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Someone keeps finding my blog by searching “Vancouver sucks”. I have news for you, pal, VANCOUVER IS AWESOME. Today I got asked if I was a tourist, and really sometimes I still feel like I am despite the fact that in September I will have my ten year anniversary of living in the greatest city in Canada.

This morning when we woke up it was actually sunny for a change, so I made Tremaine go out. Since I inherited all that delightful fleece last weekend I decided I needed to buy some acid dye at Maiwa.. It is way too annoying trying to get enough Kool Aid to dye – by now most people have figured out that sugar + water + colour + artificial flavour is not actually a delightful beverage, so it is hard to find, especially in colours that are not lime.

Oh, on the way we stopped downtown to go to the library, and to my delight we found that the Japadog location on Robson is finally open (Pretty sure it was promised to us in November). However, I do not care enough about weird hotdogs to wait in a line.

Right. So we got to Granville Island and I yelled at the ducks and then we checked out the Farmers Market. It seems a bit weird to me that the market happens on a weekday but apparently no one in this city works during the week because it was mega busy anyways.

In related news, the textile ladies from Capilano (including me) will be there on July 1st with our wares and also to demonstrate some stuff including spinning and felting. You should visit.

I am on the lookout for one of those hanging strawberry plants, but alas, it was not meant to be. I saw one last year for $5 and should have bought it but I didn’t and I have been sad ever since.

I also creeped on Rebecca’s friend JP. I wasn’t sure if it was him but then I thought really how many French spice guys can there be at farmers markets in Vancouver?

I didn’t say hi because he was talking to a lady and also because I generally don’t talk to strangers. JP sells delightful spices, and you can internet creep him if you’d like.

We had lunch at the market and this is where I got asked if I am a tourist. I was sitting at a table waiting for Tremaine while he got his food and of course I had that terror moment where someone asks to sit at your table. It’s not even that I don’t like sharing a table but as soon as they sit down you start to wonder if you should talk to them and make friends or pretend they aren’t there. It’s awkward.

So Maine came back and I photo’d his sandwich, and the lady was all “Oh are you tourists?”. I don’t know why food photos mean I don’t live here but I told her no, and then she chuckled at my food documentation. Look, lady, I have to blog about something ok? My life is pretty empty right now hahaha.

So whenever we go to Granville Island I always think “We should totally get some food here for dinner.” But then we look at the prices and I’m like “Forget that, let’s just go to Donald’s.” For example, cherries at Granville Island were like $4.99/lb and I think we got them for $1.99/lb at Donalds.

So after a bit we decided to head home, and on the way back we saw this heron. It was pretty majestic.

Then an even more awesome thing happened where a fisher guy tricked a sea lion out of the ocean. Is it a sea lion or a seal? I don’t really know.

I feel pretty good about my Maiwa purchases. Also this book promises me that I can HAVE IT ALL! Yes! Actually I don’t need all of it, I just need some of it, thanks book!

Oh yeah, one last thing. This guy was sitting on the sidewalk with some effects pedals and a sound bank thing and also the tiniest amplifier ever. We walked past and I said “I don’t really get it at all.” to Tremaine, because all he was doing was making noise. Then a girl turned around and said “Oh, I don’t either! Glad it’s not just me!” and we shared a moment.

P.S. Whoever found my blog by searching “cute lady”, I hope you found one.

A few months back we bought the desk that goes with my Expedit shelf. Tremaine put it together and installed it, and everything was great until I realized that all of my rovings were in one of the containers that was now walled in by the top of the desk.

Then last week I was trying to find my drop spindle (I’m supposed to bring it to the Maplewood Farm in North Van this weekend as some of us Textile Arts students are going to have a table at their sheep shearing event). I had Tremaine help me liberate the roving, but the drop spindle was not in the box liked I had hoped.

So, this morning I decided to look under the bed and lo and behold, it was there! Hooray! So I spent some time this afternoon spinning some Rambouillet fleece I bought from eBay. Unfortunately, the lady I bought it from must have had the heat too high when she dyed it because it was kinda felted and not very easy to spin, but I am taking this as a sign that I need to get my wheel fixed and maybe try to inherit a drum carder. Dare to dream.

In completely unrelated news, I would just like to take a moment to talk about how awesome it is to have breakfast with friends. Like ok, going over to someone’s place for dinner is alright, but breakfast is a bit more special because people have to actually make an effort to get out of bed to achieve breakfast at a reasonable time.

On Sunday we went over to Daryl’s place for waffles and other goodies before Maine had to go to work. Maffy made some delightful chocolate waffles and there was fancy bacon and fruit and other good things.

Breakfast is pretty much my favourite meal and it is only made one million per cent more awesome when someone else makes it. We should start a breakfast club (HAR HAR HAR get it oh man I am the funniest ever).

Hello again,

I did a thing to my blog and I think I broke my stats. Either that, or no one likes me anymore. I hope that is not the case!

Where were we?

Yes, so, Sheep to Shawl. After we had lunch from 12:30 to 1, we came back and got started on the shawl. I was our team’s weaver, so I picked up some yarn and got to it.

I managed to weave pretty quickly, and with few problems, except near the end where one of my warp threads came out and we had to try to get it back in the heddle. It only took just under two hours to weave, probably because our yarn was pretty thick.

We were actually the first group done.

Rebecca fixed the threading mistake we had by weaving in another warp thread with a needle, and then the group worked on tying the ends into a fringe.

Then we waited and watched as the ladies from the other guilds finished their shawls up.

We also spent a bit of time modeling our shawl.

The Chilliwack guild ladies had the best outfits. I was totally jealous.

At 3:30, the competition ended and all the shawls had to be given to the judge. She had 30 minutes to look over the shawls and decide which one was the best, so a few of us went outside to watch a sheep shearing until she was done.

This poor girl was only a year old, so she’d never been shorn before. She was a bit freaked out. I felt sad for her. And also I wanted to cuddle her.

There were two sheep in a pen who had already had their outfits taken earlier in the day, and they kept baaaaaaaaing at the sheep who was getting shorn. So cute though right?

So then it was time to go back in to find out the results.

The Chilliwack ladies had the best outfits, and also the best shawl. We were number 4 (out of 4 teams, hahaha) but yes. Pretty much we expected that much and were just really pumped that we got it all done. It was actually a lot of fun and I kind of wish we could do it every weekend. We also vowed that next year we would be in it to win it. There will be outfits. And better fleece, cause honestly I am not a fan of the Romney.

Oh P.S. If anyone wants to buy me this I would love you forever.