Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas Spirit

My Christmas knitting is coming along very well - tomorrow is set aside for some serious knitting on the Einstein jacket - it's hanging over my head and I've got to get it done! A few concentrated hours should do the trick. In the meantime I finished Laura's hat - she doesn't know anything about it so I hope she will like it and be surprised. Her coat is dark brown with baby blue and yellow.
Here's gauntlets for my mother-in-law. They are made from Noro Cash Island, the pattern is out of the Noro Mini Knits. They whipped up in about 2 hours. She wasn't supposed to get any knitting because I bought her a set of Montreal Canadiens DVDs instead but I felt bad - I thought she might be upset with no knitting for her.
Now I'm on to another pair of Thrum mittens for a friend who I am going to see on Monday or Tuesday. They are made from some left over River from Fleece Artist in the Paris colorway with some white thrum that I had in my stash.
And on a totally different note altogether - just to show that Christmas spirit really does exist I have a little story. My daughter, Laura was at Shopper's Drug Mart on Thursday and the clerk who usually takes care of her was standing there crying with an ice pack held to her face. Laura recognized immediately that she had tooth ache - because she's had many which have resulted in her and I waiting in the hospital emergency late at night while she's crying and I feel helpless - and asked her why she didn't go to the dentist. In between sobs, the young girl told her she didn't have the money and didn't have any insurance so my daughter marched her down to her dentist (who happened to be in the same plaza). She told her dentist - this girl needs help and if you can't do it for free then call me and I will pay for it. Now the thing is Laura doesn't have any money either. She's a young mother, with 2 small kids, her husband works two jobs and she is trying to run a business to earn some extra money. There's no way she should be paying for something like this - turns out the dentist did do it for free but I am extremely proud of my daughter. She's kind and generous and gives even when she shouldn't. Some days you just feel like you did a great job raising your kids and Thursday was one of those days! To me, this is what Christmas is all about - helping those in need because even when you don't think you have enough, you always have more than someone else and you almost always have enough to give just a little.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Temptation errrrrrr!


This basket of gorgeousness greets me every time I enter this shop. It's the new yarn from Dream in Color - Starry and it's all the new semi solids. Killed two birds with one stone on this purchase. I bought this to have on display to show what's coming. Little did I know it would drive me to distraction! I am busy on thrum mittens and every once in a while this sparkly stuff catches my eye and I'm tempted to go running to find the perfect pattern for it. Errrrrr!
I'm listening to my iTunes and there is the most appropriate song on now - describes me perfectly!
Miss Almost, Miss Maybe, Miss Halfway!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Watch Cap


Here's the Watch Cap from the 1940s. I knit it using Black Parade Dream in Color Classy - it took less than one skein. Lisa's modelling it and none too happy about it because she says she looks worse in hats than I do - and I say, absolutely not possible.

We had our Pick Up Sticks dinner last night at Gio's here in Bradford - we filled the restaurant with 20 knitters! I don't have any pictures because I was having such a good time I forgot to take them.

This arrived in the mail today - a custom colorway of Sea Silk Poinsettia which is the yarn used in the final instalment of the Garden Variety Collection by Susan Pandorf of Sunflower Designs. If you look really close you will see handpainted beads for the trimming and gold beads for the actual shawl. I have collected all of these patterns so this one was a gift from Susan. I think you can still get the whole collection and if you are the least bit interested in beaded silk designs you should.

Sarah brought me a gift - Three Sheeps to the Wind. Isn't it cute? It's supposed to be for a laundry room but it's hanging happily in our knitting room at the shop! Thank you so much, Mrs. Preston!

I've amended my Christmas knitting list - switched out the Aspenglo Wrap for Thrum mittens for my aunt and Thrum mittens for my mother in law. They knit up quicker and I really think that the wrap has to be a store sample. It soooo lovely! Ok - enough blogging back to knitting!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

I should not be....



blogging, I should be knitting! I have so much left to knit for Christmas it's beginning to look impossible. Here's a really crappy picture of my sister in law's hat - knit from Cascade Superwash in black with baby pink trim. I left my camera lying around at home and the settings are all wacky now which is why the black doesn't look black and the pink looks like bleached white. The pattern is Gotham from Sunflower Designs.



Miss Mary whipped up this beauty in a few hours on Saturday. Her pattern, Noro Silk Garden Chunky! Very nice!




Right now I'm working away on a 1940s Watch Cap from WW2 for my father in law. He's going to love it! Still to go is a hat for Laura, a sweater (Einstein jacket - almost only sleeves to do), something for my mother in law, a dickie for Greg's cousin, something for my grandfather's caregiver, my aunt's Aspenglo Wrap and and and.........aaaahhhhhh!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

I went shopping.....


and here's what I got:
Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in all these colors. I could not help myself - I wanted something special in the shop for Christmas. Yummy!

And Silky Merino - from Malabrigo. Another really yummy yarn!
If you love Sunflower Designs then this yarn is a must because Susan is using it in her new designs!

Monday, December 01, 2008

FPS

as my friend Sheri would say. I got an anonymous comment today saying that I lifted the Starry Dream in Color picture directly from another website. In fact, that is true however, I did ask the owner's permission and received a yes before I published it. Normally I don't pay any attention to comments that rub me the wrong way but this one could not be ignored because I wondered if anyone else was thinking the same thing. I would never take a photo without permission and if I've ever done so it was totally by mistake - as in I didn't understand all this website/internet etiquette.

Why is it that people are so willing to say negative things so quickly?