It rains a lot in Vancouver. That's a given. But aside from the month of January having broken rainfall records (a source of pride for us in the PNW), this past week included two days of the foulest weather I've experienced since moving here. One of them is today. I'm sitting in my living room, watching the rain pelt the picture window as the trees bend and stretch and reach for the sky. (In an effort to de-stash, I will send some yarn to the first person who can tell me where that italicized bit is a quote from.) The WIND, people. I don't consider rain to be foul weather anymore, but this sh*t is bananas. As consolation, I did see crocuses in bloom this week, and our lilac and plum trees are budding.

Ok. Moving along with my recap, in reverse order.

• If you live in Vancouver and you've heard of Toshi sushi on 16th ~ Quebec, the hype is true. Get there ten minutes before 5pm to avoid the lines (what? Eat a light lunch), and stuff yourself on the best affordable sushi in town.
• Amy tells me the newest Knit.1 is out in the US. I won't expect it here for another couple of weeks, but I urge you to pick it up. No only because it's in the same format as Teen Vogue (by far my fave teen magazine of all), but also because it contains my very first column... If that's reason for you to buy a mag... I'm sure the patterns are also great. Even though I'm a little disappointed they edited out a bit of faux dialog (they edited quite a bit, actually, but the gist is what I intended), I'm really excited to have written an entire page about my favourite crochet fad -- amigurumi (I bet that's a big surprise, eh?). I'm also just excited to be a part of Knit.1.
• This was the week of -alongs for me. I felt compelled to challenge myself to commit to knitting the body of a sweater in just over two weeks, and I've joined in a host of knitalongs, too. First there's the Knitting Olympics, for which I've joined Team Canada and also started Team Hooker with Amy. And after bumping into another Forecast knitter on the Knitty boards, I've also joined a newly formed KAL just for that sweater (join in!). I'd better stay on track knitting that thing, is all I have to say. To all of you who will be casting on for the KO or chaining for the CO, good luck!
• I went curling. It was So. Much. Fun. Especially on the day I joined Team Canada. I felt insanely patriotic. And keenly aware that I was a big dork. We will curl again. Oh, yes. There's beer, and ice, and sliding on the ice, and sweeping, and shouting, and 42-pound granite stones, and wicked terminology (like hack and house and button). My bruises have healed, and I'm pretty sure I won't ever again allow myself to be chased by said 42-pound stone (that's scary, yo). There are more photos if you're interested; just click on this one.
• Our calls for submission for the spring and summer issues went up. Come to think of it, I failed to post them to the blog. Oops. I'll do that today.
• Finally, we started testing the commenting feature of this new back-end on more than just the blog -- namely, on the Love Issue. Although I (read: Mr. Cm) haven't tweaked the system enough to really make them work like I want them to, they will be turned on site-wide when the Spring issue goes up. I don't know about you, but I think the comments make the mag seem so much more like a community.

So. Here's hoping your weekend is warmer and drier and calmer than it is out here on the wet coast.