A curious day

~ beecosydesign ~ 2 Comments

The reality of our move to the UAE is sinking in and eliciting various feelings: from excited most of the time to doubtful that all organization can be done in the time left. This made me look back into my last big move 20 years ago and wondering if I had those emotions before. I can remember the excitement, but not the worries so much. Most likely because I was moving towards a future with my husband in a city I fell in love with and a plan to resume work in my profession. This move we will be delving into the unknown:  a very different country and culture (even though not so visible during a short visit) and no decisive plans for my work future. Not setting out with a definite plan is new to me and an interesting experience. Let’s see where it will take me.

While the temperatures in Abu Dhabi are rising towards 30C Vancouver is still relatively cool which does not stop our spring flowers from sprouting everywhere. I love this time of year when the cherry blossoms are out and the first magnolia trees are starting to bloom.

Forsythia
magnolia
Cherry trees Oppenheimer park

The sun today was so deceptive: luring many people to shed their coats to walk in short-sleeves and shorts: in 5-10 C! I am quite happy about this as I can continue to use my warm hand-knit sweaters and cardigans a little longer before they will all go into storage.

Knitting continues to keep my mind focussed and in the moment when too many things are going through my head at once. The mystery KAL-shawl for my friend Uta has been finished and looks beautiful. The mohair-merino lace yarn knit up into a lightweight and airy piece of art that adds a little warmth to the shoulders. It currently measures about 60 cm by 120 cm and I plan to block it to 60 cm x 140 cm to open up the patterns. Pictures will be posted later in the year once the KAL is underway.

“Stacks” cowl, pattern by Liisa Niemienen
cowl before blocking
“Stacks” by Liisa Nieminen

The small cowl, named “Stacks“, I started to practice my more efficient knitting has been finished as well and I just treated myself to cast on for the “Kunterbunt” striped scrap-yarn hat today. Knowing that I will take a day-long (yarn-) spinning class at Fibreswest in Cloverdale this weekend I did not feel like sitting down at my Majacraft wheel and started to spin with my little Louet Victoria travel wheel instead. What a difference! The small travel wheel is much lighter and feels more wobbly when I spin on it.  The brake, controlling the uptake, is difficult to adjust in very small increments and takes me a while to fiddle with before I can spin a continuous and even thread. May be, I need to change the thread on the knob that sets the tension on the break or replace the entire knob as it does not stay well in its chosen position. Still, I started with my azure blue pulled sari silk fibre. What a great colour! And best of all: no more reds, purples or pinks.

“Kunterbunt” hat
Pulled sari silk

 

Next week will see me travelling with my Louet spinning wheel and I hope I can still bring it on the plane as a carry-on. It is small enough to fit hand-luggage sizing – sort of – and I really don’t entrust it to the baggage handlers. The plan is to have it with me to spin some yarn while my husband is at work. It could work in an air-conditioned room. Another novelty will be writing my blog on a tablet instead of my home computer. I am curious to see if I can do it while on the road.

Cheers, Maike.

 

 

 

About moving, plumbing and knitting:

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what happens when one flies away…

The past 10 days have been a whirlwind of activities to get my husband ready for his move to Abu Dhabi: passport pictures to be taken, bank accounts to be opened and bathtub to be cleaned – one of his agreed to “duties” for household chorus. After spraying the walls with bleach and washing them down, all was in order by Thursday evening. The next morning I can hear some cursing through the splatter of the shower water and wonder if our hot water for the building has been turned off again as it happens once in a while. No, it’s just the bathtub not draining – at all! Great! The plane does not wait and so it was up to me to figure out a solution. Oh, how I wished that my husband had not dismissed my comments about water backlog in the tub for the past few weeks…:)

black flecks of pipe dirt
the tools of the day

First the plunger: That made things worse as now the overflow pipe got flushed through and spewed out black spots of yucky slime. Next came some bleach – nope did not help neither. It actually may have made things worse. Luckily, we have a second bathroom and shower so I was able to freshen up before going into the next round of removing the clog in the pipe. (Note to self: may be, we do need a second full bathroom in our Abu Dhabi rental?) Rummaging through closets I found a wire snake to insert into the pipe: it did not fit through the grate holes. ARRghhh! Knitting needle: not long and bendy enough. Now, the swearing started! Ok,  a can of “One-second plumber” is sitting on a shelf- I am convinced that will work. One blast: nothing. Second and third: still nothing and this is where I am supposed to call the plumber. Hell, no! Off to the closest store and some good, old Drano as an last attempt. And, yes, finally it worked! Flushed it through with some hot water and the pipes are running clear again. Success!

Surely, I had earned time for knitting and resumed my time-trial for socks. The second sock in grey was just finished yesterday and here are the final results:

A pair of socks with the magic loop and two-at-a-time took 10 hours 45 minutes.

A pair of socks on DPNs takes only 8 hours 30 minutes.

A pair of socks on two circulars takes 8 hours and 30 minutes as well.

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Yes! Knitting with DPNs is not slower than the other methods! I think my speed comes from pushing the DPNs into the knitting to set up for the next round without letting go of my yarn. Still one question beckons: Is it the same speed to knit two socks-at-a-time on two circular needles? I am not so sure about that, since the untangling of the two yarn balls adds time. Additionally, the turning point when I switch from one needle to the other and push my knitting into position slows it down again. It will be something to work on in the future, but in the meantime I like to knit a different sock pattern. May be, in this colourful, hand-painted sock wool I found in a sale bin at the Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts store in Birch Bay, USA. It is a German Opal yarn from a few years ago named “Malerische Schoenheiten” which translates to “Painted beauties”. It is indeed hand-painted in yellow, purple and aqua and very unique.

Malerische Schoenheit = Painted Beauty
Opal hand-painted sock yarn

Besides the test knit shawl, which is almost finished, I have this pretty cowl named “Stacks” by Liisa Nieminen on my needles. It was given to all participants during our speed-knitting class. I love the interplay of smooth stockinette with bumpy purl sections divided by slipstitches and the only thing I might change is the height of it. I am a frugal knitter and want to end the cowl with the yarn left in the ball after the two swatches. 🙂

“Stacks” by Liisa Nieminen
left swatch: thrown stitches- right: picked stitches

I love to have at least two knit projects on my needles: one to carry around with me for sitting on the bus or while waiting in lines, the other to knit at home with a more intricate pattern or larger and not fitting into my handbag. As there is a new opening for the next item I am looking through my stash and what would be great to use  up before I move. There are these lovely mini-skeins of many pretty colours which shall become a “Striped scrap”hat:

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My plan is to knit them up from left (brown) to right (purple). They are my reminder and the left-over wool of my three seasons of knitting hats and fingerless mittens for sale at Vancouver Christmas Fairs.

Until next week!

It’s all about time..

~ beecosydesign ~ 5 Comments

After waiting for 3 months, and some pushing for a faster resolution to not much avail, my husband has just received his background check clearance for the UAE. We are delighted and a little nervous as we dive into the unknown and resuming our energy to get move-ready. For my husband it will happen within a few weeks as he will move with a few suitcases full of clothes and may be a household item or two. I will stay around for another 6-8 weeks to finish up cleaning out the house and saying good-bye to friends and colleagues. I will keep you updated on the proceedings as they come along.

My timed two socks-at-a-time  on a magic loop – trial has come to an end and the result is in: it took me 10 hours and 45 minutes to knit up a pair of socks. That included lots of untangling of yarn every few rounds and two rounds of frogging: one round was ribbed out to get back into the pattern and half a round was knit back to separate the socks again. When knitting two items at the same time on one needle it is very helpful to use the yarn from a separate ball for each item. When I accidentally continued using the first yarn for the second sock they were very attached. 🙂

finished in 10h45m
after 1h30m on DPNs

I started a comparison sock knit on double-pointed needles (DPNs)  with a same size needle (3mm), same yarn, same sock pattern and size (German: 38/40 or US: 8) in grey. So far it seems to knit at least at the same speed or even a bit faster since I don’t have to untangle the yarn. It is easier to keep track of my pattern, too. But then I do only produce a single sock in the end and more often than not it takes quite a long time before I will start the second one. Which means I have to sit down and count the rows of knitting to match the length. So, that adds time… My plan is to finish one sock on the DPNs and the second one with two 3mm circulars to see if the use of fewer needles increases my speed. And still: the DPNs are my favourite method to knit socks.

Finally, there is some update what became of the two silk-based fibres. First I thought the colours of both fibres had some overlap in the peach and pink strands, but after spinning the singles with a semi-worsted draft one looked very much golden-hued peach while the other showed a brighter blue-ish pink tone. Since, it was not clear if plying them together would result in a muddled colour I decided to chain-ply each separately and keeping the option to knit them together to mix the colour for later.

3-ply (chain-plied, Z)
singles (S) on the bobbins
merino-silk (top) and silk fibre

Both ended up being a fingering to sport weight yarn: the peach colour silk-merino 87m/28gm (or 3107m/kg = 1413 ypp) and the pink-purple coloured silk 61m/20gm (or 3050m/kg = 1388 yap). There is no immediate plan to knit them into a hat or a cowl. They will live in my stash until their time comes.

Whilst dividing my time between spinning, knitting socks and test-knitting a scarf for my friend Uta I decided to take a class with Liisa Nieminen at WetCoastWools to become a faster knitter. Our first lesson covered continental knitting or “picking stitches” which is my accustomed way to knit, but to knit faster I have to break old habits and try holding my yarn closer to the needles. Not an easy feat which requires lots and lots of focus and concentration to not fall back into my comfort-zone. It is going soooo slow! Let’s see how I feel about this once I finished knitting our homework: two swatches. One will be knit “throwing” stitches or “English style” and the other with “picking stitches”.

I realized that my fibre activities in the past few months have been heavily based on pink, purple and red colours. May be, I was drawn to them for their brightness and splash of colour during the grey winter months, but I am missing blues, greens and brown. Time to change it up!

Until next week!

 

 

 

 

 

A break in the clouds

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If you reside in Southern BC you will have lived through quite a few weeks of daily rain or if not raining, then seeing a grey, gloomy and overcast sky. On these dark days when I feel no desire to spend much time outside I find the best cure is to go through my stash of yarns and fibres and plan the next colourful crafting adventure. I wish I could show you a new finished project, but despite a lot of time indoors I did not finish anything in the past 7 days. The timed knit project takes astonishingly long. As of now, I have knit 70 rows from the toe up on both socks and need to “turn the heel” – which means: knitting the heel – and it already took me 7 hours to get there! At this point I am unconvinced that working two socks at a time on one long, circular needle is really faster. So, the time trial continues.

We were quite excited that the clouds finally broke last weekend and took it as our opportunity to visit Bowen Island in the suburb of West Vancouver. One can travel there on bus (take the bus #250 or #257 express to Horseshoe Bay from a bus stop close to the Hudson Bay department store in downtown Vancouver) and ferry and spend an afternoon or longer walking around. Our favourite hike on Bowen Island is through Crippen Park along the beach and onto the forested trail up to Dorman Point.

view from Tippen Park
Trail marker

For some reason we think the hike takes at least an hour, but it really is just 30 minutes of a brisk walk up the hill to a rocky cliff viewpoint. On a clear day the view goes all the way into the valley and Mount Baker (US) can be seen. It is a great spot for a picnic, watching some wildlife – we saw a few bald eagles and ravens – and the ferries sailing in and out of the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.

view towards Kitsilano/UBC
Two curious bald eagles
Arbutus, a BC coastal evergreen tree

We often end our visit with a stop at one of the cafes or pubs. Just be aware that most stores and cafes close early (3-4 pm) in the winter months when it is mostly locals frequenting the village.

Another well-known area, but seldom visited by us, is the UBC campus with its many museums and gardens. It was an afternoon “down memory lane” when we arrived on the 99 bus and walked the North campus from the bus loop to the Museum of Anthropology (MOA). Half of the buildings we knew from our time studying there 20 years ago had been renovated or replaced with something new. At least the Koerner grad pub was still where we spent evenings with our friends drinking beer, albeit in an updated version. The Chan centre, rose garden and museum had not changed. It was a treat to walk the high-ceilinged halls of the MOA and being awed by the craftsmanship of the totems, carvings of masks and to my personal delight the spinning, weaving and knitting of goat and sheep fibres. The collection of delicately woven cedar bark and root baskets makes me want to try my hand at it.

Papua New Guinea totem carving
Pacific Northwest carving influenced by a visit to Papua New Guinea

 

Inspiring as this visit was I will stick with my current crafts of spinning and knitting and not being pulled into weaving as alluring as it seems to be.

Have a wonderful week!

 

Spinning, Knitting, waiting…

~ beecosydesign ~ 1 Comment

… and life goes on

Day 89 has come and gone since my husband has applied for a work permit and visa to the United Arab Emirates. We are not sure if we were overly optimistic in hoping for a 6 week response or if this is just a regular wait period. It can be testing, especially since we have planned everything out: picked a moving and storage company, packed away the first few boxes of items we seldom use and recycled or donated goods we do not need anymore. There is not much more we can pack away at this time without impeding our day-to-day life. This became apparent when we had friends visiting the other day and could only find one vase to hold the flowers. Who would have thought we would miss something already?

Too much fretting is futile and producing something with my hands makes me happy. Yarn and fibre in all their colours brighten any day, no matter how grey or rainy it may be. This cute, little jacket was knit for Cherryl’s baby who arrived quite surprisingly about a month early on February 14th. Just the day the last stitch was knit. On Monday I found these fun bird buttons at Wetcoastwools and now it is ready to be delivered.

Hello Baby cardigan
by Susan Anderson

The shades of fuchsia and purple fibre I had shown you on a bobbin two blogs ago has been transformed into an equally pretty, marbled yarn in a sock yarn thickness (2.5-3 mm needle). Success! This is my first 4 ounce (110 gm) braid of merino fibre I managed to spin fine and long (425 m) into a soft 2-ply yarn. The twist which holds the fibre together is not high enough for it to be knit into socks, but a lace scarf could be its future. The spinning took two weeks to fill the two bobbins with the singles and another 3 days to ply. “Forever” in my impatient mind. I was astonished by the long hours of spinning, but now understood why most of my previous spinning resulted in DK or worsted thickness (needle size 4-5 mm) yarn. They just spin so much faster!

Final skein
Off the bobbin and..
..on the niddynoddy

My next spinning adventure will be a 1-ounce braid of a merino-silk and 20 gm of silk both hand-dyed at Knotty by Nature in Victoria. The colours have some similarities which will show better once spun up. I have not decided yet, if they will be knit together as two separate yarns or plied together (for a more mixed and marbled effect). Stay tuned for the results…

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To keep things interesting I like to learn something new every few months. There are so many different methods of knitting out there that I have to wonder how I managed to only know long tail-cast on, knit, purl, yarn over, knit together and a standard bind-off for three decades. It still boggles my mind that there are so many techniques just to start a knit garment. Not even to mention all the bind-off ones.  One website Knitting at large assembled 11 online tutorials! And there are more! I have tried about half of those and find that my favourite beginning is still the good ol’ long tail-cast on. It is the fastest one and my muscles can practically knit it without thinking. Today, after years of hearing that knitting two-socks-at-a-time on a circular needle in a magic loop is the fastest way to knit a pair of socks, I ditched my double pointed needles (DPNs) and used a 3 mm x 100 cm long circular needle for a first trial pair of socks from the toe up. This video by Patty Joy showing an even easier cast-on than Judy Becker’s is ingenious and my new favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrUTWaIgdMk

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I will time my knitting to see how long it will take and compare that to another pair knit on DPNs. The race is on!

Have a great week!

 

 

Victoria, BC – on and off the Beaten Path

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Stay-cation part 2

While my previous day in Victoria was focussed on some of the well-known Victoria tourist attractions my most recent visit with my friend Rike explored the more hidden treasures in and around our capital city.

Our first activity off the ferry is often a walk on Island View Beach Regional Park to marvel at the views to the islands, enjoy the tranquility of the rocks and logs and let the dog “Felix” run free.

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Lunch at Tonolli’s cafe run by two Hungarian sisters was next. Our Versailles panini -warmed in a sandwich press and filled with French brie, caramelized walnuts, sliced pears on a ciabatta bun – was delicious and kept us going on our search to find a hay-bale. The hay is being used in composting – a fact I learned that day – and is rather hard to find at this time of the year since they are the leftovers from last year’s grain harvest. We eventually found one and felt like being in a hayloft for the rest of our drive as it was liberally dusting off in bits and pieces getting stuck everywhere.

We started our Sunday with a scrumptious waffle and fruit breakfast and then headed off to Craigdarroch castle, a Victoria landmark I had heard about, but never seen until a week ago when we visited friends who bought a house adjacent to it. Into Scottish Westcoast history we were immersed while walking through the rooms. The Castle had been the family residence of the Dunsmuir family, then a military hospital, a college and a music conservatory until it was taken over and partially restored to the family home it was around 1900 by a non-profit organisation.

The castle
One of many stained glass windows

Next was a visit to Knotty by nature, a yarn and fibre store close to Oak Bay and the only one I had not visited, yet, in my many visits over the years. The owners organize Fibrations, a fantastic fibre and wool festival on the 3rd Sunday of August. I managed to be in town in 2015 and loved the location in a park and the variety of vendors, mostly from Vancouver Island and a few from the Lower Mainland. Check their website later this year to find the date. Anyone needing Caterpillargreen Yarns and finding it difficult to buy online: you may find them at this festival and at Knit City.

On our way to the ferry via the Butterfly gardens in Saanich we grabbed a vegetarian sandwich at the Parsonage Cafe which serves coffee from Fernwood coffee roasters. A quick and yummy lunch in the Fernwood area of Victoria close to downtown.

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The Butterfly Gardens were a treat for us: warm and full of butterflies, birds, fish and tortoises. Interestingly,  we had the most fun with little “E”, an Eclectus Roratus parrot, who took a particular liking to my friend. He landed on her arm and did not want to move off her for many minutes. Talking and chirping as if he had missed her. Shadow, the big Macaw parrot, was less interested in us than in his seeds and fruits.

White tree nymph
“Shadow” – the Macaw
Little “E” – the love bird

Closing time is early in the winter at 3 pm with viewing time until 4 pm which gave me just enough time to leave on the 5pm ferry back to Tsawassen/Vancouver.

I have created captures for some of the photos. Click on one and have a look! More about knitting, spinning and fibres next time.

 

 

 

 

 

Vacation in BC

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Stay-cation in the Lower Mainland and beyond

The first week of my vacation, originally allocated to fly to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to set up a home for my husband and me, has passed in a flurry of activities in BC, enjoying tourist attractions along the way.

The past weekend we visited the Vancouver Aquarium late in the afternoon and were surprised to find we only had 45 minutes to the end of the day. It is a great time to go if you have a membership pass and can return any time. The crowds which usually hang around everywhere and especially the beluga whale and dolphin pools had gone home and we had free viewing access to every exhibit we wanted. What a treat! Our first stop was the tropical rainforest to warm up from the cold rain that had permeated our clothes on the walk from the Stanley park bus loop  to the aquarium. We love the colourful bird species and the sloth. Then we went to meet Chester, a young false killer whale, and were amazed to see him interact with the us and other guests. He swam from one window to the next to show us how he played with his food, a dead squid, he took into his mouth for a second just to spit it out and capture it again. We were mesmerized and could have spent hours more, but it was time to head out into the rain again.

The next day looked bright enough to give flying to Victoria, BC’s provincial capital on Vancouver Island, a try. Despite rain clouds hovering over North Vancouver Harbour Air deemed the view reasonable enough to fly their Turbo Otter water plane across the Georgia Strait. We had tried the previous Sunday and were left stranded due to fog. Happily, we went aboard and marvelled at the views from our window.

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If you have the chance, fly at least once on a water plane and see the beauty of the islands dotting the waters between Vancouver and Victoria. It is a spectacular view on a sunny day and a great reminder that this is the true coastal BC.

Victoria for a few hours was a rainy, cold and windy adventure that had us amazed by the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibit at the Royal BC Museum. We love this yearly event for its thought-provoking and awe-inspiring photos and recommend it for everyone. It will be shown until April 4th, 2016.

Before we flew home a last visit to the Bengal lounge at the Fairmont Empress hotel was a must. There had been news that his very traditional lounge will be renovated come May 2016 and may receive an updated, modern look. A last drink and snack and home we went.IMG_20160131_122301

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knitting time was a little scarce this week since I decided to start a new spinning project: a beautiful braid of purple and fuchsia merino roving in the colourway “amethyst” from Sweet Georgia Yarns sitting in my stash wanted to be spun into a sport weight or sock yarn. I am still working on it, but the colours shine even in the braid and on the bobbin.

Still, there are always a few minutes on a bus ride or an hour in the evening with an opportunity to sit and knit. My “Canted sweater” designed by Mari Chiba has been finished and fits really well: a little loser on the lower part with lots of airflow in case of a hot flash and more figure-hugging on the torso and arms.

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The newest and very exciting knit project is a test knit for my friend Uta from Justquilts for a German mystery KAL scheduled to start in May 2016. I am happy to work with some lace yarn from my stash and try out the pattern for a beautiful finished project. I can not reveal more at this time, but check out her blog in the meantime. The start of the mystery KAL will be posted there and I will post it as well.

Until next week!

 

 

 

Still waiting…

~ beecosydesign ~ 1 Comment

Greetings everyone!

Today, I am starting my long-planned blog about how knitting, spinning and crafting keeps me balanced and sane while life goes on and travels keep me exploring the world.

Today marks day 68 of waiting for a work and residence visa for the United Arab Emirates for my husband. This is, as we read and heard, not unusual. The process from start to finish can take up to 6 months. We had hoped it would happen earlier than later and were all hyped-up about moving our apartment into storage and started cleaning excess “stuff” right away. Now, we have reached a point where more packing or recycling will start to reduce the comfort of our day-to-day life. This is a funny point to be at: stuck in the moment and not able to move forward.

Since the actual date remains unknown I began to take up my regular activities: knitting, spinning, going to knit group, yoga and seeing friends. Ah, and not to forget my part-time work as a pharmacist. This keeps me in the moment and from fretting about the future.

Recently I started a few new knits and currently, I am working on a canted 3/4 sleeve shirt/sweater for myself. It was designed by Mari Chiba and published in the Knitscene 10th anniversary issue. I think I fell in love with the stunning colour first and then with the unique design elements. When I found the perfect color – Lady in Red – hand-dyed in Kamloops, BC by smith and ewe in my favourite Vancouver yarn store WetCoastWools the project was a “go”. This despite my current “no more yarn buying”-rule. But what can I do when something this beautiful calls out to me? 🙂  The knitting will need some blocking to show off the full length and I-cord borders.

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Since the sweater has grown too big to be carried in my purse I have started a baby cardigan designed by Susan B Anderson for Spud & Chloe named the “Hello baby cardigan”.

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My plan is to blog once a week. Hope to see you then!