SPUN

Catherine McKenzie does it again! She had me not wanting to put this novella down. I read it pretty much in one sitting. I have been a fan of Catherine's work since her first novel came out, which I read in the spring of 2010, a few short months after it was released. I've read all of Catherine's work, and thoroughly enjoyed every single novel & now novella, that Catherine has written. I was thrilled when I received an advanced reader's copy of Spun to read & review.

Spun is a sequel to Catherine's first novel, Spin. While Spin is Kate Sandford's story, Spun is Amber Sheppard's. While you don't need to read Spin to enjoy Spun, it does provide you with background on the characters. And if you haven't read Spin, I advise you to go pick up a copy today and read both. (And all of Catherine's other novels, you will not be disappointed). You can pick them up on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Kobo.com, Chapters, etc!

Amber's character is extremely realistic, and I could picture her story on the covers of US Weekly or any other tabloid magazine. Amber stays clean after her stint in rehab and tries to get her life back on track. The story starts off with Amber going to see the love of her life, Connor, on the night he dies, and decides to get off his plane and with that decision, manages to save her life. So much happens in the 100-something page novella and the way Catherine writes makes you want to know more. And you have to keep reading to know the full story, as bits of the story and of what is going on are dropped along the way.

There is a giveaway for 5 copies of Spin by Catherine McKenzie. You can find the giveaway here!

Nantucket Throw

 

Over the weekend I knit up a Nantucket Throw that will be in the shop later today as a store sample. This knit took about 3 hours to do, I just didn’t have 3 consecutive hours to knit it as I was out of town on a business trip and it was a busy weekend. It’s so fun to work with and my arms got a great work out while doing so. Though, if I had one entire evening to sit down & knit, I could have finished it from cast on to cast off in one go. This used 150 yards, which is 1100 grams of Loopy Mango Big Loop Merino in Ivory. It’s so soft to work with and definitely different to work with than all smaller weights of yarn. I used US 50 - 25.0 mm needles that came in the kit, and those were really nice to work with as well. The unblocked finished size is 28"x53". With blocking, it should block a bit larger. I just need to find a space to block something this large!

 

I do plan to make one for my house, as it’s so cozy to sit under.

Cute Little Dresses

I whipped up two really cute dish cloth dresses as gifts this past week. One for my mom and one for my brother’s girlfriend. These are super adorable and knit up in no time. I’m thinking future teacher gifts! Both used up each approx. ~20-21g of dish cloth cotton. Making it in one color is easier as there are less ends to weave in. I also made one change to the pattern, instead of chaining 12 at the neck I chained only 4, as 12 is way too long. I am really happy with these cute little dresses!

 

Zayda

My grandparents and I on my 1st birthday in 1982.

My grandfather passed away yesterday in his 87th year. May he rest in peace. November 16, 1926 – April 1, 2014.

Pompom Monster Tutorial

This is my pompom monster for a project I am doing for a presentation in my son's kindergarten class in April. His teacher does an "enfant vedette" project where one child is highlighted for the week and one of the child's parents comes in for an hour and talks about their job or hobby so I will talk about knitting and my yarn shop and make these pompom monsters with the kids as the activity I will do with them. It's a cute and fun project to do with the kids. This was my trial monster to see how much yarn I need I prepare for each kid in Mackenzie's class. He has 18 classmates.

To make the pompom I used this free printable PDF from Mias Craft Ideas. I chose the size I wanted and I cut out the shape and traced it on cardboard from an empty cereal box (you need to make 2 of them to hold together when wrapping the yarn). Then I used a worsted weight yarn and wrapped the pompom tool. I cut around the edge of the yarn to release the strands & then I took a string and tied the pompom together. To see how that is done, you can watch this youtube video. I did trim a bit of the pieces afterwards (like a haircut) to make the monster even. Then I used my handy glue gun and glued on 2 google eyes & voila! A cute/adorable pompom monster!

 

(Side view of my monster)

Boomslang

I knit up Boomslang (free download on Ravelry) in less than a month. While it’s a mindless knit, there are a LOT of stitches. I casted on 300 stitches instead of the 220 the pattern recommends and I find it just right. Any less amount of stitches and it probably would choke me. I used 1.3 balls of Drops Baby Merino in black (21) and I used 1.5 balls of Drops Baby Merino in red (16). The extra red is because I finished it off with the red as well as started it with red. The pattern is just a simple knit 6 rows, purl 6 rows. I read on Ravelry that some knitters wrapped & turned to knit the purl section, but I don’t mind purling, so I did the purl rows as is. I knit this up on US 4 - 3.5 mm needles. I love how reversible it is, and I loved working with the baby merino yarn. I would definitely knit this pattern again, however the next one would be black and a variegated yarn, instead of 2 solids. I think the black would make a variegated yarn pop.

Owl Strap Covers

I knit up these adorable Owl Strap Covers for my friend’s new baby’s baby bucket car seat (Baby in yesterday’s post). I used up 32g of di.Ve' Torgnon Ombra yarn (approximately 57 yards of yarn). The pattern is: Strap Covers- Owl Keep You Safe by Melissa Schaschwary. It’s a very quick knit and makes a very cute gift. You can see my project on ravelry here. I made bobbles for the first time, you use them to close the strap around the car seat strap! Very neat. I used DMC floss to do the embroider of the owl’s feature (eyes, nose/mouth, feet).

Girlie Twist Hat

I recently knit up Twist Hat by Melissa J. Goodale for a precious baby girl. A good friend of mine had a 28 and a half weeker, who is doing extremely well and should be coming home from the hospital soon. i used .29 of a skein of Katia Candy on 2.75mm needles. The pattern actually changes to a larger needle after the ribbing but because I was making it a preemie size, I kept it to the smaller needles and it worked out perfectly. You can see more details on ravelry here.

Stay Gold!

Stay Gold Team Canada!

The Small Vermonter

This was supposed to be an adult hat, the Vermonter. I followed the instructions exactly with a super-bulky yarn and 8mm needles, however it fits 3 year old Quentin snuggly. Hmm... I wonder what went wrong? The hat without the pompom weighs 48g and the pompom is 22g for a total of 70g. So it turned out to be a small vermonter. Quentin wears it well! It was a really quick knit I did in 1 evening. I’ll try to find some other yarn, and maybe go up to 10mm needles to try to make this an adult version, as it’s a super cute hat.

Flight Tracker

My in-laws just returned from their trip, and we were able to track their flight with this very cool app. It was very neat to be able to track their flight and see where they were at any given point, the kids enjoyed that. It also allowed us to see if they were arriving late or early or on time, to be able to leave at the right time to go to the airport. And I didn’t even need to use the app on my iPhone, I was tracking it right on my computer, so someone who doesn't have an iPhone can track a flight as well with the link. Very cool! (Click on the image to open it up to see it in better detail).

Diagonal Blanket

I started a beautiful blanket for a little girl (hubby’s co-workers baby) and thought I had enough yarn. I was weighing the yarn as I was going, as it started off in the corner and you work your way to the size you want, then you start decreasing once you have reached the half way point. Well… something didn’t calculate right, and I ended up running out of yarn with a 7 rows to finish. I was so upset! And of course, the yarn I was using was stash yarn (not from my yarn shop) that I picked up numerous years ago, at Walmart. It’s Red-Heart Eco-Ways, a recycled blend. It actually knits up nicely. Anyhow, I made a few calls, checked (just in case) at Walmart (and Fabricville) to see as they both carry Red-Heart, but neither of them had Eco-Ways. I called my supplier who carried Coast & Clark, the company who makes Red-Heart, and my contact said that the yarn has been discontinued for at least 2 years and that she even looked to see in their random bin at work, but they didn’t have any of that to send me. Hmmm… next step, was Ravelry. I sent a message to a handful of people who had the yarn in the same colorway in their stash. I heard back from several people and managed to get some extra yarn to finish off the blanket, and make another one.

The pattern was How To Do Corner Start Diagonal Crochet by Sandi Marshall and I used a 5.5 mm (I) crochet hook. The blanket with both colors is about 260g of yarn. I am pleased with the final results, and it would have been finished earlier had I not run out of yarn. The recipient loves the blanket as well.

National Sweater Day

Don’t forget to wear your sweater today!

Cabin Fever

Deb Gemmell, author of Cabin Fever books (Need A Hat? Need a Sock? Need an Accessory? and many more) came into the shop today for a surprise visit. She’s visiting Montreal for the week. I got her to sign my copy of Need a Sock? Thanks Deb!

Legwarmers, Gaptastic & Starving Artist

I have some recent finished projects to share with you today!

 

First I have some cute little legwarmers I made for my new next door neighbor’s 12 month old daughter. For these simple legwarmers I cast on 48 stitches, and I did 2x2 ribbing for 6.75 inches (as per the girl’s leg measurements). I wanted a ribbed legwarmer so they hug her leg and don’t slouch or slide down like stockinette legwamers might. I used a total of 42g of yarn for them – a nice quick knit!

Next, I have the Gaptastic Cowl. I made this for a store sample as we just changed our window display this morning. So you can see this in the shop’s window for the next 6 weeks or so.  I loved knitting this. I used an entire skein of James C. Brett Marble Chunky in MC12 on a US 13 – 9.0 mm knitting needle. I want to make myself one next, in some stash yarn or something.

Lastly, which I just finished last night, I have a Starving Artist hat to show you. This was also knit up as a store sample, for our window display. I knit this hat up also using James C. Brett Marble Chunky (our window is all items knit up with this yarn) on US 10½ - 6.5 mm needles. The hat took 65g of yarn and was a quick knit as well.

 

I liked working with the Marble Chunky yarn. If you’ve made something with it or plan to make something with the yarn – do let me know!

Waiting for the School Bus

Sean discovered a new fun activity this morning and Mackenzie had to join in. This is how we waited for the school bus this morning…

I am glad neither of them were injured!

New Website!

I am very excited to announce my new work website! After a lot of work, it launched yesterday. Let me know what you think!

Craigslist Funnies

I saw this on Craigslist. I hope it’s still listed when you get to read it, if not, I have it saved, so just ask & I’ll share.

A Handy Chart

I just typed this up to keep at work, and in my knitting bag, and I wanted to share it with you guys, my readers. I am not sure where I got this chart from, as I had taken a screen shot of it with my iPad somewhere. So unfortunately I cannot credit the source, but I am not taking any credit for the information above. The chart gives you a list of the minimum amount of stitches you can put on a circular needle (circular needles in the lengths of 16”, 24”, 29” & 36”). At work we sell 16”, 24”, 32”, 40” (and some 47”) needles, which are almost the same as these above. I think 29 & 36” are more popular in the USA, than in Canada, but I am not 100% certain. So you figure out how many stitches per inch your yarn is, and here you have a guide to see what length circular needle you would need to use for your project.

Happy Knitting!

An Overdue IOU

I finally finished my husband’s socks which were an IOU from Christmas 2009. Back then, I wrote an IOU with a picture of a pair of socks and put them under the tree. I finally started them in April 2010, but I think I got “socked-out” for a while, because I didn’t touch them, nor any other pair of socks until I picked these back up recently to finish them. I finished them on December 15th, 2013. Just shy of 4 years after promising them. Oops! They are my own design, a pattern I call “Man Socks”. They are available on Ravelry for 2.99$. He loves them, and I am glad that I finally finished them!