FO Baby girl blanket

As my mother is destashing, my stash seems to be growing! That's not exactly how I thought it would end up but some yarn is just too nice to let go. Many, many years ago, my mother and grand mother used to order yarn from Bèrgère de France in Montréal. They would order lots and lots of yarn! My grand mother would knit constantly but my mom would mostly stash it!! (Just kidding mom!)

With all the babies being born lately amongst our friends and family, I thought I would get a few items ready for those baby showers coming this summer.

Eventhough I don't often knit with acrylic yarns, I knew that the washability of this yarn would be appreciated by busy parents.

This blanket starts from the center and is knitted on circular needles. It's one of those mindless knitting project. I always love to have one of those on hand when I want to knit and watch tv or expect to be interupted often.

 The colours are for a baby girl in lavender, rasberry and white. I also made the hat that was included with the blanket pattern. I have enough yarn to make a sweater or booties too.

Pattern: Hopkins Hat and Blanket (free download from Knitcircus Magazine)
Needles: forgot to make a note of it!
Yarn: Barisienne by Bergère de France

Puppy news:
She is growing like a...well...like a puppy! Well not surprising since all she does is sleep, eat, eliminate...
Now 16 days old and with opened eyes.Her ears are starting to open up as well so she will soon be hearing us walk in the room! Doing her best to get off her belly and use her legs. She actually barked this week! With no littermates, we will have to entertain her till she can be introduced to one of our super gentle golden.

She loves to use the stuffed toys as a pillow.
What's her name? Not sure of that yet. She was born by c-section and when we stepped out of the vet's office, there was a penny by the car. I immediately thought of calling her Penny and register her as Lucky Penny. But hubby doesn't seem to like the name too much so we are still working on this.

FO: Wisp scarf

I love scarves and wear them at least three seasons of the year. The weight of the scarf will depend on how cold it is outside and how long I will be out.
The first time I made the Wisp scarf pattern was with a colourful lace yarn I had purchase while visiting our daughter in Calgary.

The muliple colours in this scarf allows me to wear it with so many jackets. Because it's so light, it can easily be worn till fall, winter and spring.

Pattern: Wisp (free on Knitty.com) Very easy lace pattern.

Needles: 5mm

Yarn: Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball

A week ago, I completed a second Wisp scarf just in time for my mother's birthday.

Good thing I took a few pics while blocking the scarf because I never got around to it after I gave it to her. Love my blocking wires from Knit Picks. I use them for most of my blocking.

Pattern: Wisp

Needles: 5mm

Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud

Puppy news:

She's now 9 days old! She can be seen here at 2 days old. As the only pup, she has no competition for food and can drink all she wants, whenever she wants...her little belly is solid like a rock!

Her eyes an ears are still not opened...this will probably happen this week.

(The stuffed toy will be used to compare her growth from week to week.)

First FO Monday

I have several finished projects that I have not added to my Ravelry's project page and that I have not added here. Yes, life is busy!
So I will commit to doing this by showing you a completed knitted item every Monday...for the next few weeks (we'll see how long I can keep this going!!).

I will start with a scarf that I've finally knitted from a kit from Misty Haven Alpacas. This was my first lace project and also first time knitting with lace yarn. I had to frog it several times. I kept getting mixed up and having either too many stitches or not enough at the end of a row. So I ended up putting it away for a while thinking I did not like lace knitting. But this beautiful yarn kept calling me and I got back on it this spring. What helped me tremendously was to use stitch markers every 10th stitch to help me keep up with the stitch pattern. Then I could immediately see if I was missing a stitch or if I had one too many.

Am I ever happy I finished this lovely scarf.

 The pattern was designed exclusively for Misty Haven Alpacas.

The yarn is 100% alpaca, 2 ply.

I would knit this pattern again and again.

The alpaca yarn is so soft and light. The colour is almost a chestnut brown, the reddish is not showing up much in the pictures.

As for dog news, Anouk had a very small litter on the weekend...only one large puppy. Mom and pup are doing very well.

I'm heading out to enjoy this sunshine! They are predicting more rain this week.

Awesome!

I enjoy watching Canada AM first thing in the morning. I've been able to do this for the past couple of months since I've retired....awesome!
This morning,they were interviewing Neil Pasricha who was promoting his new book The Book of (Even More) awesome.

The book is a collection of reflections of life's little pleasures. I'm a huge fan of life's little pleasures. For most of my life, I have tried to be aware of those special little moments in my day and to make a point of enjoying them if only for a few seconds.

Neil was saying that he started to write his blog 1000 Awesome Things during a difficult period in his life. He wanted to become more aware of the good moments happening every day that we sometimes overlook. This has led to his blog being chosen as the top blog of the year and to publishing two books on the subject of small pleasures...that's awesome.

Here are a few awesome things that I've felt in the last couple of days:

1. Driving through the city and hitting all the green lights...awesome!
2. Taking care of my orchid plant all year long and notice a flowering stem starting to grow...awesome!
3. Seeing the first hummingbird is back after a long winter absence...awesome!

Over the course of the next few days, I will try to be even more aware of those awesome moments in my day. What are your favorite awesome things?

I leave you with this little promo video.

Have a wonderful day!

Catching up

I like to make bébé O a new hat for each new season. Her winter hat was getting to be too warm even though the weather is still quite cold!

So I had this cotton chenille yarn on hand and it just right for a little crochet hat.

This is the first one I made and it's much too small for her (what was I thinking!) so it's now available in my shop.

The next one I made is just right for her.

I also made this multi coloured hat for the shop.

After a trip to visit with our son last month, I visited Wellington Fiber farm in Elora. They have angora goats...just too cute! I could not help myself, I picked up a few skeins of mohair yarn while I was there. This hat is called Mohair topper. The content is 50% mohair, 50% wool.

 I just love those colours!

And the piece I'm working on is the Delicate Lace Scarf. The yarn is yummy 100% alpaca from Misty Haven alpacas. I've had the yarn in my stash for a couple of years and started it several times, but I just could not get the pattern right. I kept getting mixed up and would rip it apart...I was almost ready to give up...but I'm way too stubborn for that!!!
So this time, I used stitch markers every 10 sts to make sure I did not get confused with the pattern once more. This way, I know right away if I messed up!
I love it...can't wait to block it to better see the lace pattern.



The day after

Here's Mia sleeping on the dog's cushion...that's pretty much how hubby and I are feeling today. Thought I'd spare you a picture of us in this condition!!!
Our daughter's wedding went very well. We are so proud of the young woman she has become.
I'll share a photo of all of us as soon as I get my hands on them.
Bébé O was so good, not a peep out of her during the ceremony, she was too interested in what was going on at the front.
These kind of events are so much fun because we got to spend time with family members that we rarely see.

Ready or not...

Big day coming up on Saturday.
Our first child, our sweet cheerful, energetic and always smiling daughter will be getting married to the love of her life. Whether the sun is there or not, we'll be having ourselves a PARTY!!
With only a few days left, how are things coming along???

Her dress is waiting...

Bébé O's dress is also ready...

My dress is now steamed and wrinkle free...

Hubby's shirt and our son's are ironed and ready...

We still have a few things to finish up. My hubby and I must finish putting our Parents of the bride speech together.

It's always a little nerve-wracking to plan such events and we hope everything will go as planned.
If you have any last minute advice for me, I'm all ears!

Swiss cheese

Just off the needles and blocked.
Swiss cheese scarf made with my hand dyed yarn.

The colours are bright and cheerful. The transition from one colour to the next could have been dyed better but it works anyway.

 With spring well on it's way (I hope!), the scarf will be put away till next fall.

After reading several Ravelry notes on this project, I did modify the pattern to better suit this DK yarn. I mostly followed the notes from ilovecandyfloss.

I will be adding a 100g maki roll in my Etsy shop later today if anyone else would like to knit a similar scarf.
(Please note that my camera if way off on the colours in this maki roll...I will take more pics for the shop.)

We have our daughter's wedding this weekend...I think we're ready!!

One done

Christmas 2011 gift list... WHAT? allready!
Yup, I have one gift checked off my knitting list for next Christmas.
Daughter V had told me last year that she would love a pair of thrummed mitts. During one of our visits to see our son we stopped at an alpaca farm in Stratford. I just could not resist a thrummed mitt kit in a wonderful grey yarn. I knew they were exactly what V would like.

As I was knitting these mittens, I kept looking at the roving and the yarn...I was really worried I would run out. So I took my scale out and kept weighing the yarn...just to make sure I would have enough to finish.
Well, it was so close...I did not put any roving in the last few rows on the thumbs and I have only a few meters of yarn leftover. Good thing I did not make the mitts for myself cause I would have run out for sure.

But it all turned out well. I am more than happy with these mittens. They are super soft and very very thick. They will be so warm... I just can't wait to give them to daughter V.

The grey colour is deep and rich.

I blogged here about a pair of thrummed mittens I made from myself.

Look at the difference in thickness between these alpaca mittens and my other thrummed mitts! Twice as thick.

I guess I 'll just have to knit myself another pair!



New beginning and soapmaking

Although this new stage in my life began almost two months ago, I have not yet blogged about it.
At the end of January, I retired from 31 years of a career in education...still loving my job, still passionate about it but ready to let it go and allow my life to take a different direction.
I must admit that eventhough I loved the idea of retirement, it's such a huge life change that it will take some getting used to.
Don't get me wrong, I love it. I have plenty to keep myself very occupied and I have loads of projects and plans for the future. But that's just it, I still am in the mode of filling my days to the max, just like when I was working. I must learn to let go of my agenda and my calendar!! ...well, at least, let it go a little...and not be so worried about it.
When I left, my boss had told me that she would call me to work a few hours here and there...April will be a busy month...but I am looking forward to getting back to my old habits.

So what has been keeping me busy these last few weeks?

Soaps...lots of soap.

Soaps are white with purple chunks. I used a stamp to leave on imprint on the front of the soap.

I purchased perfect little pruple organza bags from That final touch on Etsy and daughter V made little tags for them.

As you have probably guessed, our daughter will be giving out soaps as guest favors at her upcoming wedding.

I've also knitted a little bit...will be back to post about that later.