Part II - Starting the Tour

I have started sorting through my photos so will start outlining the hightlights of the actual tour.

The first stop was Madrid's Almudena Cathedral. It was started in 1883 and just finished and consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993. The current King Felipe VI was married to Letizia Ortíz Rocasolano there in 2004 when he was still a crown prince.

The ceiling had beautiful, colourful frescoes. 

I'm not going to even try to outline more highlights.

We also toured the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) which is just next door.

The royal family don't actually live there but state events are held there. There were many beautiful things; this table for example - exquisite mosaic tile work:

a closeup of one of the butterflies. Many of those little pieces were only a millimetre wide.

The music room held several Stradivarius instruments - displayed in front of mirrors so the backs could be seen.

The throne room.

And on display nearby, the royal crown and scepter. The crown dates from 1775 and the Austrian-made scepter from the 16th century.

Ernest came everywhere with us.

Royal Palace group shot taken by our tour guide, Cecilia.

We had lunch at some point.

At some other point we had churros and hot chocolate. 

One night we made our own tapas at a very cool kitchen. We were paired up at our 12 work stations. Each one had an induction cooktop, all required utensils, and the measured ingredients laid out from left to right.

We put on our aprons and were put to work.

We ate some of the tapas as we made them. These little sausages went well with the crusty bread spread with melted cheese.

After cooking everything, we moved downstairs to eat the dinner we prepared, banquet-style.

Back at the hotel, this is the fabulous room where we ate breakfast every day as well as some lunches. It was beautifully lit. All four sides of the room were like this.  Each shelf had a hand-painted, blue and white talavera plate. 

(to be continued...)

Another Mini Hana Fukin

I signed up for a free 5-day Sashiko class knowing it would be right before I went to Spain. Fortunately any ZenStitching.ca classes are recorded and can be accessed in perpetuity. I knew I’d be able to access them when I got back. 

I didn’t need to buy anything for the project. I already had the fabric, threads, and needles in my stash. However, when I went to start the project I couldn’t locate the project bag with all my Sashiko supplies for a few days. Finally I located it and got started.

First the fabric had to be cut to a particular dimension, then the grid lines added with a white, heat-erasable pen. The Clover marking pen is good for this but it takes a few seconds for the drawn line to show.

First we stitched a bunch of staggered horizontal lines

and then parallel lines crossing them. 

Then we began the diagonals.

Each step was longer than I remember the August stitchalong I had participated in. However I persevered and finally today, finished the last two steps of the stitching.

Here’s the front:

And the back:

Because the stitching involves piercing through both layers of the fabric, a different design appears on the back. At the beginning of a thread, it is knotted and fished between the two layers. The needle is also woven between the layers at the end of a pass or row and starting another.

I have made a few others.

I really liked the one with the three colours but have no idea what I’ll do with them all. I could use them as exteriors for zipper bags but I’m afraid the threads will just get snagged. However, I could put them behind a vinyl window. Hmmm - must do some more thinking on that.

Last night I started another companion for Ernest. I don't have a name for him yet. Any suggestions?

These little guys knit up in an evening. I didn’t have any more bear-coloured DK yarn so I used two strands of sock yarn and 3.25mm needle. The stuffing and finishing takes almost as long as the basic knitting. 

For stuffing I just buy a cheap pillow at WalMart - it’s the same fibrefill as can be purchased at craft stores. Tonight I’ll finish stuffing it then get the ears knitted and attached, legs and arms defined, and the face embroidered. Still lots of steps but they’re so stinking cute! 

Percy has gone to live with someone I felt needed a little friend. He will be missed but it is nice to know he will be a comfort to the recipient.

He has such a sweet little face.

Ernest and Fuzz were very sad at the final result of the men’s Olympic hockey game.

The US goalie was a beast and did an amazing job of stopping the many shots on goal. In the end, the Canadian men got the silver medal. Hopefully in time, they’ll realize how truly amazing they played.

The girlies are registering for a stitching retreat in Ottawa as I write this. It will take place in August right before Jen1 and I will leave for music camp so we won’t be attending. I could have really pushed myself to drive home from Ottawa, pack up the car, and pick up Jennifer then head to Waterloo. Instead, I decided to forego this stitching opportunity. I already have FOMO but I have asked for a full report when they return home.

Our Knitting tour of Central Spain - Part I - Half the Fun is Getting There

Almost two weeks ago, Poppy, Ernest, and I travelled to Madrid to join a knitting tour by KnittingTours.com. 

Ernest and Sparky

We had a very comfortable ride to the airport with Sparky's Limo Service (Poppy's Jim).

Once we dropped off our luggage, we headed to the Air Canada Signature Suite for our 5-course, gourmet meal.

We practically had the place to ourselves.

We got seated in a comfy spot.

'A Flight Above' was the chosen cocktail.

First we enjoyed a cheese plate with some other hors d'oeuvres.

A mixed salad was next.

Shortly thereafter the beef tenderloin with rapini arrived.

Dessert was yogurt with apple compote and granola, and a brownie. 

With full tummies, we boarded the plane and located our little cubby hole for the flight.

In addition to the toiletry kit, bottle of water, glass of sparkling wine, a quilt, and pillow were provided. The 20" TV offered many entertainment options. Under the TV is an open area. When the seat is fully reclined, feet and legs go under the TV so we could lie flat.

Noise-cancelling headphones were provided.

It was our first time watching 'Frozen'. 

Goodbye, Toronto!

Once we reached cruising altitude, the meal we pre-ordered was served. Salad, beef carpaccio, and garlic bread were our first courses.

The linen tray cover, linen napkin, and metal cutlery are a nice touch. Pasta was next.

After finishing dessert, we settled in for a comfortable, overnight flight to Frankfurt. 

3 hours after arriving in Frankfurt, we boarded our flight to Madrid.

Business class wasn't so fancy on the European flight. It was similar to a premium economy seat.

Customs and Immigration in Spain were easy. After collecting our luggage, we met up with our driver, Sergio, who took us to Only YOU Boutique Hotel where we checked in and made our way up to our cozy room.  

Our tour didn't start 'til the next day so we had the day to ourselves. Poppy, Ernest, and I decided to nap for a bit before exploring the neighbourhood. 

From previous experience flying across the Atlantic, we like to arrive a day early to begin acclimatizing to the time change and recovering from the overnight flight. We took things pretty easy - knitting and watching Olympics (the only station we could get was in German).

The next day we were scheduled to meet up with our group at 11:30am for introductions and light lunch..

(to be continued)...

Home and Grateful

I’m home from a whirlwind and thoroughly enjoyable trip to Spain for a knitting tour of Madrid and the environs - La Mancha, Toledo, etc. Now in the process of sorting through photos that can be used for a blog post.

On the flight home on Monday, I found an interesting podcast to listen to - ‘Self-Conscious’ by Chrissy Teigen. There were several interesting topics. Interesting ones were about sleep, not trying to control others’ behaviour (‘just let them’), being a better communicator. It got me thinking about how working on thinking positively has enriched my life. 

Yesterday I sent a highlights email to a few folks and will use it as the body of the post(s) about the trip but before I do that, I wanted to share some moments of joy I felt yesterday; basically a gratitude inventory. I jotted them down on the nearest piece of paper - the back of my boarding pass that I had pulled out of my travel wallet. I just looked at the front of it and it was the boarding pass from Bergen to Oslo to Reykjavik from April 4, 2025 (an epic trip with wonderful friends).

I am grateful for (in no particular order):

• My mobility - the ability to walk the long distances through airports, on cobblestones streets in old towns, up flights of stairs and steep streets.
• Kind neighbours who take care of my house while I’m away.
• A cozy home and bed
• Electric blankets 
• AirTags so I don’t need to worry about the whereabouts of my luggage while traveling
• eSIMs so I can be connected while away from home and not have to pay outrageous roaming fees (I used Saily)
• Kind, attentive friends who love many of the same things I do - crafting, traveling, having fun
• Fun hobbies that take me to wonderful places
• Excellent traveling companions both human and ursine
• Continuing curiosity and desire to learn new things

The negative crap is still there but I choose to focus on the wonderful, positive things in my life.  It’s amazing how joyful one can feel when one focuses on the wonderful things in life.

What to Take...

At my Tuesday night craft group, Annie was knitting her first ever dishcloth with some cotton yarn. Dishcloths are fun to knit. They don't take long and they're quite useful. While driving to our winter holiday in south Texas, I would knit a dishcloth to use in our condo. These were two of my favourite patterns.

'The Cotton Dishcloth' and 

'Grandmother's Favorite The Original' -  both available on Ravelry.

Dishcloths are also a fun way to make a useful swatch while learning a new pattern, such as entrelac.

'Garterlac Dishcloth' by Criminy Jickets.

As I've been finding my Regia wool/nylon/yak sock project to be uninspiring, I needed to find something to work on while sitting in airports and on flights on my upcoming trip. Because of my vast stash of yarn, I don't plan to buy much more than a ball of sock yarn while on my knitting tour of Spain. I'll be keeping my eye out for the new Arne and Carlos line of sock yarns. 

Going back to the dishcloth idea, I have selected two projects to take with me. Of course, I had the cotton yarn in my stash.

First is (of all things)  Dishcloth by the Bernat Design Studio.

I'll be using some Bernat Cottontots Ombre yarn in the Very Berry colourway. I got it started. 

It's basically a crocheted linen stitch pattern - sc1, ch1 - with the sc in the chain space from the row below. I'll probably finish this before I get to Madrid.

I'm also taking a knitted dishcloth project because I liked the texture. It's 'Dishcloth 22' by nalhcib.

I found some plain pink cotton yarn all ready made into a yarn cake which I will use for this project.

It uses 4.5mm needles which I already had packed for my knitting class with Carol Feller on the tour.

There are no direct flights from Toronto to Madrid at this time of year so we have a stopover in Frankfurt. We'll arrive there at about 1am our time. Then we'll continue to Madrid 3.5h later. We built in a long stopover in case of bad weather. So basically it'll be the middle of the night from Frankfurt and on. It'll be 7am our time when we land in Madrid. 

I doubt I'll be able to sleep on the first leg but hopefully the second leg of our trip I'll be able to get some shuteye. I'm taking my noise-cancelling headphones (although I'll probably be loaned a set on the plane). They're WAY better than the earbuds for getting rid of ambient sounds.

I still have all day tomorrow to go over my many checklists and pack. I also need to write up the instructions for my house-sitter.

Another thing I did today was post some pics of Ernest (or 'Ernesto' as he wants to be called on the trip) on Instagram. I think he needs his own Instagram page, though. I'm having trouble selecting a username that hasn't already been taken.

He is looking forward to sashaying around Madrid in his spiffy torero outfit.

¡Ole!