A Pattern in the Knit Picks April Catalogue, Ellen!

I love receiving the Knit Picks catalogue. Just received the April 2013 in the mail today and to my surprise and delight, my At-Home Dining: Placemat, is featured as one of the downloadable patterns on page 11. Thank you to the Knit Picks! For those of you who don't receive the catalogue or just haven't received it yet, here is the link for the placemat pattern: At-Home Dining: Placemat

Also, I have another pattern designed in the At-Home Dining Series using Knit Picks Dishie yarn. That pattern has been submitted to Knit Picks but is not up on their site yet, due to some technical issues they are currently experiencing. However, I have posted it for sale on Craftsy in the meantime. Here is the link: At-Home Dining: Bread Basket Cloth & Warming Companion

In other news, John and I took a road trip to Deer Lake (West Coast Newfoundland) last weekend. I took a few photos of things I found interesting that hopefully you will also find interesting! When we went out and about on Saturday it was a balmy 17 degrees Celsius! Really warm for us East Coasters.  The wind here in Mount Pearl is still a nippy. Yesterday I wore my hat and gloves when walking and had no inclination to remove them. It's a bit warmer here today though - warm enough to rake the back yard. And, the crocus have bloomed! Spring is definitely near!

I thought this was neat - a strawberry big enough to have it's own trailer!

Deer Lake Power
Here is a link to some interesting info about Deer Lake Power

A photo of Deer 'Lake' with lots of snow in the mountains in the background.
People are still using their snowmobiles in these areas.

Crocus in our back yard.
I love these hardy little flowers!

Fabric yarn, Ellen? Really?!

A few weeks ago I went to the local fabric store to buy buttons and noticed that many of their light spring fabrics were on super sale. For example, buy 1 meter of fabric and get 2 free. Deal! The fabrics on sale were flowery with nice colour combinations and I got to thinking it would be nice to have yarn like this. So, I bought one, got two free, came home and made some yarn by cutting the fabric. Bit of a lengthy (ha!) process but I was delighted with the results. Nice for small areas but you would be driven crazy if you knit a dress this way! 

Seeing spring fabrics would naturally put you in the mood for Spring. Spring happened in our area last Saturday (not officially - just the weather). We haven't seen much evidence of it since, but last Saturday was splendid! We went out and about and took a few pictures. When we had driven as far as Holyrood I thought we may as well go further to Baynoddy and get some fleece. Glad we did. I got a close up shot of Henry the llama (who is a kind soul and did not spit at me!) and the sheep, who were close to the fence. Sheep are such great listeners. They look right at you when you speak to them and if you keep talking they keep looking until you get the picture.

I know you haven't seen Ellen in a while. That's because I haven't knit many things for her to model. That'll all change soon. Ellen has advised that if there's no work here, she'll have to move on. We can't have that now, can we? :-)

Dolly skirt hand knit with acrylic and cut fabric. The scarf is knit with just cut fabric.

We saw pussy willows on just one tree in Conception Bay South.
Definitely a good sign of Spring!

Some local activity at Long Pond.

Walker on the trail at Upper Gullies.

Seal Cove River

Henry!

Other llama and Louise the goat.
I keep my distance from this llama. I've been warned he's a spitter!

Sweet sheep.

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!

Nothing to Show, Ellen?!

No finished knitting projects to show that is!

I knit something for Angela for her birthday which is tomorrow, wrapped it up and sent it away - never took one picture. Ellen didn't even get the chance to try it on. Not happy! Oh my! Now I'm depending on Angela to send me some pictures. Hint, hint Angela!   :-)  That's project number 1.

Project No. 2 is a new doll named Beatrice. Ellen was missing Leezel and wanted another friend. Beatrice is finished, but her outfit is not, so we can't show Beatrice to you until she gets some clothes.

Project No. 3 is a pastry apron that does not have a bottom frill. 

Project No. 4 is a bread basket cloth. I'm writing the pattern for this one to continue the At Home Dining line.

So, you can see that I'm very busy and needed a break! 

Tuesday morning was a beautiful, quiet morning - the calm before the storm so to speak. The forecast was calling for blizzard conditions later in the evening so we went out to take some pictures in the morning. The sky and light was changing quickly so we headed for Signal Hill, then down to Quidi Vidi for a few shots. By then the sky had completely clouded over so we went home.

Where from here?  :-)

Paris is only 3,980 kilometres from Signal Hill!

Love the sky in this one.
The foreground (Fort Amherst) is a bit dark but I didn't want to lose the highlights in the sky.

Fort Amherst from atop Signal Hill.
See the frost and ice from the waves along the cliffs?

St. John's Harbour

The point of land in the distance is Cape Spear.

Deadman's Pond

Quidi Vidi Gut

Ice at the turn-around at Quidi Vidi.

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.

That's Jazzy, Ellen!

Many, many years ago, in a land far, far away, there once was a knitter who knit jazzy clothes for her children and children's dolls. The children loved the jazzy clothes and the children's dolls loved them also. The knitter even won an award for the jazziest garment in a regional fashion show. Then the knitter found another job, stopped knitting and lost her jazziness. Many years passed and the knitter, who was no longer a knitter, decided she should try to find her jazziness again, so she began searching. She searched and searched but found nothing. She tried making things but none of it was jazzy. "Oh dear!", she cried. "How can I find my jazziness?"

Fairytale?  No, not really. The above description describes me pretty accurately. 

Before Christmas I promised Andrea a sweater but explained that it would be knit after Christmas. Last week when I was preparing to knit it, I asked Andrea if she had any ideas. She said she wanted a cropped sweater, with a boat neck and to make it jazzy like when she was a kid. Hmm.... where to begin? A jazzy sweater for a child is very different from a jazzy sweater for an adult. Oh well. I have to start somewhere!

The sweater featured below is my first attempt at "jazzy".  Of course, Ellen was all about modelling this one! It's machine knit with Patons Canadiana, with Berlini Bunny Soft and Magical Treat used as accents (hand knit and crocheted). The Magical Treat has a lot of sparkle that I didn't capture well in the photos. Sometimes I find inspiration for colour combinations in nature. This sweater is inspired by 'winter twilight' where the sky is dark blue, there's pink from a setting sun and the stars are becoming visible.

This is the beginning of my study of jazziness! :-)

Back

Front patch is a pocket.

What's a Scrunchy Funnel, Ellen?

Actually it's a scrunchy 'neck' funnel. It's a great neck piece that fits nicely inside a coat. Sometimes I find scarves and cowls too bulky. When wearing some scarves and cowls, I can't do my winter coat up all the way and my neck still gets cold. With a scrunchy funnel, you can wear it and still do up your coat. It creates that necessary extra layer and keeps out the chill.

I tried to get Ellen to model this piece but it just wouldn't work because she doesn't have a head. Alana saved the day! We went to Bowring Park last Saturday afternoon later in the day to get that nice last light. It was -9C, but Alana was a great model and bared the cold with a big smile. At the end of the photo shoot, I gave her the scrunchy funnel. She certainly deserved to have it! :-)  As a matter of fact, Alana was wearing a cowl when she picked me up, but when she modelled the scrunchy funnel and I gave it to her, she left it on because it was warmer and fit the neck of her winter coat much better than the cowl. Mission accomplished! (Actually I borrowed the cowl because I didn't wear a scarf at all! What was I thinking?!)

The Scrunchy Neck Funnel is machine knit with 2 balls of Patons Classic Wool DK Superwash Wool.  This wool is lovely and soft when washed, and it's super warm.

The pattern for the Scrunchy Neck Funnel is available for purchase here.

While Alana and I were at the park I got a few shots of the sliders and the sun going down. It was a nice outing and photo shoot despite the cold. When we were done at the Park we went to our house  for supper and tea, to warm up!

This photo give some idea of how steep this hill really is.
You can't appreciate the steepness from the side view (next photo).