Posts tagged ‘Canada’
Misti Alpaca Worsted + Barbara Walker “ Arch and Leaf”
By Special Request: “a texture patterned, soft, cream-colored scarf”
Misti Alpaca Worsted
colorway SFN 10, 2X 100g hanks
dimensions: 52” x 8.25
“Arch and Leaf” stitch from Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
Not the best scarf stitch pattern, it curls (wrong side out) pretty insistently even after a good blocking.
If I did it over, I would knit it two arches wide (instead of three) and use a wider flat border such as K1P1, or seed stitch.
ERRATA for “Arch and Leaf” from Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury:
row 5: stitch 36 (counting from left edge of chart)
should be [RS: P1/WS: K1]
row 5: stitches 19 and 33 (counting from the left edge of chart)
and
row 7: stitches 18 and 36 (counting from the left edge of chart)
should be [RS: K1-b/WS: P1-b]
(These are the stitches above the YO and will create holes if not closed with a twisted stitch, see swatch below)
DD requested this scarf, we picked up the yarn at Beehive WoolShop in Victoria, B.C. last summer.
She wanted a textured pattern, so I handed her a pile of Barbara Walker Treasuries to choose from.
Never having been one to shy away from a swatch, I swatched up her favorites to choose from.
Details from top to bottom
Soft Cable (right), Barbara Walker Third Treasury
Ribbed Spindle, Barbara Walker Third Treasury
Exploded Ribbing, Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
Arch and Leaf, Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
(my favorite) Cable-Framed Leaf, Barbara Walker Second Treasury
DD loves the scarf , mostly the softness.
CANADA! (Happy 150th Birthday British Columbia!)
THE GOOD NEWS:
I finally made it to the legendary Button Button.
I kept seeing handknit sweaters and admiring the great, perfect buttons and I kept hearing “I got them in Vancouver (hmmph)
Seattle’s not a button town”.
What does that mean???
I wondered what a ‘button town’ was.
Is it filthy with button shops like Starbucks in Seattle
Do they sell buttons *in* their Starbucks???
How many button shops can a city support?
I began asking more specifically and learned that everyone was talking about ONE particular button shop in Vancouver: Button Button.
Wow. I took pictures, but they can’t do it justice.
An incredible variety of buttons and so many of them.
Shelves, trays, DRAWERS full of buttons.
that drawer thing is full of vintage buttons
and it isn’t the drawer thingy
So many buttons, so little time.
It was our ‘family’ vacation; spending two hours in a button shop and missing the 12:55 ferry to Nanaimo was not to be suffered.
I will have to go back with an open mind and plenty of time. I want to look at ALL the buttons.
Two hours probably won’t be enough
THE BAD NEWS:
Button Button is “leaving at the end of August”.
WHAT!?!
New Location: “don’t know, but somewhere”.
I know! it’s August NOW!
She is taking email addresses to let us know where she ends up.
The family did suffer a bit of yarn shopping later in Victoria, though. I waited as long as I could and then casually said “uhhhhh, I’m going to swing by the yarn store…” and started walking toward Beehive Wool Shop. I have been enjoying the Butterfly Super 10 cotton I bought last time so much, I decided I ought to get more.
Butterfly Super 10 cotton color 3829
(I know it looks like the same as 3834, but it’s not!)
DD requested a scarf with a texture pattern. A Soft Scarf. I’m a sucker for a request from my yarn-suffering family.
Misti Alpaca Worsted (in 100g hanks!) color SFN 10
Beehive Wool Shop in Victoria: a great yarn shop, with tons of
bee-uuu-tee-ful yarns. It’s an eyeful just walking in the door. They have things I never see in Seattle, like the Butterfly Super 10 and Misti Alpaca Worsted in 100g hanks.
On top of it all, they are super nice and helpful. When I said DD wanted “something cream colored and soft”, yarn suddenly began appearing in her hands for a squeeze; I think they pulled a ball or hank of every single cream colored yarn in the store and were ready to start making phone calls!
DD went all puppy-faced when she touched the Misti and that was that.
Things I love about vacation:
my family
Canada
reading
the beach
new places
views
playing poker
no computer (surprise!)
Vancouver: The Sylvia, Banana Leaf Malaysian restaurant on Denman, French Connection (WHAT? they were having a “sale” and I have teenagers…), Button Button, BC Ferries
Tofino: Ocean, beach, crab dinner, Ocean Village Beach Resort, The Schooner Restaurant, NW Coast Indian Art, no tv, no telephone, no computer, no radio = reading, knitting, poker, beach-time, family-time.
MacKenzie Beach
time well spent 🙂
crab dinner at the cabin
Ocean Village Beach Resort cabins
Victoria: 150th BC birthday party in full swing!, High Tea, shopping, Beehive Wool Shop, Butchart Gardens, gelato,The Provincial Museum,The Black Ball
Victoria, B.C. Inner Harbor
Butchart Gardens
Butchart Gardens
Butchart Gardens
The Black Ball Ferry (MV Coho)
I’m ready to go back!
O Canada!
VACATION!!!!!
I’m taking (at least) two knitting projects:
Butterfly Super 10 Cotton, color 3834
from Beehive Wool Shop in Victoria, B.C.
It comes in 118 shades
I bought this yarn in Victoria a couple of years ago, I’ve been itchin’ to get to it and I like the idea of taking it along on a trip back to Canada.
I have started swatching.
Swatching is ALWAYS frustrating, but it’s even worse when the swatching is in a lace pattern. How do you measure a lace pattern swatch? In cotton??? The slightest tug and it measures at a completely different gauge. I don’t even have to tug, I can just move the scale over half an inch and get a different gauge Sigh.
I wish all pattern gauges would be given in stockinette stitch.
Whatever the stitch pattern, the same size needles could be used to come up with a corresponding stockinette gauge.
So, if the plan survives the swatch (what’s that saying? “no plan survives the first encounter with the swatch”)
I’ll be knitting Vogue Spring/Summer 2007 #8 Oversize Lace Top by Deborah Newton (Ravelry link)
For mindless easy knitting I will take along this sock project:
Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight in colorway Husky (specially dyed for us University of Washington Huskies)
What? your school doesn’t have it’s own STR colorway???
Awwww, that is just sooooo saaaad.
Next time, pick a *good* school. 😀
I should probably pick out another sock yarn, lots of driving on this vacation and socks are just the thing for that.
Maybe I can sell socks as I go – to pay for gas…
Knitting In Mind 