Let's go to the Ex

We're on vacation this week so decided to go to the Ex, something we haven't done in forever.  It was good to walk around but it is an expensive day for what you get.

The food building is as good as always, if you count more ways to make french fries than one thought possible and other stellar dietary offerings (which I am counting as good for this one day in the summer and never again for the remaining 364 days of the year).  The one thing I did find is that the food choices are no longer all that unusual.  It used to be, as an example, that the Thai counters were unusual.  Now we have at least five good Thai restaurants to choose from in a very small radius.  I did enjoy my 10 am snack of perogies (which bore only a passing resemblance to the real thing as I understand it - deep fried didn't seem to be a part of our Polish neighbour's recipe when I was growing up).  And then for lunch I had a Korean-themed wrap.  With cheese and a corn tortilla - definitely fusion.  But again, tasty.  The sampling of Dutch frites that I stole from my husband was also very good.  Fresh out of the frier with lots of mayo.

The rest of the buildings weren't terribly exciting but we checked them out.  I was disappointed that there didn't seem to be a horse show this year.  That was usually good for entertainment and a place out of the sun for a few minutes.

My favourite bit - I beat my husband at one of the games and won a little smurf.  Smurfs are obviously in this year.  You could win one at every stall.  Last time I was there, the item at every game was a stuffed flower (of which I have 2 or 3 somewhere).

All in all, it was a nice day but a $16 entry fee for expensive junk food, a couple of games and ok exhibits seemed a bit over the top.  But compared to the multiple-thousand dollar vacation we aren't on because of cat care challenges, it was a steal.

I love cashmere!

Something I didn't really think about until this sweater.  I love cashmere.  It is so, so lovely to work with.  Even though this sweater was all stocking stitch I never really got bored of it because I loved the feel of the yarn in my hands.

It was finished during the closing ceremonies of the Olympics but it took me this long to get my act together and blog about it.

The yarn is Handmaiden 4 ply cashmere and the pattern is the one that comes attached to it.  I got it on sale at Stix and Stones in North Bay during the course with the Yarn Harlot so it came with a nice little discount on the slightly-more-expensive-than I usually buy price.  But it was definitely worth it and I'll be keeping my eyes out for more.

As soon as I finish all of those projects in my stash, of course!

A pedestrian world

I try to cycle regularly in the summer.  Usually for 20 or 30 km, nothing crazy, just enough to get out, get some exercise, see the sights.  I am always happy when I find a bike lane that is road tire friendly.  While I don't hesitate to ride on regular roads with the traffic, it is much more relaxing knowing the chances of a car riding up my back are slightly lower with a bike lane.  The best ones are usually at the side of a paved road.  They are better than the ones attached to sidewalks that people have paved over when they did their driveway or that haven't been repaved after heaving in the winter, leaving millions of road tire-sized cracks in them, just waiting to flip over the unsuspecting skinny-tire cyclist.

But on these relaxing bike lane rides, there is always at least one, if not 6 (like today), runners who run in the bike lane.  I know why this is.  The local running store, has a guest speaker who tells everyone at every clinic not to run on concrete sidewalks because they are so much harder on your joints than pavement.  What he doesn't tell them, likely to increase traffic at his health-related business, is that the fact that the pavement is slanted for water runoff, and isn't good for your joints either.  As a former runner with an IT band problem, I have felt the difference between running on a nice flat sidewalk and on the side of a road at a slant.  I'll take the sidewalk every time.

Anyway, I get a ticket for riding on the sidewalk.  Why can't a runner get a ticket for running in the bike lane when there is a perfectly good sidewalk just a metre away?

On the subject of feet

I finished my longest-on-needles project (sock category).  They are a plain rib knit that I used to do all the time until I decided to get a little more exciting and add some pattern into my sock life.  These happened to be on the needles when I made that life-altering decision so they have been ignored generally.  Except for those situations where I knew I needed something easy to pass the time.  They have accompanied me on several plane trips (Boston and Philly come to mind), have been my train knitting project in between winding skeins for something more exciting, recently came with me to the passport office and have been to various appointments of all sorts.  Finally they are done.  And as usual, I like them very much.  A straight-forward pattern that fits well in a great colour.

And in other foot news, I saw a guy on the train the other night wearing those shoes that some runners wear that look like 1980's toe socks ... with his work attire.  Someone needs to tell him that the look is just not a good one.  It looks goofy on runners but I can at least understand that there are reported to be benefits running in these.  They really don't go with business casual.  For some reason he had to walk up and down the aisle of the train a couple of times so I got to admire them twice.  I hope he doesn't wear them in the office!

A new sweater!

I have a new knitting crush - Norah Gaughan.  I've admired her patterns but this is the first I've made.  It is from Volume 3 of the Berroco collection and was a really nice knit.  The leaf design results in an a-line shape which I like and the collar was constructed in a way that was new to me.  So, I got a nice sweater out of it and learned a couple of new things at the same time.  The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the layout of the pattern.  There was no chart which required a follow-along with the words.  I found I had difficulty following the 102 rows at times.  It probably didn't help that most of the knitting for the front was done on long car trips.

I used Dream in Colour Classy, picked up on sale at the Needle Emporium a couple of years ago.  I love the feel of that yarn in my hands and the large skeins mean fewer ends to sew in!

I'll have to comb through the stash to see if there is something else suitable to use for one of Norah's other patterns.  I received Volume 9 for Christmas and, now that I think of it, bought some yarn to make a wrap I think.  Must go look.

Off to see who wins the men's tennis and work on arm number 2 of my next sweater project.