calling all knitters and makers

Check out this link to a fabulous knitting production calculator- Project Calculator. Great suggestions isn't it?

I have one friend who seems to think I should do everything for free. I have a shop, I need to earn an income. Last time she ordered something for a Christmas present for a friend.  She tells me in front of a group of people, at a restaurant that she doesn't have the cash (and I had already discounted from $30 to $20for her) but she would pay for my food- but we weren't having dinner and I didn't have alcohol because I was driving- so she got the item for about $13.. I almost cried....

Knit inspiration - Mountie Toque

I saw this toque in a commercial the other day - I just love the saluting Mounties   - isn't this cute??

Dang, I wish I thought of it first!!! 

Actually, check out the whole website - lots of great Canadian items! Drake General Store

Almost Christmas (yup I said it)

Ha! As many of us in Western Canada are going through a heat wave, and thinking about swimming pools, lakes, boats, mojitos and sunscreen, I am thinking about Christmas.

Why you ask?

Well I have a little shop - check out the pictures and the link on the right side of the page --------->

Last year I knit my little heart out and continued to steadily fill orders until March. It was glorious!

After that, I took some time getting ready for my trip with my mom to Holland and France. Then I had a big dance show to prepare for and then I worked on some other projects - a sweater for my mom, some socks etc.

But now I must think about Christmas items. Since it is only 6 months away and I my selling cut of is around the beginning of December, so there is time to ship it. I would dearly love to bake in the sun all day but apparently there's this thing called skin cancer that scares the bejesus out of me. So I can only sit in the hot hot heat for a while and then I must sit in the shade. There you will find me knitting or crocheting.

I have some ideas I need to get working on - and fast. The last couple of ideas I had were scooped by others or something in the news happened that changed how people would receive the item - I shouldn't procrastinate. Creatives - do you have ideas like that? Some are time sensitive aren't they?

Well, enough typing I guess I'm better pick up some yarn and make something.

Don't forget your sunscreen!

Pill Bottle Pals - Part II

Here are a couple more pill bottle covers - designed to quickly identify medication when there are lots of bottles sitting on your nightstand  (my friend is recovering from a car accident) and you may not have the lights on or your glasses.

The pear is my favourite as it takes it shape best when it's on top of a bottle. It is knit in a fine gauge wool on small needles and I think it turned out very nice:

The minion - well I think most people like their happy colour and smiley faces. I gave this one a googly eye for more fun.

Both could be resized to become an adult's hat or kids/babies - maybe a finger puppet or an egg cozy?

Pill Bottle Pals

I was asked to make some little hats for a friend who takes a lot of medication. She wanted a quick way to identify her pills in the dark or without her glasses. Here are of the ones I made:

These little hats could be resized for people, or kids or as finger puppets or egg cozies - lots of options when you know a knitter! 

Cherry Blossom Time

It's still a little chilly in the mornings when Eco and I go out for our walk, but it's spring here - lots of flowers in bloom - it's time for colour and fun, so I decided to make these Cherry Blossom Fingerless Gloves:

My favourite colour for the gloves and I love cherry blossom imagery. What else reminds you of spring?

Putting the "Happy" into "Happy New Year"

Although there hasn't been much activity in the blog there has been lots activity on the other side of my computer. Not only did I have plenty of custom knitting orders in December (which I loved!!!) but once things died down, I decided it was time to rearrange my work room.

I am an employee that works from home and have a desk dedicated for my job. Although I'm constantly on the lookout for new and improved ways to work and process the jobs and to become more paperless, I still have lots of files and papers on my desk -this is not a place that I do any other work. In the same room I had a nice little desk with a hutch that I considered my personal desk, but I had buried it behind craft supplies and couldn't access the drawers or doors. I decided that it would be good to have one desk for work and one desk for personal use. The personal desk could have pretty things like candles and flowers on it. I also thought it would be good if they could be across from each other as this would put them both near the window and both near the baseboard heater plus all I would have to do is turn the chair around from one spot to another which would save some space.

This simple idea, however, took three days to do. It involved unloading two 7' tall Bonde (Ikea)  bookcases and moving a filing cabinet. It also involved getting rid of as many things as I could. The task is now complete and I am happy with the results. The room is still fuller than it should be but I am happy with it and will continue to work on it. And I still have 3 knitting orders for January, which also makes me very happy.

As well over the past two weeks I was able to sit down with several wonderful ladies who've not only supported me in my knitting business but also in my dance. It is a wonderful feeling to connect with such amazing people. I also had a long meeting with my dance instructor discussing where I'm at and how I'm feeling and this has also renewed my excitement for dance and the future.  I know it sounds cliche but it's definitely been a journey in so many ways.

For me, and many others I talked to, 2014 was a tough year. It's not the worst year of my life, and tragic things didn't necessarily happen, but it was hard - not much came easy that's for sure. And interestingly, it was the same for many others. But I do believe that those tough things won't exist this year and I really think the tough past was a prelude to good 2015. I already put all  the hard work into building the foundation and feel I will reap the benefits this year.

I've suffered from depression and low moods throughout my life but I'm feeling really good about things right now. I'm feeling happy and I feel hopeful. I don't write resolutions but I do 'set intentions' (so to speak) for my future and I feel confident about the upcoming months. Dance class starts on Monday. Next weekend four of us are going to Seattle for a three day dance intensive training. Jp and I are both working and money's not as tight as it had been. I am hopeful my brother and I can mend our relationship this year. My mom and I are planning a trip to Europe this spring. I don't want for anything but look forward to peace and happiness and contentment. And this is the song floating around my head:

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A lovely Christmas Message

Please click on this link to watch a wonderful Christmas message from the great Canadian coffee "shop" Time Horton's-Tim Horton's Warm Hat Campaign

Owl and the Gang

Sheesh, another week has gone by. Well I do have a very good reason - I have several knitting orders that I am working on completing. I've done a couple of owl hats, a couple pairs of wrist warmers and some cowl/hoods - two for little kids and two for adults.

here's one set that I just finished for a little girl who turned 9 this past week:

Her mom took her hand measurements in her sleep. She told me her had was 15 cm around (not including the thumb) so as I was knitting at the kitchen table I happened to pick up a bottle of hot sauce and found that it was 15cm around, so I used that to size her fingerless gloves. Purple is her favourite colour and she is thrilled with the set.

The one odd thing was I could not get an accurate read on the colour. I tried three different cameras and different settings and they came out wrong - often blue and not purple at all. The yarn as a deep grape colour but I just couldn't capture it.

Anyway that's what I've been doing. Taking advantage of some orders before sales die down in January.

Lil Pink Sock

Any fans of Patrick McDonnell's cartoon "Mutts"?

Then you must remember the cat playing with his 'lil pink sock'?

Well I made a pair of them for a co-worker who's expecting her first baby in 3 weeks:

The stitches are tiny but the sock still knits up pretty fast! With only 30 rows for the leg and 8 rows for the foot. I made these out of an elastic cotton, I figured they would wash up really well, and stay on really well (since some babies can really fling those feet around) and she should be able to wear the for quite a while.

Unfortunately I had to make three socks because it wasn't until I was finished my second one that I found I had looped the yarn (by skipping a needle)

If it was for me, I would have left it but since the mom may want to roll down the sock it would then be visible, plus I didn't want her finger or the baby's toes getting caught on it. So I had to rip it all out and start the sock again.

Pattern Request Long Overdue

I found it interesting that someone wrote and and requested the pattern, but also that the Calgary Herald told the story and is trying to locate the request - well done, I say! 

Here'a blurb from their blog:

The Calgary Herald has a long history of providing news to the people who have settled around the intersection of the Bow and Elbow rivers since the 1880s.

It’s not surprising to come across a yellowed page of the Herald that speaks of an era—not to mention culture, technology and prices—long past.

A 1963 ad for a $99 “practical and funful” tape recorder.

Today, the newsroom mailbox yielded a piece of the newspaper ripped from that past. It was an envelope neatly addressed to the “Calgary Herald Needlecraft Department”—a department, I’m sad to confirm, that no longer exists.

Inside that envelope: two dimes taped to a piece of loose leaf and a humble request dated July 9, 2014: “Please send patten No. 1859 to…”

****

More of the article here

Local Yarn Bomb # 3

Remember back in April when I posted about some local yarn bombing and again a couple of days later? Well the mystery person is at it again  - this time I was delighted to find this lovely scene at a local park:

I love this so much. I must write to the local paper to let someone know it's been seen and appreciated.

And disaster strikes

Yep. One of the worst things to happen to a knitter. Moths!

Tonight I was going through my knitting bag looking for a pattern when I noticed "sand" at the bottom of the bag. The bag has rarely left the house and I don't live on a beach, so I knew instantly what it was. The remnants of the case-bearing moth. Between vast amounts of wool and hair from a labrador retriever in my house - well it's a veritable smorgasbord around here!!

Look what it did to my cherished ball of baby alpaca wool:

That was a  $17 ball of the softest, most beautiful wool  and it's been reduced to 8 - 10" lengths. All I can do now it throw it in the garbage as it's too badly infected. The contents of my bag is outside and bagged in a sealed plastic garbage bag. It will be quarantined outside until I'm sure I've vacuumed up and removed all the moth debris etc.

How sad. How very sad.

And what's next? I'm going to pull out a sweater or coat next year to find holes eaten in them too? I've hung up a vapona strip in our back bedroom - I hope it kills those horrible moths (before the vapona strip kills us!) Boo to nature this time!

Yarn Bombed

For years I've heard of,  and seen photos of, yarn bombing - sometimes in some very famous places, such as these:

And sometimes whole groups have put them together and you hear about a type of 'flash mob' descending upon a location to decorate a public place or space. A couple of times over the years, my sweet brother has clipped a photo from a newspaper and mailed it to me, showing me another inspiring knitting or crocheting story especially about yarn bombing and as a knitter and crocheter myself I've always enjoyed seeing them - mainly because they are usually so very colourful. Just google "yarn bombing" and see all the images that come up.

So then you can imagine my surprise that I came down a side street in my residential neighbourhood, in a little suburb outside of Vancouver to discover this walkway fence had been yarnbombed with multi-coloured hearts! So neatly done, in three little rows :

I love it - SQUEE! Isn't it fun?

            well I thought it was.

(ha! I didn't realize that Eco was in this photo too--she's probably 

wondering why I was standing there facing that fence) 

Finished Hat - Traditional Newfoundland Hat

I found an old "passed down from generation to generation" hat pattern for a Newfoundland Salt-n-Pepper cap and so I decided to give it a try in cream coloured acrylic yarn for my mom (she's sensitive to wool). Here's the finished cap:

It turned out pretty good and my mom loves it. Mission accomplished.

Except what she doesn't know is that I HATED the pattern. In fact, when I was done making the hat, I threw the pattern in the garbage(well actually in the recycling-but you get the point). Now she wants another one in a different colour. Hmm, I guess I could knit it again. I'll have to think about it.

Do ever have that? Something you make that you didn't like but others did?

I think I like pink

I bought this wool because I loved the colours, I had nothing in mind for it. So one night as I tried to fall asleep, I thought about what I should make with it - arm warmers kept coming into my head and so I decided that's what I would make:

I think they turned out really good. They are 100% wool, beautifully coloured and scrumptiously warm! I'm not much of a "pink' person, but I like them!

Cream Felt Hats

here are the two wool felted hats that I made:

I used two different yarns to see which felted better. My mom had found a buyer for one and was going to keep the other one for herself. It's possible I might start making a few more of these, although knitting first and then felting isn't usually the best way to go when making a felt hat.

Charcoal Felted Bowler

Here's a photo of the dark charcoal felted bowler I made just before New Year's: 

This was a custom order. Then she changed her mind and wanted a cream coloured hat instead. Back to the drawing board (and yarn shop!)

MultiColoured Arm Warmers

I had a really nice yarn that had some very lovely colours and I looked at the ball and felt that making arm warmers would be a really nice project for the yarn, so I made these:

And then I rearranged a bunch of stuff and I haven't seen them in a month! How much you wanna bet that by the time I find them, it'll be spring?

I knitted as fast as I could. Then I put on some rubber dishwashing gloves and filled the sink with warm water, added some soap and rinsed and rubbed and felted that hat.

Then I wan't happy how the wool felted, so I started all over again.

I would show you but my phone battery just died so you will have to wait until tomorrow.

along with other yarn porn