A worthy project

This week I received the January newsletter from talented fibre artist, Anna Hergert, who I've profiled in an earlier blog. Have a look at her website: http://www.annahergert.com/, and click her blog to find the 06 January entry. Be sure to go to the end of that blog and click on 'Read More' to learn about a non-profit organization called KIVA, which is organized to help women in Third World countries who are "willing to help themselves". Once these women receive donations, which are actually loans, they have a specified time to repay the amount.

Anna has also started a lending group towards this end. Hers is directed towards textile artists and she has called it "Textile Artists for Global Change". She has photos of two women, one in Nigeria and the other in Ghana.

Once you've read about the details, you may wish to make a contribution to support this worthy endeavour.

I've been knitting

I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to go through the steps to find and to successfully post this photo--there must be a lot of very talented people on the internet, as obviously it isn't a difficult process for most of you! I was ready to hire an expert, but thanks to an instructional video from Garth (my website guy), I was able to slowly demystify the necessary steps.

This is a photo of my elder grandaughter, wearing the scarf I knit for her from Lucy Neatby's 'Sea Lettuce' pattern. I bought the pattern and the yarn (Celestial Merino, 100 gms.) when we visited Lucy and her staff on our tour in September.

The scarf could have been a little longer, but I stopped a bit early so that Madeline's mother could incorporate some of the yarn into a hat she was knitting for her. I found the project to be enjoyable and would try it again, but did start to wonder when I would finish with all the twirling. It is a dandy pattern for travelling and when one has interruptions, as it was easy to pick up and find out where I should resume knitting.

New beginnings

After many years doing my travel planning through an agency in Toronto, I have decided to join an Ottawa agency, Executive Worldwide Travel, www.executive-trvl.com. I am very much looking forward to this association and being in the same city will allow me to take part in day-to-day agency activities. The agency offers a number of special interest group tours and I think it will be a better 'fit' with my trips.

For anyone with travel enquiries or who wish to book, my email address remains the same and you can always contact me by that means or by phone at: 613-695-0889.

I've also been working on the second tour for 2010--a knitting journey to British Columbia. Our trip will begin in Victoria and we will travel on Vancouver Island with a visit to the beautiful gulf island of Salt Spring.

In addition to staying in Victoria--with afternoon tea at the famous Empress Hotel, the beautiful Butchart Gardens and the Royal Museum of B.C.--we'll visit the Cowichan knitters at Duncan; travel on the Island to meet craftspeople, visits to yarn shops, an alpaca farm and meet with talented, local knitters. Salt Spring Island is known for its scenic beauty and its interesting, talented population. One of our highlights there will be a visit to Treenaway Silk and we'll time our visit to take in the weekly market.

I've been listening to the news of a bad storm in the Maritime provinces and the Confederation Bridge was closed due to high winds. For those who came on the tour in September, it will bring back memories when we had to delay our crossing on the bridge for several hours, however the weather then wasn't nearly as inclement as this snowstorm.