Pans & Needles

Category Archives: Out and about

9:00 am - July 23, 2012 -

Book report: CanLit Knit

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The people (clockwise): Emma’s hands (she somehow didn’t quite make it in the shot), Allegra, Katie, Jeanne, me, and Carrie. We’re less red in person. (photo taken by Carrie’s boyfriend – thank you!)

The first CanLit Knit book/knitting club was yesterday and it was great. We basked in the sun on a rooftop patio, drank beer, knit, and talked books (and knitting, and Toronto, and, well, about lots of things.) I‘ll be writing about our book pick Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner later this week, so all I will say for now is that opinion was divided.

The knitting: Emma’s socks (red), Allegra’s blanket, Katie’s top, and my sock .(Jeanne’s yarn bombing is missing because she was worried about missing her train, and I didn’t think to get one until we were all leaving).

As for the knitting, everyone but Carrie brought some (she was balanced out by Emma who brought knitting, but hadn’t read the book). Allegra was knitting a baby blanket (this one, I think); Emma was knitting socks; Katie was knitting the Cap Sleeve Lattice Top, and we were all in love with her colour choices; Jeanne was knitting her first yarn-bombing, which was destined to become a bicycle seat cover for one of Mississauga’s public art bikes; and I was knitting the leftover socks (I’m almost ready to divide for the heel of sock number two).

I think it’s fair to say that fun was had by all,  and we’re planning to do it again in September. There’s no date yet, but I think we’re going to try another short story collection, possibly by Alice Munro (maybe Too Much Happiness, her most recent collection, but we haven’t made a definitive choice). If you couldn’t make it this time but really want to come in September, let either myself or Allegra know and we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop.

Categories: in progress, Knitting, Out and about Tags: ,
10:12 am - July 3, 2012 -

Canada Day leftovers

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I know that the May 24th long weekend is Canada’s unofficial/official start to summer, but for me Canada Day weekend still feels like the real kick-off. This year, that is heightened because the Post started Summer Mondays this week, which means that not only did I get to have a full weekend off this week*, but I will for the rest of the summer too. This is excellent.

Canna lilies in the backyard.

L and I escaped Toronto for, well, Windsor, where his parents live. I didn’t get a long weekend, but we had two full days of relaxing and that was pretty good. L’s mum has a pool, and since the weather was mid-30s (Celsius), I basically alternated between soaking up the heat (like a turtle) and then jumping in for a swim. Just the best.

Hostas by the pool.

I didn’t actually feel like I got in much knitting (I’m more of a reader, poolside), but then I looked down and realized I got almost an entire sock finished, so that’s not bad. I had about two inches knit when I arrived (I opted to leave Buckwheat behind, it being a holiday and all), and now I’m pretty much at the toe. I’m calling these Leftover Socks because they’re being knit from some of what was left after I finished Colour Affection. I really liked both the colours and the wool from that project, so I’m quite pleased that there’s enough left to actually do something with.

Leftover Socks, zipping right along.

If you’re Canadian, happy belated Canada Day. If you’re in the States, happy Fourth of July! Yes, July is a strangely patriotic month.

*Because I work as a copy editor, I work on the paper the day before it goes out. That means, for the Monday paper, I work on Sunday. I get a day off to make up for it during the week, but I rarely get two days off in a row. In the summer, the Post doesn’t publish a Monday paper, meaning I now get Sundays off, thus restoring my weekend. It’s awesome.

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: ,
10:26 am - June 27, 2012 -

CanLit Knit

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So, a few weeks ago, after I reviewed Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s All Wound Up and finished Colour Affection, a fellow Canadian lit enthusiast and knitter tweeted that we should have get together sometime to knit and talk about books. Now, this might be the kind of thing that one just says in an offhand way on Twitter, but it did get me to thinking. I mean, what isn’t to love about that idea? Especially, if, say, you were to get together to do this knitting and lit-chatting somewhere where you could also order a beer or some other beverage of choice. Truly, this seemed like a golden summer plan.

And so, CanLit Knit was born. Allegra and I have been emailing and we’ve worked out a time, place and book, and we’re inviting you to come join us.

The Details:
Where: The Pilot, 22 Cumberland St.
When: Sunday, July 22, at 2 p.m. (if it’s not raining, we’ll be on the patio)
The Book: Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner
The Knitting: Whatever you feel like! (Also, if you happen to be more into crocheting, that’s cool too.)

We’re hoping that this will give people enough time to plan ahead and find/read the book (it’s short stories, so if you can’t quite finish, come anyway), but not so much time that it gets forgotten. Honestly, I can’t friggin’ wait. Knitting in a bar always brings the most hilarious sideways glances, and the idea of a group of people knitting in a bar makes me very happy. Also, I’ve been wanting to read Better Living Through Plastic Explosives since it was shortlisted for the Giller (Canada’s biggest fiction award), and this seems like perfect timing.

So, are you interested? If so, please let me know (either in the comments or on Twitter or via e-mail). There isn’t a limit, but we would like to know if the group will be big enough to warrant a reservation. CanLit Knit. I can’t wait!

Categories: Knitting, Out and about Tags: , ,
11:19 am - June 12, 2012 -

Adventures in tea-drinking and shopping in Baku

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I’ve been back in Toronto for just over a week and I still haven’t managed to write about the last stop on my trip, Baku, capitol city of Azerbaijan. It also occurred to me that the Caucuses are not really an area ever covered in geography class, so if you’re curious about where I was, here’s a map:

We were in the trio of little countries to the left. (Source: University of Texas Library)

Anyway, Azerbaijan was really the only country we visited in which we didn’t leave the main city. We did spend an evening in my dad’s colleague Rafig’s dacha, on the north coast of the Apsheron Peninsula, but we were driven to and from, and although it was a wonderful evening of traditional food and traditional dancing (!), it wasn’t really sightseeing. So, Baku, then. What an incredibly beautiful city. It is right on the edge of the Caspian Sea and has been laid out to take advantage of its seaside local. There is a gorgeous wide pedestrian boulevard along the water that runs for kilometres uninterrupted and is always full of families, young couples, and school kids strolling around, eating in the many cafés or simply enjoying the view from one of the many benches. It’s all landscaped and filled with beautiful gardens and fountains and really, you could believe yourself on the Riviera.

I loved these dandelion-esque fountains.

The other restored area we wandered through in Baku’s downtown was the vast network of pedestrian shopping streets. Really, Baku feels strangely Parisian (although much cleaner), and its old buildings have been brilliantly restored in this area. The crime rate there is almost zero (the benefit of a totalitarian government, I guess) and I think a lot of the happy and carefree attitudes exhibited in the streets is because of this. Families are out at all hours with young kids playing happily and running around, and there isn’t a threat to be seen. It’s kind of incredible.

These grape vines are planted at street level and then trained up the wall to shade the upper balconies. You see this everywhere and I think it’s genius!

Baku also has a beautiful and immaculate old city. Unlike in Yerevan, where that just doesn’t exist, or even in Tbilisi, where they are working very hard to restore the Old City, in Baku, the buildings there have been wonderfully preserved. Many of the cellars and main-floors are now used to shops where you can buy all manner of Azeri-made textiles, pottery, and antiques. And I’ll be honest, I shopped. I didn’t buy much in either Georgia or Armenia, but since Baku was the last stop, and has some truly beautiful work, I treated myself a bit.

The Maiden Tower, which was built in the 12th century. From the top you get an amazing view of the city and sea, and the breeze is very much appreciated after climbing up the many, many airless steps.

This a tablecloth I bought, all beautifully woven out of camel wool and silk. The motif is called the flame, and it’s the national symbol of Azerbaijan – it’s on everything.

My parents bought this carpet. It’s 50 years old or so (meaning it was dyed with vegetable dyes, not acid-based ones) and made entirely of wool. We spent a whole morning carpet shopping, and it is quite the art.

Of course, we also ate and stuff. For the most part, Azeri cuisine is very similar to that of its neighbours. It was the hardest place for me to eat out in restaurants – for whatever reason, most of their dishes have meat in them and, since English is more limited here than elsewhere, it’s difficult to have any modifications made to the dishes. That being said, I did alright. Their bread is delicious and comes with every meal, and once I learned a few particular dishes (thanks largely to the meal we enjoyed with Rafig and his family), I was fine. The real treat, though, was the tea.

Azer Chay with strawberry jam. Delicious.

In Azerbaijan, they drink Azer Chay (literally Azeri Tea, but pronounced Azer Chai), and instead of serving it with milk and/or sugar, it comes with slices of lemon and a bowl of jam. Thus, when your tea has been poured, you had a slice of lemon and a spoonful or two of jam, which sweetens the tea. Their jam, though, isn’t like Smuckers or some other North American brand; it’s really more like a preserve, and the fruit is generally whole or in quarters, suspended in a thick, syrupy, liquid. It is delicious and very indulgent and I loved it.

I loved it so much I bought a box of tea and two jars of homemade jam to bring back with me. The jam that I bought came from the market, which is an entirely local affair situated in the opposite direction of anything that you could consider remotely touristy. My mum and I went up there to buy some food for dinner (my dad’s work is based out of Baku, so he has an apartment there). You can buy everything there. Just everything. Besides the jam, we also bought fruit leather (hugely popular in the region), fruit and veg, and two kinds of cheese. We could have kept right on shopping, but our bags were quite heavy.

There is a whole section of the market dedicated to dried fruits and spices.

Jars and jars and jars of preserves. These are much, much larger than the jars of homemade jam I bought.

In all, we had three and a half days in Baku before getting on the plane and heading home (for me, that was 26 hours door-to-door). It was an amazing way to end a two-week holiday, and you can bet I’ll go back if I have the chance.

Category: Out and about Tags: , , , , , , ,
11:38 am - June 2, 2012 -

Touring Armenia

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Really, I could keep right on writing about Georgia, but I’ve been in Yerevan for three days and if I go back to Tbilisi now, I’ll never catch up because we’re leaving for Baku tomorrow. So, Armenia. We’re staying in Yerevan, the capital, where there isn’t really an “old city,” although there are many areas that are clearly Soviet in provenance. It’s a beautiful city, though, and downtown the streets are wide, with wide sidewalks lined with flowers boxes and shaded by large mature trees.

We arrived on Thursday, after driving six hours from Tbilisi, and unfortunately that drive coincided with me getting very sick, which made the entire day a wash (I did nothing by lie on the couch and sleep; it was very unpleasant). The following day my mum wasn’t feeling too well, so we took it pretty easy. We did walk down to Republic Square though, as well as buy a couple of little souvenirs from a local artist’s shop.

All the big important government buildings in Armenia seem to be made of this multi-coloured pink stone. (This one is on Republic Square.)

All of this is to say that yesterday was our first proper day, and we certainly made the most of it. In the morning we went to the vernissage, which is a huge market in the downtown where you can buy anything from antique dishes to jewelry to inlaid wood boxes to carpets to military memorabilia, among many, many other things. I bought a pair of handknit socks, but I’ll write about those later. My parents looked at many carpets, but because we’re going to Azerbaijan next, and Azerbaijan does not get on with Armenia, it would be impossible to buy something that large here and then take it with us to Baku. It’s a shame, because they’re lovely and really reasonably priced, but oh well.

Carpets were everywhere.

Also cameras…

… and military memorabilia such as uniforms and medals.

After that, we met with my dad’s colleague Artem and left Yerevan and headed south, toward Mount Ararat. Our first stop was Khor Virap, a monastery just on the Armenian side of the border with Turkey, at the bottom of Mount Ararat (the place where Noah’s Arc is supposed to have ended up).

If Mount Ararat hadn’t insisted on hiding behind storm clouds all afternoon, this picture would be much more spectacular.

The monastery is beautiful and, beyond its stunning setting, it’s also the place where Grigor Lusarovitch, the man who first introduced Christianity to Armenia in the 3rd century, was imprisoned in a well for 13 years by a king who did not want to be Christian. Like all stories, it’s really more complicated than that, but that’s what it boils down to. My dad and I actually climbed down into the well and although it isn’t deep, there are no windows and not much space – certainly not somewhere you’d want to spend years and years of your life.

Instead of a picture of my dad’s bum as he climbed out of the well, here’s a shot of the monastery from the rise on the right in the previous photo.

After Khor Virap Artem took us farther into the mountains (the Lesser Caucuses) to visit the Noravank monastery. Monks certainly knew how to pick breathtaking locations, but they were clearly not the practical type. Noravank is deep in the mountains and to get there you have to drive through a long and winding gorge with high rocky walls. It was kind of jaw dropping, to be honest.

The rocks really were this colour. The strata is also mostly vertical (instead of horizontal, which is what we’re used to seeing), so caves open up between the layers, creating large pockets in the cliff faces.

Outside the primary monastery building…

…and inside.

A second church (or chapel?) they managed to fit on the edge of the cliff.

(And, this is as far as I got before we went out for dinner. And then I packed. And then I went to bed because I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to take a taxi back to Tbilisi so we could catch out plane to Baku. And then there was no wifi in our apartment, so this post has languished. I’ll finish it now, a whole week and two countries later.)

Our last day in Armenia was a kind of taking it easy day. Yerevan is the International City of the Book for 2012, so we visited the museum exhibit about Armenia’s history of printing (celebrating its 500th anniversary, which is pretty amazing) and wandered around a bit, picking up souvenirs and whatnot. The real highlight of the day, though, came before breakfast, when we climbed the Cascade.

700+ steps before breakfast? Heck yes!

If you think that looks like a lot of stairs to climb before breakfast, well, it was. But that’s fine, because it was totally worth it. The Cascade is preceded by a sculpture garden and is being privately funded as an arts and culture centre in Yerevan. Each of those central landings (with the rounded windows) has a gallery or concert hall or other artistic venue inside (there are escalators inside for those who prefer not to climb in their finery) and fountains or sculptures or both on the outside landing part. There are also boxwood-trimmed gardens lining the outsides of the steps, which, as far as I can tell, are made of limestone.

This is either the third or fourth landing, but I honestly cannot remember.

The white steps rise and rise and rise until all of a sudden they end in a chain-link fence at the top, beyond which is a construction site that has languished since 2009 or so. To continue up to the black platform (the base of the memorial to the Armenian genocide), you have to walk around and then climb more stairs. The plan is to connect the two, and I really hope it happens, because it is a spectacular monument. Also, there’s this view (watch that tallish building in the front):

From the second landing.

From the third landing.

From the top of the white steps.

From the very top, on the black platform.

This is the real reason we climbed it so early. Mount Ararat and Little Ararat get covered in clouds and obscured by haze quite quickly, and although evening is really the best time to go, morning is also good for clear views. We just managed to beat the clouds, but we climbed quickly when we saw them rolling in.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to breakfast on one of the many patio-in-a-park restaurants. Not too shabby.

Armenian “pancake” stuffed with cheese and mushrooms.

Category: Out and about Tags: , , ,
5:02 am - May 25, 2012 -

A very Georgian wedding

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It still seems amazing to me that this happened at all, but this is one of the best things about travelling – you just never know what’s going to happen. I suppose I should say that we knew about the wedding two days before leaving, so I did have a suitable dress with me, but somehow my dad didn’t remember to bring either a tie or a jacket, so my mum and I spent that morning looking all over Tbilisi for a tie – apparently they aren’t big in Georgia. Anyway, when we arrived at the reception, not a single man there was wearing a tie (almost none of them even bothered to tuck in their shirts), so we were feeling reassured that it was a casual affair. Then we walked into the reception hall and saw this.

Every table was decked out like this. It was amazing.

The place was set for 250+ people, and the tables were already covered with food. And I do mean covered. There was salad, fish, bread, cheese, vegetable appetizers, jugs of amber wine (there are four colours of wine in Georgia: white, amber, red, and black), bottles of juice and water, and probably a bunch of other things besides. It was a feast. And then Irakli told us that this was just the cold dishes. Sure enough, we’d barely even started eating when more dishes were added to the table.

This was my favourite. It’s red pepper and seared eggplant stuffed with this walnut paste and pomegranate seeds. Oh my goodness it was delicious.

The funny thing, though, is that nothing is ever taken away. Instead, they just pile dishes on top of other dishes, and if you want what’s underneath, you just lift up the plate on top and get it. Basically, every table becomes its own buffet, which is amazing. It may have been the copious amount of wine I drank (you have to drink for every toast, and people just continuously fill your glass back up), but I found this very amusing.

Plates on plates.

Cake on top of chicken.

A disheveled table.

Anyway, the reception itself is really interesting. There is a toast master in charge of delivering long formal toasts throughout the evening (he had a microphone, and it took us a while to figure out where in the hall he was), and in between his toasts, these four divos would come out on stage and sing (very loudly). Mostly I think they sang traditional songs, but every once in a while it would be something more lively and people would get up to dance. The bride and groom also danced a traditional Georgian wedding dance, which was quite something, and by the end of the night my mum and I were being pulled onto the dance floor and being shown the traditional moves. I’m not sure we were very good at it, but it was fun.

By the end of the night we had eaten, drunk, and danced just about to our limit, and the next day started very slowly, to say the least. We’re in Yerevan, Armenia, now, but more about that later.

Categories: Cooking, Out and about Tags: , , ,
1:02 pm - May 23, 2012 -

Georgia is amazing

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Maybe I should start with a clarification, since for most people the first Georgia they think of is the state, and actually I’m in Georgia the country, which is in the Caucuses. You may be most familiar with Georgia from its 2008 conflict with Russia, but that’s long over and it’s really entirely safe and also entirely lovely. I’m actually here with my parents, which is an added bonus since I don’t get to see them all that often. My dad was here already for work and my mum and I arrived Sunday night (local time, which is 8 hours ahead of Toronto), after 24 hours of travelling.

So, we’re at the end of our third day now and I swear we’ve only stopped walking long enough to eat since we got here, and we’re exhausted. Tomorrow, we have to get a 5 a.m. taxi to Yerevan, where we’ll spend another three days. The Internet is good, there, though, so even though I’m about to fall asleep, here’s a point-form tour of Tbilisi (with pictures).

1. They love statues here. Seriously, they are everywhere. Little, big, copper, gold, stone, whatever, they’ve got it all. My favourites, though, are the little ones that run along Rustavelli (one of the big main streets). These statues stand/sit every ten metres or so along both sides of the lovely wide sidewalks. They’re all different, but here are a couple of my favourites.

This statue has a little bottle of something. Beer or juice, you decide.

This little statue went hunting (his gun is just peaking out over his shoulder) and he got himself a duck.

2. Khachapuri is everywhere. Remember when I made it? Well, it turns out there are a ton of different ways to make it, and they have entire restaurants that serve it, and it’s considered a regular course in a traditional meal. Seriously, Georgians know how to do bread and cheese.

We watched them make it through the window.

Khachapuri with egg.

Khachapuri with cheese on top.

Khachapuri with cheese inside.

3. They also love walnuts here – I even had walnut ice cream the other day – and dried fruit. As a vegetarian, I was a little worried about what I might end up eating, but at least in Georgia, I have been eating as well as anyone (which is to say, very well indeed).

So that’s regular fruit in the middle, fruit leather on the shelves, and the things that look like dried sausages are actually a kind of fruit juice candy.

4. They’re also big on wool, and although I haven’t seen any knitting/crocheting or related shops, gauzy felted wool scarves and thick felted wool hats are everywhere, as are wool carpets.

Carpets for sale on a wall next to a (very narrow) street in the old city.

Repairing an old carpet.

Hats and scarves for sale.

5. Georgians are very religious (Georgian Orthodox, primarily) and churches are everywhere. Today was went to Mtskheta (pronounced Moo-stek-ah, more or less), which was the original capital of Georgia. The cathedral there was built in the 11th century and remains in use. Besides that, there are churches all over the place (you turn a corner and run into a church) and they are all built in more or less the same style. They’re quite beautiful, really.

Cathedral in Mtskheta.

6. They do weddings on a huge scale. We got to go to a Georgian wedding and we’re all still recovering. We were invited by my dad’s colleague Irakli (one of the nicest men ever) and it was a once in a lifetime experience. Needless to say, it was amazing, and merits its own post, as do many, many other things about Georgia, but maybe you should come visit to see for yourself? (I really will try to post on the wedding, though, it was amazing.)

7. Not about Georgia, really, but oh well. Colour Affection is zipping right along thanks to all of this travelling. I got a ton done on the plane and I’m one row shy of completing the two-colour striped section, which means I’ll be into the short rows during the drive tomorrow and I can’t wait. Here’s how it’s looking so far.

Stripes are so satisfying.

Categories: Cooking, Knitting, Out and about Tags: , , , , , ,
12:01 pm - May 14, 2012 -

A Proper Mother’s Day

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I don’t have kids, but it was my birthday yesterday, and since I’m the oldest that means Mother’s Day this year fell on the actual anniversary of my mum becoming a mother. In the year I was born my birthday was actually a couple of days after Mother’s Day, so my poor mum had to wait a whole year for it. Now though, I like to think that the waiting has paid off.  Unfortunately, what with my parents living in Nova Scotia and me living in Toronto, I didn’t get to see my mum over the weekend – instead, L and I did birthday stuff.

I had to work yesterday (I’m a copy editor at the National Post, and since there’s a Monday paper, I have to go in on Sundays to work on it), so we did birthday stuff on Saturday. As t turned out, the weather was so lovely all weekend that either day was basically the dream of a Spring-born. Obviously we had to take advantage of the 20C weather, so we bicycled to Kensington market, bought picnic supplies and then bicycled down to Toronto Island (well, we took the ferry, but you know what I mean).

One of my favourite things about the ferry is its life jacket ceiling. So reassuring.

We spent the afternoon on the Island, eating a lot of delicious bread and cheese, bicycling around, tossing a Frisbee, and admiring the lovely houses. Then we bicycled home (it’s just about 8 km each way to the ferry, entirely downhill there and thus, entirely uphill back, so it wasn’t as lazy a day as it felt). After a nap, we went out to meet some friends for drinks and dinner and, I have to say, it was just the kind of low-key fun day that I always hope my birthday is going to be.

Our bicycles resting under a Norwegian maple (according to the sign) while we ate our picnic.

I didn’t get any knitting time on Saturday, though, so on Sunday I went with L to a Frisbee practice before work and while he ran drills I sat in the sunshine and knit. Remember those 67 stitches I cast on last week? Well, they are (hopefully) going to turn into the Autumn Leaves Stole by Jared Flood (rav link). I’m really enjoying the knitting and it has been flying along (I’ve had about two hours total to work on it and I’m halfway through the first chart) and then yesterday, while I was knitting in the sun, I realized something was wrong.

Can you spot the errors?

Can you see it? There on the right – the garter stitch border is not, shall we say, consistent. I do this when I swatch sometimes (you know, forget to knit the last X number of stitches on a purl row) and I thought I was catching myself as I went along, but apparently not. I’m planning to give this to my mum for Christmas (I am starting early this year!), so while I might have decided I didn’t care that much if it was for me, I decided that I should rip it back and do it properly for my mum. Have you ever ripped back lace knitting? It’s terrifying, what with all those yarn-overs and k2togs and whatnot.

So many live stitches – thank goodness Ganymede was otherwise occupied.

I ripped back 10 rows (there’s no picture, because I was too tense) and then, when I picked up the stitches, I only had 61. I counted again. Still 6 short. I checked, and there were no obvious dropped stitches, all my yarn-overs had survived, but there were definitely only 61 stitches where there should have been 67. I decided to start working the chart, since I assumed it would become clear where the missing stitches at least should have been, and yes, when I hit the middle of the first leaf (where it’s slip1, k2tog, psso), there was no stitch to slip. I found the dropped stitch (which had basically melted away), picked it up and kept going. Sure enough, this was the case for every leaf but one. I’ve now reknit those ten rows, plus two, and I’m pleased I decided to rip back when I did, rather than waffling as I continued to knit, which is what usually happens.

Totally worth it, right?

An hour’s work just to end up back at the beginning. Oh well. By the time I get to the end I’ll be glad I did it.

Categories: in progress, Knitting, Out and about Tags: , , , , , , , ,
11:40 am - April 25, 2012 -

City of Craft is an enabler

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The City of Craft Spring show was on Saturday, and you can bet Wendy and I had a countdown going. We got there shortly after doors opened and man oh man, the talent blooming in Toronto is just astounding. I have always loved going to craft-type shows where local artists sell their work, but since I began knitting in ernest I have developed a whole new appreciation for the ingenuity, dedication, and type committed to the work.

This is all a lead-in to say that it was a morning of purchases galore. I don’t shop much in my normal life, so I don’t mind splurging every once in a while, especially when it’s one beautiful handmade things – or things with which to make beautiful, handmade things. This is the beauty of the City of Craft setup: not only are you presented with gorgeous finished pieces, but crafters are notorious enablers, so you can fill your boots with supplies too.

Here’s what I got:

1 pound of fabric bits and two little bags of vintage buttons from The Workroom:

Green fabric! Check out those guitars...

Blue fabric! I love the elephants.

Buttons that have pairs.

Buttons that don't match.

I have no real plan for these except that I will need buttons for the sweater I’m knitting and I think some of the fabric might become napkins.

More vintage buttons from a vendor whose name I have completely forgotten (is it you? Please let me know):

Six unmatched buttons in a similar colour, in a similar size.

A lovely little notions pouch from Bookhou, whose prints I’ve been admiring for years (I also bought a little cloth wallet, but it’s in my purse in the other room and I’m being lazy):

Notions pouch!

These did not come with it.

And, drumroll please, a needle roll from Knotted Nest:

Unrolled.

Rolled up.

A drumroll for a needle roll might seem a bit over the top, but I have been looking for one of these (ie: one that’s pretty and interesting AND holds several sizes/types of needle) for months, to no avail. And I don’t mean casually looking. I mean scouring Etsy and knit shops and blogs. So, thank you Knotted Nest for ending my search in such a beautiful and satisfying manner.

Aside1 : When I got home and proudly showed L all of my purchases, he sort of looked on with casual interest until I got to the needle roll and then he said, “Oh no.”
Me: What?
Him: I guess it’s serious.
Me: What?
Him: You’re really serious about knitting.
Me: Well, yes. Also, this doesn’t mean I have more needles, just that they’ll be better organized.
Him: Still. Now it’s serious. You’re a knitter.

Aside 2: When we were leaving, Nicole (who was working the door) asked to see what we bought. One glance into my bag and she laughed. “You like green, huh?”

And that, my friends, is what we call a positive result!

Category: Out and about Tags: , , ,
6:36 pm - April 16, 2012 -

My Favourite Time of Year

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When I was a kid (and really, to this day, even though I’m not there) my parents’ backyard was filled with cherry trees. There was the big, old original one, and then, thanks to squirrels, birds, and raccoons, nearly a dozen smaller ones all over the property. Combine those with two mature old pear trees and let me tell you, early Spring was a flurry of blossoms. I miss that clear statement of change and waking up now that I’m not home, so when I saw on Twitter last week that the cherry blossoms were out in High Park, L and I made a plan.

On Saturday morning we bicycled over. It was overcast and not very warm, but there were still lots of people there and the trees were overflowing with frothy clouds of white and pink blossoms. It rained on Saturday night and most of Sunday, so I can only assume the flowers have been trampled. If you didn’t get to see them (or you’re far away and don’t have fruit trees of your own), here’s a taste of High Park in full-on Sakura blossom glory.

Overcast skies do not set off white blossoms to their advantage. But nonetheless, lovely, no?

I think this train is hilarious.

I prefer not to look at the skyscrapers when I'm in the park, but I do love the juxtaposition.

After our walk through the park we went to Roncesvalles for coffee and to pick up paczki (delicious Polish doughnuts) and homemade pierogie. Not bad for a Saturday, I’d say – especially since it also involved some very productive knitting time, of which, more later.

Category: Out and about Tags: , , ,