Snowman Knitted Ornament

This was an adorable quick knit and the pattern is Snowman Knitted Ornament by Gigi Hooper! I picked up 1.75” Styrofoam ball from Dollarama (pack of 10 balls for 1$). This uses very little yarn. I used leftovers that I had in my stash. The white is Uptown worsted, the orange is Diamond collection Merino Lux and the black is Malabrigo Worsted. I used French knots for both the mouth & eyes, I think it looks nicer than the duplicate stitch. These are hanging on our Christmas tree, and they look fabulous. The entire snowman weighs just over 6g without the Styrofoam ball. You can see my two snowman project information pages here & here on Ravelry.

Maya’s Sunny Stripes Hat

My next door neighbor Maya is extremely petite and needed a new hat this winter. She out grew last year’s hat, plus it didn’t match her new winter jacket. She doesn’t like bows, so that threw out the idea of doing the bow hat that I’ve made several of. So I did some searching and found Sunny Stripes Hat by Gretchen Tracy. I used Uptown Worsted on 4.5mm needles. She absolutely loves her hat. Stay tuned for another post in a couple of days with the mittens that I made to go with this hat.

Persephone Handpaints Cowl

I’ve been wanting to work with this yarn (King Cole Bamboozle) for a while, since getting it into the shop. I saw a cowl on Ravelry that used a similar yarn by another company and it was perfect for this cowl. The pattern is Persephone Handpaints Cowl by Michael del Vecchio. The pattern calls for 6 mm needles, which this yarn also calls for, so it was perfect. I used only 65g of the skein.

The pattern says when “you come upon a wool section of yarn, then double wrap all st as follows: Insert ndl in to next st, wrap yarn around ndl twice, pull loops out of st and sl st off LH ndl 3 times, knit to next wool section.”

With my yarn, the Bamboozle by King Cole my wool (roving) sections are a tad longer than the Universal Yarn Bamboo Bloom Handpaints that is used in the original pattern, so I did about 4-5 stitches with the double wraps on my cowl. Effect is really cool.

Another idea for a quick Christmas gift!

You can see this cowl on display at the shop.

Melanie’s Bow Hat

I got an email in the fall, from a mom of a girl in my son Mackenzie’s grade 1 class. It was a picture of her daughter’s hello kitty pink jacket. I emailed her back asking her if she sent it to me by mistake. Her reply was “I emailed it to you because Mackenzie told Melanie that you would knit her a hat to match her jacket”.

Oh, that funny 6 year old of mine!

So, what’s a mom to do?

So, as promised, I knit her the hat.

I knit up the Ribbons and Bows Beanie by Lillebarn by April Lowe. Here is my ravelry project. I used Berroco Vintage in a pink shade that is now discontinued (51106) along with white (5100) on 4.5mm needles. Hat weighs 56g total.

Melanie absolutely LOVES her hat & wanted to go to sleep that night she got it, in it…

Red Rasta Cowl

We got in some yummy Punta Fuego yarn (which is a very bulky hand painted yarn – it’s delicious!) As a store sample I knitted up the Red Rasta Cowl on 10mm needles. This was a super quick one evening project. This makes a great last minute Christmas gift. The yarn & pattern are a fave in my books! You can see this cowl on display at the shop.

My First Regia Socks

For a future store window display (details to come in 2015) I knitted up these adorable baby socks in My First Regia yarn. The pattern is Pieces of Eight Baby Socks by Susan Lawrence. This pair of socks used up 13g of yarn and I used 2.75mm knitting needles. Thankfully my tubes are tied… these socks make me want another baby!

Xmas Window 2014

A few weeks ago I got up the Xmas window display at work. The shop owners are having a contest (deadline to vote was yesterday, we’ll see who wins soon). From all the other windows in the mall, I honestly feel that our window is nice, but we’ll see what the other shop owners decide to vote for.

In my window I have some knit stockings by the fireplace. The pattern is free on the internet. I used Uptown Worsted held double to knit these adorable stockings on a 7mm needle. They’re knit flat and are super easy & super quick. Each sock weighs 51g. You can see the other 2 stockings here & here.

Also in the window are some crochet candy canes. The cane weighs 16g and I used leftover Uptown Worsted from the stockings with a 5mm crochet hook. The pattern is from here. This was a fast project as well. 

Quentin’s 1st time skating

This evening we took the kids skating. It was Quentin’s first time ever on the ice. At first he hated it. He told me “I hate skating, I want to go home”.

But then he gave it a try. And was doing pretty good.

And by the end of the evening, I have no idea where that kid who started off the evening by hating skating went, and he was skating without the bar! I was beyond impressed. Hockey in 2015, here we come!

Four!

Over the weekend, Quentin turned 4. FOUR! I cannot believe it. I feel like it was yesterday that I brought home my tiny little preemie. He’s turned into quite the little character. We love you so much Quentin, Happy 4th Birthday buddy!

Oasis Photography Props

After I had armed knitted a cowl, my sister saw it and thought it would make a great photography prop to add to her collection in her photography studio. So she asked me to make her two, one in blue-green & one in black-grey. These are super fun to make and take no time at all. (Maybe 10-15 minutes total each).

Arm knitting is so easy & is instant gratification! I used Frill Seeker Oasis to arm knit as it’s already super thick and is actually a scarf yarn meant for another purpose, but it works great for this type of project. These props are 4 skeins of Oasis each, as there are only about 5 yards in each Oasis skein.

Aren’t the babies so sweet? It almost makes me want another!

Halloween 2014

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween! My Thor, Mario & Batman sure did. They were pleased with the candies they got and it was actually a very mild Montreal Halloween this year. Did you go Trick or Treating? What did your kids dress up as this year?

Quentin wanted to be Spiderman for school and Mario for trick-or-treating. Lucky kid has a wardrobe of costumes to pick from, as he has 2 older brothers with lots of hand-me-down costumes! I just want to eat him up, he’s soooo cute!

Mustard Scarf

 

I recently knit up the Mustard Scarf by Jane Richmond. I absolutely loved working with the Diamond Luxury Collection Merino Lux. It’s very soft and really nice to work with. And the colors are just stunning. I’m already thinking about what I can knit next with this yarn.

 

The pattern is super easy to remember. This was also a very quick knit. I really enjoyed this project. I could see myself knitting up more of these. It’s a worsted weight yarn that is knit up on US15/10mm needles. I used just over 1 skein (1.11 skeins) so I have a bit leftover. With another ball I could get another one for a gift. This one is a store sample currently on display at my shop.

 

This also was a super quick knit that took me less than 2 days to knit up. I would recommend this project as well for a Christmas/Holiday gift.

Rainbow Twist

 

I recently finished Rainbow Twist as a store sample. It was a quick knit, using up 63% of  a skein of Katia New Nepal on US17/12mm needles. This was a fun afternoon project, very quick to knit. I haven’t ever done a 14 stitch cable before - that was quite interesting!

 

These would make up great Christmas gifts for friends, family or your child’s teacher.

You start with a provisional cast on so that you can have live stitches at the end to join the end by grafting it shut. This is not the first time I’ve done grafting with a provisional cast on, and I absolutely love the end result. This one is a win-win!

Melissa’s Gaptastic Cowl

My friend Melissa turned 40 this year and had asked me for a handknit cowl so I decided to knit her a Gaptastic for her as a birthday present. I sent her the James C Brett color card online and she picked out the Marble Chunky color she liked, MC19.

Because Melissa is petite, I decided that knitting the Gaptastic to 15” wide would be way too big on her, so I only knitted to 10” wide before casting off. This used up .69 of the skein. I knit this up on 9mm (circular) needles.

I actually absolutely love this color and the 10” wide as well, that I think I am going to make one for myself, probably in the same color. I kind of want one in the purple (MC19) and the grey/black tonal one as well, MC11, shade card here).

This one was a really quick knit, in under a week. I am sure if I had a full weekend to myself I could have knit this one in one weekend, but with 3 kids, 2 of them in sports, that’s not an option!

Happy 40th Melissa!

Banks of Certain Rivers

The Banks of Certain Rivers is now out on paperback! The kindle price is under 4$ as well. I read this book back in the spring of 2013, and gave it a 5 star rating. I remember having read a bunch of crappy novels before it, and was pleased to have read something good.

At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about Neil, a father of a teenage boy, whose wife was in an accident which led her to become a vegetable in a comatose state. Neil started seeing his mother-in-law's nurse, behind his son's back. I can understand that he wants to move on with his life, as his wife would never come out of her coma. As the story went on, I became more and more understanding of his situation, and no longer considered him cheating. If I ever end up (knock on wood) as a vegetable, I would want my husband to move on, providing that it was for sure that I wouldn't be able to rebound back out of the coma. I also wouldn't want to be kept alive if I were a vegetable, but that's not what I am talking about here. I was immediately drawn in to this story and wanted to know how it all played out. It wasn't predictable and could have gone in different directions, which had me guessing throughout the novel. Was he going to lose his job after the video of him went viral on youtube? Would his son Christopher accept his apology? Where was Chris after he ran away? I am glad that everything worked out the way it did, in the end. The story all came together nicely. 

The supporting characters were very likable and realistic. They all drew me in as we met them in the book and was drawn into the book right from the prologue - wanting to know more, as the novel was set up very well. 

I liked the use of the emails from Neil to Wendy at the end of some of the chapters. I liked how it added a little extra to the story by giving us some more private/personal thoughts. I was sad to see the emails end once the email account that Neil's friend set up (so that he wouldn't know the password) expired and the emails he was sending bounced back. 

I also liked the way the story wrapped up in the end in the last chapter, giving you information about what the characters were now up to. I hate it when a novel leaves you guessing at the end, but this story doesn't do that to you, and I appreciated that. 

I really loved this novel and it was well written. I was able to connect with all the characters and the storyline was realistic. I enjoyed reading this and recommend this novel. I cannot wait to see more by Jon Harrison. 

The Habs Experience

Friday night, I got to experience the experience of a lifetime. Jamie & I were supposed to go out for dinner to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary, and when he told me that he turned down playing on ice at the Bell Center for his teammates’ birthday, I told him that we could go out for a late dinner, is he crazy!???

When we got there, we got to go behind the scenes of the Bell Center. As a Habs fan, this was extremely amazing. (Above Zamboni Parking and where the Zamboni comes out to clean the ice).

We walked down the hallway where the “away” team gets dressed before games. That was the locker room the boys were in to dress.

The birthday boy went all out and borrowed official practice jerseys from the Habs, for Friday night’s game. He even went to the extent to get plaques made for all his friends/teammates with everyone’s first name initial & last names. This was a very nice added touch.

This was the view, before the game, behind one of the goalie nets.

(Left) The view from center ice.
(Right) This is where the Habs come out from their dressing room before games. The doors were actually unlocked and we peaked in (curious of course!) but there were nails and wood everywhere, as it’s all under construction.

(Left) My tush is on sacred ground. This is the bench that the Habs sit on during games.
(Right) Jamie & I.

The boys actually sang their own rendition of the National Anthem before the game. I recorded them singing. I need to upload it to YouTube one of these days.

My brother’s girlfriend (left) wanted to learn how to knit, so during the game she worked on the knit stitch). I got some knitting done on a gift that I will talk about later this week.

The boys playing.

When the game was over, the boys all shook hands. And then they decided they needed to do some stretching.

I got to go on the ice. Some girlfriends brought skates to go on afterwards, however since we were going out for a late dinner after, I didn’t bring skates this year. Maybe next year if we get to do the same thing again next year. Next year I would definitely bring my skates & get on! We were 5 ladies in the 21,273 seats that the Bell Center has. (3 girlfriends, 1 wife (myself) and 1 sister of the players).

It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget. I’ve never gotten the opportunity to do something like this before, and I don’t know if this will be an annual thing that Jamie will get invited to, or not. Regardless, it was a lot of fun, and it was very awesome. No other words to describe.