Kermit 's salute to the season

Here is Kermit  hanging out with a few Nutcrackers before the parade! : )  And so starts December. He has since requested a fairisle ski sweater... I pulled the classic "we'll see" expression which pretty much means it's brewing and stewing on the left side of my brain.  I'm knee deep in Christmas knits and stuff...and have so many other  stock piled projects. Tweed is so a apart of MY new year. I just can't get enough.

The Nutcracker sweet swap

Almost done...working on a beaded dress and waiting for ballet shoes to come in the mail. (the train is full of chocolate!)  I had knit a doll...but let's not open THAT can of worms today. I put a doll sized teddy bear in it's place with a cute knitted scarf.  The nutcracker's crown has been stolen by the Rat King....

Brown. hmm. Yarn color tittle is: "Bark Heather" and it shows different in every light. A simple ribbed cable kept me  constantly counting and twisting stitches. Not recommended for knitting in the dark. (I had to invest in a LED battery operated  book light) I aslo shaped the armholes just to drive myself crazy.Are we there yet?

Royal Dutchess Cables

And then I dyed it purple! Of course it looks great but...uh ~ahem~ it FELTED!! I swear I did NOT agitate it. Pictures of small purple coat coming soon. Odd this is tittled cabled as there are no cables but rather smocking! A Classic Elite design. (Fall 2008) I winged a hat to match.

A Violin for Kermit

All saints day at the swamp! Kermit  made the knitted  violin sing!  : ) It was  very wet  along the swamp edges and I  had to use Oxy clean on my jeans upon arriving home. But Kermit did a wonderful job with greats like "flight of the bumble bees" and for me: Mozart's "Adagio", Bach's "Jesu joy of mans desire" and "Air on a G string"  : ) Who knew  Kermit was so musical? Life is never dull with Kermit in it. Next swamp recital is in December. Christmas on a lily pad. Don't frogs hibernate? Details to follow. All are welcome.

The Rory Gilmore at Yale sweater

How I dealt with the zipper being 2" to short.... Where I live...the zipper store is a 1 hour trek by bus and skystrain then a bit of a hike which adds another 20 minutes... Unlike normal persons who need a zipper and measure...I tend to go BEFORE I am at the measuring stage..so more often than not I land myself with a too long or too short situation...so here's my answer to that. I trust this will not defleck or detrack from it being  Rory Gilmore attire. And of course being photo graphed on a dormant rose bush and not The Yale University on Rory Gilmore herself! (Poor rose never knew what it did to deserve  being smothered this day after a cold rain) This is a Christmas gift to my youngest Daughter who no longer models with-out something in it for her; financial gain, a brib for  brand name jeans and just for good measure... a pint of my blood. The rose bush is free, off the ground and does'nt grumble. Well..not in my language anyways. Eventually even the dumbest most tolerant mother's catch on. Today I am beginning Kermit's Tuxedo...now that photo shoot I look forward too. He loves to be in front of the camera.  : ))

Falling love again

I could'nt  forget my lastest copyright infringment... He was just a photo prop, or so I said. Something magical happened as this puppet came together. I found myself  falling in love. I would wake with great anticipation of building his next limb. Visiters to the house stopped at the construction table to touch (!) and animate him before his head was even attached! All Kermit has to do is open his mouth to win you over. He could look deep in thought as he did most of his basket moments with me ( I was grieving the lost of Bengi my horse, his long arms would welcome a hug!) He sat up on the arm of the chair with his legs in lap. I swear he would laugh as if being tickled when I would  analyse his feet and  imagine shoes on them. I found shoes for a DOG and bought them but he was greatly insulted by that. So we went shopping for  real shoes. It was suddenly like having a 4 year old in the house again. He will be used in a upcoming photo shoot but his fate is sealed. He belongs..to me. My Grandchildren are but a twinkle in my children's eyes at the moment...but one day, Kermit will be the entertainer he was destined to be. Just with out Hollywood. And who knows..maybe there is a Miss Piuggy on the left side of my brain too.

All the little sailors

What is about that collar? This one was a whole outfit complete with a matching skirt. White and navy; classic.

All the little sailors

All the little sailors

My introduction to the nautical world. A European magazine design activated my must-knit gene. I photo copied  the instructions then went to the library to hunt out a means to translate them. I don't speak dutch despite being married to a family of them. (There was no such thing as "babelfish" back then) Finally my mother -in-law rescued me. She could read dutch of course but not write english. She  translated and I wrote...I think it was our first real bonding. This Is Brice, my second son about age 2 and determined to ride that bike. He's 28 now and graduated to much bigger bikes. : )

this one wins the prize

Thinking back over 30 years of knitting, my all time favorite labor of love has to be:  Knitter's magazine"loops of steel"  I probably spent  3x the cost of the yarn on buttons. I just had to get it right. I bought bone ones, steel ones, wood ones..even attempted to paint toggels to match. ( a Tim Allen moment) In the end the cheapest plastic was perfect! The  bottom has little  rhinstones sewn on and I had to keep going into town to get more. Unlike normal people who COUNT  out how many are required... I guessed and was wrong, guessed and was wrong, guessed and was...

I had it "on display" in my china cabinet for months before my Husband  asked if it was a tablecloth of significance. So I wore it.

Only worn once

Probably the only made-in-Canada wool I've ever knit with. The day I wore it I was in a serious  traffic accident. I pleaded with the paramedic not to cut it off me. It remains in my closet still embedded with glass. It's a lovely testiment to my perserverance in all things.

stars and stripes

Molly on her tenth birthday.

who says you can't knit furniture!

Yah I even knitted the rug. The year of the Grandma and Grandpa barbie doll! They deserve the best. Barbie and Ken as seniors!  It happens to us all. Get a grip.

knit-a-horse please

FEENIE! He is not very veiwable here. In trying to present his  theatrical greatness (he's a functioning marionette) I sat him and a circus sweater on royal blue velvet. Which put my camera into brain overlaod.  But his face shows.. say cheese!

No brainer felting

!

Who knew?

The things that grow on that rock! A friend claimed these... she said they don't belong on moss ridden rocks.

for the 4-9 year old fashion divas

Could this explain my love of beads? I never NOT visit the bead isle when I am in Micheal's and I bring them home with me every time too..but so far this is all I have done with them. I am jewerly clueless.

forever on safari

Probably her favorite of all the knits I ever did for her. Originally a boys sweater pattern from Katia, I knew it just needed a few girl colors to make it  perfect for our ALBERTA safari. It was the year of Lime green. I remember well because I meticulously beaded about 6 pairs of matching socks! It's made with lovely worsted weight cotton (Butterfly 10 ) This is the niceset weight for hoodies! shhhh I won't  bring that to her attention if you don't.  As she began to outgrow it I added a Lion... that gave it a year or so more of wear.. then sadly Lime green left the fashion runway for those dark non colors.  It's a high school thing. Every teenager goes through it. (I did not) huh.

forever on safari

Be my Valentine

Those cute doll years. She outgrew them...but I did not. If only Valentine's day was as simple as it was back then.... something red, something to fit Molly, a chocolate heart wrapped in RED foil and I was the best mother on the planet. She's 17 now and Red is so not on her color platette. (currently knitting her a charcoal grey tweed "hoodie" and even the tweed part is iffy! ) Life sure changes

every farm has chickens

Very fine gauge yarn. I won't do it again.

More Horses

I was going for a carosal ride effect... more gauge  lessons with the different stitches and trimmed with chenille. Cute little pom poms that raised the ire of a fellow classmate in kindergarten who mischieviously cut them off!  I knit them back on as any mother would... then...the sweater went missing altogether. Life is like that. Explain "the ultimate  compliment" to a 5 year old....

We love horses!

Vogue very cherry

There's nothing like the arrival of cherries  to bring on summer. I made this  particular design 3 times! One I began for myself.... that ended up in a friend's wardrobe! How does that happen? Then for Jacinta..and again for Jacinta when she outgrew the first one! It was the perfect topping for a day at the park, or an outing with the horses or over a very cherry dress  to cover up the milkshake spill... the buttons were imported and probably cost more that than the yarn. When she outgrew it the second time I  took the buttons off and used them in a button mosaic on my bulletine board. Never say die.

Just few Y O's

Easter brings out the complicated in me. I think it was a table cloth design that inspired me. The things that get the left side of the Brain to function! I have no idea how I did this. I do however remember the unusual shaping along the neck- "short rows"  ahh yes Knitters #19!  yah this was their design that I tweaked a bit to fit the occasion. And it drank copious amounts of cotton...

GAUGE

Gauge is everything. This one is of A & J Starmore Design  "The secret garden" (The Children's collection) A simple ebay yarn that I had to have that day -pay NO mind to the gauge. ~shame~ though much loved for it's graceful design and drapey spring coat effect perfect for  that Sunday outing.. MY "devil may care atitude" made the coat come out far from the defined thick and shorter appearance of the orginal design. Not the wosrt thing to happen after all that work No one but me knew it's short coming. But a lesson learned none-the-less that differnet yarns work differently. DO a gauge swatch.

The Lion King years... (30 years of knitting continued)

I did eventually graduate to graphs and their multitude of uses in Knitting. (Just grab a coloring book of your child's choice and the sky is the limit) This sweater won rave reveiws and  warrented a "where did you get that" where-ever she went. I'll try to add the photo of Zazoo, as he graced the back of the sweater "checking in for the morning report"
A few years later we did a Nala one which Disney themselves wanted to know where did she get that? I got the: "do not sell this pattern with-out paying US a huge lisencing fee warning"..so I signed a legal waiver promising never to sell pattern, sweater OR the home made graphs. I intend to frame these sweaters in those cool  looking glass box frames you can get at Micheal's  for my front entrance and  personal museum. Stepping into my  home IS as close to going "on safari" as you can get (Life with me is a safari, just ask my husband!) Lion King was the ultimate safari. All the  charaters are insessantly minicked  especially Mufassa. " That's beyond our borders you must NEVER go there".....

30 years of knitting

It all began here...with a kit I found in the back of a magazine.
(My introduction to the world of real sheep) Probably a whole weeks wages... and my very first don't ask/don't tell how it came to be in my possession. Before this, I had knit a sweater or two which interestingly always ended up in my sister's closet... but the real addiction began with this kit. Another sister introduced me to a real yarn shop in the city and a die hard knitter was born. Eventually I discovered acrylic is best for children..as the fate of this sweater ends tragically. Not shrinking as one might think, but with a substance known to grown-ups as axle grease. Boys play a particular game where each other is "camouflaged" (?) Tragic. In the emergency room where I took my son's to have this substance removed from their eyes, ear canals and nasal passages (!) all the nurses took turns voicing sympathy over the untimely death of the sweaters. : ( Jerome age 4 (?) is my oldest son, (now 29 ys old) shown at the beginning of his sweater modeling duties for mom.

A NEW Beginning

Knitting Kermit has done something to me internally. Like a rebirth of mind-thought. (is that one word?) Out with the old and in with the new. Upwards and onwards... and all that. Maybe I'm listening to way to much Mozart. If just for a few minutes listen to "Adagio in A major" That piece speaks to me like no other piece of music. It simply reads: "A Death has occurred but those left behind must keep going. The dips in and out of emotion are to be expected but one must persevere" Didn't Mozart lose several of his children? He truly captured the heart ache and grief with-in this piece. Music and me don't have a big relationship. Yah I learned to play the violin at a young age...but never kept with it and I know few souls who LIKE to go to symphonies other than myself. Yet I draw the line of dressing to the nines to go alone. So I am a closet orchestra fan. Or worse yet... James Last.Yah. I own all his albums and get deep into a German sing along on occasion-to the point of actually trying to learn the language- How this brain of mine knows how to knit is beyond me, cause it sure can't comprehend any other languages. Knitting and music are the perfect marriage. With any crisis, be it a knock-me-down illness, a how-am-going-to-PAY-for that? or a death in the family... sitting with yarn and some loud orchestra HELPS to make it all better, if just momentarily. On this Lovely day in October I begin life again. A new beginning.