Saturday, May 10, 2008

This Week

This past week had gone by so quickly. It began with a trip to the David Dunlap Observatory. This place has the largest telescope in Canada, and is only a few minutes away from my home. We've lived here for a few years, but this was the first time we've visited.




We had a great presentation by one of the scientists, then actually got to go into the silo (don't know what this type of building is really called) to see the telescope.


It was quite dark inside, so none of my pictures came out very well.



There was a reason that finally encouraged us to visit the observatory. The facility is owned by the University of Toronto, and sits on an incredible 180 acres of undisturbed forest in the middle of the suburbs. The university recently put the land up for sale, and announced the Observatory will be closed down. Whats really sad is that the forest will likely be turned into houses, and the telescope just junked. The big-wigs downtown say the telescope is useless, but the scientist that we spoke to say that it continues to provide valuable research, just not the kind of research the downtown guys are interested in. The city of Richmond Hill is trying to buy the land, but I doubt they can compete with the developers. It's all really quite sad.
This week was also used to finish up projects. First is a stripey baby vest:

Pattern: modified from Essential Vest in Essential Baby
Yarn: Sandnesgarn Mandarin Petit
Needles: 3mm
It was quite a challenge knitting with 5 balls at the same time, but since this vest is a newborn size, it went pretty quickly.
Next is my Shetland Triangle shawl:

Such a great pattern! Went by so fast! I used Blue Sky Alpaca, Alpaca Silk and 4mm needles.
Want to see my bump?
It's quite funny looking; so low and pointy. Just looks like I have a basketball under my shirt!
I also finished my Cavern Cardi, but haven't blocked it yet. Will show you soon!

2 comments:

msubulldog said...

How depressing about the telescope. We're big space fans around here, so to even imagine that something like that would be junked is just terrible. :( *Think we could get a good deal on it? ha,ha,ha.
Your baby bump is so cute! :)

Kathy... said...

We have a similar observatory here, and it also was closed down years ago. The good news is that a few years ago, it was refurbished and is once again in use. So, perhaps some day.....

Your knits are gorgeous as always. Love the shawl - and the baby bump is quite delightful too! :) Soon....right??