Life's a Stitch

A cat who behaves like a dog

In the sharply divided world of animal lovers, I align with the dog people. That is, unless I meet a cat who behaves like a dog. I think you know what I mean.

In the world of needlework, I align with the knitting, but if I find crochet that behaves like a knitted object, I'm in. Just what does that mean? I had always associated crochet with worsted weight acrylic, stitches with a certain firmness. Nothing wrong with that. It's hardy and washable. There are plenty of knitting projects that fit that bill, too. My recent love is lace weight with drape. This week I've found my crochet project that acts like knitting:

It's the Seraphina Shawl  (link for Raveler's) or free pattern here (for anyone), in Malabrigo Lace. In certain yarns and colours it might be reminiscent of Charlotte's Web's spine and scallop patterning. This is mine from way back when. And another one from not quite as long ago. My next Seraphina might just be done in Koigu KPPM for old time's sake. 

360 degrees

It's a La Nina year weatherwise. It means more rain but spectacular quickly changing skies. We call them Steven Spielberg skies after the beginning of the movie, ET, where the clouds moved quickly overhead. His was a special effect. Ours are real.

From our street on Wednesday, I took these pictures, all within about two minutes, turning and snapping in three directions. No cropping, no editing at all:

And when La Nina blows the clouds away, this is what we see five blocks from here. Remember Vancouver's Lions? They were covered in fog in a previous post.

Here they are, up close and personal:

After living here for 26 years I think I'm still in love. It's got to be love to say that in a La Nina year.

Colour

First things first. A couple of you asked for a picture of a banana slug and as they are colourful creatures they will be included in this post:

Yukk, eh?

And considering the comments from my Noro review, many of us are in it for the colour. We're willing to sacrifice a bit of softness, putting up with straw and fluff, all for the sake of a colourfest. Here's my colourfest du jour:

This pattern is designed for use with Wollmeise, but have never been lucky enough to find yarn in stock on their website. I covet Wollmeise, but not enough to succomb to the sin of excessive spending or stoop to nasty e-bay sniping. A survey of the stash produced just enough Mountain Colours Barefoot in two different dyelots:

Reminds me of our sunset from the other night:

Gracee likes colour, too:

Only she likes to chew it.

And now for something completely different

Do you remember that line? How about the Ministry of Silly Walks? I used to have to have TV to watch Monty Python, but now, TV-less me, can catch glimpses of those classic scenes on Youtube without commercials. But this post is different because I have been heavily into the knitting and yarn content, and for the present post, will take a break. 

When I grew up in NY, near the Big Apple, we would say we were going "into the city." Here in North Vancouver we say we are going "over town." When we visit our apartment in Washington, we refer to it as going "to the States." But my favourite directional euphemism refers to our weekend hiking activity, going "up the mountain." 

Going up the mountain, into our rain forest, I wrote about that recently. I like to go because for me it means Geocaching. C comes along, not totally enamoured with the caching, he calls it hiking. Our forays into the forest mean encounters with interesting creatures like the one eyed rock giant:

And fearsome drooling wood beasts:

I'll spare you the photos of actual foot long banana slugs. It's not too much of an exaggeration. 

I especially love my rain forest in oxymoronic dry weather:

And tonight, driving by our old neighbourhood, also close to the rainforest, I was wishing I had a camera. Sitting on a fence right in front of us was a huge Barred Owl.  Although I've heard their "Who cooks the food" call, it was the first time I'd ever seen one in the wild.