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.

Knitting for following the Olympics

While I'm not participating in the Ravelry salute to the Olympics (it looked like I had to be way to organized to follow along), I am going to work on finishing projects.  I have a sweater blocking right now that I finished yesterday, am continuing to make steady progress on a second sweater (part way through the first sleeve), have the second of a pair of socks that I forgot about until after I had joined the Sweet Georgia sock club (which I justified joining by telling myself I had no sock yarn) and a pair of fair isle mittens that I decided were a good outdoor project for summer, being small but requiring some thought to keep me interested.

I'll focus on these for now.  Once done, I'm sure I can find some others in progress.  In fact, there is a felted bag that has been in progress for a few years, a baby sweater that I stopped when I realized it would be too small for the 1 year old I was making it for and a sweater from Custom Knits that I started ages ago.  I am sure I can find a few others as well.

We'll see how far I get.  It has to be a better effort than the ill-chosen sweater I was making during the winter games 2 years ago.  I feel like I have a reasonable chance of success in at least finishing the list in the first paragraph.

Go Canada!

Another stay-cation

Our cat with special medical issues is keeping us home for yet another stay-cation this year.  This week we've focused on nice lunches out as our different-from-normal-life routine.  

Our first stop last Saturday is one of my favourite sushi restaurants in Oakville - very small with friendly owners and yummy food.  It is called Kenki Sushi (Kerr Street) and, in addition to very good sushi and sashimi, they make a crispy salmon concoction that is perfect.  Their bento box lunches don't seem to change and the service is fast so it is a great place to go on a busy-with-errands Saturday.

The next spot we tried was Colossus Greek Taverna.  I'm not normally a huge fan of Greek restaurants due to the same-ness of the ones I've tried but this place is different.  The food isn't cookie-cutter and has a little more imagination than most of the others I've tried.  My souvlaki-on-a-pita had crispy onions and the salad was more like the Greek Salads I remember from Greece.

Keeping with the sushi theme, OC's at Stoneboats, in Bronte is a sort of fusion sushi place.  Sushi but with some North American aspects - for example, one that we tried had cream cheese in it.  I'm not sure how long it has been since the change in ownership but if our experience at lunch was any indication, this restaurant should do well.  And they have the nicest patio in Oakville (which isn't saying much but it is still a nice patio).  We tried four different rolls - an avocado roll topped with mixed wild mushrooms (good but the mushrooms kept falling off), Crunchy Salmon with walnuts and avocado (yum), Haida Warrior with various fishes (also yum) and the special which I can't quite remember but it featured shrimp with the aforementioned cream cheese (yum again).

Finally, today we went to Cayuga to the Twisted Lemon.  Also a very good place.  I had a salmon wrap with so much flavour it almost overwhelmed my senses.  Very, very good.  I especially liked the little bites with drinks while we waited for lunch - fried wonton wrappers with lemon and pepper.  Difficult not to eat the whole bowl immediately.

That may be all for lunches out this week but with three days left, we may end up trying some others.  The added benefit of driving all over the place going to lunch places is that I have been able to get a bunch of knitting done on the way.  Nothing finished to show for it but at least I'm making good progress!

Book publishers must not understand inspiration

I've been looking at a selection of fabrics for my dad's Christmas quilt for a couple of weeks trying to figure out what I want to make with them.  So this morning, I finally found inspiration in a Kaffe Fassett book.  Perfect.  It fits the fabrics exactly the way I think they should go.  It even looks fairly straightforward although I will have to cut and sew carefully for a change so the joins line up.  So, I have the time, I have the inspiration and the pattern requires blowing the templates up 200%.  Ugh.

When I am inspired, I want to get going.  I don't want to dig into the pockets of all of my jackets to find a bunch of quarters (or loonies probably), drive to the library, photocopy the pattern and come back.  And my local branch isn't open on Saturdays so would have to go to the crazy busy branch a little further away or find a Staples.  By the time that was all done, I would be distracted by some other project or have lost interest in quilting and would put the project aside until next time.  No progress made.

I wish I was one of those organized people who plans things out in advance but I am not.  I like spur of the moment and fancy that this characteristic means I'm somehow a creative type.   There is the other part of my brain, which dominates at least 5 days of the week, that completely understands the financial reasons behind the publisher's approach.  Fortunately the pattern is easy so I'm increasing it the old fashioned way, with paper and pencil.  Except that I am ranting on the blog but will get back to the quilt in a few minutes rather than a few weeks.

On the plus side for today, I rode up to the farmers' market again this morning, watching the clouds the entire time.  As soon as I turned the corner onto my street, the thunder started.  By the time I was inside making myself a latte, the rain was teaming down.  How is that for excellent timing?  Thank you to Mother Nature, not only for the rain, but for waiting until I made it home before opening up the skies!

Happy Canada Day!

Check out this link ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBI68Il4Zsc&feature=youtube_gdata_player