Knitting friends are the best!

My friend Flo gave me this great little book. I'll be honest, this is not a book I would have purchased on my own.  It is a little more whimsical than the books I  usually purchase.  I was so thrilled when she gave me this book. She gave me this book for no reason. It wasn't my birthday, I wasn't sick, I hadn't done her any outrageous favours. This was a gift in the purest sense. She saw the book and was so tickled by it that she bought one for herself, one for me, and one for our knitting friend Jesse.

I don't need too many excuses to be distracted from whatever current project I have on the go. Believe me, there are many current projects on the go. When I saw the little birds in this book I just had to cast on for something.

The wonderful thing about this book is that the projects are finished in a matter of hours, they knit up that quick. You get to try out some different techniques on a very small scale. That way you won't feel as though you've wasted hours of your time trying a technique that you hate or knitting on  a project that you can't stand. 

So here is the first of what I predict will be many knitted birds. This guy features the sweetest little ear flap hat with some duplicate stitches on the tail for good measure. 

I adore him!!!

Those are knitting needles propping him up. The book shows how to make these adorable wire feet/holder/base-type-thing. I'm sending Kev to the hardware store tomorrow to get some of the wire for me and I'm gonna recruit him into making these wire type feet things for me (and possibly Jesse and Flo too). 

Edited!! I did the feet. They really make him even more special 

All the things!!

I can't help myself. I want to knit all of the things. We were away on vacation. We took Max to Prince Edward Island for a week long hockey camp. While Max was at camp I had quite a bit of downtime which I used to do a little painting and a little reading and a little knitting.  Overall it was a wonderful time. And I got to spend ample time with my oldest grandson. We went tuna fishing and zip lining and we visited a wax museum and a  Ripleys believe it or not museum. WE went to amusement parks and water parks. And we even spent the day at Parlee Beach in Shediac, New Brunswick. My grandson Max hamming it up. It's getting harder and harder to get a decent photo of him 

I managed to do a little yarn shopping. Downtown Charlottetown has a lot of unique shops. I was overwhelmed when I walked in to what I thought was a little boutique selling handknits. It's called Northern Watters Knitwear - and it's so much more than selling knitwear. At the back of the store is a full fledged knit factory going on. There are huge knitting machines cranking out the most glorious hand knit sweaters I've ever seen. And there are handknits sweaters ready for purchase in just about every style, colour and size you can imagine. They also sell woven fabric, pottery, and souvenirs. But for me, the big attraction was the wall of locally dyed/milled yarns. Loads of Fleece Artist and Hand Maiden but others too that I hadn't heard of. They are definitely worth checking out.  I bought two separate Fleece Artist mitten kits.  One called the "Favorite Soft Mitts" which basically involves holding a strand of brushed mohair with a regular spun BFL DK yarn. The resulting fabric is amazing and soft and cushy and warm. Of course I've started already.

This pic doesn't really do it justice but I'll be sure to take a better pic once their finished. I'll write about the other things/kit I bought as I knit them. 

I finished a pair of socks while traveling. These are my standard after thought heel socks 

I love them. The yarn is from Turtlepurl girl or at least I think that's her name. She is a Canadian dyer currently based out of Moncton. She does these fabulous kits called turtle toes and they are wound into individual cakes for each foot. That way both socks should match perfectly.  As you can see mine are a little off. It started right from the cast on. Oh well. If I wanted perfect socks I wouldn't be knitting them right?

Lone Pine

When we went to PEI this summer, we went to a store in Charlottetown called Northern Watters Knitwear. It was a fabulous spot. They sold gift ware and pottery and the most beautiful woollen knit sweaters. They had employees working on the knitting machines in the back of the store. They were churning out sweaters lickedy split. 

They also had a fairly large selection of yarns for sale. Most of it was 'local' yarns. Fleece Artist and Handmaiden and the Mineville Wool Project.  I had such a tough time deciding what to buy. I wanted it all!

I did limit myself to three skeins - two of which were actual kits!  I've already cast on both kits. That's how gorgeous this stuff is! 

I cast this on this past Friday- so three days ago. Now we have had a long weekend so I did have more knitting time than usual. This pattern is called Lone Pine Mittens and it's by Todwick Studios. 

I love it!! I'm currently finishing up the thumb on the first mitten. This is going to be a beautiful pair of mittens.