Still around

The month of November and the first few weeks of December seemed to go by in a blur of either working or thinking about working. Even the knitting slowed down. I know it's bad when I'm too tired to knit in the evening. So hooray for the holidays and some time to slow down and catch up.

Here are a few things I have managed to knit over the last few weeks. First of all, some booties for Tiana, who only just grew out of the ones I knit for her when she was born in February. I used worsted weight wool on 3.5 mm needles. The pattern is Christine's Baby Booties. These are fun to knit and easy to size up.

A set of booties and a hat for a colleague who's expecting. I got these both out of the leftover yarn from the Crayon socks I knit in the summer.

The hat pattern is Charlie's Sock Yarn Hat. I did i-cord instead of pompoms.

What I made yesterday

Thank you to the Happy Zombie for this great free pattern and tutorial. I got the fabrics at Laura's Fashion Fabrics in White Rock.

Book recommendation

If you're in the mood for a funny, charming, touching, clever read - try Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant. As a bonus - she's Canadian and a lot of the book is set in Newfoundland.

Sucked in...

I'm committing to my very first KAL. It's a hat by WoollyWormhead, which seems like it should be manageable despite my more limited knitting time.

It's all Kate's fault - I read her blog post about it, followed the link, and the next thing I knew I was rifling through my stash and then working on a gauge swatch!

Little man

Another way to use leftover sock yarn:

Pattern: Knubbelchen

Last weekend

We went to a few events at the Vancouver International Writers Festival last weekend. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed hearing Louise Penny - she was charming and funny and very entertaining. I got to have a wee chat with her while she signed my favourite of her books - Bury Your Dead.  She's a fantastic writer.

I've been exploring her blog and the village they'll be filming the movie version of her first book in and now I want to move to a small town in the Eastern Townships and spend winters curled up in front of the fireplace!

After the first frost...

Some Thanksgiving Day colour in our garden plot:

 

Dave is very proud of this bike he rescued from a friend's balcony. It's a 1970's Eaton Road King Villager 5-speed! It's virtually unused, although it did get rusty from being exposed to the elements.

Oh dear - it's October already!

September was lovely and crazy busy all at the same time. And now it's October and nearly Thanksgiving for us Canadians! In celebration of autumn harvests and bounty here are:

Fresh grain-free granola - yum!

Broccoli from our garden...

...first time we've grown it!

 The cosmos that have been gracing our living room window for many weeks:

The colour still to be seen on our patio:

Goodies indoors:

All these are from the patio...

... from the babies I grew from seeds!

And there has been some knitting too, though not enough:

Finished socks

And a sock getting started

And now to prepare fresh beans, broccoli, and tomatoes for dinner!

What I've been up too this past month...

Knitting socks:

Swimming at Paul's Tomb beach in Kelowna with Starleigh and Taylor:

Putting up produce from our yearly trip to the south Okanagan and Similkameen to stock up:

Gardening and harvesting. Here are some of the tomatoes on the patio:

 

And finally, visiting with many dear friends. Here is a beautiful autumn mum that came with a lovely visit today:

 

San Gregorio Beach, CA

Cormorants

 This part of the coast was completely socked in with fog the whole time we were there, while just inland it was hot and sunny. Such an interesting climate phenomenon!

 There were a number of these shelters built from driftwood. I had Dave stand with one for scale. They're quite well built.