I really don’t know clouds at all

 

We ferried over to Salt Spring to visit a friend this last weekend. The island is small with a couple windy roads that take you through the moss covered forests to the bays and inlet villages.  The island is cultivated in a way that reminds me of the British countryside with the same idyllic farm life and prolific lichen but with an intense creative side. The island is full of artists of all kinds and it appears that whatever a Salt Springer chooses to do, they do with beauty in mind.

Ultimately it is an ideal mini-holiday for someone with my interests: Good food, inspiring art, a killer back massage, and the best damn coffee I have ever had.  There is no sacrificing for the country life on Salt Spring – expect perhaps the bright lights and hussle and bussle of the city.  To take it to the next level I bought a Joni Mitchell CD for the car. Awww yissss.

To top it off  my friend has a wood burning fireplace to knit by, complete with two extremely fluffy Persian cats. Knit in paradise much?  While shopping in Ganges I stopped at Elderberry Yarns and picked up all the things I had been looking for and didn’t find anywhere else.  It’s like they were all waiting for me in an adorable sea side knitting shop. I found tiny and cheap wooden buttons and even some cape clasps. The luck continued when my friend volunteered to model some of my finished projects.

I’ve knitted two Claire’s Capelets by Shelly Wescott so far but they are so fun to make I know there will be a third. Especially now that I have cape clasps.  If you love Outlander you may have noticed this capelet on Claire as she runs around the Scottish countryside. Knitters watching the show certainly did and I am surprised there are only 27 projects currently listed on Ravelry for Shelly’s pattern as it is a perfect dupe for the TV version.  My next Shelly Westcott pattern will be the Moto Vest.

Also pictured are the Vancouver Fog gloves I adore knitting. These blue ones are the shorter version of the red pair I knitted in the fall.

Thanks for a beautiful weekend in your beautiful company my friend!

The peacoat is 50%, and I may be getting myself into some trouble.

Mrs. S’s baby gift is well on its way. I love the look of seed stitch, and tweed, and seed stitch mixed with tweed. The repetitive stitch pattern is also quite meditative. It’s like rosary beads, drums, and heart beats. I’m really enjoying the project. It’s perfect for watching movies, and hanging out on the couch.

I would probably be further along but I was distracted by other projects I wanted to do. My friend is bringing her baby to stay with us for a visit. I’m very excited. Besides rectifying the danger zone our apartment becomes when someone brings a baby over, I also wanted to make them feel at home. I now have drawer locks, and outlet covers, and everything sharp is now located much higher. We’ll be setting up a crib so I decided to make a mobile, and (…I hesitate to announce my intentions here because sewing is involved, and I have a love-hate relationship with the sewing machine. Actually, it’s more like I just hate that machine but forget the intensity when I decide I have a project I want to do, then rediscover my loathing anew each time) a quilt. I’ll be attempting a basic triangle pattern quilt and lining it with doubled flannel. I’m nervous though. Very nervous.

A knitting pattern is like computer code: a recipe of letters, numbers, symbols, and abbreviations, with numbered rows that prompt action and give you a desired result. A sewing machine may look like a precision tool, but in my opinion the tension gauge dial makes it unreliable and mysterious. You have to set the buttons and weave thread in between machine parts, cranks and wheels, while using a gas pedal and simultaneously controlling the action with your hands. I sense it may be the closest thing to trying to make love to a woman. So many variables. I have respect for anyone who sews.

I am creating the mobile from stuffed owl puffs (another free pattern from ravelry.com). If you know me, you know that stuffed animals and I have clashed. More than clashed. I’ve been known to go on rants about how stuffed animals are a waste of space, and the earth’s resources. Not only are they huge clutter contributors that serve absolutely no purpose, but they are sprayed with chemicals like fire retardants, and made from synthetic fibers dyed with formaldehyde, and that is all I can think about when I see babies cuddling that stuff. I can admit that I have some toxin phobias that arbitrarily present themselves and stuffed animals happen to be at the top of the list. My mind equates stuffed animals to rolling in lead paint, or spending long periods of time in dollar stores breathing in the cheap plastic fumes. So, yeah, I’m a little crazy, like a “germaphobe”, but with chemicals. All this just to point out the irony that I made 6 stuffed owls, and once again proved myself a hypocrite – which I should be used to by now, as hypocrisy never seems to be through with me.

(as a side note about production and toxins, one of my favorite videos on the subject can be found here: the Story of Stuff).

Here are the little guys below. In their defense, most of the yarn was worsted organic cotton, and they won’t be doing much snuggling when I hang them from the ceiling. I need to decide what to do with the strings, and what the top of the mobile may need, but I wanted to show you what I was up to.

*many thanks to the prop holder

Wish me luck with the Singer!