Prince Edward County and Columbina

Hey guys, welcome back!  I have to admit that while I’m physically back in Toronto (currently on a Go Train headed to the dreaded day job) I’m pretty sure that I’ve left a part of my heart in Prince Edward County.  After a hectic first year in the County last year, Ashley and I decided to slow it riiiiiiight down this year.  Instead of setting up the morning of the show, we came out on Friday night and booked the sweetest little cottage right by the lake for the whole weekend.  

Pretty much as soon as we checked in, and we were all together, my whole body slowed right down as though it were trying to match the pace of my surroundings.  It was amazing.  Even the crowd the next day seemed committed to not moving in a hurry as though the heat and the fresh air were calling, “Move slow! Just take me in!” I’ve never felt so relaxed pre or post a show.  We even managed to take in a couple of the sites.  On Friday we had dinner at the Acoustic Grill which I highly recommend if you’re in the area.  The crowd was great and the music was live and fantastic.  We all remembered that Lottomax was $106 million and hurried out to buy last minute tickets.  I think the fact that I'm writing this on my way to work tells you how well that went for us.  

We tried Waupoos County Cider and loved it so much we made a trek out there on Sunday just to grab some to take home.  We ended up doing some tastings and then having wood fired pizza on their patio, with the sun shining down on us and surrounded by the most picturesque scenery.  I brought out the big camera because, as far as I was concerned, a cellphone just didn’t do it justice.  Also, if you make it out there, definitely get the salsa.  It was so good I asked if they sold it by the bottle.  Unfortunately, they don't. I guess I'll just have to go back a few dozen more times until I figure out their secret.

Now I’m a natural city girl.  Everyone knows this about me but I couldn't stop marvelling at how quiet the town is.  We had a hard time finding restaurants open after 9pm!  It's so different from Toronto or even Ottawa it was hard to believe we were smack right in the middle of both of them.  After careful meditation, I could totally live out there.  I feel like it would legitimately add years to my life.

I did promise you guys that this week I would I tell you about my Columbina shawl and I kind of want to save it for another post so I can inundate you with pictures but a promise is a promise.  I didn't realize I would wax poetic for quite so long.  

This shawl is super beautiful.  The mosaic pattern makes me feel like I have serious knitting skills but the truth is that an adventurous beginner could easily work this pattern, especially one curious about charts and colour work.  Because the pattern is really repetitive, it's very easy to get the rhythm of it without having focus too much on the chart and the way the mosaic works you only have to handle one colour at a time every other row.  I want to be careful not to give too much information away about the pattern so suffice it to say that YOU CAN DO THIS! 

Here are my project notes: 

I knit my shawl with a size 5 knitting needles in our Comfort Sock base in our Honey,  Fiesta and Pāua Shell colour ways.  I elected to go one needle size up because my gauge is naturally a little tight and I felt like I had sufficient yarn to use up.  

Now I'm going admit something I'm a little embarrassed about.  I definitely saved all of my remnants so I could tell you guys exactly how much I used up and I know my Fiesta remnants are somewhere in the craft room.  I'm just not sure where.  As a result, I've been forced to do a little fancy math to figure it out.  Here's how that went: 

I have 35 grams of Honey and 56 grams of Pāua Shell left and each skein has 115 grams which means I used 80 grams of Honey and a 59 grams of Pāua Shell.  The shawl weighs a total of 224 grams.  If I subtract the 139 grams of the other colours I used, it means the shawl contains 85 grams of Fiesta and I have 30 grams of remnants left.  Somewhere.  In any case, guess who feels smarter than a fifth grader right now?  Lol, not me.  I can't even pretend.  Fifth graders can school me on any number of topics, fancy math included.

So that's it for me for this week.  I'll be back next week to tell you about what new shenanigans we're up to.  Until then, PEACE to you and yours and happy knitting.  Love you guys tons!