My Tolkien-obsessed daughter came up with the bad pun in the title.  An indication of my pun-addled brain is that I I found it irresistable. (If you don’t get the joke…never mind.)  I have continued to knit on the Ring-transcribed panel for Leah.  Here is a new progress shot:

I am knitting this in the round using two-handed stranded knitting.  This is the inscription from the One Ring, written in the Black Speech of Mordor using Tengwar, the transcription system developed by Tolkien for the languages of Middle Earth.  The inscription was charted for knitters by Diana Stafford, who offers it for free on Ravelry as a scarf pattern which she calls the One Ring Scarf.  (Thank you, Diana!)  In the scarf it is knit in a long continuous string, but I am knitting it into a panel with two lines of script.  When I am done with the knitting, I will cut it at the steek, and then block it into a long rectangular panel.  This will become the front of a rather large pillow for Leah’s room.

The beautiful fabric you see on the left in the photo above will be the backing for the pillow.  I bought the fabric from John Lewis in Reading, UK.  It was actually a remnant stored in the back storeroom.  I went to John Lewis with the knitting in hand and gathered together all of the sales staff to help me find the perfect piece of fabric.  It was late in the day and there were not many other customers, and the staff responded with great enthusiasm and helped me find the perfect piece.  I love how it looks like burnished gold, and also has a vaguely medieval feel to it.  (Plus, the fact that it has squares all through it makes it easy to cut for a sewing novice like myself!)

I am knitting this with Quince & Co Chickadee yarn, obtained from Loop in London, in the colours Frank’s Plum and Carrie’s Yellow.  Looked at separately neither the purple nor the yellow looked right to me, but together they are perfect.  The yellow pops beautifully against the purple and looks just like gold.

We have now been a week in Vancouver.  We haven’t been up to much yet.  We have all been tired and Doug is having knee problems.  We did, however, make our all-important trek out to Deep Cove, which we always do when in this part of the world, to stand on the very spot where we were married more than 22 years ago. Leah took a photo:

We look both older and colder than on that fateful wedding day, but no less happy.  I could not imagine a trip to Vancouver without this small, but romantic, detour.  The girls think it is cute.  I give you a closeup of the photo so that you can see that Doug is wearing my green Malabrigo cowl and it looks fantastic on him!  I think that he has just gained a new cowl, while I have lost one:

I also managed (on my first day here) to find a great gluten-free bakery in Vancouver, called Lemonade.  Those of you who also have coeliac’s disease will recognize this compulsion, when arriving in a new town, to scope out all of the gluten-free options  available to you.  I have now been there a few times and I have been stuffing myself with wonderful gluten-free treats, including the most amazing Lemon meringue tarts ever:

Yum yum!  I must admit to complete gluttony: I have eaten three of these this week!  Doug took the above photo from the balcony of the lovely apartment we are staying in in False Creek.  Thanks so much to Ed and Marci for very generously lending us a place to stay.   It has made our trip so special.

Since I need to finish Leah’s One Ring project before heading back to England, I will now stop writing and start knitting!  (And, just maybe, eat another Lemon meringue tart…..)