Here comes the fall!

I am not a big fan of the fall season, I much prefer the winter months. I think that it's the rain and the shorter evenings that I object to.

But on a beautidul day like today, what's not to like.

We have had a doe with her two fawns visiting almost every day lately. They come for the apples in the apple tree by the house. The fawns are so much fun to watch, they are playful and energetic.

With the cool weather of the past few days , a knitted hat was on the knitting list. I had this hand dyed yarn. It's a mohair and wool blend that I dyed this summer.

And mixed with black wool yarn I had on hand it became this Fake Isle Hat. You can find this pattern on Ravelry here.

The top looks like a star. I blocked it this afternoon and it fits me just perfect.

I think that a pair of matching mitts would be really nice to have. Thanks to Ravelry, I might have found the pair that I will make to match this hat.

But it's still oak!

A change is good, right?

We have just repainted our bedroom walls and the ensuite just didn't match at all anymore. So one project leads to another and the ensuite needed to be done too!

To paint the walls is one thing but to paint the oak cupboards is another. I have been talking about doing this for a couple of years now. At first DH would just say : No way, those are oak cupboards. I would answer: They'll still be oak cupboards, just a different colour! Most men have this unexplainable fear of painting over anykind of wood. As women, we need to help them get over that fear!

Our cupboards were in a honey oak colour. See the before picture. The walls were in some kind of Dijon yellow...nice at first but I was tired of it.

After a visit to the local paint shop, I was ready to tackle the oak painting project! The cupboards are painted in Cloud white (Benjamin Moore paints). The walls are a dark taupe brown as is the ceiling.

While we were at it, we replaced the handles on doors and drawers and the lights above the mirror as well.

Quite the change, isn't it?

Guess what I will be doing next? The kitchen cupboards. Hubby is all for it now! Maybe I tackle that project this winter. We'll see.

Alpaca softness

I picked up some wonderful worsted weight alpaca yarn from Misty Haven Alpaca farm this spring. The reason for a visit to the farm was to pick up a birthday gift for my mother (and a little something for me too).



Hand dyed in a rich denim colour.

100% alpaca = pure softness

The cowl is Foxglove. Available on Elann.com.



I modified by casting on only 108 stitches instead of 144. I prefer my cowls to fit closer to the neck.

Now, I 'm not wishing for the cold weather to come, I am enjoying this warm summer way too much! But when the cold wind does start to blow, I will be ready!

Are you ready?

Round and round we go

Our grand daughter, bébé O will be one year old in september. Time flies by so fast. She is such a joy.

I wanted to knit her a sweater for the fall. I must have looked at several dozens of patterns but none had that special little something I was looking for.

But that all changed when I came across the Pinwheel sweater. Have you seen it? It's basically a circle with two sleeves knitted into it. The pattern says this little sweater will fit from a one year old to a 4 year old...one size only will fit a growing toddler for 3 - 4 years. Even if she can wear it two seasons that would be a bonus...cause we all know babies grow so fast!

But what really got to me were the colours knitters were using to knit them. Have a look at the project page on Ravelry, here.

I had a lot of Cascade 220 left over from other projects. I only needed to buy one ball of purple.

Here are the seven colors all knitted up with a partial first sleeve done.

I knitted the seven coloured circles in one day...I wonder if that's why my wrist is so sore! That is what car knitting will do to you! I was so excited to see all those circles of colours appear that I just could not put it down.

The next day, I worked on the I-cord bind off. Now who would of thought of this? It's so brilliant! This bind-off will surely show up in my work again. It was long to do but really worth it.

The red line of knitting that you see in the green section is a waste yarn that I will remove to pick up the stitches for the sleeve. This does such a great job. No holes and no uneven picking up of stitches.

So I am hoping to finish both sleeves this week and work on a little hat to match next week.

So what do you think? Fun sweater, right?

I've dyed and gone to heaven!

That's right...gone to heaven!

A new beginning in my fun with dyeing yarns. I've experimented lots with recycled yarn and dyeing. I have a bit of a feeling for how the colours react allthough I am still learning all the time.

I have now progressed to dyeing new yarns. I received a huge order of 'bare' yarn last week and have just started dyeing them.

It seems to be different from dyeing with reclaimed yarns...the colours take better, they are sharper, cleaner looking.

I have put the recycled yarns in my shop on sale in order to make room for the new stuff. But I will still be adding some recycled stuff from time to time since I have some left.

I've also reviewed my shipping costs and reduced those as well. I have sold lots of yarn in the last couple of weeks because of that.

But on with the new!

Here they are...TADAAAAM!!!

Beach ball:

Strawberry shortcake:

Sun and Surf:


Summer meadow:

I have also been knitting. I'll show you those things in another post.

A walk in the clouds!

If you would like to experience a little adventure, I recommend the suspended trails (sentiers suspendus in french) in the Forest of the Eagle (Forêt de l'aigle) situated in the Valley of the Gatineau in Maniwaki, Québec.

What a fun experience!

I went on this fall walk with three friends and just loved it. It turned out to be a 2 hour walk over a beautiful forest. It was raining a little bit but that did not take away from the beauty of the walk.

At times, we were well over 50 feet above the forest floor. We also crossed a river. If you look at the picture above, my friend is wearing a harness around her waist and you need to tie the other end to the red cable over her right shoulder. Should someone slip, this would allow you to get back on the board

Something I would love to do again.

Mosaic

Braided rug

My grandmothers used to make braided rugs with rags. Yours might have done them also. Since very little was wasted in those days, they would use remnants or old
sheets or clothing to make them. The braided rugs were durable, colourful and long lasting.

I started one of my own a while ago. I seem to work on it mostly in the winter and leave it when the weather warms up. It's not done yet but probably will be next winter.


I am doing my rug with old jeans and other denim clothing such as skirts or dresses. I cut the denim in stips using a rotary cutter. But I must say that the fabric is really rough on my cutter and on scissors as well. Eventhough the jeans have been washed numerous times they still have lots of sand still left in the fibers of the fabric. And that is the worse thing for sharp scissors or rotary blades.

I will use dark jeans, light one and some with stripes or other pattern.

I have these things that are used to fold over bias. I don't know what they're called but as you can see in the picture, I use them to fold over the jean fabric as I braid it. That way, all the edges are hidden.

I usually will make the braid about 1 meter long then start sewing. I use heavy thread doubled up and roll the edge of the braid on itself and sew it up.

As you can see, I try to blend the different blues. I am slowly making progress. I am making mine an oval shape. At first, I thought of making it at least 5' wide but I won't make it that big! Maybe 3' would be big enough. It will probably be placed in front of the wood stove.

It's getting quite heavy now and I need to place it on my table (and not on my lap) to work on it. So, for now, it's back in the laudry room closet. I will take it out again once the weather gets cold and the days are short.

Hopefully, by next winter, I will be telling you it's all done!

New colours

New happy colours out of the dye pot.

I love their brightness. 100% wool - 100g each

Now available in my shop.

Catching up

Work has me feeling like I am on a roller coaster! It's unbelievably busy. I have had to travel out of town for meetings or conferences every single week of April. I have hardly had any time in my office to tackle all the files on my desk. And it doesn't look like May will be any slower!

But I'm not complaining. I'm lucky to love my work and to still feel very passionate about it after almost 30 years.

I am now 9 mths away from my retirement date and slowly preparing for it. I'm very excited about that new chapter in my life.

Even though I haven't posted much, I have done some knitting at home but mostly in airports, airplanes and hotel rooms. A couple of weekends ago, I have taken out the dye pot.

Have a look at a basketfull of newly dyed yarns. I have been experimenting with Wilson food dyes.

This yarn was dyed with Black dye. That's right, even though you see lots of colour, only Black was used. You see, depending on how much heat and acid you add to your dye water, the colours that make up Black will seperate and do fun stuff with the yarn.

This yarn is also Black, but very little of it. It turned out to be a wonderful blend of greys, blues and lavenders. I love the softness of the colours.

For this Pink Panther yarn, I dyed the whole skein in light pink then squirted darker pink here and there. Nice girly colour. Might become a light cardigan for bébé O.

Green, aqua and yellow make a nice blend as well.

But this one is my favorite. The dye is called Copper and it's components also will separate and produce differents shades. Allthough I don't wear oranges and rusts, I do love how this turned out.

I can't keep all the yarn that I dye. I doubt that I would get to knit it all in this lifetime! So it will make it's way into my shop.

Wishing you a great weekend!