St. John's

I took a quick visit to St John's this past weekend. No trip to town would be complete without a visit to Cast On! Cast Off! 

It's a delightful little LYS ran by the equally delightful Katie. She has curated an amazing collection of indie dyed yarns. If you like to purchase souvenir yarn then I strongly urge you to drop by Katie's shop. 

I bought a sweaters quantity of fingering weight yarn to knit an all over lace pattered cardigan. The yarn is gorgeous! (More about that later in a future post) 

I think I may be crazy for even thinking about this sweater but it's one of those things .... Ya know? It's in my head and I can't stop thinking about it. That and the fact that my friend Jessie is knitting it and hers is turning out so beautifully. 

Katie is running a little KAL this month. It's Christmas ornaments. Knit one for yourself or for her shop. This little cutie is what I made for her. 

The pattern is called "snowball buddies" by Susan Claudino. There are other critters in the collection. I think I'll be making more of these little guys. They are so cute and so easy to make. 

While in town I got to meet up with my gorgeous niece. It was so nice to see her considering we missed her when we visited Newfoundland last month for Dads birthday. 

Here we are at the recently opened Jack Asters in downtown St John's. They have some interesting things on the menu including a side called "stacked jiggs" 

Fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will have some idea of what that is. I didn't try it myself but it sure looked interesting. Maybe next time. 

Winter is Here.

Usually winter comes to this part of the world gradually. We usually will get a snow storm or two before Haloween. The snow melts a little and a little more falls. And little by little our world becomes frozen and covered in snow. But not this year. 

We didn't have any snow for Halloween. But several days after that I get a phone call that the portable insta garage where Kev had been storing wood and the lawnmower had blown into the middle of the street. Of course Kev was out of town for this - as always seems to be the case whenever anything detrimental happens. 

Not only was it windy but about three feet of snow had fallen overnight. And guess what? None of it has melted. We've had more snow since and it too has stayed. Winter has definitely taken hold here and it's not letting go anytime soon. 

The good news is that I'm a knitter and I have a unique skill that allows me to keep warm. And to keep my loved ones warm.

The shawl pictured is a Steven West design. Anyone who has read this blog knows of my affection for Steven West designs. This one is no exception. It's a mystery KAL. It's the third one of his that I've done. I think it's his best one yet and I only gotten two clues done so far but I'm speeding right along. All of the clues have been released and I love the look of some of the finished shawls that are popping up on Rav 

I'm currently in the middle of some travel which usually means some knitting and hopefully some visits to yarn shops. Hopefully I'll finish this shawl up soon. I'm gonna need it.