In the beginning of July, while telling his father that we were going up to Vancouver, BC to visit some friends, George found out that his great-uncle Dick O'Reilly was living in Ladner, BC.  Up to this point, we thought that Dick and his family still lived in Thunderbay, Ontario.  George got Dick's email address from his father and arranged for us to meet Dick and his wife Margaret while we were up in the area.

Dick and Margaret are both 90 years old (Dick will be 91 in August).  Dick emigrated to Canada from Ireland in 1938, while his second wife Margaret was born and bred in Thunderbay.  We found out while visiting that they had been living in Ladner for 14 years.  Margaret's daughter and family had settled in BC and finally talked them into moving out away from all the snow in Ontario.  Dick still rides his bike and Margaret swims three times a week.  We had a great visit and extended our time with them by going out to dinner.  Dick told us stories about his experiences in WWII.  When I commented that he was one of the many Irishmen who had joined the British Army during WWII, he protested that he had not joined the British Army, he had joined the CANADIAN Army.  That's when I found out he had emigrated in 1938.  He was in a tank battalion and lost the hearing in his left ear during the war.  He was stationed in North Africa and then later in Italy.  Dick has a great way with telling a story.  Margaret also had some wonderful stories about growing up in Thunderbay, Ontario.

George & I plan to visit Dick and Margaret again when next we go up to Vancouver.

George & I went up to Victoria, British Columbia for a long weekend with our friend Alan. 

We left Seattle at 9am on Friday morning and were on the 12 noon ferry from Tsawwassen.  We have never made it up to BC that quickly before, but then we've always left around 2-3pm before.  We're still in shock about how quickly we got there.  I think there were only 3 cars ahead of us at the Peace Arch border crossing.

We spent Friday afternoon at the Victoria Butterfly Garden.  We saw some wonderful butterflies:

and some gorgeous flamingoes:



On Saturday we wandered around Victoria and then headed out to Butchart Gardens for the afternoon.  Here are George & Alan in the Japanese Garden (George is in the yellow):



After Butchart Gardens, we drove up to the viewpoint at Mount Douglas.  It was a clear, beautiful day and we could see 360 degrees.  In this photo, you can see Port Angeles, WA:



George also got this photo of a hiker on the ridge:



We had dinner in a restaurant on Victoria Harbour Saturday evening and in the morning, we took the ferry over to Port Angeles and drove home down the Olympic Peninsula.

This is the first trip I've taken where I really enjoyed myself.  Some things didn't go as planned, but rather than concentrating on those things, I let them go and truly enjoyed myself.  It was a wonderful, new feeling for me.  It was also very freeing.

I wanted a brighter hat for those days I feel like standing out so I knitted a second hat for myself.  I kept the side motif this time and shortened the number of even rounds used in the top motif to make a flatter top.  I really like this shaping.  I knit this over the weekend while George & I and our friend Alan were in Victoria, B.C.  We had a great weekend and I got lots of knitting done on the ferry rides.

I so rarely knit anything for myself, but I really wanted this hat.  I have a very small hat (20.5 inches in diameter) so I changed the side motif to a wave pattern.  The usual motif takes up 13 rows, the waves motif takes only 6 rows.  This makes the hat fit just right for me.

I am really loving this pattern.  I made one for George and he posed for me wearing it.  He can be really silly.  I love that about him.

And he has great legs!

I found this wonderful pattern on MagKnits called Fake Isle Hat.  I love it!  Watching the colours change in the Noro Kureyon yarn is fascinating.  I plan to make lots more!  I gave this hat to Raven.

I'm 10 days late getting these photos up.  I have no excuse except laziness.  I like the Hungarian Ground stitch which is often used as a background stitch to help a basketweave tent stitch design stand out.  It can also be used to create a lace effect in a design.

My first bock, as usual, according to the directions in the book:

My zigzagged stitches aren't very good here, but I like the colour combination.

My second block uses all 5 colours and is much better:

My third block was done is one colour so I could see how it would look as a background stitch:

I need to get neater with my stitches if I want to see a crisp delimination between the zigzag columns and the Hungarian Points.  Practice, practice, practice.

I also started the background for the sampler.  It's simple basketweave tent stitch in the main colour (in other words, the colour I have the most of):

I've done a lot more in the past week.  I've told myself I can't do the 3rd block of my next stitch until I've put background around at least 4 squares.

When I did my first two Brick stitch squares, my canvas looked like this:

I had drawn my 25 squares and the surrounding borders and, other than leaving the center and one corner squares for last (per Ms. Slater's directions), my canvas was open to me.  It was also still flat.

My wrinkled canvas now looks like this:

I've filled in 14 of the 25 squares and I'm having to plan where I place my stitch samples and what colours I use.  My next stitch is the Hungarian Ground stitch so I want to make sure the three squares don't end up next to the Hungarian Point squares.  I also need a least one multiple colour square in the lower half to balance out the 3 in the upper half, but I also don't want to put a multi-colour square next to a multi-colour square.  If you count from left-to-right top-to-bottom, I think I'll be do multi-colour in square 18.  Stay tuned to how I work it out.

As part of my burst of energy for needlepoint, I completed all three squares of split gobelin on Sunday.  My wrist was a little sore by the time I finished, but it was worth it.

My first square, done according to directions, is kind of dull.  I don't particularly like this stitch.

Adding additional colours in my second square made this stitch a little more interesting.  Ms. Slater says in the book that this is a good stitch for the gradations in a sunset.

I decided to get adventurous with my third square.  It's colourful and full of movement.  This stitch really shows if one messes it up and if one doesn't catch it right away, it's nearly impossible to fix.  You can see in the far right column, 4th from bottom (dark orange) where I didn't split a stitch with the dark green above it.  By the time I realized how obvious this was, I would have had to remove a few rows.  With this stitch, one can't just cut a thread or two around the error and restitch, everything above must be pulled out.  Not wanting to remove the entire far right column, I decided to leave it as-is.

Overall, as I stated above, I don't really like this stitch.  I will use it on a few more samplers to see if it grows on me.  Maybe if I try a sunset.

I had a burst of energy this weekend and finished six squares.  I did the Hungarian Point squares on Friday and Saturday.  I really like this stitch.

My first block, following directions, makes me think of Renaissance details:

My second square was an attempt to show how the stitch works for a background.  I didn't want it to be just one colour so I added the cross.

My third square is my favorite for the sense of movement in the different coloured diagonals.  I don't know where I would use this many colours together... maybe in a purse flap?  Any suggestions?  As you can probably tell, this square was done vertically rather than horizontally.

I look forward to using this stitch as a background in a design someday.