A West Coast Between-Storms Report

I am finally finished that @#$@#@ "Alexander Beetle" vest (the beetles look more like woodticks ... take a look for yourself!). I played with the pattern a bit, pinched in the intarsia beetles around the waistline of the vest (front and back), used some textured yarns not called for in the pattern, etc. The front, bottom and arm borders all have facing knit on (I adapted Sasha Kagan's instructions there, too, as she had no clear way of folding over the facing; the entire thing was to be done in stockinette stitch. My adaptation was to purl a row on the outside, which gave a great edge to fold over, and made for a much neater finished product!).
These pictures were taken as soon as the last pesky end was woven in; the vest had not yet been blocked. Saturday afternoon it will be delivered, wrapped, to Carol who owns the Bug Zoo in Victoria, and then I NEVER WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!! Sheesh. Intarsia makes Niebling look like a walk in the park. At least I can WRITE out the pesky charts of Niebling's designs instead of being made nauseous by those stupid coloured charts for the beetles. Bleh.

So today, between batches of butter tarts and chocolate haystacks (the shortbread will be made tomorrow), I was wandering around with NO knitting project on the needles. EEK!
So I picked up the needles and knit an Izzy Doll (see the ICross Canada link on the sidebar). Whew, that sure felt better! I am hoping to get at least one doll knit every week, and now that I live on the same Island where Billy Willbond lives, I can get them right to the guy who will be taking the dolls to children in Malawi. The doll takes about 45 minutes to knit, and about the same amount of time to sew together and stuff and make it look like a doll. I'll put a pic on my blog later.

Two days ago my only child turned 27. Egad. Where the hell has more than 1/4 century gone? He called from Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, where he is halfway through his six month contract with Princess Cruises. I'll miss him at Christmas, but will love his company in April, when he comes up to Port Alberni to visit, AND to be the invited guest speaker at the annual Alberni Wrestling Club's awards banquet.

Don't those stupid beetles look like ticks?
;-)
Today we are between storms here on the West Coast. The last storm took out many of the first-growth trees in Stanley Park in Vancouver, to say nothing of the horrific damages to many parts of Vancouver Island. Tomorrow there is supposed to be another storm, with the chance of hurricane-force winds. We may be without power for a while, which is relatively minor other than the sump pump keeping the pool in the basement constantly refreshed !! (there is no pool, but the water likes to think it's a pool).

I am constantly amazed at the number of people who are checking out my belly-button start for circular projects. I'm pleased that I have been able to provide a relatively easy solution for starting a circular knitting project. I know some other directions involve using something other than knitting needles ... blasphemy, I say!

Below is a picture of the moving van in front of our house in Lethbridge (ya ya, already). It was a bitter, nasty cold day (Oct. 30) when they loaded up. October 31 we left Lethbridge, and pointed my '91 Chevy Blazer west. We spent that night in Osoyoos, BC, and landed in North Vancouver about 15 minutes too late to catch the 12:30 p.m. ferry, so we had to wait for the 3:00 p.m. ferry.

We were sitting in the Blazer, with only 4 km. to go before the odometer turned over 380,000 kilometres, when what appeared but our moving van! They had taken a different route to get to the west coast, had encountered more nasty weather than we had, and yet ended up being on the same ferry. Now how WEIRD is that? Anyway, I had to take a another picture. (This is what "albertan" gets for asking about pictures ... heheh).













As we were crossing from the Mainland to Vancouver Island, we were met and accompanied by a pod of at least 20 dolphins! They swam right along side the ferry, passing us and going almost into the Nanaimo Harbour, and then they turned around and headed back out into the Strait. It was an absolutely wonderous sight. Once we got off the ferry, we took a little pleasure ride around the waterfront area of Nanaimo, waiting for the odometer to turn over, and here's a picture of that totally cool event. Ohhhh yaaaa. I'm hoping us two old girls can make it to half a million kilometers (that's alllll on Dorne's shoulders ... heheh).

And on that note, I'll sign off for tonight. If you're out on the Caribbean Princess and you see a tall, handsome, 27-ish-looking guy who is a crew member, give him a hug for me and tell him his mum wishes him a very happy Birthday.

If I don't get back before Dec. 25, I hope everyone has a most wonderful, peaceful and ethical Christmas/Holiday (to be somewhat politically correct ;-).