Spring Yarn Crawl

On Saturday, my sister, Joan and I headed out on our first Spring Yarn Crawl.  We headed to Soper Creek Yarn in Bowmanville first.  We had a good look around, I picked up my Rat Race Scarf from the Yarn Challenge.  I didn't win but my other sister, Kath, tied with 2nd with her horse hat.

Then Joan and I picked up some coffees and headed for Port Perry.  The next yarn shop was Never Enough Wool.  We found it quite easily.  This shop was bright and cheerful.  They had some beautiful alpaca wool that I may still have to buy to knit a hat for Hugh.  I did buy some yarn called Smiley Stripes by Sirdar.  It is a bamboo and wool mix.  I bought the pattern book by Hearts & Stripes also by Sirdar. I have already knit the Baby Bolero Jacket for cousin's new granddaughter in Ireland.

Our next stop was On the Lamb in Uxbridge.  This one was a bit more difficult to find.  We had the old address!!  But we just weren't that impressed with this shop.  It was a bit dark.  They are attached to a kitchen shop which we also had a look around.  It was just too expensive for me.

We then stopped for lunch at Subway.  Both Joan and I had tuna subs.  I haven't had a good tuna sandwich in ages.  It was delicious.  From there we headed towards Fergusons at Myrtle Station.  This was a small shop in a house so part of the upstairs was used also.  Joan bought some lovely green cotton to knit a little summer top.  I saw a beautiful shawl on display so I was going to buy the pattern.  It is Regia Knits Journal 611 - Classic Styles and the shawl I am going to knit is 7261.  Joan very kindly bought me the pattern and the yarn to knit it.  The yarn is 100% merino and is Punta Lace Space Dyed.  It is different colours of blue.

From there we headed back to Joan's house.  Had a well deserved cup of tea and then I headed home.

New Books

I am back at work today.  I left early yesterday, I had a swollen gland in my neck which was extremely painful.  I have been on antibotics since Friday evening and they have kicked in.  I feel so much better today.  At least the swelling has gone done and my neck is not so painful.

Anyways.....  I had a very nice surprise when I came to work this morning.  A co-worker of mine gave me two knitting books.  And the books were published in the last year.  What a great surprise!!  I have already noticed a very nice cardigan in one of them, that I may just knit for myself.  I don't usually knit cardigans; they just take so long to knit.

The other book, Knitting Bazaar has some lovely designs in it also.  I tend to use parts of one pattern and fit it into something else I am knitting.  I like to knit hats and mittens. 

What's On for Knitting - April

April seems to be a busy month for knitting events.  Here are three events that I am going to take part in.

April 9 - Durham Spring Yarn Crawl - you need to be on Ravelry to see this, it's part of the Durham Region Knit & Crochet & Fibre group.  But for those of you who want to take part, the following shops are participating:  Never Enough Wool (Port Perry); On the Lamb (Uxbridge); Soper Creek Yarns (Bowmanville); Fergusons (Myrtle Station) and The Kniterary (Whitby).  From what I have heard, you can get discounts at some of the stores.  It will be nice to get out and about.  My two sisters, Joan and Kath are hopefully going to do this with me.

April  15-16 - Creativ Festival - costs $15.00 to get in.  Look at their website because there are lots of mini courses to take for free.  This event is being held at the International Centre in Mississauga. I am going on the Friday with my sister, Joan.

April 30/May 1 - Knitters Frolic - costs $5.00 to get in, plus there are classes to sign up for (but at a cost).  This event is held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.  I don't know if anyone is going with me but I will go on my own.

Soper Creek Knitting Contest

I went and voted today at Soper Creek Yarn.  There are a lot of good entries so please go and vote.  Mine is the rat race scarf.  I took a few pictures while I was there.  It was very sunny so the pictures aren't that great.

Sisters

It is so nice to have all my sisters close by.  I saw Joan on Saturday for a cup of tea and showing her my new hairdo.  Detta and I went to Church on Sunday but we were very early so dropped by Kath's house first.  It was nice to have a chat together before Church.  Then today I was working at Anne's for the morning so we popped out and she treated me to breakfast.  I consider myself very lucky to have such nice and unique relationships with all my sisters.

New Dos

I forgot to mention Detta and I both had our hair done on Saturday.  I have gone for a really short style where as Detta has added red to hers.  That girl is starting to cost a lot for hair and she looks so grown up!!!!!  We stopped by Joan's to show her our new dos

Soper Creek Entries

On the way home from church today, Detta and I stopped by Soper Creek Yarn to check out the entries for the contest.  We did take some photos.  The entries all look really good.  If you are going by, mine is the mouse scarf or rather rats - Rat Race.

This afternoon, Donovan, Hugh and I headed out to Rotary Park.  We had a very nice walk along the beach.  The stones have all disappeared and it is very sandy now.  There is still lots of drift wood everywhere.  The ice formations on the driftwood was amazing.  I love the ice mushrooms.

Lord of the Dance

Hugh took me to see Lord of the Dance at the GM Centre in Oshawa.  It was very good, we both enjoyed ourselves.  I would still like to see the River dance show if it every was on again.  I have never been to the GM Centre before, it is quite big.  The only down side was that it was very cold.  But I only found out half way through the show, that the ice was still in the rink!  I should have brought a sweater.

Funny enough, a co-worker of mine mentioned she was going also and then when Hugh and I were seated, she was sitting about 6 seats away from us! 

There are no pictures yet of the entries for the Soper Creek Yarn contest.  I will put up a link as soon as they are posted.  Now I need to start a new project.  I have some lovely yarns that I have purchased for myself.  I keep starting a project but then I end up not liking it and ripping it.  I will have to decide on something.  I do have a number of projects to finish: the baby blanket (just sewing in the ends), the red mittens (needs the kitchner stitch done to the top) and my sister's mittens (I knit them for Christmas 2009 and never got around to sewing the ends in!).  Also my cousin's daughter just had a second baby girl so I need to do something and I know someone else having a baby boy in a month.

Knitting

It has been so long since I have updated this blog.  I am now working two part-time jobs and am extremely busy.  But my knitting has not taken a back seat.  I have been knitting like crazy as usual.  I just finished a scarf for the Soper Creek knitting contest.  We had to only use the colours provided in the package.  It took me ages to decide but finally I did the pattern called Rat Race by Morehouse Farms.  The darkest colour is actually purple though it looks black in this picture.  It was fun to knit and took about 4-6 hours in total.

Spotted Touch-Me Not

Today, Hugh and I wanted to have a look down the east side of Lynde Shores Conservation Area.  We had been told by friends, that when walking their dog, they saw a snake and a turtle.  So we set off today to see what we could find.  The children were most relecutant to come out with us.  The path was a paved one, we were not expecting it to be so developed.  There seemed to be no access to Lynde Shores from the east side, in fact most of it was fenced off.  We did see a frog or toad jump through the grass but we were unable to catch it.  We think it was a Leopard frog

We walked along and down to the lake by the Ontario Shores Hospital.  There are very large rectangular cement blocks for stopping shore erosion and big boulders.  The boys had a great time walking along.  They dragged Hugh out to see a cave they found.

We found a spot with some picnic tables.  I spotted this little flower growing amongst these boulders.  On closer inspection I realised it was an orchid.  It was very tiny and very orange.  I did pick one flower so that I could look it up in my book when I came home.  Of course after I found it in my wild flower book, it said to never pick!  Well now I know.

It is called a Spotted Touch-Me Not or the Orange Jewelweed.  The latin name is Impatiens capensis.  This plant is found near poison ivy and the juice from it's crushed stems can soothe the itching.  We didn't find much else, at least not today. Note: I didn't take these pictures, I will have to go back during the week to get some pictures