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.

It's Been a While, Ellen!

A long time as a matter of fact. Lots has happened since my last post. I started a new full time job, we have a puppy re-named Rosie, my youngest daughter, Ange and her (now) husband, Blair were married in British Columbia, and Ellen is complaining that she is too young to retire!

In the meantime I did manage to find little bits of time here and there to do some garter stitch knitting. Mom gave me some odd balls of yarn. I tried a ball of Bernat Tizzy with 9mm needles, cast on a bunch of stitches and started knitting (just to get a yarn fix!). It looked like it could be a nice bath mat, so I bought 2 more balls, knit until the first 2 balls ran out and the third until I had just enough left to cast off. Sewed in the ends and now Alana will have a dandy bath mat.

The wedding was a week of fun and time well spent with family and family-to-be. Lots of fun activities in a beautiful place (Spirit Ridge, Osoyoos, BC)

Rosie is a busy little dog. She is now 6 months old and didn't like to walk on a leash when she first came to live with us two months ago. Now she really likes walks at 6:00 a.m. :-) We have a morning routine. It works great but at the end of the day, sometimes I don't have a lot of energy left for knitting. Besides that, she, like Cooper, loves yarn and tries to steal it away while I'mm attached to the other end. We've had a few chats about that!  :-)

Ange and Blair

View of the golf course from our balcony at Spirit Ridge, Osoyoos, British Columbia

A vineyard at Osoyoos. The light green bushes in the foreground is sage. It's everywhere and very fragrant.

Little Rosie giving me a quick glance. She was busy keeping an eye on things on the street!

Tizzy bath mat. 

Cute Little Ones, Ellen!

I've been absent for a little bit but not idle mind you, despite what Ellen thinks! She'll get her turn. :-)
I'm working on something for her to model in the very near future.

In this post you'll find beautiful little Katherine modelling her nordic sweater at the beach. And, you'll meet Sofie. She's a new doll that I hand knit for my friend for her daughter 's 16th birthday.

Katherine is a little darling any day of the week! So, when her Mom sent me pictures of her in her new sweater and gave me permission to post them here, I was delighted. She promises pictures of the dress in weeks to come!

Sofie resembles a 16 year old in many ways. She loves to shop (who knew!), skate, go boating and just hang with friends. She's stylish and eco friendly. She supports sustainable yarns. She never litters and picks up after herself always! She could even be an Irish dancer all decked out in green, complete with shoes.

Beatrice the Cupcake Girl (doll) was invited to stay in the Craft Council store after the cupcake exhibition was over. Go Beatrice! I don't have a report on how she is doing but we are hopeful that she will find a new family to live with. If not, we will gladly welcome her back home. Ellen says she could use the company anyway.

Katherine exploring the beach.

Sofie in her cotton/angora outfit.

Acrylic skating outfit.

Cotton Spring dress

Bamboo/silk coat with funky scarf.

Wool and mohair boating outfit.

Irish dancer outfit knit with acrylic and strips of fabric.

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!

Watcha Been Up To, Ellen?

Ellen's been hangin' around waiting for me to knit things for her to wear. I did machine knit a spring scarf with buttons that can be worn as a scarf or buttoned and worn as a cowl. The buttons can be popped in anywhere in the lace. This gives a lot of freedom for the wearer. It's machine knit with Knit Picks Organic Cotton and Knit Picks Shimmer using the thread lace mechanism on the knitting machine. The organic cotton makes it like Baby Bear's porridge - not too hot and not too cold!

The other items I've knit, Ellen can't model them because they are too small for her. I went looking for a child mannequin a few weeks ago. We didn't find one locally, but one of the warehouses we went into had a stand with a hanger. The hanger was adult size so I asked John to cut it down to child size, which he did (and did a fine job of it too!). So, while I don't have a mannequin for showing children's knitwear, we have an acceptable stand/hanger.

The dress is machine knit with Knit Picks Organic Cotton. I wanted to design and make a child's dress with this cotton because it is soft and feels nice next to the skin. The child's sweater is hand knit with Paton's Devine using a pattern I found in a Lopi pattern book but had to make a lot of changes to make it smaller than the pattern stated, add a hood with strings, buttons instead of a zipper and so on..... The dress and sweater were knit for my little friend, Katherine. She likes both items!

All the while, we've been having some decent weather. So yesterday we went out and about with the camera. It was super windy so Ellen had to stay home or we'd be fishing her out of the Atlantic! No big waves yesterday despite the high wind although there were a lot of white caps on the ocean. I've heard it said that the big waves happen 2-3 days after the high winds. I might take a trip to the beach tomorrow to see if this is true.

We went to Portugal Cove and then around to Middle Cove Beach.

Portugal Cove

I guess Goat Cove Trail is nearby.

Yes, the name on the boat is "Breaking Wind".

Middle Cove Beach
I had the camera set to "posterized effect" to see how the picture would come out.

Left the camera on "posterized" and snapped this picture.
I guess 'someone' is in training.  :-)

Ange Took the Hint, Ellen! Yay!

Back in February I posted that I had knit a summer top for Angela for her birthday but forgot to take pictures of it before I put it in the mail. Then I hinted to Angela that maybe she should take some pictures of herself in the top and send them along. Thankfully she took the hint and did that this week! Actually Blair was the photographer. They also send along a picture of Angela in a pink dress that I knit for her last year. Thanks Angela and Blair!

The dress is machine knit with Berlini Smile (cotton/acrylic blend) and the top is hand knit using Patons Silk Bamboo (silk/bamboo blend).

I have found some work for Ellen. She'll be back next post!

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.