Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ~ The Dalai Lama
Who knew.... what a little ray of sunshine a cute knitted teddy bear could bring. I know I didn't until this beautiful little bear was finished tonight. (see below for before assembly and the final almost done - except for his face.) Thank you Barbara Prime at Fuzzy Mitten.
Today in Toronto, was a sunny beautiful typical Canadian winter day, it was lovely. It was a wonderful day to spend inside warm, balling hanks, fiddling and unwinding yarn that was once in knots, and finishing cute and adorable teddy bears all the while chatting with one's dearest friends.
This lovely bunch of delicious yarn is all of the yummy goodness I will need to make a scalloped Colinette blanket. This blanket kit was purchased late last fall in Belleville at a charming quilt/knittery store that was selling off all of its yarn (Yes, I know very wrong) for a whopping 50% off (Yes, I know amazing. An I was able to purchase enough sock yarn, mohair and hand painted hanks that the owner after a little haggling agreed to sell me this Colinette kit for 50% off too. Yes I scored...but its been sitting in its bag awaiting time to ball all of the hanks, because otherwise it could be hand-winding hell...and I didn't want to hate the Colinette blanket before I started, but know there is no excuse. The next pictures you will see of this yarn will it being knitted into a wonderful blanket.
The day is wrapping up with a blustery, cold finish leaving Toronto covered in a white blanket. I am happy to be crawling into bed for a snugly sleep. Sweet dreams.
So here's my question - Why would this self made young woman a) marry such a loser as Kevin Federline and b) why in G-d's name would she shave her hair off?
I found the recent publicity surrounding BS, quite disturbing probably because a) she had everything going for her, b) she obviously found the disolution of her marriage quite damaging c) she has been doing a lot of irrational and obviously ill-thought out act - a bit of an attention seeker and d) has slipped inot a repeat-offender self destructive individual. I feel sad for her, only because she has lost her grip on reality and this may potentila affect her kids, and they didn't do anything to deserve that. Hopefully she willcheck into another rehab soon and deal with whatever is eating her.
All of this just makes me want to knit her a pink hat. :)
Look up...way up (for those of you who are Canadian and of a certain generation you know the Jolly Giant), above is the fabulous Yarn-a-holic Anonymous Monday evening Meet-up gang at Meeting No. 2.
What a wonderful group of ladies, they don't seem to mind my over-enthusiasm and organization tactics (yes, I am referring to the name tags and table-top sign)and even more, last night we had a show & tell event and people seemed to enjoy sharing knitty horror stories and triumphs (mine was my single squirrely mitten - seen below.
Even more interesting to me was the realization of how much I adore the company of other women and how our lives weave together like intricately patterned and colourfully knitted blankets. We all have our stories, common experiences and have the ability to guide those of us at varied stages of life experiences through in an incredibly supportive matter. I feel truly blessed and enriched by this new experience and am looking forward to nurturing it and watching it grow.
So as usual, the weekend has flown by and another week is coming on full steam ahead. Time is something that when taken for granted flyes by in a blur and leaves us wondering where it has run away too. **Sigh**
Today was an especially awful day, filled with board financial literacy training - cause that just how you want to spend half of your Sunday; cranky mean-spirited children; general family snappiness and finally emotional outbursts resulting in drastic parenting actions - which then leave the remaining uninvolved family members feeling off and slightly down. I do realize that all families have days and weekends like this...but I really didn't need a bad day. Thanks G-d for knitting!!!
I have been busy working on bear, Suzie bunny's cousin, and although its coming slowly...its coming. Thus far the body and legs have been completed, although not stuffed yet. And yes, I have realized upon previewing this post, that I have not matered the art of digital photo taking, unlike many of my blogging expert counterparts.
I am not quite sure why,b ut knitting these little toys bring me a great deal of joy, I can only assume because they are simple to knit, they don't take a lot oftime, and when your finished, you have a wonderful finished product who can't jelp but to make you smile.
This to me is sunshine at the end of a long grey day. :-)
teAfter many many days of ooogling and admiring of Julie's blog - see little cotton rabbit link to left of blog, I finally decided to hunt down a knitted bunny and teddy pattern. Fortunately for me I stumbled upon the amazing Barbara Prime of FuzzyMitten fame on Etsy and came across the most beautiful bunny pattern ever.
So excited was on last Friday that I rushed down to Romni wool early'ish on Saturday to have some one-on-one wool bonding time. I think I would like to sleep n that store one day and just feel and smell all of the yarn and read through patterns. To anyone who is a yarn-a-holic like me it is an irresistible store. I covet everything in it and one day hope to retire near it. HA HA HA. At a minimum weekly visits will be planned.
I was able to purchase a cone of 100% yarn in a beautiful shade of oatmeal and a second large ball that came off a cone that is a wonderful colour of cafe latté - yummy. I figured this way I could test my bunny and see how I liked her. All I had to do was wait for my patterns...
Finally, I was able to sort out my technology newness (with Paypal) and then the wonderful Barbara send over the PDF patterns. It seems like a long time since I was this excited about a project and I couldn't wait to start knitting.
I worked on Bunny about 2 hours on Saturday and another 2 on Sunday and finally stuffed and sewed her up late Sunday evening. Olyvia was so excited to see her almost done that she has demanded that bunny be hers...we'll see about that.
Bunny went on her first outing last night - to the first Yarn-a-holics Anonymous meeting. It was a lovely evening of knitting, baby admiring, hot chocolate sipping joy and bunny got her fare share of admiration. I have started to work on her dress and am hoping to have it done soon as I am quite eager to get knitting her brother bear. Here's a picture of her:
And yes, I know Susie bunny does not have a tail as of yet, but she is coming to the next Monday Yarn-a-holic's Anonymous meeting to get help in creating her pompom tail.
I cannot put into words how grateful I am that it is Friday. It has been a rather freakishly weird week - that has flown by in such a hurry that I am left wondering where my time went and feeling sad at my lack of knitting accomplishment.
For those of you who are mothers to teenagers, I am sure you can understand my angst in meeting my daughter Olyvia's first boyfriend. Now technically she isn't supposed to be dating until she sixteen...which is in another 65 days (yes we are on the countdown, however after coming to terms with the fact that she is "dating" this boy, I decided to meet him. Although, not the typical cute preppy person I would have personally perhaps chosen for a partner, Levon seems to be a nice enough young man and after giving him the usual "you hurt her, I hurt you" speech that all mothers must give we settled into a natural rhythm of get-a-long ness.
All I know is that TGIF- because this weekend makes for a quiet one in my house - given that the three boys are with their other parents.
David and I have no major life committments except to celebrate our fabulous neice Laura's birthday on Sunday, which means I can make some time for dedicated sock knitting. I am determined to finish this first evil sock...still not finishd from a number of posts ago and vent to myself about the trials of mothering your teenage daughter as she discovers the joys of 'relationships' and dating. **sigh**
So, I have to tell you how excited I am. Yes, my best friend Meredith is probably still rolling on the floor laughing her ass off at my over enthusiasm, but I am truly thrilled by the warm reception that the knitting community is giving to my new little 'meetup' group. I do like knitters - such a friendly group.
So in less than 24 hours hours we now have 11 members and hopefully will get a small but reasonable turn out to the first 'meetup' event next Monday. If not, I am all ready busy planning the next few meetings just to ensure that things don't slow down too much. I think it will be great to meet people who like to knit as much as I do and am looking forward to the new faces and knitting expertise.
Fun! Although funny enough, David my partner is all ready complaining and I haven't even gone to a meeting yet. Funny. :)
OK so I am definitely becoming very tech savvy! HA HA HA....
Not really just exploring and getting rather fascinated by how technology can further your interests - like mine to meet other people who like knitting. As I have eluded to in other posts knitters and most people that I have meet who like wool just seem like down to earth and humour filled folks. Almost all have seemed normal except for the occasional wacko who is over the top even for me....which is hard to do.
So I came across the Stitch n'Bitch in T.O meetup group, but they only met on Wednesday's which is probably one of the only nights of the week that truly sucks for me to out as I have a wonderful night with my family and especially my son Taylor who comes for his mid-week visit. It also happens to be a wonderful night to ask the teenage mutants to stay in compared to Shabbat (Friday) when keeping them in usually ends with one of them telling me "You are ruining my life". So this was my long way of saying Wednesday's were out.
So after being inspired by the Stitch n'Bitch in T.O meetup group, and coming to terms that it would be very hard pressed for me to join them ever, I decided to start a new meet up group called "Yarn-a-holic's Anonymous in T.O. Knitting Group.
Hopefully I won't be one of those seriously weird women who create blogs that no-one ever reads (like now) and sets up meeting groups that never gets people out. I guess time will tell. For now I am happy to remain in delusional land and believe int he power of networking to bring together community and will hope for the best. Yes - my glasses are seriously rose coloured and yes my glass is bloody full. At least for now.
I got two new members to join the group which was super exciting - although one of them is my sister-in-law Miriam....but its a start right?????
