Category: adventures

happy yarn

It’s a grey, oppressively humid day out today for the first day of school. I had a back-to-school anxiety dream where I hadn’t attended a class and didn’t take the final, but it was the only remaining credit I needed to graduate! I haven’t been in school for awhile now, so that wasn’t very pleasant.

Luckily I have this pretty yarn on my desk to cheer things up.

It’s 85% polwarth wool, 15% silk from woolgatherings – and as I was finishing it up, I ordered more fibre! This roving came space-dyed, but I decided to separate out the colours to spin as a single gradient. Then I chain-plied, because I love chain plying! This yarn goes from light pink through peachy pink, fuchsia, purple, navy, and ends up at an ocean-off-the-coast-of-Hawaii turquoise.

It’s a nice big skein, 315 yards of maybe sport weight. I’m thinking of adding a shop page to the website here, where I can put up a few skeins of handspun for sale. I’ll never be a production spinner, but I would love to see some of this yarn I’ve been making go to loving homes!

Now I’m off to the mall (at least it’s indoors) because I have a wedding to go to this weekend, and the dress I thought I’d wear isn’t really doing it for me. Plus I need a new bag. Maybe shoes. It’s a good excuse, right?

September 2, 2014
Five Days of Vancouver

My pattern sale ends tonight! Stock up for sweater and gift season, new patterns are coming soon!

Lots of photos ahead! A quick recap of our trip to Vancouver.

Day 0 (travel day): arrived exhausted in the evening and had Ramen Jinya near the hotel – yum!

Day 1: Quick breakfast at the coffee shop by the hotel, beautiful boat ride with Dale’s aunt and uncle around the harbour and False Creek, homemade pizza dinner at their house with their gorgeous dogs, fireworks over English Bay with a bazillion other people.

Day 2: Waffles at Le Petit Belge, walk across the Cambie bridge, bus out to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Cab to Granville Island where we had some lunch at Tony’s Fish and Oyster and wandered around. Dinner was sushi with a friend who’s moved out to Vancouver, it was lovely to catch up.

Day 3: breakfast at Finch’s Tea and Coffee (super delicious), bus to Stanley Park for a trip to the Aquarium, then a walk around a bit of the park. We had some takeout from the H-Mart in our hotel room for lunch, and went out to Cactus Club in Yaletown for dinner.

Day 4: Breakfast at Gutenberg’s cafe by the library, a loooong bus/travel saga (there was an accident on the bridge, so we had to bus back down and take the SeaBus instead) to Grouse Mountain. We had some lunch at the cafe and admired the view. Dinner of delicious takeout sushi from Tsuki sushi bar.

Day 5: Yummy breakfast at Nosherie then the Vancouver Art Gallery, which was awesome! There was a Douglas Coupland exhibit and Lost in the Memory Palace, which I had actually seen part of before, in Edinburgh. Lunch was at Meat&Bread (a grilled cheese and a porchetta sandwich), then we walked through Gastown and got Japadog for dinner.

Very last outing of the trip was a walk to fancy bakery Thierry for macarons, a croissant, and tea. Then over to English Bay for another fireworks display! It was a lovely end to a great trip.

August 8, 2014
It’s My Birthday Sale!

I’m back from my vacation to Vancouver – it was awesome. Gorgeous views, yummy food.

Now it’s my birthday, and that means it’s time for a birthday pattern sale! It’s a big one this year – I’m turning 30.

So 30% off all individual, self-published patterns in my Ravelry shop.

I know August is still sultry and slow for most of us, but it’s the perfect time to pick up a new project for the fall ;)

Extra long sale for a big birthday: sale ends Friday, August 8, 11:59 EDT. New purchases only.

Here’s a few photos from Vancouver!

August 1, 2014