Sunday, June 30, 2013

Meet SAM

Calgary is still in clean-up mode after the floods and this will continue for some time.  It's heartwarming to see how everyone is helping.  Every person I've talked to has done something. 

While on vacation a week ago my friend, Sheila, visiting from Denver, and I had a chance to visit lots of yarn stores:  The Loop Kensington, Make One Yarns, Pudding and Gina Brown's in Calgary; Knit & Caboodle in Canmore; the Jacques Cartier qiviut store in Banff and River City Yarns (West and South stores) in Edmonton.  There was also the Fibre Festival in Olds.  It was a yarn-y good week!  Yarn was speaking to both of us.  Yes, we did some sightseeing, too.  How can you not check out the beauty of the area?

Sheila surprised me with a very cool gift, a new friend that I've named SAM.  SAM istands for Sock Monkey and he is project bag...perfect for carrying along a sock in progress.  He will be getting lots of use.  Thanks, Sheila!

I bought a skein of yarn for my Travel Afghan and I'll post about that next time.

Time to go and enjoy the sunshine - finally after so much rain!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Back From Vacation

I've been away from the computer for a bit as I've had a friend visiting from Denver.  We had a very good time with sightseeing, visiting yarn stores and going to the Olds Fiber Festival, etc.  An unexpected occurrence this week was the flooding in Calgary and area.  We were lucky to have gone to Camrose and Banff two days before the flood that cut off both of those cities.  We drove all over Calgary on the day before the flood. We were fortunate in the timing of our various day trips.  More about those later.

For now, have a look at these pictures of the flooding in Calgary that my daughter and son-in-law took and please keep Southern Alberta in your good thoughts:


Yes, that's a police car in the water in the last photo.  These pictures show only a tiny part of the devastation in Calgary. 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Kipple

Today I learned a new word, thanks to a newsletter by Tom Gray of Delta Moon.  The word is "KIPPLE":

Kipple is a word coined by the remarkable science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It refers to the sinister type of rubbish which simply builds up without any human intervention. Eventually, one day, the entire world will have moved to a state of kipplization.

While the word refers to rubbish, I think it could also apply to a knitter's valued yarn stash that has a way of building up - yarn that was purchased with every good intention of making something wonderful within the next few weeks, but then ends up languishing in the stash for months, even years.

If you're looking for me....I'll be busy shopping my yarn stash kipple.



Thursday, June 6, 2013

Yukon Yarn Bombing

Here's a huge yarn bombing project.  Members of Yarn Bomb Yukon, with permission, covered a wooly mammoth sculpture at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse.


With a name like WOOLY mammoth, wearing something knitted seems only natural.  Check out the full story and a little video here.

Here's another interesting yarn bomb that I found online.  This is how you turn a telephone into an iPhone via yarn bombing!


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Say Hello to My Little Friend

There's a new resident in the Rhythm of the Needles household.  His name is Swatch and was a gift from my very good friend Barb B. 


Swatch has emigrated to Canada from Santa Fe, New Mexico and has an interesting heritage:

He was made by Norman Willie who is a Navajo Indian from Teec Nos Pos, Arizona.  The tag that came with Swatch reads:  "Hand crafted Navajo folkart expresses how the Navajo view their world and the people, animals, and spirits in it.  Colorful and whimsical, they are a great reminder of the culture that is the Navajo people.  Each unique and different, made just for you from the hands of true craftsmen."

With all the yarn around him, Swatch is going to feel comfortable in his new home in Calgary.

Thanks, Barb!