Laugh and the World Laughs With You. Cry and Gramma Turns off the Camera

OK, Back to Knitting

Oh, yes there has been quite a lot of knitting going on....

Some socks: (In Season & Fraggle Squiggle)

Some kid knits: (Ryleigh's Summer Garden tee, Johnny's Sundog, Ryleigh's Watermelon cardie)

Some hats: (Ryleigh's sun hat, Lapita hats for the boys)

And last, but not least, a cardie for me (Something Red for Jules), finished off with a vintage button from Vintage Necessities:

 

***Check out my ravelry project page for more info on these patterns. I be sewknitful over there too.***

The Day of the Triffids

This strange creature emerged from behind the day lilies in my front garden. It is about eight feet tall and has a very thick stem that looks like a bunch of stems fused together in a rectangle shape. We have had to stake it up as it was becoming top-heavy.










Here is a photo taken about a month ago showing the stem.





















The flowers are just beginning to come out and it looks more like the star-gazer lilies from another part of the garden than the day lilies.








More prettiness --

Future Knitters Club founder

I keep a little basket of yarn ends for Ryleigh to play with. Today she really got into it.




















She was draping bits around her neck, concentrating very hard.























Sometimes you just have to use your teeth!

Old Macdonald....

I picked up this Italian linen blend fabric at the sewing show in Victoria this spring. It was a remnant on Gala's 2 for 1 rack. The pattern is Butterick 4989. I was looking for a nice pin to finish it off when I remembered a silver kilt pin I had in my curio cabinet. It belonged to my mum (given to her by my dad) and was missing it's pinstem, as well as being quite tarnished. I sent it down to my brother, the jeweler, and he put on a new pinstem and polished it up for me. I asked my dad what the pin represented. It is the Macdonald crest (my paternal grandmother's clan), dating back to around 1850. Just the right finishing touch, I thought.

Living on the Edge

See that? On the edge of the middle bar? A bird's nest on the IKEA sign in Coquitlam, BC. If you look really closely you'll see tiny Swedish furniture inside the nest.








Here is another nest of baby robins which is in the crook of a drainpipe right beside our front door. Mama gets really upset whenever we use the front entry. She flies off into a nearby bush and shrieks at us until we go away. Who pays the bills here anyway????

Earth Day

In honour of Earth Day I washed my hair in this: one egg beaten with one ounce of beer (non-alcoholic - didn't want my hair to drink that early in the morning). Apparently it's a very old recipe. I was pleasantly surprised. I had rubbed coconut oil into my hair last night to deep condition and the egg mixture got all the oil out and left my hair shiny and soft. Gotta love it!

Ryleigh spent the day with us. What a little doll!

Keeping It Warm

I guess I was a little too enthusiastic about spring in my last post. It's friggin' MINUS 8 degrees out there!! The rhodos look like they want to shrivel up into the earth. Maybe I should be knitting them some blankets.

I made this little capelet for myself, with an eye on my spring wardrobe (puh!). It's in "Hempton" from hempforknitters.com - 40% cotton, 30% hemp and 30% modal. It is comfortable to knit with, not like some cottons that are hard on the fingers. I like how it drapes and hangs a little low on the shoulders. The pattern is Hemp Capelet by lanaknits.com. The colour isn't really true in the photo, looks a bit orange-y where I'd say it's more of a coral shade.




I think I'll be staying in my warm woolies for a while longer, though. Snuggling down with my hot coffee.



and my toasty Queen of Beads (Sivia Harding) socks. (yarn is Socks That Rock, superwash merino, colorway My Blue Heaven)







CAFETIERE COZY: worsted wt. wool, size 4mm needles. Fits small french press. You could probably double the cast-ons for a larger size.

Cast on 40 stitches and knit whatever pattern you like - I used a mock cable which goes like this - Multiple of 10

Row 1: p4, k1, p1, k4
Row 2: p3, k2, p2, k3
Row 3: p2, k2, p1, k1, p2, k2
Row 4: p1, k2, p2, k2, p2, k1
Row 5: k2, p3, k3, p2
Row 6: k1, p4, k4, p1

Do 5 repeats and bind off. Chain crochet button loops and Nellie's your aunt!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We are back to our typical west coast weather (buckets of rain) after an rather unusual couple of months. Snow and prolonged below-freezing weather made for some nice sunny days. When it rains it warms up again so we're seeing some growth in the garden and lots of birds at the feeders. Snowdrops are the first to appear so I had to bring some inside.















On the knitting front, I finished these long woollies for Johnny









and a pair of socks from my Rockin' Sock Club. The pattern is Queen of Beads by Sivia Harding.









I have a few projects on the needles - felted clogs for hubby, a hemp capelet from Lanaknits. I am stalled on the Eastlake pullover as I keep screwing up the pattern. It may wait until next fall as I want to do some spring projects and more socks, of course. Leyburn socks are next on my radar. I seem to be stuck on the red, blue, purple side of the colour spectrum right now so I want to venture into the yellow side.

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day visiting with my daughter and her family. The grandsons are so cute. We stayed at a nearby hotel and Braedy joined us for a sleepover one night. He was so happy all snuggled up with us in bed watching TV and eating chocolates.

Little granddaughter, Ryleigh, is upstairs having a nap and I can hear her little squeaks and movements over the monitor. So sweet! I love being a gramma!

A Bit O' Bling

I made these earrings for my daughter's best friend, who is like another daughter to us. They're from Knitty and called Bijouterie by Rosemary Hill. (note to self - figure out how to insert links) I thought they turned out quite pretty. I haven't given them to her yet but will be doing so in the next few days. Knitting with wire isn't easy, especially 30 gauge which is very fine and tends to kink. But for a first try it wasn't bad.

Winter is dragging on. And on. And on. First it was the never-ending snow and now it has been days and days of freezing fog. Yesterday the fog finally lifted and it was a glorious sunny day. This morning we are socked in again with a heavy coating of frost on every outdoor surface. Spring please. Soon.



These socks turned out well. It's the Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe knit up in KnitPicks Imagination yarn, colourway Evil Stepmother. Lovely yarn, cozy socks.












Oooooh, cashmere piano mitts!

And, finally, mindless stress and stash busting work. I loves cotton dishcloths!

Christmas Leftovers

So here it is January 10, 2009, three weeks from my last post already. How time flies. We had a great Christmas day with my daughter and her family. Braedy was so excited counting down the "sleeps" til Santa came. Having a 4 year old around makes it all so precious and fun. Two of my grandkids were having their first Christmas. Sweet little Ryleigh spent Christmas Eve day with us. She is 1 year old as of Jan. 8 and has just started walking. Baby Johnny is 3 months old and such a happy little boy. His eyes light up when Braedy talks to him and he grins from ear to ear.

We did indeed have a white Christmas. At one point there was about a foot and a half of snow, truly beautiful. It is almost all gone now and we're back to our typical west coast rainy, windy weather.

I got an organizing/cleaning bug yesterday and spent most of the morning in my closet. I culled three garbage bags of clothes, two for the Salvation Army and one for the garbage. All the shelves are tidied up and I found things I had forgotten I had! Speaking of which, I also went into the garage and noticed my big canning pot was up on a shelf instead of in its usual place lower down. I went to move it and, lo and behold, it was full of turkey leftovers, veggies and stock that I had boiled up to make soup. Forgot all about it! Surprisingly it didn't look any different from when I put it out there, I guess because it has been so cold. Into the garbage it went, no freezer soup for us later this winter. Sniff.