In July we usually go to Canada for the Shaw festival. Every
year I am looking to this trip with anticipation. It is a wonderful possibility
for us to unplug, enjoy theater and each other, and just relax and eat great
food. After spending many long months in Florida building a house, we deserved
this break.
If you love theater (we obviously do) this is your place to
come. Usually plays are very different. There is something for everyone: one
play for children, one musical play, one or two experimental plays, one or two
famous/classical plays. This year the festival new artistic director – Tim
Carroll – brought in new ideas and interesting choice of plays as well as much
more actors – audience interactions to re-energize the event.
The acting is superb: in Pennsylvania, we don’t see performances of
this level often. Everything else is also executed on the highest level of
professionalism.
The Shaw festival takes place in a tiny picturesque town of
Niagara-on-The-Lake from April till October and is getting more and more
popular every year. If you live in a driving distance from the place I’d
wholeheartedly recommend coming and checking it out. This year we saw 11 plays
on 4 different venues in 12 days.
We discovered this festival about 6 years ago and since then
try to go there every summer. The weather in Canada at this time of the year is
much better than in Pennsylvania (to say nothing of South Florida). We can take
our daily walks through beautiful and peaceful countryside. Usually our final
destination is a farmer’s market where we buy some fruit that we eat on the
spot and go back home.
Next to the market
there is a little chapel that is apparently considered the smallest church in
the world. Every day buses and cars bring lots and lots of Asian tourists who
relentlessly take pictures of the chapel. Apparently, they all have it in their
tourist guides as one of the world wonders or something. Anyway, it was hard to
get a picture of it without tourists, but I managed.
There are also vineyards and wine testing in the area, great
food and quaint antic stores – what’s not to like!
Before leaving for Canada I got sick and spent a day in bed
recuperating. Soon I got bored and decided to make something from the leftovers
of Fanion that I used to make Bo. I chose Blue from Kim Hargreaves Crush. Not
only because it is light and summery but also because my gauge was spot on and
I had enough yarn to make it. Plus it was black and white – and this summer
black and white became my knitting trend.
I picked size M because I didn’t want the tank to be too
snug on my hips. Boy, was I wrong! The result is cute, but VERY revealing and
stretchy. I like it on the pictures but am not sure how to wear it in real
life.
More pictures - on my Ravelry page.
Military style jackets with multiple zippers have been
always much-coveted but unapproachable designs to knit for me. Two reasons:
they definitely look better when store-bought and they are too difficult to
make because of the zippers.
Zippers are hard to insert in knitted garments: unlike
knitting they don’t stretch. I did it successfully once many years ago but it
was so time consuming and all over so much pain everywhere that ever since I
avoided garments with zippers.
I don’t remember when I bought this Phildar pattern (it is
not on their website anymore and not on Ravelry) but decided not to make it for
above mentioned reasons.
Till this spring when I unearthed it, took a closer
look and decided to try it with the leftovers of great yarn. Again my gauge was
spot on. I used this yarn twice before – for a Kim Hargreaves cardigan for my
daughter (didn’t photograph it but it looks and wears well) and this pattern,
also from Kim Hargreaves (yarn held together with Rowan Kidsilk Haze).
Soon I discovered that the original pattern as it was
written is rather tight fitting. Not exactly what I am looking for in a jacket.
That is why instead of knitting the smallest size as I usually do I settled on
size 42/44. Among other changes: full length sleeves and 3 garter sts at the front borders – but otherwise
I just followed the pattern.
Yet, I got constantly distracted. I made this and this
instead of finishing my zipper jacket. Which is not how I normally operate.
After some soul searching and deliberations I figured that the main reason for
my procrastination was the necessity to insert zippers at the end. Yet,
unraveling everything that was already finished by this time looked also kind
of stupid so I made a decision to take this unfinished garment to Canada with
me, work on it in between walks and plays, and see what happens.
As a result when we came back to Pennsylvania I had all the
parts of the jacket finished. And I got zippers in a close shade of green and
required length (from this website). And 8 days before leaving for another trip.
All this trouble was not in vain. I got myself a cute jacket
that is light and soft to the skin, goes with all my clothes, and could be worn
underneath other garments. The buttons were bought in an antique store in Canada and are from a real
military uniform.
Again, more pictures - on my Ravelry page.
This is the Summer of Basics after all and what can be more
basic than a jacket military style!
I wanted to call it Colonel Mustard (Clue is one of my favorite
movies of all times and I know it by heart) but its color is greysh-green. So
it is Colonel Not Mustard for now. Do you have any other suggestions?
This summer I managed to make already two projects that were
postponed for several years. It is August and we are leaving on Tuesday but
hopefully by the end of the month I’ll be able to finish at least one more knit
that I’ve been wanting for ages (or two?!!!).
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