west coast weekend...

Okay, so this is the west coast creative blog, but in reality I live on the east coast of Vancouver Island, the east coast of the West Coast, if you will. Anyway...

Last weekend we went to a wedding on the real west coast, as in next stop Japan. The wedding was hosted by West Coast Expeditions on phenomenal Spring Island, and various creative forms of transportation were required to get there by the guests. We chose to drive to Fair Harbour (lots of logging roads) and then set out on a 5-6 hour paddle out into the blue.


Here's me near the end of our kayak out, near the village of Kyuquot.

Spring Island

Bull kelp, my favourite.

Still on Spring Island.

A walk into the middle of the island, land of big, old trees.

The morning before we had to leave paradise, sunrise on the beach.

A rumpled fellow on the way home.

The entire weekend was just beautiful, and the wedding a memorable event. We were sad to only have the three days, but after another 5 hour paddle back to Fair Harbour, and a four hour drive home, we were tired and ready for our own bed.

more photos: project spectrum edition

dude, I need to catch up on all these photos I have been taking lately. This set highlights the last element of Project Spectrum, which began with the start of August - Water. I've got a few things in mind for water, knitting wise, as blues and purples are really working for me right now. I'm less into black, but will see where it goes. I really flaked on the Air element, I think mainly because I didn't do much knitting in June and July. However, I did start my new cardigan in the last days of July, and it is grey - it's going along well, but I don't have progress pics to show yet.


A trying out a few boulders on the beach.


Later the same day...longboard cruising, which just made worse my mysteriously swollen ankle. But it was so fun anyway.


Wandering along the marina on a clear evening.


See above.


And my first project that fits in with PS, on the sewing front instead of knitting. I wanted to make a cozy hoodie, but add a few twists from the standard. It's off-white sweater fleece, with a few fun purple accents and an off-centre button front. I might still add some more finishing touches, but I'm digging it so far.

a few thoughts on summer...

i don't have many words today. instead i will share some different views of summer, many centred around the bounty of the garden. enjoy.


the spaghetti squash are growing at an alarming rate. here one finds good support on top of P's whitewater kayak.


sunday morning french toast, cut thick and stuffed with raspberries & strawberries, topped with sauteed apples and maple syrup.


A trying out his new skimboard.


zucchini, bush beans, and pattypan squash fresh picked from the garden.


purple carrots and one lone golden beet.


multigrain pasta tossed in alfredo sauce, and topped with the aforementioned beans, zucchini, carrots and beets (after a light saute). a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.


noro stripe socks. more details here (ravelry link).


honey whole wheat bread rising in the windowsill. this bread is yum - also works well in the above french toast.

it's the simple things...

local free range eggs, poached. yummy camembert from just down the way. fresh spinach & chard picked up at the farmers market today, sauteed in a little garlic flavoured olive oil & spices. and beer bread baked yesterday, toasted. a generous sprinkle of pepper, and enjoy.

summer calls for simpler ingredients, simpler meals. i love it when i can find a meal from local, fresh ingredients. our garden too is perking up and revealing surprises from under tender leaves. the raspberries disappear quickly into our mouths, the strawberries are rescued from eager woodbugs. pattypan yellow squash is perfect on the bbq. the zucchini needs to be picked now before they are all a foot long. the tomatoes are turning from green to warm red. i keep meaning to take pics but the days get away from me.


there hasn't been much knitting lately, but there is one pair of socks on the go. i was inspired by amy to make striped noro socks knitting from both ends of the skein, but i now see many people are grabbing ahold of this trend. so far so good on my part, the first sock fits like a dream and the second is well underway.

i hope everyone is out enjoying the summer that has finally come to visit. on my end there has been much climbing, a little skimboarding, and now some quality time with my new toy. A and i got them this week and have been honing our skills during evening carve sessions. i definitely need some more practice before i venture onto busy streets, but a gentle slope on a quiet night is perfect right now.

marine explorations...

i'm slowly trying to catch up to new stuff...here are a few pics from a day out with my friend Jen's boat tour company. no whales or bears today unfortunately but still a gorgeous day on the water (although i do think any day on the water is gorgeous).

oh the places we'll go...

has it been so long since my last post? I suppose it has, but I will try to make up for it now with a few photo heavy posts. In the last month there has been a bit of exploring, some gallivanting here and there, and today I am a bit sunburnt and tired in the wake of it. But being Canada Day, it is my fourth and last day of a long long weekend and I think I've earnt a bit of relaxation, so will enjoy it well before the inevitable return to work tomorrow. We just got a new skimboard and may go try it out a bit later; more pics? We'll see.

But first: at the beginning of June, A and I went met up with friends at Pachena Bay in Bamfield. For those who don't know, Bamfield is on the west coast of Vancouver Island, just a bit south of one of my other favourite hangout, Tofino, and the start of the famous West Coast Trail. We had never been to Bamfield before, a tiny little town at the end of a 90km gravel logging road. Didn't explore the town too much, but here a few images from the couple of days we spent listening to the waves crash and exploring the seashore.



The dark clouds threatened a few times but there was no rain during our stay - a miracle on the wet coast.



Recent storms had left many creatures tossed up upon the sand.



I spent one morning eagerly peering into the lush tidepools.



We also did a bit of kayak surfing, although the waves were pretty mellow.




Nothing like a beautiful evening to cap it off!

shells and flowers...

These pictures make me happy. And I promise, there was no flower arranging beforehand. I was just looking for a nice spot to take some shots of my [finally!] finished socks, and all the lovely pink rhodo flowers were strewn on the grass beneath the bush. Spring is finally coming along...

Obviously it's been a little while since I posted, but don't worry, I 'm in a better mood. In between I forgot to post about Lina hat I made for A. Knitting has been going a bit slowly, and it's hard to tell if it's the projects I've been working on or just a lack of interest on the whole. I've been sewing a bit, drawing a lot. Finally getting outside a bit more to go climbing and the like. Tomorrow I'm going whitewater kayaking - yikes, hopefully I shall return.

Wait - I was talking about socks, wasn't I? As mentioned in the last post, I'd been inspired by several others in blogland to make the Child's First Socks, and to make them in purple. This lovely Araucania Ranco Solid drew me in, and off I went. But. Yeah, there's a but. I don't know, this pattern was old news pretty quick after the start, and time suddenly stood still when I worked on them. Okay, I'm being a bit melodramatic, but I made these socks shorter than my usual length due to my desire to finish them. I love the result, but it was hard going.



I tried the first sock on after completion and the fit seemed good. I reversed the chart on the second sock to have mirror images, and actually thought I was knitting looser on the second. I didn't bother to try the sock on as I went. Umm, yeah. It's a wee bit tight. I'm making it work though - there will be no reknitting.

Project Spectrum Earth is winding to a close - I'm a bit sad that my lack of knitting motivation left me with only a few projects in my favourite colour spectrum. And the next spectrum will be the hardest I think, even though I love grey and white (yellow too, but it's not a colour that makes regular appearances in my life).

I feel like I'm rambling a bit. Hope the weather is good where you are too!

distractions...

everyone needs distractions now and then, especially when you're having work days like i'm having lately. suffice it to say things are a bit hectic, but we'll leave it at that. at least when i come home i can see all the pretty green things that are popping up in my windowsill. soon enough, my pretties, and you'll be outside growing fat veggies. not today though - i scraped ice of my windshield this morning despite the nearly-May calendar date. gotta love it.



there has been some knitting, although i'm not much motivated lately. my friend lucas has been complaining that A always has new cool toques to wear, and although he's not the first one to do so, he somehow motivated me where others have not. there's something about knowing have to do something that completely stalls me in my tracks. in this case though, i mostly had fun. i used a variety of stash yarns, with a green and light brown theme fitting for project spectrum (and a bit of blue thrown in). the wave chart is from swell - yet another adventure in my goal to excel at colourwork.



the edge has a few rows of garter stitch rather than my standard rib which i think creates a nice clean effect. the top is an 8-pointed decrease. i have to say, while i do love all the colours mixed together, sewing in all the ends is a pain in the ass. luke won't get this till friday, but hopefully it'll shut him up - i mean, make him happy.



my other current project is child's first socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. After being inspired by pam and kelly, i knew mine also had to be purple. so far so good, but the shell pattern gets to be a bit of snore very quickly. i'm pretty dismissive in this post, aren't i? obviously not quite settled from the day's events. hopefully i have another FO post soon, but i can't say i won't also start a new project before then!

spring, we're so glad to see ya...

although winter is slow to relinquish it's gloomy grip on us (a foot of snow just two hours south of us on saturday!), there are signs here and there that spring is slowly making an appearance, albeit a late one. here are a few shots from today's walk along the campbell river.

feeling earthy...

Just got back from a relaxing weekend at Tsa-Kwa-Luten where my mom and I took part in the Fun Knits knitting retreat. Was a great mix of women madly knitting away, and also good workshops. More on that in a moment, but first, my start for Project Spectrum: Earth.

These socks are a variation on Yukon Leaves, which I previously interpreted in my niece's little hat. I knitted the socks toe up (of course), so my leaves perhaps look upside down, although I think I like them better this way. I was initially concerned that the four repeats called for in the pattern would make the socks too big, so I started with one up the instep with a twisted stitch cable on each side. For the leg, I did three repeats of the Yukon Leaves pattern, with a cable in between each.



The cable up the back is different from the other two - a bit bigger and with three strands instead of two. These socks fit awesome, and I'm pretty happy. However, you may have noticed a little something - see how the sock on the right is evenly variegated? then notice the sock on the left? yeah, that's right about where I was. This yarn is Sweatermaker, which is soft and lovely, and local. But the second ball turned out to be noticeably lighter, and unfortunately did this strange pooling thing whereby the dark part worked its way in a spiral up my leg. I've let it go, breathing has returned to normal, but this was my first real experience with bad pooling, and colour my unimpressed.

There will be several more installations for this segment of Project Spectrum - a brief glance at my wardrobe will confirm that it's not hard to get me excited about green and brown. Stay tuned.



So what did I do at the workshop? Learned how to spin of course. I do tend to get frustrated when things don't work for me instantly, so there may have been much huffing and gritting of teeth, but ultimately I'm pretty pleased with the result. I can definitely see it is a skill you need to practice again and again, but at least the basics have been explained well to me. This is Romney wool, by the by. And a great colour for PS.

One last bit of "Earth"? Check out the tiny tomatoes poking their heads up behind the handspun. Yummy veggies are on their way!

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