I AM A SPINNER

Hmmmmmmm.

That sounds a little bold.

Okay ... I have spun.

There, that works.

I attended the Spinning workshop on Quadra Island, and I spun that whole ball of yarn myself. I was pretty excited about this all week, but even more exciting was my time with Sivia...

That's her, on the right, in the middle of the River Rock Scarf workshop she gave for our Guild yesterday.

I had the privilege of picking Sivia up at the ferry on Tuesday, and I gave her a tour of Victoria including Dallas Road, Saxe Point and the Inner Harbour before we went for dinner to the Med Grill, where the FibreFest Fashion Show will be held in June. She's a bit shy (and too modest) but very gracious, and I had a wonderful time with her showing her the city and talking about knitting and designing. I'm pretty excited about having her as my guest this year, that's for sure!

I bought three more of her patterns ... I think I'll have to live to be 92 to knit them all!

FIRST DINGHY PICNIC OF 2008

The sun shone, the wind didn't blow, we didn't either of us have a kazillion other things to do (both at the same time!) so I stopped at the Deli on the way home from my Knitting Guild meeting this morning and got picnic fare. When I got home Michael had the dinghy all packed and ready to go, and off we went. (Hope you all got over my April Fool's joke yesterday ... I'm pretty sure Michael and I are still happily married!)

Of course, we were no sooner on the water but the wind came up -- so we couldn't head into the Inner Harbour or we'd get cold too soon. Turned around at the Johnson Street bridge, and headed back past our marina to the Upper Harbour ... just at the start of the Gorge Waterway (the southernmost part of which is referred to as the 'Selkirk' Waterway) I wrote about a day or two ago.

Anyway, we'd forgotten the anchor so we ended up tying up at the dock at Point Ellice House (not yet open for the season) to get out of the wind and have our picnic supper.

Here's the view we had from our 'diner' this evening:

... and our company:


On our way back to the marina after our picnic, we passed the pilot boat 'on the hard' at Point Hope Shipyard across from us...

But I'm glad to be home for the evening, because I'm really excited to be working on Sivia's Moonshadow shawl - I've now made it through the edging and the first full pattern repeat, and it's going swimmingly ....

I put an extra bead row in the edging, and it looks lovely!

THE GORGE

The City of Victoria is wrapped around an 'Inner Harbour,' which leads to an 'Upper Harbour' (where we live), and then beyond us is called the Gorge Waterway. It is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, but feels and looks more like a river as it cuts northwest through primarily a residential district.

It's beautiful, and historically has been a social gathering place for rowers and paddlers; these days the waterway is used a lot by competitive teams for practice -- dragon boats, outriggers, kayakers and voyageur canoes go up and down the waterway at all hours of the day and night, and there's always something to see.






The Gorge Waterway Action Society is a registered charity dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the Gorge Waterway. Check out some of their ongoing projects

Here's some more info about the
attractions along the Gorge ....

I couldn't have picked a prettier place to live! From now until September we will, a couple of times a week, pack a picnic lunch or supper, and 'head up the Gorge' for a few hours, or the whole day -- anchoring in front of Point Ellice House to eat, sliding over the sides of the dinghy for a swim, looking for swans to feed, etc., and doing our part to keep it clean and pristine.

THE VIEW FROM HERE

It's been a long day!

First thing this morning, I drove Michael and Rennie to the Pippin, which was already up 'on the hard' getting surveyed when we arrived...


I left them there because Wednesday is Guild day, and I had some serious knitting to do. :) On my way home I stopped at Clover Point and just as I parked, my cell phone rang - it was Rennie saying Pippin was back in the water, all well, and that they'd just cleared Enterprise Channel en route 'home' to the harbour. Sure enough, I looked up from my knitting and there they were, just off the lighthouse! I told Rennie to come close to the point so I could get a picture ... that's my husband waving from the bow!

By the time we all got back to the marina (them sailing, me driving) the sun was still out and the day young, so we decided to go for our first dinghy ride of 2008. The skipper was acting camera-shy...

But we cruised through the Inner Harbour to see the sights...



And just when we thought we'd seen it all, we saw this - tied up under the Ship's Point jetty:

Then we passed the Amy Usen -- a 90' fishboat built in 1966 -- and got back to the marina just before supper.

Ended the day by watching the eclipse .... beautiful! Here's a pic from the water of the very beginning of it (taken with my cell phone, not great quality):

Somewhere in all that fun, I managed to knit at least 6 rows on the Threads of Compassion shawl, AND 4 or 5 rows on the Secret of the Stole. All in all, a pretty productive day!