Close to my Heart

WIP Wednesday

How could I have forgotten how fun and addictive lace knitting is?  I'm having such a good time knitting Sivia Harding's Harbour Lights Shawl that I cannot put it down.  Here's what it looked like last night, when I finally did put it away at bedtime:

This shawl was designed for the Victoria Fibre Festival in 2008, to which I was privileged to attend and meet the most talented designer.  I even saw the original Harbour Lights modeled by Sivia.  It kind of brings back memories of the festival just knitting it.

Coordination

During the early hours of this morning, we experienced a thunder and lightening storm like nothing else we have ever experienced living in this part of the country.  The thunder crashes were so loud and seemed so close, that the house and bed literally shook.  At least one cat went under the bed and did not emerge until I got up this morning, not even when Joe awoke earlier for work.  It also hailed a bit as well, and I immediately began to worry about my plants, because I really want this to be the year that we successfully grow our own veggies.  I later was relieved to see that all was well, phew!

Prior to the thunder storm, it was a beautiful summer weekend.  Saturday morning we were up and out of the house by 7 AM, went out for breakfast, then drove to Courtenay for the Farmer's Market.  I've been a bit disappointed at the lack of actual fresh produce at our own market this summer so decided to try the one in our neigbour town.  Much better, we scored lots of great stuff.  On the way back home, we stopped at a couple garage sales, but found mostly junk.  Joe however spotted this fun handmade wooden duck (for a whole 50 cents!) that now flies in our patio area.

I just noticed that the storm broke one of the strings attached to his wing, but nothing that a little surgery can't fix.

I was able to get in a bit of patio knitting this weekend, always a relaxing treat.  As I looked down at my new boxy bag from ZigZag Stitches, I had a thought:

Would it be reasonable to always coordinate the colours of one's knitting bag with the item being knitted?  Probably not (even for the bag ho that I am!) and I honestly did not realize how coordinated my current sock WIP was to my new bag when I threw it in there the other day.  Really!

A couple FOs

I finished up a couple projects on Canada Day.  I sewed the buttons on this little baby sweater:

And I cast off my lacy rib sock #2 to complete the pair:

And now I gotta run and get ready for work. You can find more info on my Ravelry project page if you are interested.

July 1

First off, Happy to my fellow Canadians. To me the country I love is all about Diversity.  I love that my country has people of many cultures, religions, and lifestyles, a Vertical Mosaic as I learned many years ago in Sociology class, and this is something that I reflect upon every July 1.

We have had a low key day today.  We did a few errands and had a quiet barbecue at home.  Often I attend our local Canada Day Celebrations, however this year I enjoyed staying closer to home and spending time with my husband.

Remember the attempt at growing veggies I showed you a few posts back?  Well, so far so good:

With sunny warm temps in the forecast for the next little while, I'm cautiously optimisitc we will be enjoying fresh veggies in a few weeks.  Fingers crossed......

Mmmmmalabrigo

I currently have three different projects on the needles and hook with yummy malabrigo yarn.  

The first was started on quite some time ago, I fell in love with the pattern immediately upon purchase of the Spring 2009 Interweave Crochet, and bought the yarn to make it the very same day.  Well let's just say the crocheting of this pattern isn't too exciting, single crochet with lace weight using a 2.0 mm hook does not go very quickly at all, and is oh so very boring.  Here's where it sits today, having not been worked on for a good month or so:

 

This is the bottom ribbing, and needs to be about 20 inches, so as you can see, I have a good ways to go still.  I'm honestly not sure if I am going to finish this project.  The top part will be fun to work, however there is still the other side of the vest that needs ribbing too!

Fortunately, my other Malabrigo patterns are much more enjoyable.  First, the Lacy Vines Wrap, also knit in lace weight, is a very simple and easy to memorize lace pattern:

And finally, Sivia Harding's Harbour LIghts Shawl, knit in Malabrigo Sock in the Natural Colourway. 

Already I'm intrigued by the construction of this shawl, Sivia is such an amazing and talented designer than I am privileged to have met a couple times.  This shawl calls for beads, however I've left them out, partly because I didn't feel like fiddling and partkly because I joined the Fun Knits KAL at the last minute and had no idea where I would find beads in this town and wanted to get going on it.  I think I will have to try a beaded project soon though!