Time passes

Time passes - and nothing very much happens. Nothing much bloggable, anyway. But I felt that I should just put in a brief appearance as much to reassure myself that I hadn't faded out of existance as anything else.

Oh, stuff has happened. Stuff that is pretty routine for the most part, sometimes more fun than that. Friends, yarn shops, fibre suppliers, you know the sort of thing. But very little spinning or knitting activity has taken place. (Weaving, now - that is a different story, but not mine. Let us just say that the DSM, in contrast to my apathy, is going like gangbusters at the moment, and apart from everything else that he has been doing has wheeled forth the Baby Wolf and has Been Doing Things. I will report in due course.)

I have put a few more inches on the never-ending scarf. Let us just say - it will be done by next winter! But it is an odd thing. For all that I find it a deadly dull project, I love the way the stitch looks, and am going to have to fight very hard with myself not to attempt to survive knitting a waistcoat using the same one. I have bought some grey/brown BFL, and some gorgeous silver grey (dyed) merino/silk with either that in mind, or if I can manage it, a cabled afghan. We shall have to see. All in the future....

And in the present, there has been a long, dedicated search for Just The Right Shawl Pattern. Remember, I finished spinning a spinach green merino/silk, destined for a shawl? I looked at the ball of yarn, and panicked. There would not be enough for the sort of shawl I had in mind. So hours and hours and hours were spent hunting through the Ravelry pattern library, not to mention all the books that I have, and nothing, absolutely nothing leapt off the page at me. So, I thought it would be sensible to make another Pimpelleise - a great pattern, nice and simple to knit and very useful when completed.

After several inches, I realised that the ball of yarn had barely diminished at all. I was being a total pessimist about what I could accomplish with it (I think there may be a moral there, somewhere.....). The hunt was up again. And this time, I found a neat little number on Ravelry, called, I believe, the Ashton shawlette. I'll check and post the link when I post first pics. I have cast on (twice, not bad, eh?) and I think it will be good.

Perhaps the grey fog of time passing is....passing.

Tomorrow, off to Norfolk, with two workshops to teach. In the town where I went to school, although not of course actually there! Although I might just phone them up and ask if it is possible to do a quick walk-through. A few favourite spots to visit, and ah ha! a new yarn shop in Holt. But I cannot deny that this is going to be a bit of an odd trip - the first return visit since my mother died and all. I have always counted myself as a Norfolk woman, my family on my mother's side was through and through, so I preferred to claim that heritage rather than my father's more southerly one. I think I should maybe reconsider that, for what it is worth.

Anyhow, I want to finish a bit of spinning before we go, so, off to my wheel. Next post from foreign parts again.......

Somewhat bumpy landing

Not in actual fact. Our flights home were smooth and effortless and several days ago. No, what I mean is me landing home with an excess of jetlag. Absolutely no idea why it should be so, but there we go, we take the punches!

Worth it, though. I loved my first experience of Canada.

So, a quick recap. Which will mainly be public art. Without wishing in any way to be insulting, I mostly didn't find Ottawa or Montreal as photogenic as Quebec City. But in our wanderings around, we did see some interesting, or downright stunning art of various kinds.

We had read that the National Gallery in Ottawa was closed on Mondays - still not sure, but we hadn't really got time to do it justice. But we did see these...





But this was what I had really come for.



This may seem a strange piece of sculpture for an arachnophobe to want to see, but I am very glad that I did. Awesome in the proper sense of the word

We walked back to our hotel via a well-known market whose name I have completely forgotten, shame to say. I think Bywater, but I might be getting confused with a Montreal Metro station called Atwater.

Or vice versa - see, jetlag still not completely gone.

A curious thing, but quite fun.



After a nice evening out with god-daughter and my friend, we got the train back to Montreal the next day WITHOUT PROBLEMS.

Now, I've thought about this quite a bit since. But at first appearances, I did not so much like Montreal. On reflection, I think it grew on me after the first couple of days. The only way to be sure, of course, is to go back. I have warned the DSM........



This restaurant sign was appealing. As was this jolly chap on a fountain.



I liked these hearts outside the Musee des Fine Arts.





I also very much enjoyed the Exhibition inside, on the work of an artist that I had never heard of before, Lyonel Feininger. An extremely well set out show, lots of information. Need to do some more investigation.

We had a lot of time on Sunday, with transatlantic flights being evening ones. We saved a little local museum for then. Very interesting and enjoyable, too - devoted to the artisans of the locality, so lots of ironwork, tinsmithing, glass-blowing, joinery and even some textile. Very, very little. And with a small - puzzle? Although, I think not.

Some few things related to weaving, a pair of hand carders as well, all in a glass case. Along with an object maybe two feet long, a fairly slender shafted thing with the shaft split in to four at one end, these four sections curved into a more or less egg-shaped "cage". A few wisps of fleece put within.

Labelled "spindle". For producing yarn.

Ahem. Probably - not. Try "distaff"?

I did go and talk to the nice young man at the desk. I was very pleasant. After all, I could have been wrong (I wonder if I will ever find out? I did leave my email address.)

Before finishing this post and leaving Canada, back one day to the Saturday in Montreal, which was St Patrick's Day. I have never been anywhere other than the UK on this occasion before, at least to the best of my knowledge. Who would have thunk? The streets of Montreal were teeming, positively teeming with people of all genders, sizes, shapes, ages dressed pretty much entirely in green. Often with sparkles. And face paint.



I risked a quick photo of one of the bars. There was to me at least a certain irony in the name of this one! Still, it was nice to see so many people having a good and relatively unrowdy party. The weather was lovely, warm and sunny - maybe that's it. An excuse for a knees up as the spring starts up.. That's an idea I could live with.

Well, let's hope that my head sorts itself out smartish, things to do and places to go. I managed to get to AH yesterday, had a lovely day, and it was nice to be back.

I have several nice yarns I have spun with shawls in mind, and I want to get going on one of those.

Oh - and note to self.....the clocks change tonight!!

Let the train take the strain......

A brief picture-less post about travelling. I'm on a slow internet connection at the moment and don't want to try up and down loading photographs. I'll wander around the house at some later point and see if I can find a better position than my present one.

We have left Quebec, visited Ottawa and now arrived back in Montreal. Sounds simple? Maybe not so.

I bravely telephoned to order a taxi to get us to the station in Quebec, seemingly succesfully, slightly to my amazement. Only, the next morning, having got everything down to the street to wait for it - nada. Buggrit. Mobile phone didn't want to work, so I had to go back upstairs with the competer and use Skype. Spoke to taxi company, they said they would dispatch a taxi immediately. Which they did. Hurrah!!

Loads of time at the station - an hour before our train for Montreal left. (We both like to allow lots of time in case anything should go wrong.....) So, we sat and had a leisurely cup of coffee, then moseyed on over to the barrier to have our tickets checked.

"Oh dear" says nice man -, if you see what I mean fortunately an Anglo - "you've missed your train." Er - no. We yessed and noed back and forth a bit until he thinks to ask us if we actually knew that the clocks had changed the night before......

Silence, quickly followed by huge embarrasment Not to mention panic, visions of having to rearrange all our plans. Horrors.

Anyway, our ticket person was brilliant, and told us to get the bus to Montreal, a taxi to the railway station and we might make our connection. It didn't seem as if we would, but the buses run to time as well, and we got in early, if you see what I mean. We gave a taxi driver a bit of fun by explaining the situation and asking him to drive fast, and we made the train by the skin of our teeth.

We caused much amusement to various people - seeing us rushing along, one guy told us we had loads of time, go back and do more shopping. The chap with the refreshment cart, when we asked him if he had wine (we deserved it!) said yes, he had six, was that enough??

But we got there, and Ottawa was brilliant. Perhaps more later. But for now, we are safely in our last lodging, very luxurious, in Montreal. Quite tired, and glad for a bit of peace!!

Still in Quebec

We are having such a good time just simply wandering around the neighbourhood and the Old City.

Brightly painted houses just down the street that we are staying on.



And on the main drag a little way up the hill (there's a lot of hills!)



In between the two...



Which has been providing us with regular lovely carillons - if that is the word - several times a day.

And how could I resist this!



Yesterday, we went back in to the Old City, and down the vertiginous funicular to the lower city. I'm just going to include a few photos, you can always click through to Flickr if you want to see more.

It is very picturesque, helped by the trend to seemingly keep Christmas decorations up all through the winter, charming buildings, and interesting murals.









We have just pottered locally today. I am enormously proud of myself, having negotiated attempting to shop for boots (a fail, though, as they didn't fit) and other odds and ends, all in French. What is more - and this was the really difficult bit - I made the phone call to order a taxi to get us to the station tomorrow lunchtime. So much harder when you can't get visual clues, but I think I did it ok!

So tomorrow we are of to Ottawa to visit my god-daughter and her mum who just happens to visiting at the same time. And then on Tuesday to Montreal, where amongst other delights, there are yarn shops.

Speaking of which - the boring scarf is growing, but it is a good job that the weather has not been as cold as it might have been!

Somewhere else

I suppose that because I have travelled in the US quite a bit, I had not quite appreciated just how different Quebec was going to be. Yeah, I knew all about it being the Francophone region, but had not appreciated that there would be quite a few people who didn't speak English at all. But, hey, that's fine - I can still summon up enough French to get by, and it is really good fun having to do so. And people like you to make the effort anyway, and it is only polite to do so.

We were only very briefly in Montreal on our way to Quebec City. Easy to get a shuttle bus in to town that stopped right outside our hotel (sheer coincidence) We were able to have a very leisurely start on Monday morning, getting to the central station in plenty of time to negotiate the ticket situation - which again was ll really easy.

Montreal station is an experience all by itself, so we were glad to have plenty of time to look around and pick up a sandwich and salad lunch. The train journey was effortless and comfortable.

We have found ourselves a really interesting place to stay; old and slightly shabby, but very comfortable and very well placed for pottering about. The apartment is only a couple of streets away from one of the main roads leading in to the Old City - certainly walking distance. A residential area, lots of shops and restaurants, quite funky. Today we found a brilliant wholefood cooperative for su[pplies, but are spoiled for choice with places to eat.

Other than that - it is sunny, cold, snowy and amazingly French in appearance, and indeed in sound - there are churches nearby that ring bells at frequent intervals, and i can easily imagine myself somewhere in the French countryside. Lovely!

Selection of images! Nothing all that exciting so far...













I'm still a bit brain-dead, I am finding - keeping track of photos is proving somewhat tricky! Better stop for a cup of tea, and do more tomorrow.

More rust

We were at the Bradford Industrial Museum last Saturday, and I spotted a couple of chunks of rusting ironwork that I hadn't noticed before.

So, to celebrate 29th February with a quick post - some images.













I've had a message from a SOAR friend about dyeing with rust, but it involves wrapping the rusted object in fabric - silk for best results - and leaving for a while (yes, I know, other steps, but I'm short-handing). I would love to do this! Unfortunately, all the lovely rusty things I have been seeing are on large objects that couldn't be moved, or wrapped in silk for any time or even at all. Thinking cap on....

I have finished the second mitten, and I found to my amazement that when I pressed them, what I had thought was me pulling the stitches too tight was no such thing. They have flattened out beautifully.

Of course, that does mean that all the mistakes are showing up rather nmore.

What the heck, I love 'em.

Whitefaced Woodland (and the Way of the World)

I've finally begun the spinalong. We (this means the DSM and those members of the AH class that want to join in) started with Whitefaced Woodland as I knew that it would be easy to get both fleece and roving from a reliable source.

So, this is a lock from the fleece sample that I had.



Although the DSM and I shared one handful, the way it fell out was that the locks in mine were all pretty uniform, while his varied quite a bit. I'm not too concerned about this as I know that Whitefaced Woodland is a variable fleece anyway. My sample was on the edge of what I consider suitable for carding, ie around four inches. So I decided to begin by combing a little of the fleece.

First with a dog comb:



Then with my Forsyth hand combs:





Two small samples - the one on the right is dog combed, on the left, hand combed.



I also had a sample of carded roving, which I am quite familiar with, so I first played with spinning as fine a yarn as I could manage, using a forward short draw. I didn't really push it, and came up with something that would certainly knit as lace. Maybe not a scarf, a bit too scratchy, but a shawl would be ok - you would get a nice, crisp stitch definition.

The second half of the sample I spun as I have done quite a lot before, that is with an extended draw. This makes a good bouncy yarn that is excellent for not next to the skin sweaters &etc.



Fine sample top left.

Having some of the fleece left, I reckoned that it was worth trying it carded, although I would not usually do this. It was just ok to card.



Too long a staple to do a traditional English long draw, so I used an extended draw again. I often have problems with spinning a consistent yarn with this method, and with hand carded fleece, this inconsistency is very evident.



I'm a great fan of Whitefaced Woodland, so I was predisposed to give a favourable assessment of this first fibre. It generally has at least a medium length staple, little to no crimp, just a gentle wave, and the merest hint of lustre. Not really all that noticeable, but if you do an actual or mental comparison with a down fibre, I reckon that there is a hint. Nice crisp fibre, good for knitting all sorts of things, and I do know from previous experience that it dyes very well.

You will see from my photographs that I didn't organise my samples in a very sophisticated way. The DSM was much better, and prepared a card to fasten his to; and I was delighted to see that the class members who had taken part had been even more organised.



I will do better next time!

I was also very pleased to see that more of the AH class are going to take part in the next round, which will be Navajo Churro. Seems that I am not the only one enjoying this.

The other WW - Congreve's Way of the World. We went to see this at the Sheffield Crucible on Wednesday. There seems so rarely to be an opportunity to see Restoration drama/comedy, and I do try to grab every one that comes along. Sheffield isn't all that far to go, and the Crucible has a great standard.

This didn't disappoint. Now, I have never seen a production of this play before, so I am slightly handicapped in making a truly informed judgment. It was not done entirely "straight". It was a little hard to tell as the play started just what the idea was, but it became obvious, and to my mind worked extremely well. An intro of a group of "celebs" being videoed, photographed etc, all in modern dress gave way to the characters in the drama in costumes that were more or less modern but clearly suggested period. The set was open, mainly white (cleverly, when there was colour it was strongly echoed in the costumes), pretty minimalist (yeay!!) So it was a nice blending of the original with the modern (giving an opportunity for many of the cast to sport some wicked shoes!)

The players took it at a very fast lick, which did mean those of us unfamiliar with the work had to put in a fair amount of effort to keep up with everything, but that was ok. The cast were great, particularly Mirabell, who had a terrific stage presence - I was staggered to see that this was his first stage performance (he had done quite a bit of film and TV work). Basically - if you hadn't noticed - I really enjoyed it. Just wish I could get to London to see The Recruiting Officer, but I can't have everything!

OK, more knitting to be done if I want my mittens finished by next Sunday (they will be).

But, more later.