Celebrating a Chickadee

I hope everyone had  wonderful holiday celebrations. 

I have to show you my best, fun present. My daughter gave me a needle felting kit! I think she read my mind. Anyway, I had to get started on it right away, of course. I've never done it before, and the directions in the kit were a little vague, (not that it's complicated) so I took a trip over to Youtube, which was very helpful, as everyone knows.  I also looked at a few photos online, because I wouldn't have known a chickadee if it came and landed on the edge of my coffee cup.

It's a very interesting craft and you can get a fair amount of detail with shaping and shading.  The photos here make my bird look rough and fuzzier than it is in person. 

I have lots of fibre left for additional projects, besides that, I can always dive into my spinning fibre. Now I just need a new idea for the next project!

Ornamental

I'd like to share my two most cherished Christmas ornaments with you...

this little snowman, found at a thrift store years and years ago. 

         and this little fawn. 

I should correct myself. The ornaments I truly cherish are the ones my children have made over the years. You know the ones... made out of pipe cleaners, clothes pegs, construction paper and popsicle sticks. 

If your children are grown, and you want to remember those days, visit Lucy at Attic 24 and check out her post of Dec 14th. Precious. 

Now I see she's posted again,  something really amazing! I'm going back to look!  Bye

Baubles and Beads

So who says you're not supposed to wear a toque with a party dress? With fancy beads no less! I'm afraid the monkeys have minds of their own. 

I suppose that's why I like them... human rules don't apply!

 I've been bead shopping for the monkeys.

Ooh, look I'm getting Christmassy too. Run little gingerbread man!

What I wanted to show you was my growing bauble collection. Since I've been putting beads on the monkeys, I've been keeping my eyes out, while being thrifty.  See, being a thrift shopper from waaaay back, I find it hard now-a-days finding treasures the way I used to. But! It seems I've been overlooking old bead necklaces. So anyway, I've been getting some cheap thrills the last few weeks whenever I find a nice weighty, string of old, vintage beads.

  

See what I mean about following human rules? 

What monkey has to keep her legs together while wearing a dress!

Oh, by the way I've bought the only Christmas decorations that I'm going to this year. 

Up there in the header. I really had to have those! 

Monkey Business

I've been up to some serious monkey business and having a lot of fun! I'm still not sure why I've been so enchanted with making them. I did want a real monkey when I was little and I loved Curious George. Anyway, here's one of the girls in all her naked glory. I think it's time for a dress, don't you?

( I was inspired by her Elizabeth Taylor eyes.)

A little turquoise mohair and some beads to spruce it up...

OK, now everyone gets their portrait in the rocking chair. 

This gal is into pillow case dresses and rhinestone brooches.

She's not fond of a lot of makeup.

Back to you, violet eyes.

I don't think a toque goes with that dress. Silly monkey!

Last but not least. 

This lady is sporting a cotton shift with silver thread and a colourful shawl and wooly cap. 

Love those eyes!

And here are the girls together. They have a fourth sister, but she has one arm and no ears at this point. You can understand her hesitation at not wanting to be in any photos at this point.

So you can see I've been up to very important work lately!

Please let me know what you think!  

Cheers and Happy December! 

White and Fluffy

I thought it's about time I  pop in to let people know I'm still around. 

I've been doing a fair bit of knitting lately, in fact just about whenever I have free time. I'm stocking up for the you-know-what-big-holiday coming up. When my kids were small I had a rule that they weren't aloud to talk about what they wanted until December 1st.

These fingerless mitts turned out just the way I hoped. If you're a knitter and you want the pattern and the specs, or to see some of my other work, I'm here on Ravelry.

And now, to keep with the fluffy, white theme...

That's just wrong somehow.

Food for thought

When you purchase groceries at Safeway and the teller asks if you would like help to your vehicle, would they carry the bags to the bus stop? 

I wish you could feel this!

Hi! I'm back with some crochet goodness to share with you. 

This I'm proud of and I'll show you why

It started out like this, a pretty little bundle of wool and silk. 

This is  hand dyed, Fleece Artist.

It sounds corny, when you tell someone that the fibre tells you what it wants to be. Not that it told me it wanted to be a skinny crochet scarf, but, that it wanted to be spun to a certain diameter. 

It was exciting to spin, seeing the colour changes, hitting that little bit of blue.

I took my spindle to the coffee shop every morning for a week or so. I may have spun, waiting for a bus here and there. OK, I may have spun on the bus once or twice, when it wasn't crowded. When the bus is crowded, I knit. or crochet. never sew.

Oooh, look, one full cop! I slide that cop onto a fat straw, which just fit on the end of the spindle. The fat straw was a good excuse to stop at Duffin's Doughnuts, who by the way have a really good chorizo/egg breakfast sandwich. (for you Vancouverites)

You see, I needed my spindle empty to fill it a second time, so I could move onto step #2. Plying! (I put the straw filled cops, onto my lazy kate) I plied using the same spindle too. 

Yay me! Then on to the niddy noddy, and a little soak. 

Look! So beautiful!  I'm not tooting my horn.

The fibre is just so wonderful, and the colour, I love it! Well, OK, toot toot!

And here comes the next transformation!

 Isn't that just magical? Simple, ancient technology, mixed with new. 

You can get the free skinny crochet scarf pattern here, which I found via one of my LYS,  Three Bags Full. 

Thanks so much for having a peek!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Happy Fall

Hello people!

I've had a sick day today and now I'm not so behind on Ravelry. I have plenty of knitting projects to show you soon!

 In the mean time enjoy a little colour!

It's a good time to be a knitter.

 It's fall, and if you live in Vancouver, we have two new Yarn Stores!

 Baaad Anna's and Gina Brown's. Ya-hoo!

Lovely Objects

As promised, some close ups of some of my objects that I find lovely.

I hope you do too.

A new (to me) blue saucer. The yellow I've had for ages. It's funny, one day it popped into my head that I had fabric that was similar, then rummaged around until I found the two of them.

What a pleasant surprise. Maybe that could become a new flickr group.

A little green, glass jar holding some hand spun (done on a drop spindle).

I have no idea what kind of brooch and earrings these are, but I love the colours. 

They look like enamel maybe?  Do you know? The picture frame is new, from Home Sense.

I love my polka dot tea cup and just got some fabric that's identical. 

I think I'll do a series of saucers and fabrics, like the first two shots.

I'm happy with simple unpretentious objects.

My newest apron, on the right. One day I plan to press and photograph all of them. 

I don't have all that many. Maybe I'll go count them now.

Thanks for popping by, and if you know about the jewelry, please fill me in. 

Nine Patch

Today I got a package in the mail. Nine hundred - 3 inch squares of fabric! One hundred and fifty different patterns! I laid out all the little stacks, and got all giddy.

Then I pulled out my quilting books. I knew I wanted to do something very simple, since I know I don't have the patience to do any thing complicated. Also, I was limited by the fact that there were six squares of each pattern.

So I decided to do a nine patch which will be interspersed with a plain white blocks, or maybe sashing. I guess that's something I have to play around with. It's really hard for me to plan something out in total. I like to have some sort or spontaneity. Then I just cross my fingers!

Oh my gosh, it was so much fun picking the pairs that went together, and with so many choices!

I'm very pleased that they're well cut, nice and square. I have to say, cutting is my least favorite activity when it comes to sewing or quilting. Choosing colour combinations is my favorite.

I've done about nine blocks so far. Only, oh... about one hundred and ten to go!