Summerworks

I have just finished working for this year's Summerworks Performance Festival. It's Toronto's annual jurored theatre/art/music fest. Performances take place in theatres, parks, bars and galleries throughout the west end.  It's a remarkable undertaking. Summerworks has a year round staff of only three people and a limited budget yet somehow they manage to bring together dozens of performance companies and temporary employees, hundreds of volunteers and many host venues. It's a feat of Ninja-like coordination.  During the twelve days of my employ, I am the happiest and possibly most tired knitter in the city.

Above is the courtyard of the venue I manage. I conservatively estimate that I ran between this public space, around the corner to the theatre entrance and up and down its many stairs, 222 times. My legs and butt look fabulous!

My theatre is right around the corner from Romni Wools. As a treat I popped in just before closing time on Saturday to enhance my sock yarn stash. I have several lace patterns in my queue so was looking for tonals. Here we have Hot Socks Tweed (red), Nova Sock Print (green) and Online Vintage Color (blue). They were all in the sale basement! Now, which one will become Monkey?

Knitting in Hamilton

Family stuff has been going down lately and that means many trips to Hamilton. Ah the complexity. The stress. Family is a touchy subject for me, one that I'll not go into here.

Thankfully there are knitters and I don't mean this lightly. On one recent trip I took a time-out and went to find shelter. The wonderful Glenna directed me to Hamilton's new yarn store, Handknit Yarn Studio. It's a lovely little oasis downtown. The walls are painted a calming blue, the accents white. The stock is invitingly displayed. Glenna introduced me to proprietors Kate and Tracy and we sat at the centre table, sipping iced coffee. knitting and chatting for about an hour. Having touched base with my people I was sufficiently braced to move on and face the crazy.

Naturally I bought yarn. Handknit has a nice selection that includes yarns you don't see everywhere else. They've a surprising variety of Lopi! In the end I chose this Pima Lino lace weight from Diamond in a beautiful neutral tone. The store sample shawl knit in the same influenced me greatly. Such lightness combined with airy drape. I didn't even know it was possible to find lace in a cotton/linen blend and I'm excited to see what it can do. This will make a lovely summer wrap.

Affectionately Mine

Y'all know that I am not a trendy person. Fads are not something I follow and bandwagons are methods of transport upon which I do not jump. My clothes are decidedly out of date as are my reading habits and television viewing choices. In knitting I rarely choose the pattern everybody else is working on. Well, there were all those Jaywalkers but, come on! Jaywalkers?

Why then have I become the approximately the 9650th person to knit Color Affection? Over the past year I have seen this wrap simply everywhere and each one was more intriguing than the last. The pattern increasingly crept into my consciousness and I began to wonder what colours I might choose were I ever to make one. The deal was sealed in June when The Daughter gave me a skein of navy blue Cascade Heritage on my birthday. I knew I already had the light blue skein of the same and a lovely cabernet Prism yarn in my stash.
Now six weeks and much mindless internet TV watching later, I love, love, LOVE my new shawl. More pics on Ravelry.

Babies Everywhere!

I had such a wonderful walk in High Park on Friday. It began with a stroll through the zoo where I was thrilled and delighted to see that the capybara's have had two babies. So Cute! My head nearly exploded. After watching them for a good long time, I wondered hither and yon eventually ending up by the pond. There was another family - a mother duck watching her four youngsters bobbing next to the shore. I sat down at water's edge and within a minute, three of the young ducks crawled up on the rock next to my feet and had a nap! We sat there happily, ducks napping, me reading, for twenty minutes. 

You should  go see these cuties if you can.

My new friends

The 2013 TTC Knitalong. Wow.

The 2013 TTC Knitalong has come and gone. It was the largest yet with eleven locations (not including the pub!) and over 120 participants. I had a blast working with so many amazing people pulling this thing off, Fun fact: As an entire group, the volunteers meet only twice - once at the beginning of the process and not again until the evening before the event. The rest of the work is done in singles and pairs and with many, many group emails.You wouldn't think it would work, but miraculously, it does.
We raised $1600 for our charity, Sistering this year. This may not seem like much to some, but it's our best year yet and we're very pleased. Not bad for an event that began eight yeas ago as a little shopping spree.
Oh, and I may have acquired some yarn on the trip.

Fooling around at Americo

The day's haul.

An Absence

I've been away from my blog for a bit. It's not been an intentional absence. I think I just temporarily ran out of things to say. I blogged so much for the Knitalong, Then my camera died. Then there was a heatwave and my knitting slowed way down. At times I'd feel guilty about not posting. At those times I'd remind myself that, hey, this is a hobby. It's supposed to be fun. It's not like there are rules or anything.

Rest assured, I have been keeping busy.

I finished those Mary Maxim socks.

Glenna's Ribbed Sock knit with Mary Maxim Gemstone alternating two skeins.

I went to WWKIP Day in High Park where Sistering had a weaving display.

I bought sock yarn at The Romni summer sale.

ONLine Supersocke 100 Vintage Color

I've been reading Ted Berrigan poetry obsessively:

A Memory Filled With White

If you have a good temper for only a penny
Presto!
Toot-toot!  and out come the beverages
All Chinese hearts beat for a girl named Nelly
Her secret thought in May is to have pesos
And be immortal
The coast had been scrubbed down prematurely
Like the teeth of some ancient but vital lore
Taking a stroll
And finding brave men dressed in silence
And are effeminate
Having dinner on the coast 
Is that an emblem of a name for summer
A real vacation?

Ted Berrigan & Ron Padgett  Bean Spasms
Granary Books 2012, Originally published by Kulchur Press 1967