Showing posts with label Mayne Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mayne Island. Show all posts

Saturday, January 5, 2008

AM I OUT OF MY MIND?

Yesterday, being Friday, was my Knit'n'Cafe day, an event I look forward to with an unreasonable amount of pleasure every week. We are anywhere from 6 - 10 women, some of whom are also local Guild members, who get together more informally on Friday afternoons. Let me clarify 'more informally' -- it's a hoot! We eat, we laugh, we share stories of our lives, solutions to all manner of problems (not just of the craft variety, but often that) and photos of grandbabies ... and we also knit.

I had to drive out to the ferry to pick up my friend Monica, who had a doctor's appointment, first. Monica lives on Mayne Island, and we visited her this past summer when I met my navigational challenge of cruising -- both ways -- through Active Pass. See? That's our inflatable following us dutifully through the Pass. (This pass has freighter and ferry traffic 24/7, and currents that can run up to 9 knts at certain tides). Monica lives near a little community in the middle of the Pass called Miner's Bay (if you've ever taken the ferry to Vancouver from Victoria, you pass it on your right side)... ... and when we went to visit her there, we had lunch at the historic Mayne Inn... ... which is apparently closed for renovations at the moment.

But I digress ... (really? me? who'd-a thunk it?)

So Monica and I went together to Knit'n'Cafe, and after much eating and talking (and a little knitting) we then went to a Chinese food buffet for supper and more eating and talking (but no knitting).




Some time between driving out to pick Monica up yesterday, and this morning, I've managed to complete two swatches, both of which are for lace shawl knit-alongs (KALs, for future reference).



Am I out of my mind? The small one is a Sivia Harding design called Moon Shadow, and the larger one (which is stunning ... the photo doesn't do it justice) is for a 'Secret of the Stole' KAL that terrifies me -- the swatch pattern was a full page long (that's 40 rows you're looking at on 2mm needles!) and the pattern, including charts, is almost 40 pages.

I'm definitely up for Sivia's design -- I'll probably cast on today -- but the other one might need a bit more ruminating first. Like several months worth....

Saturday, December 15, 2007

SANTA COMES BY BOAT

My friend Monica on Mayne Island sent me some pictures of a fairly big community event in the Gulf Islands, where Santa Claus comes by boat!



These pics were taken by an Island resident named Brian Haller, and they really capture the spirit of the Gulf Island Christmas season!

ON THE NEEDLES:
Well. There's less than 10 days until Christmas, and I have seams to sew and ends to sew in on all manner of projects. All those finishing details I was going to attend to 'later' are now in a pile in the v-berth, and it'll kill me, but I just have to tackle them one by one, and get them checked off the list!

PHOTO OF THE DAY: One of our favorite day trips (or more accurately, dinghy picnics) is to go 'up the Gorge' here in Victoria, in our inflatable. This is a picture of the bridge over the Tillicum Rapids, which can run up to 9 knots at their fastest. It's great fun to go through in the dinghy when it's running fast!