A Breath of Fresh Air

Yes! I’ve been knitting! Yes! I’vc been seen at a couple of knitting get togethers at The Rooms! I have been getting to know my new knitting community and, I tell ya, it’s awesome.

Holy crap! Is anyone else with two or more children under five (or under twenty for that matter) finding it busy or is it just me? I have loads to share but little time to type. However, I had to write a quick post about something wonderful that happened in St. John’s in April.

A NEW LYS opened! It is called A Good Yarn (the perfect name here on so many levels as a ‘yarn’ here is to have a chat/tell a story as well as its fibre related associations) and is owned by Jenny (and her puppies Bessie and Franklin). It is gorgeous, has lovely, lovely, LOVELY, yarn (can you tell I’m excited?) and is my new favourite place to hang out. I don’t get to drop by often enough so I’m telling all of you so that you too can drop by. I will warn you though. Jenny is a yarn enabler of the worst kind. In the nicest possible way ;).

Here is the store’s Ravelry link as I cannot get the store’s webpage to open for some reason. I forgot my camera (again – argh) when I dropped by yesterday but if you check out Daniel’s post here, you will see a great collage of opening day. Naturally (for me), I was two weeks behind the ball knowing that A Good Yarn had opened. The moon was in the right position and the stars aligned the very next day after I found out (from the Blue Sky Alpacas website no less) for me to stop into the shop sans children though.

So, the next time you are in the area, stop in!

Fetching Fever

It is so nice to be able to print out a lovely pattern,

To find such a tantalising selection of yarns from your LYS,

To start knitting said project from your most recent SEX,

And to have it work out so well.

This is what I was knitting up over the Labour Day weekend. Always a couple of years behind the trends, I too have succumbed to Fetching fever.

This is a good thing because, the thing is, here is my current state of mind. On Tuesday when DH came home, I was a little stressed. He gave me a nice long break by taking Iain pretty much from the time he got home, including putting Iain to bed. He says,

“Are you mad at me?” and I replied,

“No, I’m frustrated but not at you. I just don’t feel like I accomplished anything today.”

This said the day after our long weekend camping trip, when: I’d washing and line dried four loads of laundry; folded all that laundry and put it in a basket to be put upstairs and put away; made supper from scratch; walked into town to go to the bank, post office, and grocery store; called and made a vet appointment for Para; had a short play date with a friend and her little boy; gotten recommendations for a local optometrist and seamstress from a neighbour; and called our oil provider to update our billing information. Not to mention time and effort involved in caring for a 14 month (today!) old. Yet, I still ended the day feeling like I hadn’t accomplished anything. I think, perhaps, my standards are a little high.

End of August SEX

Yep, that title should get me a few extra hits on Google. It’s probably a good thing I moderate my comments...

This past Friday, Iain and I had some errands to do in New Minas. Naturally, we included a trip to my LYS (Gaspereau Valley Fibres) for some SEX (see this post for a description of what SEX means on a knitting blog. I’ll wait. Back yet?). Each time I visit the shop, I mean to take pictures of the interior to show you all. This time was no exception but, unfortunately, Iain has finally hit the age where sitting in his stroller in a knitting store just isn’t good enough and letting him run loose is a little more than my pocketbook can handle. Therefore, I had to try and be quick (and if that isn’t frustrating in a knitting shop, I don’t know what is).

One really, really nice thing about my LYS is that it is on a farm complete with chickens, sheep (of course!), and a llama.

Iain really enjoyed the animals. He was particularly taken with the chickens. They seemed to be just as interested in the little human as he was in them.

As for the stash, well, I mentioned that it was a little difficult to shop with Iain. Therefore, I ‘only’ bought six balls of ‘old faithful’ (Mission Falls wool), which I love and in pretty spiffy colours if I do say so myself. I'll show you a picture tomorrow (I have to save something interesting for the rest of this week!). I also walked away with a skein of Blue Sky Alpaca’s organic cotton (the same yarn as called for in the pattern for my Nursing Sweater) to make a couple of things for a friend’s new baby due at the end of the month.

A Trip to Kejimikujik National Park

Note: This blog post was brought to you today through the friendly assistance of DH who arrived home just in time take Iain away from his mother for a much needed, very much required, necessary, and crucial break (did I mention that I really, really needed a break?!?).

Warning: She’s a pretty picture heavy post today. You might want to grab your coffee/hot chocolate, knitting and sit down for a read.

Our trip to Kejimikujik was, in a word, wonderful. The weather held out the whole time we were there, only breaking after our last hike while we were feeding Iain in the hiking parking lot (safely ensconced in the van).

We stayed for two nights at the Jeremey’s Bay campground (site #85 – we highly recommend it) where our site backed into the forest and the campsites are nicely spaced so that they felt very private.

Iain has improved his walking ability on unsteady ground rapidly.

His favourite game over the weekend was running from the campsite into the road. Go Iain! Never mind your mother’s heart! Luckily, our campsite was nice, the ‘driveway’ deep and it took him awhile to run to the road. At least it took him long enough for one of us to catch him in time.

We had all kinds of ‘wildlife’ visit the campsite. Frogs, birds and squirrels were the most popular. Not bad considering we had our black and white guard dog who usually scares off wee critters. The animals living close to the campsite are used to people it appears.

We went on two hikes with Iain on DH’s back in the carrier.

The first hike, on Sunday, was to Peter’s Point and Snake Lake.

We did both loops of the trail – about 5 KM we estimate. Peter’s Point was lovely but there were already a couple of families swimming there so we visited the windy side of the point which was a wee bit too cool for swimming or loitering long.

On Monday, we hiked along the Mersey River, a very pretty little river.

Despite the fact that most campers pulled out of the campground that morning and that the parking lot we parked in was empty, we did meet other hikers and cyclists (it’s a mixed use trail). I don’t think I’d like to do that trail when it’s busy as, despite the signs saying ‘cyclists yield to hikers’, us hikers were definitely yielding to the cyclists.

It really was a great weekend and our first to Keji. We are now talking about trying to get out there for a couple of other day trips in the fall. And, there were really too many great pictures to not have a picture heavy blog post today!

And, yes, there was knitting over the weekend. I was knitting up some loot from my SEX on Friday. Interested?

A Giggle

Elizabeth mentioned that she found my last post ‘sad sad’. , I thought I’d follow it up with something that gave me a giggle this morning.

I’m starting to realise who Iain is turning out to be most like…



…She is black and white with four legs…

And, just so you aren't worried that I'm too sad, Iain and I are off to New Minas today to pick up some dog food. We are also going to keep driving right onto Gaspeareau Valley Fibres for some SEX (that’s a Stash Enhancement Expedition for those of you not in the know. I realise that my in-laws occasionally read this blog…). I have a list. Wish us luck!

Knit Candy

When one cannot blog about knitting accomplishments, one should blog about knitting candy. That’s my new mantra. Too bad I can only afford it for one post…

As previously mentioned, on Friday, September 28th, Mudder, Iain and I headed off to my new LYS (Gaspereau Valley Fibres). Sigh. What a wonderful place it is. It is truly a little piece of fibre heaven. The yarn shop is located on a farm so you get to enjoy animals (sheep, an alpaca, chickens, the ‘greeter’ dog…) on your walk inside. As before, the environment is comfortable and cosy and the owner just lovely. The selection of Fleece Artist and other hand painted and organic fibres is incredible. Yes, I found it hard to leave again.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. My Mudder, the knitter, is allergic to wool. Yes, you read that right. Allergic. To. Wool. She’s dedicated though. Mudder is a confirmed sock knitter and Patons' Kroy is her yarn of choice. Often, she has to take an allergy pill to do so. Neither of us considered the fact that we were walking into a natural fibre store and what that might do to her allergies. Unfortunately, it meant that she could only fondle one of the beautiful carved wooden tables for sale at the wool shop. To steel herself against illicit wool fondling and the eventual assault on her eyes and nose just by breathing in the lanolin enhanced air, she held Iain for me so that I could fondle to my heart’s content. Well, she held Iain and acted as a Newfoundland and Labrador tourist bureau representative for two other yarn shoppers visiting from Ontario. They haven’t been to Newfoundland and Labrador. Yet.

My main reason for heading down to Gaspereau Valley Fibres was to purchase yarn for the Queen of Hearts nursing sweater found in my Natural Knits for Babies and Moms book by Louisa Harding. Without going into too much personal detail, let’s just say I’ve recently received some good medical news and, whereas there may have been some question about me being able to continue nursing, some of those concerns have been alleviated. Knitting this nursing sweater is my treat for me on receipt of the good news. Gaspereau Valley Fibres has a lovely selection of Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton which is called for in the sweater. The natural colours are gorgeous. I, however, wanted a shade (Sage) that was only available in 3 or 4 skeins (I need seven) so I’m in wait for an upcoming order. To bide my time, the following fell into my yarn deprived little hands:

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK for a seasonal knit from Itty Bitty Hats for Iain.

I’m sure you can guess what season I’m talking about.


And these little delicious yarn cakes were wound for me from skeins at the store (I’m still working on a swift and ball winder for upcoming birthday and Christmas gifts - hint, hint to certain somebody’s who may be reading. Yes, I can admit it. I am shameless) are a real find.


This is work by the Fleece Artist. On sale. On sale because sometimes the Fleece Artist cleans out her closet and the stores closest to her (in other words, those in Nova Scotia who carry her fibre) sometimes receive ‘one off’ beauties like these. Can you imagine? I’ve moved to a place where I have access to the Fleece Artist’s closet! Have I mentioned recently that I’ve moved to a knitter’s equivalent of heaven on Earth? Is anybody interested in squatter’s rights in my basement?

This colourway is unique and won’t be found again. I might be so inspired as to come up with my own name for it. As these are a one shot deal kind of thing, they are not labelled. Each cake is comprised of a 200 metre, Fleece Artist DK weight 90% merino, 10% cashmere kind of lovely.

Swoon.

I’m intending on knitting a chevron patterned sweater from the Natural Knits book for Iain out of the yarn.

In other news, I have another FO…!