This week the kids and I visited my Dad and stepmum Margot in their new (temporary) home in lovely Perth, Ontario. After about 3 years of talking about moving closer to Montreal, they finally quit dilly-dallying, sold their house in record time (so record that their new house has, um, yet to be built) and are now a mere 3 hour drive away (as opposed to 9). Yay!
We had lots of fun with Nanny and Bumpy. We did all the stuff you're supposed to do with the grandparents, we ate too much candy, watched TV in bed, and loaded up on hugs, kisses, and bilingual "I love you's". Perth being a scant 45 minute-ish drive from Ottawa, while there we visited the Canadian Museum of Nature, and even though it was a close call towards the end of the visit as to whether the Museum would be acquiring 2 stuffed children for their permanent exhibit ('cause Mommy was going to strangle them!), we had fun.
We also visited the "beach", that is a private beach with a small, cordoned-off area perfect for kids to swim in and explore and just be silly in.
And of course, we visited the local yarn store :)
Set in a charming old stone house along the Rideau canal (well, near as I can tell anyway. I ain't no geographer!), Janie H. Knits is just a perfect place to spend a lovely morning and indulge. It's quaint, they carry a lovely variety of yarn, books and knitting accoutrement, and the people are incredibly friendly. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by!
Now, I'm just going to cut to the chase and confess that while I was in there the whole notion of the "2010 for 2010" challenge went right out the friggin' window. I really didn't INTEND to buy quite so much yarn, but - DARNIT - they just had so much good stuff that I can't really find here! And as they said, it was really just a SMALL bag... *Sigh*
The first three are 2 skeins of Bijou Spun by Bijou Basin Ranch. The dark skein is a 50-50 yak/cormo blend, and the cream-coloured is a 75-25 yak/merino blend. The last is an Alpaca/Merino blend from Silent Valley Alpaca, a local-ish ranch.As a matter of fact, I think that one deserves a close-up, don't you?
Ah, that's better. I also bought 2 skeins (about 230 yards worth) of THE softest, lushest, most awesomest handspun EVAH. It's a blend of 10% merino and 90% bison (BISON!!!!!), and I've had a hard time NOT petting it since I took it home. Sadly, I couldn't find a website despite my mad Innernets skillz, but the label says it's from Prairie Fiber Mill, in Saskatchewan.
I capped it all off with EZ's Knitter's Almanach (my first Zimmerman book!) and some Addi circs for the border of my shawl-in-progress.All in all, a great trip. Happy Knitting Everyone!
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9 comments:
Looks like everyone had a great time! My husband bought that same book for me for Christmas last year. I'm toying with the idea of knitting my way through it next year.
Ooooooh. Aaaaaaah. :) Looks like a great trip, and really, HOW COULD YOU PASS UP yarn like that? You simply can't.
(your reader Laurie of the comments could do a 'Laurie and Elizabeth'blog - "50 patterns in 365 days" (or however many patterns there are...) grin.
It sounds like a really nice family escapade! Passe une belle fin de semaine!
Sounds like you all had fun. And I love me some yarn porn!
ooh bison. Is it soft? Yum. That should be kept somewhere where you can have a pet & squeeze every time you pass it by until it's knit up.
Love the museum pics, kids + museums = chaos in my house anyway.
Glad you enjoyed your vacation!
At last you have succumbed to the powah of EZ. She cannot be resisted. You will be converted in no time!
What a nice trip & awesome yarn scores!!
oh! lovely family time! Nioe natural yarns too :)
Oh! Great stash enhancement!
That museum does look like fun! Will have to check it out sometime!
The yarn's great, but those photos of the kids are adorable. Especially the one with all the mud(?) on Maxime. I can't believe how big he is already! I know I should know, 'cus he's the same age as Jakob. But I'm still shocked every time I see him.
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