Good intentions are not blog posts. We’ve been coming and going and going and coming around here for the past few weeks, and I just haven’t gotten around to posting, much as I thought I would. Let’s fix that, shall we?

First, let’s wander all the way back to the beginning of August. My college roommate and I went on a week-long trip to Prince Edward Island. We’re both bookish, and have a soft spot for the Anne of Green Gables series. Also, I have heard that Canada’s eastern seaboard is beautiful and wanted to check it out.

It’s about a 10 hour drive from here, but we made it up there in one day and back in another, and then spent 4 days in between exploring the island. It’s a beautiful place, quiet and sparsely populated. Lots of views of sea and sky, cute little farmhouses, old barns, and churches everywhere. Unfortunately, I munged up the camera settings and most of my photos turned out really dark, but these should give you a general idea.

Lots of rolling hills:

And beautiful shoreline. Aren’t the colors spectacular?

Lighthouses everywhere (36 on the island alone, I think they said…).

And, of course, Green Gables:

I also managed to find some yarn along the way. This little skein of softness came from the island basketweaver’s collective. I was sorely tempted to buy a basket to put it in, too, after they showed us how they soak and pound island wood into strips to weave the baskets. My cats eat baskets, though, so I held firm on those and went for the yarn instead. It’s a mix of angora, alpaca, and merino, and it’s impossible not to pet.

The island also has two sweater shops that sell machine-knit sweaters made by knitters on the islands or in nearby provinces, using yarns spun on local mills in New Brunswick and on the island.  You might imagine that I found that hard to pass up, especially as the sweaters were reasonably priced, considering the time and work that goes into them. This one followed me home, and I think it’s likely destined to become a favorite.

I found the sweater design instructive, also. I don’t usually wear raglans, because the shoulder shaping makes my top look smaller and my bottom heavier (not what I need). I tried on several other raglans in the shop of similar designs, and none of them worked well for me. The pebbly color texture in this one diminished the lines from the raglan shaping, and the addition of a large collar and buttons made it much more flattering than most of the designs. An interesting lesson in garment design and construction, in addition to a comfy fall sweater.

Of course, the same shop also had the yarn for sale, and I spent a good while dithering over whether to buy a sweater pre-assembled or in parts. In the end, I did both:

For about a fifth of the cost of the sweater, I ended up with a second sweaters’ worth, in shades of green and teal. The design hasn’t quite taken shape yet, but I’m looking forward to knitting with this yarn when it does. Both will be good souvenirs of my first trip to the Maritime provinces, and from the feel of the wool, they’ll last me  good long time. My last sweater of this style was well used when it came to me and then lasted for more than a decade of heavy use. Hopefully these will have similarly long lives.

That’s trip one (of two) in a nutshell. I still need to collect some photos from the second trip, so we’ll catch up on that in a second post soon.