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!

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.

PINK

In the spring, Victoria is, in a word, PINK.
(click directly on any picture to see the bigger version...)

These are, depending on who you ask, either Japanese plum or Japanese cherry trees -- and they are pink by the bazilions all over the city right now. Here's the entrance to Saxe Point Park, where the Victoria FibreFest will be held in June...

And tonight, even the sky is pink...




I, on the other hand, am a little blue -- I made it all the way to Row 10 of the Moonshadow Stole body, but now I have to rip out a row or two, because I was doing so well it never occurred to me to actually READ THE DIRECTIONS.

SIVIA'S BACK (SUBTITLE: Fool that I am...)

It was a busy day off Victoria's waterfront yesterday!

First of all, the military was really busy -- I counted 4 or 5 big warships out on some exercises along the US border (that invisible line in the middle of the Juan de Fuca Strait) along with two smaller (frigates? I want to say frigate!) and a helicopter.

At one point I looked up from my knitting to see four freighters (including the yacht-toting one I'd heard was coming in, and was hoping to get a picture of),the Pacific Swift and the pilot boat.


I parked the van and walked out on the breakwater to get a better picture -- and the yacht-toting freighter sailed right on by me to anchor over off the Esquimalt Lagoon (to save overnight mooring fees, maybe, if they can't unload until today?)

By the time I walked back to the van, all was quiet again, and it was dusk...


Just as well, because I had some serious knitting to do.

There's an old joke that goes like this: "I'm planning to live forever... so far, so good." I've put Sivia's 'Moonshadow' stole back on the needles (you knew I couldn't stay away long, didn't you?) and I'm on row 14 of the border.

So far, so good.

THE SWIFT

Even though I'm a knitter, the 'Swift' I'm referring to today is not a yarn swift!

Yesterday morning I got down to Clover Point (for my nearly-daily-knitting/meditation-time) just in time to see this...

This is one of Victoria's very own tall ships... the Pacific Swift, and it was just returning from four days in the Gulf Islands with childhood cancer
patients from BC Children’s Hospital, apparently.

The Swift is old and tired now and doesn't go very far, but its sister ship, the Pacific Grace, takes youth on adventures all around the world -- it's currently in Japan on a 'goodwill' mission of some sort, and you can read all about that here.

SALTS (Sail and Life Training Society) is an amazing organization that has over 1000 kids on a waiting list for its life-changing journeys, and it has recently released a 'Fresh Vision' to transform itself into a major presence here on our waterfront. If you want to read more about their plans for a heritage ship-building interpretive centre (and a new tall ship to be built!) go to http://www.salts.ca and click on "A Fresh Vision', bottom left.

In knitterly news, I've given up on Sivia's Moonshadow Stole for now, and taken it right off the needles. :-( After many, many trips to the frog pond and never getting past row 5 in the main body, I've decided to give it a rest. I'll try it again another time, but for now I'm just too frustrated with it. After the Secret of the Stole project and this Moonshadow attempt, this morning I cast on 3 stitches and will make a nice, SIMPLE 'dishcloth pattern' baby blanket!

'BIG BLUE'

The Johnson Street Bridge was designed in 1920; it is a ‘Bascule’ bridge -- one end rises while a counter weight lowers on the opposite end to let marine traffic into the ‘Upper Harbour’ (where we live) here in Victoria. The Johnson Street Bridge has two separate Bascules, a railway section and a highway section. Joseph Strauss, of Strauss Bascule Company Limited, who held the patents on the design, later designed the Golden Gate.



The bridge’s superstructure contains 100 tons of steel, and the sub-structure contains 10,000 cubic yards of concrete. The counter-weight block weighs 780 tons, which balances the 350-ton opening span; two 75-horse electric motors power its ups and downs.
.
The bridge construction was completed (cost: just short of a million bucks) and opened in January, 1924. The original wood timber deck was replaced by steel grid decking in 1966.

In 1996 the Johnson Street Bridge starred in its first major motion picture, "Excess Baggage" starring Alicia Silverstone. During filming, the bridge was closed 12 hours a day for a week, and the pedestrians, cyclists and 30,000-odd daily vehicles had to use other routes through town.

The bridge has been in the new again the last couple of weeks ...
Blue glow proposed
and
Demolition Permit for buildings

But for me, it's just part of the 'neighborhood.' I can see it going up and down throughout the day -- a siren similar to a fire truck sounds first, which is great because I have time to stop whatever I'm doing and go up on the bridge (of our boat, that is) to see if anything interesting is coming in or going out!

ODDS 'n' SODS

I got an email from a film-maker in Qualicum Beach the other day -- he was researching the herring run, and found an old article I'd written about it several years ago. He sent me this wonderful video he created this year!

One of the surest signs of spring in Victoria is the 'paragliders' down on Dallas Road ... these dudes are crazy!

They get airborne by basically running and jumping off the edge of that cliff, and then the thermal currents carry them back and forth along the cliff (curving off to the left in the photo) for someimes hours. They can control their height (to an extent), their speed and their landing -- but they mostly just 'hang out' up there on the currents!

We had a few winter winds this week -- here's what it looked like right in the harbour...


But the other morning I was at Clover Point and it was flat calm ... I arrived just in time to see new BC Ferry #2 go by (en route from Germany, where it was built...)

...followed closely by our Canadian Coast Guard...


All of which is to distract you from the fact that I have no knitterly news. I'm on Clue #8 of the 'Secret of the Stole' KAL -- only one more week to go! -- and still struggling with the edging on Sivia Harding's Moonshadow Stole - I've made it as far as Row 17, but keep ending up with a wrong stitch count and having to rip it back. VERY frustrating ... but I'm not giving up!

GOING OUT TO PLAY

FINISHED! the Secret of the Stole "Hint" #7. Two more weeks to go on this baby, and I'm lovin' it, but I'll be glad when it's done, too!

I took it out to play this morning for a photoshoot... here's a close-up of the pattern:


And here it is swingin' in the spring-time breeze here in Beacon Hill Park (just up from Clover Point where I usually hang out), all seven feet of it! It's a beautiful warm sunny day here in Victoria ...


Now ... look back at that photo ... see the crest of the hill in the upper left-hand corner?

I'm going out to play for the rest of the day, somewhere over that hill.

SAXE POINT PARK

I was invited to a meeting last night made up of 'stakeholders' in a fledgling Esquimalt tourism association, becauae of the fact that I hold the final day of the Victoria Fibre Festival at Saxe Point Park there.

The meeting was the perfect kick-off to starting the serious planning for this year's event (well, that's not entirely true ... I booked my special guest three days after last year's event, and I booked the park the minute the office opened in January ...) and you'll be hearing a lot more about it over the next few months.

Mark the dates in your calendar now ... Victoria's 6th Annual Knit-Out/FibreFest will take place June 20th to 22nd, 2008. The weekend will unfold much the same as last year ... a dinner and fashion show on Friday night, classes and a 'yarn crawl' on Saturday during the day, my guest 'talk' on Saturday evening, and then, of course, the grand finale -- the Market (and demos and prizes and much other knitterly fun!) at Saxe Point Park on Sunday. Quadra Island's FUN KNITS Yarn Shop (I call it "The little shop that could...") will be our major sponsor again this year!

Here's the park ... isn't it beautiful? Wanna come knit (and spin and weave and shop for yarny goodies, and meet other knitters and spinners and weavers and shoppers) with us?




Stay tuned for more ... including my announcement about this year's special guest, no later than February 1st!

THE SHIP FOR SHIPS

Yesterday morning I took my favorite 'scenic' route home from the regular meeting of the Victoria Knitter's Guild and was surprised by a sight at Ogden Point that I didn't expect to see until at least April...


If this looks just like an ordinary freighter to you, click on the photo to see the larger version. It's actually one of about half a dozen of these ships that travel the world carrying folks' private boats. It would have come from at least Florida (via the Panama Canal) and it takes two days, with those giant cranes to 'plop' every one of those fancy-dancy yachts into the water! It's quite something to see... and you can only dream of the lifestyle that allows people to pay .... hmmm... I seem to recall a figure of about $25,000 ... just to ship their ship to a new playground.

A BOAT PARADE

Yesterday morning my son and I took my grandson Joshua to the train, and since I was already 'out and about' I realized I could get some errands done -- if only the stores were open that early! So what's a gal to do while she's waiting? Find a nice look-out and knit, of course! The lookout I chose is called 'Trafalgar Square' which is really quite pretentious considering it's a simple u-shaped pull-off along the waterfront in Oak Bay.

It is, however, a place where one can watch boats go through Enterprise Channel, which is the tricky narrow bit of reef-infested water between Trial Island (where the now de-commissioned lighthouse is) and Victoria. There must have been a New Year's yacht club cruise leaving town, because I got to watch about a dozen boats go through the pass -- all successfully!


That was my entertainment while I worked on another diamond for River's blanket -- it's his birthday tomorrow, so it's not going to be done, but it'll be a great take-along project for the next few weeks.