A bag, by request!

Months ago my mom asked if I could make her a buttercup bag in “wow” fabric for her to gift to my aunt for birthday. Months got away (as did holiday gift making!) and then all of a sudden it was nearly her birthday! One of the things I hate about being last minute in most things I make is the fact that I make it and it’s gone… I don’t get to admire it much usually! (that’s why i take photos, often too many!)

I love how it turned out — and so did she (I heard). My cousins loved it too — one of them said she wanted one just like it!

This is my third buttercup bag — and this one is the best. (bag 1, bag 2) I lined this one with thick canvas — and it’s absolutely PERFECT. I almost used interfacing — but I’m glad I decided to go with Canvas. It holds itself up — which is really nice in a purse!

How I spent most of the week-end…

drinking hot liquids and knitting, trying to fight a cold that left me without energy to do much of anything else… grateful for the help received that allowed me to do next to nothing… a friday afternoon at grandmas and a week-end working in the basement with papa ment the kids were in good humour while I … knit and got better! Also, discovering how many HOURS of fun can be had playing in clothes from past seasons that don’t fit anymore for the kids… absolutely priceless. They’ve emptied box after box while changing 93 times each and had a blast doing it…

Oh, and I knit my very first pair of mittens this week-end. Can that be? A canadian-knitting-mama who had yet to knit MITTS?? I’m sure i’ll knit lots now — they’re the quickest thing ever to complete! The yarn is the wool we dyed together — and I’m making a matching hat… and if there’s left over wool, she’ll get a scarf. If not, she’s ok with having to get MORE wool, painting it, cooking it, drying it and then knitting it into a scarf. Ok sweetie, twist my arm…

Quotable Sunday

I was looking for a mitten pattern for Elizabeth in Week-end Knitting and found both the pattern and this quote… something I need to remind myself of, often.

Have nothing
in your house that
you do not know
to be useful or
believe to be beautiful.

– William Morris

Because I can’t post without including a photo… two sunrise photographs from this week, back to back mornings.

A jester hat for Alexandre

This is what I knitted up using the wool that we dyed together… Upon completion Alexandre exclaimed “ah… NICE!” so I think it was succesful

This pattern is a pattern that’s been published in Fairy Tale Knits and has been made available for free..

Kettle dyeing with Kool-Aid

I’ve seriously found a new addiction. Dyeing yarn is really fun! This time, I decided to try kettle dyeing. I dyed yarn I had on hand – the colour was pewter and now it’s pinks and purples and oranges and grey. And it smells all fruity.

My kettle dyeing experience wasn’t as great as my first attempt at dyeing wool. I was dyeing 4 skeins at once (2 skeins per pot) and I was paying too much attention to the kids not swishing the wool too much that i forgot to make sure that the dye had gone through all my layers. There’s lots of grey in my final product — but really, that’s ok – the colours go very well with grey! Also — the instructions i read said to simmer until wanter runs clear. I did — but when I rinced it, the colour ran. I did a hair conditioner rince and then I did a eucalan rince — and both ran a bit. Last week in the steam basket method — I didn’t have any colour running — so perhaps I didn’t simmer long enough or perhaps I should have steamed it afterwards as well.. not sure.

Elizabeth & I, and yarn about to start ‘cooking’. I didn’t notice we were in the photograph – otherwise I would have made sure to get Alexandre in the shot too!

I’ve started the shalom cardigan as mentioned here- although I’m not yet sold on it. I love the cardigan – I’m not sold on the gage I’m using… which is part of the issue I had with Adam’s sweater — but without doing math to modify the pattern, I had to use these needles – and of course the added bonus of not having to buy NEW needles (as in put project on hold while I managed to take myself to a store somewhere to find needles…) If i don’t love it when it’s done, I’ll unravel and figure something out!

Painting with Spaghetti

or passss-getti as Alexandre calls it….

I saw this video on Manon’s blog last week — and she dared ask who was game. Ours wasn’t as elaborate as the video — but fun was had by all, which is the important part!

Alexandre especially loved the finger painting aspect – even if in true Alexandre fashion asked to have his hands washed every 30 seconds — he managed to finish the craft without washing them and LOVED how full of paint he was

Who’s next?

Quotable Sunday

Earlier this week while I was reading from the complete tales & poems of Winnie-the-Pooh during quiet time I laughed (to myself) that this was so like Elizabeth…

Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o’clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and when Rabbit said, “Honey or condensed milk with your bread?” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “But don’t bother about the bread, please.”
– A.A.Milne

And then on Friday after they had enjoyed frothy milk with honey in the afternoon Elizabeth asked for more. I said that she had had enough for the day… and she replied – incredibly honestly:

“Ok, can I have a teaspoon with just honey then?”
– Elizabeth, 3 years old.

As to prove my point I think.

A french painting.

I call this Alexandre’s french painting… because as he was putting on each colour from the paint tray he was naming them in french…. which is a rare occurance. My children understand french but don’t yet speak it… and Alexandre often uses french words now… I must work harder on only speaking french with them. I must!

And this is what we were doing minutes earlier… until it got really blustery and we decided to head inside… We’re in a very cold snap for the next 48 hours – and I was trying to soak up the -5oC a little while longer — but with the gusts of winds it was way colder than -5oC and uncomfortable because of the blizzard like conditions! We could hardly see each other, standing together! Today it’s a beautiful sunny morning… but it’s -21oC and it feels like -33oC. I’m glad the plan had been to stay home today!

WIP: A sweater, wool for a sweater and a bag…

This is my mom’s sweater — I’m now at the steeking part. That means CUTTING THE SWEATER I’VE SPENT ENDLESS HOURS SINCE NOVEMBER 1ST ON. Oh goodness!! I’m considering begging my mom to change her mind and start loving sweaters vs cardigans… Actually, more importantly I’m considering getting guts and cutting it and being able to say I’ve done it. Surely it’s worse the very first time, right?

Re-skeining wool…

This is a big project for me — I like small, instant gratification kind of projects usually. Mostly because of the lack of space to store on going project (which is more true of sewing projects…) and also because of lack of time. When you have little time to do these things — it’s nice to see it come together without it taking months! I say big, but it’ll be a very very quick knit in contrast to my mom’s sweater!

I’ve decided to knit the shalom cardigan for myself, in pure wool because I don’t have to buy more yarn (i itch like crazy in wool). I better get it done soon — because once it’s warm out I wont be able to wear it at all! But first I’m going to dye the yarn… When the kids & I dyed yarn last week – I had added a ties to their skein out of this grey wool. I figured it was so dark it would hardly take colour. I was quite wrong.

It turned out beautifully. So I’m going to dye 4 skeins of the wool I knit my husband’s sweater out that needs to be unravelled. Thankfully – I had 4 left over when I finished his sweater – so I don’t have to unravel it quite yet… not that it will be worn, but still, I can hold on to the sweater a tiny bit longer!

And this is fabric that i’m going to use for a buttercup bag… My mom asked me to make this for february in November I think. February was forever away. It hit me yesterday that it’s next week now. Where did the time go?

A dance skirt for Elizabeth

The kids started a creative movement class a few weeks ago. Well, Elizabeth did. Alexandre participates in about 5-10% of the class… he’s a little shy. The day after the first class I was organizing my fabric stash and told Elizabeth I could make her a skirt for dance class out of some bamboo knit fabric I was holding on to for ’something’… I used the fabric many times over in my head but loved it so much I had never actually cut it. Yes, I have issues. Anyways, she did NOT want the skirt. She wanted a white skirt like another little girl in the group. A tutu. I told her that maybe when she was older she could have one, but not now. (I really really hate working with tule!)

So last Monday comes around and they’re all excited it’s “dance class day” and Elizabeth asks all day if the teacher is at the dance school yet — all day long as per her usual… but in the morning (thankfully it was morning!!) she says “mama, you didn’t make my brown skirt…!” Oh, right – the skirt you insisted you did NOT want?

Needless to say — I threw the skirt together that morning pretty quickly… Now I know I need to buy more of this fabric, it’s lovely.

Today after they got ready for class I attempted to snap a few photos…

The “dance” skirt

The “oh-my-goodness where-did-my-babies-go” photos

Elizabeth, posing her self and explaining to me exactly what she’s doing as she’s doing it…

The “could these 2 kiddos be any more blessed” photo. They were doing “circles” like the teacher had shown them.

The “calm before the storm” at dance class

Alexandre sat through the opening warm ups and then he sat with me for the rest of the class — except when she said “everybody come together in a circle” because it’s like a trigger in his little brain — he RUNS when he hears that, he loves it. But still, he only stood there! He’s so funny, cause he comes home and does a bunch of the stuff from class – but there he sits and observes.

And finally — free dance… so free, carefree. A brillant way to be.