Crochet Woodstock

This in an old post........... I just published another one and noticed I had something in my drafts so I went to investigate and found this one. Wow was I terrible at blogging this year! This one has been waiting to be published since Christmas. I know I am not as conscious about blogging as I want to be, and this one just proved it Big Time!

I have been very diligent about updating my pattern notes on Ravelry, but clearly not here.

So, without further ado, my post from last Christmas, which was only waiting for me to give Woodstock to Craig before I published it.

When I was planning out Craig's Christmas stocking gifts, I knew I wanted to put as many hand-made items into it as possible. However a major allergic reaction to fish buggered up that plan and nothing was completed. I did manage to get one of the items finished a few days after Christmas. It was a crochet Woodstock character from Peanuts. I searched around for a while trying to find the best looking Woodstock and I settled on this one: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/woodstock-a-crochet-pattern.

I have to say, it was not very pleasant to make. The legs were so small that I had to go up hook sizes. Other than that, I am sure my displeasure stemmed mostly from the yarn I used.

I used up some acrylic yarn my budget forced me to purchase for other Christmas gifts. For the toques I made, I had very few problems, but for this toy, I was cursing it the whole way. It was very "splity" for lack of a better word. I constantly had to redo stitches because I had split the yarn and didn't notice.

Oh well, Woodstock was completed and my bf is very happy with him. It is so difficult finding anything "Woodstock", who is his favourite character, that it was worth the aggravation making this.

So I would like to introduce you to Woodstock!

Before his haircut.

Woodstock!

In profile...

Blessing Day

Today is a Blessing Day.

I try to make everyday a Blessing Day, but don't always succeed.

What is a Blessing Day you ask? Well, it is a day where I am mindful of all the blessings in my life. As I move into this new, more mindful way of life, I am trying to be more aware of everything joyful, peaceful and exciting about my life. I understand now that my thoughts have an enormous impact on my physical self. I try to acknowledge the negative, not to dwell on it, but to realize that it is there and figure out a way to release it and not let it control me. The better I get with this way of thinking, the more peaceful my life becomes, more positive people come into my life, and more enjoyable experiences come my way.

So with possibly loosing my keys at a big outdoor event on the weekend (I say possibly because I thought I had lost my work keys for almost two weeks only to find them hidden really well in my backpack), I find myself trapped in my apartment until my partner gets home. Before, this situation would have been upsetting. I was planning on going up to the library to look at knitting books and hopefully visit my friend who is completing an internship there for her BA in Library Sciences. Now I cannot do this without leaving the apartment unlocked and not being able to get back into the building unless I break into my apartment through the window.

However, being trapped in my apartment is really a blessing. I am always on the go. Always working, even though I am not salaried, or hunting down ingredients to pre-cook safe meals, etc. If I take time to sit down and knit, I always make sure I am doing something else at the same time - watching a movie off of my waiting list, or listening to an audio book. If I don't I tend to feel like I am being lazy or self indulgent, and for some reason still to be understood, that makes me feel incredibly guilty for taking time for myself.

Today however, by being trapped in my apartment, I am being forced to slow down. It is wonderful. I worked like mad on the weekend. My work place had a tent up at a big music festival, which meant I ended up working 12 hour days between being at the event, and then balancing out afterwords. I am physically drained from that. This is an imposed rest day and it was super nice being able to sleep in and not feel guilty about not getting the shopping done as soon as the grocery store opened so I could get the cooking done before taking time to blog, knit, watch tv/movies, watch online course, etc....

And it lets me think about all the things in my life to get grateful for:

My ability to knit, crochet and sew. I have the ability to clothe myself and others. As I learn more about each craft, I build confidence in myself and don't worry if others think I am asking for too much money to give up my free time to make or alter something for them. I don't rely on these skills for my living so I don't end up under-charging for my time and effort.

I am grateful for my food allergies. Yes, it is bothersome, and extremely scary, to eat out at a restaurant, but it is also wonderful that I have to build up my cooking and baking skills to a level that was considered normal only a generation or two ago. I can feed myself and my BF good food, that is often 100% organic since more certified gluten-free ingredients are also certified organic. Before I thought I just couldn't afford to go organic, and did not quite understand just how much healthier it really was until we had to make the switch. My fish allergies did not really have a big impact on our eating habits, but the gluten intolerance did, and led to this wonderful new aspect of my life.

I am grateful for being on a tight budget. Sure I would love to make more money so we could travel more, but my making one and a half times less money than my BF forced us to more into a more affordable apartment. The apartment we ended up in is a bit awkwardly spaced, because it is a basement suite in a 100 year old building where they clearly did not plan on putting suits in the basement, but we are living a little bit more in my budget, which helps me to have some play money after paying off bills and student loan payments.

It also let me finally get a cat! Since we are in the basement suite of a really old building, we had mice. They were non-existent while the neighbor had a cat, but when they moved, the mice showed up. Craig got fed up with fighting them, and wasting money on food, that he finally gave in to my wish for a cat. I sent him to look at an older black female cat that was "on sale" from the shelter because she was there for so long, but Craig fell in love with a different cat. He picked out a grey tabby male cat who was three years old. I got my older cat, and he got the cat he liked. By including Craig in the cat-buying process, he is much more attached to the cat than I expected. And we lucked out with Agent Coulson. His fur is so silky that it doesn't bother Craig's allergies.

Agent Coulson is an enormous blessing! Besides ridding the apartment of mice on day 1, he has such an interesting personality. He is not the "boring" or "annoying" kitty as Craig feared we would end up with. He is so funny and entertaining and brings a shared joy to our lives that I cannot imagine life without him now. I knew that would happen, but it is a new experience for Craig and I am grateful that he now understands just how much of a blessing being a pet owner can be.

There are so many more things I am grateful for, but today these are the ones that keep popping into my thoughts. I will take the time to acknowledge them, to contemplate them and to really appreciate them as I rest up from a physically and emotionally taxing weekend.

With Peace and Love,
Heather

Double Scoop Shawl

Sometime last summer, my LYS had a design contest for the up-coming fiber show. After choosing the winning design, the Double Scoop Shawl (found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/double-scoop-3), they held a KAL that would lead up to the FiberFest.

© thinkharder
( image taken from designer  ash alberg)

I probably would have been able to finish it for that event if I had chosen to do the small version, but I wanted the big one. And some health issues contributed to slowing my knitting down. Food allergies suck, and being force to prove the allergy with the allergist was the problem that time....but I digress.

Anyway, I didn't finish on time, but I kept working on it, and as stated before in a previous blog, I almost finished it on my VKL Chicago trip, but ran short of the orange yarn. Since a picot bind-off was new to me, I did not know at that time if it would be difficult to work around the shortage or not. But after doing a bit of YouTube research (love YouTube for knitting tutorials!) I discovered it shouldn't be a problem to work around that shortage. 

So, when the new year came around, and my favourite designer announced a contest to get WIP's of her design off the needles, I thought I would take the day or two to finish this shawl up before going back to the two WIP's of her designs since they would definitely take longer than a day or two. 

I can say the "instant gratification" of finishing up a WIP in a day was amazing! 

 At first, I was going to try re-writing the picot bind-off, but a few rows in to the set-up row, I realized that I was only 8 stitches short, and with 4 rows of set-up to knit, it would be super easy to just add 2 stitches to each row.

This was my first attempt at adding 2 stitches. My favourite way to add is to M1L and M1R - picking up from the underneath the stitch to bring it up and make a stitch leaning in a certain direction. But after seeing this, I realized that that did not look nice, so I tried again.

 My second attempt was to KFBF. I also did not like the way this looked. I think it would have been fine after one row of knitting, since the set-up rows were garter stitch, but then I would have had to re work my distribution plan.

So my last attempt, which was to KFB on either side of the middle stitch. I wasn't as happy with that as I would have liked, but it blended the best. 

In hindsight, I think it would have been better to do the increase 1/3rd's and 2/3rd's along the rows, instead of in the middle, but I was not about to go back again. If I had had a lifeline just before the set-up row, I probably would have, but I decided to just live with it.

I had a "perfectionist" issue with the picot bind-off. It was the first time doing that bind-off and it took me a while to realize that I had to pull up on the needle after doing the k2tog to tighten the yarn up, otherwise I would have had so many of those loose loops along the edge and that would have driven me crazy.....

Blocking it was a new challenge for me. The shawl ended up being a bit larger than I anticipated and I would have liked another foam block to work with. 

But I love the idea I had to use my crock pot dish for the soaking part. I still don't have 

anything specific to use. I was using a large 

Rubbermaid bin, but the bottom got cracked in 

the cold weather (I'm assuming anyway) when 

I lent the bin out, so liquid doesn't stay 

in it anymore. 

The only real disappointment I have with my shawl is that it did not stay in the shape I had blocked it in. I guess I didn't leave enough extra yarn between changing colours in the multi-coloured rows because it doesn't fan out nicely. It looks like a crescent shape and actually wears better as a scarf. For now, because it is winter, I don't mind at all. I'm all bundled up in layers anyway, but I was hoping to use it in the summer as well as an actual shawl. I'll have to try steam blocking it to see if that makes a difference.

A New Year, A new Goal!

Hello All,

It is shortly into the new year, and I have decided that I am already slacking in my new goals for this year. So the solution is to get off my duff and start being more disciplined.

The new goals I have set for myself are quite simple really. Most importantly, being more disciplined in working toward my goals. The ones I have set for myself all revolve around finally starting my own business, and improving my health.

So, in order to achieve the business goal, I need to work on my blog more, learn about and start using Instagram, take a business prep course, and start designing my own knit patterns.

I also need to ask for advise from people I know who are small business owners. I have a few lined up already. One lady who does a lot of her business online, since I will probably end up going that route for the first few years, and another lady who bought into a small business in the industry I would be drawing from. I have a few other friends who sell through Etsy so I plan to pick their brains, and I have been paying attention to what my current boss does with his small businesses, and asking questions and reading the books he brings through the store.

I've already taking one small workshop about starting a small business, through the Women's Enterprise Center in Winnipeg. It was very helpful. My "fear factor" with starting a business is the business plan, and the market research. Thanks to that little workshop, I now have a better idea of how to go about doing that, and I sorely wish I could afford the 6 week course starting next week. But I can't, so I am saving up for the one that starts right after that one finishes.

And I have a better, but still pretty vague, idea of how to gather my market research. That is the next major step I hope to accomplish before taking the course. And of course having some product ready.

And for improving my health, again, that goal is very simple. Now that I know I am gluten-intolerant, but still waiting on the formal diagnoses, I want to improve my gardening skills. I would love to get to the point where I produce as much, if not all, the food I need.

I already have a friend's yard to garden in. Last year I started quite late in the season so I only used containers, but I prepped the yard for some in-ground plots in the fall. I'd love to produce a lot of potatoes, and my own corn for milling and popping. It would also be neat to grow enough tomatoes to turn into sauce. I probably could have gotten a few cans of sauce last year, but I did not take the time to learn how to can, so I need to get on that.

Anyway, that's my set of goals for 2015. Thanks for reading!

Operation Purge!

Operation Purge! The Great Purge! The Clean Sweep! The Unencumbered Life! I'm not sure what to really call this new phase, but the name is not what is important. It's the intent that is.

I will not take credit for the idea either. The last little while I've read similar intentions over Facebook, or various blog posts, and somehow the idea stuck. So what is this idea? Pretty much what it sounds like, purging cumbersome items from your life, or clutter, or whatever else is in your life but not necessary.

At first I didn't think I would have much I could get rid of, but as I looked around my apartment, I started to notice things that I hadn't used in a long time. Even though we had purged quite a lot before moving, there are still quite a few things that don't play a part in our everyday lives that we still took the effort to pack up and move with us.

So I decided to jump on the bandwagon, and start purging. In order for it to not be overwhelming, and for me to let go of my sentimental attachment, I plan to purge in small batches. In theory, I think getting rid of one item a day for six months to a year would be awesome. In reality, when I start doing something, I am usually gun-ho for the first little while, then my energy or attention starts to wane. I am certainly going to try to keep the purging effort up for the whole year, but to help offset that, should my attention drift, I will allow myself to purge as much as I am willing to in a day. So if I find three or four things to get rid of, then I will. If I can only bring myself to give up one item, I won't beat myself up about the small amount.

My first step in the purging is halting any intake. Of course that is pretty much impossible for some things - groceries, replacing clothing that is falling apart, which in my case, pretty much all of it is since I have been having budgeting struggles and haven't bought any new clothes since August, and before that, my clothing purchases were usually made a year apart. But for simple things like books or yarn, my two downfalls, it is only a matter of self-restraint.

For the last couple of years of being a student, I had managed to keep my art supply budget pretty small by asking myself if I really needed it before buying it. I made myself carefully consider how I would use it in my projects to make sure it would be used, and not just sit in the locker waiting for the right idea to come along. So now, I just need to shift that focus to my everyday life. I have been asking myself that question for the last couple of months almost every time I see something that I want to buy, and so far it has worked almost every time.

The few times I have strayed from self-restraint, I managed to at least buy something with a specific purpose in mind. For example, one of my New Year's Resolutions at the beginning of this year was to finish my Works-In-Progress before moving on to new ones. That resolution didn't really work out too well since I was having some crazy health issues that kept me from making a lot of progress, and I participate in a few Knit-A-Long groups and didn't want to fall behind. BUT, since the idea of purging, and restricting the amount of stuff I bring into the apartment started to take over my thoughts, the last few months I have been able to maintain a fairly strict yarn diet. I have only bought yarn three times since July.

Twice at the yarn conference, and only because I found a kit that I like, for a shawl pattern that I liked. I generally don't like the yarn in kits, so I allowed myself that exception. The second purchase I allowed myself at the yarn conference were two small toy kits, both of which will be Christmas presents for a few people. And the last time was shortly before the yarn conference. I bought some yarn for the Christmas presents I am sending out to my bother's family one province over.

Other than those lapses, which at least have specific purposes in mind, I have been keeping to the yarn diet. I thought about adding patterns to the diet, but even I know a lost cause when I see one. I have been fairly good at only bookmarking patterns I find online, instead of buying them. Until I have the yarn to make those patterns, I won't buy them. And until I have worked through my stash and brought it down to a reasonable size, I will try my hardest not to loose my self control. I do have some yarn in my stash for specific projects, which I will do first, and then I will start going through the yarn that I bought just because to see what patterns I have they would work for. If I don't have anything already, but one of my saved patterns is perfect for that yarn, then I will allow myself the treat of buying a new pattern.

Books are my other downfall, as stated above. Thankfully, since starting to knit, I have been taking less time to read, which makes it easier to stop buying books. I had pretty much stopped buying brand new books anyway, unless they were gifts, so I really just have to stay away from used book stores, or the library sale, or the clearance section at the book store. But that still leaves all the books I currently own.

The ones in my apartment are pretty much all knitting books, or books that I read multiple times a year, or my "other languages" books. It will be the books I have in storage at my parents house that will be the hardest to give away. I have kept them this long because I can see myself using them "when I have more free time". Books on art topics, or how-to books, or book collections I started as a young adult that I still like to read every once and a while. It will be very difficult to let those go....

Anyway, yesterday was the first day that I actively decided to implement Operation Purge! And I must say that it is going well so far. I gave up three pairs of shoes that I love, but haven't worn for over a year. And today I let go of three books. Actually, one was a book set of children's books that I bought for when my niece visits, which is usually only twice a year. She is getting old enough that she won't want to read them much longer, so while she is not here, I will give them away and hope she doesn't ask for them over the Christmas break visit. And the other two were mine. AND my BF also put a pile of books into the bag to give away. So that was about 10 books and the set of children's book that are out of the apartment.

Wish me luck in keeping this up all year long!

Vogue Knitting Live - Chicago 2014

I am a knitter. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. I can crochet, and love Tunisian Crochet, and sew, etc. Although I can can see a day when the choice between picking up my Tunisian Crochet project or my knitting project might be difficult, for now, it will always be knitting that I reach for first.

So when I first found out about knitting conferences, I was blown away. I HAD to go to one. And Vogue Knitting Live had two locations that would have been perfect for me. The first, and best one this year, was in Chicago, which is the one I went to. The second one that also would have been perfect for me, was in Seattle. Chicago won out simply because of the time of year, and the proximity to my home city. Chicago is much closer to Winnipeg, but Seattle would have have also been awesome to go to because I have family in Vancouver and that would have been an awesome combined trip. But I digress... Ultimately, like I said, Chicago won over Seattle because it was closer and the time of year worked into my work place's slowest time of year, so taking a week off would not have been an issue.

All I can say, is that if you are thinking about going to one, go. It was amazing! I learned so much, met wonderful people, and came away wishing I could afford to go to every one of the Vogue Knitting conferences every year until the day I die!

I have been home 3 days now, and I am still processing everything I learned. I will probably be processing all this information for weeks, or months, or even years to come. And as much as I learned, I came away wanting to learn even more. I am still awed at how nerdy I have become about knitting, and how many wonderful people I met who are just as nerdy as myself.

Anyway, I will just start to show you the photos I took, and when appropriate, will tell you more about them. Otherwise just enjoy the awesomeness that was VKL Chicago 2004.

 First of all, I arrived in Chicago by plane on Thursday, October 23rd. I left Winnipeg the evening before since my flight was ridiculously early the next day, and my father, who was generously driving me down, had to be at the train station in Winnipeg fairly early to pick someone up. So I spent the evening napping as well as possible on the cold floor of the entryway to the Fargo airport. I had no idea they closed the airport down for four hours at night for cleaning, so I am glad that I was allowed to at least stay in the entryway. Even though it was cold, it was colder outside...

Since the hotel where the conference was being held was just too expensive for me, and my food allergy and gluten intolerance makes it challenging to travel without having access to a kitchen, I decided to stay in a hostel nearby. When it came time to walk over for my Thursday evening class, I at first, went to the wrong Hilton. I had no idea there were five Hiltons in Chicago.

Thankfully the correct Hilton was only a few blocks away, and I was greeted by this sight as I walked into the lobby.

 I had registered during the early bird registration so all I had to do was pick up my badge and goodies, which was done at one of these windows. I love how they used knitting ropes for the dividers.

And of course I had to place my pin. Since this was Thursday evening, you can see that I am the only yellow pin up in Canada. In fact, if you look closely, there are only two pins in Canada. Mine and one from what looks to be Vancouver. I didn't think to take a photo at the end of the weekend to compare, but the majority of the pins were from the States.

 My first class was Teeny, Tiny, Toys. I originally wasn't taking that class at all. I had wanted to take a two-parter on Sunday, but because I suffer from vertigo, I was worried that flying would mess up my ear, and the original travel plans were to take the train both ways. When I first registered I had not checked the train times and didn't realize that the train left Chicago at 2 in the afternoon, which meant that I had to change my Sunday classes. And since the sweater design class on Thursday evening was sold out by the time I had figured this out, the least objectionable class left that I felt would challenge my skills was this one.

At first I wasn't sure how much I would like it, but as the conference drew closer, I found that was the class I was looking forward to the most. And I was not disappointed.

Anna Hrachovec, the designer behind these cute little patterns, was an amazing instructor, and her designs are just so cute! We made the Gnome pictured here, and after visiting her at her table in the marketplace, I bought a little viking kit and kitties, and was sorely tempted to buy the rest of the kits as well.

 Here's my little Gnome. I loved him so much, and wanted to show him off all weekend, that I put a safety pin in him and turned him into a broach.

And these are all the little guys that were finished, or close to being finished at the end of the class.

Anna had some of her creations on display next to her table. I couldn't resist taking some photos since I think they are just so adorable, and need some inspiration for when I start using up my stash to make my own little ones. 

On Friday I had two math classes. Two! Remember when in high school you asked that question of you math teacher, as we all do, "When am I ever going to need to know this?" Well mine was for the Pythagorean Theorem, and I found out the answer to that first this Friday morning.

The class was actually very interesting, and I am glad I took it. When I first started selecting classes to take at this conference, this was NOT on the short list. But sometime between thinking I wanted to go, and decided I could somehow make it work with my budget, I had made a conscious decision to learn everything I could about designing, which to me means learning about the math behind designing, as well as sheep breeds, the quality of fibers, methods of spinning and preparing fibers for dying, etc... So this class ended up making the final list. 

Again, I am happy I took it. The instructor brought up some ideas that have made me determined to temper my hatred of anything math related so I can finally start working on bringing all the designs that are floating around my head to life.

The second math class of the day was a dumbed down version of the first. It actually wasn't a math class, but did involve math, so I am calling it that. It was called the Secret of Sweater Design, and I found it to be an extension of where the last class left off.

That evening was the Nelkinite meetup. I am apart of the MClub with Nelkin designs, and follow her group, Nelkin Desings, on Ravelry. Anyway, one of the Nelkinites took it upon herself to find out who all from the group was going to VKL Chicago and organize a meet up with everyone. And even though it was difficult to chat with anyone in the restaurant, and very difficult for me to hear with my hearing loss, it was wonderful to meet some people I had been chatting with over Ravelry in real life. 

And of course I got to meet Laura Nelkin! I  had actually introduced myself to her earlier in the day, since my first class was right next to the one she was teaching in, but being able to hang out with her, and the other ladies of the group was one of the big highlights of the whole trip. Unfortunately I don't have a photo from that evening. Hopefully I can get a copy of one from someone else who was there.

Myself with Laura Nelkin the day after the Nelkinite meetup. 

The class I took on Saturday was a two-parter, and not at all what I was expecting. From the description of the class, I thought I was going to be learning about fibers of different sheep breeds, and getting a chance to make some swatches with them to see and feel how they work up compared to others, but it was really a dying class. Don't get me wrong, I do want to learn more about dying, but after my first little intro class back home, I had decided that I should first learn about the bare fiber and then go back to learning about dyes.

Anyway, the instructor works only with natural dyes, which is right up my alley. I am all about sustainable living and having the least amount of environmental impact on the world around, so I wanted to learn about natural dying. I just started to learn about it before I had planned to.

 This was the sight that greeted us as we walked into the classroom. I can't tell you how excited this made me...

 And then I saw this and started to get suspicious that I had misinterpreted the class description...

And this book was next to the swatch display and I  guessed that I definitely misunderstood the class description.

But the after looking through the book later in the class I have decided that I need it, and the other book the instructor recommended, Harvesting Color, for when I am finally ready to start dying in my own studio space.

 At one point we were looking at some fiber samples. I will admit I really wanted to find a way to slip this particular sample into my bag before the end of the day...

As well as this one, since Alpaca is my favorite fiber to work with.

 The red dye we were working with....

 ...started out as these dead bugs. Pretty cool.

 

And my finished samples. There is another sheet of pockets not pictured here. There were four fibers I did not get a chance to do multiple swatches of. The instructor basically wanted us to copy the sampler I showed a few photos ago, and there was plenty of time to do that, but I decided to try doing this instead. I really like how I can see how the swatch looks not dyed, and how the it looks with both dyes. side-by-side. I just ran out of time to work up more swatches of the last four samples.

These swatches are un-blocked. One day I will take the time to block them, but for now, they will just sit in the sleeves until I am ready.

And Sunday morning was my last class. As I had said earlier in the post, I had originally planned on doing a two part class this day - Stashbuster Scarves, but since I had to rearrange my schedule so I could catch the train at two to give my poor ear a rest (flying down was horrible on my ear and it had taken me two days to sort-of recover from that), I was able to make my last class a class with Laura!

A small sample of the Norwegian Cast On and the Long Tail Cast On. I really liked how you could compare two very similar cast-ons side by side in the same sample.

It was the Craft of Casting On, which I felt fit right into my self-appointed task of learning everything about the basics of design. There are so many different ways to cast on and bind off that it is overwhelming knowing where to start. This class was great for doing just that. And it meant spending a little more time with one of my favorite designers and another Nelkinite. And Laura paid us the compliment of saying she was worried we'd be bored in the class since we were advanced knitters. I am choosing to believe that she really meant that, and was not just saying it to be polite. It's not like I really know her, but "spending" time with her over the discussion threads in the Ravelry group leads me to believe that she is a sincere person and would not say something if she didn't think it was true.

Anyway, it was a super awesome trip and totally worth it. And I really really want to go to more and will try very hard to work at least one knitting related trip into my annual budget.

And to finish things off, here are some photos of the market place. I hope they are as drool-worthy to you as they are to me.

An Alpaca fiber only booth - my heaven on Earth!

Hiking the Bear Lake Trail

Well, I did warn you that I am not always the diligent blogger, although I had hoped to make at least one post a week. I will try to be more on top of that in the future. The good new on that front is that I have a few topics to post about so there should be a few more coming this week.

Anyway, the topic of this post is Hiking the Bear Lake Trail, in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, in Manitoba. You may also find a similar post on my workplace's blog - Wilderness Supply. I submitted the write up to our Blog Editor and she said she would put it up. It may look a little differently as I told her to edit it if she liked and to put the photos where she felt they best belonged in the post.

So here it is:

Last Sunday, September 21, 2014, we hiked the Bear Lake Trail, in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. My partner is the more experienced hiker of the two of us. Most of my back country experience is multi-day canoe trips, with only a few long distance hikes under my belt so we decided to hike this particular trail because it is so “close” to the Mantario Trail, and would give me an idea of what the terrain will be like when we finally get around to hiking that. I've canoed that route multiple times, but have yet to hike it, and will admit to being a little nervous about giving it a go.

The Bear Lake Trail is approximately a two and a half hour drive from Winnipeg. There is a small parking lot off of the picnic area with an outhouse, a garbage cage and the trail sign. I was surprised at how many small flies and gnats were still around this late in the summer, but nothing was biting. Craig had thought to bring his bug net hat, so he wasn't bothered by the bugs while we took a few minutes to double check our gear. We both use a 28L day pack with a 3L hydration pack, which is on the 

larger size for such a short hike, but I like having the extra space to bring some emergency gear and like knowing we have more than enough clean water. Not that we expect anything to go wrong, but between the two of us, we always have a small first aid kit, an emergency bivy each, some waterproof matches, a compass and map, trail mix, and an extra pair of socks and shirt just in case.

We had just recently taken the Orienteering course through Wilderness Supply as a refresher from our days in Girl Guides and Scouts, and decided this would be a good time to practice our navigation skills. Once Craig had taken our bearing, we started out on the trail, and soon discovered the source of the wonderful company buzzing our heads.

 There is a walkway going through the swamp, but it has clearly been a long time since any maintenance was done and you have to step carefully. It had rained early that morning, making the boards very slippery, and the tall marsh grass makes it difficult to see where there missing planks are.

 Once you get past the swamp, the trail becomes a very nice walk through the woods. The leaves were still very wet from the rain and since Craig was in front, his hiking pants got very wet, very fast, and made both of us glad we had worn our gaiters. After about a half hour of walking through the woods, it starts to become the typical rocky Canadian Shield terrain, also very slippery from the recent rain fall. 

The trail becomes less well marked the further in you go, which made us very happy we had a bearing to consult while we searched for the trail markers. At some point, other hikers had used flagging tape along the way, but most of it is faded and brittle from UV damage, so you can't rely on that. The trail markers also change from blue to yellow signs at random intervals, which made us a little nervous at first that maybe we got on a different trail that wasn't on the map, but we just kept consulting the compass and the map and eventually made it to the lake. 

There is steep rocky hill you have to climb down to get to the lake, and then another one if you want to get to the fire place on the point of the peninsula. Some wonderful hiker had left a rope to help you get up and down that second rocky hill, as it is nearly vertical.

 The rope is definitely damaged from being exposed for a long time and Craig cut his hand up a bit using it, but other than that it was a pretty exciting climb. 

After cleaning up and bandaging Craig hand, we enjoyed a snack and the view, and then started back. The down slopes on the hike back were more difficult for me to handle. Years of sports injuries and getting hit by a car as a pedestrian has left me with a weaker left leg. For that reason I know that my ankle can't handle hiking in anything less than a full boot. And even though the sun had finally come out and was drying things up nicely, the rocks on the down slopes were often shaded and were still very slippery. I landed wrong a few times coming down. Thankfully I only turned my ankle a few times, but each time was worse than the last, and I was limping by the time we got back to the boardwalk. 

We had also found that the trail markers were more difficult to spot on the way back because most of them face the other way. Thanks to the orienteering course, we had the idea to take a back baring before leaving the lake and that helped us find the proper trail the few times we got turned around since everything pretty much looks the same out here on the prairies.

Overall it is a lovely hike. It gets more challenging the closer you get to the lake, but the view is worth the effort, and if you think you aren't up to hiking the Mantario, this trail is a good alternative. We have already decided we'd like to come back and try snow-shoeing it in winter.