Some tiles

I took a walk yesterday past a classic Vancouver building, the old BC Hydro building, now mainly condos. The outside has mosaic details at street level. 

This reminds me of Kaffe Fassett's Large Diamonds pattern, though of course diamonds are one of those eternal patterns! 

I would love to go in and see what remains of the original interior design. Although we are looking for a condo, I'm not sure this building would be high on our list, because there are no balconies. And now I look at what is available in it today, I see that they are tiny! Two bed, two bath in 815 square feet is one of the larger options! But at least these ads show that some of the common areas do maintain the blue and green tiles. 

From the REW website

This exterior wall would be exciting to come home to, though!

Cosy little lap rug

This is what I started working on in January in Toronto after I finished the many dishrags. A bunch of lone balls of fingering weight yarn... when will I ever reach the end of this pile? I keep finding more, just when I think I have knitted it all up. 

A designer made special yarn and used it in a 12 Days of Christmas scarf pattern. It's 12 different stitch patterns, of which I used seven in this. I made it wider than a scarf, so this is baby-blanket sized; we now use it to warm our legs on the couch in the evening. 

That bright turquoise and the browny-red next to it are Jamiesons jumperweight wool, from the pile I picked up from my neighbour last August. It is lovely and colourful and made me sneeze like anything, so I packed up the rest of it and sold it to another knitter on Ravelry! (Bargain for her, tiny profit for me.)

The rest of it is nice Koigu and other things I seem to have picked up here and there. It's dark, not really baby colours, and it can't be machine washed or thrown in the dryer, so I do declare that it is ours to keep! 

 

Is it too ugly?

Once upon a time, maybe even this time last year, I found three balls of very ugly sock yarn in a thrift shop. I thought I could make a blanket or hats to keep someone warm. So muddy and grey and splotchy. 

I brought it with me to Vancouver, thinking that I'd never get around to doing anything with it if it wasn't my only option, so here I am, forced to make something with it. (I see that I have not told you about my other project, so we'll get to that soon!) 

Of course, hats for charity would be good. I think I could get a lap rug out three balls. Make something where this gloomy grey and brown mush won't get anyone down! What to do? 

I have started a baby dress for my niece! I wanted to make this pattern and I know the mom is not bothered by gender conventions in clothing. I figure that it could look like a bear pelt or some sort of woodland sprite. We don't all have to be princesses, now, do we? 

There is a ridged yoke, no real sleeves, and then a slightly flared dress down to more ridges at the bottom. 

I just have to shape the underarms now and then zoom quickly down the body. I hope this is not all a big mistake! 

New month, new view

We have travelled. 

 

We are back in Vancouver for three months. We have an apartment overlooking the east end of False Creek, with the SkyTrain and an elevated highway between us and the water. A bit noisy, but it sort of all fades into the background. 

The flight was uneventful and not too crowded. Everyone just sat still and tried not to breathe for five hours. We had some N95 masks, we washed our hands, we got groceries delivered shortly after we arrived so we haven't been inside a store. I think we'll be okay! 

Vancouver is much less locked-down than Toronto. I am excited about the idea of actually going in to a shop without having pre-ordered something for pick-up. I've only really been in the grocery store for ... ages. 

We've only been here since Monday, though, so we are still not going in any stores. Luckily the view is pretty entertaining in all kinds of weather.