Nearly There...

Arrived this morning at the Vancouver station. By the way, for anyone who is interested: this trip is absolutely amazing. And much to my husband's eventual dismay, I've discovered that there are similar rail services all over the US too. I think I'm hooked...oh yeah, I do have to go back to work at some point.

So here is a picture of one of the first mountains that we came upon just before Jasper. How pretty, but I realized that although I was impressed, mountains don't actually do anything. If you've seen a picture, you've seen a mountain. BUT at 5 am this morning, we rode through the Fraser Canyon. WOW! How sad that the schedule doesn't allow for travellers to see it unless they are chronic insomniacs like me.

This is a lovely knit and quilt shop that I got to visit in Jasper. I noted the coincidence as my store is called WOOL-TYME and one of the customers in the store said: "Why, I've been to WOOL-TYME!" It is a very small world. After my visit came the best part of our 1 1/2 hour stop over in Jasper: I dropped $40 plus tip for a shampoo...and worth every cent.

I've come along a bit on the toe up socks. The pink stripe is the waste yarn for the "afterthought heel" which will be added when the rest of the leg is done. Any observers, knitters and non knitters alike, had great difficulty visualizing the afterthought addition of a heel.

Off to get the bus/ferry/bus to Victoria where I hear that there is a giant rally/parade for earth day and protesting the local fish farms. My brother says that they planned it for today as they knew I'd be arriving. I think not!

The Assiniboine Valley is too beautiful to waste on a straight highway.

For some reason, I've been really surprised by the friendliness of all the passenger and staff on board. But if you think about it, spending 80 hours together is a bit like being on a cruise where people will start chatting just to satisfy their curiosity about each other.

At first it began with the younger ones getting together and staying up way past when the rest of us had tried to get some sleep But as we passed the half way point between Toronto and Vancouver, we all started looking at each other as potential chat buddies. These girls had brought some very creative activities to pass the time in the dome car. This was their balsa wood model plane. Later in the day they brought out wax crayons and mini colouring books.


Needless to say, the toe up socks and the rug hooking that I've been working on have attracted some attention along the way but now people are stopping to watch and ask about what I'm doing instead of just shyly passing and mentioning that they liked it.


A young woman from the Niagara area, whose boyfriend had borrowed my scissors the day before while they were working on woven friendship bracelets of embroidery floss, was telling me something interesting that she has learned during her Midwifery program where she is enrolled at McMaster U. It would appear that there is a nurse-midwife in Britain who has made it a part of her practice to knit during the labour and part of the delivery of her patients, only putting down her needles in an emergency. The theory is that by knitting, she creates an atmosphere of calm and mild detachment, believing that nature is capable of leading the way and assuring the mothers that they will able to follow what their bodies are prepared to do.

Her success and satisfaction rates are apparently phenomenal. It puts a new twist on Elizabeth Zimmerman's perennial edict to: "Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises."

This is a picture that I took of a little girl that I saw during our stop over in Winnipeg. What first caught my eye was her little white coat which actually has a sheep hood and is a cute as can be. But then I saw her beautiful fingering weight leggings. The Mom said that her best friend made them for the little one and although she herself can't knit, she certainly appreciated the knitted gifts that this good friend likes to send.
We can't all be creators. Grateful recipients are important too!

Day 2 on the train

We've arrived early in Winnipeg and it's one of the few times that I'll have internet access along the trip so I'm making the most of it.

For the full 16 hours of daylight time we rode through deep forest that I'm sure no amount of the most super powered insect repellent could protect one from during the buggy season.

I've driven across Canada several times and have taught Canadian Geography and neither experience prepared me for the amazing vastness of the wilderness in northern Ontario. Aside from the occasional dirt road and a few villages with nothing higher than a 2 storey dwelling, there is very little of human intervention to be seen from the train for hours on end.

When people asked me why I didn't just fly to Victoria if I wanted to go to the West Coast, I told them that I wanted a working vacation, and that this would be like a cottage that could also move me to where I wanted to go. After a day, I realize that a better comparison is like being at a vacation resort with really nice staff to help out and lots of interesting people to meet. And sitting on the "porch" of my chalet is like watching a really long episode of National Geographic: Astounding for its magnitude and beauty when you glance up from your work, but you wouldn't want to have to pay constant attention to it for all 16 daylight hours.


Here is a picture of the socks that I was working on yesterday, and that's the boreal forest in the background. I actually started the toe at home as I'm not ultra confident in toe-up techniques and I didn't want to have the stress of trying to get it right enough to give as a gift when I'm working on a moving train.
As it turned out, it was a good thing that I did that as it took me 3 tries to get it right-ish.

The bulk of my crafting time yesterday was spent on the rug hooking project that I've designed. I had wanted to learn more about shading with yarns, so I created a mosaic of 9 "tiles", each containing a flower from The Rug Hookers Bible. I did the blue one at home as a test run to see if it would be a feasible project. The wild roses I did yesterday. I'm going to try and complete the majority one flower each day that I'm on the train. I'll keep you posted.

Vancouver Island or Bust!

After 15 months of planning the final hour has arrived and I'm on the train to Toronto for the shortest leg of my ultimate trip to the West Coast.

From what I can tell from the Via Rail website, this jaunt from Kingston to Toronto is likely to be the least comfortable of the trek as we (the other travelers who are heading west and I) will be boarding the "Continental" just a bit before midnight tonight, which should arrive sometime on Saturday morning in Vancouver. From there, I'll make my way by bus and ferry to Victoria where I'll be meeting my brothers for a week of visits, yarn shop searching and a day at the Cowichan centre to try and connect with some of the Native knitters there.

At left is a picture of Victoria in full bloom a few weeks ago. Not all that different from what I'm leaving here.

This is what we have to travel through on the way across Canada: what Albertans are hoping to be the last of the spring storms. Very pretty but I had been hoping to see SPRING on the prairies. A lot can happen before I get there.

I have packed a whole suitcase of knitting, rug hooking, books, note books, this laptop, my MP3 player and a whole lot of snacks. I was assuming that I'd have a chance to blog a fair bit while on the train but have discovered that it's only on this leg of the journey that internet access is available on the train. It appears that I'll have to wait until I can get off in train stations for a bit of a break, once or twice a day in order to connect to the station's access. All that to say, I'll be keeping some notes and pictures along the way but it might only get posted every second day.

Be back with you soon.

Anne

The Ultimate Knit and Chat Weekend on Amherst Island

is incredibly excited to offer

THE ULTIMATE KNIT AND CHAT WEEKEND on Amherst Island.

Isn't this the lodge where you would love to spend 2 nights, enjoying 6 gourmet meals,and a series of knitting workshops, a yoga class for knitters and all the Knitting and Chatting that you can handle.

Save the dates on your calendar now:

Friday. Sept 24th (for supper) to Sunday Sept. 26th (after lunch) all for just $350*.

Or if you can only spare a day, take the ferry and join us on the Saturday from 10:00am to 4pm for workshops, a delicious lunch, lots of fun for $50.

The goal of this weekend retreat is to relax and get away to this lovely island setting and enjoying the company of new and old friends, while picking up some great knitting tips.

The knitting theme of the weekend will be "Going Around In Circles".

-Friday evening we will have a pot luck snack fest while having the opportunity to try out a wide range of circular knitting needles. Bamboo, nickel plated, lace tips, 9" sock needles, "Clicks" (interchangeable ends).

You name it, we'll have it there for you to try and compare.

-Saturday after breakfast we'll welcome our daytime participants and have the first of 2 workshop sessions that you can choose to attend. Likely themes for these sessions will be:

-Converting a regular pattern so it can be knit in the round: the pros/cons, and how tos.

-How to use circular needles on smaller projects: magic loop, 2 circulars, small circulars.

-Moebius knitting a la Cat Bordhi: lots of ways to use this interesting technique.

Needless to say the exact schedule and content isn't firmed up just yet, but we'll keep it posted here as things solidify.

-Saturday afternoon will have another workshop and/or free time to walk the shoreline or sit on the beach.

-Saturday evening will be movie night/ chat night/ "P.J. party with knitting" night...whatever.

-Sunday morning we'll have Jackie from Yoga to Go come and visit us to share some gentle yoga techniques, specifically helpful for knitters. Then you can catch up on the knitting class that you didn't get to participate in by chatting with the teacher.

We'll finish off with a great Sunday luncheon and a last walk on the beach and head to the ferry in time to be home for the lovely dinner that your family will have prepared for you...

Some of the nitty gritty details:

Registration: To save your spot for this exquisite fall getaway just call WOOL-TYME Kingston at 613-384-3951 and we will be glad to save your spot (for the full weekend of the day.)

A $150 deposit is required at registration ($100 refundable until Aug 31st.) for the weekend and a $25 deposit is required for the day registration.

The rest of the payment is due by Aug. 31st. Cancellations after this date can only be made if we are able to find someone to take your place.

Where: The Lodge on Amherst Island is just a 2 minute drive/5 minute walk from the ferry terminal. As parking is at a premium, (and who wants to pay for the ferry anyway?) we can meet in Millhaven and car pool from the ferry dock.

*Note The price quoted above is based on double occupancy (2 beds per room), consequently if you prefer not to share your accommodation, the fee for the weekend is $450.

Other details will appear here and in email posts to you as specific plans gel together.

Don't delay. Registration is on a first come, first served basis.

Anne

Be kind to wounded knitters out there.

I was just watching a DVD series where actor, Ewan McGregor, and his real life buddy are riding their motorcycles from London to NYC, called "The Long Way Around", that is to say through Europe, Russia, flying across the Beiring Strait and down through Alaska, Canada and across the USA.

While visiting a children's shelter run by Unicef, Ewan asked the kids if they had learned to knit. They replied that they did knit, and did it quite well. Ewan then related the very sad story of his 9 year-old self knitting a scarf for a beloved uncle, emphasizing the time and patience that it took. When he presented the gift, his uncle laughed..."And I never knit again," were Ewan's final words on the subject. But you could tell that it was with some very real regret that he put the needles away.

Let me tell you, I hear more than my share of stories of people who have had such experiences. They find the courage to come to the store and shyly ask about taking lessons, feeling that their previous experiences with frustrated teachers and/or inapproriate tools mean that they are, as they've been told in the past, "not very good" at knitting.

Coming up in June is an opportunity for all knitters to go out and find some wounded knitters and extend the hand of friendship and encouragement to them. June 12th to 20th is World Wide Knit in Public Week.

One great way of celebrating this fact is to get together with friends at a local cafe and knit, but I'm planning on doing something a bit different this year.

It will be an exercise in building up knitting karma: I plan on spending 1/2 hour each day, knitting by myself at some different location in the city. The idea is that I'm hoping that people will come up and ask about what I'm doing, or will share a bit about their knitting history or memories. It should be fun...and who among us would not want to have a reason for sitting down to knit for 1/2hour each day, no matter where or what the circumstances?

I plan on keeping a record with pictures and will keep you up to date about the results. Do you have any plans? Let me know and we can share them with each other.

Yarn Theory...science meets craft yarn.

Last week I heard on CBC Radio that the winner of Britain's Diagram Prize for the most unusual book title of 2009 is: Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Daina Taimina. Daina was a mathematics professor at the University of Latvia for 20 years and has now been at Cornell University for the past 10 years. She also crochets objects to illustrate hyperbolic space and makes truly appealing books about them. Follow this link to see more examples of her technical/beautiful work.
http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dtaimina/hypplanes.htm




So, living as we do in a world where every piece of information is about 2 minutes away with the help of GOOGLE, I wondered what other math and science minds had turned their techno brains to yarn crafts and WOW, what a treasure chest is out there.

The Yarn Theory Project was an art exhibition in 2009 which explored the relationship between knitting, crochet, mathematics and science. It operated out of an old public school, turned into a community art gallery, bringing art to the city and the city into the studio.

In areas of Britain, breast feeding clinics had found themselves short of expensive models of breasts for demonstrations. They issued a plea to knitters and patterns were made available for breasts of varying shapes and sizes from the Lactation Consultants Association of Great Britain. This is a picture of Audrey Horncastle who at 84 has found a whole new way to make her crafts valuable to the community by knitting "boobs" for the group.
Where there's a will, the knitters have a way of solving any dilemma. Link here for the pattern.

Follow the link below for more examples of the collisions between craft and science, such as a knitted brain, a view of the nature of the chaotic system with 25 500 stitches, a womb, the digestive system.
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/090127.html

And most beautiful of all, is the Crocheted Coral Reef Project, which will be exhibited at the Science Gallery in Dublin until June 2010.

From the Crocheted Coral Reef site here is a description of the project:

"One of the acknowledged wonders of the natural world, the Great Barrier Reef stretches along the coast of Queensland like a psychadelic serpent, a riotous profusion of color and form unparalleled on our planet. But global warming and pollutants so threaten this fragile monster that scientists now believe the reef will be devastated in coming years. As a homage to the Great One, IFF directors Margaret and Christine Wertheim instigated a project to crochet a woolen reef. The sisters, who grew up in Queensand, have been spearheading the project since 2005, quiety watching as it has morphed into an unexpected and far-reaching wordwide movement. "

Check it out. It's almost worth the trip to Dublin just to witness how our lovely yarns can be made to emulate nature.