November again

Well, hello.

I will not attempt to make a whole sweater this NaKniSweMo, but I do have some things that I mean to work on steadily. And I will not promise to post something every day but if I get anything done, I should make the effort to post a picture. 

This is the "before" picture of my Dotted Rays. I have made a couple of these before but gave them away. This yarn is two strands of laceweight held together. I do so love the idea of fine, delicate knitting, but I don't really enjoy making it. This will be much nicer when it's all spread out, finished. 

A recent knit: 

I made this summery, sporty shawl for my brother's partner, Lorna's birthday. My first knit for her, and she seems to be knitworthy! 

Hot summer's day

It's not quite as hot as it has been, but still, it's the middle of summer, and it's pretty hot out. 

So I decided to sew in the ends -- approximately 9,043 of them -- on these two scrappy projects. 

They both were started as quick carry-along projects, to use up spare balls of yarn, keep me busy in a line-up or on a journey. The hat's been finished for some time now, and I just finished the scarf yesterday.

Both will go in the charity bag, not because I don't like them but because that was also the idea, when I started out. 

I often think I'll just whip up a bunch of hats for the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre or some such thing. And then it takes me months and months to finish a hat, instead of a week. 

We were on another Gulf Island last week and, of course, I started a scarf with some yarn I stumbled upon. Now that's another thing I have to finish up, but since it is only one ball of worsted, it should not take too long! Haha ha ha ah...

It'll be done any day now. 

We went to Saskatchewan

Our first prairie sunset

My cousin and I at our grandparents' grave

It sure is flat here. This is a dam at Lake Diefenbaker

If we hadn't taken a wrong turn and gone off on an hour-long detour, we might have missed this amazing rainbow

Modern grain elevators

This is the view from our motel. The edge of town

One day there were big puffy clouds

For the textile and crafting crowd, I saw this cross-stitch at a yard sale. Did not buy

Eye Candy Friday and more

There are lots of things that might make interesting photos in the Downtown Eastside, but I am not bold enough to take pictures of them. I was down near there for Doxa films, and found this painted wall, which was much easier to capture. 

I also found the big W from Woodwards! There is a bright red W in the sky, but the original is on the ground in a courtyard near where I was watching movies. 

Great movies seen since I last wrote: Singing Back the Buffalo, about, uh, the return of the buffalo to the prairies of both Canada and the US. Red Fever, so good! About the influence of Indigenous people on fashion, sport, politics and environmental issues in North America and beyond. And, a bunch of shorts, especially Am I the Skinniest Person You've Ever Seen? and The Archive: Queer Nigerians.

This is the problem with blogging: I spent all day watching these movies, and I just don't have the oomph to do more than find a link here. But, you should really try and see Red Fever, it was good! 

Just like the old days

I was standing in line to get in to a film festival movie last night, and thought back to the lineups at TIFF or HotDocs in years gone by. I was even knitting a hat.

This festival is Doxa, a documentary fest. It happens a week or so after HotDocs in Toronto, and on the edge of the continent. I am not sure how these festivals work, but there is very little overlap in content. (Everyone here is looking forward to Yintah, which won the audience award at HotDocs.)

I was ushering, and able to watch the Zola Experience. It's the story of a woman putting on a play, but it's also the play, and the movie, and the rehearsals, so the lines between documentary and fiction are blurred. Is she really in love with him, or playing that on stage, or both? 

Another ushering shift gave me Union, which was one I had been hoping to see. It was a great story, and well told without narration or experts chiming in, but I was not as gripped as I had anticipated. The leader of the gang working to unionize is not especially likeable, and people going to work doesn't make for stunning visuals. I couldn't stay for the Q&A because I was supposed to be working, so I didn't hear the latest news. 

Yesterday I got to use two of my volunteer vouchers and saw movies back to back: The Movie Man and Années en Parenthèses 2020-2022. (You can click something on the top of that page to get English text.)

The Movie Man was the best so far! My Toronto-area friends might know of the Highlands Cinemas, a 5-screen cinema in the middle of nowheres-ville, Ontario. This movie, started before Covid messed everything up, shows us the man behind the crazy idea to build a theatre in a town of 300 people. We all love a single-minded, cat-loving guy, dealing with the unforeseen troubles we each had to deal with in our own little ways. Really fun, and of course locals should take the drive to Kinmount to watch it. 

Années en Parenthèses 2020-2022 was a mish-mash of visuals, poetry, politics from around the world, beautiful images... The director was locked down in Montreal during the pandemic, and unlike a painter or a writer, a movie-maker needs someone else to film and interact with to make a movie. So she asked friends and acquaintances from around the world to send her images or texts, and she carefully edited things down into a pretty cohesive movie. I was expecting something about Montreal, but I got Lebanon and Algeria and Portland, Oregon, Black Lives Matter, Jean-Luc Godard and more. Worth seeing. 

Today, no volunteer shifts and no movies. I am back in action tomorrow morning at 8:45 am!

Art on Friday

Today Stephen set up his booth at the local community centre art show. 

Tonight is a reception (actually, I believe they call it a vernissage) and then the show is on all weekend. 

He invited lots of people to come tonight, so that should be fun. A bit of free wine and cheese and check out everyone else's art, and then perhaps dinner out somewhere. 

I'd better link to his art pages, right? Here is Flickr and here is Instagram. 

Back in town

We started off our last day on Galiano at Bellhouse Park, a little provincial park near the "town." There were gorgeous rocks to wander over, great views of Active Pass and hidden in those trees, an eagle's nest. 

We took our bubble wand. Bubbles are hard to photograph but fun to look at. 

Our next stop was Bodega Ridge, which looks like a straight line on the map but while it may be straightish in one dimension, it goes up and down quite a bit! 

This is a camas lily. A bit rare, quite lovely. 

And this is the view from up top! Beautiful sea and sky and clouds and trees and all that. Even a few birds were hovering around off the cliff. 

A lilac in the ferry terminal parking lot, and then home. 

Things are heating up here: Stephen will be at the Art In The City show down the street this weekend, and next week is the DOXA festival. Stay tuned!
 

Rocks, trees and water

We took a walk to Lookout Trail. 

Such a lovely view, and several ferries went by while we were up there gawping at the islands, clouds, trees, distant things, nearby things. My brother can see the ferries as they emerge from Active Pass, so we figured he is straight across from here. 

After some coming and going on the little roads, we found a way down to the water, passing this private lookout on the cliff as we made our way down the path. I wonder if this house is ever rentable in the summer!

We have overdosed on rocks, trees and water on this holiday. This is why we moved here from Toronto. 

Lovely lovely lovely. And even better when the sun comes out!

The sun came out

We had a great day Friday, looking at rocks and trees and water. Galiano is very long and thin, with one road going up one side of it. The narrow bottom end faces Active Pass and the ferries between Victoria and the mainland go by often.  

This is a good environment for arbutus trees. They are really beautiful.

And then there was dinner. The sun had come out and dried off the chairs on the deck; the barbecue was fired up and we relaxed outside till the sun started going down behind the rest of the island. 

 Today, Saturday, it's a bit drizzly again, but we carry on!

Best laid plans

Yesterday we packed up some stuff, rented a car, killed time with a friend before our ferry, and arrived on Galiano Island in the dark and the rain last night. It is forecast to continue gloomy for a few more days. 

Ferries to Gulf Islands are necessary and affordable (sorta) and daily (at least). But they are not always convenient and ready-when-you-are. Since we had to rent a car and drive an hour or more to the terminal, to get there about an hour before the ferry leaves, the morning boat was not going to work. Next ferry: 7:10 pm. 

We have a friend in White Rock who we don't see that often, but it is sort of on the way to the ferry, so we had a nice visit with her. There is an actual white rock in White Rock. (Yes, they now paint it. Debates about the original whiteness: was it in fact just covered in bird droppings?)

The internet here is a bit spotty. When we arrived last night, we first had trouble even finding the cottage, since one doesn't waste electricity on lighting up the number on the road. When we did get inside, there was not a handy fact sheet left by the landlord, but we did eventually find the router and decipher the password. Even now things are not super fast, but we are on an island surrounded by forest, so I guess we can accept that. 

The sun came up and we saw where we were. Not far from a little inlet.

There are boats. 

There are rocks. 

We explored the little village nearby and found a coffee shop, bakery and bookstore, so we are set. 

I hope to be able to update here regularly, but I don't have super high hopes for this internet connection. Fingers crossed. 

I finished something

Once upon a time I bought this yarn. I started to make gloves out of it, but soon realized that was foolish, since this stuff needs to drape and flow and show off its silkiness. 

I was reading the vintage knitting group on Ravelry at the time, and found a vintage blanket pattern that I tried to rework into a cowl. The vintage instructions were just written out, no graphs... and that was okay, but apparently I didn't make any notes or even make a mark to tell me what rows I'd knitted. So when I put it down for a few weeks or months, I had no idea where to start. Also, I had to count and pay attention and all that! 

When we went to Spain I needed something small, easy, fun, unthreatening! I just did a couple of rows of garter stitch and picked a simple eyelet pattern and carried on. 

We came back and I did another couple of rows of garter stitch and got a bit more adventurous, and when it was clear that the end was in sight and this would actually become a wearable thing, I got swirly and eye-catching. 

Now I just have to learn to take a decent picture of myself. 

The Before Pictures

I think I am already in trouble here. I got three little plants from a neighbour on our local Faceb00k group: two brussels sprouts and one broccoli. I'm sure I'll be able to tell them apart as they mature, but right now, I dunno.

I do remember having a brussels sprout tree in the front yard one year. It didn't get enough sun and we didn't get anything to eat from it, though it grew quite large, as I recall. 

We also once grew a sizeable cauliflower, which some caterpillars enjoyed quite thoroughly. Now, on a south-facing balcony in the sky, I am hopeful that we can actually grow actual vegetables. Check back later in the summer!

Going out for coffee, and actual knitting content

This is the view this morning from our fave coffee shop. 

Going out for coffee is not something that we did in our pre-retirement days. Even drinking coffee was not an everyday occurrence. 

We settled on our favourite local coffee shop pretty soon after arriving here, though, and probably go there a couple of times a week. I've tried a number of things, and really just prefer a medium roast drip coffee. So, very boring, I suppose. 

Yesterday I had no time for coffee, as I had to go volunteer at the VIFF centre, my new year-round volunteer gig. The great thing, blog-wise, is that I picked up my knitting bag that I had foolishly left there the previous time I was there, so can show you my latest work: 

It will be a long tube of silky, woolly, drapey loveliness, to keep my neck warm in the winter. Probably too warm, since the silk and wool together can be pretty toasty. 

I got this yarn last year at Fibres West and tried a couple of things with it... and then ignored it for some months! The bottom pattern is quite fancy and required too much attention, so the second pattern is very simple -- I took it to Spain and needed mindless knitting. Since then I have decided I can pay more attention to it, so the last pattern will look quite snazzy, although it's not as complicated as it looks. 

I'll be happy when this is done, even though I can't wear it till maybe November!

First stumble

Okay, I missed a day in my self-imposed every-day-blogging exercise. My bad. It's because we had an actual social engagement last night, I suppose.

This is the wall of the Sylvia Hotel, and old building near us. It's covered in ivy, which is nice and red in the fall and a little bit imposing in the summer, but look at these spring colours as the leaves are coming out now. 

I have to walk by it again today, as I escape from my corner of the city, around a fun run. My main street will be clogged with runners and to get where I am going, I will be forced to walk along the beach. (Which I often do, because it is both convenient and wonderful!)

When we were in England in May 2023 (which I don't think I blogged about!) we saw hundreds of grey stone walls with bright, fresh, green lichen, and I wanted yarn in those colours. I could visualize the cardigan I would make. I never found the yarn but now I am reminded, I will continue the search. Perhaps a bit of an orange in there as well. 

Tomorrow I may have actual knitting content. Not grey and green, but pretty nice.