I took enough yarn for two hats and a pair of socks to Italy with me.  Since I ended up taking the wrong sock pattern book, I didn't get that done.  But I did knit and finish a hat for Deb.

I checked my notes when I got home and it turns out I had taken the wrong colours with me for Deb's hat, but she liked it anyway.  Good thing she forgot what colours she had picked out. hehe

I may have taken 3 projects, but we were so busy I really didn't have much time for knitting.  I mostly take knitting for airplanes and airports.

George indicated last year that he was interested in going to his 20th reunion at Trinity College Dublin, but he didn't want to spend yet another vacation in Ireland.  I suggested that we go to Dublin for 4 days and then on to Italy.  This idea went over well and so we were in Dublin for the last weekend in August 2007.

Boy, was it hot.  Ireland was suffering was a heatwave and I mean suffering.  Don't try to find air-conditioning most places.  The dining room at Trinity College was sweltering even with the doors open.  I fortunately remembered to take a fan with me and had people offering to buy it off of me.  We had a great time catching up with George's college friends both at the formal dinner on the Saturday but also the evening before at a pub and then restaurant.

To be continued...

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.