Silly Frilly Flamenco skirt....

About a week ago... a new yarn store opened in Calgary, called The Loop. The news of a new LYS was greeted with exuberant anticipation. Of course, this meant YARN CRAWL..... my local small group of knitters organized a trip on the opening day and at the last minute, I was able to go..... While we were there, enjoying all kinds of fibre goodies, we saw a ribbon yarn called Rizos, by Katia. I'm not normally a big fan of novelty yarns, but I thought this one was pretty.... It had been knit into a ruffle scarf and was quite lovely and we immediately began discussing other options for the yarn. Although I didn't buy any that day... I couldn't get the yarn out of my head and made a trip back a few days later with Chey to see how she liked it (she doesn't really like skirts much... they say they make her "too attractive... to attractive to homework")..... Once she agreed that a ruffle skirt would be worn, I purchased a couple of balls and started to plan.

My first three attempts were total failures.... Firstly, I didn't know how to knit with the yarn. I treated it like regular yarn and knit it as a big wide ribbon... this didn't give the neat ruffle that was intended and made the skirt really bulky... and after several inches, I frogged it.  I did a google search and discovered that I was using it incorrectly (this is the correct way to knit with this yarn, although I knit into every loop, rather than every second loop). Once I ammended my method, the next attempt was much better..... sort of..... knitting with Rizos row after row created a look that resembled a clown collar... not quite the look I was going for in a skirt.... so I ripped and started again.... My third attempt was MUCH nicer, but my sizing was WAY off... I didn't realize how off, until I cast off and tried the skirt on Chey (it fit me, actually)... it was terrible... I mean UGH-LEE.... I frogged the whole thing and started again.. this time, I started the skirt from the bottom (my other attempts had been top down) and alternated it with another yarn. This allowed the ruffle to lie much flatter and reduced the bulk and weight of the final skirt....

Final Result:.... AWESOME!

I'll work out a pattern and release it very soon......

Mother's Day = Gardening

Happy (one day late) Mother's Day to all the Mommy's out there!

For Mother's Day this year, I asked Dale to build me a nice raised garden bed to grow some veggies with the kids. While he ran out for supplies, the kids and I started to work. I started digging up the sod and put the kids on "worm saving patrol"

Of course, after all that hard work, we needed to have some cookies

Dale did an AWESOME job! The box is about 10ft x 2.5ft and about 12 inches deep made from composite material so no maintenance. We plan to plant peas, carrots and radish seeds and I bought some artichokes, and a watermelon from the garden centre. I still need a tomato plant and a few others, but it's too cold yet for that..... First we need some dirt.......

The rest of my garden is coming along and I planted a couple of containers today... and did my usual herb container, but with a couple of new herbs... Curry, for instance.

Herb Garden: Oregano (3 types), Curry, Dill, Lemon Balm, Mint and probably a couple of others that I can't remember... I'm going to plant Basil, Thyme and a few others at the next go round....	My Garden Centre Purchases. I have a mainly perennial garden and didn't need many plants this year. Plus I went early and the garden centre was not yet, fully stocked... I still have a couple of pots to fill....
Front Flower pot: Some Purple Grass and Dark, Dark, Dark purple, almost black petunias.....	I  like this cluster of pots.... I thought about getting Dale to re-do the chairs, but I like them the way they are... so we'll just protect them and be done

Crocuses... I planted about 500 bulbs (not just croci, but lots of other bulbs as well) two years ago and lots about 300 of them last year when Dale put in underground sprinklers (I'm too happy about the sprinklers to be upset about the bulbs), but the ones that survived are coming in nicely.... and multiplying...... this bundle of croci was only one or two flowers last year

Once the rest of the flower garden starts growing better, I'll take more pictures.... right now things are just starting to peek (other than the bulbs and a few hardy souls).... It's going to be pretty this year, I think.......

Celebration of Spring!

It's May 1st and the snow is finally almost gone from my backyard..... a few crocuses are blooming and it reached a high of 16C today. There were even a few of the neighbourhood children in bathing suits having water-fights in their backyards.... Only in Canada.....  With the weather behaving so nicely.... it seemed like an absolutely perfect day to ..........





go SKIING!!!!!!




And so we did..... We met our wonderful friends on the hill (so awesome!) and had at it! It was a GORGEOUS Day! Super Sunny and warm and hardly any people. It was Chey's very first time on Skis and although she was nervous, she did well and more importantly, had fun! Eli was progressing to a confident green runner two years ago, but the "fear" has returned and he struggled to make it down the hill. Must.go.more.often...... Here are a few pix

Happy Easter!!

Easter at our house is a bit of a to-do. The Easter Bunny likes to do a scavenger hunt so that the kids can find their Easter Baskets. He/She does a photo scavenger hunt for non-readers and a clue scavenger hunt for older children. This year's clues included things like:

"It’s Easter Time again, my Dear
So read these clues so they are clear
The first clue leads to a kind of weird place
It has a picture with your face
It is a room on floor number two
and the place where you go when you need to go ........... (rhymes with two)
Don’t let the other eggs distract
or you will never find your baskat [sic]..... "

And

"The third clue is kind of easy
look upstairs and find something.... sneezy......
Think of the thing you need when your nose
Has turned from a button and into a hose......"

And

"For number four, you need to peep
In the place where Mom’s yarn does sleep
It’s in that room, upon the bed
Under the thing where you rest your head"

The Easter Bunny is kind of smart (even if his/her clue making skills are kind of lame) because clues for both children are in the same order and in similar places.... That way the parent taking pictures has an easier job....... and one child has a lower chance of finding the other's clues out of order.

The last clue leads to the Easter Loot...... 

And of course there are lots of other eggs to find...... I believe the Easter Bunny stuffed over 100 eggs this year...... he/she must be slightly off his/her rocker.....

We will be dyeing our Easter Eggs a little later today.... I meant to do it last night, but boiled the eggs and then forgot........ 

Prizes

At the end of 2010, a group of knitters on Ravelry (knitters that live at my end of the city) decided to do a stash-busting challenge. The goal of this challenge was to knit mainly from stash and finish those WIPs (works-in-progress) languishing in closets, baskets and bags. Several members of the group joined the challenge, but rather than join myself,  I offered to organize prizes and moderate the contest. We set up a points system to track progress and decided to do a quarterly system.

COMPLETED ITEMS KNITTED/CROCHETED FROM STASH 

0-300m = 1 point 
300-600m = 3 points 
600-1200m = 5 points 
1200 -2500m = 8 points 
Over 2500m = 12 points

BONUS POINTS 
Yarn Spun 1 point 
Item Knit for Charity 1 point 
No yarn purchased 5 points 
New Skill 1 Point

WIPs 
More than 50% complete at 1 January 1 point 
Less than 50% complete at 1 January 2 points

MAXIMUM POINTS 
Items using less than 100m of yarn can earn maximum of 3 points.

DEDUCTIONS 
Each new skein/hank/ball purchase 1 point

EXCEPTIONS 
Yarn purchased to complete WIP 
Sections (or squares) knitted or crocheted for WCOBBS count as 1 point only

EXCEPTIONS FOR THIS QUARTER ONLY 
Any yarn purchased in Make One’s St Distaff’s sale counts as 2010 stash.

As the first quarter of the challenge ended last week, I spent some time this weekend finishing up the prizes. Firstly, I sewed up some project bags (I'm not a fabulous seamstress, but I get the job done) and stuffed them with various items donated by the members of the group. I still have a little tweaking, but here is a sneak peak...... 

Our end of quarter party is Thursday.... fondue and knitting... 

Spring Break?

Perhaps in our case it should be called "getting-closer-to-the-end-of-winter break" because spring seems a looonnnggg way off yet.... After my last post about tempting Murphy with my rubber boots, he indeed gave me the bird and demanded that it snow..... it wasn't a blizzard, exactly, but it snowed (slushed is more like) for 5 days straight... bastard!

In order to prove that he couldn't scare me... I knit a dress..... and it turned out wonderfully....

It's called "Suspension Dress" from the book that I posted about last time. I made some minor modifications when I knit the dress. The designer had made a note on the pattern page of Ravelry, that there seemed to be an error in the length of the bodice portion. Her intention was that the bodice extend 1-2 inches below the bust (approximately  6"). The Pattern stated 10-ish inches...... I went with the designer and knit the bodice 6 inches, sort of.... I apparently still can't measure (there's a good joke about women and measurements equalling 6 inches, but I'm trying to keep this clean.... ish), so I actually knit 5 inches and didn't notice until I was too far into the skirt to bother going back.... I went with the 5 inches and the bodice grew to 6" when I washed the dress so it was all good. The only other modification (other than yarn substitution) was to add a crochet eyelet row at the top of the dress (I did a **dc, ch1, skip next sc** around the top). The sleeve section was not fitting me very well and I thought that if I was able to thread some ribbon through the top it would solve the problem.... and it really did... I think it added a special touch.

And Eli took the photos... he's getting pretty good at it!

Today, as another tick on my battle board against Murphy, the kids and I made some tie dye shirts..... They turned out great! I am particularly thrilled with Chey's. She saw some iron on transfers when we were shopping for the dye at Michael's and decided she wanted a hummingbird on her shirt. I found a great picture and printed it on iron-on transfer paper...... cute eh? I've never done tie-dye before and am a little worried about how permanent the dye will be as I chose not to allow it to stand for the 6 hours the box recommended (I wanted it slightly faded)..... I'm also unhappy with the waste.... I sort of wish I had purchased all of the dyes and bottles separately so that I could mix strengths and colours to my taste... instead the kit came with pre-filled bottles of dye (just add water) and 90% of it went down the drain..... I think that although it would have been more expensive, initially, I would have saved money in the long run..... assuming I decide to do this again (how many tie dye shirts does a person need?)....

After the pain of some posed pictures.... they got silly-er.....

Optimism and Rubber Boots.

In order to celebrate the arrival of Spring (or at least spring-like weather, Spring doesn't officially arrive until Sunday), I purchased myself a new pair of rubber boots..... This should ensure that Calgary will be hit by a blizzard, the likes of which has not been seen in a hundred years....... Perhaps I should cast on for some uber-warm mittens to even out Murphy and his law???


I also finished a new cardigan. The yarn is from the lot that I purchased last summer on my "Tour of BC" (remember this picture?) from the Victoria studio of Gaia's Colours Fibre Arts (which I noticed, when I added the link... is closing down... darn!). The yarn is called Pales Sock and the colour is Anaxerate. It is an awesome sage-y green with a lot of grey.... I will probably never take it off..... The pattern is Emelie by Elin Berglund, the longest length with no purposeful mods (I did a couple of unintentional mods... picked up too many stitches for the sleeves and adjusted the stitch count by doing extra sleeve decreases.... picked up too few stitches for the button bands and adjusted by doing the 13" length instructions for button holes). I do need larger buttons and to make an additional button hole at the top, but all in all.... LOVE.

In order to push my luck with spring, I have also cast on for my next project.... a dress.... from this book and I do have to say.... this is the best book I've seen for a while... MOST of the patterns in it are on my list to knit.... Since the advent of Ravelry and the fact that I can purchase many patterns on the site individually, I rarely even buy books anymore..... They have to be REALLY good and this one is.