Rockin' Knits: Signal Hill Trail Summertime

In the last post I promised that I would show you some pictures of the Signal Hill Trail in summer. The pictures below were taken June 6, 2010, a day that I walked the trail. It takes me about an hour. Many can walk it much quicker than I and some are slower. Some people won't go handy to it at all. Lots of stairs, rocks and high cliffs as you will see. For me, the hike is worth it because the scenery is breath-taking, the air feels fresher and even though it's a "work-out", I always feel really good after doing it. This time of year the Trail is closed because the ice and snow make it unsafe.

The photos in this post take you from the beginning of the Trail at the top of Signal Hill (near Cabot Tower) to the end of the actual "trail" part which ends on someone's door step. Yes, you have to cross their patio to continue on your way to the road or other parts of the trail. Friendly people up that way though. They are well used to people walking in their paths and poking around.

Ellen loves those pictures. She has seen the Trail from the top of Signal Hill, but I don't think I would venture to carry her all the way around. So, in honour of all the greenery of summer, I decided to knit something green for Ellen to model. It's not quite finished but you'll get the idea. We will show you the finished product, hopefully in the next post.

Seeing I hand knit the shrug in the last post, I thought I try a machine knit version. This one is done in a slip stitch pattern with pattern card #6 that came with the machine (KH260-mid gauge (150 needles)). It's knit with Patons Canadiana, which is acrylic and it's not soft at all. I figured the first try at the machine knit shrug should be done in a cheaper yarn. It's turning out pretty good (smaller than I thought), so now I'm wishing I had knit it in a natural fibre. Oh well. Live and learn! Speaking of living and learning, when I learned to knit as a kid, I always wanted Canadiana yarn in the brightest colours I could find. It was a real treat when Mom bought me some.

The reason the current shrug is slightly smaller than intended is because I was so anxious to get it started that I made a tension swatch, but didn't let it rest overnight. No sir! I took it off the machine and measured it right away, drew up the pattern and away we went. By now, I "should" know the difference of that. It rarely, if ever, works in the machine knitter's favour (in my experience). But every now and again I still do it. Regardless, I'm committed to finishing it. If it doesn't fit either of the girls, Ellen may end up keeping this one! Can you imagine how happy she'd be? :-)