New Brunswick in July

I have just returned from ten wonderful days in New Brunswick visiting with my family at our cottage on Grand Lake. My timing was perfect, I missed the heat wave. The pace of life is much slower down east. Everything is simpler and less complicated. Fredericton Airport, one entrance, one departure gate. It doesn't get much easier.

Fredericton is an old city, one of the oldest in Canada. The Saint John River runs through the centre of the city.

I grew up in the part of Fredericton know as Devon, on the north side of the river. The picture below is of the business district of the city located on the south side of the river. It is taken from the park at the end of the street where I grew up.

The picture below is of Queen Street, in the center of the older business district of Fredericton.The building with the tower is Fredericton's City Hall. The larger building beside it is now the New Brunswick Department of Justice offices and courts. Over the years this building has served many purposes. My mother attended teachers college there. In my day, it was a high school where I attended grade 10.

The park below is one of many green spaces in and around Fredericton.

A few hundred yards down this path from the park, you will reach the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

The contributions of Lord Beaverbrook, a wealthy media baron in his day, are evident all over New Brunswick but especially in Fredericton. Several world class paintings were donated by Lord Beaverbrook, his wife Lady Dunn and their son, Sir. Max Aitken, to the gallery which bears the Beaverbrook name. In the front entrance of the gallery is a Salvador Dali painting, Santiago El Grande.

I can not begin to describe how breathtaking this painting is. It is very large, I'm guessing maybe 15 by 25 feet. You can get lost in this painting. The painting depicts one of the saints ascending to heaven with Christ. There are benches placed immediately in front of Santiago El Grande. The painting is so large and so beautiful, you really need to sit awhile and immerse yourself in all the detail of this masterpiece.

Being an old city, Fredericton is full of historic buildings. The building above was originally military barracks, now serving as a museum. This is also right downtown Fredericton on Queen Street. The greens in front are often full midday with folks from neighbouring business and government offices enjoying lunch in the park.

This lighthouse is not on some remote ocean shore. Also, right downtown on the Saint John River banks, it serves as a Tourist Information office.

Swimming in the river is a little iffy. I lived a 5 minute walk from the river and have never swam in it. But the river chanel is wide and deep enough for use by pleasure craft.

Fredericton is the home of my Alma mater, University of New Brunswick. All those red brick buildings on the hill are UNB. Established in 1785, the University of New Brunswick (UNB) is the oldest English language university in Canada and was the first public university in North America.

UNB shares a campus with Saint Thomas University.

The bridge in front of this row team used to be a train bridge. Rail service through Fredericton stopped years ago. The bridge has been converted to a foot bridge and is often used by students on the north side of the river on their way to classes as it connects with the foot of University Avenue which leads directly to the campus.

Just a couple of hundred yards down Waterloo Row from the "train bridge" is Christ Church Cathedral built in 1845.

A Saturday tradition for many Fredericton residents is the W.W. Boyce Farmers Market. It is open Saturdays, all year. During warmer months, the out door spaces around the market building are full with dozens of vendors with fresh produce, herbs, flowers & bedding plants, handcrafted garden furniture ....... the list goes on and on. During winter months there are fewer vendors using only the indoor spaces.

Farmers Market is where I discovered Tim who makes our fabulous shawl pins.

It is where I also discovered Barb, aka Woodsmoke Woolworks, who designs a line of the cutest hats, socks, mitts & sweaters you will ever seen.

We have samples of Barb's hats and carry all her patterns. Barb uses Briggs & Little, a rustic east coast yarn, but Cascade 220, which we always have in stock, is a perfect substitute.

Morning Glories

Sheep and Lambs

Market offers opportunity to check out local crafts.

We always go to market early in the morning and enjoy "breakfast" from any of the dozens of food stands including many ethnic cuisines.

Most produce vendors are organic and/or small family farms. Their produce may have been collected just that morning and doesn't get any fresher.

New Brunswickers have a sense of humour. You think our gas prices are bad. It is always worse down east.

The highway from Fredericton to Grand Lake travels along the Saint John River through prime produce farming areas. Several produce stands have been in existence along this route for years. One in particular always gets a lot of attention from tourists for their giant potato man which has stood outside their produce stand since I was a kid.

While at the cottage I managed to do a lot of knitting. I have four young nephews, 2 aged 4 and 2 aged 6 who want fish hats for Christmas. This adorable design, called Dead or Alive, is free on http://www.knitty.com/

You can find the free pattern here. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTfishy.php

I knit 3 pairs of socks while at the cottage. My niece Lisa had never seen self-striping sock yarn. She hasn't done a lot of knitting but decided she had to give it a try. We headed off to the only yarn shop in Fredericton. I had just heard about it from one of our sales reps who had just been there.

When I arrived at Yarns on York, I could not believe it. When I was very young, my Dad owned a magazine, candy & tobacco shop. Yarns on York was in my Dad's old shop!!!!

Lisa feel in love with colour 930.

Later, at Chapter's getting some magazines, I found my favourite sock book which I use as the reference for my sock classes, so I bought Lisa an early Christmas present. I was also pleased to find another neat sock book......

I felt rather stupid when I got back to Serenity Knits and realized we have it also.

I bought one of my favourite kids books for my little nephews. Bunnicula, described as "Twilight" for kids, is a story told from the perspective of a family's pet dog. When the family bring home a new pet rabbit, their other pets are convinced it is a vampire. It is hilarious. If you have to read kids books, it is nice if you can at least enjoy them also.

After Market & Chapters, we wanted to go one of my favourite restaurants but it was just getting too hot. El Burrito Loco has some of the best authentic mexican food I have ever tasted and I love Mexican- have been eating it for years from dozens of places including Mexico. The Canadian owner lived in Mexico for several years. When she and her Mexican husband returned to Fredericton, they opened this little restaurant and I have never tasted better, more authentic Mexican food.

Back at the cottage we cooked up our own Mexican feast. I am the youngest of 5. I have 9 nieces and nephews most of whom are married with kids of their own. At any point and time, there can be up to 30 people at the cottage. It is busy but fun. With several people to share the work load of preparing food, we eat very well. Mexican is a family favourite. We often use recipies from an old Better Homes and Gardens book now out of print. The white wine sangria recipe in this book with fresh strawberries and pineapple is out of this world.

This year, my sister-in-law Joyce, took it upon herself to tell everyone not to bring desserts!!!!! I was not consulted on this but it was probably wise. The 5 pounds I gained in 10 days probably would have been 10 if all the desserts we normally have on hand had been there. We were very good. One niece ignored the ban and brought a huge pan of a gooey peanut/caramel type squares which lasted one day. July is the height of strawberrie season in New Brunswick so we had to have strawberrie shortcake a couple of times. But other than that, we were pretty good. The worst is my sister-in-law Joan. She hosts a weekly cooking show on a Nova Scotia cable network, East Link, called Welcome to My Kitchen. Every recipie she uses has to be made 2 or 3 times so she always has a freezer of great stuff, especially sweets, which she usually brings to the cottage.

We can not get Welcome to My Kitchen up here, but if you go to their website

http://www.eastlink.ca/eltv/

there is a link to all the recipies Joan has cooked. And if you have a problem with any of them, I have an in with the chef and can get your questions answered.

Any way, lots of good company, good food, good weather, cold beer and knitting. It was a great ten days.

Beth

Vogue Knitting 1955

One of my amusements is collecting old magazines. Every couple of months, I browse through the magazines at Goodwill and Value Village. Over the years I have acquired quite a collection. They are fun to look through. A recent find was a 1955 Vogue Knitting Magazine in mint condition. I thought you might enjoy a peek.

If you are familiar with British Currency and know how much 2/6 equals, please let me know.
The coat on the cover is actually quite attractive. I am no fashion diva, but I think you could easily wear this coat today.

Boleros were popular. I don't know about the hair and eyebrows, but again, the bolero is nice.

The last several seasons, cowls and shoulder shawls have been very popular. Last winter's fashion mags called the shawl/scarf/stole that was joined in one big ring Infinity Scarves. In 1955, they called them Ring Stoles.

Shawls were popular.

The pictures in some of the advertisements could almost fit into today's magazines.


Sirdar was around.

Aero

Coats

Jaeger

Patons

I'll leave the magazine at the store if you would like a better look.

Beth

Butterflies and Other Bugs!!

I have always loved just about any dog or cat I have ever met. I also have a soft spot for smaller furry things - squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, even white rats. But I was a little surprised when I recently realized I was also very fond of a lot of different bugs? After thinking on it for just a little while, I realized, of course, it was because I associated these bugs with one of my favourite places on the face of the earth, Grand Lake, New Brunswick. I grew up in Fredericton and spent all my summers as a child at my family's cottage on Palmers Cove, Grand Lake.


Grand Lake is New Brunswick's largest fresh water lake. This view of Grand Lake is just down the beach from my cottage.


This is my "Frog Pond"!! This pond was a couple of hundred yards down the beach from our cottage and was a favourite destination for my cousin Shelly and I when we wanted to go for picnics. In the spring I would catch pollywogs. A pollywog is the infant frog which first emerges from the egg. They have a fat round body, a long tail and no legs. I would catch a few and keep them in a fish tank. Once they had grown their legs, I would release them back to the pond. Much to my mother's dismay, they sometimes preempted my release plan with their own escape.

Sunsets at Grand Lake were spectacular. As much as we enjoyed our days on the beach, the nights were fun as well. There were about 15 cottages on our cove and lots of kids. Kick the can, hide and seek, bonfires, marshmallows, sleeping out on the beach - no TVs or computers for my generation. My favourite companion was my cousin Shelly. Her dad, my uncle Bob, was a journalist and communications advisor with the United Nations and they lived all over the world. But every summer they came home to Grand Lake and stayed in my grandparent's cottage next door to ours. One of our favourite night time adventures was catching fireflies, my number one favourite bug. Seeing fireflies flitting through the forests and meadows behind our cottage was just magical.

They are harmless, gentle little insects. I don't think they know how to bite. We would catch as many as we could, put them in a glass jar with twigs and grass and lots of air holes. If you caught several, they actually did emit enough light to provide just the right illumination to be a fabulous prop for ghost stories, another favourite Grand Lake activity. By the way, we had our own Palmers Cove ghost. According to our parents, the ghost was the spirit of a Confederate Soldier who walked the road leading from the highway into our cove. I never once saw him and am convinced it was something our parents made up to keep us from wandering to far from the cottages at night.

We always released our fireflies unharmed the next morning. It is not good karma to hurt something as magical as fireflies.

Another favourite bug was the dragonfly. They would rest for hours sunning themselves on the rocks on the beach. They looked just so weird but in their own way beautiful. Their bodies and wings were a mish mash of iridescent jewel tones. We never tried to catch dragonflies. Not because we were afraid of them. You really didn't need to capture them to be able to look at them. If you sat on the beach long enough on a sunny day, one or two dragonflies would always come along, rest awhile on the rocks near you and enjoy the sun along with you.

By now you are probably wondering - "What does all this bug stuff have to do with yarn or knitting?" It started with a pair of Fair Isle Socks form Red Bird Knits called "Flutter By" which was part of the Trunk Show we had for a couple of weeks.

This picture does not begin to do them justice. They were knit with a black background and Arequipa hand paint alpaca sock yarn for the butterfly motifs. Unfortunately the sock has moved on to the next Trunk Show location but we have the pattern and yarn. Karen has fallen in love with them and is considering using it as the class project for a summer class on knitting Fair Isle Socks. I also love these socks. Because they are beautiful and because I love butterflies, another of my favourite bugs.

My favourite butterfly is the Monarch.

These magical little creatures migrate to the forests of Mexico in winter.

A trip I hope to make one day is to the specific forests of Mexico where millions of Monarchs come together, covering the trees. One of our knitters, Zelda, is a travel agent and has found for me all kinds of information on tours to the Monarch migration sites in Mexico.

Twice a year, our 2 main GTA yarn distributors, host open houses for yarn shops to preview new yarns. Gabriela and I were wondering around in yarn heaven aka Diamond yarns warehouse. I was looking at sock yarn. I mention to Gabriela - "That yarn looks like monarch butterfly colours". Gabriela wandered over to look and picked up an information sheet - On Line Supersocke 100 Butterfly-Color!!!! A whole line of self patterning sock yarns in various butterfly colours.

We grabbed a couple of bags to try them.

I had not knit with the On Line Sock yarn before. In addition to liking the colours and patterns, I very much like the texture of this yarn. It is so, so soft. Now that I have butterflies and other bugs on the mind, I am seeing all kinds of knitting opportunities. Woodsmoke Woolworks has bumble bee and dragonfly hats. I have found several mosaic stitch patterns with butterfly motifs. The new Vogue Stitchionary # 6 featuring lace, has two butterfly lace patterns. I might just have to try some of them. I'll let you know.

I know there are lots of bugs we all love to hate, but many are magical little creatures that add beauty and interest to our world.

Beth

SERENITY KNITS IS PLEASED TO BE HOSTING A
RED BIRD KNITS TRUNK SHOW
Friday, April 30th until Monday, May, 10th.
Sock knitting is phenomenally popular. Sock yarns are among the most fun and colourful yarns on the yarn store shelves today. The hand painted and self-patterning yarns can make even a novice sock knitter look like a genius. Just don't tell any one the yarn did all that colour work, not you. In addition to the incredible selection of sock yarns, there are so many wonderful designs available to tempt you when you are ready to try something a little more challenging. One such designer, until just recently a local gal from Toronto, is Robyn Gallimore, a.k.a. RED BIRD KNITS. Red Bird Knits offers around 100 sock patterns in a variety of yarns, weights and stitches. We will have on display samples of 20 different RED BIRD KNIT SOCKS from Friday April 30th until Monday May, 10th. The accompanying photos can only give you some idea what you can expect, they can't begin to do the socks justice. You need to come see these socks, they are true works of knitting art.
Lace and cables in YORK MINSTER done in fingering

SNOWY WOODS , fair isle knitting in fingering weight.

More fair isle in fingering, SETESDAL
Beautiful Malabrigo sock in RIVER cables and lace

RED FOX,which derives its name from Fleece Artist Red Fox Trail Socks in which it is knit.

MUD FOOT, an unusual fair isle in fingering weight.

MEXICAN DANCE, a modular knit with self-striping fingering yarn.

LABYRINTH, a mosaic design created using a solid and a multi- coloured self patterning yarn.


KNOT GARDEN, rich cables knit unfortunately in the discontinued Lana Grossa Mega Boots, but Zauberbal could substitute perfectly.

One of my favourites, JUST BAA, fair isle in fingering weight.


GRAPHITE, fair isle in fingering

FLUTTER BY, colourful fair isle using Arequipa painted alpaca sock yarn and a solid .

The computer does not do this one justice. FAUX IS FAIR uses multi-colour Berroco Metallic sock yarn and plain white in these absolutely gorgeous socks. The pinky/mauve parts have little specks of metallic silver in them.
FANA, more fair isle done simply but very effectively in 2 colours of fingering weight yarn.

CURLICUE, a wonderful mosaic knitting design, much easier than it looks.

BUD FIXATION, slip stitch and fair isle in Cascade Fixation, a cotton /elastic blend DK

ANDES, a very south American influenced fair isle.

ANDANTE, a chevron style lace in a rich tweed.

Serenity Knits has patterns for all the 20 twenty trunk show samples as well as many others.

RED BIRD KNITS patterns normally retail for around $7 but we are offering them at $5 during the trunk show. We have the original yarn used for many of the featured socks and reasonable substitutes for most others.

We hope you make it in to see these wonderful designs.

Beth

PS Added April 28th
During the RED BIRD KNITS TRUNK SHOW we have decided to offer a DESIGN YOUR OWN KIT SPECIAL. Pick a pattern at the special show price of $5 (Normal retail $7), and you will receive a 20% discount on the purchase of the yarn you need to knit it.
We have also decided to add several new classes to the Spring & Summer Schedule:
*For the Beginner Sock Knitters: Getting Started Knitting Socks
*For Experienced Sock Knitters, 5 new classes each focusing on a particular technique: Fair Isle Socks, Modular Socks, Mosaic Socks, Lace Socks and Cable Socks. These classes should be added to the schedule in a couple of days.
Beth

Our New Employee

The blog has been on hold with so much activity at the store - classes, wonderful customers, beautiful yarns and lots of knitting fun - and no time for updating our blog. The arrival of our new employee just couldn't be overlooked. Stitches started work at 8 weeks old and has been working hard at greeting our knitters and friends. He is Karen's new sheltie (Shetland sheepdog) puppy and will be accompanying her to work every day.

He is a little slow at picking up new knitting techniques as he keeps falling asleep during Karen's classes.

Stitches does make up for his lack of knitting skills with his cuteness! He is learning to herd all of the sheep in the store and loves everyone who wants to play or give him a tummy rub. We are confident that he soon will be able to answer all your yarn questions.

Posted by Karen

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! May this be the start of a year filled with much joy and happiness (and even some beautiful yarns and knitting projects that turn out perfectly).

This was the winter wonderland that greeted me outside our front door this morning.

Beth and I spent the "holiday" taking our annual inventory of the store. It is certainly not one of our favourite days - just hours of counting all the balls of yarn, patterns and knitting accessories with no chance to play with them. We truly appreciate our great customers who took advantage of our Boxing Week Sale and stocked up on yarn - you helped to save us from many more hours of tedious counting. It also gives us some room to bring in exciting new yarns.

Hopefully everyone had the opportunity today to start a new knitting project. It is a great New Years's tradition among knitters. The Christmas knitting is behind and you have a chance to try a new fibre or technique. Enjoy the knitting celebration!

Karen