I'm so excited, I've got a new website to post to my favorites.....www.ottermere.com. The funny thing about it, is growing up at Ottermere we had no hydro, no flush toilets only outhouses, and we had woodstoves to keep us warm in the winter. In the summer, we drove 2 hours in the car, packed all our gear into outboard boats, travelled another 45 minutes by boat, crossed the portage, and crossed over into Ottermere, docked and then hauled all our gear up to the appropriate camp. In the winter we did the same routine except by snowmobile, not boat. When Len and I lived in Thunder Bay we would go on the weekends, because it was only a 6 hour drive, compared to when we moved to southern Ontario which puts it at approximately 22 hour drive.
Its a pretty amazing place, I think you have to be from there to really truly get it. Its the kind of place that is a part of your blood.

But I've got new wool to keep me warm. So what did I do this weekend.....?

Spent the afternoon at Ikea, where I bought a beautiful red rug....bye bye Homemade rug
Stood in line to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee encourage knitters to resist and fight the stigma of CHOKE (Cultural Humiliation of Knitters Everywhere).. Her talk was so funny, I loved it that she was nervous, it made her very approachable. While we were waiting for the Yarn Harlot, you could hear the clicking of hundreds of knitting needles...really awesome. I won't rehash the evening, Martha does a fair job of it, as does Sherri. Jamie gives her run-away (well almost) mommy version here. And Amanda...we may get her to do socks yet, puts in her two cents! I took pics, but with Jamie's camera, somehow I ended up with dead batteries in mine...boo hoo. I'll post when Jamie sends them over. I couldn't resist taking pictures of Stephanie taking pictures of us!

As for the Yarn Crawl, we started bright and early at Naked Sheep, we almost got Choked but my darling brother altered his plans to get us there on time. Naked Sheep was kind enough to offer us some discounts, but I think I fell in love with something not on the list...of course! I found out that I get motion sick when attempting to knit on the TTC, so that pretty much sums up how much I accomplished on my first sock. I spent my time at Americo crapped out on the couch, (btw, I wasn't bored, I yawn when I get sick) I did manage to wobble a little bit around the store, just to take it all in. But I have decided to figure Americo into my meeting in Toronto on Friday. Two gravols and two gingerales had me mostly fixed for Romni Wool. We then set off for Lettuce Knit in Kensington market. I think the Big Fat Burrito I ate, fortified me to find something to go with my Naked Sheep find, and pick up a cute little $5 denim jacket. (Oh, did I mention it was freezing out and I had dressed for 30 degree sweltering heat!?) After the lunch break we headed out to fight Choke...curse you TTC, and figure out how many knitters can fit in a bus stop...stashes included of course, we weren't putting anything down! Our final destination was alterknit cafe . We proceeded to continue fondling and crooling until it was time to pack up, hit the TTC one last time and return to our families. What an awesome time.

Oh, and the wet part of the weekend? That was Sunday morning, we had our local chapter's Walk of Hope, as part of the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario's walks.

And tired is ok, cuz last night I dreamt of self-striping sock wool all night long......

There will be no shame, no horror, no throwing of dpn's....I finished the sweater I was crocheting for the Walk of Hope. I stayed up last night and put the edging on it, there was NO WAY I was going to be doing crochet amoung 200-300 knitters!!!

Its a pattern. I've done before, a real quick and easy one. The hardest part of the pattern is to simply crochet away and not get caught up in the strange way it works up. The edging is courtesy of Jess Hutch.

Only knitters will get this one, but I'm going on a pilgrimage to worship at the altar of all things knitted. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is coming to Toronto for the launch and book signing of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting with the Yarn Harlot herself in attendance. So of course, Jamie and I are going on a road trip! I think Jamie's already figured out her outfit, the baby's outfit and probably what project she'll work on while there. I'm trying to calculate how early we'll have to get there to get in, of course, what project to work on while there, and what can I buy!! Oh, and is there a sushi place nearby!! Apparently, we're trying to out attend Colin and Justin the day before...no problem!! With Stephanie coming back to her home town, she sounds like she's hosting this at her house... Comments (2)  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos

I just updated my facebook to say, "Allyson is between Little Miss Sunshine and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. This afternoon we showed Little Miss Sunshine to the highschool students from our four county area, and tonite we are screening Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. It's been a couple of weeks since I've been home at night. Things have been really busy at work, with it being mental health week, our Walk of Hope May 27, and the Lynx Symposium in June. I've been joking that I'm counting the days to July, when we take the family vacation at Pancake Bay. Knitting is unknown, as is everything else. The only book I've been reading lately is for work...its a good one but still its work. I passed Wicked onto Colleen though and so far she's loving it. I'll have to get a good project going for July!