cosmicpluto knits!

a bit of spring

Unsettled weather (I just want a big storm so it’ll clear everything away!), sunshine, flowers.

Hope you’re enjoying the weather whereever you are!

photoshoot

Wychwood Barns on Christie St. in Toronto – the farmer’s market is here on Saturdays, year round. It’s basically a garage that was used by the transit system, that’s been converted into live/work/urban agriculture/community space. Pretty awesome, and lots of fun backdrops.

Taking your own photos is kinda hard.

And then there was this guy.

“hey beautiful! how bout you take a photo of me? you can always erase it later!”

socks, socks

I actually really need to be knitting some of those French Press Felted Slippers right now since the lozenge pattern socks are off the needles!

2 skeins of Austermann Royal and loosely based on Nancy Bush’s pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks. I did my cuff differently, subbed my own heel and toe, and did the whole sock on 70 sts.

Of course, I cast on for some more socks right away – I guess I’m kind of in sock mode now!

I have such mad love for this sock right now – this leg was one afternoon/evening of knitting (at work and then a little bit at home). Based on another sock from Knitting Vintage Socks. I’m working this over 68 sts, in Dream in Color Smooshy. The colour is Shiny Moss and I LOVE it!

One thing I don’t love? Lenses that are picky about focusing. I went out into the rather cold weather (hovering around the freezing mark) in the hopes of getting some pattern photos for 2 sweaters.

I stayed out there for a good long while, toes getting colder and colder, and managed only a handful of useable shots – not even of the sweater that I really wanted to get photos of! (The red cabley one I’m wearing the photo). Sigh. The Sigma 30mm lens I love is kind of moody and wasn’t focusing properly with the remote, so I have a LOT of out of focus photos. Sigh. I guess I’ll have to just try again this week. Maybe with someone else as the model.

(More love to balance out the annoyed face – have you seen Dr. Steph’s Hansel mittens? I need some to go with my Gretel, and they look super fast and cozy!)

byebye kaua’i, hello big island!

I have to pay for internet here (booo, hiss) so I probably won’t be online much this week. But I wanted to check in!

On Tuesday we went to the Hanalei farmer’s market, which was awesome!

I bought some local goat cheese, some spices, a really good little low-acid white pineapple, and some local honey to take home.

My sisters bought chocolate dipped frozen bananas! Yummy.

Near the end of our time in Kaua’i we…took a trip to Costco. Didn’t buy much, which was good considering that we were leaving! Then a stop by the Waimea Falls on the way home, which are apparently the falls from the opening of Fantasy Island?

(I was having fun taking photos at various shutter speeds. This is relatively low, so the water is blurry. I like it!)

We did a little more shopping in Hanalei, and briefly checked out the Kilauea Lighthouse from afar – couldn’t be bothered to actually go through the wildlife refuge and such!

And I made my mark on an autograph tree.

We haven’t seen much of the Big Island yet, but it definitely has a really different landscape from Kaua’i! Lava fields and such. I haven’t taken many photos yet, but we can see the ocean from our window and it’s really quite nice.

Today we’re headed out to the national volcanoes park – should be interesting, but it’s a 3-hour drive which I’m not that into!

aloha from honolulu!

Well, we’re not in Honolulu anymore, but it was a snappier title! Today (Saturday) we arrived on Kauai but there’s lots to tell about our couple of days in Honolulu.

Long travel – 5 hours from Toronto to Vancouver (which was delayed), the longest airport transfer ever between the domestic and international terminals, and then the 6 hour flight from Vancouver to Honolulu. No free movies or tv on that flight, either, which kinda sucked – but since we arrived in Hawaii at about 5am Toronto time, I was sleeping anyway!

We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki, and although the room my sister and I shared didn’t have as nice a view as my parents’, it was bigger! The view from above was ours (there was an obstructed mountain view towards the right)…

This one was the view from my parents’ room!

There was a huge pool, although it got pretty darn crowded in the morning.

Across the way right at the base of the hotel was the Royal Hawaiian plaza, filled with fancy shops and a pretty interesting food court. Coach, Ferrari (not the cars, but the apparel), Louis Vuitton, Tiffany…everything was there. I really liked how pretty much everything could be had in walking distance from the hotel! I know it’s pretty much a huge tourist trap, but sometimes that can be fun.

We had a fancy dinner at the “Top of Waikiki” restaurant which is a revolving dining room. They did have a vegetarian entree, a tomato gratin with fresh mozzarella and mushroom ragout.

The next day my youngest sister and I took a city bus to the Ala Moana Center, a huge open-air mall – the biggest in the world if the map is to be believed! It really was huge, but we didn’t do the whole thing since it was pretty much the usual stores. I did manage to zero in (by sheer luck) on a Hawaiian chain store with super cute clothes, Cinnamon Girl.

And that was pretty much it for our two days in Waikiki! Good things about the Sheraton: excellent location, nice bed, nice lanai (balcony), nice pool, really good shower, excellent air conditioning, free wifi in the lobby.

Not as good things: super overpriced food even in the casual cafe (but there was lots else to be had close by in the other mall), no free internet in the room, and since it’s a huge hotel, there’s just so many people! I did really like it though, and I would’ve liked to stay another day or two in Honolulu, at least to visit some other parts of the city.

Now we’re on Kaua’i, everything must be driven to, and it’s much quieter. No air conditioning, but a kitchen. Everything’s a trade off! I think it’ll be pretty quiet here. I’m hoping to get some knitting done!

more milkweed

First up, there are a couple of small omissions in the written instructions for Milkweed, in Chart D. Rows 64 and 66 were missing a yo, and Row 68 was missing a k6. These have been corrected, and you can download another version on Ravelry called “MilkweedShawlJune18″. I tried to send out a notification from Ravelry, but I don’t think it worked! Anyway, the chart remains the same.

Now some photos of the prototype version that I actually knit first, out of Koigu.

I used 2 skeins and had very little leftover. This one is still a bit smaller than the Casbah one because the koigu is thinner.

It was a case of me thinking I could remember what I knit after the fact to write the pattern, when I really couldn’t! So I ended up knitting up the Casbah one and writing down the pattern row by row as I went.

I really love the Koigu version for the colours and the squishyness (yay garter stitch), but the pattern is somewhat obscured.