Berries!

I just love this time of the year. Last week, I picked strawberries, this week it was blueberries and today I am going on a farm to pick rasberries. I just love it!

I freeze a large portion of these little fruits to use in my smoothies, my pies and muffins all winter long.


I made three batches of strawberry jams last week. One freezer stawberry jam with rhubarb for me. One regular cooked strawberry jam for hubby. And one new recipe of strawberry jam with Ammereto...looking forward to trying that one out! I will give most of this batch as Christmas gifts.


I have added a new baby hat to my Etsy shop. I call it Blueberry Hat!




Enjoy your day, it is finally sunny here!

Featured on Etsy Studios

Hey, have you seen?
Kerry of Etsy Studios has featured my Etsy shop on her blog! What a wonderful thing!

Go have a look and while you are at it, I recommend that you take the time to read her other features. It's always great to discover other people's talents and passions.
Thanks Kerry!

YAY! I sold one of my pumpkin hats through my Etsy shop!!!! Did you see me do a little dance around the kitchen table!


I have relisted the hat since I still have two other ones available.

And to add to my joy, I have a shop here in town that will be selling my hats. How cool is that?

I have also just added this red apple hat:

This hat has actually been knitted using my red reclaimed yarns. I sell some of these yarns in my Etsy shop. For those of you that hesitate to knit with recycled (reclaimed) yarns, see for yourself the beautiful knits you can get from it!

This little hat is also available in two sizes (infant and toddler).

I am currently working on a flower hat. I'll post pics as soon as it's done!

Have a great day. And do leave me a comment if you come by to read me. I would love to hear from you!

Mia

Mia is our daughter's cat presently living with us. She is the most playful cat I know. She is also super relaxed around our dogs. She is right there in the middle of them just as comfortable as if she was with her own kind. Our dogs are Golden retrievers, and at first they did not know what to make of her. But now, she is part of the gang.

She is an indoor cat and is only allowed outside on the balcony out of our kitchen. This balcony has no stairs to the yard. So Mia can go out and watch the flies and the birds go by.

She however does one things that drive us crazy. She loves to go perch on a piece of wood that extends from under the balcony.

This perch is right above the dogs yard. At first, it would drive the dogs crazy to see her there, but they do not pay attention to her anymore.
She will have all four legs hangning on either side of the plank and just be.
She watches the dogs below and the birds in the apple tree. Pretty cool, eh?

Celtic Cardigan

I have been eyeing this pattern for awhile and I finally gave in and bought it yesterday. It was the last one available at Yarn Indulgences, a cute little knitting shop in Kitchener, Ontario.
The colors in this Fleece artist yarn kit really won me over! Very soft turquoises and greens.
The pattern is called Celtic Cardigan by Fleece Artist (from Nova Scotia).
It took me awhile to figure out the instructions given on the tiny card that came with the yarn. I guess that when you try to fit a cardigan pattern on such a small card, you take for granted that your knitters will have some experience and some strong desire to decipher the pattern on their own. I read it several times and all of a sudden it was as clear as spring water!
The pattern is such that it is completely reversible. It uses two balls of yarn at the same time in order to eliminate all possibilities of colour pooling.

It's knitted from side to side, making vertical stripes. I knitted the whole way home and I am almost done all of the back.

It's a really quick knit with a simple pattern repeat. I just love how soft this yarn is. It's 65% wool and 35% silk. This would be a great travelling knitting project but I love it too much to keep it just for the car!

Happy knitting!

Pumpkin orange baby hat

I have been making these little baby hats for awhile now and they are really popular!

This is a new addition to my etsy shop.

It's knitted in a hand dyed wool yarn. I had so much fun dying the yarn myself! The yarn goes from light to dark orange for a fun effect.

It's really super soft.

Would it not be great for the fall in that pumpkin colour?

Sublime

Our daughter is expecting our first grandchild...a little grand daughter to cuddle and to love! We are so very excited. She should make her appearance at the beginning of september.

I have been looking at baby knitting patterns for the past few months and as soon as I saw this one, I knew I had to make it!

The pattern was in the October 2007 Canadian Living magazine. It's also available in a book called Natural Knits for Babies and Moms (Interweave 2006)

The yarn I chose is a blend of merino, silk and cashmere called Sublime, in a very soft shade of pink.

I loved knitting it and hated to sew it up together!

I modified a hat pattern that I had to get it to match the little sweater. It was the first time I did a picot edge and it's really easy and so cute!

I found lovely pink buttons in the same shade in my mother's button box the morning of the baby shower! But it was finished in time.

Our daughter just loves it!