5, 4, 3, 2, 1

FIVE...

Geese on the beach this morning.

FOUR...

Songs I'm enjoying this week: Matt Kearney - New York to California and All I have.  Michael Bolton - Georgia On My Mind and M.C. Hammer - U Can't Touch This.

THREE...

Outings this week I'm hoping to attend: Afternoon tea at the Tea House, Lunch at the Pancake House and the Quilt Show.

TWO...

Dish cloths I crocheted over the weekend to go with a wedding shower gift!

ONE...

Tea towel I'm embroidering.

xoxoxxo, R

Colourful Crochet Inspiration

Here is some amazing crochet work to look at today that I seen yesterday on Twitter: Rainbow Crochet

It's a beautiful colour feast for the eyes!  Even though I can't crochet right now, I'm still looking around for ideas and inspiration for when I'm able to again.  I can't help myself, I need yarn in my life in one way or another!

xoxo,

Raili

Happily Ever After and Some Stitching

Hello,

I'm back after my somewhat long break of not knitting or crocheting.  If you know me, you know that having to stop making things and just rest is not going to last very long.  I have to be doing something at all times.  I'm not good at just sitting still, and I have this urge to make things continually.  So since I couldn't knit or crochet, I tried to think of something else I could do and came up with cross-stitch.  I have done this craft in the past but not recently, and I forgot how fun it is.  I made the above sampler for my cousin Kaitie who is getting married this weekend.  She's a girly girl like me and I thought the 'Happily Ever After' design was perfect for her, plus she loves pink too.  I also did an owl crewel embroidery kit, but I haven't gotten it framed yet, so no pictures.  Now I am working on a sampler from Anna Maria Horner's book 'Anna Maria's Needleworks Notebook.'  It's the same one she is working on that's on the cover.  The candy-like colours against the black background is stunning!

I have gotten back to my yarn crafts again now, although I'm going slow.  I started near the end of last week by knitting a baby hat for this month's Itty-Bitty charity.  My friend Jessica and I did a mini KAL over Ravelry.  It was fun to knit along with a friend, even though we weren't able to knit together in person.  It was the next best thing.

Since then, I've been slowly working on projects and taking lots of breaks to make sure my wrists, hands, and elbows get plenty of rest.  It all seems to be working well.  I've been crocheting a shawl and a baby blanket and knitting a pair of pink socks for a friend.  Today I crocheted up these cute little baby cowgirl boots:

My cousin TL is expecting her fourth baby in June and she gifted me this pattern the other day, so I made up this little pink pair this afternoon.  Now I'm working on a matching cowgirl hat that goes along with it!  The pattern is from The Lovely Crow and I can't say enough good things about these patterns.  They're so well written with detailed directions and helpful pictures as well as links to video tutorials in case you get stuck.  Plus, the patterns are adorable!  They're perfect for that "something cute" for the next baby shower on your calendar.

Well, I should be off to bed now,

xoxo

Bits and Bobs

Hello,

I've been slacking again on my blog post writing...  Things here have been very busy, and most days I haven't had the energy left in the evening to do much of anything let alone write something that would make sense.  So today I thought I'd just share some pictures with a few words here and there.  I should be able to accomplish that.

The shipping season has started, and on Saturday we seen the first boat go through.  It was the Paul R. Tregurtha, which is my favourite boat.

Over the next few days many more have gone by, and I got some pictures of a couple:

Stewart J. Cort

Edwin H. Gott

We've also had some sweet little deer hanging around the house lately trying to get snacks from what they can reach of the cedar trees.  Here they are taking a nap in the little bush just outside our house.

I did get some knitting done over the weekend.  I made up these little hats for our local hospital's maternity ward.  Well, not the ribbed one, I did that one months ago, but the striped ones are new.

Yesterday I crocheted some pretty spring flowers.  I'm not sure just yet what I am going to do with them, but they sure were fun to make!  I've had an idea of a bunting floating around in my head, so we shall see.

Well, I need to get myself back to work.  I was just taking a coffee break between batches of maple caramel popcorn.  Easter weekend is always our busiest weekend of the whole maple syrup season, so I need to have extra product available for sale.  I hope you all have a lovely day!!

xoxo,

P.S. Thank you all so much for the sweet words and excitedness that you've shared with me, both here in the comments and over on Ravelry, about the finished Granny Patchwork!!  It still hasn't made it onto my bed yet due to an incident involving my little Yorkie, cat pee and my duvet cover.  But in the meantime while everything airs out, I've been using it on my window bench as a lap blanket and have found it to be very snuggly and warm!

Granny Patchwork Blanket

It's done!!  Yay!  This blanket has probably been the most fun one that I've worked on yet, I can't wait to snuggle up with it tonight!!

xoxo,

P.S. I've already started another blanket journey...more to come soon! xx

This & That

Hello,

I have planned and tried to write a post many times over the last week, but every time I do, I just can't seem to come up with the right words.  I thought I might as well give it another go today and just see what happens, so I apologize in advance if it's rambly and nonsensical.

Our weather here today is beautiful, sunny and bright.  The temperature is still chilly though, so it feels more like winter today than spring.

The ice cutters have been going up the river the last couple of days, so I think the shipping season must be getting ready to open soon.  Every year it's the same thing, I never notice how much I enjoy and look forward to seeing the ships until they stop for these few months during the winter.  I can honestly say that I'm waiting eagerly to see the first one go through!

Well, it's Easter time, or at least getting-ready-for-Easter time.  My Mom picked up this cute wreath for my door the other day.  I smile every time I look at it.  I haven't done any Easter crafting yet, but I think I better start soon if I want to have anything done in time.  I've been toying with the idea of knitting a bunny, so we shall see.

I know I've already shown this little sweater I crocheted before, but I wanted to share this picture of it with the crochet edged fleece blanket I made to go along with it.

I also made this little dress and pink dot blanket recently.  Both of these gifts are heading out in the mail tomorrow for California to two new baby cousins.  The blanket pattern is from Linda Permann's Craftsy course Crafty Crochet Embellishments, and is a great quick gift project.

Before I go, I wanted to say a huge thank you to you all for your sweet and caring comments on my last post.  I am doing much better and I feel like I've turned the corner on the sadness and hopelessness.  Now I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, and it doesn't seem as far away as it did before.  I found a verse in the Bible last night that I've begun saying to myself: "Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you-rise to a new life]!  Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!" Isaiah 60:1.  This is from the Amplified version of the Bible, and I find it so great because it actually uses the word depression, and it expands on the verse opening it up bringing more meaning and relevancy on what these words would have meant in the original text. I remember Joyce Meyer saying how David would talk to himself and ask himself "soul, why are you downcast?" and then he would encourage himself by saying "Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God." (Psalm 42:5)  So I have begun speaking Isaiah 60:1 to myself to encourage myself.  I think we underestimate the power of self-talk.  It really is so important, because we believe what we say about ourselves more than we believe what others say about us.  I'm going to make an effort to change the negative way I have been speaking to myself into a positive way, and I think my mood will change for the better.  I also learned that many times throughout the Psalms when David was feeling depressed he would remember the times when God had helped him in the past.  So I have been trying to do the same.  God has brought me through so much, I just need to remember those times and know that He will bring me though this time as well.  He always does, because He is faithful and He never changes.  It's been a great encouragement and comfort to me to know that even when people, things, and circumstances change, God never does, so I can fully trust Him to take care of me.  I've been one of those people who tries to take care of themselves all my life and now I see that this has got to change.  It's hard to let go of it sometimes, but I know that it is the only way I am ever going to experience real freedom.  And really, how silly is it to think that I can do a better job at something than God?  I know that I'm not going to change overnight and that I'll need to be patient and forgiving with myself all the while, but it will get better each day.  I hold onto that hope, and trust that God will work the necessary changes in me as I continue to trust in Him.

I hope that you are having a great week and I will try to be back again soon, hopefully with a finished blanket to share!

xoxo

Ugh

Hello,

Ugh...is the word that best describes how I am feeling today.  This unfortunately has been a bit of a trend with me lately.  I just feel so uninspired and down and just sort of off, without a real definite reason as to why.  This has a lot to do with why I haven't been blogging recently.  I try to keep my posts upbeat and on the happy side and I didn't want to bring you down with my whinny-ness.  But lately I've been wanting to take the blog in a more personal direction - like a scrapbook/journal of my everyday life - and I thought I might as well just write a post whether I was feeling down, up or in-between   I hope you don't mind.  I promise to do my best to cheer up again soon and my posts should be back to normal as well.

I don't have any pictures today, just words.  But I do have some yarny news: my Patchwork Granny Blanket is on the last two final rows of squares.  Due to many different reasons I haven't been able to work on it 24/7 as I would like, but it's coming along nicely, even if it is a little slower than I'd prefer.  I'm already anticipating getting to work on the boarder, it's one of my most favourite parts of the whole blanket process - it's where you are still getting the thrill of working on the blanket, but yet you are so close to the beautiful end product that it's almost hard to crochet fast enough!  I'm hoping to get a chance to spend a little time with it this evening and maybe even get one more row done.  I also need to spend some time finishing up my dishcloth from last week...I let that one slip by me and ended up starting it on Sunday night right before bed.  It's officially two rows past half-way right now and I just need about 20 minutes or so of straight-on knitting to finish it up.  I should probably put it before the blanket, but we will see what happens.  I think the blanket is calling my name much more loudly and I may not be able to resist it.

I hope that your week is going well and that you are enjoying some spring-like weather in your parts.  It's been nice and sunny here lately, but today is a grey one.  I'm beginning to think those groundhogs were right, we seem to be in for an early spring!

xoxo

Preoccupied

Hello!

My goodness, it feels like an age since I last wrote!  I think it was Thursday to be exact.  But I do have to say that I had a pretty good excuse for neglecting the blog.  I started something last Friday night and it has been demanding all of my time.  It happens to be one of those projects that you just can't tear yourself away from, it demands all your attention morning, noon, and night.  I'm not complaining though.  It's one of those cheery, bright, fun sorts of things, and right now I could use all three in my life.  

Here's a peek at my progress over the last few days:

Sunday Morning

Sunday Late Afternoon

Monday Morning

Tuesday Morning 

As you can see I've been spending a good portion of my days with this blanket and it's coming along swimmingly.  The pattern is from Lucy of Attic24 and is called Granny Patchwork Blanket.  She created it as a way to use up her stash of Stylecraft yarn, and since I had my own little stash of it left over from my Granny Stripes Blanket, I thought it would be just the thing.  And I couldn't have been more right.  It feels great to have the joy back in working a project.  I didn't fully realize how much I missed it until I started to work on something that gave me such a thrill as this does.  It really is such a pleasure to work on.  Speaking of that, I'm going to go hook up some more squares before my afternoon run.  I hope you have a lovely day, and I will be back again when I can pull myself away from this lovely long enough to write!

xoxo

In-Progress

Hello,

Today I thought I'd talk a little bit about what's currently on my hooks.  Above is my first try at Broomstick Lace.  This is one of the techniques that I wanted to learn this year as part of my New Years Resolutions.  I'm starting out with a baby blanket, and so far it's going well.  I really like the lacy-ness of it, and it's nice and drapey.
There is a little bit of a back story to this project: When my sister was born, someone made her a gorgeous yellow Broomstick Lace baby blanket, and I remember when we were little we'd play house and she would wrap her baby doll up in it all the time. I thought it was the most beautiful blanket ever and always wanted to wrap my dolly up in it, but my sister wasn't too keen on that!  So right then and there I knew I wanted to make my own someday.  When I first learned to knit I was so excited and asked Mom if I could make one of these blankets, but she told me it was crochet.  Then when I finally learned how to crochet I went and asked her again about the blanket and she told me it was a totally different kind of crochet done with a broomstick handle and I had to learn how to regular crochet first.  That was a couple of years ago, so when I was making up my resolutions list for this year I figured I finally had the basics of crochet down and could try tackling this technique!  I did want to do it in yellow so it would be like the original one, but I thought I'd try to do some stashbusting at the same time and all I had was this blue yarn.  If I like how it turns out I'm going to make a yellow one and keep it for when I have my own babies to wrap up in it.  Maybe I'll save this blue one for my sister!

The other thing that I have on the go right now is this cute little baby sweater.  I came across this pattern yesterday and thought it was just the thing I was looking for.  I'm using some Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Baby Sport from my stash.  The main colour is this cobalt blue and I'm doing a contrast edge in fresh green.
Well, that's what's on my hooks for today, what's on yours?

xoxo

Calming Ripples

Hello,

It's another snowy day here today.  I took the above photo this morning to try and show just how much it was snowing, but it didn't really capture it very well.

This one shows it a little better.  Not sure if you can tell, but they are nice big fat flakes.  Right now it's slowed down some and is falling more gently but the flakes are still big.  I'm hoping it clears up soon because Mom and I have to go to the city in a few hours.

We had quite the hectic day here yesterday, which involved me having to call the ambulance for my Mom who was experiencing extreme dizziness early in the morning.  I had to put all the animals (remember there are 4 of them) in separate rooms, feed them, try to get myself dressed and makeup on, talk to the dispatcher and attempt to make sense as well as remember where I lived (which I didn't do the best on...we won't even mention how I forgot my own phone number...), call our neighbour to come and look after our lab who was sick the day before, flag the ambulance people to the right door, help my Mom get dressed, convince her that she needed to go to the hospital even though she was reluctant to go, make the decision that she was going no questions about it, find my own coat, boots and purse as well as Mom's, go in the ambulance with her, and stay with her while she was assessed - and all this before I had even had breakfast let alone coffee.  Thankfully our neighbour got her daughter to stay with our dog and she came out to the hospital bringing coffee and welcomed company, and even drove us back home again.  The good news is that Mom is okay, praise the Lord.  She has to have some extra tests done today at the hospital in the city, but they are thinking it was an inner ear thing.  We're just praying for a quick and complete healing of it and she will be back to her normal self again here soon.
So needless to say, by the time evening rolled around, I knew I needed something soothing to work on to help calm my nerves.  I had picked up a bunch of Martha Stewart 100% Merino yarn a while ago when it was on sale at Michael's for $2.99 a ball with the thought of making a ripple blanket.  And last evening I remembered Lucy of Attic24 saying how soothing it was to work on her ripple blanket so I thought it would be the perfect thing for me.  I started around 8:00 pm and got so immersed in the soothing ripples that I didn't end up putting it down until quite late.  I picked it back up again this morning and I'm almost done the 4th colour which is a nice Poppy red.  I can see many calming and enjoyable hours and days ahead where I will be rippling away.  I think this was just the thing I needed to help me get over my "not-wanting-to-make-anything" phase, because I also started pair of socks.  I should have a photo of them to show you tomorrow.  Until then, I will be rippling away...

Much love to you all,
xoxo

Wordless Wednesday

xoxo

My Monday

Hello,

Today I thought I'd share some little snippets from my day yesterday.  As you can see, it was a gorgeous sunny winter's day.  It's been lovely to see the sun lately after quite a few dreary and snowy days.  Not that I mind the snow of course, it's so nice to actually have a "real" winter.

I've been working on more dishcloths.  I started this one during an afternoon lull.  The colours are nice and cheery and remind me of summertime.

I've been in a Valentine mood these last few days, so I had to knit these two.  The one on the left, the real verigated one, is my favourite.  I only had one ball, but I could knit quite a few cloths in this colour!  I may have to pick up a couple more next time I'm at Michael's.

Pride and Prejudice is what's currently on my nightstand.  Although it's actually on my floor as you can see since I don't have a nightstand.  It's something I hope to get in the near future.  I think it would be nice to have a place to put my book as well as a lamp for reading at night.  Right now I have white twinkle lights strung up on my back wall for extra lighting at night, but a lamp would really help with my bedtime reading.

 Mr. Bingley had himself a very cozy nap on my Granny Stripes in the afternoon.  This is his favourite blanket.  He has to give it a good kneading each time he sees it.

And finally!  Something other than a dishcloth has been in the works.  Hopefully I'll have some finished photos to share tomorrow.

I hope that you all had a lovely Monday and that your Tuesday is getting off on the right foot!  Have a lovely day,
xoxo

Slug-Along

Hello,

Fresh Stitches is having a Slug-Along right now on her blog and Ravelry Group, and I couldn't help myself so I sorta joined in.  I already had the pattern and honestly, what could be cuter than a slug-along?  I didn't crochet along with the group like I had originally planned, but I crocheted my slug on my own.  I still had fun, and I think she turned out pretty cute!

Meet Millicent the Slug:

I used some Knit Picks Simply Cotton I had in my stash, which I think works really nicely in crochet and it made for a nice soft toy.  I haven't washed this yarn in the washing machine or dried it though, so I'm not sure how good it is for toys, but since she's just for me I don't think it matters that much.  It says it is machine washable and dry-able on the label, so I think it should be fine, but I might do a test before I do any more just to make sure.  The pattern is, as usually, extremely well written, straightforward and fun.  I cannot recommend Stacey's patterns enough, they're fabulous!  I own a ton of them and hopefully will get around to crocheting some more up soon.  There's nothing like making a little toy to cheer you up!

Have a wonderful day, and if you'd like to make your very own little slug friend, you can still join in on all the fun until February 13th.  You can find out all the details here.

xoxo

Socks, Mittens and a Dress

Hello,

Wow, I have really been slacking in the blogging department lately.  I'm so sorry about that.  I hope to be back to myself here soon and back to posting regularly as well.

After my last post and with no WIPs left to finish up, I cast on for a new pair of socks using some gorgeous yarn my swap partner Richelle sent me in the Itty-Bitty Group's Mini Valentine Swap.  It's Alcidina Skyward Special Edition and the colourway is Destiny.  This yarn company is really neat because they base their colours on images from the Space Station.  I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little, so I found this particularly thrilling.  The results were this:

Destiny Socks

The yarn came with a larger skein for the leg and foot portion and had a little mini skein as well to do the toes and heels.  I thought that was such a neat idea!  I'm so happy with these, they're just gorgeous!

I also made a couple other projects over the weekend:

Hippi Hot Baby Dress

These little baby dresses seem to be my go-to crochet projects lately.  They're so cute and fast!

Lollipop Mittens

My friend Julie gifted me the Waiting for Winter Mittens and Fingerless Gloves pattern a couple weeks ago, which I have been wanting to try since it first came out, and I finally got the chance to knit myself a pair.  I used Knit Picks Chroma in Lollipop (my favourite!) so they would match my favourite hat that my sister knit for me out of the same colour.  Now I have a matching set!!

Well, I hope that you are all having a great week and that you're staying warm and dry where you are.  We're in the middle of a snowfall warning right now, and I can honestly say I'm totally enjoying it!

xoxo

Wordless Wednesday

Little Tweet Cloth - Dishcloth Challenge #2

Rosey the Critter

Orange Blossoms Dress

Best Baby Cloche #1

Best Baby Cloche #2

Marching Elephants Baby Hat

Pastel Marley Baby Hat

Added a crocheted flower on top instead of the curly-q's

Dream Catcher Baby Boy Hat

Opal Socks

Radiant Shawl

Whoo Loves Ya Baby Dishcloth - Dishcloth Challenge #3

Nel the Tiny Owl

Owl Ornament

xoxo