Yarn Along -1 May 2013

Wow it's the first of May already!!  I've got a bunch of pictures to share with everyone from our trip to Scarborough.  But we just got a new laptop while down there (BIL is my IT guy) and I'm still learning so you'll get the pictures in bits and pieces.

I'm sure I mentioned how excited I was to go to the Creativ Festival and how I hadn't been since marrying Colin and moving up here (10 years -yikes).  Well what a waste of time and money.  I have never been so disappointed in a 'needlework' show before.  There were literally 3 booths selling yarn.   And the one booth was selling Red Heart.  Red Heart yarn!!  I can buy that at my local Walmart!  I wanted gorgeous, independent, hard to find, beautiful fibre type yarn.  For a show that lists 'knit' as second in their title, I didn't think that was too much to ask.

Thank goodness for Google!  Needless to say back at my sister's in Scarborough I was an unhappy camper.  But then I remembered the Yarn Harlot mentioning something knitting related going on in Toronto on Saturday.  A quick Google search resulted in the 2013 Kniter's Frolic.  It was literally 6 km from my sister's house and was half the price of Creativ!  Well, I walked in the door and discovered where all the real yarn people were.  There were 3 rooms of yarn!!!  And all the love knitting ladies (so polite and friendly).  It was almost yarn over-load.  I was a good girl and only got a bit of yarn.

On the left is the yarn I got at Knitter's Frolic.  It's actually from a shop in Gatineau (beside Ottawa, formerly Hull).  They are called Turtle Purl and may be my new favourite sock yarn shop.  You will notice the two skeins in one wrapper??  That's because they dye the yarn TOGETHER that way your stripes will MATCH without too much trouble!!  And any one who really knows me will know how much that makes me happy  :)  I'm actually not making socks with these, I think I'm going to make a lace poncho for myself.  I just realized I have some more yarn that didn't make the picture.  I'll have to post it later.

The yarn on the right is some Berrocco Vintage.  It's for Ella to make this .  I know it's not cool and funky, but Ella grows too fast for that kind of yarn yet.  Oh yeah, don't tell Ella it's blue we're calling it teal because 'blue makes her sad'.

Knitters are funny folk.  Everyone there was wearing their knitted projects (except me) regardless of how hot it was in the building.  One old lady had a knitted dress on under her knitted sweater (though old ladies are often cold).  I even saw one 20-something girl wearing a ski bonnet -now that's desperate to show off.  I left my Icelandic shawl at my sister's because I knew it would be far too warm to wear in a building.  It's the same with dressing in winter, I'm past the age where I put fashion/showing off before comfort.

On the right is the start of a cat stuffy for Ella.  It's called Parlor Cat and I'm knitting it with the wool Ella dyed in her textile class.  She thought that was a great idea.  I only got the head and body done because I should have brought some stuffing with me.  I also got some work done on my stockings that have been languishing in my WIP pile.  I really should have made the graft bigger because it's so hard to read.  I know what you are thinking "Paula I you said you were never doing intarsia again".  Well these socks prove you should never say never.  If you love intarsia but hate intarsia, you've got to learn the Bulgarian way.  It is so easy and turns out so much nicer than my regular intarsia ever does.  I was working on another project, but that one will have to wait.  My sister tried on her sweater and really likes how it fits (I was concerned) now I just have to finish the sleeves.

And what would the trip to Scarborough be without a stop at Chapters in Peterborough.

We have The Story of Me and My Grandma, I'm sure it's meant to be a Mother's Day gift but I'm going to aim for Christmas so we have time to fill it out nicely and find the right pictures.  Then we have Fancy Nancy: Aspiring Artist and Fancy Nancy: Fanciest Doll In The Universe (which is actually a new release).  And I even picked up a book for me, Rms Titanic: Gilded Lives Fatal Voyage.  I'm only 3 chapters in, but it's good.

Yarn Along -16 April 2013

Sorry the picture is so big, I had issues with WordPress and they wouldn’t post my picture.  So I had to use Photobucket.  As you can see for this week’s Yarn Along I finally have my shawl finished.  I really love the blocking wires that Colin gave me 2 Christmas’ ago.  They are such a help, makes keeping the sides straight really easy.

We’re still enjoying the books from our Bowmanville trip, though since we finally have some nice weather Ella is spending most of her non-school time outside in the mud.  I can tell you not to bother wasting your time and money looking for the Renfrew County book I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.  Wow, that book was so bad I didn’t even finish reading.  And keep in mind, I’m a history major so I have read my fair share of boring history books.  This one was just poorly written/edited.  There is no flow or real theme.  It’s just a bunch of almost random snippets from old newspapers.  There are even random parts of sentences.  Just not an enjoyable read at all.

Yarn Along -10 April 2013

Remember the shawl I had to rip back last week?  I ended up having to rip the whole thing out, I couldn't find the problem.  So back to the starting board.

One good thing about our flying trip down to Bowmanville last weekend...

I was able to re-do the shawl and now I'm caught up and even a little a head of where I was last Wednesday.  On the way home from Bowmanville we often stop at the Chapters in Ottawa.  I can rarely get out of there without picking up a book or two for Ella.  We picked up The Berenstain Bears and the Mama's Day Surprise, Penny And Her Doll, Little Critter: The Fall Festival, and Little Critter: Just a Big Storm.  I was happy to find a selection of classics for the price of just $3.99 (and they are unabridged).  So I picked up Puffin Classics The Railway Children and The Wind in the Willows two books I've never read.

Yarn Along -3 April 2013

One last sewing project to share for Yarn Along:

This is a Hussif for my knitting supplies.  It's a little bigger than anticipated, I couldn't get the computer to shrink the matryoshka pattern and I didn't want to drive an hour (there and back again) to use a photocopier.

And here's the inside.  Everything you need for knitting, there is also a pocket (for a notepad) on the back side of the scissor flap.

At first glance my shawl is coming along nicely.  But if you look closely there is something very, very wrong!!  I've been decreasing along on the centre section and then last night I counted my stitches to see how many more rows.  There are more stitches on one side than the other!!!  Yikes!  I have no idea what happened.  I have a feeling I'm going to have to rip back the entire centre section (and hopefully only that far).  Not happy  :(

I'm ready to start a cool new book.  It's called Whiskey and Wickedness and it's about Renfrew County in the early days.

I got Ella's fingerless gloves finished and she loves them.  So much that they needed washed already.

If any one would like to join me, I'll be participating in the 4th annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week.  It's lots of fun and she usually comes up with some great topics.

Yarn Along -27 March 2013

Yarn Along this week shows little actual knitting progress:

But I have been busy sewing some things for me:

Outside and here's the inside:

And I made a circular needle case:

I'm not sure how many needles will fit in this case.  I may have to make one for each needle length -just to keep them organized better.

Ella is back to asking for Little Girls Bible Storybook for Mothers and Daughters for her bed time story.  It's got nice short little bible stories, perfect for bedtime.

Yarn Along -20 March 2013

Happy First Day of Spring!!!

Um, well maybe not just yet??

Let's move along to our Yarn Along post instead:

I'm working on an Icelandic shawl.  Ella has a textile class starting this week and I'm being very wicked and making sure I have a really cool project to work on myself  :)  The area has a number of Guilds, so I want to be able to impress.

I'm sorry the colours aren't showing up well on the computer. There are actually 4 shades of purple/blue in this shawl. Try the link and see if the colours are better on Ravelry.

Reading another Yarn Harlot book Things I Learned From Knitting: ...whether I wanted to or not.  It's OK, but not fabulous like her other books I've read.  In fact I've only read one passage out loud to Colin and haven't even laughed out loud.

Yarn Along -13 March 2013

Wow, I can’t believe it’s Wednesday and Yarn Along already!  This week is flying by.

I’m a little bored with Belinda’s sweater so I’ve been working on a few other things.  The one project I don’t want to share until they are done, so I will show you something else.

In my kitchen clean up I found this book on Smocks that I have had for a few years.  I found it at Value Village (the one time I was there).  It has great pictures of real old smocks.  It also has diagrams for making really cool smocks.  I foresee a bunch of new projects  :)

I have a smocked piece nearly finished.  I’m doing the back smocking before making the bullion roses.  I hate making those but love them when they are done.  It’s for a project for me, but I’ll show you that later when I have it finished.

We’re reading Little Bear for school.  Ella’s reading is coming along so fast.  Charlotte Mason was right, if you read to children you really don’t need to actually teach them to read.  They start reading when they are ready.  Which is great because a couple of years ago I tried to teach Ella sight words and what a stressful time that was!  I gave up and decided to trust Charlotte.  I’m so glad I did, neither of us needed the stress.

Yarn Along -6 March 2013

Not too much knitting done this week for Yarn Along.  I've been fighting headaches - again!

I have some new books to share.  I got a Chapters gift card from my Dad and Step-mom for Christmas so I finally spent it.  This is the new Pioneer Woman cookbook, Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier.  Oh boy, I can't wait to try the recipes.  Nearly all of them sound so yummy.  I also got a preserving book, Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything.  I'm going to get more serious about storing food this year.  I'm so serious I also invested in this:

I've never used a pressure canner before, but since frozen vegetables don't go over well around here I'll try canning.  It will also let me can meat and such and free up freezer space (for bread and such).  I can't wait to test it out.

Another reason I haven't had much knitting time is I'm trying to get the house organized.  This includes all my sewing supplies that have been living in the kitchen since Ella was born.  Before Ella, I had a sewing room upstairs.  But that really isn't practical with a small child.  Since then that room has been the catch -all space.  I need to get it all sorted and organized.

Which means I've had to finish a few projects.

This ironing board belonged to Colin's grandma.  She was my size but only weighed about 90 lbs (soaking wet).

Slip finally finished.  It's really hard to take a picture of yourself.  Please ignore the dirty mirror, it's just for sewing and doesn't get dusted much.

I also got my new dress finished.  I was working on this before Isobel died and it kind of just got set aside.  It's got a tiny leaf/flower type print, but since it's tone on tone it's hard to photograph.  It's some of my Mennonite material I got in Elora.  Such nice quality cotton.  By the way, I hate having my picture taken :)

I am happy to show you that Ella's toys are still being put away in their assigned locations.  I often have to help, but she'll get it eventually.

Yarn Along -28 February 2013

For Yarn Along I've been working on a sweater for Auntie Belinda for a while.  I didn't like the lace patterns I had chosen so I had to rip it out and start over.  Now I have enough progress to show you:

It's a pattern class from Craftsy (it was on sale).  It teaches you how to make any size raglan sweater.  The lace for the top part makes heart shapes.  I've just taken off the stitches for the sleeves and am starting the body.  The body of the sweater will be feather and fan lace.  My sister really likes the sweater so far.

I picked up Ella a couple new books.  The first is Noodle's Knitting a cute little story about a mouse and her ball of yarn.  Ella really liked the book, the yarn in all t he pictures is actually fuzzy.  I liked that the book was much cheaper at No Frills than this Amazon example.  The next book is The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart.  Ella really likes these Very Fairy books.  We got the Christmas one first and she wants all the other ones put on her 'wish list'.

I have some really bad, evil great friends that send me links to really cool knitting patterns.  I've been thinking about making a knitted nativity.  I had only seen the pattern for this one, but then Karen's friend Linda introduced me to this designer and I found this pattern.  I like this one better.  It uses DK instead of fingering and I think they are a little nicer looking.  So since we were in Toronto for the weekend I stopped by my favourite yarn shop.  It is impossible to find DK sized yarn up here (unless you want baby colours).  But Tina has a beautiful selection.  Here's what I picked up (some was even on sale).    Most of the yarns have some wool content.  I've ordered a couple other balls from Knit Picks for the sheep and the donkey -I just couldn't find the right kind of yarn for them.  

Yarn Along -13 February 2013

Yarn Along this week doesn't have too much progress to show you.  We've been sick since last week and just haven't had the energy for knitting (shocking I know).

The dolly dresses are complete now, ends sewn in and snaps sewn on.  Also a cute little hat for Olivia.  Ella really loved her birthday socks so I'm whipping up another pair.

Look at this beautiful Easter egg.  My friend Larisa is amazing at making Ukrainian Easter eggs.  Is it any wonder I feel uncreative  :)

Yarn Along -6 February 2013

Yarn Along is more fingerless gloves.  These finished ones are for a friend and I have another pair started for one of the 'pay it forward' girls.  We are still loving Tumtum and Nutmeg.  We're going to have to get some more of those books soon.

Yarn Along -30 January 2013

Yarn Along this week.  I have a couple finished projects but didn't get them felted until today so they are wet downstairs and waiting to dry.  I'll share them tomorrow.

A couple new dresses for Olivia.  I still need to finish the purple one (on left) and the one on the right just needs snaps.  I'll have them done for Friday.

Reading these days are seed catalogues.   We've had such internet issues I still haven't got all our seeds ordered.  At least I've got all our year-end farm records done and it's all ready to go to the accountant and our HST return is done too.