Getting ready to travel

Lloyd and I are planning a 3 month trip to New Zealand and Australia, November 27 to March 3. While he has been occupied with flights and car rentals, I have been debating what knitting projects to pack! No surprise to regular readers, I can't be without a knitting project or two while away from my studio. For the past couple of years I have found double knitting to be the most satisfying because it's slow. This year I have settled on two...

1. Lucy Neatby's True North Socks (first published in Sockified, and now available as an individual downloadable pattern http://www.interweavestore.com/true-north-dk-socks-pattern). Here are my yarn choices....I am thinking of the orange on one side and the green and purple on the other probably as random stripes.

And

2. The Cathedral Windows double knit lace shawl from Vogue Knitting, spring/summer 2015. My yarns are a couple of very lightweight cottons that I have had for a while, purple and green. This will be reminiscent of eggplant! I started with a tubular cast on and have knit almost one pattern repeat. It took a few rows to truly understand how best to twist the yarns in the yarn overs but now I am away to the races! I am using bamboo circulars and I will also insert a "lifeline" just in case I have another obstreperous airport security agent!

The green side

The purple side

The Knitting Tour of Spain Continues...

We arrived in Ribes de Freser Sunday afternoon after successfully navigated MANY narrow twisting mountain roads. We deliberately took scenic back roads rather than major highways and it was a bit nerve-wracking to say the least.

Ribes de Freser is about 1 1/2 hours north of Barcelona if we had decided to drive straight here!

Today we took a cog-wheel railway up to Nuria, a popular winter and summer resort, and decided to walk back down.



Here I am at the lookout facing back to Nuria just before we began our descent.



About about the half-way point, the trail crossed the river.



We left Nuria in brilliant sunshine, and about two hours later the heavens opened with lots of thunder and lightening. Fortunately we were near a "refugi", a cave with a stone bench, and I had my knitting with me!

Two of my favourite activities

I spent last weekend in Kimberley teaching a couple of workshops, one knitting and the other sewing. This is the "contemplative knitting" group many of whom are very involved in the shawl ministry at the Kimberley United Church. Some exciting connections were made during the day with members of other congregations and neighbouring towns which fits with my philosophy of how we can knit our communties together!

I first taught "Purls of Wisdom--the Joys of Contemplative Knitting" at Naramata Centre with my friend and fellow fibre artist Margie from Edmonton in 2007. We were invited back in 2008 and are thrilled to be invited again August 8 - 14, 2010. The theme of the week is "network"--how perfectly the knitting of prayer shawls fits that theme!

The other workshop in Kimberley was for quilters--the morning was spent learning how to use the bias of neckties to advantage creating gentle curves. What better use for ties! I love to sew with neckties, especially when creating a liturgical stole. Most of the people in the group were familiar with the stoles I'd made for the minister of Kimberley United church, and this was an opportunity for them to see how I'd created the stoles. The afternoon was another favourite topic of mine--sewing with layers of sheer fabric, achieving a painterly effect--fooling the eyes into mixing colours.