A CATCH-UP WEEK

I've been sick for three days ... AGAIN ... but I did manage to get down to the water the other day just in time to watch this gorgeous sunset over Race Rocks...


And I did make it to Knit'n'Cafe on Friday ...


A couple of other interesting things happened this week, too. First of all, I got a call from a woman asking me if I could fix her boyfriend's sweater for her. She wasn't a knitter, and it's a bit of a long story (which I won't share unless she says I can) but the sweater, a black acrylic fisherman's rib knit, was pretty messed up...



The photo shows just one of the tears, but there were several. Anyway, I did manage to fix it pretty well - there's a couple of spots where you can tell it's been mended, but it's definitely wearable, so that's good.

Also, earlier this week I sent a parcel to NUNAVUT (formerly the North West Territories) for babies at the hospital. I was browsing on Ravelry one night and there was a post from a woman there who said that the hospital has no little baby touques or blankets. The community, on the NorthWest shores of Hudson Bay, has a permanent population of around 2000, and many are very poor -- and it's EXTREMELY cold there. So I put the word out through my network at CommunityKnitters and within 10 days had collected 43 hats and about 10 blankets to send away. Wish I'd taken a pic of all of them, but here's one of the blankets...


AND I have another FO to report! A shawl for Threads of Compassion got finished day before yesterday...



This shawl is 100% leftover odds and ends, including some cotton blends, an eyelash yarn and some acryllic. The pics don't do it justice, actually, it's lovely. Here's a close-up of the stripes ...



Finally, I re-swatched for the Secret of the Stole II because my first choice wasn't 'lacey' enough. I like the bigger (and lighter-colored) one much better!

ROCKIN' and ROLLIN'

It's 8:45 a.m. as I write this, and the wind hasn't let up all night. It's been blowing about 40 kts, and even though we're fairly protected in the harbour, I still woke up to it once or twice in the night. Here's a shot from the Dallas Road webcam this morning looking south-west(which is the direction the wind is coming from) toward Race Rocks:

This webcam, along with several others, is maintained by a local windsurfer dude, and you can check it out (and all of his cams) any time at BigWaveDave.ca.

Today is almost the last of the Holiday festivities in our world ... we'll go over to Mischa's for a 'brunch' this morning because Hailey has to go back to Whistler this afternoon, and our oldest grandson, Joshua, may go home tomorrow -- and we haven't had a 'family' get-together since he got here.

Tomorrow I'll pick my sister Julie up at the airport on her return from Christmas with her daughter (our niece Doneen) in Calgary. We don't 'do' New Year's Eve so we'll take care of the boys so Mischa can go out, and then on New Year's Day we'll take Julie home to Qualicum Beach, and spend the night with our friends Susan and Sri up there.

And by the time we come home late Wednesday, that'll be 'enough' of the 'Festive Season' for us!

ON THE NEEDLES: diamonds for River's blanket.

... and I'll die of boredom long before I'm done these, so I'll have to get back to the purple shawl, or start a new project pretty quick. Whadda shame...