Exercising my prerogative....

....I changed my mind.

1. I am not happy with Ryleigh's sweater...it has hung around too long, time to chuck it and start over.

2. I can not get into the groove with the border on my Celtic shawl. I think I have to put it away for a while.

3. I am really (!!) not happy with my daffodil cloth. I am not sure what it is but I am taking a break from that as well.

4. I am thinking the Vogue sweater would look better on someone younger and thinner....sigh

5. I bought some yarn to finish My Mum's Birthday present and it is way too heavy. Cotton will do that every time. Back to the wool shop! nuts

...as they are not being "Actively worked on" they no longer rate progress bars.

They are being relegated to the cedar chest. I don't often do this but I have to concentrate on Granny Ann birthday present right now! When I need some mindless knitting I can finish the socks I have on the needles. ~MuM

Just to clarify something.....

Mummy is the one who is vertically challenged! Sorry Corinne your sister is taller! Julia wins!!

The Lock Ness Monster

We found this cute child’s sweater at the creative sewing show. Daniel will receive this one for future enjoyment.

The serpent is green and yellow with periwinkle water and a deeper blue for the main colour. I am sure it will mesh with his Scottish background.

Thank you Mum and Sister for the lovely outing. It was a very good time.

~Daughter #2

Mother/daughter day in Toronto

Yesterday was terrific. The darling daughters started the day by having a giggle when I asked for "two adults and one senior"at the ticket window.

"Mom's a Senior" quipped DD #1. Giggling resumed..The ticket seller and I had a discussion on the wisdom of paying for their admission. Giggling abruptly stopped..Cheeky brats.

We had a good look at all the goodies. I took some pictures with my cel phone but didn't know that I had to "save" after every picture...grrr ...Nuts, I lost some great pictures. oh well live and learn.

The shopping commenced. We showd a great deal of financial restraint. DD #2 bought a kit from "Ewe Can Knit" for a jumper with the "Loch Ness" Monster on it. Mummy treated her to a wild hand paint sock yarn from Liza Wool. DD #1 purchased a cross stitch pattern and fabric and threads and a ball of Colinette (Welsh..of course) Jitterbug hand paint sock yarn. I found just the right shade of blue in a cotton/acrylic blend that I needed for Granny Ann's B day present and I splurged on two hanks of hand paint lace weight for a shawl for work for next winter. It is gorgeous. My yarn in on the left, DD#1 in the middle and DD#2's back and right.

We collapsed in the car after about three hours of non stop oggling and DD#2 produced a picnic out of her cooler bag. Pitas, sliced turkey, cheese, dijon mustard, pickles and olives, apples chocolate carmel cookies, a chocolate candy and bottles of water!!!!!! What a treat. Lunch on the dash! All in all this was a wonderful day. We have made a date to get together again for the Waterloo Knitter's Guild show in Kitchener in Sept.

~MuM

Global Art Project gets mailed tomorrow!!

Here is my offering for this years Global Art Project for Peace. Last time I was paired up with someone in Taiwan, this time my project goes to Oakland California.




I chose to knit a "Spirit Bag". This bag was knit with #8 perle cotton and #11 seed beads on a #0000 needle. I will happily share the pattern on to anyone who asks for it. Just e mail us.




Inside the bag I will place the following....


A Coin: representative of our wealth..What we do with it is more important than how much we have.







A Glass Leaf: To remind us how fragile our Eco System has become.





A piece of Amber: The oldest substance on the earth. Although we are here for a fragment of time our actions will have lasting effects on mankind.


An ankh: The ancient symbol for "Life."

What we do with our life is our
legacy.


I hope the recipient will add some meaning full things as well and hang this little bag some where where the sun will shine on it.
~MuM

Some things you cant forget!

It is funny how fast the years go by. My spring cleaning included oiling all my tack. Amongst the straps and buckles I found the crochet helmet cover.

Fran (riding instructor) used to wear in the 70’s. She had given it to me. Thanks Francis.

~Daughter #2

Silk Problem

The silk fingerless glove are to slippery to stay on double pointed needles. Change of plan, I will crochet a thin scarf with the silk insted. Velour shawl is under way and is very easy. 10mm needles feel like I am back in kindergarden.

~Daughter #2

They are sweaters for Daniel. He will probably fit them in the fall. The denim tunic was a very easy knit and turned out to be quite a rugged texture.
Thank you to mum for the white wool sweater.

Should be nice for the cool nights when we sit out at the camp fire and feeding him toasted marshmallows.

~Daughter #2

Mr. Camera Shy

Finished at last! Congratulations Julia on a beautiful job!

Knitting Week Summary.

Knitting week is coming to a close. Of course I didn't get as much accomplished as I expected (check my progress bars) but hey..Aim high and something will get done. Michael's sweater is back to being a "whole" entity. Julia did a great job on the Fair Isling she just has to curb her enthusiasm on the the plain stuff..*grin*

I think today I will work on the vogue sweater and then post pictures. (No pictures of Mummy's B day present though, just in case she is reading here, * hint...What do "Delft" and chinese Willow Plates have in common?") I spent most of the week knitting and watching movies. I watched all of the Firefly episodes and Serenity..Thank you Corinne for the loan of those.....Revisited: Jane Eyre, Gosford Park, and I admit even some of the Harry Potter tales....*smile...and one I hadn't seen before.."Ladies in Lavender" with my faves, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith...Excellent. I even got bored for about a half an hour on Friday so I guess that means I am ready to go back to work.

~MuM~

A totally unproductive day!

Day one of my knitting week. I didn't accomplish a darn thing. I had planned on posting a picture of my Daffodil cloth. I was, emphasis on the word was, on row 39....BUT.....the pattern calls for "knit in the back" stitches and a combo of knit 2 tog and SSK, how-some-ever, it looked like shit!
Cotton just is not as flexible as wool and frankly I know am too fussy. The knitters of the Orenburg shawls don't worry about different decreases because once the lace is dressed it doesn't show.
The SSK decreases were zigzagging and finally I had just had it and pulled out the needle. I zipped it back to row 20. Gasp. I know I almost cried.
Then discovered that I had lost my marker for the beginning of the round!
Weeping and wailing and tearing of hair.
I spent the whole day picking up stitches, frogging and counting. Finally I am back on the 16" circular needle. In retro spect it would have been faster to just start over....sigh.
Anyway here we are revisiting row 25:


Today I am going to see Granny Ann. She is at my brother's house at present recuperating. I hate driving that stretch of the 401 it is so boring.....
While we are visiting I am going to work on grafting Mike's sweater back together.

Fibre surgery on a Sunday afternoon.....

My darling daughters came today. One to pick up her daughters and the other with a knitting crisis. Firstly we had to drag Corinne off the new "toy." "I gotta get me one of these," she said. "Mom, all you need it a bicycle basket to hold your wool." Not a bad idea

Julia loves to knit...and knit...and knit. She got a little carried away with knitting in a circle. Michael's "Christmas" sweater was a trifle longish in the body and the arms. Her Fair Isleing is very good and she was understandably upset that the sweater was too big, not to worry Mummy can fix. Mike put the sweater on and I marked out the amount to be removed. Snip with the scissors............

..........and put the girls to work picking out one row. Bless Elizabeth Zimmerman for her "after thought pocket" tutorial. Corinne kept fussing that the stitches were going to run. Wool doesn't do that. The stitches tend to stick to one another. I even had Mike try the sweater back on with all the live stitches hanging there. No problems.

Here are the pieces ready to be grafted back together. Julia says the center section can be finished off as an ear warmer for an elephant...lol

Pick up the stitches as needed with a double pointed needle and start grafting. No one will ever know it was shortened.

In the middle of all this we had to stop for Birthday cake for my March babies.......37 & 32!! How did that happen??

Everyone has left.....the house is quiet and I am going to "fix" the sweater..repeating to myself "In the back needle stitch as if to purl.... take of... in the back needle stitch as if to knit leave on...in the front needle stitch as if to knit ...take off... in the front needle stitch as if to purl... leave on........"

April Showers

April has arrived in a THUNDER CLOUD. His name is Navarre.



My friend up the road just had a baby. He is only 5 months old. I have already made him a kimono. For next year I plan to make him this Moss stitch Denim Tunic. My sister gave me the yarn and knowing how well it wears, it will be perfect for the little tike around the farm. Thank you for the cotton.
~Daughter #2

knit, crochet, knit crochet....crossstitch?

I know I have been quiet around here as of late. Nothing really much to say, Projects are coming along nicely, I have the body of the pashmina sweater finished and almsot one sleeve completed. So of course I had to put it down and pick up something else.

Almost a year has gone by since I started my husband's Steelers afghan, so I thought perhaps I should finish that first. That too is almost finished, if I put my mind to it I should be able to get it done in a couple weeks. Then I can finish my sweater (yeah!)

I really want to cast on the skull sweater and get started on that but I am determined to finish a couple projects first.

Most importantly I know that when I go to the Creative Needle Work show with my mum and sister I'll be stocking up big time.

Look how many times I used the word finished *giggle* It doesn't happen often, I start way more then I ever finish.

~Daughter #1

Barbie's Fashions

Barbie fashions, they will be a gift for my niece’s birthday

The dress is finished and the swim suit went really quick.


There isn’t a lot of knitting but there is some shaping. There fun to do and they will be fun to play with.Next I am knitting a Barbie pantsuit.

~Daughter #2

Pattern change alert

OK the Balmoral is out and the Daffodil Tea Cloth is in. I am already up to row 20. It sucks to get old, every now and then I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. So last night there I was knitting at 3 am. I am going to be dead at work today...sigh

I sat and read over the Balmoral pattern yesterday and I kept flipping back to the daffodil pattern. I had discarded it originally because of the size BUT when I read the other pattern I see that I can always incorporate the Balmoral pattern to make the Welsh cloth larger. Then just when I think I have my knitting week planned out.......I get my Global Art Project partner in the mail, yikes, that is due to be mailed the week of Apr 23-30. I have 3 weeks to create something wonderful.

`MuM

How times have changed.

With the soaring price of gas and feeling that there’s an ice age at our door step. This mode of transportation is the top of my list. Imagine bundling-up in your favorite woolies to shop at your local farmer’s stand, buying honey and meat, ECT.
This would do our world a lot of good.

I was planning on trying the magic moebius technique, and found that an extra long needle is required. Not having one in my arsenal of tools. The show in Toronto seems promising to grant me with such a thing. Let the magic begin.



Instead I have challenged my self with a Fair Isle vest my mum must have started about 10 years ago. Not finishing it, to be put off for later. My brother on the other hand has been waiting all this time to receive it. Now the vest will be a gift for his daughter being that it’s quite small.


This Traditional Fair Isle book will help me produce this tedious task. It is full of designs, grafted for easy reading. There are chapters on backgrounds as well as the origins of sweaters. Instructions in designing garments for head, body and limb are explained as well there are techniques and use of colour. They also include a needle sizing chart for American, British and Continental.

With the two handed fair isle method (http://www.philosoperswool.com/). There is never any twisting of the wool, so the back tends to knit it self across the stitches. Using the left hand was tricky at first, take it slow and the speed will come. You will love the results.


I have picked out a simple vest pattern to finish the top. It has no shaping and very is wide in the shoulders, with a square neck. Easy, so I say now.

~Daughter #2

Time Off Work...

I am going to take a week off work. Woo Hoo. I have great expectations of accomplishing a wonderful amount of knitting. Hence the plethora of knitting bars for me.* Smile
I am happy with the swatching of the Punto for the Vogue sweater and I think it will make up very quickly. I find it is nice to have a little cardi when the air conditioning kicks in. It is hard to believe that will ever happen I have been cold all winter. "Shoemakers kids Syndrome"... I work for a heating and cooling company!......

As I may have mentioned before I ordered the Marianne Kinzel books from Chapters.


In the meantime I have borrowed one from the local library and I am trying to decide which tablecloth to start. The cotton I bought from the "mill ends" shop seems to be much finer than I originally thought and I think it will do very nicely on a 2.5 mm needle. I think I am going to make the "Balmoral" Dinner Cloth from book #2I do love thistles...except in the garden! I have also added bars for my mother's birthday gift. Which shall remain a mystery project until completion, just in case she gets a chance to read in here. I don't want to spoil the surprise ((Hugs)) to Granny Ann
~MuM