Oriental Lily

I just finished knitting up the cutest dress ever. I plan to knit this one again the next time I need a gift for a baby girl. It’s the cutest thing ever. It also took no time at all to knit. I used 221.5 yards, 69 grams of a 100 gram skein of Stylecraft Merry Go Round in color 3142 and for the wait band, arm cuffs and skirt cuff I used  57.3 yards which is 16 grams of a 50 gram skein of Sirdar DK in color 197. I used both 4mm (US6) and 3.75mm (US5) needles and the stitch definition is very nice.

This has got to be the cutest store sample we’ve got right now. It’s a free pattern, Oriental Lily by Georgie Hallam. Very well written and comes in many sizes (newborn to child size 10).

I made the newborn size and it was tried on by 8 lb 4 oz Sienna and it fits perfectly. The sizing is perfect.

Double Rainbow

I have seen a lot of rainbows this week. The first one was on Thursday after some rain. Then last night, on the way to dinner at my in-laws, we saw the most beautiful thing ever. A double rainbow, where one of the rainbows (the clearer one) was a full arc. Unfortunately I couldn’t capture the full rainbow on my iPhone fast enough, from the passenger seat of the car). It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rainbow like that. I just had to share it. Happy Saturday!

Like a Hockey Player

Last week Sean lost his 3rd tooth, on the bottom. It was his 3rd tooth lost on the bottom. Yesterday, he lost his 4th tooth, an upper one this time. It got accidentally knocked out at school by himself. He looks like a hockey player after a fight. He has a few more teeth that are currently loose. The tooth fairy is going to go broke around here!

Mr. Quentin

 

Ah… Mr. Quentin. My baby. Our source of entertainment. He’s quite the comedian. At almost 3.5 years old, he truly keeps life interesting, eating dinner with his backpack on (as he cannot take it off), or watching Caillou on the computer, through binoculars.

 

He plays very nicely by himself (on the benches at Sean’s baseball practice, while Mack runs around with a classmate of his, whose brother is on Sean’s ball team, while Mommy knits). He comes up with stories beyond my imagination, for the toys he brings with him to the ball park. (In his backpack of course). Quentin recently had a vernissage at daycare, and I got the most beautiful piece of artwork from him. I need to find a place on the wall to hang his art.

 

About a month ago, I traveled to Toronto with Quentin, a good friend & her daughter who is in Quentin’s class at daycare. While visiting a friend in Toronto, Quentin fell in love with the superhero cape that belong to my friend’s son. He was so cute in it, that my friend made some capes for each of my boys. (Thanks again Jen!)

 

Quentin is just a cutie. Always making us laugh.

 

I just want to eat him up! He’s talking up a storm now, far from from his speech delay, which is now the past. Some words we are still working on, but he’s slowly but surely getting them. He uses full sentences (though not always in the right tense, but that’s ok!) and when I used to say “I wish he would talk already”, now I say “does he ever stop talking?” LOL!

I cannot believe my baby will be 4 this year. FOUR! Where on earth does time go?

Mr. Mackenzie

Mr. Mackenzie is too funny. “Look Mom, look how much hair I have, time for a haircut?” The next day I called to make an appointment.

Mackenzie had a project in his class called “Enfant Vedette”. I went in to his class to talk about my job or hobby. Coincidentally, mine is combined. So I did an activity with Mackenzie’s class as well, and we made pom pom monsters. Making pom pom monsters with 19 kids at the same time in a short time frame was a little challenging, but I made do. Luckily, Mackenzie’s teacher and an aide in the classroom where there to help with the kids. The kids had fun and Mack was super happy to have me come to his class, since I haven’t been able to volunteer at all this past year now that I’m working full time out of the house.

Mackenzie loves all sports (we play frisbee at Sean’s baseball practices), however he still has no interest in participating in organized sports.

And he loves climbing to the top of the structure at the local park and scream out “I’m the kind of the castle, you’re the dirty rascal!” The joys of being a child. I think I’d get dirty looks if I tried that.

Mr. Mackenzie is surprising us greatly with his maturity this year. While he hasn’t lost any teeth yet, maybe soon, who knows, he is eager for the tooth fairy to pay him a visit.

And with the blink of an eye, Mackenzie’s just about done Kindergarten. Just a few short weeks left – I can’t believe it! Where on earth does time go? My birthday buddy turns 6 in less then a month.

Mr. Sean

Sean lost his 3rd tooth on Friday. We knew it was loose, but we didn’t think it would come out so quickly. He ran to me just before bedtime and said “Look mom! I pulled it out!” Brave kid! It’s his 3rd tooth on the bottom lost. He hasn’t lost a top one yet, though his teeth keep spacing further apart on the top, making room for his adult teeth. The top front teeth are loose, but not loose enough to fall out yet. Soon enough! The tooth fairy brought rainbow loom elastics (a mega 1200 glow-in-the-dark & two-tone mix pack) and 2 loonies.

For Mother’s Day recently, Sean made me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers (from construction paper and tissue paper) at school. They’re better than real flowers, as they won’t die. He was so proud of them, I love it.

He’s growing up too fast. The blink of an eye, and he’s just about done the 1st grade.

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung.

Things are blooming all around.

I am so glad the warmer weather is here.

Definitely Diagonal

Recently I whipped up a quick shawl. It’s the Definitely Diagonal Shawl by Kris Basta – Kriskrafter. I used 1.62 skeins of Berroco Maya on a 6mm needle. I started it on a Thursday evening and was finished by Sunday morning. I loved the pattern, and would knit this one again. The yarn was a pleasure to work with. It’s 85% Cotton, 15% Alpaca. Feels great to work with as I am not normally a fan of most cottons with my dry hands. This one was very gentle on my hands. This shawl will live at the shop as a sample until I retire it and bring it home. You’ll probably find me wearing it in the shop.

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!