I don’t know about you, but the longer I have yarn languishing in my stash, the less likely I am to be excited to knit with it!  I recently found a pattern for a little girl’s sweater on Ravelry which I thought would be the perfect layering piece for Kiki.  The pattern I’m talking about is Cinnamon from the uber talented knitwear designer, Elena Nodel. I loved the chic-ness of it and thought about how gorgeous it would look knit it in… Read more »

The perfect day … to go on a hike … to spot jumpers and cheer them on, “jump, jump, jump” … to indulge in some jumping of our own Oops, see this sign? Turns out we weren’t paying attention.  Yes, that’s the sign in the right hand corner of this picture!!  I’m glad there’s no hiking police 🙂

Looks like a ghost marina.  No wait, today is Tuesday.  These folks must be hard at work somewhere and probably wishing they were out here playing instead!  Also, the fun you can have with the Photosynth app.  Click here to see. My flower power gal 😉 Thanks to KnitMap, you can find a yarn store anywhere you wander and look what I found… this cute little yarn store in downtown Courtenay!  I picked out two skeins of Mirasol Qina in a lovely heathered purple.  Baby Alpaca… Read more »

Grown up version of sand castles, I guess! Ms. K offered her stamp of approval at each exhibit.  Although, I think she prefers making a swampy mess with her bucket and spade! This summer we ditched the usual hotel option for an oceanside vacation rental instead.  Fabulous idea!!  I think we’ll have to do this every year – truly a home away from home!  We went to a local farmers market to buy veggies for our dinner tonight which was… Read more »

I needed a quick handknit gift for a friend’s baby.  Some Rowan Wool Cotton has been burning a hole in my stash for years and years.  I remember buying this when everyone was ga-ga over all things Rowan.  I mean, Rowan is still pretty good, but there is so much more to choose from (um, handpainted yarn… be still my beating heart!)  I thought that this blend of wool and cotton would work well for this time of year as well as… Read more »

When I bought this yarn from my LYS a few weeks ago, I knew that I wanted to knit something girly with it. What better than a little spring cardigan for my 3-year-old daughter, Kirtana.  So, I dug out my Barbara Walker Stitch Dictionary, picked out a stitch pattern I liked and began knitting.  Every time I would pick up this sweater to knit a few rows, Kiki would ask me, “Mama, are you all done?”  That alone was sheer… Read more »

3 more days till Spring! I’ve been a busy bee with so many things needing to be done before Spring break arrives next week and much of my time has been spent in the kitchen.  I’m getting ready with my Spring Break Arsenal ….how come kids are extra hungry when they aren’t at school?  I don’t blame them with trees to be climbed, frisbees to be thrown (almost took out our neighbor’s dog… sorry Roxy!) and general goofing off to be… Read more »

The knitting language is full of abbreviations… WIP, FO, YO, K2TOG and many, many more.  If you aren’t a knitter, you’d probably think that this was weird and maybe even bordering on rude.  Last week, I kept losing my place in the pattern I was working on and had my 11-year-old son, Prithvi, call out the pattern rows to me.  After some initial stumbling he really got into it and began a rap of sorts.  You see, he thought that all of the YOs (yarn overs) in… Read more »

I’d almost forgotten how exciting it is to knit sweaters for the tiny humans.  You cast on, knit for a few days and before you know it you’re casting off — it’s like the sweater knits itself.  Now that’s instant gratification! When Kiki announced one day that I had to knit her a blue sweater, my heart sang.  I knew immediately that I wanted to knit her a Tiny Tea Leaves since I love my Tea Leaves Cardigan so much.  She… Read more »

The kids were out till late last night trick-or-treating and they came back with a stash so awesome that I’m tempted to call dibs on some of their goodies.  But I shall refrain since this is their stash, so I’ll stick with yarn!  Being a part of a smaller community like ours is great for celebrations like this where everyone gets involved and it all ends with a good old late night BBQ.  This huge sucker wasn’t on display in our town last… Read more »