Vancouver for beginners

I did not know what to expect of Vancouver, not having visited Canada before. I was planning to visit my great uncle, but had no other ideas about what to expect.

Well, Vancouver is a lovely place, with the world’s (so far as I know it) most courteous people, and my great-uncle (who is at least 89) was too busy to see us! Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time.  We ate well, walked far, and had a lovely time at the Aquarium.

We had fun stopping traffic by just looking like we were going to step off the curb. In Hong Kong, the pedestrian is one of the lowest life forms, and as one, you know that you never (despite the road rules) have the right of way.   Here, even if you look like stepping off the curb holding a 6 year old’s hand, people start slowing down… We’ve played the “no, you go first” game several times.  In Stanley Park, the flowers, and generally the landscape are amazing. I have no idea about the identity of these flowers, but they sure are photogenic.

People in shops are lovely and friendly, and when one of our bags was missing at the airport (claimed by another passenger by mistake) the fellow who helped us acted like he had never encountered people with lost luggage before, and he was going to do everything within his power to locate it. He did within half an hour!

Of course, this is a knitting and travel blog, and I did yarn shop in Vancouver….

In 3 Bags Full, a complete stranger asked my daughters for advice on her choice of STR Socks that Rock lightweight. I bought Misti Alpaca laceweight, more STR, and some contrasting Louet Gems for heels and toes, and the current Interweave Knits and Knit.1.  No photos yet of that stash, but here are more of the store.

This art work s actually connected by knitting, and looks a lot better than my photo of it! 3 Bags Full is a wonderful store, and I loved visiting it.

In other news, this is how much damage you can do to a car, instead of buying a new Janome Memorycraft 4900QC.  When I should have been attending WWKIP, I was writing up my car insurance claim…..

Did you see, I maganged to get 3 panels with one small tiled wall.  While the insurance will help out, with the holiday, and the excess, the new sewing machine will be on the back burner for a bit, unless the god of second hand goods shines upon me.

Today’s post is brought to you by “School Cancelled”

Hong Kong loves to panic. The government, in their wisdom have cancelled school for all students primary aged or younger for two weeks, while warning Hong Kong residents not to panic about swine flu.  They did this after the first local community infection was reported.  Luckily, the girls only had one week of school left, but now I have two active children unexpectedly at home in one of the wettest months of the year. I will enjoy getting away for the holidays!

I’ve just finished updating the store with the new silk yarns, and offering a 10% discount in honour of the new products. Now I’m going to look at my Ene’s scarf earnestly. I made it through the first 2 charts with no problems (so I thought).  On starting chart 3, I’ve discovered that I have too many stitches, and have to try and figure out where I went wrong. I have a vision of myself wandering the cool streets of Vancouver swathed in my new 100% silk shawl, but the likelihood of it coming to fruition seems to be diminishing.

Speaking of Vancouver, what yarn store should I visit? I’m compiling a wishlist of items to buy on my visit to the West Coast, and it includes a new ball winder, Norah Gaughan Vol.5, more qiviut (of course). Not surprisingly, the hotel’s website doesn’t feature yarn shops in the area guide.  It might surprise some, but this will be my first visit to a North American local yarn store.  Of course, I’ll report back.

The photo is pretty poor, but I had a mad panic when the new Knitty went up with an advertisment advertising yarns that were not yet listed in the store.  My yarnography skills could do with a lot of improvement, but when I’m try to take photos at speed, under rapidly fading light – really not good. I’ll probably have to redo the photos one day when the light is a lot better, ideally when I don’t have a 5 and 6 year old there to help me!

Single mitt syndrome

I’ve never had any problem with Second Sock Syndrome – but I seem to be suffering from single mitt syndrome badly.  I finished the first of these mitts last week, and have not picked them up since.  I feel all “meh” about them, probably because it is about 95% humidity and 30° (that’s 85° for you fahrenheit types).  Here it is, in its unblocked glory:

The past couple of weeks have been crazy – I’ve had a family cancer scare (negative thankfully), a shipment of yarn arrive (silk, silk, and more silk), Sock Summit to prepare for,  the server hosting the shop coming under attack, orders to send, and a big complicated argument with my daughters’ school that has necessitated many long, rather fraught meetings.

So, I’ve been ignoring the second mitt. It is not the yarn, it feels lovely, but 100% merino in this weather? Just not appealing. They won’t get worn until the trip to Australia in July in any event.  All details here (Ravelry link). I dyed the Frankston with Siow Chin and Mindy when we had a dyeing party here.

In other news, I’ve been really hating the Hong Kong traffic, and had been complaining to my husband that the air conditioning in the car did not seem to be working properly.  At lunchtime today, just as I was feeling really hot, bothered and frustrated, I realised that the seat heater was on, and had been set to maximum! Now, I am off to the yarn storage locker, and the supermarket, hopefully without the feeling that my rear end is on fire.

Does she look like a dog with a bucket on its head?

I’ve been looking for a hat pattern: I wear hats a lot, and have trouble finding them to fit my rather big head.  Seems like the perfect excuse for a sewing project, but have been pretty disappointed with the offerings from the major pattern companies.   This hat makes the model look like a Labrador with a bucket on its head to prevent head scratching.  We used to have a Labrador that was prone to skin infections behind his ears, and every so often, after a visit to the vest, we would have to put a doctored bucket on him, and he would get exactly the same  mournful, yet slightly startled look on his face. For anyone who is after this image, the pattern is Vogue v7600.

Soozs did send me a “mud map” on how to make the hat she is wearing in this blog post, but for my first foray into hat making, I would like my hand held.  This morning, while looking around the blogs,  (and this one in particular) I came across Make it Perfect patterns, and within 10 minutes, had purchased the Lazy Day Hat pattern from Duckcloth.

No shipping fees, and she is sending it from Australia to Hong Kong! The new independent pattern companies are really showing up the older more established companies – the photos on the Make it Perfect site are gorgeous, and the patterns all look current.

After shopping, I also found this pattern at Nicole Mallalieu Design. Why haven’t I known about these pattern companies?  Thank-you blogosphere for bringing them to my attention.