Last post of the year

Here we are, the end of another year. We have our plans in place for the festivities this evening: order sushi for delivery, pop a bottle of bubbly, maybe play Monopoly! So exciting... We are back to worrying that we'll get Covid by going to the grocery store, yet at the same time hoping for a summery trip abroad. This is driving me nuts. 

The fuzzy knitted thing continues to be fuzzy. I am almost finished the third of four balls of yarn. It will be a long narrow crescent; more of a scarf than a shawl. 

Approximately scarf-sized in depth: 

Pointy on the ends: 

I have just counted and I have about 275 stitches now, squeezed on to a meter- or 120 cm-long needle. Since I increase three stitches per row, I might have to stop when my needle is full, instead of when I run out of yarn! Must knit faster to find out! 

Ho ho ho

 And a Merry Season to you all. 

There hasn't been much blogging lately, but things are happening at a pandemic pace around here. Which means, sometimes a lot at once, sometimes nothing, and who can tell the difference. We are all four boostered, with about 12 person-hours of lining-up between us. We don't have family around, so it'll just be the four of us for Christmas, with one other family coming over for eggnog and pumpkin pie after Christmas dinner. 

There was secret knitting which I can show you after the big day, and I am presently working on some wild and crazy eyelash yarn: 

A scarf fit for a Muppet, perhaps. We shall see. 

Black and white and stuff

I see that Blogger has changed something, and now loads the pictures in the opposite order to what I wanted. What's with that? 

Anyways, I will do a minimum of fussing about, and just show you things in reverse time order! I tried to take pictures of things with neutral colours for Project Spectrum.

This morning I went out to the east side of town to an Egyptian restaurant with a couple of friends. I didn't take pictures of my eggs and tomatoes, but it was very good. Here is a spiced coffee latte.  

Last Friday I went downtown, to the Textile Museum and to the shop in the Art Gallery of Ontario, to see if there was anything there that struck me as a good Christmas present. I has moderate success, and also managed to buy some yarn at the Textile Museum that I now have to secretly and swiftly knit up.

This is a new statue outside the AGO. It's a bit more than life-size, imposing. Just a Black guy standing there. He's big, but not threatening, not heroic, not looking at you. Just being there. I like it. 

My first stop on Friday was the Textile Museum, where they are showing work by Jagdeep Raina. Some of it is painting, some textiles, some mixed-media. I loved this goat on woven black cloth. 

This is a painted quilt called Where the Sun Sets over Toxic Factory Smog. Lots of this month's neutral colours, with that line of green across the middle. 

The Textile Museum has free admission till the end of the year, and the AGO is free with my Vancouver Art Gallery membership, so I should do more museum going in the next little while. 

Christmas is coming, of course. We had thought we'd have some vegetarian friends at dinner, but they have decided to have their own wee family dinner, so we have gone super-carnivore and are planning on Beef Wellington. That will be a new thing for us, but it seems to be pretty straightforward: buy a nice piece of meat, cook some mushrooms, wrap it all up in puff-pastry. I suppose I can make a trip to the nice butcher shop! 

It's Neutrals month

Here we are in December, the month in Mary's private Project Spectrum where we look at neutral colours: the greys and browns, blacks and whites of the world around me. 

It was all totally white around here the other day, because it snowed and snowed all day long. Now it is warm and melty and most of the snow is gone. 

I have not been taking many pictures, because of technology issues. The issue is that Stephen got a new phone and I got his hand-me-down iPhone 8. A step up from the last hand-me-down, an iPhone 6! Anyways, I have to get all my pictures back out of the cloud and it is taking forever, for some reason. I just leave my phone plugged in, working away, and actually leave home without it sometimes. 

Also, nothing exciting is happening. 

I am knitting a scarf with the leftover blue from the two-tone sweater, so that is entertaining. It will be long and thin. It's called Friday Morning, by Kate Atherley, and I think I got the pattern free when she first published it. It's fun to do the brioche, and it does make a nice squishy scarf. 

Her instructions say, "Use a needle a size (or even two) larger than recommended for your yarn, to get a nice squishy, drapey fabric." So you can see in the bottom corner my fabric was super squishy and drapey, and loose and floppy; I came to my senses and found a smaller needle after a few rows, but I couldn't bear to rip out the start. 

Here's to bright blue yarn on grey days!

November 26

Today I went to a friend's house for a morning cup of tea. Not very newsworthy, except that today she was pet-sitting a friend's quail. 

They call him Dan. 

And that is about the most exciting thing that has happened to me lately!

The Ravelry card swap has begun. I bought a zillion cards in January on sale, but am now realizing that each card is going to cost about a dollar to mail, so I think I may have overdone it! I have a pile written, plus a package to mail, so there's a trip to the post office in my future. The cards I get do light up the season, that's for sure!

November 25

Finally, something violet for Mary's own private Project Spectrum!
 

A flower that is still hanging on, down the block from me. Today is gloomy and grey, but we did have a few nice days a while back. 

I managed to get out and get some leaves raked up on that sunny day, but there were still a few left on the trees. Bags of leaves get picked up by the city every other week and we gave them 5 or 6 today; I hope the pickups continue for at least another go, because we're going to have more. 

I have not knit anything since I finished my hat. I have some things to finish, for sure. Perhaps I'll get out the very fancy mitten again! That would be exciting; and perhaps a scarf for cinema knitting, since I'm doing a shift this weekend. 

November 23

Oh, my, time has flown. 

I am, of course, back in Toronto now. The flight here was uneventful, but I sure liked it better when the planes were half-full. The house was still standing, full of dirty dishes.

Finally, after a month of teeny-tiny knitting, I have a hat. 

The pattern calls for 1x1 twisted rib on the brim, but I wanted something stretchier and warmer, so that is why I drove myself to despair knitting all that 2x2 ribbing. The lace knitting went fine, but slowly, until the very end when I was decreasing for the top. The stitches would no longer fill my circular needle so I was using sock needles; stitches fell off the ends; there were knit-three-together bundles in there; it was a mess! But I managed to haul everything back into place and all's well that ends well. 

Now, of course, it is getting below freezing at night and perhaps this is not the best hat for the weather! 

Yesterday I was wearing my Yes Checks hat when I went to a mall to arrange for new phones for everyone. As it happened, I got Stephen's hand-me-down phone, Elaine and Stephen got new phones. New plan, blah blah blah. What a racket. At the end of all the fussing around, Elaine and I went to a pretzel place and got a snack. So I was leaving the mall with two bags, mittens and hat, pretzel, unzipped jacket... juggling all that and trying to not freeze as we left the building, I dropped my hat. I discovered it was missing before we left the parking lot and dashed back to the pretzel place. No luck... I was just heading out the doors again, crushed, and there was my hat, lying on the floor! Hooray! 

I hope to get back in the NaBloPoMo groove here for the last week. We shall see. 

November 17

The barge is still there on the beach, but perhaps we can move on from that. Today I took a walk in the park in the morning. Someone suggested the other day that people in Vancouver can be sort of stand-offish, or fakey-friendly, and he postulated that it was because if you are feeling off-kilter you can just go for a walk on the beach or in the woods and feel better; who needs people when you have the ocean? I am not sure about this theory, but it certainly is relaxing and pleasant to go and look at the trees. 

Lost Lagoon was splendid this morning. Slightly hazy sky, perfectly flat water. 

There were a tiny number of roses still blooming in the Rose Garden. 

We are sad to be leaving here, but of course we have things to do at home and a couple of children, who, although they are sorta all-grown-up, do need a bit of parental whatsit. Besides, they are living in our house! Time to go and restore order. Time to see what the next step in anyone's plan might be!

Until tomorrow, or perhaps the next day!

November 16

Today it's all about the barge. Barge on the Beach, we say. 

Yesterday, during the high tide and the stormy waters, this huge barge somehow came adrift from somewhere... I am not sure if it was moored or was being towed, but I suspect the former. It drifted into English Bay and came aground on the beach, luckily before crashing into a bridge or anything. 

This morning at low tide the water was calm, the sun was shining... and the barge was there. 

This afternoon, the tide was higher and the water was choppier. 

Quite the crowd gathered, and a tugboat approached, just about an hour before high tide. 

The tug was pretty small, it seemed, compared to the barge, which was still pretty stuck on the beach. I think the one side certainly had some water underneath it, but not enough to float it off the other side. 

Due to geography, I was shooting straight into the sunshine at 3:30 pm. The little tug is off at the right, trying to pull the barge. No go. 

Just before sunset we met up with our Toronto neighbours' son and we went to a restaurant on the beach for Happy Hour. This is a terrible picture of the great view: we were on a slightly enclosed patio, behind a sheet of smudgy, heavy plastic. The heaters are outside, and beyond, the beautiful sunset. 

Tomorrow is our last day in Vancouver, and I suspect a lot of it will be spend doing laundry, but the forecast tells me I should get out for another morning trip to the beach. 

November 15

It rained and rained yesterday, last night, all morning... and then the wind came up and blew the clouds mostly away. And blew and blew!  

I went down to the beach and the waves were crashing over the seawall, onto the path, into the swimming pool, really amazing. It is high tide, which I guess "helps." I hear there is a barge that has come loose, heading for the beach, but in the opposite direction from where I went. 

A bit away from the beach, things are calmer but still wet. Lost Lagoon is full to the brim. 

Nice weather if you're a heron, I guess. 

Or a goose. This is usually a field, but is now a pond, probably full of yummy stuff for geese to eat. 

The weather is kind of interesting here, but all the rain has caused huge trouble around the province. Roads (and I mean major highways) are closed because of mudslides, and one town has been evacuated because of fears the sewage system can't take it. Happy to be on the fifth floor in a big city... 

And I finished my dishcloth! I think that this Tweedish pattern in one of my faves. I must have knit at least half a dozen of them over the years.

November 14

No food pictures today because my delicious meal was sort of brown sludge, not very photogenic. Also I completely forgot about taking pictures; we had a very nice dinner with some longtime friends and didn't think about things like that. 

I do have knitting progress pictures for you. This is a blue dishcloth that will perfectly match the dining room. Only a wee bit more to go on this baby. 

I did manage to finish a hand-towel for the kitchen. You just can't use red and white variegated cotton without it looking a bit Christmassy, but really, I just wanted red to match the tiles in the backsplash. 

Today, pouring rain. My brother is expected for lunch, so we'll see how far away they have to park and how wet they are when they arrive. 

November 13

Last evening I went to the Circle Crafts winter craft show. I got the half-price entrance ticket for going after 5 pm and had a nice walk over there around sunset. 

If you look closely you can see a bit of moon in the branches of the tree there. 

The pink on the water was extraordinary! The sun was off in the other side of the sky, but the clouds above were just lovely.  

There were all the usual craft fair things. I am part of an exchange of Christmas ornaments, so I got a cute one for the exchange, and one for me as well. We won't do Christmas here in Vancouver, but I think I'll leave this here when we go back to Toronto. It's pretty cool and not really Christmassy at all. It's made of rusty metal. 

Of course I admired the $40 mugs and bowls, the wooden boards lovingly polished, the cool mittens and all. I'll just remind myself of these prints, in case I want to get one later. And I took one picture, of these cool tea towels. 

Our tea towel stash will likely outlast us both, so I didn't actually contemplate buying one, but one would look good on the wall. It's a skill to make them, but also to think up the idea of putting names of streets and neighbourhoods on a tea towel. 

This morning we walked along a street we don't usually walk along, and saw that once upon a time, perhaps quite a long, long time ago, lights were installed by the boulevard trees. Lights are now in the trees. 

I'll need to take a nighttime stroll to see them lit up! 

This afternoon we will be peeling pearl onions and cutting up 10 cups of mushrooms, so perhaps tomorrow there will be food p0rn! (I think I promised a picture of knitting... that will come tomorrow as well!) We are having our first guests for dinner, which is exciting. We only have four chairs, so we are limited, but I am sure we will have a good time. 

November 11

Away from the computer for a couple of days, and I didn't prepare anything before I left, very lax blogger!

We went to Victoria to see Stephen's mom and sister for a quick visit. Bus, SkyTrain, bus, ferry, bus, bus. We got to Stephen's mom at around noon Wednesday, and his sister arrived shortly after with soup and sandwiches, so that was good. We had thought we'd do a drive around, maybe stop at a beach, maybe go to the museum, but when someone is 94 and 3/4 years old, sometimes other things happen and you have to drop everything and, for example, drive 20 km to the dentist to see about an infected tooth situation. Antibiotics were prescribed and we decided to take a walk along the waterfront in Sidney. 

Very lovely, but cold and windy. We saw several eagles flying around, perhaps interested in a fish someone had caught or, who knows, maybe there was something dead lying around. Anyways, they were pretty excited, but it's sort of pointless to try to take a picture with a cell phone. 

We spent the night with Stephen's sister and this morning got up and headed to the ferry for the return trip. Her husband was all set to lay a wreath at the cenotaph for Remembrance Day this morning, but he is part of the Search and Rescue group and got a call out at about 9:30. I understand that it was a bit of a false alarm, and all is well. Our trip home was uneventful (ie. no orcas seen from the ferry, again!) and now we are just planning for the next few days. 

This darn pandemic: you can't plan for anything a month in the future, but suddenly everything happens at once. (Can I really blame the latter on the pandemic? Dunno.) So we have dinner guests in our not-very-furnished home on Saturday, my brother briefly visiting on Sunday... and I have to finish a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle to get it off the table! 

Tomorrow: I will show you some knitting!

November 8

We just had a lovely conversation with friends on Zoom. I think that is one thing that will continue after the pandemic: video chatting with people. It's so much better than a phone call, even if people go blurry or freeze up now and then. So fun. And it's so great that some people stay interesting and charming even if you haven't seen each other in a while. 

I had a walk around Lost Lagoon this morning and noticed snow on the North Shore mountains! It has certainly rained a lot down here at sea level, so I suppose it is not surprising. 

Our main chore for the day was to put together our new corner cupboard, and I am pleased to report that that is done and dusted. Attached to the wall (not only in case of earthquake, but it actually doesn't have a back leg and needs to be attached).

Right now it holds a few wine glasses and a few place mats, but at least it frees up space in the kitchen for things we use daily. 

We don't like that light in the dining room -- it is grey and casts a very murky light over the table. Terrible for after-hours puzzle making, I can tell you. So that might just be tomorrow's task, to replace that. We have a big paper sphere we were going to use in the bedroom, but I think it needs to be in the dining room. 

Weather forecast is crap, but there are minutes here and there when the sun pokes through!

November 7

My hat is not finished. 

We spent most of today on household chores, like putting a new light fixture in the kitchen, which took all our strength and energy and skill. Holding even quite a lightweight thing that is 6 feet long up above one's head is no fun. But, we got that done and now we have a light above the stove and a light on the ceiling and all is well, kitchen-light-wise. 

Our other chore was to put together an Ikea cupboard. It fits in the corner of the dining room and is tall but the shelves are really only big enough to hold a serving bowl. We hope it will be useful, but first we have to put it together. We got to step 13 of the instructions and had to take a break. I am not sure how many steps there are, but I'd say we were about halfway done, and I know the final step must be to attach it to the wall, so I am not looking forward to that. 

Tomorrow I will take pictures of these things. 

Weather continues changeable! We had sheets of rain, and then this: 

 

November 6

Today all I took pictures of was my little cousin-ette. I believe she is my first cousin twice removed. My cousin's granddaughter. Anyways, cute as a button but perhaps I should not put pictures of her cutie-pie face on the interwebs without her parents' permission. 

We met them for lunch, except that several things happened to our original plan. The place we chose, the Mighty Oak, only had a couple of outside tables and nothing inside. Stephen and I got there early and had a coffee, and it started to rain. My first cousin once removed, let's call her Joanna, texted that they were still half an hour away, so we searched for another place where we could eat out of the rain. 

That part of Vancouver is on the east side, far from where I grew up, and I never went there as a kid. My parents were happy to have started out in the east and been able to move westward. But, the houses there are quintessential Vancouver and the gentrification has been slower coming. So, lovely! Of course, still basically housing for millionaires, but to my eyes, previously unknown charm. 

Oh, I found a non-baby picture: Vancouver will curve the sidewalk to go around a big tree. Toronto just cuts the tree down. 

We found a craft brewpub that had a nice looking menu, so we arranged to meet there. After a fine brunch, during which Cutie-Face ate my quite salty fries and a bit of her mom's food, we came downtown to our place where we learned that our home was no longer "child-friendly." Laptops and light fixtures in reach of little hands, stuff like that! Time for a cup of tea and a diaper change and we were off to the park, where there were swings and puddles to enjoy. 

As the day was coming to an end, nap-time imminent, thunder booming over the water, we got back to Joanna's car and were struggling to get the stroller in the trunk and the kid in the carseat, it started to hail. 

It was lovely!

November 5

Today will be a day of laundry and cleaning up a bit, because my dear spouse is arriving from Toronto tonight. That means we'll be able to put up the light in the kitchen and put together the latest Ikea purchase, a cupboard for the dining room. 

But first, a walk around Lost Lagoon while the sun shines. 

It was totally calm, the sun was blazing away in the south: stunning. 

Those leaves you see are not in the water; they are reflections of the few leaves left on the tree. The picture doesn't really show how great it looked, but it was very cool. 

Lots of evergreens around, so the deciduous trees with their leaves still on make quite the statement. 

I did a quick walk yesterday in the rain and picked up a few leaves. This morning they were dry and ready to be stuck in a mug on the table. These colours are so great!

And now, a few short hours after my walk in the park, the clouds are back. Changeable, that's what Vancouver weather is. 

November 4

This is a knitting blog and so I should tell you, once in a while, what I am knitting. 

I found this great skein of blueish-greeny yarn in my stash in Toronto just before I left and figured I needed another fall hat. So I spent hours and days and forever knitting 4 inches of 2x2 ribbing on 2 mm needles, and have finally now got to the fun lace part. I didn't have the right length of circular needle so I knit the ribbing flat and will sew up a seam later. 

The lace is certainly more fun than the ribbing, but it too seems to take forever. Perhaps because each row is 180 stitches, instead of maybe 84 with a bigger yarn. 

I have about 50 rows to go before I start to decrease at the top of the hat. That can't take me past, let's say, Friday, can it?