What's Blooming in my Garden

Weekend Crafting

Just back from a wonderful weekend of crafting with the girls! It's such a great break from everyday life. We all need that so badly sometimes! Gabbing, scrapbooking, knitting, collaging, painting, eating, watching movies, drinking, staying up too late... It is renewal, restoration, just plain good!
I wish I could say I accomplished more, but I got what I needed. And Aidan is so happy with his new slippers. I will try to get some better photos of other projects I worked on soon.

This was the first time I used this pattern, called "Non-felted Slippers" which I got from Ravelry. I made them just as the pattern suggested - same needle size and everything. I made them with a couple of shades of a chunky weight yarn that I have had for a while. The pattern says they make a ladies size medium and with a 5.5 mm needle they are plenty big enough for me and will fit Aidan for at least a year or two. If I make myself a pair, I will go down one needle size. 

Organization is Good

I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner! This rake has been in my room since we moved here and I just thought to use it to organize my necklaces. I have untangled you wily beasties for the last time!

What's Blooming in My Garden Today

The gardens at my place are amazing! I'm going to document what's blooming every week for the entire growing season. I can't believe how warm it is this week! 22 degrees and sunny today! It's just not natural! I know it's a bad thing, this global warming... but so hard not to be happy with such a gorgeous day.

Painted Forest

Winter is still here... Not enough snow for snowmobiling, but cold enough to wear some wonderful, warm and wooly handmade goodies. I'm enjoying this Bulky Mobius Cowl that I made recently with Nashua Painted Forest bulky wool. 
Plus, I love how it looks with my new Fossil bag!

Freeform Knitting



I completed this scarf months ago, but I'm a bit behind on blogging. This was my kind of knitting! I roughly followed Jane Thornley's "recipe" for her Baked Squash Scarf - find it on her blog or ravelry.com. She encourages making it up as you go, which is the kind of thing I love! A bit of feather and fan on the top and bottom and random stitches for the rest, just making holes here and there. The ribbon section in the middle is done increasing and decreasing numbers of yarn overs, which are all dropped on the following row. I like the monochromatic colour scheme, but I can't wait to try this with more colours too.  This was made with 5-6 different balls of yarn - mostly natural fibres - cotton, wool, bamboo, linen - it feels lovely.

I'm so inspired by Dina Wakley! (I have taken her online Art Journaling 101 class and highly recommend it!)  I created these cards using her techniques and I'm teaching them at the Scrapbook Shop in Mildmay on Nov. 23rd at 7pm. Please give them a shout if you are interested in attending! I'm super excited! Lots of messy, inky, spray painty goodness is used on these! I had so much fun making them, I kept right on going and made a bunch more!