Its March already?!

Once a month blogging... so much for my plan to start blogging more frequently this year!

This past weekend Darcy and I headed out to Abbotsford for our now annual visit to FibresWest, a two-day event for knitters, weavers, and other fibre artists.  There were more exhibitors this year compared to last year, but since many of them were selling roving of various types**, I was able to be very reserved with my purchases.  SO reserved, in fact, that this was all I bought:

Two 900-yard cones of Harrisville Shetland 4-ply yarn.  I got this stuff on a great deal because as I was looking at one cone, I noticed that it had a small hole in it - the kind it gets from being stabbed by a pointy box-opener.  I showed it to the stall owner, and after determining that it only went through about half the cone, she agreed to sell it to me for half price - which meant I was able to buy 1800 yards of wool for only $36 - YAY!  (I have such a weakness for yarn on cones... I think I really need to get my hands on a knitting machine soon!).  I have yet to decide if I'll knit this all single strand (after spit joining together all the pieces of that one cone, of course!) or if I'll hold it double.  There are some very pretty 4-ply weight jumpers out there, and it seems about the right weight of a sweater to get me through Vancouver's chilly spring.

Not a lot else going on here these days.  I made my favourite veggie lasagna for dinner yesterday, and had every intention of photographing the process to post it here... but this is the only photo I got: 

baked eggplant and a mix of sauteed mushrooms and onions, each of which become their own layer in the lasagna pan.  I use those oven-ready noodles now, which makes life so much easier (I always remember my mom making lasagna with boiled noodles, struggling to keep the noodles from breaking, while also not burning herself!), but I can't help but think that the extra tomato sauce they require ends up overpowering the whole dish.  Yes, lasagna is supposed to be tomato-y, but I think it ends up covering up the veggie flavours (and there's the fact that I don't really love tomatos or their sauce).  Maybe next time I'll try using the fresh pasta sheets instead.  (For my UK friends, I don't make lasagna with white sauce... I think that's a British thing, because I'd never seen that till I moved to Newcastle!).

I think I'm on a bit of a food thing this week.  After watching my co-worker crochet a very pretty silk baby hat, I decided it was time I did a little more crocheting.  And what did I decide to make?  Food!  

A sandwich...

Some chicken dinner...

And now I'm on to a side salad.  Except I think I'm a little over-zealous with my crocheting - after spending Saturday and Sunday evenings working on it, I woke up yesterday with aching hands and forearms!  I think today I will have to look up how to do pre- and post-knitting/crocheting exercises, to try and keep my arm muscles from becoming relaxed...  when I was a kid I used to get a "Nintendo-controller claw" from playing too many video games - now its crochet claw!  :)


**For those not in the know, roving is unspun fibre that has yet to be spun into yarn.  I am officially forbidden to bring home a spinning wheel, so all that fibre remains off-limits for me!  :)


PS: I just downloaded the Blogger Mobile App... maybe that will help me to start posting more often!

Amelia and Harrison's Wedding

Back from holidays now, but before I share pics from our trip, I thought I'd jump back even more weeks to share some pics from our summer adventures.

A few posts back, I shared pics of the gifts I'd made my friend for her wedding shower.  I was actually in Amelia's wedding, so in mid-August I headed up to Vernon, BC to help her celebrate the big day (and the several days of events that came before the big day!)

Despite the somewhat sketchy summer weather Vernon (and most of the province!) had been having this year, the weather gods made sure we had plenty of sunshine for the wedding.  So of course we had to hit the beach at least once...

(here's Amelia and Harrison, the happy couple to be)

 

(I'm hiding from the sun, in case you're wondering - I burn really easily, and I didn't want to get a sunburn 2 days before the wedding!)

Amelia grew up in Vernon, but now lives in Toronto.  Since so many of us had to travel to the wedding, her Vernon friends were kind enough to host a wedding shower for her. 

In this shot, Amelia's delightful outfit was thanks to one of the shower games.  After the present opening, we added this lovely headdress to her ensemble.  :)

Later, the post-shower bachelorette party required yet another costume change... and since we didn't want Amelia to get into too much trouble, we made sure that Harrison was present to help supervise! :)

Bonnie, one of the other bridesmaids, broke her leg about 2 months before the wedding.  Unfortunately, she wasn't able to have it removed in time, so we had to make the best of it.

Sorry, Harrison.  Getting married means you can no longer watch the disturbingly inappropriate (and almost offensive!) dancing silhouette girl videos they were showing at the club.  ;)

The night before the wedding, we had a BBQ at another local beach

And then is was the big day!

I love the father-daughter dance - and Amelia's dad is such a great dancer!  That's his band playing too - he's also a great musician.  

 

Amelia's wedding was amazing, and we all had such a great time.  And just to prove how fun it was, we even had the cops come by and close down the dance-floor due to the city's noise restrictions - apparently you could hear the band all the way downtown!  :)

Block(ing) Party

For the last couple of months, Darcy and I have been knitting Jared Flood's Guernsey Wrap, as part of a Ravelry Knit-along.  We finished them this past week, so of course it was time to block them out.  Blocking is never a great one-person job, so we decided to make a deal: the use 46 square feet of my real estate and (very few) blocking mats in exchange for Darcy's extra mats, blocking wires, t-pins, and lessons on how to block 'properly' (there is no one way to do this...).  Overall, I think I got the better end of the deal, especially since I'm pretty much incapable of crawling around on the floor just now!!

Aren't they pretty all blocked out on the floor like that?  :)  My GW is the green one in the front here.- knit with 2 strands of Rowanspun 4-ply that I bought ages ago for about £1 a (25g) skein.  I have 13 skeins of it, and this used up just over 7 skeins - I'll have to be creative to find a use for the rest of it!  Using the 4-ply made this a mini-GW - after blocking, its about 69" x 16.5" (175 x 44cm).

This blue one is Darcy's GW - she knit it in Cascade 220, so its much closer to the intended size of the wrap - that's why it got its own stretch of blocking mats off in the corner (this one is 84" x 19")  The yarn blocks out so well, and the texture of the fabric is just amazing!   The little purple guy is Darcy's creation as well - but you'll have to watch her blog if you want more info about him!  :)

Nashville

Our friends Elizabeth and Brian got married in Tennessee on the weekend, so Mike and I headed down to help them celebrate.

The wedding was beautiful - the ceremony was held at a little church in their hometown, followed by a reception at Elizabeth's family home, Bloomfield Farm. I was not having a great photo day (most of them are rubbish!), but I did manage to get this one good photo of the bride, looking as beautiful as ever!

On Sunday, we went to a lovely brunch hosted by Elizabeth's relatives, and then we spent a few hours wandering around Nashville before flying home.

An old train station near the river

The Bat(man) building

Printer's Alley (not the most tasteful of places to be in the evening, so I'm told...)

The Ryman Auditorium - the original home of the Grand Old Opry, from the 1920's until the mid-70s. Its also the Opry's current home - Opryland was flooded in May, so they've relocated while the necessary renovations are undertaken.

This is the sign marking the back door of the 'World Famous' Tootsie's Orchid Lounge - a bar in which all of the big Country Western singers made their start. (forgive me if I get some of this wrong - my knowledge of Country music is very limited!)

Fountains outside City Hall. They were hosting a huge outdoor yoga session in the square outside the courthouse - not something we'd expected to see in Nashville! :) (we caught one person texting as they did their yoga moves - is that allowed?!)

A steamboat on the wall of Hard Rock Cafe

Some of the neon signs for the honky-tonk bars and restaurants in the 'District'. This place must be wild on a Saturday night! :)

All of the bars had live bands playing, even though it was Sunday afternoon (I imagine they have live music almost all the time really!). We stopped in at this place to have a beer and take in the atmosphere.

It was a very fun trip, despite being a little short - Next time we'll be sure to stay long enough to have some southern BBQ for dinner!

Claudia's visit to Vancouver

Claudia came to visit last week, so of course we spent the whole time gallivanting around the city and enabling Claudia to single-handedly improve the local economy. :) But this time, we were determined to get in a little sight-seeing as well! :)

We started the week with a visit to Fort Langley, the HBC fur trading settlement that led to the creation of the colony of British Columbia.The fort has been rebuilt to resemble its original form, and there are lots of costumed people running around to give you demonstrations in things like blacksmithing, barrel making, and how to write with a nib pen that needs to be dipped in ink after every other word. :)

One of the buildings is made up to be the old trading room - its full of HBC point blankets, beaver hats, and animal skins of various kinds.

Frobisher was getting on well with one of the bears, until things suddenly turned ugly...

Good thing Wilma was there to help out! :)

Other highlights of the week were a trip to Granville Island,

a ride on the False Creek Ferries,

a visit to Michaels where Wilma made a new friend,

a trip to the Aquarium,

I call this guy the 'Darwin Fish' - gotta love a fish with legs! :)

Sightseeing in Stanley Park,

(that's the Lions Gate Bridge in the background. See all those clouds behind it? That's why I won't live on the North Shore anymore... the weather is much nicer when you move away from the mountains!) :)

and a morning picnic at Dundrave Beach in West Vancouver.

Claudia was well impressed with this German Friendship Globe - its a solid stone globe that weighs 2.5 tonnes, and floats on water. When left untouched, it sits on the same axis as the real globe! :)

Oh, and we musn't forget about all the yummy food! :)

Rice Crispie squares at Granville Island

Home-made Cinnamon Buns (Wilma tried to sneak away with half of them!)

Yummy desserts from Tomato Cafe

Chips from a chippy in Deep Cove

(here's what they looked like afterwards - how these two put away so much food is beyond me!)

Fish and Chips from Go Fish at Granville Island (some of the best fish and chips I've ever had!)

And finally, scones and blueberry tarts for breakfast on Claudia's final morning in town (bonus points for anyone who can tell me what the mug says!)

I took Claudia to the airport on Friday morning, and on Friday night Mike and I went back to the airport to fly off to Nashville for the weekend... Photos from that trip will be up soon. For now, I need to go finish recuperating from our busy week! :)