Is There Room?

If you look back over the history of this blog you will notice that it started out as a general crafts type of blog - that is there are all different sorts of crafts documented there. Sewing, painting, stencilling - you name it. 

As the years progressed I've kind of fine tuned my crafting as I've been drawn to the fibre arts. I no longer consider myself a beginning spinner. I'm quite good at it, even. (That's really hard for me to say for some reason). My knitting is quite good as well. There isn't a technique out there that I'd be hesitant to try. (... There was a time when I thought cables were hard ... I know ... crazy!). Actually with respect to knitting there aren't too many techniques that I haven't tried. I've mastered most of them too. My brioche stitches have some tension issues but I know that's something that could be worked out with practice. I still crochet. I still weave. I've even tried processing fleece and dying yarn. I've done needle felting and wet felting. 

I adore the fibre arts and I've felt my crafting heart was full. That I didn't have room for another love. But then, something started happening. My grandsons love to draw.  And they love to colour. And they love the fact that Nanny can draw pictures of them on skidoo and pictures of them on a dragon and pictures of the dragon pooping and breathing fire and pictures of the dragon with magnetic feet that only works on trash and ... Well ... You get the idea. 

Spending time with these kiddos and sketching with them and talking to the older ones about light and perspective and colour theory - well, it's kind of ignited this little desire to draw and paint again. I used to paint a lot (acrylics) back when my daughter was a baby. 

My daughter isn't a baby anymore and through some separate process - (perhaps Pinterest or maybe even the gorgeous adult colouring books that are everywhere) she has been finding herself equally interested in exploring watercolours and sketching. 

So we are doing this together!!  We are taking craftsy courses and looking at YouTube videos and we are excited! Every couple of days we text each other photos of things we've tried. Painting with watercolours is so much fun!!!  

It feels like the old days where she would find a tutorial for something new and fun and cool online and we would get excited and try it out and it would be awesome and in the end we were not only closer as mother and daughter but we'd have a pair of pants made out of a t-shirt! 

Except this time she is in Ottawa and I'm in Labrador. But this time we have more experience (and money lol). And it's still bringing us closer together as mother and daughter. And this time - she's better at it than I am. But I am a little biased. 

 

Montreal - Again!

Kevin and I are just back from dropping Amy off for her second year of university. I can hardly believe it! I still have nightmares - yes, nightmares - that I'm still in university. And now my beautiful girl is doing her second year.

This year she opted for an apartment -res life not being for her. So, she needed some help with getting her apartment set up. Here is a picture of her very college-like apartment. I think they will be happy there.
















We drove to Sherbrooke (12 hours to Baie Comeau - overnight there, then 7 hours to Sherbrooke) and spent several days there cleaning, buying furniture, assembling furniture and what not. A picture of Amy and Lucy at the Brick looking for furniture. I don't think the employees were too impressed with us.















Then we went to Montreal. Again. I can't believe that I've been to Montreal twice this year. And this time we drove. We gave Kev a GPS for his birthday and I really think its the best money that we've ever spent. Seriously, a life saver - well, most definitely a relationship saver as prior to this I was always given the task of map reading and lets just say that my map reading skills aren't up to par. Having a GPS is the only way to drive. I know there is no way that we would have been comfortable driving in Montreal without it. The city of Sherbrooke is only about the size of St. John's Newfoundland, so I'm sure that we could have managed that one, but still - amazingly easy.

So guess what I did when I was in Montreal. Yep, I went to Mouline. The owner guy actually remembered me from last time. I'm not sure what that says about us (or him), but it was very nice. I bought a few things. Mostly sock yarn again. I guess because I had just purchased Cookie A's new book 'Sock Innovations'.

















I've been steadily working away on the Vine Yoke Cardigan, and I suspect that I would have finished up to the back on the long drive home, but I misplaced the pattern. I do have the right front and sleeve finished. I'm really enjoying the pattern. I'm not so certain that my yarn choice was the right one as it is a loosly spun single that is already developing a halo. I hope it doesn't pill too much.
















And I finally finished my One Skein Stole from the Noro Kuryeon sock yarn. It turned out very pretty. I'm not sure how wearable this will be here. Perhaps it will become a gift.

OWLs sweater finished

I'm super happy with the way that this baby turned out. I'm also glad that I changed the pattern to a cardigan because a pullover would not have been too flattering. In interest of mending issues, I've omitted the button eyes as if they became hooked in anything there is no way that Amy will repair this on her own. She is heading back to Montreal today. I finished the sweater just in time. Yes, she is trying it on at the airport.

Say Hello to my Little Friend

So I bought this little pendant at 'Terry's Tents' just before Christmas. I really like it. And its super cute. I was telling Amy that this pendant can be worn on airplanes. She thinks its kind of hilarious that knitters have designed a necklace that allows us to sneak blades onto airplanes.

I'm actually using this post to try out my new camera. Yes, a new camera. Kev gave me a camera for my birthday before last. Thankfully he bought extended warranty on it. It ended up being sent in for repairs right after Christmas last and and before Christmas this year. So, this time around they replaced it. Its just a little Canon powershot 8.0 megapixels, but I love it.

And I've been spinning. Yay. This is a soy blend, and I'm not sure of the percentages. But it sure is pretty. Its 160 yards too. Quite substantial. I'm not sure what it will become. I'm sure it'll ruminate in my stash for quite some time.

I had what looked like a fair amount of single left on one bobbin after I had plied the two together, so I tried my hand at Navajo plying. Um...not so good. I think I had the technique down pretty good. I was doing the chaining thing okay, but the single kept breaking as I was pulling the chain through. When I try this technique again, it'll be on a single that I've spun specifically for Navajo plying. And, I'll make sure to spin the single tighter. That'll work won't it?

Spencer

On New Year's Day Spencer got sick. Stones in his bladder it turns out. 3 of them that made peeing very difficult. He had to have surgery and was not a happy puppy for about 1 week after.

Over on Ravelry, the Harry Potter - Knit and Crochet House Cup group have a class on the care of magical creatures. People who signed up for the class had to knit something for a magical creature in their life. Spencer is very magical to me. Hence I knit him this cute lil argyle sweater. Pattern is my own - not that it was difficult. I think I'm starting to get into intarsia...well, maybe just a little.


border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294642305933550530" />

In other knitting news, Amy has requested a knit sweater for her birthday. This from the girl who 'hates knit sweaters'. I am secretly thrilled at this request, so of course I'm obliging her. However, there is no way in hell that I will finish the sweater in time for her birthday. Considering I've had to order the yarn from Elann.com which is based in BC, Amy's birthday is less than 1 month away, and Amy is in Quebec. So, even if I get the yarn in a week, and if I can knit this sweater in 2 weeks (yeah, right), I would still have to mail it to Quebec. My goal is to have this sweater finished by the end of March. By then of course it will have warmed up to the point that a sweater knit in a chunky weight yarn will be too warm to wear anyway. Such is my life as a knitter.