Happy Canada Day!

Mooky's taking the day off, for a change.

New yarn

When I was out west, I wanted to buy yarn that was at least a little bit local -- that originated from B.C. animals, or was spun and/or dyed there. I'm happy with what I ended up with: yarns that speak to me (and will remind me) of the west coast.


This wool is really special. Remember the sheep photos in this post? Those sheep (specifically, the white ewes in that group of sheep) made this wool. They live on Cortes Island; a lovely woman named Joy raises them and dyes the wool (which is spun at a mill in Alberta). Each skein measures about 50 meters; I thought I'd make striped mittens with these colours.


At left is a 820-yard skein of laceweight silk (Silk Tree yarn #60), which I bought at the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island, in Vancouver (where I watched silkworms munching on mulberry leaves for a while). It's very thin and has a thready feel.

At right is a skein of Handmaiden silk-wool Mini Maiden, which is dyed in Vancouver (by Fleece Artist's daughter). I bought it at a cute shop called Mad About Ewe (no website? really?) in Nanaimo. I think I'll use it for a Flower Basket Shawl (Ravelry link).

And in the middle is a ball of laceweight alpaca that I bought at Birkeland Bros. Wool in Vancouver. (That store has really changed and now carries tons of yarns.) This yarn had no label, but I was told it came from Golden Fleece Alpacas in Mission, B.C.

And that's it! Clearly I'm all about teal and lace, either separately or together.

Plus, while I was gone...

1. Holy February Lady Sweater! According to Ravelry, about eleventy gazillion knitters are working on Pam's awesome EZ-based design, including me. Many are using soft, pretty yarns; me, I'm using slightly scratchy wool. I like the idea of the juxtaposition of lace and heavy wool -- like a winter bed jacket for a pioneer woman. I'm not entirely sure it's going to work; plus, due to increasing humidity, I may put this whole project away for a few months. (No need for progress photos, since my version is solid black.)

2. I thought I'd lost her! But Cari, formerly of Dogs Steal Yarn, is not gone -- just moved to a new spot: Dispatches from Utopia. Whew!

3. I had a look at this here blog from a few different computers, and much to my horror, the colours in all the photos looked really bright and garish. Everything looks perfect on my laptop. How do things look to you? Have I been posting garishly coloured pictures lo these many years? Or is my computer right and everything looks OK?

Alpacas!

Welcome to the second annual post of the Brainylady Alpaca Appreciation Society (an acronym more suited to sheep, but it will do...). Some of you may recall that my parents live up the road from alpacas, and you may even remember last year's inaugural BAAS post, which can be viewed here. My visit this year is a few weeks later than last year's, resulting in two major differences: haircuts and babies! (Among the alpacas, I mean.)




Aren't they funny, with their mop tops and furry legwarmers? As of yesterday evening, there were three babies, but they tend to hang back and stay close to their mamas. The other ones are pretty friendly. I love all their colours; I match them to yarns, like, "Oh, the skein of Touch of Twist I got at Rhinebeck must've come from an alpaca that looked like this one...." I bought a skein of laceweight chocolate-brown alpaca when I was in Vancouver, which apparently came from a farm in Mission, B.C.

You don't think anyone would notice if I just took one little alpaca and put it in my pocket, do you? Bill, can we keep him? Can we? Can we?


I fly home tomorrow. I'll show you my new yarn soon, plus a few more thrift finds. It's been a good trip, a very full three weeks. Now that it's summer, I actually feel ready to get back to the libraries and embark on thesis research. Big plans, big plans...

A find

I have long maintained that thrifting in B.C. -- and particularly in small-town B.C. -- can't be beat. When I was in Vancouver last week I spotted a vintage quilt in the window of a shop on Commercial Drive; they wanted about $100, and it wasn't something I couldn't live without, so I left it there. Then, last Sunday, I went to a flea market just off Highway 97 in Summerland, and lo and behold, there was the quilt I couldn't live without. For $20. Yes, please.


I brought it back to my mom and dad's, washed it, and hung it out on their clothesline. I'm no quilt expert, but I'm thinking it is probably from the 1930s or 1940s. (Any confirmation or other guesses are more than welcome.) A scrap quilt, with bits of solids and prints, and even eyelet lace strips. Hand-quilted, of course. I didn't measure it, but I think it would fit a single bed. Can anyone tell me the name of this fan-style quilt block pattern?


It needs a little TLC; you can see the frayed edges, and there are already a couple of patches on it. My favourite part is that pink fabric around the edge. I'll have to figure out if I should patch it or just try to sew up the holes.

I was happy to find a quilt shop in Penticton earlier this week, where I bought four nice fat quarters for ... something.


And now I'm off to do some more thrifting this afternoon! Oh, and I may have already cast on for a February Lady Sweater, like the rest of the knitting universe. More on that in the next post, where I'll show you my west-coast yarn purchases.

Speaking of the west coast, how about those severed feet?

More photos

Another visual update, with more highlights from Vancouver (again, click to embiggen) ...









(It's the lovely and talented Mandy! Happy day!)


And now I'm at my parents' place in the Okanagan. Ahhhh. For now, I will only say this, and listen carefully: If you happen to find yourself visiting your hometown, and you offer to do some shopping for your mother on a Sunday morning and decide it doesn't matter that your bangs are kind of greasy, you may just find yourself a few feet away from the boy you had a mad crush on in high school, and then you will regress a couple of decades and pretend you didn't see him, and you will turn and walk away, cursing both your vanity and your greasy bangs.

A visual update

Here's a look at my West Coast trip so far -- in chronological order, with bonus shots for the foodies (and all pictures can be bigger with a click) ...















All is well with me -- and with you, too, I hope. xo