What do IRON MAN and a knit Cape Spear Coverlet have in common? My wedding anniversary! That’s right; Tuesday, May 6th was my 13th wedding anniversary so the hubby and I went to see IRON MAN last Saturday (May 3rd) at the new SilverCity with three VIP theatres in Oakville.
First, the Movie
IRON MAN totally rocks! It is far and away one of the best movies I have ever seen. I would highly recommend it to anybody.
Second, the Theatre
I believe the SilverCity in Oakville is the largest digital movie theatre in Canada. It has Dolby Digital Surround Sound, a licensed VIP lounge, and food and drink orders delivered directly to (what they call) plush oversized leather seats in the VIP screening rooms. More details can be found in this review by The Hamilton Spectator which prompted us to go there in the first place. Baby sitting is offered for children from 4 – 10 but my daughter is just shy of 4 so we were lucky a couple of friends volunteered to take care of our munchkins. The actual overall dimension of the seat space seemed to be no different than a regular SilverCity theatre. The “plush” definitely not oversized leather seat actually decreased the internal seat size so I actually felt a bit constricted in my seat and I’m not a large person by any account.
The more sophisticated food offered in the VIP area includes chicken strips, sushi rolls, bruschetta, mac and cheese wedges, onion scoops, ranging in price from $4 to $11 for a tray for two (that’s what they call it – it wouldn’t come close to filling my 3 year old daughter). My hubby tried the mac and cheese wedges for $4. It came in a glossy black cardboard box approximately 3” x 3” x 5”. Inside were a measly 5 deep-fried equilateral triangles approximately 1.5” per side and no more than 3/8” thick.
Desserts include Rockslide Brownie and Passion Mango Cheesecake at about $6. We didn’t bother with dessert after the mac and cheese disappointment. The supposed “side table that swings up to hold snacks” was not existent. There was some sort of wooden armature in between my husband and myself that could not be moved (I would hardly call it a table) so we couldn’t snuggle. The resultant effect was that I was actually sitting closer to the woman beside me than my own husband.
There was no air conditioning; so for the first time ever, I was actually sweating in a movie theatre while wearing a thin dress blouse.
‘Nuf said.
Third, the Coverlet
I bought this pattern when we were on our honeymoon and passing some historical sites in Newfoundland. History and knitting together – must grab. The coverlet was made during the Victorian era and consists of 1,536 shell pieces (triangles when joined together create this lovely scalloped shape). It is in a light house at Cape Spear.
First, the Movie
IRON MAN totally rocks! It is far and away one of the best movies I have ever seen. I would highly recommend it to anybody.
Second, the Theatre
I believe the SilverCity in Oakville is the largest digital movie theatre in Canada. It has Dolby Digital Surround Sound, a licensed VIP lounge, and food and drink orders delivered directly to (what they call) plush oversized leather seats in the VIP screening rooms. More details can be found in this review by The Hamilton Spectator which prompted us to go there in the first place. Baby sitting is offered for children from 4 – 10 but my daughter is just shy of 4 so we were lucky a couple of friends volunteered to take care of our munchkins. The actual overall dimension of the seat space seemed to be no different than a regular SilverCity theatre. The “plush” definitely not oversized leather seat actually decreased the internal seat size so I actually felt a bit constricted in my seat and I’m not a large person by any account.
The more sophisticated food offered in the VIP area includes chicken strips, sushi rolls, bruschetta, mac and cheese wedges, onion scoops, ranging in price from $4 to $11 for a tray for two (that’s what they call it – it wouldn’t come close to filling my 3 year old daughter). My hubby tried the mac and cheese wedges for $4. It came in a glossy black cardboard box approximately 3” x 3” x 5”. Inside were a measly 5 deep-fried equilateral triangles approximately 1.5” per side and no more than 3/8” thick.
Desserts include Rockslide Brownie and Passion Mango Cheesecake at about $6. We didn’t bother with dessert after the mac and cheese disappointment. The supposed “side table that swings up to hold snacks” was not existent. There was some sort of wooden armature in between my husband and myself that could not be moved (I would hardly call it a table) so we couldn’t snuggle. The resultant effect was that I was actually sitting closer to the woman beside me than my own husband.
There was no air conditioning; so for the first time ever, I was actually sweating in a movie theatre while wearing a thin dress blouse.
‘Nuf said.
Third, the Coverlet
I bought this pattern when we were on our honeymoon and passing some historical sites in Newfoundland. History and knitting together – must grab. The coverlet was made during the Victorian era and consists of 1,536 shell pieces (triangles when joined together create this lovely scalloped shape). It is in a light house at Cape Spear.
Ten years ago, I bought the yarn to do it. It is a lovely Butterfly Super 10 100% mercerized cotton manufactured in Greece. The colour is Ecru. A whopping 125 gram skein has 230 metres of yarn in it.
Today, I have 21 knit unattached pieces and 5 knit joined pieces.
I’m not sure I’ll get it done by my 20th anniversary at this rate! I know; it’s pathetic. As lovely as this pattern is, the amount of repetition has made it tedious and hence a bit boring which is not a good thing for me when I’m knitting. So, I keep dropping it for more interesting patterns. I will eventually get it done (I’m sure).
11 comments:
wow! certainly a daunting task. maybe you could go for 1 shell a week? how long would that take?? or maybe you could train your kids how to knit them and offer candy rewards... ;-)
the movie sounds great. i will keep it in mind.
your shells look gorgeous by the way... such great photos of them too!
Iron Man totally rocked!! Kerwyn is a great Marvel fan and he was very impressed with how well it followed the original storyline & charachters - due in no small part to the large hand that Marvel had in the development of this movie. I just loved it - and got most of a DKC Knits for the Cure scarf done to boot!!
The counterpane is/will be gorgeous - anything worth doing well is worth waiting for. Or something like that! LOL
Thank you very much, busterwife. The estimated time to do this was 1200 hours. If I worked solid 40 hour weeks on this, it would take 30 weeks. That's assuming 45 minutes per triangle. It actually takes me 1.5 per triangle. Yes, I'm a math geek.
Wannietta, I agree. Marvel's involvement was a definite asset to the movie. I can't believe you managed to knit most of a scarf at the same time. Holy cow! I know knitting is your super power.
Thank you for the info on the Cape Spear Coverlet. It's so beautiful and so tempting to make one. But I ..must..not..start..another..project...OK, that's enough angst. No more projects consisting of bitty pieces. None. For a while. 6 months at least.
Great site by the way. Love it.
Hi, I love that Cape Spear coverlet pattern. Do you have a name of the pattern designer?
Thanks in advance, Tracy
After doing a little research and coming up with nothing on a pattern I went on ravelry and discovered this
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shell-for-counterpane
I hope this helps all of you who want to make a cape spear coverlet!
Best of luck to all of you.
Hi, Tracy. The name of the designer was not given on the pattern, sorry. I'm afraid that because I don't own the rights to the pattern, I cannot legally even electronically disseminate it.
I'm glad Elizabeth found something on Ravelry. Thanks, Elizabeth.
The Shells LOOK great..alas i too had great aspirations to make this coverlet..lets see way back in 1997 I bought the pattern , I may have a dozen shells made to date.but the intention is still there as this Summer we are planning a return trip to Newfoundland ,so I have a renewed interest.Best of luck finishing your project!
I've started this but am using sock yarn... so my scallops ar bigger! I have 9 completed. But... can you post some step by steps on joining the scallops. Did you block them? Pin?
And baste? Do they overlap on the garter edges? That seems to be more of a challenge than knitting each piece. Thanks.
Hello, Anonymous. I will try to answer you as best as I can. I don't like the way Google Blogger has changed things so I can't do a more direct response so I hope you get this. I didn't block anything. I just pinned at essential points, i.e. where a corners meet, and midpoints of sides for example. There is no overlap of garter edges. The bottom doesn't have a garter edge, only the top 2 sides have garter edges. Imagine you are putting 2 shoulder edges together. I used the overhand method of stitching together. There was no point attempting doing any fancy mattress stitching on this. I am still amazed at how invisible the seam seems on the front, but I think that is the magic of garter stitch. I agree, I found the seaming more challenging than the knitting itself. Best of luck to you. Feel free to reach out again.
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