A whirlwind end and a mellow start

The school year wrapped up like a crazy whirlwind this year. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised--it was a crazy whirlwind from the beginning so it finished like it started!

As soon as Commencement at OTHS was over on Friday, I paid a visit to the SCHS Science annual summer party then set off for North Bay. 

(This is just outside of Geralton, ON the town where I was born) 

Mom, Randi and I left at 6:30 am to drive to our first stop, Thunder Bay. We visited my sister Andrea and her family, ate Finnish pancakes at the Hoito and planted a garden. We also enjoyed some delightful coffee talks out on her back porch. 

(Baby Iris enjoying Gran and Randi)

After a Thunder Bay, we drove towards Manitoba. We saw lots of black spruce trees and a few pretty little lakes. We also passed into the Central Time Zone: 

After entering Manitoba, I glanced down at my knitting for a second and looked back up to find the forest had disappeared and the prairies had started. (No pics if the prairies yet...knitting was happening...). 

Here's what I was knitting: 

It's called Lintilla by Martina Behm. I knitted it in BFL Sock by Fleece Artist in the Gateway to the North colour way (made especially for North Bay, ON)

As we entered Winnipeg, we listened to One Great City by The Weakerthans. If you haven't heard that song before, I'm sure you can youtube it (haven't figured out how to add links from the blogger phone app yet so you'll have to do it yourself). 

Today we wandered around Winnipeg and checked out The Forks and the St Boniface Museum. We learned about Louis Riel and all the different people who lived here. Interesting history in these parts. 

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Looking for something to read this summer?

I recommend you head on down to your local bookstore (or click on over to your favourite online bookseller) and pick up a copy of INK by Amanda Sun.

Not only is Amanda a good friend of mine from back home in Deep River, she is a great up and coming Young Adult Fiction Author.

The story is about Katie who moves to Japan to live with her aunt after her mom dies.  As a first-timer in Japan, Katie needs to adjust to a lot--new language, alphabet, culture, food--not to mention life without her mom.  In the middle of her adjusting, Katie befriends Tomohiro a  boy with a mysterious secret.  Katie feels like an outsider in her new country and Tomo is an outsider because the things that he draws have a tendency of coming to life and trying to hurt people.  The powers that Tomo finds himself with are due to his connection to the kami, the ancient rulers of Japan.  Katie's presence in Tomo's life and their developing relationship has made his ink drawings more difficult to control.  Tomo and Katie must work together to prevent an already difficult situation from getting even worse.

INK is Amanda's first novel and it is also the first in the Paper Gods series.  There is also a prequel called SHADOW that was published as an ebook on most platforms.

When INK was first released, Amanda asked people to take pictures of her book in the wild.  Here are some:

SHADOW ebook in my iBooks bookshelf

INK in the Coles at Bayshore Shopping Centre in Ottawa

Some reading and knitting on a summer's day

My niece playing with Jenga blocks and INK (it doesn't get much more wild than that ;-)

Every once in a while I come across an image in a book that stays with me or that makes me think differently about something.  This can be for better or for worse (Mordecai Richler, I'm looking at you and your description of orange juice drying and sticking on Duddy Kravitz's feet...).  In INK, Amanda describes the sour sound of rain hitting an aluminum roof.  I have never thought of that sound as being sour before but it totally is! 

 Some other things I will take away from reading Ink:

1.  Tomo puts the hero in Tomohiro! 

2.  I want to try Japanese curry...like really a lot.

3.  I want to see the cherry blossoms some day.

4.  I got in the habit of looking up the Japanse words in the glossary at the end...that brought me back to my French class dictionary days...

5. My only regret is that the next book in the series, RAIN, is not out yet...

If you're looking for a great summer book or wanting to do some couch (lawn chair, or beach towel) travelling this summer I think you should check out INK!

If you're wondering what that green bit of knitting became:

...a Milo Vest! 

Milo is a cute pattern written by Georgie Hallam.  It ranges in size from newborn to 6 yrs.  I figured that this little number would be perfect to knit for the many, many babies coming into my life this year (seriously, nearly everyone I know is expecting and if they're not expecting, they have just given birth!).  

I knitted this lovely in Berroco Vintage DK, an easy-care wool-acrylic-nylon blend (colour: #2175).  I used a US 5 needle for the yoke and hem and a US 6 needle for the body.  The cable pattern is called Aran Braid and is one of many different options included in the pattern.

A little B-Day Q & A

As I drink my birthday coffee I thought I would answer some birthday questions that you are most certainly asking.

Q: What type of birthday cake do you like the best?

A: Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing, hands down.  I also like chocolate cake with vanilla icing.

Q: What do you want for your birthday?
A: I want to be able to spend time with friends and family and to enjoy the beautiful fall colours.  Some of that carrot cake would be nice too.

Q: Do you feel upstaged having your birthday so close to Thanksgiving weekend?
A: No, Thanksgiving just feels like an extension of my birthday.  It is perfect timing because it means that I can see my family.  It also happens to be one of my favourite holidays since it includes some of my favourite things: hiking, apples, pumpkin pie and turkey dinners.

Q: Are you upset that you won't get to go hiking this birthday/Thanksgiving?
A: Honestly, it is a bit frustrating to not be able to get outside and be active like I usually am.  With my back the way it is, I wouldn't enjoy it right now anyway...I would barely make it to the corner!  I just have to remind myself that this is only for a time and will not last forever.


Q: How many birthdays have you had so far?
A: This would be my thirtieth birthday, not counting the very first on in 1982.

Q: Do you feel that this birthday marks your official entrance into spinsterhood?
A: No, according to Wikipedia, "A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married, typically in her late 40's and older." Clearly I have at least 15 more birthdays before could be a certified spinster.  Also, although I am an avid knitter, I haven't yet taken up the hobby of spinning wool thus excluding me from even the original definition of spinster.

Q: What are some of your recent knitting projects?
A: I'm glad you asked, this week I finished a cute little hat and I am almost done a pair of mittens.  
The hat is based on the Sweetie Pie Hat from Purl Soho. I sized it to (hopefully) fit a 3-6 month old baby which turned out to be a simple change from worsted weight to sport and DK weight.  I used Cascade 220 Superwash Sport in Green Apple and King Cole Merino Blend DK in French Navy.  

The mittens, which are 3/4 done, are Ambroso Mittens from Knitty.  As you can see I used Merino Blend for these too but in the colour Clerical.  I found it hard to get gauge for these ones, the suggested needles were 3.5 mm and I ended up having to go up three sizes to 4.5 mm when I am usually right on the money with gauge. Maybe this DK tends to be a bit thicker than most.  The right mitten seems to have turned out alright and the left one is coming along nicely.  

I actually bought the grey Merino Blend several years ago to knit a sweater.  I have now given up on this sweater for two reasons: 1) because I was such a novice knitter that I can't trust my counting or gauge; 2) because I am still bored at the thought of the rows and rows of flat stockinette stitch involved in this particular sweater.

** This post is going up a bit later than I initially had planned.  I did have a nice surprise visit from South Carleton friends who brought some cake and good times with them.  Now I'm awaiting my family who will roll in later this evening!**

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Hey there Blog
It's been a while since we last spoke (especially after my two-day-in-a-row debut). What are my excuses? A very busy weekend: starting on Friday I had no less than two sets of visitors per day. An appointment on Monday with a neurosurgeon, more about that later. Plus sleeping off a head/neck ache for a day and a half. That about brings us up to date!

The weekend was pretty great, lots of friends from school and church dropped by and my brother and his family came to visit. It was nice to have the brodiggler here. We accomplished a lot (well, Rory and Lucy accomplished a lot). Thanks to them, I now have artwork hung in my living room, laundry done and an air-matress ready and inflated for my next overnight guest. It's no-longer bring your own mattress at my place folks!

It was also just great to have the family around. Family is great because they are instantly comfortable in your house and have no hesitations finding their way around the kitchen to make coffee in the morning if they're up before you. I got so many nice hugs from Little Miss Maya who just turned two...and a good number of slobbery kisses too.

Speaking of family, my Mom and my sister Randi came up from North Bay on Sunday night. Randi had a PD day on Monday which was conveniently the same day as my neurosurgeon appointment. It was nice to have them over too...nothing like having your mom around when you don't feel good. We watched A Series of Unfortunate Events (perhaps that was more due to my dark sense of humour than Randi and I having read the book a few summers ago).

After a night of not very much sleep, we went down to the Civic Hospital to meet my neurosurgeon. She made me wait a very long time and when I finally got to see her she told me that she would like to wait two more weeks before giving me surgery. She says that within six weeks of the initial injury, a disk will sometimes move back into place and that would take away the need for a potentially risky surgery. So, its more waiting for me. Good thing Im pretty good at that waiting thing.

The head/neck ache isn't much to worry about. It's my body's standard response to stress and lack of sleep--something that I have had a lot of since this whole back thing started. Still, it is strange to lose a day and a half altogether.

In other news, I managed to finish two projects and give away three last week!
Here is the hat and bootie set I made for Baby Joe. Notice the leaf on the hat since his daddy is an arbourist. I gave it to his mommy when she came to visit me.

And the hat I made for my friend Christy who re-arranged her life to sit in the ER with me for two days. (Sorry for the strange self-portrait, let's just say the sun was in my eyes!)

And some fingerless gloves I made for Maryann's birthday present.

They are all knit in Cascade 220 in various colours. The booties are the Gansey Booties I talked about in my last post. The baby hat is the Gooseberry Hat by Suvi Simola and the leaf pattern is called Just a Leaf by Hinke they are both found on Ravelry. Christy's hat is the New Sweetie Pie Hat from Purl Soho. Maryann's gloves are Fetching from Knitty.

Yarn Stuff

Today my friend Christy took me on an outing to Yarn Forward so I could stock up on materials for knitting during this healing process. Here are the spoils:

I have great plans for this heap of wool!

Here is a bit of knit-history (knitstory?) for you:
Last fall I got bit by the knitting bug, hard. I have know how to knit since my mom taught me when I was six. I have knit on and off ever since with some breaks for crochet and cross stitch. When I was in university, I didn't have much time for any sort of crafting (a Chemical Physics degree will do that to you...).
So how did I get bit by the knitting bug? A friend of mine from work was expecting a baby girl last September. I decided I needed to knit her something for her new little one. I started with the Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch n Bitch by Debbie Stoller. I knit this in Northern Worsted by Kertzer in a colourway called Ocean Wave.

I found that I couldn't stop at the hat, I had to complete the set with some booties. I scoured the internet for a bootie pattern that made sense. I don't like the idea of having a seam running up the bottom of the baby's little foot. I realize the baby won't be walking on them and won't feel them but I know that I would be uncomfortable in sock or slipper with a big seam along the bottom. I didn't know about Ravelry then so I was relying on Google searches. I found a great pattern for seamless Gansey Booties by Lobolita. Even for a relatively novice knitter, they turned out pretty well (we'll just choose to ignore the one failed bootie that didn't fit due to an extremely tight bind-off!).

A New Blog, A New Situation

Hello Everyone in Blogland, I have decided to start blogging. I have a bit of a new situation. On Labour Day Weekend I decided to move some furniture and ended up herniating a disk in my back. The disk is bulging into my spinal cord (I saw the MRI). Because of the pain that I'm in and the drugs that I'm on, I have had to take an indefinite amount of time off teaching. I am waiting for an appointment with a neurosurgeon and I will find out on the 24th what I will need to do to fix this and maybe a time-frame of getting back to work. In the past ten days of being off, I have learned a few things: 1. I have a great group of friends in this city. I am amazed by the support and care that people have shown me. I have a fridge-full of food and a social calendar that is packed with visits and tea and suppers! 2. I can't just lay around and watch tv all day everyday (I end up feeling sad, unproductive and restless). 3. Even though I can't walk very far, I can still spend time outside. I found one of those vinyl table cloths that I spread in a sunny spot in my back yard and pile my necessary pillows onto it. Sometimes I bring the radio out with me and listen to CBC Radio 2 Drive while I knit. 4. I can knit quite comfortably in my default 'all fours' position if I lean against a footstool. I have found that double-pointed or circular needles work much better than typical straight needles. The straight needles are too long and get caught on my footstool and pillows. 5. Since signing up for Netflix six days ago, I have managed to use up 75% of my 20 Gb on the Rogers Lite internet service. I will need to upgrade modems and switch to the 80 Gb service plan. As another back-friendly activity, I will update this blog regularly while I am off. I'm thinking this will be a blog about anything that's on my mind. You will probably find some knitting posts (I have a stockpile of finished objects that have been waiting to be posted!). You will probably also find life anecdotes, music suggestions and spiritual ruminations. It will be a bit of a grab bag and I won't be offended if you only read the posts that interest you :-) I'll sign off with a photo from my summer adventure to the North Shore of Lake Superior. Carla