Tuesday, March 26, 2013

WHERE DO THE DAYS GO??

Since I last posted, Michael and I have both had the colds from hell! (They even went away and came back once. NOT FUN.)

And then we had the boys over some of their spring break ... River only stayed for one night (there are no video games at the Wind Walker, what can I say?) but we had Gibson for a week. Hailey came over at the same time, which was wonderful -- a week on a boat with an almost-seven-year-old would be a bit much if we didn't have some help! We had lots of fun, but the days flew by ... I took exactly one picture.
I think I made a movie of Gibson performing a little rap song Auntie Hailey taught him, too -- I'll have to find that and see if it's a small enough file to post here!

Feeling crappy doesn't stop the knitting ... in fact, it's the only thing that kept me from going completely stir-crazy! I finished the diamond shawlette test knit...

It's really small and I may end up frogging it, but it was fun to knit. Started another test knit I can't even tell you about yet...


Also finished the Mystery KAL from Susanna I-C -- it's called Aimatia, it's a beauty, and here's what the designer says about it:

"Aimatia is of Latin origin meaning ‘from the garden of flowers’.
The inspiration for this shawl came from the incredible tulip fields in Netherlands. The colorful flowers seem to go on for miles - it is really amazing. Aimatia ‘grows’ exactly like a real tulip plant - after the stockinette ‘ground’ the lace begins with simple shapes that look like flower bulbs. These lace shapes grow into stems and leaves, much like a real tulip plant. Finally, the tulip blooms open at the top of the plants." 
There are over 700 beads in this baby, and you probably can't see any of them in these pictures!

I finally got the handspun Pi shawl blocked, too...
The absolute best thing that happened to me in the last two weeks? Gibson has decided that he'd like to learn to knit! He's always been interested in what I'm doing, asking questions about how I did certain things, and admiring colors and textures, so I'm pretty sure there's a budding fibre enthusiast there.

Well, it's not going well, the poor little guy is having a pretty hard time coordinating all that stuff we have to do with our fingers in order to create a stitch. But you can see from the look on his face how excited he is to try it!
When I was tucking him in on the evening I took this picture, he asked me to put 'his' knitting on the shelf near his bed. The next morning when he got up and came out to the salon, we were having our traditional snuggle on the couch  and he suddenly jumped up and headed for the aft cabin. I stopped him, thinking he would wake Michael up if he went back in there -- to which he replied, "No, Grandma, I have to get my KNITTING!!" Sure knows how to melt his Grandma's heart.... :)










Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The first issue of my new-to-me magazine came out this week -- I spent yesterday morning emailing copies to all the subscribers and then went to the post office to mail the rest. I'm happy with the .pdf version, but I wasn't all that happy with the print copies .... the images were too dark. I can see this is going to be quite a learning curve! Here's the 'masthead' ...
... but to see any more than that, you'll just have to subscribe.  :-)

Spring is everywhere here now, so we've been getting out and about a bit more... there's nothing like a swan parade!
I'm not sure if this has anything to do with spring, but there are lots of HUGE 'sunstars' in the bay right now, in shallow water. Yesterday the tide was out enough that I attempted these pics ... this first one is looking down one of the pilings into the water, and you can see at least four of these creatures clinging to the pole:
 And here's a little closer look at the one on the sea floor -- it was at least 2' across!
Knitting like a fiend, as always... finished the 'mystery' KAL, but it's not blocked yet:

It's stunning though - I love it!

Now I have three other shawls on the needles.... first of all, I've got about 2" done on the 'Apple House' shawl (scroll down), and I've started two other test knits for other designers. Both are 'secret' (can't reveal the design until they're published) so I'll just show you 'snippets' ...
This one is a stole, and that's about 20" wide. The second one is a Faroese style....
Yesterday afternoon at Barb's Buns knitting circle, Maxine mentioned that she'd volunteered at the Film Festival on the weekend with a woman who was knitting "this long cord of I-cord and a bunch of leaves out of Noro." Well, I had taken the shuttle bus into town because Michael needed the van to go to Victoria, so when I left knitting and walked over to the bus stop, here's what I saw:
Wouldja like to see that a little closer?
So I met Usha ... who knits these 'all the time,' she says, and they get used for everything from window decorations to tiaras to props for plays. Usha is a retired school-teacher and she says she taught all her students to knit!
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