For a Princess to be ...

Sorry these are so dark ... I tried it with a flash, but it literally 'whited out' the pink.

A client friend from work is having a little girl next month, so finally, after all the baby boy knitting I've been doing, I got to make something 'girly'!!

These are my very favorite, standard baby shower gift, "Christine's Booties" along with the Pumpkin Hat from 'Itty Bitty Hats'. As you know from previous posts, the booties are my faves because moms tell me that they are the only ones that stay on the baby's feet, plus they grow a bit with the baby.

I love the hat pattern for a similar reason. In the photos, I've rolled the brim up quite deeply. This allows the hat to be worn as a newborn, but it then unrolls to fit again, as the baby grows. This hat should fit up to 5 or 6 months, depending on the size of the baby's head. I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (under 2 balls) for both the booties and the hat. I made the 3rd size for the hat, as the pattern calls for DK weight, and I was using a lighter weight of wool. I then made it the length of the 2nd size, to compensate. Size 4mm 12" circular addi's for the hat and size 3mm dpn's for the booties.

The floral embellishments were discovered in my scrapbooking stash and I believe were originally purchased at Michael's. Perfect touch, huh? They're stitched on very tightly and as they are for a newborn, I'm not concerned that they'll get pulled off and swallowed!

... and life goes on

This is my BFF, Connie, shoveling snow in Winnipeg -- she thinks it's hilarious that we have more snow than they do! I'm thankful we don't have their -42C temperature to go with it -- I can't begin to imagine!


I am on a creative roll (work wise) at the moment. The scrapbooking pages are rolling from my mind's eye, to a layout design, in record time. I've been doing at least one layout a day, and while I'm doing it, I'm planning the next one! This is of my cousin Hannah, her daughter Niamh (say 'Neve') and myself, on the beach in Scotland, this past September. Such a cutie!

We needed some fresh, new displays for the store, so I volunteered! The boss was so delighted with this one, that she put it on the store blog -- scroll down to take a look!

A little knitting has been happening, although (I admit), not much. I've completed about 8" on the Woodland Shawl and am still loving it. This is the "Fading Cables" hat pattern. I made two of these, one for each of our girls. Both were made of 'Malabrigo' -- this one is 'Cognac' and the other one was 'Lettuce', which disappeared so quickly, I didn't get a chance to take a photo! The only mod I made to the pattern, was to the 2nd hat -- I lengthened the first portion by about 1/2", so now it covers the top 1" of the ear. I really like this pattern and will likely make it again. It's very stretchy and would be suitable be for either a man or woman -- there's even a child size, if you like.


We said 'good-bye' to Eileen (hubby's mom) on December 31, 2008. We'd been going over to her place, daily, for the past 2 months, bringing her dinner and keeping her company, as hubby's dad is still in ICU, recovering. Went over NY day, to discover that she had passed, peacefully, in her sleep. We were concerned that this may set back his dad, but he seems to be even stronger. Last week he was removed from the respirator, and this week, they took the trach tube out, so he's breathing on his own, and talking for the first time in 2 months. He's even taken a few steps! He is so motivated to get out of the hospital and continue living ... we'll wait to have a service until he is able to attend.

Winter Wonderland

Captured the above photo in the a.m. when I let the dog out the back door to do his thing ... These trees surround our property and provide a lot of much needed shade in the summer, but can be treacherous when we get snow. One of the branches on a tree at the side of the house (the neighbor's side of the fence) got too heavy with the snow and broke off, coming through our tile roof. Not impressed! This is the very same tree we offered to go halfers with our neighbor on, last summer, if they would cut it down. They decided to just top it and have a few branches taken off -- bad decision! Hubby and another neighbor were up on the roof replacing cracked tiles, and then 'jury-rigged' an A-frame to protect the peak, where several more tiles were destroyed. Thankfully, the branch only went through to the attic, and not through the laundry room ceiling, where my brand new washer and dryer reside!!!!


People, this is the south west coast of B.C. ! We don't get this kind of snow on a regular basis! We might get 4" once a year, but it's gone the next day ... We've had over 3 feet in the space of less than a week! This is the pile next to the driveway -- Note: I'm 5'5" tall! The last time we had snow for Christmas, was in '96, the year we got married. Apparently, this is the 1st Christmas in over 40 years, that all of Canada had a white Christmas.

Hubby did the bulk of the shoveling, but I did my share, too. It was endless! The above photo is at the beginning of the week, before the next 12" fell! He declared (yet, again!) that this is the last year that he is going to shovel snow -- he says that a snow blower will soon be residing in the tool shed.

Here are my 'boys' on Christmas Eve, getting ready for the visitors. Brinkley absolutely loves the snow and cavorted around like an idiot in it!

Here's our little man with his grandpa -- so cute in his 'big boy' outfit! Rosy cheeks courtesy of upper molars coming through and a head cold, which he kindly passed on to grandma :(

BTW, his mom had been working with him on the ride over to the house. He came running through the door when he saw me and said, wait for it ..."guh-i-ma"! ... I almost cried. I know, pathetic.

From the youngest, to the oldest 'grand', opening their Christmas gifts ... a talking train set for E*than,

A rocker chair for J*osh to plug in all his electronics and listen to his IPod, or play PSP games with surround sound. We handed him the cords and he had the whole thing hooked up lickety-split and soon we were listening to the theme song from "Twilight" (that reference is just for you, Tara!)

C*icely in the "I'mtoocooltoletyouknowthatIreallylovemynewlaptop" phase. The joys of being 15.5 yrs. :P******

Oh yes, there is a little knitting content. Here is my Woodland Shawl, in the "Fiddlehead" colourway from 'The Woolen Rabbit'. It's a semi solid lace weight merino, with subtle colour changes -- love it! Once blocked, all edges will have a lovely scallop to them -- so pretty! And what I like, is that it doesn't require a Kitchener join in the middle of the shawl. I really am not crazy about that, for 2 reasons: 1) I don't like doing that procedure and 2) it's always so evident, even when you do it well! The pattern is well written, easy to follow and easy to memorize, so I can actually watch TV while knitting.

BTW, we rented "Made of Honour" last night, with Patrick Dempsey (Throb!) It was hilarious! Just go rent it.

Happy New Year to you all!

Ascot, et al

Love this pattern! It's basically garter stitch, with a ton of wrapped stitch, short rows to make the ends flare out. Then, you knit on a border with bobbles, to finish it off. The pattern is called 'Ascot' and is from Interweave Knits Holiday Gift Guide 2007. This is Manos del Uruguay yarn which I had purchased on my recent trip to Scotland. There is still enough of the one skein to make at least a baby sized hat. It's wonderful yarn -- silk and merino blend and the colourway reminds me of the ocean.

One Tudora down, with Fetching mitts to accompany (pattern courtesy of Knitty.com) in Malabrigo, natch!

And here are the rest of them -- I'm done with this pattern -- soooooo done. There's nothing wrong with it -- in fact, it was fabulous -- I've just made so many that I'm over it. All in Malabrigo, with buttons purchased at Ram Wools, in Winnipeg, from my recent trip.

There was a lot of this in Winnipeg -- and in addition, -26C! Coming from the Southwest coast, this took some getting used to! Although, it is a very dry cold, so not as hard to bear. I was very grateful for my down coat, lined boots and knitted accessories, I'll tell you!


My dear friend suffered through a trip to the yarn store and very patiently waited and listened while I went into raptures over the wonderful finds! We pulled into the parking lot to discover that there was a store-wide sale on that day only -- can you say 'happy dance'????? I picked up some silk "Tussah" (pictures to follow at a later date, and some lovely Peruvian merino, along with a ton of buttons -- what a selection!

Here's my best friend, Connie, making Christmas Cards. I brought a ton of gear with me so that we would be able to do all of our cards together. I thought for sure I was going to be over the 50lb weight limit at the airport scales, but thankfully, the case was 4 lbs under! Although, they did put a 'Heavy' label on it.

And here's a sampling of some of what we accomplished! These are Connie's cards and I had about the same amount of my own. I also helped her get a start on her daughter's wedding album, so we really got a lot done. Whenever I come to visit, we always find a project to do -- I think her poor hubby lives in fear of my visits, as he knows something's going to change before I leave! One year, Connie decided she was done with the look of her table lamps, so we bought special paint and went to town on them. They turned out beautifully!


And here is a photo of Connie's daughter Kerri and I together. We have so much fun when we're out together and people realize that we have the same name! Although, I spell mine with a 'y' at the end. It's scary ... I remember when she was born, and now she's a young married woman. Please tell me I'm not that old ..... :)


Connie and I met when we were barely 20. We were assigned as roommates at Capernwray Bible School in Austria, for 3 months. We immediately hit it off and were inseparable for the whole 3 months. When school ended, Connie went home and was married within 6 months, and I stayed on and traveled for another 1 1/2 years with a band as their lead female singer. Even though our lives were very different, we still kept in touch all through the years and found time to visit each other, in between the births of her 3 children (all of whom are now 18 and older)! It such a gift to have a friend who's known you through your past and present and 'get's you'. Ok, this is bizarre ... as I was just about to hit the 'publish' button, she phoned!

This and that ...

We've spent the last 17 days going back and forth to the hospital and also to my m-i-l's place. My f-i-l was hospitalized with severe viral pneumonia and had a heart attack the same day he was admitted, due to the fact that he wasn't getting sufficient oxygen into his body. He has been in ICU, on a respirator ever since. He's holding his own, although there has been little improvement, so all prayers are appreciated! My m-i-l is particularly finding it difficult as he was her primary care-giver and she finds it lonely without him, so we're over there everyday. We've been having challenges getting home help set up, but may have rounded the corner on that one today, thankfully!

Although I've been knitting like a fiend, I can't show you much as they're all Christmas Gifts! I can tell you that many a Tudora, Fetching, and Foliage (from Knitty.com) has been made (using Malabrigo, of course!), along with 2 Ascots (from Interweave Gifts '07) ... love this pattern!!!

Below also are two Knitting Magazines I picked up while waiting in the Edinburgh bus depot ... look at all of those fabulous knitted ornaments! I've yet to make one ...



BTW, to my American friends, "Happy Thanksgiving", coming up later this week!

Thought you might enjoy a few pumpkin pictures, in honour of the upcoming occasion.

Alhambra is Blocking!

I can't tell you how much I love, love, love the colours of this yarn ... it shows up much darker when it's wet, but the dark spots are actually a fabulous plum colour. BTW, I'm very happy with the blocking wire kit that I ordered from Knitpicks. It sure makes life easier, especially when I'm currently addicted to lace knits :)

I may have never shared this about myself before, but I have a 'thing' about doorways & entrances ... to houses ... hidden side streets, you name it. Here are some more pics of my recent trip to Scotland, starting in Falkland Fife, where I spent the day visiting my cousin.

First stop, the local church --notice the gorgeous stonework at the arched entrance.

Love the herringbone brickwork with the wrought iron gate -- so classy!

I especially like this one ... my cousin explained that in the old days, when folks got married and moved into their new abode together, they would carve both of their initials above the door post, along with the year of their marriage ... how sweet is that???? What's truly amazing, is that the building is not only still standing, but inhabited!

The tiny round sign on the left says 'The Weaver's Cottage' ... also built in the early 1700's and currently occupied by someone who loves container gardening! Look how old and worn those steps are ... imagine how many pair of feet have climbed those stairs over the years??

Falkland recently won the award for best decorated town in Scotland. Can you guess why??? Every house is overflowing with gorgeous flower pots/gardens! I couldn't believe the size of some of the begonias -- the colours were stunning!

I was all set to buy up and move there, until my cousin told me the price -- a tiny 600 sq. ft. cottage goes for 250,000 pounds -- that's $500,000!!! It's a very desirable place to live -- so pretty, plus it has it's very own palace on the main street. Like a fairyland.

I was walking the walls in Berwick, England one day and came across this doorway -- soooo pretty! My dad grew up only 6 miles from the English border, so it's nothing for us to cross on a daily basis (no passport required!) and go shopping, sightseeing, have lunch, whatever, and then back to Scotland in time for dinner. Pretty amazing!

I'll leave you for now, with my favourite 'entrance picture' of my entire trip. At the end of the road where I was staying with my aunt, is a private residence/property solely geared for retired gardeners. It's absolutely gorgeous! There's a wonderful winding, forested path that takes you around the outskirts of the property and at the end of it was this sight -- stunning in it's simplicity.
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Birthday Boy

A certain young man recently had his 1st birthday and was soooooo not impressed with having to wear a birthday hat ... if he could use his words, he probably would be saying, "Get this thing off my head, right now!!!!!"