My brother (the non-coffee drinker and photographer) and his sense of humour.

Went to hear Serena Ryder last night at the Duncan Garage (check our her music on myspace here). Wow what a friggin voice that woman has! I love her cover of Good Morning Starshine, but ALL her songs are fabulous. She opens her mouth and fills the room with amazing sound! She has a great range and such control over every note. Even though her band is new they all looked in sync and like they were having a grand time.

The Duncan Garage is this eclectic place run by Long John (he introduced himself once we said we were newbies), located on the top of a heritage building in 'downtown' Duncan. There is no alcohol (ok, so we all commented that we did wish there was beer at least), but coffee, tea and homemade goodies. It doesn't hold too many people which makes it cozy.

And off to a play in Chemainus tomorrow night. It is so much fun getting into the local scene, I really feel a part of this great community.

Tea cozy and sunshine

Four years ago I started knitting a sweater for a friend of mine. She and I travelled across Canada one summer when she moved back from Ontario to Victoria. We had a good time, were silly, drank lots of wine, camped and saw some amazing country. And agreed that I would knit a sweater for her and she would make me a dress. She bought the wool, I bought the material. Well. I decided for some silly reason to make up a pattern as I went a long. A year and a half the sweater was finished (while the dress was done in 4 months) and it was horrible. Awful. Big, ugly, bulky. I bought her a sweater and we called it even.


I didn't pick up knitting needles for at least a year after that!

But I found the awful sweater the other day and thought I should felt it up. Here it is. I threw it in the washing machine and washed it about 4 times on the hot and cold cycle. And then today I was inspired to turn Ugly Sweater into Funky Tea Cozy. Not bad eh? It is now a gift for that friend, and I can't wait to give it to her.

The cats seem to love the tea cozy too.

The dogs were actually feeling frisky enough in the sun to pull out the toys again.Here are the crocus in the lawn.

And some views from Maple Mountain taken in the sun yesterday. This is the beautiful place I live! I am so lucky! The Honey and I went up for a hike on the mountain with the dogs and were searching for the perfect picture for the logo of our new forestry company. We got a great shot too.

Secret pal swap

Check it out! She got my yarn!
http://zarzuelaknitsandcrochets.com/blog/?p=184

I have no idea about secret pal etiquette- am I allowed to share who she is? I am just very excited since I have never participated in a secret pal swap before.

For guidance on hot pour dyeing see where I got the idea from at Yo Mama Knits:
http://www.yomamaknits.com/?p=105

Glorious sun is out! After dismal days in November and December (dismal even by coastal standards) we are back into a more typical pattern of rainy days interspersed by warmer sunny days.

Crocus are coming up in the garden. And to my surprise, since this is a new house for us, also in the front and back yard! How terrific! I have always wanted a spring lawn full of flowers. In fact, the front is still gravel from the house being built so it is amazing these hardy little bulbs are poking through everywhere. I promise pictures when they bloom.

On the knitting front, still working on my falling leaves sock. I plan to dye up a new batch this weekend for secret pal skein # 2 so I promise more pictures of fibre.

Progress on new year's projects

The Lincoln fibre is spinning up lovely. I am having a great time with it- trying to spin something lighter for my secret pal so she isn't stuck with 1 skein of unusable bulky weight. Nothing wrong with bulky weight, I just thought a lighter yarn might allow more flexibility in whatever she intends to use the yarn for.

The colours are very pretty and much more vibrant than my camera portrays. I am using my Honey's Olympus C-770. It has been a great camera for landscapes but is proving more difficult for taking pictures of my fibre. In particular it does not capture the blues and purple colours well at all. It makes them all a bright, nondescript electric blue, very unlike the colours I dye. I had a bit of a break through last week though and upped the redness in the picture, which brought out more of the true colours, but it is still frustrating.

My other current project are the falling leaves socks in Lorna's Laces sock yarn. Oh. my. goodness. Why did no one shake me and insist that I try REAL sock yarn? It is LOVELY! My previous socks have been using dk weight yarn, and there is no comparison (I am reformed! I AM!). This yarn was purchased as my post-defense treat, and I am having a great time knitting up "real" socks with "real" sock yarn.

But here's the problem, the cash flow is, well for the most part, nonexistent these days. Despite the enormous amount of work I have on my plate, as a consultant I have to wait for invoices to be paid, and in the mean time scrimp to get buy. I can't be spending $20 a pop on socks when I really need new underwear. Can I? Can I maybe knit underwear? Would that be as cool as socks? I would likely want to show them off all the time, which might label me as a tramp. Damn social niceties anyway!

Ok and the other thing I wanted to say about these socks is that this is my first time knitting on double pointed needles. I am thinking now I really am more of a circular needle kind of girl. These points just get in my way, and mostly I am glad I wear glasses so I don't have to worry about poking my eye out. Cause it could happen! The Honey and I were driving to Victoria (and I was knitting to relieve my stress at having to go to a meeting) when I had 2 incidents with the needles. The first one was just me worrying that if I were in an accident head on I might die from injuries caused by knitting needles penetrating my body. I don't worry about that with circulars! So I put away the sock and in doing so dropped one of my needles beside the seat. Because I am obsessive I had to retrieve the needle at the next stop light by opening the door so I could run my hand under the seat. As I opened the door the needle went clang onto the highway (I guess it fell right near the door), I whipped off my seatbelt, jumped out of the car, and scrambled around on the ground, finally pinching the darn thing between my nonexistent fingernails. All the while the Honey is yelling "What are you doing" and I am wondering what happens when the light turns green - do I abandon the needle- but then I couldn't knit after the meeting if I wanted to- but all was ok, needle was safe, I was back in the car and THEN the light turned green.

I have been looking for another project and I think that since spring is coming (I know it is January but on the island here, daffodils start poking up in a month) I may knit this crop sweater. I am considering knitting it up for Best Bud since she: 1) Hates February and this would be a nice treat, 2) is going to Mexico in 6 weeks and could sport this over a bathing suit, and 3) has a birthday (like me, actually only 4 days later) in April, so this could count as an early b-day present (if you think me cheap, please refer to the rant about money and underwear above). Although these are pretty fabulous too, and may have to be a fourth project/adventure.

I love how this whole fibre thing is actually adventure, and wow does it ever keep me sane (really it does)!

Wooly Woman does (and also survives) the holidays

Ok, first off, since this is supposed to contain knitting content, I must apologize. I took lots of pictures over the holidays, but forgot (yes forgot) to take pictures of Grandma's lacy scarf all finished, and the wedding socks. Hopefully the recipients of the gifts can send pictures later!!!

So instead is a picture of the newly dyed Lincoln fleece I will be spinning for my secret pal. She loves blue she tells me over email, so that is what I have dyed up for her.

I survived the holidays with a minor amount of drinking (a new craft friend said she is a Christmas alcoholic which describes things well- don't worry Mom I am laying off the sauce for awhile). One minor mishap cooking our first ever extended family dinner. I forgot (yes forgot) to cook the vegetarian dish, and half the guests were vegetarian. I remembered just as we were about to dish up! I had made perogies by hand for the veggies, so I can't believe I forgot to get them cooking! Fortunately they are easy to cook and were ready in no time. Here we are sitting down for a lovely meal. Everyone fit in the dining room, but barely! It was a hoot.

After Christmas we headed up to Ucluelet on the wet westcoast of the island to my cousin's wedding. She said "I do" amongst the roar of crashing waves on a beautiful gorgeous brilliant sunny afternoon. Her new husband sang her a love song on his ukuelele (sp?) and we had a roaring good party afterwards.

I love this picture of her hugging Grandma, so I will post it here. This is the couple I knit wedding socks for. I figured that the key to a good marriage is toasty feet while cuddling: on the top of a mountain (they climb), after surfing the waves in Ucluelet, apres-ski in the back country somewhere, and just in general while starting new loves in rainy Seattle. But no pictures! Sad!

Can you believe it is back to work tomorrow? SOOOOOO much work to do in the new year. The Honey made a New Year's list today, and #1 is Have More Fun. I came across this while talking to the Best Bud on the phone, complaining about back to work. We agreed that he has the right attitude, and since her husband is the same, are we not lucky to have loved ones to remind us of this? Happy New Year!

Rebel PhD does (and survives) Grad School

My holidays started with a trip to school to hand in the final version of my dissertation to Grad Studies. We were on our way to the Honey's parents for pre-Christmas frivolity, with a quick side trip to wind up 4 years of (painful, frustrating, agonizing) school, and expected no further problems from school. Wrong. They (THE UNIVERSITY) had to have the last word. Without going in to a long rant, doing a PhD has been a particularly trying process, with me somehow taking several unintentional wrong turns, never seeming to be able to follow the required protocol. So it should not have been a surprise that there was one final finger wagging to be had. Apparently, says Dr. Higher Up, I did not complete my final chapter as per "their" standards. They decided to let it go, seeing as how they still have a few "rebels" like myself in the system.

Hold on- Rebel? Is this an official addendum to my degree? Am I now a Rebel PhD? Wow, lucky me, I must be extra special to be granted such status.

Does it not make you wonder:
1) How they are planning on flushing the remaining rebels from the university system (since this appears to be their goal)?
2) Why conformity suddenly became a goal of the academic system which prides itself on innovation, creativity and leadership?
3) And most importantly (and yes most inflammatory and contentious) why is it that obtaining a graduate degree continues to be a process of degradation to the student who is constantly reminded that they are inferior to the more senior academics by a series of tasks, tests, and examinations which they will not pass if they do not show the "appropriate" degree of humility?

Cynical? Yes, so I have been told. Par for the course I retort. My experience in the past 4 years had a hand in shaping the cynic I am today. Pat on the back everyone.

I was going to include holiday news too, but I think now it should be seperate from my rantings. It was my choice to do a PhD, I survived, time to move on. As one of my cousin's said last night at a lovely wedding/party, I'm da Bitch now!!!

Christmas Trees for Foresters

On Sunday, The Honey and I took my parents out to get our Christmas tree. Christmas this year is at our house. Yay!

This is not the first time we have had Christmas. Two years ago in Flagstaff we had a lovely Christmas when my parents, brother and grandmother all flew down for a week. It was about the only week we didn't have snow that winter! Our tree that year was a juniper tree. It made the house smell like cat pee. Eww. But it was fun to get. We snuck out to a well known mesa and helped "improve" pronghorn antelope habitat by removing a wee juniper tree for our enjoyment. Actually, we topped it, so it probably lives on.

A sidebar: pronghorn antelope are one of the fastest mammals in North America, if not THE fastest. They are adapted to avoid predators by outrunning mountain lions, and wolves (when they were there), and thus have a high preference for wide open mesas where they can see the predators. Since we have stopped letting fires burn on the mesas, juniper trees (which would have traditionally burned) have started encroaching on the grasslands, shrinking pronghorn antelope habitat.

The point: cutting the juniper was helping the pronghorn.

Ok, so back to the tree on Sunday. It is a small Grand fir which is sometimes called (incorrectly) balsam fir. Grand fir is becoming increasingly rare on Vancouver Island, since forestry companies do not prefer it for harvesting (meaning they don't plant it back or encourage its regeneration). So wait a minute, why did we cut a Grand fir? It is ok, we got it under the power lines, which means at some point BC Hydro would have killed it with herbicides or by cutting it eventually. Conscience clear this year anyway.

Speaking of BC Hydro the power has been on and off 3 times in the past 2 weeks because of the snow and rain storms we have been having. One time it was out for 2 days which was tough when we ran out of propane, our back up heat. We have since stocked up on propane and candles so if it goes out again we are prepared. Another storm rolled through today, with another big one coming Friday.

I am getting good at knitting by candlelight though. Still working on the Angel Pearls scarf for Grandma and will post soon with the new yarn I have for my cousin's wedding socks. Yes! Wedding socks. Tell you that story next time.

Knitting pics

It still hasn't sunk in that I am a PhD.

Interesting thing to note though. Prior to obtaining those letters I "had" degrees. As in I "have" an MSc. Suddenly though, and entirely without thinking about it, I became my degree. I AM a PhD. [shudder]. People say that all the time, and it wasn't until now I thought about it. I think I prefer (and therefore should watch my language) I HAVE a PhD in Forestry!

Post defense activities: knitting (yay!), hiking, starting a good book, cleaning the house from pre-defense clutter, and yes, working (bills have to be paid).

On the knitting front I am have a great time knitting my first lace scarf. It is addicting. I can't wait until the evening when I can sit and concentrate on each little lovely lacy row. The yarn is wonderful too, it is kid mohair with a glitter thread throughout from Rowan. Here is a picture:
Also, here is a photo of completed celtic vest. You will notice the snazzy ties on the side. I didn't have the brooch the pattern calls for, and was wanting to wear it at the craft fair so I knitted up some ties and sewed them on. I actually think it looks stylin' :) General malaise and the need to bounce back post-defense prevented me from offering you a picture of the vest with me in. Maybe next time.

I passed!

Quick note, because I need to take pictures of knitting (celtic vest complete and new project) before posting more. BUT:

I successfully defended my dissertation on Tuesday. I am a PhD!!!

I have minor revisions to do, but it is otherwise finished.

After almost 4 years of constant worry there is only a huge sense of relief.

To celebrate on Wednesday I knit and knit and knit. New project is a scarf for Grandma called Angel Pearls designed by Sivia Harding in Vancouver. Grandma fingered the sample in Urban Yarns when we visited post-defense (isn't life good?) but hummed and haahed, so I scrambled off with it when her back was turned. In the end she choose Celtic Vest as well, so she, Mom and I will certainly be matching. It is turning into our own little knit along!

Craft Fair!

Here is a picture of our lovely table at the craft fair last week. Sadly, I have to report that we were disappointed overall with sales. Very disappointed. But I will not dwell.

Starting on the left, Susan made lovely cloth bags and gorgeous cards with felt angels. I think the bags would make excellent knitting bags. They are light, and have pockets for needles.

Clare makes crocheted hats, along with her sister Esther (who wasn't there). She also makes the coolest bags out of 100% recycled materials. They come from signs, awnings, scrap vinyl, anything she can find. Clare also makes photo cards and photo magnets.

Here is my wool. Looks lovely doesn't it? Not one customer bought any :( However, it caught the eye of several other vendors, so I did have some sales in the end as well as fabulous trades (coffee, and soap).

So the good part of this adventure was bonding with Clare and Susan, who I really just have met. We had some fun crafting and waiting for customers to come by. The other great part was meeting some other wonderful crafty people here in Duncan. Turned out the Honey (when he stopped by) knew the woman who locally roasts coffee- her company is called Peaks Coffee. She also did a BSc in Forestry at UNBC. Small small world. Then we met some great women fibre artists- Kelly Burgess and her friend Caroline. Kelly makes very lovely and interesting quilts and Caroline had made the sweetest tea cozies I have ever seen.

These women are all keen on craft night, along with the fourth new acquaintance, Katie, who works at the local radio station here. She doesn't craft, but bakes so craft night at her house means she will be baking up a storm.

I am pleased meeting all these great women. Duncan really is starting to feel like a community to me!

On a final note (and probably very important) in 2 days on Nov. 21 at 9 am I will be defending my PhD dissertation. The day has finally arrived. I am scared, nervous etc., but I think that is normal. Let's hope when I next post I can call myself Dr. and it all will have been worth the pain :)

Socks!

I finished my first socks ever! And survived! And will wear them! They are warm and thick and were perfect in the snows of Kamloops. It is so warm back here in Duncan that they are a bit too warm, but are great winter socks.


I had to post this picture of our pumpkins on Halloween. We almost ran out of candy because of them. We live down behind other houses off the road and were worried no kiddies would venture this far. Solution was to carve up 5 pumpkins and yes! we had lots of ghouls knocking on our door.

Craft fair spinning and a sock

Thought I would update with a view of the vibrant colours which spawned from the dye pot this week. The Honey said the blue and green was his most favourite so far. The orange and browns were inspired by J. from craft night.

Let's see... All the roving is merino. The dyes Jacquard dyes, new to me. I am not as happy with these as the Maiwa dyesbut maybe I just need to make a stronger solution? It seems fine now, but they were more smelly, and I think more expensive too. Starting with the far left we have a small merino skein I dyed up from some leftovers. Beside it is a silk skein. The silk is definitely not as vibrant in colour as the merino, but pretty. I think I will ply it with the red merino ball top right. The first blue/green is merino (from Grandma), beside two skeins of lincoln (also spun by Grandma) in orange and then blue green. I love spinning lincoln! It has a much longer staple length than merino and once I got the hang of spinning it I loved the sheen. It has to be spun worsted because of the staple length, and produces a nice soft smooth yarn. My lincoln skein is still undyed and thus not pictured. Grandma prefers to spin merino though, it is all a matter of preference. Top right is a small ball of taupe alpaca. Lovely, but no idea what it will get plied with yet.

I will be spinning the blue/green roving tonight and then taking this project with me on another Kamloops trip: sox on two stix from knitty.com. I am knitting in the same handdyed purple yarn I used for my celtic vest (which is awaiting finishing and blocking). I followed the pattern but didn't check my gauge so I tore out the first sock this morning to redo on same needle size with 16 rather than 20 stitches. We'll see!

In need of a pick up?

The days just got SOOOOOO SHORT, and the greyness and rain is coming more often. Despite a beautiful, if not a little chilly, hike at Spectacle Lake with the parents under lovely fall colours this evening has left me a bit blue. Even after dying up some yarn and wool!

I see numerous suggestions for Yarnageddon, all fabulous. I highly recommend cracking out the knitting and settling in with these two on their podcast: Miss Lime and Miss Violet. Knitting, spinning, fibre and lots of laugh, makes me feel like my stitch and bitch [oops "craft night"] girls are hear a day early...

The promised update on projects

The Nov 16-17 Christmas Chaos Craft Fair is fast approaching. I am planning to fill a dye pot this afternoon, but am worrying whether or not I will have enough spun wool! What I don't sell I can post on Etsy since I have gotten behind keeping the wool up to date here.

I am also contemplating felting Christmas baubles, in the price range of $6 each. Will see how that works.

This here is a picture of my Witches Knickers (name of wool, see store link on right) scarf. I am not very happy with it and want to tear it apart and make a wee purse. Too scratchy for a bare neck, it is mohair after all (and I guess just not soft mohair).

Jen and Pippa and I went to the Fleece and Fibre Fest last Saturday. Wooohoo! I had a little euphoric high after the even which lasted the rest of the day. Everything was sooooo beautiful. I got the name of someone who raises alpacas and am looking forward to getting some fleece locally. The Crofton Fibre Mill woman was so very busy the entire time I could not get to talk to her, but I will be taking my alpaca there to be cleaned and carded into rovings and am looking forward to meeting her. Hummingbird Fibre Arts from Nanaimo had a wonderful booth filled with dyed wool of all colours and kinds, and I bought some Jacquard dyes to try. Jen and I talked with the Tzouhalem Spinners and Weavers and hope to get updates from them. They meet during the day on Tuesdays though which isn't good for a working girl.

Below is the progress on my Celtic Vest. It is pretty fun to knit and is progressing at a fast enough rate to keep me at it and entertained. A woman at our Monday night craft group is going to try the pattern next too because she was impressed at how fast it was knitting up.

Craft group is fun. We aren't allowed to call it Stitch N Bitch because of internal and external protest that we wouldn't really be bitching would we? Sorry girls, but keep the definition of bitch broad enough and we fit the bill :) It will be a pre-Hallowe'en Craft Night this Monday but everyone is rather concerned about the craft fair where we are having a collective table so we must be extra productive and not be tempted by carving pumpkins!

Finished knitting

I see compared to some I am not a very good (as in frequent) blog poster. Tough to find the time, which is too bad, because I always have ideas :)

I knit up a skull hat for a friend of mine who turned 5 the other day (Hemp Boy we can call him since he is the son of Hemp Woman). Hemp Boy is also known as Captain Silvertooth around town (house, daycare, school) because of recent dental work. Yes he has a silver tooth! Went to Hemp Boys birthday party and we: had an obstacle course, scavenger hunt, horse rides, donkey rides, played pin the tail on the donkey with a real donkey, and rowed a boat in the pond. Ok the kids did most of that but I got to watch and help.



Hat details:
As usual, I made up the pattern. I also neglected to count stitches, or rows in making it, so I really am proving to be a terrible knitting blogger. I used scrap wool with no label. I did use a size 5 circular needle though! And I got the skull pattern from here. I did felt it once through the wash on hot/cold because it fit me, and thus would have been too large for him.


Next up is the sweet baby sweater I just finished.
What: Rainbow Dust from April 2006 Knitting magazine.
Yarn: Superwash Merino. I dyed this wool in various purples using Logwood. The white is the natural yarn colour.
Started: July 2006
Finished: October 2006
Size: Medium (second sizing).
Modifications: Of course there are! I skipped the knit row every fourth row because I always forgot to do that in the last sweater I knit. This was easier. Four buttons instead of 5 (eliminated the top). I accented the button bands with a simple crochet stitch after it was knit. This tied in the two colours nicely. The pattern with the two colours is my own doing. First three are knit 2 purple, knit 2 white. Then knit four purple, 2 white twice. There are also various mistakes in there but I am not going to tell you about those :)

Next up is the celtic vest from fleeceartist. Mom bought the kit and I love it so I am taking the pattern with me to Kamloops for a week. I think this is ok to do- use the same pattern over from a kit? Fleece artist I hope you don't mind, and I would gladly purchase your patterns without the kit if you would let me!

The Honey and I are off to Kamloops on our first forestry contract. Woohoo! We will be staying in the in-laws rv in the forest at night and locating trees for a research project by day. Should be fun, and the lovely sunny weather is supposed to hold.

As for defense news I still have no date. Looking like early November now. I swear others who finished their thesis later than I have defended earlier than I and are now allowed to be called Dr.! I must have patience. Thus the knitting to take mind off this frustration.

I will try and update you on the progress of the celtic vest. I'll try anyway!

Wine, and anniversary

Went on a road trip on Labour Day weekend- wine touring and celebrating our one year wedding anniversary on Sept. 4!

So that is first- the anniversary. My honey is the best. I know everyone says that, but we fit together. I am a spaz and he is calm. It works well. His nature complements mine and vice versa. And sometimes it is scary how similar we think! Our first anniversary night was spent eating pizza and drinking beer (illegally) in a park in Oliver because all the restaurants were closed. What could have been a disaster was PERFECT.

But this blog is about one crazy day, the start of our vacation, where P., J., S. (the honey) and I toured 8 wineries in one day. It was one hell of a fun time, and I can't believe we managed it!

We stayed at S.'s parents in Vernon, got a late start and didn't get to Kelowna until 11 or so. We started in Westbank (which I want to call THE Westbank which is not correct in this case :)). We picked an excellent first start- Quail's Gate. Oh so lovely, what a location, and very nice wines. Not too crowded when we got there, and the tasting room is a cute little cabin off from the main winery. Unfortunately they were out of their older reds, so our only disappointment is that we were tasting reds that were not quite ready. From QG we bought a 2004 Pinot Noir, 2005 Chasselas. I think we would have given it 7 (of 8) thumbs up, full marks if the reds were ready.

Next we travelled down the road to Mt Boucherie. So unassuming compared to Quail's Gate, we were bracing for disappointment. I don't even have a picture of it, and I was snapping a lot! Anyway, how wrong we were. The wine was magnificent. Tied for first place, and 8 of 8 thumbs up. One of the owners (we think) served us, was so nice and very knowledgeable. Gave us an extra sample, which paid off because we bought some! We bought an Ehrenfelser and Melange Noir here. In retrospect, wish we had bought more.

Our third and final stop in Westbank was Little Straw, across the road from Mt Boucherie. What a cute place. It is not quite finished, but will be very inviting once it is. Too bad about the tastings however, it was certainly more chilly in attitude in the tastings room. I was trying to be generous, but we felt the least welcome here. Maybe we were too silly? Not serious looking enough? Perhaps the host thought we weren't going to buy? Doesn't matter. We bought a pinot noir only. As of now it is too young, but I suspect that (ironically) it will be pretty good in a year or two. Overall only 5 of 8 thumbs up, and only because the wine is probably going to be ok.

Ok by this time P. and I were completely plastered in the back seat of the car, and the boys were fine. Sheesh. We were having one hell of a time though. We headed to Quiznos for sandwiches (again probably being a little loud) and Tim's for coffee (because it was close and cheap). And then headed out a little less high strung to imbibe at more wineries.

We stopped in town at Calona but holy ******! It was PACKED full of people because a very large bus tour was in. We left town and headed south on the east side of the lake to Cedar Creek instead. Lovely lovely lovely setting! Someone was getting married in the gardens. The white washed buildings were so beautiful, fit into the surroundings. The tasting room was very well laid out, great lighting, and big enough to accommodate the tourists (yes, us). But we had to pay. Screech to a halt! What???? Darn. Only $2 so I am being cheap. But it wasn't worth it. Sorry Cedar Creek, but you are on the bottom of my list. We actually did not buy ANYTHING here. It wasn't worth it. I was not impressed by any of the wines on the $2 tasting list. Ok, so maybe the more expensive wines were better? Certainly not the shiraz priced at $30+ a bottle. J. tried it and said thumbs down. Apparently the chardonnay at similar pricing was worth it, but that is just beyond our means. Because it is at the bottom, it gets probably 4 of 8 thumbs up. My one up only for ambiance.

But it got bet after that, which was good because I started wondering to P. if I had just had enough wine, which was why I didn't like Cedar Creek. Nope. St Hubertus was like a whole other world, with lovely well priced (aged) wines, nice demeanor, and a haunting setting. This was the winery which was partly burned in the 2003 Kelowna fire. Apparently they lost their vines and a few buidlings in the fire. We tried the Firemen's Red put out to commerorate the loss, but I am not a fan of Gamay Noir which seemed to dominate the blend. Instead we choose 2 bottles of Northern Summer, a light fruity red which was the first red that tasted good on a hot day. Also bought the Chasselas. I would give it 6 out of 8, and I think once their vines are producing again they may have more to offer.

And then... Sumerhill. Oh my, what fun, what great wines. It was pretty busy here. They are the winery who ages their wine in a pyramid after all. We had an EXCELLENT host. She was as an assistant manager, who certainly sold us on the wine over and over. Wow. We got to try a lot of great wines. Could have spent more, but it was getting near the end of the day. But we all still bought a lot. Got a Foch, which I had been avoiding all day because of its tabacco overtones, but Summerhill's was quite nice. Also an Ehrenfelser and a Cabernet blend. And some bubbly. Wow, good bubbly. 8 out of 8 thumbs that is for sure!


Because Summerhill was so momentus the last 2 wineries went by with a bit of a blur. We went back to Calona, had to pay for a tasting, but the wines were fine. Nothing that grabbed us like Summerhill. Gray Monk we visited after dinner, and the tasting host was pretty tired. Again, they were out of the reds as well, so it was disappointing. Bought a Rotberger there. Had it before, like it, got another.







I think we were all feeling this by the end.....

But it was a grand time! A Grand Time! Good work gang!

Coming home through Osoyoos the smoke from the Tatoosh fire made a spectacular (but smoky) sunset.

Bowls (upside down hats)

W. and E. have were born one week apart exactly- I do believe their moms met in the hospital? Or is that an urban myth? Hmmmm, it works. Every year we seem to celebrate the two birthdays together. W's mom said this year I have an honourary August birthday. (April sounds like August).
This year I wanted to make presents, something knitted and fun. After some failed experiments I decided to make felted bowls. Without a pattern of course, as if my preference. I know how to make hats, and decided a bowl was just an upside down hat.

This is true. But still, I went through one felted experimental disaster and several wrongly knitted bowls before coming up with these two beauties. Experimental disaster was another project I attempted, a felted bag. It worked fine, but shrunk vertically more than horizontally. Ok, so I have to make the bowl almost the width I want, but twice as deep.

This was fine, except I got impatient (so not surprising) and didn't knit a few deep enough. Here is a picture of the red bowl before it was felted. I used size 6 kneedles and lopi wool. I cast on about 50 stitches. I knit only about 12 rows before starting to decrease. The hat was about half its depth at this point. I decreased the next row one decrease every 10th stitch (decrease on 10). The next row I decrease every 9th, 8th, etc. until I have about 2 stitches between every decrease. I then loop the thread through the last row and pull tight to form the bottom of the bowl.

The green bowl was using a dk weight wool, but I didn't count stitches. I like the green bowl in that the felt feels really nice, but the lopi gives the red bowl much more ridge sides.

The green bowl had to be run through twice in the washer on hot/cold cycle, while it took 4 washes for the red bowl until I thought it was felted enough. I then sewed little vortices in the bottom of each using some dyed roving. My time in Arizona made me really fall for the vortex symbol (even though me the scientist does not quite believe in the power of the vortex, sigh). That's all. My honey is leaving for 3-4 weeks to work in the Kootenays where he will be welding. I hate it when we are apart for so long. But anyway, I have lots to blog about (like the wine touring we did with P. and J.- 8 wineries in 1 day!) so that will keep me busy.