just another raveller

I'm in Wakefield, Quebec this week, knitting by the Gatineau River. The river is slow this year. Held up at the dam upstream for some purpose or other. The reduced current makes it easier to swim, but reedy in places. When the wind is still, the water is like a mirror. Yesterday morning, I got up early and went canoeing with my sister Frances. She let me sit in the front of the canoe. Here's how the water looked rowing to the northwest, toward town at about 8 a.m. And here's what it looked like rowing to the south east, towards the sun. In knitting, I am working on 2 projects. Here's the beginning of a Garter Stich Catharina from Stahman's Scarves and Shawls. I also have the hazy beginnings of a new summer top which is not yet worth showing. Mary Lou, the Wakefield Bakery is still in existence, though I understand from the locals that it caters mostly to the people who come for the day on the steam train up from Hull. The really good bakery is Pipolinka around the ...

I was very excited to see my friend Julie (Aniko) post her first pattern on Ravelry this past week. She's calling it the Wakefield Sock, not for any literary reference, but for the town on the Gatineau River outside Ottawa. It's a nice, short, lacy sock, perfect for Spring, or summer if you knit it in cotton. Julie designed it for her handspun, but it has been knit successfully with several kinds of regular sock yarn to date. I got started right away with a skein of Punta Yarns MeriSock Handpainted that I picked up in the Rochester yarn crawl last Fall. This is a really nicely behaved yarn that produces a crisp stitch. The colour pooling isn't bad either. I checked back last week to see if that had any more at Spirit Works , but they're all out of it for now. The pattern is written for two circular needles but I'm doing it on dpn's cause that's what I like. It was easy to adjust. Click to embiggen, as they say.

I've been away. You may have noticed. A brief week at the cottage, all too short. We rented this place on the Gatineau River and got the whole family together. We've been up in these parts for several decades now but no longer fit under one roof. We had to haul in the drinking water, but the surroundings were so beautiful and relaxing that we didn't really mind. There was canoeing, of course. And swimming. With neighbourhood dogs. There was a  covered bridge with views. The water was high and fast due to all the rain that they've had this summer. There was more canoeing. With clouds reflected in the still water of Lac La Peche in the morning. And knitting, of course. Here's the present I was working on for my sister Frances. I found one of those blue and white striped Sheffield tea pots and knit this cosy for it. I'm just about done with the Side to Side Pullover (that ribbon thing) but not quite there. I could hardly bear working on it. Instead, I carried aro...