Life's a Stitch

All year I had been saving a quote on which I was going to base my Valentine’s Day post. I heard it on the radio in the middle of the night and was so touched I scribbled it on a scrap of paper. It has surfaced from time to time in my pile of task oriented clutter and I’ve made a conscious decision not to chuck it. Do you think I could find it? No way. I’ve searched the wonderful internet to no avail, so I guess I’ll have to base this on my foggy recollection of Winston Churchill’s marriage proposal to Clementine. He said something like: Are you fool enough to love me, mad enough to stay with me and spend the rest of your life with me? In the middle of the night that sounded so romantic coming from the man who looked like a bull dog. He really had a way with words.

The runner up for romance is the line from Cole Porter’s in the Still of the Night – "Are you my life to be, that dream come true?" Oh sniff, sniff, after seeing DeLovely I can’t hear that song without tears. These hormones are something else.

I haven’t totally given up on my Autumn Silk Cardigan, the romantic lacy sweater is coming along slowly but surely. I have dropped all the stitches off the needles twice and that put a crimp on my motivation. So, here is where I am:

That’s right, listen up, Vancouver knitters, Koigu is FINALLY coming to us! I was at my knit night at Knit and Stitch in West Van, and Inge, the owner, proudly told me after all my pleading to stock it, the owners of Koigu paid her a surprise visit. Initially they told her they weren’t taking on new clients, but after ten minutes in Inge’s fantastic shop, they gave her a credit application. The Koigu is on its way!

By the way, Inge’s motto is "Knitting forever, housework whenever." Keeping that in mind, here is a finished Granbia scarf:

Even after my recent Fleece Artist project fiasco, where my Garter Stitch Jacket reacted to blocking with steroid-like growth, it is my favourite yarn company. I have made their narrow fringed scarf and the Garter Stitch jacket, and am starting another Kid Silk multidirectional scarf. My stash includes their Triangle shawl kit. Most of their products appear to be sold in "kits," that is a hank or two of wool with a pattern printed on the yarn label. For hand painted, quality yarn in Canadian dollars, the price is still reasonable enough to use for other projects. The yarn they sell in hanks comes in large enough quantities to complete a project with very few knots and ends to weave. The colours are beautiful and the textures luxurious. My next Fleece Artist purchase will be their 2-ply cashmere for another Rippling Waters scarf. When can you have a 100% cashmere scarf for $33 CDN?

Another favourite is Manos del Uruguay. This is a photo of my daughter modelling her Manos multidirectional scarf (pattern link on sidebar).

No knitting, just Gracee learning to knit in her sleep through osmosis:

I was listening to a dog behaviour expert on national radio. He was explaining that humans have to respect the animal’s doginess and give them opportunities to indulge in the purpose for which they were bred. Greyhounds need to run, retrievers need to fetch, shepherds need to herd. Scotties were bred to kill rodents and I controlled my reaction last night when Ms.Grace hunted and killed a mouse in the house. I respected her Scottiness and dutifully cleaned up the many mouse turds and hair that were the byproducts of the hunt. I never thought I’d say it, but Bryant’s method of mouse hunting by blow dart gun was a lot more efficient and probably easier on the mouse.

I’ve started knitting with Granbia; a new yarn to love:

It’s vibrant but not so shocking as it looks in the photo. The colours remind me of a British Columbia November sunset.

So, eldest daughter is here for five days and we’re talking…You think when you are raising kids and you are in the same house you have a pretty good idea what’s going on. You think you provide those little guys enough supervision until thirteen years later you hear that that when Bryant was twoish, the girls would put him into a laundry basket, place another one on top, lace the two together with a skipping rope, and feed him carrots through the holes of the basket pretending he was their captured bunny. He has fond memories of this game but has a slightly different recollection. While the girls pretended he was their sweet little bunny he thought he was pretending to be a cougar. I take that to be a comment on the way he was feeling while caged up in laundry baskets.

The girls also told me they would play princess, where one would lie on the couch and bark orders to the other, her servant girl. One bet who was the princess and who was the servant.  Birth order rules here, with princess first born directing lowly second one. Second one says that she hated being princess anyhow because it was too boring to lie around on a couch.

With that in mind, here is the princess’s Manos multidirectional scarf (pattern link on side bar) in blocking mode:

So, it’s the end of the s-i-l knitting adventure. I can safely say that Ellen now knows how to knit. Here’s proof – she’s knitting Plume in a colour we’ve nicknamed Gracee since it is a perfect match for the dog.

I admit I knitted one scarf for her while she was here. The Colinette mercury was just  too much for a beginner. We call this one the rubber band scarf because the texture is like fabric covered hair elastics. So, now it’s back to reality without daily yarn shop visits, too much good food and wine and with that little interruption to each knitting day – work.

But there are other bright spots happening this weekend – my daughter found herself with six days off and a terrific air fare so she’s flying in for the weekend. And we have a new student arriving from Switzerland.

I have searched  and can’t find the two yarns below anywhere but Korea and Hong Kong. They must be sold under a different name in North America. Can’t wait to get back to Alpha and stock up.

Part three of the great S-i-l knitting caper. On their last full day in BC we decided to check out Felicia’s recommendations of Daiso at Richmond BC’s Aberdeen Mall (for $2 bamboo knitting needles) and Alpha crafts at Yoahan Centre. Thank you, Felicia!

Alpha had yarn I had never seen before and that is always a treat. It was self striping heaven with two yarns other than Noro, both beautifully soft and in amazing colours. One is Granbia (the label says it has "fascinating gradation") and the other is Fantasia:

Alpha’s display is awkward at first, the entire stock is packaged in plastic bags. Looking more closely you’ll find a sample box of a particular type of yarn, covered in clear plastic, which contains a ball of each colour available for fondling, whiffing or whatever habit you have when shopping for yarn. The sales person was very helpful pointing out knitted samples of each yarn displayed throughout the store.  Ellen bought yarn that looks exactly like Gracee’s fur when knitted. I finally broke down and bought three balls of each fascinatingly gradated yarn.

Due to the number of requests I get, I’ve decided to list on my sidebar sources of the patterns I’ve made. They’re not all there yet, but I’m working on it. There are some good free ones as well as links to mail order sources.

I have a sick boy at home and three meetings tomorrow so I’ll be back on Friday.

What’s wrong with this picture?This is Ellen’s stash. It is about the size of mine and I’ve been knitting for 40 years more or less. She developed good taste in yarn rather quickly.

I wanted to take the s-i-l’s sight seeing despite the grey British Columbian day. So, off to Fort Langley  we went  (the birthplace of BC) via the Albion Car Ferry. Ft. Langley, by the way, has a yarn shop. We waited 40 minutes in the line up for a seven minute ferry ride. Enough time to knit a fair bit on the Colinette Mercury scarf. Enough time to annoy the husband who would rather be in constant motion driving on the highway than sitting a ferry line up. Enough time for me to feel a bit "sea sick." I have very sensitive inner ears I guess.

No sooner had we parked the car when Ellen asked how far the yarn shop was. I’ve created a monster. Boy it’s fun being friends with a monster with a common interest. By the size of the sale the knitting shop lady couldn’t believe Ellen had only been knitting for twelve hours.  All I can say  is that it’s a good thing for our bankbooks that we don’t liver closer than 1700 miles. In case you’re wondering, I didn’t buy a thing.