Happy Belated Canada Day!!

Hello Knitters,

I know I said I was going to be back on Wednesday with a picture of me in my dress I sewed, but you know what, I forgot my camera at home when we went to the graduation! My Aunt did get a picture of me, so hopefully I can get a copy from her and share it with you soon. I wanted to write on Wednesday and update you all, but I wasn't feeling very well, so I just laid low and relaxed. Yesterday was super busy, I baked bread and worked on various things and before I knew it the day was done! So here I am today :-) Ready to share a few projects.

First off, last Sunday after I finished my Seaside socks, I began another pair of socks using Knit Picks Felici Fingering weight in Positively Pink. I'm using a pattern written for a child's sock and adjusting it to fit my feet. I really liked the design and wanted to have a pair of my own! So far it's working out. I've gotten to where I'm about to start the heel. These are anklets so I can wear them even on warmer days. Here's a picture:



The next thing I wanted to show you all is the finished project bags for the giveaway winners. They are now all ready to go. I'm hoping to mail them out on Monday. I thought it best to wait till after the holidays to send them out.

And last, but certainly not least is my most current project. It is a Wrap-Me-Up Puppy from Itty Bitty Toys. I'm making it for a special someone and will reveal more once it's complete. I started this on Wednesday, but soon realized I forgot my fiberfill at home last week, so this evening my sister and I are going to Fabricland to look for wedding related material, and I thought I'd pick up a bag while there so I can get this little one finished soon. I also hope we get a chance to go to Walmart so I can pick up a ball of cotton yarn to make the blanket with since I don't have any colours that I want for it here. My goal is to have this done by the end of the weekend.

Yesterday was Canada Day here. We didn't do anything exciting, but I'm hoping that on the weekend we will be able to have some sort of a celebration. I'm thinking of combining Canada Day with the Fourth of July since part of my Dad's family lives in the States and I feel like I have a small little bit of American on the inside of me :-)

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to the long weekend. Take care to be safe and enjoy the festivities!!

Happy Knitting!!

Chats and Socks

Good Morning Knitters,

How is everyone doing this lovely day? It's quite windy here but other than that, it's sunny and beautiful. My Mom is coming up today and we're going to go out shopping for a bit this afternoon. Tonight is my cousin Matthew's high school graduation. I started sewing myself a dress for the occasion (can't remember if I mentioned that or not) and it's almost done. I just need a little help from my Mom with advice about the hem and some hand sewing. Hopefully I can get some pictures of me in it and post those tomorrow. The fabric that I used is a cotton voile, and it's so comfy. I've never worked with cotton voile before, but I'm so glad that I chose it for this dress. It's flowy and silky which I was surprised at for being 100% cotton. Anna Maria Horner has some voile in one of her lines that I've been looking at, so now that I know how it wears, I think I might have to purchase some in the future.

As promised, I'll give you all an update on what I did this past weekend:

Like I mentioned earlier last week, my sister's bridesmaid Jessica came for a weekend visit. It was so great to see her since I haven't in about 5 years! She's such an awesome friend, and I miss her so much! It was great to get to catch up. We didn't do a whole lot of things other than chat! On Friday Mom and I picked her up at the airport in the morning, then we got some lunch, headed back to my sister's and just talked. My sister came home from her business trip that evening and that brought a lot more catching up! Saturday Jess taught me how to cook ribs and we made a nice dinner of Maple Glazed Ribs, Broccoli Cheddar Salad, Jell-o with Fruit Salad, Whipped Mashed Potatoes and Baguette. For dessert I made a Chocolate Snack Cake. It was so much fun to cook together and I learned a lot. I'm excited for the next time I can make a full meal. Improving my cooking skills has been a goal of mine. Last night I made my sister a Mushroom Wild Rice Soup, she said it turned out good, and I found I really enjoyed making it. I've already begun to plan meals for the rest of the week/weekend. Since July 1st is on Thursday, I'm going to make something special, and then I really like to make things for the 4th (it's my inner American coming out!), so I need to start planning that as well. I think I will do some research online for some cute ideas. Now where was I....oh right, Jess's visit. Sunday we were planning on relaxing until her flight time at 4:00 pm, but she got a call around 12:00 pm, that said her flight was cancelled and they were putting her on an earlier one, so we all rushed around to get ready and managed to get her there on time. After that, Sayja and I went to the grocery store and then came home and just laid low the rest of the day. Jake came over in the evening and he and Sayja watched a movie while I did some knitting. All in all, it was a great weekend. A bit too short in my opinion, I would have liked to have had much more time to spend with Jess, but it was great the time we did get to spend together. She says she'll be back again before the wedding, so I'm looking forward to that.

I did manage to get a knitting project completed over the weekend (chalk it up to all that talking time). I started and finished a pair of toe-up socks using Felici Sport in the Seaside colourway.

I also never got the chance to post a picture of the socks I made a little while ago using Felici Sport in Neapolitan. I wanted to share these with you earlier, but I some how managed to leave one sock at home and had one sock here, so I couldn't take a "pair" picture. Now they are together, so here it is:

These ones are cuff-down. I tried to match the stripes on these ones, while the other ones I just decided to wing it. I like how both turned out, but I must say that the toe-up ones are my favourite because the heel is very comfortable. Sometimes when doing cuff-down I end up making the heel pick up stitches bulky on the inside, but with toe-up, that whole process is completely eliminated. This is by far some of the best sock yarn I've used though. Very soft and warm and great since it's sport weight it knits up so fast!

Well, that's about all the news I have to share right now! I should go and get myself ready to go out this afternoon. Have a great day everyone!

Happy Knitting!!

And the Winners Are....

Hello Knitters,

I've picked the winners for my blogiversary giveaway! I'm so excited for both of them :-)

Winner #1 - (Comment #2) Lisa said...I'd love to be in your giveaway...that yarn is beautiful and I love the project bags, too. Happy Blogiversary!

Winner #2 - (Comment #20) One Sheep said...Happy Blogiversary, and Thanks for the giveaway. The flowers are beautiful, and the prizes are too. If I don't win a prize, may I have some flowers?

Congratulations Lisa and One Sheep!! Please email me at fairytaleknits@live.com with your mailing address and I will get these prizes out to you as soon as possible.

I'm sorry I never got back with pictures of the finished project bags, but the cording I bought was too big, so I need to pick up some smaller ones tomorrow. I will post a finished picture of both before I send them off.

It's been a super long day for me today, so I will be back again tomorrow with an update of my weekend and what I've been up to. Congratulations again to the winners!

Happy Knitting!!

Polka Dot Twirly Skirt

Hello Knitters,

This is going to be a quick post since I'm in the middle of getting ready to leave. My sister is away on business, so I'm going home for a few days. I will be back here again on Friday when my sister's bridesmaid Jessica is flying in for a weekend visit. Until then, I'm going home for a bit of relaxing and enjoying being by the water :-)

One of the things I wanted to share with you all today is my "polka dot twirly skirt" I made yesterday. I know the picture above is a bit dark, but I got my sister to take it after midnight last night when she got home from work. The pattern I used was Burda Young 7910 and it's View A. It's a super fast and easy pattern. I would say it took me 2 or 2 1/2 hours to complete it from start to finish. It consists of two skirt panels (front and back) that are sewn down the sides and an elastic waistband with casing and then you just hem it. Next time though, I think I will do french seams so that it's more finished on the inside. Now I just need to find a top to wear with it!

The other thing I want to tell you about is The Love Bug Experiment. You can read the full story here or check out the Ravelry group. I came across this yesterday and thought it was such a great idea. The general plan is to knit, crochet or sew a "love bug" then attach a kind note and leave it somewhere to be found by someone else just for the sake of touching other people's lives and bringing them a smile. I thought it was so cute! Kelsey over at Caffeinated Frenzy has an adorable "love bug" knitting pattern, or you can make any pattern you'd like. There are lots of cute ones on Ravelry so the possibilities are endless!! I'm going to have to make some "love bugs" soon and place them around town! I hope that you join in, there's nothing better than being able to brighten up someone's day :-)



(Love bug photos by Kelsey Leib)

Well, I should get back to getting my things together. I will try to post while at home, but if things don't work out I should be back by Friday. Have a great day everyone!

Happy Knitting!!

Blogiversary Giveaway!!

Happy "First Day of Summer" Knitters,

I hope you are all enjoying this lovely day! As promised, I'm having my one year blogiversary giveaway today! Are you ready to see the prizes? Well, here they are:

This time I'm having two winners!!

Winner #1 will receive two skeins (one blue 604 and one blue 630) of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton as well as one large project bag and one small project bag (made by me).

Winner #2 will receive two skeins (one purple 618 and one yellow 638) Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton as well as one medium project bag and one small project bag (also made by me).

You can seen the corresponding project bags in the group picture. They're not completely done, that's why I didn't take full pictures of them. I'll try to get some up as soon as they are done. All that's left is to add the drawstrings, but what I had originally bought for them is not going to work so I need to find something else. The larger project bags are big enough to hold medium sized projects, and the small project bags are the right size for socks or small toy projects.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment at the end of this post. The contest will be open for one week, and I will announce the winners on Monday June 28th, 2010. Good luck to everyone!

I thought I'd leave you all for today with some pictures I took this morning in my sister's garden. What a perfect way to begin the summer, don't you think?

Happy Knitting Everyone!!

P.S. Sorry for the edit, but the post posted itself before I was finished.

A Little Advice

Hello Knitters,

I'm back with a few pictures to share. I wanted to blog last night, but I was too tired by the time I actually got the chance to sit down and write. I thought it would be much better if I waited until today so I'd actually make some sense!
I'll start off with a picture of Jake's birthday pie. It is a banana cream pie that has chocolate and peanut butter layered over the crust and then topped with banana cream filling, whipped cream, homemade chocolate sauce and honey roasted peanuts. Wow, that was quite the list! lol


Next, I wanted to show you a picture of the fabric from the skirt I'm working on. It's by Sandi Henderson and I think this print is called Lei. I really like it, it's very summery and just right for a skirt.

To update you on my sewing progress: I haven't gotten the chance to sew every single day this past week, and this weekend I'm going home for a couple days and won't be taking the sewing machine with me, so I'll be missing out on a few more days. I've been having some difficulty getting to my sewing every day, so I asked for some advice in the 30 Days of Sewing group on how everyone fits their sewing (and knitting or crafting in general) time into their day, and I got so many great responses and tips. I'm going to make a real effort at putting them into practice! I find that I start out my day with all the good intentions of fitting in everything I would like to do, but then it seems like life happens and I never get around to completing these things. One great tip that a couple people gave was to schedule my sewing time into my planner. Rae Lynne of Drip Drip Drop, suggested putting it on my to-do list as if it were exercise. I thought that was such a great idea. A lot of times I feel guilty for taking time out to sew or knit, especially if I'm making something for myself. This is something I want to work on overcoming. I need to convince myself that it's ok for me to take some time to just do something for myself. In a lot of ways it's actually a good thing for everyone, because if I have that "me time" then I find I'm a better person for it. I'm more happier and that reflects onto everyone I come into contact with. So starting now, I'm going to work on scheduling my sewing time for this challenge into my planner, work on not being so hard on myself about making things for me, and fit some "me time" into each day. It's great to have goals to work towards! I heard this week that unwritten goals are just wishes, so that's why you have to write them down. When you do, you'll actually complete them. That's something that stuck with me and I'm going to make a real effort to do that!

Well, I should be going. I have to pack up some things to take home with me tonight. I want to leave you all with a little "sneak peek" of something I've been working on for my blog giveaway (which will start on Monday!).

Have a great weekend everyone, and don't forget that Sunday is Father's Day! Take some time to show your Daddy just how much you care and how thankful you are for him.

Happy Knitting!!

Cleaning House

Good Afternoon Knitters,

Today I am cleaning house. It's garbage day so I thought I might as well do a full cleaning at the same time. My sister has been very busy at work and I wanted to do something to help her out. Since we're both living here right now and I spend the majority of the time here during the day I thought I should do the cleaning. I've got most of it done, but I do still need to mop the floors. I thought I'd take a quick break and grab something to eat and write a post, then I'll get back to it.

I'm hoping to get a chance to do some sewing today. Yesterday I spent most of the day/evening in the kitchen. I baked a banana cream pie that takes a while to assemble (I've still got to put the finishing touches on it this afternoon, I should have some pictures to share tomorrow) for my sister's fiance's birthday which is today, then I made some "healthier" banana muffins so my sister could have something to take with her for lunch, I also made her a vegetarian pizza for dinner. I enjoyed my day baking and cooking, but by the time I was done I was way too tired to sew anything. I did sneak in a tiny bit of knitting on my sock though.

Well, that's about all for now. I just wanted to write a quick update. I should be back tomorrow with some pictures of my sewing progress :-)

Happy Knitting!