Look what I found

Yesterday, I was walking along College Street and passed a book store, just as they were taking in the bin of one-dollar books. Who could resist the Mastermind Quiz Book?

It is from the 1970s and covers everything anyone could ever know. I can tell you the shape of a DNA molecule and the name of Hitler's wife, but I certainly can't get half of General Knowledge 13.

Railways, astronomy, JRR Tolkein, chemistry, literature, ancient mythology... everything. We even had the MothMan over last night and found him a quiz on British moths, which he handled very well.

Of course I am finding room for this is in my bag to take to Britain.

Film Festival time again

Oh, so much to do, blogging gets shunted aside...

I am now nearing the end of the Hot Docs film festival. I will list the movies I've seen here, but not try to say too much about them.

1. Nipawistamasowin: We will stand up. Very interesting, sad in so many ways. 
2. The Rest. Ai Weiwei continues his look at the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean and Europe.
3. Kifaru. Continuing with sad, this movie was about the last male Northern White Rhino and the men who looked after him. 
4. Backstage Action. A look at extras in movies. It's not as glamorous as you might think! This screened with two shorts. 
5. The Day Don Died. (short) Go, click through the photos till you get to the trailer. So, so good, and despite the title, it was a break from the sad!
6. Uncaged: A stand-in story. (short) Once upon a time, a guy got a job being Nicolas Cage's stand-in. Brilliant!
7. Willie. Big hype for this one, Willie O'Ree was the first black player in the NHL and played pro hockey for many years. He came to the screening and the kids loved him. 
8. Midnight Traveler. A filmmaker and his family flee Afghanistan for Europe. They film the whole journey with their cell phones. 
9. Searching Eva. Wow. I won tickets to this and probably wouldn't have chosen it, but it was thought-provoking and interesting, about expression and identity and selfies and family. 
10. Bellingcat: Truth in a post-truth world. Citizen journalism. Google Earth and Facebook can tell you a lot more than you think. Amazing.
11. Picture Character. How does one get a new emoji added to the keyboard? Are emoji language?!
12. Supreme Law. A thing made by the National Film Board about the Canadian constitution and how Pierre Trudeau brought it home to Canada. Told in several snippets, with interactive sidebars and further reading. I think this might actually be best enjoyed on the small screen with personal control. Very interesting!
13. Propaganda: The art of selling lies. Perhaps my favourite! Cave paintings, Nazi rallies, Trump tweets, Baroque art. They are all trying to get you to change your mind. 
14. Havana, from on high. People live on rooftops, in elevator cars and attics, with a great view of the city, sometimes with not much more. Sometimes with pigeons, or art, or their memories of the glories of the Revolution. 

I hope to see one more movie tomorrow night, which I might just add to this list. 

I also hope to do a quick knitting round-up before I go off on my English walking-holiday adventure, which I've been thinking about for a year! One wonders what life will be like after the trip... How will I spend my time if I don't have to think about the pros and cons of walking poles? Stay tuned!

British Columbia in the spring, with knitting

I found myself back in Castlegar over the long weekend. I took lots of pictures of family, and a few pictures of the great outdoors.

One day some of us went for a walk over a restored old bridge, and up into the woods. I had to quickly text a picture of these flowers to my sister-in-law, who told me they are called Avalanche Lilies. There were great swaths of them at some points along the path.

The Kootenay River.

Pretty blue sky. It seems like we haven't seen that in ages! In another couple of weeks the trees will be leafy and green.

Another day, we walked along the shore of the Arrow Lake on a rail trail. It was nice to be by the water, in the woods. Some of us were meant to be training up for our big walk in May, and I was wearing my new boots, but we didn't go up any big hills! I guess I'll just have to find a hill around here to walk up.

I took my crazy pink scarf I've been working on. I see that I haven't actually reported in about this before. It was sort of a palate cleanser after I finished my big grey shawl and it seemed to be a small project, but it has taken some time and, of course, has grown. It's not quite finished, but I'll give you some teasers!

We start out small, indeed. Increase one stitch every other row, then cast off 10 and start increasing again.

Throw in some leftover bits of sock yarn.

Oh, add some texture because it's a bit boring. Diagonals to help the viewer notice the shape!

A big chunk of diagonal eyelets. I should have ssk'd but I k2tog'd, so the diagonal lines are not quite what they could be.

After a while, start reversing the shaping, decreasing one stitch every other row, and then suddenly casting on some more.

I have a tiny bit of the pink left, and I think I will need to throw another odd ball in to get to the final point. I couldn't finish it in all the airport waiting yesterday because I was sure I'd run out of yarn. But I sincerely believe I can get this done tonight, though I may be proved wrong.

This is the only picture

We have pictures of Notre Dame, but not on this computer. We even have slides from 1984. But when we went there with the kids in 2006, prime Knitting on the Cam time, this is the only picture I put here, because my interior shots were murky and, actually, I do sound sorta grumpy in that post.

Saint Arthur of the Green Book and Saint Elaine of the Baguette, in some niches on Notre Dame.

Unbelievably sad.

Muffin Monday, a year on

Well, I did not meet my goal, if goal it was, to bake all the muffins in my muffin book last year. However, we soldier on. Also, I know it is not Monday but I just couldn't wait!

I just recently made a batch of Peanut Butter Muffins, although we don't have peanut butter in the house.

I used Wow Butter, which we here have eaten for years, due to kids with allergies. It's made from soy beans and tastes pretty darn close to peanut butter.

I can't find this online, so I will give you the recipe.

1/2 cup margarine (part shortening) [I used all margarine, and it surely couldn't hurt to use butter]
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter [or Wow Butter, and it doesn't have to be crunchy]
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
1/3 cup chopped chocolate chips

Cream the margarine, sugars, peanut butter and egg.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and add alternately to creamed mixture with milk, until blended.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups and bake at 375F for 25 minutes.

I meant to make some other muffins, which asked for buttermilk, and I was going to use yogurt, but then I was missing a crucial ingredient... and when I came to make these instead, I found I didn't actually have any milk! I used about half a cup of yogurt and the rest evaporated milk! They could have been moister, as it turned out.

But flavour-wise, great! You can't beat peanut butter and chocolate. This book also has a peanut butter and banana muffin and maybe I'll try that next!

I have popped a few into the freezer because we all know that the end of April is Hot Docs festival time, and I am going to need some muffins to grab on my way out the door.

At long last, I can cross this off my list

Once upon a time, six months ago or more, I started the Stephen West 2018 mystery knitalong.

There was much knitting, and knitting in ways I hadn't before, like making Latvian braids, a very time-consuming and frustrating way to make a pretty nice line.

There were giant holes, and swirls and fun stuff.

There were interminable wings in two colours, with an i-cord edge knit in. At some early point in this project I should have clued in and not done the i-cord edge, but it's a mystery, and we didn't even really know which end was up until it was too far along.

On the first clue he had us changing colours every few rows, and leaving all those yarn ends! I soon found I didn't have the patience for that, and made my colour changes more slowly, but still had too many ends at the starting point. The pattern tells you to leave them 8 inches long and then make them into little twisted cords to dangle, but mine were not that long. I sewed in all the other ends, along those dang Latvian braids, for example, and when I got to this point I just made a few little braids.

I had finished the knitting some time ago, and was just daunted by the idea of all those wretched ends, so this sat in time-out for a couple of months at least. Finally, I got it done, gave it a bath and can now see it in all its glory.

It is very wide in the wingspan. Very, very wide. I like a big shawl, but this is just too big!

And now we wait for next winter, because it's practically spring here now, and I certainly don't need a giant, grey shawl.

Remind me, next fall, that my love for Mr West's work is not boundless, and sometimes it's best to wait till others have made the mystery shawl before jumping in!

Some pretty new things

I tried so many things with this yarn. Two different shawls were started and ripped out.

Finally, this cowl seems to have given me what I wanted: lined up rainbow bits!

There was enough yarn to make some fingerless mitts as well. I'm not convinced of the usefulness of fingerless mitts, but perhaps in May, in England, when it's a bit chilly and not really very cold... perhaps then, they will be perfect!

I like the way the cowl pattern tips and turns the colours a bit. I picked this stitch pattern from my 2010 Vogue Knitting desk calendar, cast on 160 stitches and just went straight. Nice.

The great red spot, as the mitt increases.

You can wear these with the diagonal bit of ribbing on the back of the hand...

or with the straight bit on the back of the hand!

I have a tiny bit of lovely wool/cashmere rainbow yarn leftover, to be added to a hat or something one day.

Been away

My, this month has zipped by. Of course, there is a bit left, but I am preoccupied with a couple of things in April and May and feel like they are almost upon us.

I went out to BC for 10 days. I don't know why, but every leg of the journey had delayed airplanes, cancelled flights, hours spent in airports.

First we flew to Regina -- we were using points for the tickets, so we didn't have a lot of choice in our route! I don't think I've ever seen the prairies so clear and snowy before!

Then we sat in the airport for several hours. Some of this we knew about in advance, but some was a surprise. Pro-tip: if you are ever stuck in Regina, go out into the main part of the airport, because there is nothing past security.

It was quite a brown airport.

Finally, back in the air.

We were headed to Salt Spring Island. So we flew Toronto, Regina, Vancouver, Victoria.

Let's whip through some pictures of BC and move on, shall we?

A sign of spring, thank heaven

Stumbled upon in a cafe. Excellent coffee, beautiful view and knitting.

view from the deck of my brother's house

I moved from Salt Spring to Castlegar, with another wretched delay and another lengthy stay in a small airport. I had some pancakes, since it was a 5:30 am flight that was cancelled for several hours.

In Castlegar, my green hat met up with its orange twin.

We went for a few walks and did some stuff... I started and ripped out the same yarn about three times. Perhaps I'll show you that another day.

I finally flew over the country once again, after a delay which meant me staying overnight in Vancouver. Bonus this time: I got to see my aunt and cousin, and a sunset over the water.

Finally, I caught a flight early the next morning, and flew home across the county, seeing some ice on a Great Lake, and then that was that!

My new sweater

I am making a warm, warm sweater.

A cardigan, with a Noro, super-colourful yoke, and a purple, somewhat lacy body.

I am not sure of much else. I think I can do what I want with just the purple for the body, but I am taking the precaution of making a sleeve, just to see how much yarn it will take. We might get green cuffs or something like that!

I will need slightly chilly, non-rainy days for wearing this.

Something finished

This is my second attempt at a shawl with this yarn. The pattern is from 1934, and is super-simple: Cast on a bunch of stitches and knit, decreasing one stitch every other row.

The original pattern has a dark brown (I think that's what colour "mole" is) and stripes in tangerine, jade green and white. I did the mole in blue-green gradient and the others all in the green-yellow gradient. Clearly I should have started with a darker colour in the yellows because I ran out just before the end. I used all five colours of the blue-green.

It's not as asymmetric as that picture makes it look.

And it wraps nicely around my neck, with the point warming my front.

Curses!

I have a draft post about the shawl I am knitting. It translates a vintage 1916 shawl pattern into modern terms, because I am so clever that I can do that. However, guess what, I am not that clever!

We start with the edging, very nice. I started with the needles the pattern suggested and found the fabric too floppy for me, so changed to smaller ones. As it turned out, I should have kept the bigger ones.

I used a gradient of blues and greens. So pretty!

I should have been more careful with the centre decreases. There was a lot of "It won't be visible from a galloping horse" going on here.

The killer, though, came last night. I was finding the pattern on Ravelry again (I can't even remember why now) and I noticed that there was another very similar pattern. Mine is the Three-pointed Shawl, with only the 1916 magazine picture and only my project. Another is the Three-point Shawl, exactly the same shawl pattern modernized for a book called Centenary Stitches. Someone else had knit this shawl, and when I looked at their notes, they were complaining about the endless garter stitch. Well, I had endless stocking stitch. My directions say, after the pretty border, "knit plain," and clearly my interpretation of those words was... wrong. 

As we all know, garter stitch makes more rows to the inch, you can make a square/diamond by increasing and decreasing in garter, and the same stitches in stocking stitch make a much pointier shape. Well, I have got a 4-pointed shawl instead of a 3-pointed shawl.

Curses, blast and dang! I have to rip it. I must.

And the thing is, I am not sure I want to redo this particular shawl. I would have to rip out the central stocking stitch part, for sure. But then, I could redo the border as well, with all those dodgy centre decreases. Indeed, I could go right back to the beginning and do the whole thing on larger needles for more drape.

A learning experience for sure. Golly.

Edited to add:

Things being worn

I wear knitted things all the time in the winter. I have several hats in rotation as well as scarves and cowls.

But it's always a thrill when my offspring pick out a new handknit to wear. Elaine wears this hat a lot, and today when we were going out for a chilly walk she grabbed this lovely scarf. Yay...

I don't think I ever blogged the finished scarf! It looks like this when spread on a hedge instead of scrunched up around a neck: