Vermont, NY and finished Monkeys

So JF and I decided to take advantage of the strong Canadian dollar this past weekend and to head town to the US to do a little exploring and shopping. We decided to go the Burlington first and then take the ferry across to Plattsburg. I am very lucky to have such a sweet boyfriend because upon arriving in Burlington we took a wrong turn and JF saw a Michael's store and asked me if I wanted to go, It was on my plans for Plattsburg, but I gratefully accepted since he was offering. I got a few crafty things, some beads and a ball of Patons classic merino to go with the one I already have. Our next stop was KFC for lunch which I know just sounds awful, but they have boneless buffalo wings in the US at KFC and its my favourite thing since I dislike normal wings. After lunch we went to Kaleidoscope Yarns just outside of Burlington. It's a beautiful place, and there was so much choice, but I didn't want to buy yarn just to buy yarn cause my stash is getting a little out of control these days, so I wanted something small, that I could make something out of. I ended up getting this:

Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light in Turquoise Mix (so soft)

The ladies at Kaleidoscope were so friendly they even gave me a pattern for fingerless gloves to make with it. I also found the Winter 2005 issue of Interweave Knits, it features an exclusive interview with montreal's own Veronik Avery written by Lee Ann Balazuc and also features Mona Strickt's Embossed Leaves Socks, It also features a few patterns for now montreal based Kate Gilbert but she wasn't in Montreal then. I'd been wanting to get the pattern for Mona's sock anyway and since there was so much other Montreal talent in the magazine I decided to buy it.

There was another nice surprise waiting for me at the yarn shop, Norah Gaughan was visiting for the day. Which is very interesting since the next pattern I want to start is her Here and There Cables scarf from Scarf Style I got to see an actual version of it, making me want to make it even more. She let me take a picture with her!

Norah Gaughan and I

Next we went to the Church Street Marketplace and to the Burlington Town Centre and did a little more shopping, I got a few things, one of them was my new knitting bag.

I've been looking for a bag for a while, but I haven't been able to find one that fits all or even most of my needs. This one, while it doesn't have as many compartments as I would have like, is awesome, mostly because of the colours and motif, It even matches my blog!. After that we had Dinner at T.G.I.Friday's and then we took the ferry to Plattsburg and settled into our hotel for the night.

Sunday was much less eventful, since there is a lot less to do in Plattsburg. We went to a Walmart supercentre, and I've seriously never seen anything so big. They have a full fledged grocery store in Walmart. I got some koolaid packets that I plan to use to do some dyeing.

After a late lunch/early dinner we headed back and got through customs without a hitch (aside from the 1.5 hour wait). While in line I finished my 2nd monkey sock and now I finally have a pair. I hope my mom likes them.

After coming home I re-cast on my Jaywalkers. I still want to do them both at once so I will need to get another pair of dpns from Robyn. Hopefully it will go a little better this time.

I have so many things I want to make soon (Xmas is coming), and I've also signed up for Mitten Swap 3 so I need to make those as well.

To end on a very exciting note, I recently won a contest that Patty held, I'm getting some of her hand-dyed yarn. Woohoo!

Progress

So I'm making slow progress with jaywalkers, just haven't found that much time to knit with the trip coming up and all. I'm mostly packed now and on the weekend I sat down and watched a few movies so I knit during them.

Here is my progress:


It feels like its going slow, but I have to keep reminding myself that every inch i gain is actually 2 inches. So it makes me feel better, plus there is no second sock syndrome.

Anyhow, time for bed, until next time.

Jaywalkers cast on.

So I finally cast on for my Jaywalkers after much prodding from Robyn to get started. She bought us the same yarn so that we could knit them together. She even started a KAL for it. I decided that I wanted to do them both at once, using one very long addi turbo. Here is my progress so far. Approx 2 rows.

Other than that there is not much happening here, I'm working a lot and I'm really looking forward to going home for my vacation in 10 days!!!

Progress pics soon.... Hopefully.

Long Weekends

So the last two weekends here in Quebec were long weekends, July 24th is St-Jean Baptiste Day which as a proud Canadian citizen I shouldn't celebrate but my fiancé is Québécois. This past weekend as any of my fellow Canadians know was Canada day. We went to both celebrations and both were fun, and besides its more about the music and fireworks than anything else for me. Here is a taste of some of what we saw.

La Journée de la St-Jean Baptiste (Fête Nationale)



Canada Day

I've been a bad knitter, and I haven't knit since Robyn's birthday get together. It's been a hectic couple of weeks. Tonight I missed the usual Knit meetup because of a vet's appointment for Nugget; Just a routine shot, nothing serious.

One of the reasons I love Montréal is Le Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. I've really gotten into Jazz in the past few years and its an amazing experience just to see the amount of people that go to the festival. Here are a few pics:

Lights (using Fireworks feature and movement)


The Masses (la Foule)


an artist painting Jazz Festival scenes

Hopefully I'll have progress pictures to show soon cause I really want to finish these socks. I also need to cast on for Jaywalkers because Robyn started a KAL and we're supposed to knit them together, only problem is she has much more time to knit than me.

Anyhow, it's time for bed. Only two weeks till my vacation to Newfoundland, I'm so excited.

Later Daze!