Chicago

On the way out to Ontario, my dad and I took a detour and visited Chicago for a day. By the time we rolled in and got exploring it was already about 2pm, so our time was limited, but I absolutely loved it. Didn't love how stinking hot and humid it was, being a prairie kid and all, but that's going to be my life living by the great lakes for awhile.

 After a sweaty ride on the metro, we came across a great statue of Christopher Columbus with an immaculately placed addition by a seagull, and then wandered around the (air conditioned) Field Museum for a couple of hours. There was a temporary exhibit about Genghis Khan which was absolutely amazing for so many reasons. I was thoroughly amused to have grossed out some old ladies while explaining some skeletal features of a mummy to my dad. Sometimes my skills come in handy! 

The main exhibition hall had a bunch of great things, including totem poles which made me feel at home, but the star of the show is this monster above. 

Then we took a walk to get downtown, and on the way to the water's edge came across some cool equine statuary. I love a city that invests in public art, and there were so many interesting sculptures on the path downtown. 

And finally, we made it to the bean. I've been fascinated by the idea of this thing for years and seeing it in person blew my mind. I must have taken a thousand photos of it. Also, curved objects make for hilarious failed attempts at head-squishing, as my dad learned. It was the Jazz-fest weekend while we were there, so the atmosphere in Millenium park was extra special.

And after wandering around the streets for a good couple hours, we needed food and I wouldn't leave Chicago without eating some pizza. Thankfully, a parking meter guy gave us directions to Giordano's (which we had walked by when we started our quest. I don't have pizza-radar) and after a 40 minute wait, we delved into the best pizza ever. Seriously. I can say that each slice was 1.5" thick because I happened to have my tape measure on hand. Amazing.

I hope I can go back soon and spend a bit more time wandering around. I would love to get a better look at some of the architecture and walk around more museums. Visiting Chicago has certainly inspired me to visit more big cities. I feel like such a small-town kid visiting these places (the buildings are so big! There are so many people!) and my new spot in the country will be much more forgiving for short trips to fun places. I'm hoping to get to New York in the spring, but we'll see. Do you have any recommendations for awesome places in the Northeastern part of the US/Canada?

Settling In

So, I've made it across the country. It took driving through 4 provinces, 9 states, sleeping in 4 strange beds, and too many tanks of gas, but I'm here. The first week of classes was insanity. Learning how to teach problem students, drinking lots of sub-par coffee and meeting lots of new people filled my days and I couldn't help but come to my new home and collapse. My campus is beautiful and, as you can see above, is right on the river. Studying in the library and watching the rowers go by, or seeing storks in the morning isn't half bad.

I'm feeling terribly homesick though. I miss James, I miss the dog, I miss my friends. I miss the city I've come to love. I miss running into people I know. Thankfully I have some happy spaces in my room to remind me of home. (The cut-out is from Amy Victoria Wakefield and James made me the Battlestar Galactica inspired frame to house one of the only tolerable pictures of us)

In other happy news... I'M GOING TO RHINEBECK!

Yep. I've been basically seeing in caps since I officially made the plans. One of the perks of being a bit more on the eastern side of the continent is that, well, I'm more than halfway to New York. Is anyone else going? I haven't registered for any courses so I'm just planning on milling about for the weekend. Is there something I shouldn't miss?

Can't wait to meet some of you in person!
-H

Elijah

I feel like it's been forever since I've actually finished a knitted something. I haven't been knitting as much as I would like, and when I do knit nothing seems to work out quite right. It was a nice relief to actually get something successful off the needles!

Meet Elijah. He was supposed to be made for the baby shower of my junior high/high school basketball  coach and her little girl way back in April. Unfortunately, that coincided with the final revisions of my honors paper and finals, so knitting took a back seat and poor Elijah was only a head for many months. I really wanted to make something awesome for her. Not to get sappy, but she was one of the most influential people for me growing up and was basically my at-school mom. She took us to Europe twice to play ball and, despite the fact that we sucked, always had faith in us on and off the court. After all that, the least I could do is make something cool for her baby, right?

The pattern is Elijah from the ever-wonderful Ysolda Teague. The pattern was a bit fiddly, and by fiddly, I mean it sat for over a month untouched while an arm-bud was happening, but was really clear and easy to understand. The only thing I really changed was doing the eyes at the beginning once the head was finished rather than at the very end. That allowed me to pull the eyes in a bit and anchor it to the bottom of the chin and have all the dark-coloured ends buried in stuffing. I love that the construction is all knitted together rather than sewn, so I'm pretty confident it will stand up to the wear and tear of (hopefully) being played with by a little one. If anyone reading this is planning on making one of these, make sure you don't over-stuff the body. Since the arms get knitted on they pull some of the fabric and stretch the stitches which you can see a bit in my picture. Also, I suck at grafting. Just thought I'd let you know.

So, now that I've cleared Elijah off my plate, I can get going on my Ravellenic projects! More on that tomorrow.

Do you have any tips for knitted toys? Do you think they're worth it?

-H

Escaping, or trying to

I wish I could say I wasn't a completely introverted person, but I am. My favourite thing in the world is to hang out at home and be lazy, but that isn't really that exciting or memorable. So, for the last 2 weekends James and I have tried to do something different. It turns out that different also equates to a lot of hard work.

We accidentally went on a 17km hike through Elk Island National Park. I hadn't been out to Elk Island since visiting for a High School Biology field trip way back when, it's so easy to forget that we live so close to such a pretty place. Be warned, though. The novelty of a park just 40 mins from the city wears off when hitting the 10th km of a seemingly endless hike with flies everywhere and too-little water, too high of humidity and a 30° C day. Oh, and don't hike in Birkenstocks unless you absolutely have to, and check the map before leaving. That helps too.

Then last weekend James and I packed the dog in the car and took off to the mountains for a couple days. It wasn't nearly long enough, but duty called and we had to get back to work. We did get to swim in a fantastically clear lake which was the most amazing shade of turquoise (left), took a brief dip in the fantastically freezing Athabasca river (bottom right), and drive the windy road up to the beautiful Mt. Edith Cavell (top right).  I remember going up to Edith Cavell with my dad when I was small, and it's sad how little snow is left up there. 


This weekend I want to take it a bit easier, though I still have plans to build some shelves, bake some cookies (for payment for use of the necessary tools), do a bit of sewing, and wrap up the last bits of knitting I wanted to get in before the Olympics start. I'm still not 100% solid on what I'll be knitting through the games, though I suspect I'll have myself figured out this weekend. Edmonton is also hosting the Indy car race (I have no idea if it's the race..) and the track is right down the road from my house making this weekend the annual simulated living-in-a-beehive weekend. Joy of joys. At least we get a good view of the fighter jets that zip over!


What are you guys up to this weekend? Have you settled your Ravelympic/Ravellenic gameplan? 

-H

In which the nation ages

Well, this is my obligatory "Happy 145th, Canada" post. To celebrate, I went grocery shopping, watched Star Wars, went to the dog park, and tried some basic HTML and CSS with a fantastic tutorial from Katrina at the Pugly Pixel. (Seriously, if you know nothing about html, it's a great tutorial. I downloaded a program called gedit which worked swimmingly. Katrina is also the lady who provided my blog template. I love it!) James and I might bike down to see the fireworks later, but that's about it.

Now, I plan on using the rest of my long weekend to finish the Elijah that has been on my needles for months. I started it for a baby shower in April and said baby has since been born and seen more than one lunar cycle. So far, the pattern has been great, but would one really expect anything else from Ysolda? The only thing I really changed was adding the eyes on before the body was attached so I could hide all the dark-coloured ends away. Oh, and it reaffirmed my hatred for French Knots. One day I'll make peace with them, but today is not that day.

(Also, apologies for formatting weirdness lately.. I've been trying to get in the groove of this new template and getting used to giant photos)

What are you up to with your long weekend? (Or midweek holiday south of the border?)

-H