Scrabble in Vancouver: Another Type of Olympics

Vancouver, BC, Canada is the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, but did you also know it is the site of the
9th Annual Vancouver Scrabble Tournament?  The Scrabble tournament will be held the first week of March, so most of the tourism around the Olympics will be only a past memory.

My registration is set, hotel accommodations reserved, and extra studying for the games has commenced. The previous link will lead you to "Important Words to Increase Your Score".  Basic Scrabble Word Lists can be accessed here.

These are the sites my friend Darlene and I will be visiting while in Vancouver:

Butchart Gardens
Vancouver Art Gallery
Old Town
Gas Town
Chinatown and great cuisine



If time permits, I'd love to visit The HandMaiden Fine Yarn: they have several outlets in Vancouver.  One can never have too much fiber in their stash!

Kimono Shawl Sweater in Wool

It took one month of obsessive knitting to finish the Plymouth Encore worsted wool shawl sweater.  I used a bit heavier wool named "City Tweeds" (55% merino, 25% superfine alpaca, 20%  Donegal tweed) from KnitPicks:

“This yarn begins with alpaca and Merino fibers dyed two different colors and then blended together to make a subtly rich, lustrous heather. We chose neutral colored donegal tweed neps to incorporate into the 2-ply yarn. The high ratio of neps gives City Tweed a traditional appeal. The use of Merino and alpaca makes it soft and warm.

It took 11 skeins of yarn to knit the sweater and a couple of circular needles. Here is a video describing how the yarn was made, courtesy of Knit Picks:



And this is the finished sweater, knit in the Morning Glory colorway:

It is warm, easy to wear, and was well worth the effort that went into this project.

Updating Technology at Home

This month was tech update in our household.  From television to internet service provider packaging to the new iTouch and iTunes, our gadgets are now up to date (ha! ... so little I know).

Of course, updating was not without its hazards, as our internet connectivity suffered during the transition.  Why, sometimes, internet Scrabble was not available for play.  That was a serious situation!

Above is a screen shot capture of podcasts that I listen to while knitting, painting, cooking, walking, etc.

The program (free) that was used to capture the screen shot is Faststone Capture found here under downloads.  It was a free 30 day trial.  I will continue to look for the eternally complimentary program.  Meanwhile, the intuitive program is fun to learn.