot that I got the sense something might be wrong. There was this smell. It was sweet, and unmistakably sticky, and rather coffee-ish. I am, generally, a very slow unpacker. It drives L crazy, but I can’t help it; I hate unpacking. Nonetheless, I went in to investigate. Kahlua. The smell was Kahlua, and it was everywhere. I had packed a bottle in my bag (a gift from my sister) and I guess the pressure must have been too much because the lid of the bottle just sheared right off. When I pulled out the bottle to assess the damage, it was dangerously light, and that’s when I realized how bad it was: not a drop, not a small spill, but an entire bottle of dark brown, sticky liqueur had emptied into my bag. The truly miraculous thing is that it managed to get on every single white object in there while leaving almost all the dark (majority) of my clothes entirely untouched.

Gingerly, I began pulling alcohol soaked shirts and dresses out of my pack. It was like some sort of twisted Rorschach Test – can you really handle holiday travel? what do you see in this impending stain? – and as it became clear that all my favourite clothes were soaked, I held it together. It’s just clothing, I told myself, totally replaceable. Then, oh god, then I pulled out a skein of beautiful hand-dyed yarn that my mum had given me for Chrismtas and discovered it soaked through and I just about lost it. That’s right: delays, diversions, alcohol soaked clothes – all nothing; but three skeins of damaged yarn? Tears. Only two or three, though, because who has time to cry when your wardrobe is on the verge or irreparable stains and your yarn is damaged? (I have no photos of any of this because, although it is excellent blog fodder, it didn’t occur to me to take photos until after everything was in the water. Use your imagination, I doubt you’re picturing something worse than the reality.)

Thank goodness I’m a knitter. We are, without a doubt, the best equipped to do major hand washing, and I sprang into action. SOAK is a lifesaver. Alongside Spray and Wash, I think I may have saved everything. Seriously. Everything was still so wet that nothing had a chance to set, so after dousing it all with stain remover, I plunged it into a bucket of warm water filled with SOAK and left it there overnight. This morning the water was the colour of dark toffee, but my clothes came out stain free. The yarn I rinsed (carefully) in very hot water and hung to dry, it looks okay I think.

I may never be able to drink (or smell) Kahlua again, and I still have to do a proper clean of my bag, and I’m pretty sleep deprived, but I’m home. And, as a gift to L, I’m unpacked uncharacteristically early. I can only hope that if you have holiday travelling ahead of you that it goes more smoothly!

Oh, the socks? Here’s a shot of them finished (but unblocked – I’ve been a little busy). I’ll do a proper post about them later.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: Christmas, nightmare, Nova Scotia, socks, travel

9:58 am - December 26, 2012 - AngelaH

It’s Boxing Day and the knitting is easy

I finished! It was a bit close – I cast off and blocked my dad’s hat on Christmas Eve – but I finished on time and without tears. What makes this really impressive (at least to me) is that on Dec. 20, after arriving in New Brunswick, I cast on for my Christmas socks because I needed some public knitting. I worked on them at my grandparents’ (and then knit on the mittens in secret at night) and then in the car on the way to Nova Scotia (a 4.5 hours drive) and then around the house, and managed to finish the first one in just three days! So, that means I finished a mitten, knit two thumbs, most of a hat, and a sock in four days. While socializing and shopping and eating and everything else that the holidays require. Not bad, I say.

I was just starting the pattern of the second sock on Christmas morning.

I’ll do a proper Christmas post later this week, but I just wanted to pop in and wish you all Happy Holidays – I hope your Christmas (or just your Tuesday, if you don’t celebrate) was wonderful and well spent. I’m never sure if this is my last Christmas at home, so I always try to make the most of it, including going on chilly hikes with my dad on Christmas day. Here are a few shots from that to carry you through your turkey leftovers.

We’ve hiked the same trail on Christmas day for years, and it never disappoints.

If you look closely, you can see that my dad is wearing his new hat.

The tide was mostly in when we started, but way out by the time we got back to the car.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: Christmas, family, hiking, Nova Scotia, photos

11:02 pm - November 10, 2012 - AngelaH

Not bad for a Saturday morning

It turns out awesome things can happen when you get up and out of the house early-ish on a Saturday morning. L and I live really close to one of (in my opinion) Toronto’s best neighbourhood farmer’s markets. Truly, Wychwood Barns is a credit to the city, and it’s one of our favourite things about where we live. We don’t always make it on a Saturday morning, but we try – it’s where we buy our coffee beans (we get the Wychwood Barns blend, of course), it’s where we buy a lot of our hearty produce, and now, it’s where I can buy wool. That’s right. Locally grown and milled wool, just steps from my house.

For most of the year the Stoddart Farm booth is only at the market on the last Saturday of the month, but in the run up to Christmas, Silvia (farmer extraordinaire) tells me she will be there every week, and I am pretty friggin’ excited about that. I mean, look at what I got!

Just the thing to relieve those February blues (or greys, whatever).

That’s 408 yards of locally grown wool – 70% Romney wool and 30% mohair – in a 100g light fingering weight. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet (it is beautifully soft, so I’m thinking shawl), but I know that I’m going to save it for February, when I need to see some green lusciousness. And really, would you look at that colour? It made my day.

Um, yes please.

Silvia raises the sheep and the mohair goats herself, and then hand paints the wool using environmentally friendly dyes. The wool itself is milled just a few hours from the city, in Elora, making the whole enterprise super-local. I didn’t have my camera with me, but her market table is a riot of colour, with yarns in numerous weights and batts and roving too. That she is the sweetest person just tops it all off. Honestly, I can’t wait to go back next week and pick up a skein of fiery orange/red laceweight I saw.

That I got this alongside Fair Trade coffee and an awesome breakfast cinnamon bun probably means that this weekend is too good to be true and I’m now bound for disaster, but oh well, I’m thinking this yarn was worth it.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: markets, Stoddart Farm, yarn shopping

1:19 pm - September 13, 2012 - AngelaH

Yarn crawl

I have had a rough couple of days, which involved my computer crashing and my hard drive needing to be erased, and well, the only way I know to solve that kind of stress is knitting. So let’s talk yarn, shall we?

As you know, I packed the Spruce Jaywalkers plus an insurance skein of Indigodragonfly as trip knitting. This was more than enough wool to see me through my trip, but I’ll admit to leaving a little extra room in the top of my bag for one or two skeins of souvenir wool – something I wouldn’t be able to get in Toronto.

This was the plan, and it lasted for a whole day. On Day 1, we drove to Baddeck. Baadeck Yarns was closed, so I didn’t buy wool. Instead, L and I went out for a nice dinner and walked around the town, and then holed up in our room to watch a movie (we were both exhausted). I had cast on the Spruce Jaywalkers on the plane, but because I drove from the airport, there wasn’t much done. I knit, we watched silly TV – nothing crazy.

The next day, we left Baddeck and headed north to the Cape Breton Highlands National Post. L drove, so I knit on my socks. Then we passed a sign that said something like “viewpoint: 500m.” We turned a corner, and sure enough, there was a great view (this happens pretty much nonstop on the Cabot Trail, just so you know). We saw a little parking area to the right and decided to pull off and take a picture. We got out of the car, and I glanced up at the sign in the parking lot and, well, I saw this:

I swear I didn’t notice the sheep sign when we pulled in.

I decided to just pop in and see what they had. You know, be polite. After all, we were in their parking lot, intending to stand on their picnic table to take a picture; it seemed rude not to at least make a casual perusal of their wares. That’s when I saw the yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. 2-ply, worsted-weight, milled in PEI at MacAusland’s Woollen Mills from Maritime sheep, yarn, for $4.50 a skein. Casually (by which I mean, after picking up and putting down a half-dozen skeins and exclaiming about the colours) I asked about the yardage. At $4.50, I figured it had to be paltry. Nope: 200 yds per. At $4.50. I bought a sweater’s worth.

Originally, I was going to get a dark blue, but then L pointed out that I always wear blue, and I looked down at my outfit ready to contradict him and realized I was, indeed, wearing all blue. I think green is a nice spice up.

We got back on the road, and, as you know, had a lovely time camping. That yarn, though – well, I thought about that yarn a lot. I went through my mental catalogue of sweater patterns I’ve been wanting to make, and I narrowed it down to two. During the more painful hikes (and I was in pain), I’m a little embarrassed to say that thinking about that yarn and what I was going to knit with it distracted me enough to get me through. Should I knit the Shapely Boyfriend, for which I had enough wool in the car, or should I stop in on the way back and pick up the skeins necessary to knit Kate Davies’ Bláithín?

Look at me, knitting my Spruce Jaywalkers, not even thinking about the yarn in the car. So dedicated.

The morning we left the park, we stopped in a Tim Horton’s for coffee and I made L look at the two sweaters and tell me what he thought. His solution: buy the extra skeins since it’s cheap and decide later. The man is a genius.

I am pretty much sold on Bláithín now, I must say.

Despite this windfall of lovely (and affordable!) yarn, I still wanted to stop in at Baadeck Yarns. I was so beside myself that I forgot to take a picture, but trust me, it’s a woolly heaven. Pat carries everything you could ever want, but because I was on a mission to find yarns I couldn’t get in Toronto, I went for the Handmaiden custom colourways. The Handmaiden is the daughter of the Fleece Artist (who is based in Cape Breton) and let me just say, an eye for colour runs in the family. I splurged. I bought three skeins of Casbah (a merino, cashmere, nylon blend in a fingering weight). I figured that for all in all (considering my super deal on the PEI wool), I was doing okay.

Two skeins of Lupin, which is enough to make almost any shawl I want, plus a skein in Bras d’Or Lakes, which will become socks, probably for my mum.

By the time I got to Gaspereau Valley Fibres, though, I was starting to feel a little guilty about the money I’d spent. I mean, I work in a yarn store, so maybe all of this was a little excessive? I went in and was immediately overwhelmed. They had so much Fleece Artist. And so much new stuff in general. Honestly, I couldn’t choose and after making a tour and touching a lot of wool, I left empty-handed. The next day, though, I was feeling a little incomplete (and also maybe a little ridiculous). There had been a basket of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, a 100% superwash merino sock yarn, in this beautiful mottled brown and copper colourway, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was convinced it was going to be gone by the time we got back, but I decided we should go anyway, just in case.

Gaspereau Valley Fibre’s designated greeter.

It was there. Three skeins, and it was even lovelier than I had remembered. I asked Manda, the manager, what colourway she thought it was and, based on the colourcard, we estimated Earth. Well, that sold me. I bought two skeins, which are slightly different, but if alternated should be fairly seamless. I’m thinking about a shawl.

Honestly, how could I pass this up?

All in all, it’s quite a hall, and my stash has officially reached a critical point (it is overflowing its containment area). Honestly, though, I don’t care. I mean, look at this! And all wool that was a now-or-never purchase, and that I have tentative plans for. So no worries.

Samya looks skeptical, but I think that’s because I stole her bench.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: Cape Breton, Casbah, Fleece Artist, Gaspereau Valley Fibres, Handmaiden, maritime wool, Merino 2/6, yarn shopping

11:15 am - September 10, 2012 - AngelaH

If it’s going to rain, it’s good to be at home

I’m not sure how we managed it, but the best weather of our trip was when we were camping. I don’t know if my morale would have held up if I’d had to hike out (and up) in the rain, and the drive from Cape Breton back to the Annapolis Valley (about 6 hours) would definitely have been wasted on bad weather. It’s just as well, then, that it didn’t rain until next day, our first full day at home.

Rain in Nova Scotia is not like rain in Toronto. In Toronto, we rarely get a full day of consistently torrential rain; in Nova Scotia, a rainy day is a very rainy day. Very rainy. Luckily, we were coming off several days of outside activity, so an indoor day wasn’t entirely unwelcome. I blogged, L caught up on some work, and then I taught my sister to knit.

Would you just look at that concentration?

Her birthday was last month, and I told her that, as a present, I’d give her a knitting lesson. She came by the shop a few weeks ago and picked out her wool (she went with Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a pea green sort of colour, which was a good beginner’s choice, I think) and since we were going to be visiting our parents at the same time, we decided that would be a good time to start. I packed needles, she packed wool, and on Wednesday, the lesson began. I taught her the cable cast-on, and then knitting and purling, so she can make a nice stockinette scarf. I thought about just teaching her to knit a garter stitch scarf, but that gets boring after a while and you may as well learn both stitches from the get-go.

Jenny does not like purling, but otherwise was doing well. I had to rip out a few sections for her (at her request, I should add) because of holes and, twice, because she’d reversed the stockinette, but by Sunday she had a pretty good hang of it. She’s going to come visit to learn how to cast off.

After the first rainy day, the weather improved a little. It was still overcast and wet, but not full-on raining, so we decided to head out for the afternoon. We went wine tasting. The area where I grew up has steadily become wine country (there are six wineries within 20 minutes of my parents’ house) and the wines are fantastic. We set out to visit all of them, but because the tastings are so generous and plentiful, we had to stop after four.

While I do not know what kind of grape this is (it’s about a month from harvest, though), I can tell you it was at the Sainte-Famille winery.

It was a grey day, but the view from Muir Murray (that’s Blomidon on the horizon) is always gorgeous.

We visited (and tasted at) Sainte-Famille, Muir Murray, and Gaspereau Vineyards, and also walked around the Domaine de Grand Pre winery, but decided we needed a breather. We still bought six bottles of wine: two bottles of maple wine (did you know you could ferment maple syrup? Neither did I), a maple port, a Muscat, a Baco Noir, and a Marechal Foch. Nova Scotia is acclaimed for its white wines, but I find it hard to pass up its reds. (My dad, deciding that wasn’t enough, then bought us a seventh bottle at the Wolfville Farmers’ Market on Saturday – Blomidon Estate Winery‘s Tidal Bay (a white), which we tasted at the market and agreed was very good. The winery is just down the street from my parents’ and because we both already know and enjoy their wine, we didn’t stop in.)

I think visiting twice each time I’m home is totally reasonably and normal behaviour.

Our little wine tour brought us past Gaspereau Valley Fibres, one of my most favourite yarn shops. Yes, we stopped in. It was there knitting day, so the shop was filled with happy knitters. Honestly, between that and all the new fibre, I was so overwhelmed I didn’t buy anything. Then, of course, I kicked myself all the way home. We went back the next day. (I’ll tell you about that on Wednesday).

We had five days at home, and while I would have been quite content to knit and read and hang out, L wanted to be out doing stuff (and rightly so – he didn’t grow up there). On Friday we went into Halifax for the afternoon with Jenny. Our third sister Connie (the middle) was working, so we walked around Point Pleasant Park and then met up with some friends for coffee before having to scoot home where my parents were hoping to have dinner in the garden.

It’s kind of amazing to think that this park juts out into the water beside the Halifax seaport and is still so lovely and wild-seeming.

Unfortunately, before we made it back, it was rainy again. We thought we could tough it out, but then it started pouring, so we gave in. This is what it would have looked like though, if the weather had behaved.

My parents (especially my dad) do gardening on a different scale than most people. This is the eating shelter in the walled garden in the meadow. Yeah, I know.

On Saturday, we went to the market (as I mentioned) for breakfast and then went hiking. My dad, Jenny, and L went off to Cape Split (which is a gorgeous hike) and my mum and I walked the dikes instead (in this context, dikes are the earthen walls built to keep the ocean out of the plains where the farmers have their fields, just in case you were wondering), which is a very nice long walk.

Another view of Blomidon, this time including mud flats! The tides in the Bay of Fundy (and the Minas Basin) are the highest in the world, and the water level rises and falls 50 vertical feet twice a day. Thus, when the tide is out, there are kilometres of mud flats, and when it’s in, everything is covered.

The tide was out, unfortunately, but we still saw two bald eagles and soaked in some sunshine. We all managed to get home at more or less the same time, and then L and I headed back into Halifax for dinner and a birthday party at the Keith’s Brewery.

Walking around the “garden” (my parents have 5 acres) is a singular pleasure, and often the cats will trot along with you. Here they are (Cosma on the left, Samya on the right) doing a sort of synchronized rolling routine in the bocci court. It was adorable.

In addition to the walled garden, the traditional walk also includes the ponds, which are in the ravine behind the house. It’s a pretty nice place to visit.

Sunday was lovely and sunny, so naturally we spent that day packing. Considering how full our bags were in the first place (hiking + camping + regular visiting = a lot of gear), I think we did quite well to fit seven bottles of wine into our packs. My yarn purchases required an extra bag, but even that seemed reasonable. We loaded up the car and drove back into Halifax to visit with Connie and then head to the airport to fly back to Toronto. I can hardly believe I have to go back to work today, but I guess that’s the sign of a good vacation.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: cats, hiking, Nova Scotia, photos, travel, wine

1:04 pm - September 5, 2012 - AngelaH

Cape Breton, you beauty

It’s true. Even if, like me, you know that Cape Breton is supposed to be lovely and picturesque and scenic and all that, it is still jaw dropping. I mean, it’s spectacular. That’s what we kept saying over and over, for the entire four days we were there. L or I, or both of us, would look out at the view and say “Well. That’s friggin’ spectacular,” and then shake our heads.

We arrived in Cape Breton late Saturday afternoon. We flew into Halifax (and, if we’re being honest, very nearly missed our flight out of Toronto. We had to run, and arrived gasping at the check in, and only just managed to board. It was uncomfortably tight, and I was so flustered it took me three tries to get the cast-on right for the Spruce Jaywalkers.) and picked up our rental and drove to Baddeck. We got in around 5 and I must say I was thrilled to see we were staying here:

The Inverary Resort.

Before heading into the woods for two nights, it’s nice to spend in a night in a good bed, you know?

On Sunday morning, we left Baddeck and headed for the famous Cabot Trail, which just so happens to be the only good way to get to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. They aren’t kidding when they call this drive scenic. We stopped a few times to take in the views (and stretch our legs).

Oh, just some ocean, no big deal.

We made it to the park around midday and loaded up our packs. The hike into our campsite was 6 km, almost entirely downhill. We started at the top of Mackenzie Mountain (335 m) and hiked down to sea level. The forest there is kind of striated, with spruce at the top giving way to birch trees surrounded by a carpet of ferns, which gives way to more spruce, which ends with a mix of oak, maple and birch (and a few spruce) at the bottom of the river valley.

Fishing Cove River to the left, our trail to the right; pretty lovely all around.

It was a lovely hike, and it took us here, to Fishing Cove, which was our home for two days and nights.

The view back up the valley from the beach.

Little tent in the big woods.

On the first night we sat up on the cliff and watched the sun set and were lucky enough to see a pod of porpoises (like dolphins) swim across the mouth of the cove just as the water was reflecting all the red and pink and yellow light of setting sun. It was, well, spectacular.

Sunset in Fishing Cove.

Fishing Cove has eight sites, and on our first night, they were all filled. Ours was tucked a little bit back up the hill – still within view of the beach, but on its own – so it didn’t feel crowded. On our second night, though, we were the only campers, which made the cove feel wilder and more ours.

The view from the tent.

The next day, we got up early and hike out of Fishing Cove (6 km back up to where we left the car). From Fishing Cove there isn’t really anywhere to go, and we wanted to do some day hikes. We hiked the Skyline – all the along the spine of a mountain that juts out into the ocean. Part way into the hike, L and I were chatting when all of a sudden he said “moose!” and I turned around and say a lady moose having a snack about two metres away from me off the side of the trail.

Moose!

It seemed not at all concerned that we were there. I wasn’t sure it could get much better than that, but then when we got to the end we saw whales. Sure, we were at the top of the cliff and they were basking in the water down below, but still. We didn’t have binoculars, so I can’t say for sure, but I tend to think they were pilot whales, which are common off the coast and bigger than the equally as common mink whales, making them easier to see.

After we got back to the car, I was about ready to collapse. It turns out that the combination of sleeping on the ground (I do have a good sleeping mat, but still), hiking more or less uphill for 6 km and then hiking an additional 9 km pretty much immediately after has an adverse affect on my legs and hips. Who knew? Needless to say, I was in pain. Of course, we still had to hike back down to our campsite. There are two ways into Fishing Cove: the short way and the long way. We took the long way in on Sunday because we wanted a good hike and L wasn’t sure if his ankle (which he injured a few weeks ago) would be up to a steeper hike. On Monday, though, we decided to try the shorter hike. It’s the same vertical difference (335 m to sea level), but over 3 km instead of 6. Thus, much steeper, but also much shorter.

See that wee that little inlet way down there? Yeah, that’s Fishing Cove. It looks way farther when your legs are about to give out, let me tell you.

It’s also how we were going to hike out with all our gear on Tuesday, because the parking lots for the two trails are pretty far apart. I won’t lie, I was dreading it. The trail was steep (as expected) and also quite rocky. A good chunk of it looks like it used to be a creek bed (and almost certainly becomes one in the spring), so the rocks were loose underfoot. Between that and the pain in my legs, well, I was worried.

These cliffs were red anyway, but they glowed even redder at sunset.

As it turns out, I needn’t have been. Up is easier than down, and we hiked up and out with all our gear in under an hour! Honestly, if I were to camp at Fishing Cove again (and I think I would – it was gorgeous), I would do it this way again. The long trail is definitely a better downhill hike, because the ground is firmer and the incline not as steep, which made walking down with a pack not too treacherous. However, when climbing out I will take short and tough over long and just-about-as-tough any day. Fifty minutes of pain is, for me, preferable to two hours of pain. Otherwise, both are quite nice hikes through lovely woods, and I would recommend them.

L with his pack on the way in, and me with my pack after successfully hiking out. I don’t even look that tired!

In case you skimmed your way through this whole post wondering about the knitting for heaven’s sake! Don’t worry, there was knitting, and wool shopping, and it will get its own dedicated post. It’s worth the wait, I promise.

The Cabot Trail: totally fun to drive, but even better if you’re the passenger. L and I drove the scenic stretches through the park several times (out of necessity) and we took turns. It’s the best way.

Category: Out and about Tags: Cabot Trail, camping, Cape Breton, hiking, Nova Scotia, photos, travel

9:32 am - August 31, 2012 - AngelaH

August? Paging August.

I don’t know how it is where you are, but over here I’m a little disoriented. I mean, it was just July wasn’t it? What the heck happened to the last month? This was how I felt about November and March when I was at university – two months that were so jam-packed that they sucked up your life and didn’t spit it out again until you were already on the other side.

That’s when I realized where August went: work. All month, I’ve been working two jobs. I’ve been in the shop or doing shop stuff in the morning, and then come early afternoon I get ready and head off to the Post, where I stay until it’s too late to do anything but go to sleep when I get home. My weekends, while mostly work-free, have also been full. It has been a month of fun and learning and newness, but definitely not a month I would describe as restful. Clearly, this calls for a holiday, and lucky me, tomorrow L and I are getting on a plane and heading east: Nine days in Nova Scotia. Oh heck yes.

We’re going to spend the first four days in Cape Breton, hiking and camping and (hopefully) visiting Baadeck Yarns (I’ve already planted this seed in L’s ear, so he’s prepared). After that, it’s back to the Annapolis Valley for five days of hanging out at my parents’, visiting friends, and being relaxed. There will be sight-seeing, there will be friend-visiting and shopping and all that, but there will also be free time, and unscheduled hours, and oh my gosh, I cannot wait! (Yes, yes, there will be blogging too.)

Because of the camping portion of the trip, packing is a little trickier this time than it was the last time I went. Nonetheless, there will be room to bring some knitting with me, and also to bring some wool home with (we all know what happened last time I went home, after all).

This is a very accurate depiction of the colours in these socks. I love them. I wouldn’t even rip this back (despite my Jaywalker desire) if I wasn’t already feeling they were going to be to big. Sort of serendipitous really.

I am bringing my Fleece Artist Spruce Socks – which I cast on as regular socks and, despite being three inches in, have ripped back so they can become the Jaywalkers they want to be – and something else as-yet undecided. I can’t bring the Christmas socks, because my sister will be visiting home at the same time we’re there. I was planning to bring the wedding mitts, but the yarn still looks like this and I’m not sure I’ll have time to wind to before we leave.

This will be mittens. It will. I’ll wind it just as soon as I’m home.

I feel fairly confident that the Spruce Socks will take more than a week, but there’s a lot of driving and flying built into this trip (L and I will split the driving though) and I don’t want to run out. Considering my yarn-buying plans, this seems like a silly worry, but still, I think I’ll pack an emergency skein just in case. The only question is, where to put it?

One thing I will definitely find room for (and, let’s be honest, I will definitely fit in that extra wool) is my finished Georgian Bay shawl. I cast on in the car on the way to Tobermory the first time we went this summer, knit on it for four days, got home, and promptly got distracted (we talked about busyness, yes?). The weekend of the baby shower, though, I was so filled with productive glee (read: caffeine) that I stayed up and finished it. That was two weeks ago, but since we were going back to Tobermory, it seemed only right to take pictures in the place it was meant for.

This is kind of a little shawl, I admit, but under a light sweater or jacket it’s perfect. I already want to make another one (though maybe slightly larger).

While it’s slightly smaller than I’d choose (dear self: go up a needle size; just figure it out already), I love it. I love the colour, I love how soft the wool is, I love the eyelets, I love it. I was convinced I wasn’t a triangle-shawl person, but I take it back.

Details
Pattern: Doublish, by Alex Tinsley
Yarn: Madeline Tosh Merino Light in Nebula
Needles: 3.25 mm Addi lace circulars
Modifications: None! I can hardly believe it either. It’s ravelled here if you’re into that sort of thing.

I bought two skeins of Nebula because I was worried about yardage (I am always worried about yardage, but the pattern was pretty specific on this point) and have an entire unwound skein leftover. I was thinking about exchanging it for another colour – unless you have a better idea?

Categories: finished, Knitting, Out and about Tags: Doublish, Fleece Artist, Madeline Tosh, Nova Scotia, shawl, socks, Tobermory, travel

2:23 pm - August 29, 2012 - AngelaH

The perils of the best laid plans

Sometimes I guess it’s possible to both plan too well and not quite well enough. This was the case of the Leftover Socks, which were originally intended (as the name suggests) to use up some of the leftovers from my Colour Affection shawl. That was the original plan. I weighed a pair of socks I had recently knit and then weighed the wool I had left, and happily discovered that I had enough to knit proper socks (that is, not short socks, which I don’t like to wear).

I then weighed the two colours of wool separately and found that I had a bit more of the green than the grey, so I decided to knit green socks with grey cuffs, heels, and toes. Very cute, I thought. And the first one was, see:

Leftover sock 1 all finished and nice looking, and leftover sock 2 just before the heel with a deceptive amount of yarn still in the ball.

The thing is, I should have actually thought about the math a little. The amounts of yarn I had in green and grey were only different by about 20 grams, and together equaled a pair of socks. If I had thought about what this meant, I might have been able to foresee what would happen if I tried to actually knit socks that were almost entirely in one colour. You can see where this is going can’t you?

Sigh.

I got just past the heel in sock number 2 (not even entirely through the gusset! but I will say that knitting on a dock in Tobermory made me feel a little better) when I realized I was in trouble. I switched to grey, hoping to save enough of the green to the toe. I figured that this way, at least, the tops would match when I was wearing shoes/boots, and the feet would just look reversed if I was wearing pants and sock feet. Sadly, it just wasn’t meant to be.

These are perhaps the most ridiculous socks I have ever knit. What was I thinking? Why didn’t I stripe them? Clearly I knit with the philosophy that if I don’t acknowledge the yarn is running out, it won’t run out. That belief was dashed this weekend. Don’t get me wrong, these are warm socks knit in lovely wool, and they will keep my feet warm even if they are unforgivingly fraternal and clearly knit on the fly. I know this, but would it have been too much to ask for a little symmetry? It’s the stupid toe that really kills me.

Leftovers of the leftovers.

To take the edge off the disappointment I’m sure you’re all feeling on my behalf, enjoy some Tobermory photos. It was a glorious weekend with good friends, nonsense socks (which are ravelled here, if you’re interested) notwithstanding.

We stayed in a different cottage this time around. Here’s the view from the deck (I spent some lovely time knitting on that dock.)

It was overcast and grey on the second night, but as you can see, the first night more than made up for it. Spectacular, it was.

The rocks at Half-Way Log Dump (in the Bruce Peninsula National Park) are pretty fantastic.

You can’t quite tell, but the water is tropical to look at. Even though it was cold, because you can jump in I did a lot swimming. I love swimming.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: Madeline Tosh, photos, socks, Tanis Fiber Arts, Tobermory, travel

10:59 am - August 13, 2012 - AngelaH

Big, exciting news

Remember before, when I was knitting fingerless gloves that weren’t for me, but I said they were “for an upcoming fun something”? Well, that something has just about arrived, so here it is: There’s a new yarn shop opening in Toronto, and I’m helping. The shop is being opened by Claudia Quintanilla, and it’s called EweKnit (as in “you-knit,” not “ew, knit?”).

Oh, you thought I was done with the fingerless gloves? Nope! Details here.

My role isn’t huge, but I have to say that helping start a business – and a knitting business, at that – is exciting and daunting and exhausting and wonderful. Essentially, my job at the moment is to run the advertising campaign (something I’m totally new to and finding hugely interesting) and help set things up in the shop. Once we’re open, I’ll continue doing the advertising, as well as start and run a blog, work in the shop, and teach some classes. I am beyond excited.

This all came about, weirdly, because the National Post, where I work as a copy editor, announced in May that it will be cutting its copy desk in the near-ish future. This means that I will be out of a job, as will the rest of my colleagues, and while that hasn’t happened yet, I was feeling some pressure to figure stuff out. I mentioned this to Natalie (formerly of Lettuce Knit), and when Claudia asked Natalie to help with the store, and then decided they needed a third person as well, Natalie asked if I was interested. I was, and I met with Claudia at the beginning of July, and it all went from there.

The only reason I didn’t mention any of this earlier is because it seemed almost too good to be true (I mean, I get to work in a yarn shop, keep my current job for as long as it exists, get paid to knit some interesting stuff, and squish pretty yarns? Pinch me.) and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t before I said anything. That, and I wanted to make sure my bosses at work knew about this, since sometimes they read the blog.

So, what does any of this matter to you (besides, hopefully, acting as an explanation for my erratic blogging)? Well, first of all, you’re all invited to the shop’s grand opening, which is this week! If you’re in Toronto, please drop in – check out the yarn, have a glass of wine, and come say hi (the proper invite is below). Secondly, I would like to assure you that I am still knitting – knitting like crazy, even – and that this blog will return to its usual assortment of posts after this crazy week is over.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: EweKnit, fingerless mitts, Koigu KPM, LYS, Toronto

1:39 pm - July 30, 2012 - AngelaH

Tobermory weekend

Last Thursday, L and I took off for a four-day weekend in Tobermory, on Ontario’s Georgian Bay (which is itself a bay on Lake Huron). Our good friend has a cottage there, and we consider ourselves very lucky to have been invited – trust me when I say it was very hard to make ourselves return to the city last night. We swam (it was cold!), kayaked, ate great food, hiked, played lots of games, and of course, I knit.

As often happens when you take a holiday, I now have a million things to catch up on, so here’s the weekend (more or less) in photos. I’ll write a proper post later this week.