I’m wearing new socks today. I finished them last night and they are so comfy. I started the first one in the Calgary airport on our way to Nova Scotia and finished the second one last night. The plain stocking stitch made these the perfect carry-around project while we were on vacation - I could pull these out of my purse anytime we stopped for a coffee and didn’t need to worry about what row I was on.

I used the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula from Knitty to figure out how many stitches to use and how to do the heels. For the toes I used the Magic Cast-On. I highly recommend this to anyone else doing toe-up socks - it is completely invisible (inside and out) and doesn’t require a provisional cast-on or waste yarn.


I used the tubular bind-off I learned for the Endpaper Mitts to finish off my socks. It looks nice and is really stretchy. It goes pretty quickly once you get into a rhythm too. I haven’t really figured out how much of a tail I need though; I’m so worried about not having enough yarn that I always cut three times as much as I need.


I love this yarn. It feels lovely to knit of course but what I really like is the colour. I just couldn’t resist the skein with its softly muted browns and shock of sky blue. I had no idea how it would knit up. I really like the stripes I got.

 

We spent most of October in Nova Scotia this year. Neither of us had ever been there and it was a wonderful experience.

We spent a week on Cape Breton being immersed in Celtic and Acadian music. The range of accents was amazing - everything from French to the thickest Scottish with some Gaelic thrown in for good measure. We stayed in Baddeck - a beautiful little town almost in the middle of the island and right on the edge of the Bras d’Or Lakes. The coffee shot in Baddeck makes the best cappuccinos we’ve ever had - they can steam milk beautifully and consistently - it was such a treat.


The countryside is amazing beautiful and everywhere you go there are cute old buildings and live stock. We drove about a third of the way around the Cabot Trail to Cheticamp where the road and the houses have very little relation to each other except for the long winding driveways connecting the latter to the former.

We took a day to drive out to Louisburg and see the fortress. It was a cold, rather wet day but we still enjoyed it. There are animators in costume to interpret history for you and explain all the details of their spaces (the cook in the Engineer’s house was particularly fun). Every room with a fire felt warm and cozy and every one that didn’t felt very chilly. There was hot tea and period goodies for warming up. We saw livestock in Louisburg too but these were an older variety of sheep than the ones we’d seen while driving along the highways.


We spent the rest of our time in Halifax which boasts an amazing number of excellent pubs and restaurants downtown (in fact sometimes it was difficult to find something to do that didn’t involve eating). We toured the Alexander Keith’s Brewery (they are all in costume and pretending it’s 1863) and visited the Citadel and the Maritime Museum. It was very strange to be somewhere where so much of the history of the place was related to war (oddly this included the brewery)


The Public Gardens in Halifax are beautiful and a lovely place to walk or sit. We spent some time doing both. There were lots of ducks playing around in the water and a couple of swans that had been a special gift to the gardens a few years ago. Many of the flowers were past but some remained and were lovely to see. My favourite were the cabbages.


We saw cabbages again when we went to the Farmer’s Market. It’s held every Saturday in the old brewery buildings and outside if the weather is good (which it wasn’t on the day we went). We fought against both wind and rain to get to the market and home again (eventually giving up on the umbrella) but it was well worth the trip. It was the first time I’d ever been to a farmer’s market and it was amazing to see all the produce and handicrafts for sale. The market area was full of people and very convoluted but we went through the whole thing. We eventually got some fudge and some apples and pears for our lunch.


I’ve set up a gallery with many more pictures in it.

P.S. There were oatcakes everywhere!

After learning to make scrumbles last week I had a renewed interest in crochet. I’ve learned a little bit here and there in the past but I find I get a little bored and forgetful after a few rows and generally prefer knitted fabric. Recently, however, I’ve been seeing more crochet project that appeal to me, they tend to be things worked in the round: there is the Babette Blanket project on the Purl Bee, and the hexagons on Moonstitches. The problem was that these designs came from books or magazines and I had been unable to find patterns I liked on the internet.
 
Then I found the Hundred Flowers Scarf. Those cheerful multi-coloured flowers just called out to me and I was very excited to discover that the designer had posted instructions for making them. I showed the pattern to Jane and she offered to give me a bit of help working through it. Last night I went over to her house for a visit and when I returned home I had this pretty little flower with me.
 
I also have with me a crochet book on loan with patterns for a very pretty pink shrug and a cozy blanket. I love to learn a new craft.