Knitting in Nanaimo

It’s been about ten years since I’ve been to visit Nanaimo just over on Vancouver Island. But this past weekend, I had the great opportunity to go for a short visit and also drop by their local yarn store, Mad About Ewe. It’s a sweet little shop located in the Old City Quarter of Nanaimo amongst a complex of restored heritage buildings from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. I dropped off an order with them of the new Silk Crush Sock and some other yarns and then took some time to walk around the waterfront and enjoy the sun. It’s not often that I get a completely free weekend to just wander around in the sun, watching elderly couples walk down the seawall holding hands.

By Sunday afternoon, it had started raining and I headed out for lunch, bringing my current project… the Geodesic Cardigan. I have been feeling pretty lucky that I managed to get a copy of the Knitscene magazine that this pattern is in. It seems to be sold out everywhere, but on one visit to a yarn shop, the staff didn’t have it but helped me call around to other yarn stores to locate it for me. It was like a scene out of Miracle on 34th Street. And yes, they found a copy of the magazine for me at another yarn shop who promised to hold it for me. So, now, even though I really want to make this cardi, I feel a little obligated to enjoy this gift.

Well, I’ve had a lot of time to knit on this… We attempted to leave Nanaimo on Sunday afternoon around 3:30 pm but missed the 5 pm ferry and ended up on the 7 pm ferry. Then the 7 pm ferry was delayed by 30 minutes in departing. Mid-way through the trip, the captain says they were directed to go retrieve a boat that had flipped over, so we had to turn the ferry around (is that even possible?) and go back to get that boat. Turns out the “boat” was a little walmart tub that looked like a baby’s washing basin. That delayed us by another 45 minutes. It was pretty much 10 pm by the time we set foot in Horseshoe Bay. Six and a half hours spent waiting and sitting. We could have flown to Toronto in less time… I honestly don’t know how people commute back and forth from the Island for work. It’s such an unreliable form of transporation. But I guess if you have the luxury of time like we did, then no matter.