I had the good fortune to respond to a request for knitting teachers and ended up as a Core Staff member for the Girl Guides’ Spirit of Adventure Rendezvous (SOAR) 2011 last week. The position was volunteer and it wasn’t knitting, but I was thrilled nonetheless. I’ve missed working at camp with kids since getting a “career”.

Sunset on Mt.Cheam during the Closing Ceremonies

I learned that SOAR happens every 3 years, but skipped a year (2010) for the 100th anniversary of guiding in Canada while they had a country-wide celebration. Resuming for 2011, the 6th annual SOAR was taking place in Agassiz, BC — a small town in the Fraser Valley near Harrison Hot Springs, approximately a two-hour drive from Vancouver.

The opening parade through Agassiz, BC. Pink shirts are all the girls, blue are Core Staff.

SOAR is organized by the BC council for Girl Guides, but is an international event with nearly 2,000 Girls, Guiders, and Staff gathering for a week-long adventure camp.

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I cannot believe it’s already the second week of July! It feels like time is flying by fast. I’ve been up to nothing much, but at the same time a lot. Do you ever get the feeling you’re accomplishing nothing, but are constantly busy? I’ve been feeling like that lately even though I’m moving in the right direction.

But, I’ve got some big news! I am going back to school full-time in September. I will be doing a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University. I am very excited because the degree sounds perfect for my career goals. I will miss working on awesome events full time, but I think this is the right step for me. I registered for classes this morning!

Other than that, I’ve just got some summer plans and camping trips in the works. I don’t know if I’ll get to do any travelling (I had wanted to drive around BC and Alberta) due to saving money for university.

I’ve been knitting:

The pattern is Gaenor and the yarn is Unwind Yarns: Throwing Sheep into Rainbows which I bought at Gibsons last summer. This photo was taken at wenchlette’s Wedding Send-off party and I was just beginning the decrease rows. Therefore: it is halfway done!

I have some other secret things on the needles and I’ve been test knitting for my friend Carmen, so personal knitting is on the back burner. Speaking of Carmen, I went to go visit her studio (she is MelonHead KnitWear) a couple weeks ago and brought cookies:

Yarn Cookies!!

I’ve got several books I haven’t reviewed—including Up Up Up by Julie Booker—so stay tuned for those. I’m already on book 3 in A Song of Ice & Fire series (Game of Thrones) and recently received an ARC for Marina Endicott’s new book, The Little Shadows.

Also speaking about books, I’ve been using GoodReads more and LibraryThing less. I am finding more people on GoodReads that I know and hence gravitating towards it so that I can see what they’re reading. Find me on GoodReads if you’d like.

Anyway, I must be off to bed. My car is in the shop (because it failed AirCare) and I need to make sure I’m up if the mechanic calls. P.S. Sorry for the downtime on the website. My blog was migrated to a new server so I could upgrade to WP 3.2.

P.P.S. Circle me if you’re on Google+, or let me know if you want an invite.

Well, you’ve all probably heard the Canadian election results… and the subsequent outrage. What’s done is done, but I can’t help feeling sick to my stomach. So, here is a little pick-me-up: FO reports!

First up: Yuletide Gnome [rav link] Pattern by Alan Dart, published by Simply Knitting Magazine (UK). I knit it from Simply Knitting’s Christmas Gifts Extra! booklet.

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April is the crazy month at work, hence the silence on the blog. But, fear not, I have a huge update and lots of good things to share. So grab a cuppa something nice and sit back.

First, let’s get the obligatory Henry photo out of the way. Here he is sunbathing in the Spring sunshine at the end of March. Such a cutie!

Chico’s cage is in the background and I have since moved it to the other side of the room so he doesn’t get the morning and afternoon sun as directly.

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I bought this yarn from a local designer-friend, Melonhead Knitwear, at Circle Craft Christmas Market in November 2010. She was selling her handknits as well as hand-dyed and handspun yarn by the skein. When I tried on the hats she had for sale, they actually looked good on me! Hats so rarely look good on my head.

Since she knew I was a knitter, she gave me the pattern she wrote when I bought 2 skeins of the yarn. However, because it was just her personal notes and not a published pattern, I had some issues and I ended up with waaaay too many stitches. Oops! Read the rest of this entry »