What's Up?

Surely you must be wondering.

In the last post I noted that I had quit my day job and was knitting blankets.  That lasted for about 1 month. Then I began a new day job.  In that month I did knit blankets and include pictures of them below.

Even though I now work full time, I naturally still want to knit every opportunity so I figured small items are the way to go.  Enter American Girl Doll, Julie!

I've found all sorts of knit doll clothes patterns on the Internet (thank you to the folks who've posted them), made up a few of my own patterns and traded some with my Mom, who is now knitting doll clothes too.  I think it's a contagious thing!

You will be seeing a lot of Julie and her new outfits - maybe out and about.

Machine knit with Patons' Canadiana.

Machine knit with Patons' Canadiana.

This blanket is hand knit with a variety of different yarns.  I gave it to my oldest daughter for Christmas.

Machine knit with a variety of wools and mohair.  I gave this to the middle daughter for Christmas.

Meet Julie! She's the 70's American Girl Doll.
I was a teenager in the 70's so she's my girl.
Look at that peace symbol on her shirt and the flowery inserts in the jeans.
Yes, we did do that with our jeans!

Outfit knit with Knit Picks Shine Worsted (skirt and jacket) and the top with Shine Sport.
The jacket and top patterns are from"Knit Doll Clothes" and
the skirt pattern is mine.

All About Blankets

A few posts ago I mentioned that I would write about blankets. Here it is.  Blankets. We all love them.  From the tiniest of us to the largest of us, we need and love blankets. Animals love blankets. We don't often think about it but blankets are a huge part of our everyday lives. Babies are wrapped in them after birth. Kids drag them around for years. Teenagers take them on sleep-overs. Dogs and cats make little nests in them and try to steal them from us. Men take them hunting. We curl up in them to watch movies and read books. We curl up in them when we are tired, lonely, grieving or in love. We draw comfort from them every day, an night.

How did my love for knitting blankets start? A few years ago my youngest daughter was living in Montreal in winter. She was coming home to Newfoundland for Christmas so when I asked her what she'd like for Christmas, she said, "a knit blanket". I had just bought the knitting machine so it was a good re-practice for me, though a bit daunting (I'd never knit a blanket before). It was a big hit, so much so that I wrote the pattern for it and called it Bright Blanket. You can find it on my Ravelry page HERE. Since then I've made numerous blankets for family and friends. They all give the same testimonials - excitement upon receipt and joyous remarks upon usage.  I've received stories of people not being able to sleep in the middle of the night, then went to the closet and retrieved the blanket I'd knit for them, wrapped themselves in it and drifted off to a peaceful night's sleep. I don't provide this guarantee but I think there's a small child in each of us and that every now and again we need our "blankies".  :-)

Last week I quit my day job. So, now Rockin's Knits is back on stream and we're knitting' blankets. Big ones, small ones, acrylic, wool, organic cotton, alpaca, cashmere - whatever works in a blanket. Ellen might even come back for this!

Please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts you have about blankets (or blanket stories) below or email me (bettynolan@mac.com). If you want to buy a knit blanket, email me with your blanket desires and I'll give you a price.

Here's a few pictures of some of past blankets:

Angela's bright blanket

Bright Blanket close-up

Ellen reading with the Sunny Reading Blanket

Jack napping on the Sunny Reading blanket

Blair's Camo hunting blanket

Lynn's blanket

Josh's blanket

Chelsea's blanket

Blanket for wedding present

Vancouver, Yay!

I went to beautiful Vancouver for my birthday this year - to visit my youngest daughter, Angela and her husband, Blair. What a wonderful time I had! We did something special every day: Granville Island, yarn shopping, Whistler, Grouse Mountain, Stanley Park, Bowen Island and so much more.

Amidst the fun and visiting all those places I taught Ange and her friend, Maddie how to knit. While they were working on their scarves, I knit a robe for Ange's bear, Sparky. It's knit in all garter stitch in Bernat Handicrafter 100% cotton yarn.

This is a quick post just to show you the pictures (all taken with an iPhone because I wanted to keep it light).

Broom store on Granville Island

One of the beautiful sunsets over Vancouver

After dark Vancouver. The pink and blue neon lights are on the cranes. 

On the tram going up Grouse Mountain

This is how big I would look standing next to a bear!

And here's the bear.

At the Whistler Resort. The white water is from all the minerals. The water in the rivers there is bright blue.
I'm told it's glacier water.

On the way back to Vancouver from Whistler

Sparky in his new robe. Isn't he handsome?!

Bowen Island beach where we had a picnic.

Opa, the 1,000 year old Douglas Fir. It would be worth your while
to Google "Opa"and read about her. Amazing! She has a aura.
We sat in awe beneath her for several minutes.

People leave gifts for Opa. This is a stone carving someone left.

What's Goin' On?

Lots goin' on even though I don't write often. For example, Rosie (our 18 month old Sheltie) has a new pool. Ellen is vacationing in California with her family. I finished the doll for my neighbour's grandchild. The doll's name is Maysie. She was a big hit with the 3 year old grandchild named Madeline.

A year or so ago I knit a blanket for my friend Lynn. She had asked me to do another 2 blankets - one for her son and one for her daughter. At the time I was working a lot at my day job so I (sadly) declined. Anyway, when she recently asked again because her son Josh's birthday was approaching, I thought I should just go ahead and do it for her. It took a while longer to make it (even though it's machine knit) but I was able to deliver it to her last Saturday, just in time for his birthday on Sunday. I've been advised that Josh was delighted with the gift of the blanket from his parents. This, of course, makes me very happy.

Come to think of it, you know, I think blankets are my "thing".  More about that in a later post. But another one of my "things" is watching sunsets. John and Rosie and I went to the Foxtrap Marina last night to watch one of the beautiful sunsets over Conception Bay. Rosie helped me find a few things while we were there.

Rosie in her new pool.

Maysie

Josh's blanket

Close up of Josh's blanket folded to show the crocheted edging.

Rosie, the active helper. She also found a stinky dried fish tail, but I made her throw it away. :-)

Portrait of a beach rock. I kept this one. The light was fading so the picture is a little dark.

Another cool find.

A dried crab shell.

I love playing with camera settings while watching the ocean. 

Still Here, Ellen!

Poor Ellen. I've totally ignored her in the past year or so. I'm making an honest effort to change that. There are a few projects in the works that will require Ellen's expertise! Stay tuned. We'll get things moving again soon.

In the meantime,we went off-roading a few months ago and ended up at Cape St.Francis.  We had to try out my new tires. We'll have to try them in mud next time.  :-)

Off-roading with Ellen and Rosie!

It's been a while since posting anything. That's because it took me so long to knit a sweater that at one point John asked if I thought I would live long enough to finish it! Believe me, there were times I wondered the same myself.

I knit the sweater in the pictures below for me from a pattern in "Textured Stitches" by Connie Chang Chinchio, (Mom sent me the book) but I changed it a little - omitted the pockets in the front because I don't need added bulk around the hips, if you know what I mean? It's hand knit from the top down with Knit Picks Andean Treasure. It fits well (tapered) and is super cozy. 

When John suggested that we go off-roading today, Ellen, Rosie and I jumped at the opportunity. As a matter of fact Rosie jumped up and down many times. Ellen just waited quietly for her to calm down so we could leave. :-)  

We went on a road that seems to be used for servicing transmission lines. Parts of it were really bumpy with big rocks protruding and other parts had small bodies of water to drive through. One has to wonder how deep the water is and hope for the best. We did fine but eventually came to a section of the road that would have only been passible with an ATV. We stopped here and there for pictures. Rosie had a grand time jumping in and out of the bushes and running around. We went home when we'd had enough of the cold!

Rosie

I like the bright red berries against the rock background.