Anyone Frolicing this weekend?

Saturday April 30th is the DKC's annual Knitter's Frolic! Who's going? Susan and I are making our regular plans - an early meet up - early so we can snag good parking, and we kill the time until it open by having breakfast together nearby.
Our plan this year is lots of looking, maybe some shopping (Tanis, I'm coming for you!), then hanging around the lounge, looking at, and hopefully meeting up with other knitters. No classes for us this year, although some were tempting, but I didn't know I could even go until just recently. (I coach basketball on Saturday's, so I had to make sure my team was in good hands!)

I'll be wearing flip flops for sure, and have my bright yellow I KNIT messenger bag over my shoulder.

Will we see you there?

Susan's wedding

As mentioned, Susan's getting married, and we're having a blast making plans. (Okay, I'm having a blast, since it's not my wedding, not my stress, I'm not even going to be there! - Second wedding, small for mostly  family, plus I told her not to invite me. It's a weekend in August, as well, and we're cottagers! I'd rather not be in the city, all dressed up. We'll raise a glass to her and G up north...)

But the planning thing - we've been having fun throwing ideas back and forth - colours, dresses, and all the fun things. As it's the second for each of them, they are taking a much more relaxed view of it, and letting the planner do the work with their ideas. Soooo much better.
But, as most of you know, Susan is crafty (in a good way), so there will be a degree of hand crafted items in the theme of the day. And she's been nice enough to let me showcase them here.

Starting with her cake topper. While one of the most elegant people I know, Susan has a streak of whimsy in her, and man does it show here! I love these! SO much better than those preformed plastic monstrosities one finds these days...

here's her words...

I even made little tails for them on their backsides. G loves them too (though I suspect he knew using them is going to be mandatory).  Clay blocks come in a block that is divided into 4 equal sections with lines. Two lines made a body, 1 made a head, and then a little white, orange and a mixture of a purple/pink for the orange and white accents, bow tie and flowers. The girl penguin will receive a crocheted thread veil that I'll glue to the back of her head flowers with some E6000 jewellery glue. Then I'll see if I can get a candle base or something like that to attach them to for the cake. The clay is not toxic but apparently not food-safe, so you have to do that.
Very fun to make.
 
She makes it sound easy, doesn't she?
 
Coming next week - my contribution...

more sock knitting

I finished the next set of sock blanks - Now I just have to determine who they're for, get the size and add the heel.
The front runner to receive them is my boss - he's been watching me knit them in his car when we car pool, and as I've said before, he GETS it. He understands the need to knit as a passenger (all that time!).
That and the fact he's a great guy, I've know him forever, and he was a great friend to my Dad.
Yup. These socks are for him. Now I just need to get his shoe size...

one more sewing project

I have a pretty big collection of Ponte knits. I've made skirts and cardigans, but to match my more casual lifestyle, I made this pullover hoodie. The trim is a foldover knit binding - I didn't want to use regular woven double fold binding, as it would interfere with the stretch of the Ponte. So the foldover braid is perfect. Luckily, Fabricland had a dark green that works with the green of the knit. This is super comfortable - perfect for tossing over my pajamas when I don't feel like getting dressed right away, but need a little more coverage.

summer cottage sewing

I seem to be spending a lot of time in my sewing room lately - working my way through stashed fabrics (as well as new stuff I've bought. Yes, I'm weak. so what?)

This is a new thing. Seriously, 5 minutes, start to finish. (The fabric comes pre smocked)

Buy one metre. (preferably during the Fabricland member's sale, so it was che-e-e-a-a-a-p-p!) Wash it to pre shrink, sew up the back, hem if necessary. (It wasn't in this case, but you could add 5 more minutes for hemming). This is going to the cottage as a bathing suit cover, or it could be worn with a little white jacket, but for me - probably the cottage. It's a batik print, black and white. Fabricland had about 12 other patterns, but they were all a little too seventies, bad acid trip for me.

I bought this border print back in the early spring - I loved it, and thought it was fresh and pretty. My firsts thought was a skirt, as that's what I always think when I see border prints. But once I washed it, and opened it up, the realization hit me. This was a double border print - i.e. the black bottom border was on both selvages, rather than just the one. So I only had about 22 inches to work with. This top fit the bill, as the front and back don't actually go all the way to the shoulders - it's a raglan type construction. So this allowed me to get the maximum depth out of the print. The neckline is just gathered with a black satin ribbon, and it's a very comfortable top to wear.

And with the leftover - I had enough to craft out a quick pair of shorts - perfect for the summer with a black t-shirt.

be still my heart...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/felted-flip-flops

(picture shamelessly lifted from Kalamazoo Knits)

Marie of Sel et Poivre turned me on to these. Knit and Felted Flip Flops! Who's betting I cave and buy the pattern soon? Who's betting I've already bought it?

summer outfit

I'm going through my sewing room, trying to sew up some of the fabric I have stashed. (My fabric stash rivals my yarn stash, and we know how bad that is...)

I've had this black linen skirt cut out for a while, but it got buried under other projects, and really, I wasn't that interested in sewing linen while we were still dealing with winter. Once the flip flops came out, it signaled a change, and this came together in no time. Really - a couple of side seams, a zipper, a faced waistband, hem, done.

The border print here is actually embroidered, and adds and dimension and weight to the hem of this skirt. Contrary to how it's hanging here - it's actually quite long - somewhere around mid-calf length, and I made it a gentle A-line shape.

 The turquoise fabric is a rayon/cotton blend, and matches the pale blue embroidery perfectly. I used this as sort of a wearable muslin - it was more a test of the pattern, since I plan on making the dress length of the top pattern. But the turquoise turned out very well, so it will become a nice summer outfit, for those odd days when I wear something like this. (I work in a pretty casual atmosphere - not a lot of need for dresses and skirts).

 And lookie here! The return of the one ball blue sweater! IT matches the darker blue embroidery on the skirt, and has flecks of the lighter turquoise in it. This is the sweater that I had to stop short on, since I lost the other ball of Rowan wool. Of course, I've now found it, so I think I will add some length to the sweater, and perhaps the sleeves a bit.

baby knit

A friend of a the family just had a baby girl. he family isn't close by, and this baby girl was an unexpected and completely joyful addition to their family, so I figured a quick little sweater and hat would be appreciated.

The interesting thing about this is the yarn - I used a ball of Collinette Jitterbug I had hanging around, and used the same baby sweater pattern that I used for the blue one a while back

This pattern isn't written anywhere, it just sort of lives in my head. I change up the yoke every now and then, but both of these have garter yokes and front bands.

What you'll notice is different is the front band and hat of the pink set use a different yarn. Collinette Jitterbug is kind of stingy with the yardage. Whereas the blue Fleece Artist had plenty for a sweater and matching hat due to the approxinmately 325 metres, the 270ish metres of the Collinette caught me by surprise. Luckily I found the cotton-wool blend in the stash and it matched pretty well.

I have to say, the Collinette also pooled a TON on the sleeves, and not in a matching way.

I'll take Fleece Artist every time, given the choice.

new sock

It seems my son's socks were not an anomaly - my sock knitting mojo has returned. This one is a bit further on - I've got about 2 more inches to add, then some ribbing. Then the next sock will be knit, to match (sort of), and I'll decide on recipient, get a foot measurement, and insert the heels. I'm enjoying it so much, I picked up two more colourways of the Lang Jawoll Magic superwash wool. Because, even with the store's worth of sock yarn I already own, I seemingly needed more...

it's about frickin' time!

Spring has returned to my neck of the woods. Those daffodils are almost ready. I've been wearing the flip flops for awhile, however - as soon as the snow was gone. At least with the warmer weather, I'm not getting as many strange looks...

a little sewing

For my golf and basketball loving son, some new pajama shorts.

Summer's coming, and with the growth spurt the boy has been going through, his pajama shorts were getting a little TOO short, if you know what I mean. He requested some new ones, and these fabrics just had to come home with me when I saw them.

I'm very lucky - he loves it when I make stuff for him, especially pajamas. I know this won't last forever, but I'm hopeful.

simple pleasures

I am a big user of technology - I live and die, it seems by my laptop and my BlackBerry. I use email extensively for correspondence, both work related and personal. It keeps me in touch with family and friends, near and far.

However, there's still nothing like letters. Hand written, stamped, addressed letters. I still love the idea of mailing birthday and anniversary cards (although I have a huge aversion to the traditional annual Christmas card fiasco*).
Because I once worked in the paper craft industry, I have a large stockpile of card making components and will often whip up a quick birthday card to mail off to family members - it's a nice touch in addition to the usual email or phone call. Now I do it because I like to - I certainly don't expect anything in return, but I tell ya, yesterday in the mail, there it was! A hand addressed, totally unexpected thank you card with little gifts inside! Totally made my day, seeing it there with the bills and flyers and junk mail!

I had sent Robyn some bits and pieces of novelty yarns I had sitting around (she's setting up a photography business and needed some for props). I'm ashamed to say how much novelty crap I had sitting around, so it was easy to send her a bunch. I was happy to do it, and certainly never expected anything in return, but she sent me a lovely card, some SOAK labels for garment care, and best of all, a Kitchener Stitch reminder dog tag!!! How cool is this? When I started the afterthought heels, I forgot I needed to Kitchener them closed, and to be honest, had to look up the steps again - this shortcut dog tag is PERFECT, and will always be there to remind me of the steps. Robyn, you could not have sent me anything more appropriate. Many, many thanks.


*My MIL sends out tons of Christmas cards every year. She insists on hand writing notes in each of them, and has a list that extends over multiple pages. She starts complaining about them in November, and every time we talk all I hear about is how many more cards she has to write. I ignore the complaints, and she ignores me when I tell her to just bag the practice...

April Fools, and my husband's birthday

Yes, we've heard all the jokes, and if we haven't then his parents have. My wonderful husband, who puts up with all the wool, silk, fabric, and other crap that attaches itself to me, is 52 today.

I love him to death.