Monday update

So it looks like I'll be blogging on Mondays. I may have more things to blog about this week but we'll see.

J had fun last week in his sailing school. It was hard work and there were nights when he fell asleep reading because he was so tired but he had a great time. This is week two of sailing school but he missed today. He has some kind of weird bite on his knee - we think it was some kind of bug bite. Last night he said it hurt but it looked fairly normal. This morning he woke up and there was a big white blister thing on it.

We decided to take him to the doctor because it didn't look good and in the past he's had an infected bug bite. Of course the blistery part popped before we made it to the doctor so she couldn't see what it looked like then. The doctor said it wasn't infected (yet) but she went ahead and gave us a topical antibiotic for it to prevent it from getting bad. It's making his knee sore so he stayed home from sailing today but he will go tomorrow. I won't share a picture of it because well, it's pretty gross.

Last week while J was at sailing, S and I went to check out a newly reopened toy store in town. Over a year ago there was a fire in the back part of their building. I don't think there was fire damage to the toy store part but I believe there was water/smoke damage. Also, the owner had to get the building up to the new codes. While we were there, S used some of her own money to buy a kit for making her own dinosaurs. We mixed up the plaster and poured it into the moulds and once they were dry she could paint them. This is the result:

They are very colourful! She had a great time painting them. At this point, all she has left to do is add a little glow-in-the-dark paint to them and they will be done. We should have some time to do that tomorrow.

On Friday I received my first clue for my Once and Future King MKAL. It seemed like a fairly simple clue until I started working with the yarn. I thought I had the right needles for the yarn based on what I used for the gauge swatch - they were bamboo needles. I don't know if it was the needles, or the lighting, or a combination of both, but I had to tear out my work at least 4 times on Friday. I finally gave up and put it away until Saturday. 

On Saturday I tried working in better light and it helped but I still felt like I was fighting with the yarn. I switched to some aluminum needles and suddenly I was doing a lot better. I had tried those needles when I did the gauge swatch and really had trouble with them. I've been using the aluminum needles since then and I have been making a lot of progress.

The shawl is worked from the ends into the center and then grafted together so I had a decision to make. Was I going to work this asymmetrically or symmetrically? To work it asymmetrically I would start with skein 1 for one end and skein 4 for the other and then work towards the center using skeins 1 and 2 for one half and 3 and 4 for the other. After some thought I decided to work it symmetrically. I decided to start with skein 4, so I split it up into two balls. I've worked one of the end patterns already and I've started on the second one. Both ends will look like this:

It's not the best picture but I didn't feel like trying to block this section already. I'll be picking up stitches with the next clue and actually working on the body of the shawl. Yes, that is a bamboo needle in the picture. I'm just using it as a holder right now while I use my aluminum circular for the other end panel. I think I'll be picking up a second set of aluminum circs so I don't have to keep moving my work onto holders. The chances of me dropping a stitch will increase with how many times I have to move my work from holders to needles.

Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting with a salesperson at a car dealership to see about getting a new car. We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

Summer has arrived!

Our summer weather has finally arrived. It has actually been hot a few days recently although my definition of hot has changed since we've moved up here. Here, hot is temperatures hitting the high 20sC (what would be around 80F). Back in Virginia at this time of year, an 80F day would be a cool day. Here we hit that temperature and we scurry off to the beach which is what we did today.

A friend of S's wanted us to come to the beach with her, her mom, and her sister so we packed up our stuff and headed out for our first real beach day. When we got there it was kind of cool still and of course the water still feels cold but the girls had a great time playing. They built sand castles, played on the edge of the water, and eventually built a pen to "save jellyfish'' which meant scooping them up out of the water and dumping them in the hole in the sand. They then spent time running back and forth to get water to pour over the jellyfish. The girls had fun (and no one was stung) although I don't know how much fun the jellyfish had. I thought I had a picture of the jellies but I don't. You can see what they look like here.

While S and I were off at the beach, J was having fun at his first day of sailing school. C picked him up at the end of the day and said he came off the dock with a big smile on his face. This morning he was nervous about it because it is something new for him and he didn't know anyone. But J makes friends easily and by the end of the first day he had already made a few friends. He also was pushed off the dock and into the water (joy!). It's a good thing they have the kids take a towel and a change of clothes. J learned how to tie a few knots and got to go out on a small sailboat with three other kids and cruise around the harbour. All the instructors were out there with them in Zodiac boats so they could keep an eye on the kids. J said he had a great time and is looking forward to going back tomorrow.

I know it's been a bit of time since my last blog. With summer here now we're often busy doing things or at least out and about in the neighbourhood and sitting down at my computer to blog isn't the top thing on my list of things to do. I'll try to post regularly but there may be gaps between posts and they may be short like this. I do have the new MKAL starting this weekend so I will have updates about that as I finish clues. Summer is short here and I want to take advantage of as much of the beautiful weather as I can. :-)

Vacation Yarn!

Knitters' Rule: Vacation Yarn does NOT count towards your stash. :-)

While we were away in Cape Breton I got a chance to stop by the yarn shop in Baddeck, NS. I had to giggle at the name of the place, Baadeck Yarns. For knitters out there, they have a Facebook page also where they share links to cool free patterns on Ravelry. If you ever get the chance, stop by the shop. They had a fantastic selection of yarns there, as you will see. :-)

I started wandering around the shop and saw a sample pair of thick wintery type socks that were really cool.

They are made with Mirasol's Hachito yarn which is a blend of 80% superwash wool and 20% nylon. Although the yarn seems heavier in weight, it turns out to only be a fingerling weight. Choosing a colour was hard, but this is what I ended up picking out:

I think it will make a nice set of winter socks. Not far from the socks there was another sample project using Mirasol's yarn. This one was a lovely shawl.

The sample was knit up in the same blue colour in the picture and it was so pretty. But when I started thinking about my winter wardrobe, I decided not to choose blue. Instead I chose grey:

That is Mirasol's Nuna Fina yarn which is a lace weight yarn. It is so soft with it's blend of 40% wool, 40% silk, and 20% bamboo. It should make a lightweight but very warm shawl. I love how it has a bit of shine to it.

I continued to wander around the shop and found they carry Malabrigo yarns. When it comes to colours, Malabrigo (along with The Unique Sheep and Fleece Artist) has some of my favourites. I have a hat pattern, Pumpkin Seeds, which can use Malabrigo Rasta yarn, which is a bulky weight merino wool. I had a hard time choosing just one skein but I did. The picture doesn't show off all the fantastic colours in this yarn. I cannot wait to start working on it although I will have to since I have two projects on the needles right now and a laceweight MKAL starting soon (more on that below!).

Now up until this point all the yarn I was buying had a project to go with it. I've been trying to only buy yarn to go with specific projects rather than just because it's pretty. Well, that all went out the window when I saw this gorgeous yarn from Handmaiden Fine Yarns:

The yarn is Sea Lace which is 70% lace and 30% SeaCell, which is made from seaweed. The colour is called Forge Fire and was specially dyed for Baadeck Yarns by Handmaiden to celebrate CanIRON X, a blacksmith convention (for lack of a better word) that happened in Baddeck over the weekend. Here is a news story about the event. I love being able to buy vacation yarn that has some ties to the place I bought it. The fact that this yarn was specifically dyed to tie into the blacksmith gathering is really cool. And the colours in the yarn are so beautiful - the red fades to a purplish grey to an almost black grey colour. I have no clue what I am going to make with it but I know it will end up being a beautiful project.

At this point I was all done buying yarn. But of course the people running the shop know what they are doing and they had yarn on display right by the cash register. As I was standing there waiting for my lovely yarns to be rung up, I noticed a whole display of Malabrigo sock yarn next to me. I tried...I tried really hard to resist but when I saw this yarn, I gave in:

It is sock yarn, so I will either use it for a pair of socks or more likely to make a shawl or cowl. I've found a lot of patterns recently that use fingerling (sock) weight yarn so I am sure I will find something to do with it.

As I mentioned I will be starting a new The Unique Sheep Mystery Knit-along on July 18. This is the one based on the book the Once and Future King. I had two sets of yarn to choose from. One was a 50/50 wool/silk blend (Eos) called Coral and Cream and the other was a 70 wool/30 silk blend (Ling) in a colour called The Fox and the Raven. After a lot of thought I decided to go with The Fox and the Raven for the MKAL. I got my gauge swatch finished this morning and now it is blocking. I got gauge - yay me!

I started with the lightest colour from the gradiance set so the blocking board colour kind of drowns out the subtle colours in the yarn. I'm glad they had us do a gauge swatch because it gave me a chance to try out different kinds of needles to see which worked best with this yarn - bamboo ended up being the winner. Although there is only a small percentage of silk in the yarn it has a more polished feel so the yarn is a little slippery to work with. The bamboo needles have just the right amount of grip to keep the yarn from slipping but I can still work easily with it. With my Snow Queen shawl I didn't bother with lifelines but with this yarn, I'm thinking lifelines sound like a very good idea. (Lifelines, for non-knitters, are threads/yarn run through the stitches at various points in the pattern. If you should drop a stitch your work will only unravel to the lifeline rather than all the way back to the beginning. Lifelines can save a project.)

Because I love TUS yarn, I signed up for their ABC club. One of their customers challenged them to create a colour for each letter of the alphabet and they accepted the challenge. It has been going on for a long time now as they are up to the letter T. This is what I received for it:

The colour is Terra Teal and it came with a Tie-Dyed Towel. I'm not sure what I'll use the towel for (it is a cotton towel, not terry cloth) but it is cute and I love the colours in the yarn. I'm already plotting what I'll be using the yarn for.

Well, that's it! I'm stocked up in yarn for a while so I better get back to knitting if I'm going to use up all this yarn before our next trip to Baddeck. The yarn shop there is going to become one of my regular stopping places when we go there I think. :-)

Holiday!

Wow, it's been a busy week! What have we been up to? A lot!

Wednesday was Canada Day. The kids spent the morning playing with their friends, C cut the lawn clover, and I was busy packing for our trip the next day. My friend and her hubby have a boat and they invited us to go sailing with them for a few hours. So we packed up and headed over to the marina. We cruised around the harbour and then out into open water. We saw quite a few seals which was really cool. Unfortunately S started saying her stomach felt funny so we headed back in. We had a great time and really appreciate our friends taking us out on their boat!

Wednesday night there were suppose to be fireworks for Canada Day but since we had to get up early for our trip the next day we decided not to go. It turned out to be too windy that evening for the fireworks so it wasn't such a big deal that we didn't take the kids. They were pretty tired from a hard day of play so they were okay with it too.

Thursday we got up early and took the ferry over to Nova Scotia. The crossing was smooth and there was a nice breeze blowing. I was glad the seas were calm because when it's rough it can cause my vertigo to act up. Being on our friends' boat didn't bother me the day before except when we were stopped. We arrived safely in Nova Scotia and started making our way towards Cape Breton. We stopped along the way and had lunch at a place called Mother Webb's. If you get the chance, stop there. They have a simple menu but it is tasty.

We made our way up the Ceilidh Trail. Along the way we stopped to enjoy the views. This was one of them:

By the time we reached the cottage we were staying at, S was saying her stomach was feeling bad again. She kept saying she was going to throw up and eventually she did a few times. :-( Not how we wanted to start our holiday! Thankfully once she got it all out she said she felt better. I don't know if she was feeling carsick or if she ate something that didn't agree with her. She got a good night's sleep and woke up the next morning feeling all better. 

Friday - since S was better we decided to head out to the Cabot Trail and make our way up to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. C wanted to hike a specific trail - the Skyline trail. We decided to give it a try. We parked and started making our way up the trail.

This doesn't look so bad...

The first part of the trail was easy, as you can see. It was pretty much a road. We followed it around until we came to a picnic shelter where a ranger was set up with information about the wildlife we could potentially see along the trail. The kids were excited to see how big moose antlers and skulls can be. Too bad we didn't see any moose this trip! But we did see a skunk on the way to the ferry (we didn't get sprayed!)

After listening to the ranger for a while, we started on the trail. It was narrower than the beginning but still a good sized trail. We hiked along and at the time the trail seemed fairly flat. Yeah, not so much. Coming back up the trail was a gradual climb. It was tough at times because I am out of practice for hiking (thanks winter) but I made it. As we hiked along, these are some things we saw.

I liked how the ferns and flowers were growing up around the stump

It's hard to tell from this picture but we're hiking along the top of a mountain

Yellow flower

These little white flowers were everywhere. I wish I knew what they were!

A pretty little waterfall

Eventually we came out of the trees and realized just how far up we were.

Egads, is that the road down there?

How high up are we?

Yeah, we're up high and that's the ocean out there

This is a boardwalk that goes down to some viewing platforms

Looking out at the ocean

Yeah, that is high. I think I will stay right here, thank you.

C and the kids went down there but not me!

There was a boardwalk that went down to viewing platforms. I stayed on the first one because I have a fear of heights, to the point that I have had panic attacks before on things like Ferris wheels. C and the kids went down there but I decided that it was better for me to stay up on the top rather than have a panic attack in front of the kids. The views were spectacular from where I was and I could pretend that I wasn't standing on the edge of a mountain. :-)

After this we headed back to the car, which was a good long hike uphill. We drove around a bit more and then headed back towards town. We stopped for supper along the way and then made our way back to our cottage. Everyone was worn out from that hike. It was fun but hard work! It was an early bedtime for everyone.

Saturday we headed the other way on the Cabot Trail and went to Baddeck. C got a cool new hat and I got to visit Baadeck Yarns. I'll do a yarn blog tomorrow to share what I bought. There were lupines blooming everywhere (both here on PEI and over in Cape Breton). I just had to get a picture of them because they are so pretty.

After lunch, we made the decision to drive the whole way around the Cabot Trail. A lot of the way was just beautiful wilderness but we did stop along the way at some of the overlooks. At this one we managed to spot at least one Minke whale. I couldn't get a picture of it because it was too far away but it was a really neat experience to see one in the wild.

After that we continued around the trail until we found a place for ice cream and a beach that the kids could play on. J was a crazy man and went into the icy cold water. S stayed on the shore because the water was too cold for her. I don't blame her! C took the kids to explore a waterfall that was next to the beach. 

We finished the drive with supper at a tasty restaurant and then headed back to the cottage. It was another early night since we were all tired from all the driving!

Sunday we headed back home. The ride on the ferry was nice and no one got sick. It was good to be back home. The kids immediately went out to the trampoline and wore themselves out. I think they missed the trampoline!

Monday (today) we got back into our regular routine. C went off to work and I took the kids out to find new shorts (not a whole lot of luck there). We went to the grocery store because we needed some groceries at least for the next few days. We also went out to a place that sells homemade baked goods. The Sugar Shack, run by Borrowed Kitchen, is run by the mom of one of S's classmates. All weekend long she was making lemon meringue pies. Since we were out of town I couldn't get one but I sent her a message and she was able to make one for us today. It looks delicious!

I also made some semi-homemade muffins. I used a blueberry muffin mix but I added strawberries to them. I had one and it was pretty darn tasty. We'll see what the kids think tomorrow morning.

The kids are pretty tired right now. Our neighbour invited us to come swim in her pool and we spent about two hours there. A good time was had by all! I think the kids will sleep well again tonight. I know I will!

Okay, I think I'm all caught up now. Tomorrow I will be sharing pictures of all the lovely yarn I have acquired recently. Until tomorrow then!