Nine days and nery a word…  I still had a few Vancouver events to tell you about, but I got sucked into some amazing books, and playing catch-up at work.  I wish I could say that I had spent my time finishing my Olympics sweater… but nope… it’s still in the bag I put it in before we left for the trip.  

Spending two full weeks in Vancouver was fabulous – but one of the biggest highlights of the trip for us was getting out of the city itself, heading north to take a hike in the rainforest.

It rains in the rainforest.  But we didn’t let that stop us!

Our wonderful hosts, Chris and Christa, took us up to North Vancouver to hike at Lynn Canyon.  In the photo above, you see that Kris and I are standing on a suspension bridge – high above the river below!  I am okay with heights (for the most part) but there was a decent amount of traffic on the bridge, so I was holding on as I crossed and looked over to the river below.  

The temperate rain forest is a beautiful thing.  We saw glimpses of it during our trip to the Olympic Peninsula last year, and were able to compare it with the tropical rainforest and cloud forests we saw in Peru in 2007.  The temperate rain forest is not hot, but there is a mist and an insulating humidity.  Much like the mist machines at the market that spray the fruits and veggies with water… you get a little “dewy”. 

Like a dreamscape – the large and commanding trees covered with the lush, verdant moss.

Seeing the forest and the river renewed and inspired us. 

Many more photos – including some lovely macros of the mosses and more of the river and trees are over on Kris’s blog.  He also did a great post about one of our other events – our trip to the Vancouver Aquarium.  He took all the photos that day, and he got some great shots.  Check them out! 

Vancouver provided many fibery opportunities, both with a finished knit, some stash enhancement, and some inspirational artisan galleries as well…

I started this cowl – the Tuesday Night Cowl (free pattern on Ravelry!) by Susan Lawrence - the morning of the Olympic Knitters meetup that Felicia and I coordinated on February 20th.  I brought along the Cascade Venezia from my stash and decided to  cast on this pattern because I wanted something bulky and simple – the antithesis of my recent knits.

“Van-COWL-ver” is what I am calling it – corny, but a nod to where it was made   The yarn was nice to work with – bulky, silky, and a lovely shade of blue.  I used big fat US 13 needles.  The cowl incorporates some tucking with large cables.  It’s really a cool pattern and I plan on making it again with some of the other chunky and bulky yarns in my stash.  Susan has put together the pattern for three different weights of yarn, so it can easily be used for stashbusting!

As far as the stash enhancement goes, you saw Felicia’s lovely studio in the previous post – and I picked up some lovely things from her:  A merino/silk laceweight in a gorgeous olive color and two balls of merino/kid mohair blend colored with natural dyes.  Christa, our wonderful hostess (her Rav profile!), works at one of the yarn shops in downtown Vancouver… so when she was scheduled to work one of the days last week, I decided to pay her a visit at Three Bags Full… what a treat!

In the top photo, Christa and I are modeling some Koigu goodies that are store samples.  The shawl I am wearing is one of  Christa’s own design, Colourflow Wrap (free on Ravelry!) that uses gradient Koigu colorways.  It feels amazing, and it got me thinking about how nice one of these would be around my neck… still contemplating.  Christa is wearing the ubiquitous (and beautiful) Charlotte’s Web shawl.  I asked Christa to help me find some yarns unique to British Columbia for my souvenir pieces – and I came away with these new hanks:

Gala Wool Naturals in Glacier Blue, Mustard Field, and Fern – all the colorwork possibilities!   The lovely lavender colored yarn is Unwind Yarns Beaujoulais Fingering weight Merino Silk – both dyed by BC area dyers.  So, when I knit them, I can think of British Columbia

…and last Saturday, Christa and I had the chance to sit down and have a little crochet lesson… over brunch with our guys, Christa taught me some of the basics, and by the time we had finished our food, I had managed to finish a row that included singles, doubles, and trebles. I need some more practice, but I love the way it feels to be doing something new with yarn. We’ll see where it goes from here!

Our afternoon/evening in Granville Island was one of my highlights of the trip.  Granville is home to several artist studios, including some very talented fiber artists.  I spent a lot of time in the felt shop Funk Shui, loving the artist’s aesthetic.  She does some amazing things with felt.  I bought a great leafy headband that will be perfect for yoga… and anywhere else I want to wear it.  No picture of it now, but soon!  Another artist was showcasing some artwork in one of the small gallery window displays in the Circle Craft shop.  At first glance, it was all about the felt dresses – so delicately adorned with silk ribbon embroidery and beads… but WAIT!  vintage hockey gear too?  Almost too good to be true!

Check it out!  vintage gloves on the left mannequin, and blocker pads on the right one.

Along with the historical photos of women playing pond hockey in dresses behind the mannequins, you can see the artist was going for the juxtaposition of the elegant dresses with the hockey gear.

Pretty ingenius, eh?

Rock Stacking Art by False Creek

Canada Place – Five Sails – overlooking the inlet waterfront

Sunset over the city – from the Seabus ferry

Lonsdale Quay – North Vancouver

Granville Island – public market and Francophone House-sponsored Street Carnival Parade

What a city!

…and I feel that I only got to experience a sliver of it because all of the Olympic events, etc.  There is another BC trip in the future!

I told you all about the hockey games, but Kris and I also got a couple of other tickets too… and I am so glad we did!  It exposed us to these sports that we knew so little about and rarely have the chance to see (maybe only once every four years) so, for that reason alone, it was worth it.

Oh yeah.  I think curling just may be climbing that list as my 2nd favorite Winter Olympic sport… but it’s really hard to figure since there are so many good ones.  But seriously, curling is awesome.  I had no idea what I was missing until we checked out the Men’s Round Robin round last Friday.  The game itself is quite strategic – like chess on ice! – but it was once again the amazing fans and Olympic atmosphere that help you get all caught up in the moment.  Curling matches are usually more quiet like golf matches – the crowd is hushed and then there is some light applause when the player does well… well, Olympic curling in Canada is another matter all together.

It was raucous.  Cowbells, face paint, flag waving, random singings of national anthems.  It’s serious business.

We entered the Olympic ticket lottery almost two years ago, and I just randomly checked curling because I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn about it… so glad I did.  Now, I can’t wait to actualy try it!  We got Men’s tickets, but I wish we had scored some Women’s too – it is just so neat to watch.  The Canadian team is 9-0, an amazing streak.  The US is not faring as well, but they are young (they look like college students) and have more time to develop.   Here is a short video I took as the games were going on.  What you DON’T see on TV is that there are four games going on simultaneously on four different sheets of ice.  So, there is always something to watch and cheer for!  The day we were there, it was China/Norway, US/France, Canada/Denmark, and Germany/Switzerland.

Kris and I studied the Wikipedia guide to Curling before we went to the game (while watching some matches on TV) and generally learned about the strategy.  It’s fascinating!

We also got a change of scenery as we made our way across the channel to North Vancouver en route to Cypress Mountain.  Cypress is the location for the snowboard competitions, and freestyle skiing – moguls, ski/board cross, and aerials.  We had tickets for the Men’s Aerials qualification round, so we got to see some high-flying acrobatics!  It was amazing.  And it was also freezing!  (Vancouver has been so balmy and spring-like that Cypress was a bit of a shock – and a reminder of home with some snow on the ground… but we layered up!)

There were 25 skiiers from many different countries, and the top 12 competitors (with a combined score from their two runs) goes on to the competition round on Thursday.  Our tickets were for standing room, so we saw a nice view of the skiier coming down the mountain, but it was harder to see their landing, so we were looking up at the projection screens for that.  After each run, the little army of blue Olympic volunteers would go and inspect the snow and repack it to make it safe for the next competitor.  They were truly “shovel-ready”!

From this short video, you can see how fast each run is – the skiier comes down from the top right and BOOM!  hits the podium and flies up and twists and flips and curls all around… and then… (usually) lands on their feet.  It’s jaw-dropping.  Some of the skiiers got to 50 ft in the air on one jump!  Scary – but amazing too!

…and Kris and I watched from down below with huge smiles on our faces! )…

By now, you know that Kris and I LOVE hockey.   We are pretty hardcore fans, and we came into the Olympic Games with tickets to 9 hockey games.  So far, we have been to SIX of them.  Everyone of them has been so much fun!  Almost as fun as the game are the die-hard fans that travel to these games from their home countries.  They make the game that much more enjoyable.  Face-paints, cowbells, flag-waving.  It’s just amazing.

Finnish fans before the Finland/Belarus game

Russian fan before the Russia/Latvia game

German fans at Germany/Sweden game

Some friendly Americans (from NYC) that we met at the USA/Norway game

…and of course, the GAMES and the ATHLETES!

I found a great spot for photos down near the ice, and have been lucky to get some nice photographs of the players as they come out onto the ice.

Miikka Kiprasoff and Kimmo Timmonen – Team Finland

Sergei Kostitsyn – Team Belarus

Team Norway

Jaromir Jagr – Team Czech Republic

Team Russia salutes the fans after a big win over the Czechs

Team USA warming up before the game against Norway

I made some signs – the Team USA sign above and then a slightly more creative one for my favorite hockey player, Evgeni Malkin on Team Russia.  His nickname is “Geno” so that was the inspiration behind this one:

…and what’s cooler than meeting up with other hockey-loving knitters at the Olympics?  Brynna, Amy and I are all active on the Ravelry hockey forum Puck This! and we arranged meetups.  Brynna and I met up to watch the first Canada game against Norway at a park with outdoor screens.  Afterward, we headed to the Russia/Latvia game.  It was great to meet her!

Amy and I both had tickets to the Sweden/Germany game and texted throughout the game and then met up afterward!

With a friendly blue-jacketed Olympic volunteer at the Canada Hockey Place arena

… More photos and stories to come…