All that! and a pile of yarn.

Firstly, as promised ..... a picture of the yarn purchased on the trip. I visited a total of 11 yarn stores and 3 studios...and I barely touched the available fibre-y goodness on Vancouver Island..... I didn't purchase at every location, but very nearly.....

and now we're home. After a marathon drive of a total of 16 hours, we arrived home at 11:45pm Mountain time last night. I had not planned to drive the entire way (although, I'll be honest and say that I hoped I could), but the kids were beyond amazing and I wasn't tired in the slightest, so we pushed on.... and on. We stopped in Vancouver to meet my new little nephew Niko (he is adorable!) and then to grab dinner on the go in Kamloops and a quick potty break in Golden and that was it. The kids were quiet the entire trip (they talked amongst themselves, but didn't ask the dreaded "are we there yet").

I'm happy to be home, but sad that I left... We had a fabulous time.

The land of a thousand places to knit.... Part I

My family lives in BC... Once a year I try to visit them all. This year I decided to combine them into one GINORMOUS trip of many stops... This post will be about the mainland portion of the journey.....

I stopped in Salmon Arm to visit my MIL. We stayed for 4 nights.

I knit while visiting my MIL

I knit at the kids' Spray Park.

I did not knit at the water slides (although I did bring it, so I'm counting it).

I knit at a kids' indoor playground, but I can't upload pictures from my phone right now, so there are none.....

I finished this cardi-vest for my nephew who should be making his appearance any day now... and hopefully decides to come before I head back to Alberta.

Our next stop was Kelowna where we spent five nights.

I knit at the pool.

I knit while the kids tried rock climbing.

I did not knit while horseback riding, although it was so lovely and peaceful, that I was sorely tempted........

I did not knit while at the Aquatic Centre (It's called the H2O Centre for those who are interested), but was rather proud of Eli for attempting to body surf on the Wave Rider.

I did not knit while Bowling.

I did a little knitting while visiting, but not much.....

I definitely did a little knitting when my van got a flat tire and we had to wait for a tow truck.... and again the next day as the tire was getting repaired.....

I also did not knit when I took four kids to Scandia (the mini-golf course).....

Our next stop was Vancouver, where my Dad (Opa) and Cary (my step-mom) picked up the kids and dogs and Christina and I had three blissful days without children in Vancouver. We shopped (for yarn, of course.), we ate, we walked, we enjoyed.... and we hope to do it every year......  I just wish I had a picture of Opa picking up the kids and dogs at the beach in a dingy (They took the kids and dogs to Vancouver Island on their boat)... it was priceless..... Picture a small inflatable dingy, a terrified standard poodle, a bewildered toy poodle, a stressed out grandfather, a helpful young nephew and the largest size plastic dog kennel you can.... now picture them all IN the small, inflatable dingy...... oh, it was funny alright......

I knit on the boat while the sun set over False Creek in Vancouver.

I did a lot of yarn shopping.... here is some of my newly acquired stash and a picture on Granville Island.

I even knit while waiting for the Fireworks...... I didn't knit during though... they were far to spectacular for that.

And then I hopped on a Ferry where I knit my way over to Vancouver Island for Part two..... coming soon.....

That's a little peek of my Evenstar shawl (remember the yarn I nearly killed myself to get finished for this trip??).... you'll have to wait for part II for a better picture I think........

The Great Room Exchange.....

This is the title I've given to my latest home project. It started out when I looked at my yarn stash and realized that I had no more space to add to my collection (it can't very well be called anything else, but a collection at this point, there is far too much to actually knit it all in any reasonable time frame.) I was also quite concerned about all of that yarn in my basement.... living in the dark closet all alone with no room to breathe and only the occasional visit from me when I either added to it, or chose something from it..... And so, an idea was born. I decided to try convince Eli to move downstairs so that my yarn could have his bedroom upstairs. My convincing argument was masterful. I sold him on the idea that we would make the basement a "Boy Zone". All of the video games would be down there and eventually we would buy either an air hockey table or some other game table to put down there. He would also have his very own bathroom and lots of privacy from his sister. He wasn't sure about the idea at first (he's rather attached to me at the moment and I think the idea of him being so far away at night was a bit scary), but slowly came around to the idea....

Here is a picture of my poor, lonely, crammed stash:





Once Eli was convinced, step 1 of the GREAT ROOM EXCHANGE could begin..... Eli told me what he wanted his room to look like (I braced for a disagreement regarding a Pokemon themed room... I think he's getting too old for themes and I didn't want to re-paint in a year or so) and was pleasantly surprised when he told me his design... wavy, horizontal stripes with dark blue on the bottom, turquoise blue in the middle and light blue on the top. I then started dismantling the room (it was my office/throw-all-the-crap-lying-around-the-house room) to prepare.... This took forever as I didn't realize I had so much crap in there and I hadn't really thought about where it was going...... I was going to post a picture, but I don't have one.... I've never taken a picture of that room....... that should tell you something... I then began to paint. The room was painted a dark brown and Eli wanted medium to light blues. This required three coats of primer and three coats each of the darker colours and 2 coats of the lightest colour to completely cover the brown. It took me 4 whole days to finish! But it turned out beautifully and he really likes his new room.




Step 2 consisted of painting his old room and turning it into my yarn's boudoir....Officially this room is the Guest Room, but let's be honest... it only has guests a couple times a year, so it really IS my yarn's boudoir.... This room took took 4 coats of primer and 2 top coats (just look at the picture below and you'll see why), but WOW... I did gooooood and my yarn is much happier.....There is yarn in the closet, yarn in the plastic organizers and roving/top in the cedar chest and the acrylic/novelty yarn is under the bed... in vacuum bags.... The best part?? There is LOTS of room for more.....

Before:



And now (and I'll say that it's about one million times prettier in real life...)




I'd still like a headboard and maybe a screen for the plastic bins and notice the glass bowl full of my favorite special yarns in tones of blue:

Step 3 and 4 consist of turning our fifth bedroom into Chey's "den" and the basement in the aforementioned "Boy Zone" Pictures of those as they are finished... no more painting though... I.can't.do.it.

PS.... please be advised that I didn't really convince Eli to move downstairs so that I could move my yarn upstairs... this was actually a wonderful side benefit to the "Great Room Exchange"... but I like the above version better... I felt I should explain... just in case someone thought I'd actually force my son to live in the basement so that my yarn could live upstairs.....

PPS.... I'm currently taking bets as to how long Eli will last in the basement... He is only 7 (turning 8 in a little over a month) and scared of the dark.... so I am fully prepared to move him back upstairs if need be...... but I won't be repainting if that happens......