Ellen, This Is Beatrice. Beatrice, This Is Ellen!

Beatrice is the new doll on the block. I mentioned her briefly in the last post. She now has clothing and today got all dressed up to meet Ellen. Beatrice is hand knit similar to Leezel except Bearice is knit with acrylic yarn. She is stuffed with pure washed sheep's wool. Her clothes are also knit with acrylic, so she is completely washable.

Ellen likes her already as she thinks Beatrice is quite fashionable. Beatrice has highlights in her hair and she has lovely shoes. Ellen is crazy about shoes but never gets the chance to wear them, so she's always interested in the shoes that everyone else is wearing.

I have plenty of work to do so I'll leave those two alone in the studio and let them get to know each other!

Let's Go Out, Ellen!

Recently we've had a spurt of cold weather where Ellen stayed in beside the fireplace for weeks. Yesterday, we had to get her out of the house! It was a lovely day for outdoor winter fun and lots of people were out and about taking advantage of the good weather. John, Ellen and I went for a drive around Goulds, Petty Harbour and Maddox Cove. It was late afternoon and by the time we reached Petty Harbour, the light was lovely.

Cold spurts are always good times to get down to business with knitting. In recent weeks I machine knit a sweater for Stephan (Andrea's husband - couldn't send Andrea's jazzy sweater and not include something for Stephan), one for John and hand knit a going away dress and scarf for Leezel. Yes, Leezel was adopted this past Saturday by a fun family with a small girl who quickly became Leezel's new best friend. We'll still get to visit with her every now and again. 

Outdoor rink.

Snowmobiles on the pond.

Dirt bikes on the pond.

Petty Harbour

East Coast Trail at Maddox Cove
Ellen modelling John's sweater keeping it wrapped tightly around her!
Machine knit with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed.

Ellen modelling Stephan's sweater.
Machine knit with Patons Canadiana - easy care!

Leezel in her new dress.

Leezel all ready to go with her winter coat and new scarf.
She has her bag packed beside her.

Winter Is On The Way, Ellen!

Yesterday morning we saw a beautiful rainbow and today we woke up to snow! There's a saying in Newfoundland, "If you don't like the weather, stick around for a few hours." :-) 

We make the best of all seasons here on the Rock. Sometimes we get the four seasons all in one day! We dress in layers and sweaters come in handy.

Today when I walked to the Pond I brought the camera to get a few shots of the first snowfall and couldn't resist taking a few snaps of the geese and ducks. They are amusing and always happy to see me because I bring a snack, but today I clearly didn't bring enough. At the second pond, I sprinkled out the bird seed I saved from the crowd at the first pond. Then they all started to chase me for more.

We thought we'd begin to help Leezel get ready for winter with some new clothes. This is her first winter in Newfoundland and she doesn't know what to expect! Layers work well for her also! 

Cotton play jumper...

.....with matching sweater.

Acrylic turtle neck sweater and skirt set.

Superwash wool jacket layered over skirt and sweater set.

Fonix Werx Fer Mee, Ellen!

When my children were in elementary school a new concept called Phonics was introduced. This concept taught children to write words as they sounded phonetically, not necessarily using the correct spelling. It was believed at the time that as long as the children were expressing themselves, proper spelling really didn't matter. They could learn that later when they matured a little. However, old habits tend to die hard and some students who were taught phonics, eventually had some trouble spelling  words correctly. You can read more about Phonics here. The t-shirt posted on that blog is cute and says it all! Why am I telling you about this? Well, in the past few weeks I've knit a dolly from the book "Knitted Dolls" by Arne and Carlos and named her Leezel. I Googled the name and found that it could be spelled Lisel and Leizel, however, seeing that she is a dolly, I thought the phonetic pronunciation would be more suitable. A fitting title for this post, I thought.   :-)

As a child I loved dolls, so as soon as I found this book, a doll had to be knit! Of course every doll needs a name and I couldn't decide what to call her. Then when her hair was completed and I embroidered her smile, I knew she was Leezel. She has a new skirt which she is wearing in the pictures below. She also has a warm coat, but it doesn't have any buttons yet. I will keep you posted as Leezel's wardrobe grows. (I acknowledge I need a little practice with making eyes and smiles.)   :-)

Leezel is stuffed with 100% wool fleece that I bought at Baynoddy Farms (mentioned a couple of posts ago). We went back there to buy more fleece this past Sunday and lo and behold the llamas were out. While taking the llama pictures, a small goat ran out to meet us! The excitement never ends!

Ellen is pretty happy to have Leezel around. They have become great friends and look forward to fun times together!

This guy kept a close eye on us. Linda said to keep our distance as sometimes he spits! We kept our distance!

Leezel enjoying the sun on the patio this afternoon.

Ellen and Leezel.