June wrapup

Hello again! As promised, I'm trying to wrap up the last 2 months in two posts. Apologies for the somewhat rote nature of these posts... I'm sure I'll provide much more interesting commentary when I actually start posting weekly (or heck, even monthly would be an improvement).

So, I was up to June. In June we got serious about working on the Bip's room, and also took our last "couple's vacation" (we are going to my family reunion in - eek 5 days from today - but that is a family and friends vacation). I also did some more knitting :)

We flew up to Vancouver, BC for a long weekend in early June. I Priceline'd a 4* hotel for a great price (not as great now that $CAD ~= $US, of course), and we decided to get around with cabs and public transit. Turns out you can get a bus/train/"seabus" pass for $9 a day, much cheaper than a rental car + parking! We enjoyed exploring the only major west coast city we hadn't visited before - it felt very familiar and comfortable, a nice Pacific NW mid-sized city.

For some reason I didn't take too many pictures on the trip - I think the camera sort of settled to the bottom of the backpack, and it was fairly overcast/rainy at times. I did take a few, though! Here is downtown Vancouver seen from North Vancouver, which we seabus'd to on Saturday.

In North Vancouver, we took the bus to Capilano Bridge, a fun but rather touristy (and pricey) private park including a huge (pedestrian) suspension bridge over a beautiful gorge, and a series of boardwalks and trails on and above the forest floor. It was neat, but not as informative as I'd hoped, to walk the boardwalk suspended between Douglas Firs. I love the idea in theory, but in practice I guess I'd want a personal naturalist guide and a set of tree-climbing gear ;). I read The Hidden Forest a couple of years ago and really enjoyed its look into old growth forest science and research. Particularly interesting is the role that fungi play in the ecology of an old-growth forest! The touristy park was perfect, though, in that it had restrooms and fairly short trails - about the speed of hiking I felt up to!
Other highlights included a delicious multicourse French dinner in a cute old Victorian house / restaurant, lots of walking in parks, poking in art galleries, a spontaneous ride on adorable teeny ferries, and a busride crosstown to UBC, where we visited the Museum of Anthropology. Lots of interesting native arts, both contemporary and older. Less actual anthropology than we were hoping for, but a good visit nonetheless. On the way back, changing buses, we saw an amusing restaurant - Nunu was my childhood cat!

What else in June? Oh, there was World-wide-knit-in-public day (WWKIP), where I KIP'ped in in the sun with something like 40 other knitters at the local "outdoor mall". We had a lot of fun, and a local yarn store (the Knitting Bee, where I took the Magic Loop sock class over a year ago!) sponsored it by raffling off prizes periodically. I didn't win anything, but some lucky folks took home yummy yarn and books! In addition to the knitters, we also had some spinners who drew more interest from passing shoppers. Of course, we all got some funny looks... my favorite (sort of) was the pair of teenaged boys who slouched by, looking bemusedly at our activities, and finally one said to the other "they're f---ing knitting!" in tones of such disbelief, a couple of us in earshot just about cracked up. It's funny how, as I have become an adult (and closer to a parent!), things like this which would have really aggravated me as a girl or teenager become less upsetting and more amusing. Something about being able to view it more ojectively it as the (relatively harmless) pack behavior of suburban adolescent males trying to fit in... Still doesn't mean I want the Bip to follow their example, of course (heck, next year I'll probably take the Bip to WWKIP)!

Finally, knitting projects and Biproom progress:

For knitting, I finished a pair of baby booties (Saartje's(pdf), the Bockstarck in-the-round way) and a hat (Vine Lace - a Knitting Daily free pattern; requires registration) out of the same sock yarn I had made my "Siffing gloves" from. These were for (pregnant) coworker #3, who had admired my gloves at work. She's due to have her baby girl in a couple of weeks now, and just got off work. I, on the other hand, have about 7 weeks of work left to go. Of course, one of them is a vacation week, yay...

I also finished "swatch" from the "swatch and block" felted bag / coin purse that was on Magknits before Magknits went kaput. The designer graciously sent me the pictures to go with the pattern, which I managed to find in Google's cache. If anyone is interested in making it, I can point you to the cache and to the wayback machine's version of the pattern. My "swatch" came out much bigger than coin-purse sized, more like a wallet, since I'm using bulky wool and size 10.5 needles instead of worsted / 8s. But I want a bigger bag anyway, and I'm adjusting the stitch count based on the swatch. These will be for a raffle and silent auction at late July's big geocaching gettogether at Champoeg State Park. We do a service project which involves pulling up tons of invasive English Ivy from trees in the park - so the embroidered design is supposed to be an ivy leaf!

We are staying in a cabin rather than camping, for which I'm sure my back will thank me. I hope some geocacher will enjoy carrying these on the hunt! I'm still working on the bag ("block"), and hope to get close to finishing it this weekend. Er, tomorrow. Well, before we leave for the beach on Friday, anyway!

As for the Biproom - here is a semi-"before" picture. "Semi-" because we'd already pulled off the flowered wallpaper on the one wall which was blue underneath; and we'd also pulled off the old baseboards (boring dark stained pine) and cleared all the junk out in preparation for painting. Believe me, there was a lot of junk!

The semi-after pictures (room is still not completely done) showcase the beautiful new baseboards and painted white window trim, uniform yellow wall paint, and our assembled IKEA crib! Yep, I assembled it myself (I enjoy following the directions on IKEA furniture; and Andy had done most of the baseboard work, so things were even in the end). (In the pic of me by the crib, I'm about 26 - nope, 29! - weeks pregnant)



Finally, the crib with some heritage quilts and blankets we've been given. On the mattress, on the left is a quilt started by my maternal grandmother and finished by my Aunt, made with scraps of Grandma's dresses. On the right is one made, we think, by Andy's maternal great-aunt (have to verify this, but I'm pretty sure I'm remembering right). On the crib rail, from left to right, are a new baby blanket knit by my Mom for the Bip, an old baby blanket of mine, crocheted by Mom for me probably 33+ years ago, and a vintage blanket which was my Dad's when he was a baby. The Bip will not lack for blankets!