My trip home to Canada has been very different from what I expected and even now I find it hard to take it all in.  My beautiful mother passed away unexpectedly 2 days after I arrived home. 

She had been perfectly fine all day - her usual smiling happy self.  We spent the day shopping and enjoying a lobster supper (a bit of a tradition to celebrate my birthday when I get home in December with some lobster). An aunt and uncle dropped by for a visit and then Mom and Dad went to bed at 10 - Mom very excited about watching the Survivor final.  20 minutes later my father called out to me and within 2 hours she was gone.

It's been a difficult time - but my family has been amazing.  Not just my brothers and sisters, but my very large extended family who have helped us all in too many ways to mention. 

My mother was the strongest woman I know.  She was funny and generous and loving and (as anyone who ever played cards with her knows) very competitive. 

She taught me to knit when I was very young.  I still remember the excitement (really - I was excited) of getting those plastic needles and acrylic yarn and knitting those first stitches.  I was enchanted and have knit pretty much constantly since.

Ma was definitely a 'jag' knitter.  She found a pattern she liked and made LOTS of them.  Her most prolific jag was about 30 years ago when we moved into this house and she made what seemed like thousands of paris of Phentex checkerboard slippers.  We had drawers full of them and they were handed out like party favours when people dropped by.

She was the most knitworthy person in the world and I loved knitting for her.  She oohed and aahed appreciatively and then wrapped them up carefully to admire every now and then as they were clearly too nice to be worn/used.  No amount of coaxing from me or anyone else convinced her to risk it. 

She was always showing off my work to people who dropped by - and although she had never actually seen this blog she was forever passing on the address to others.  In short - she was my biggest fan.

We all miss her so much every day.  Some days are harder than others but we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that she's always with us -- in the family and love that we share. 

Greetings from Canada!!

Phew! The last few months have been busy and have flown by in a blur.

Knitting - Christmas or otherwise - has been non- existent. I started a pink cashmere scarf for my mom - got about 3/4 of it done and then decided I hated it. Frogged.

Then I started a Cardigan for her. But I didn't like it either. Also frogged.

So, here I am, a day away from my parents' place and I haven't knitted a Christmas stitch!! Happily my excitement at being home and seeing my family totally and completely overshadows that.

Of course as it is Christmas it has to be Gingerbread House time.




Last Sunday the usual suspects gathered in my kitchen and fuelled by 4 kilos of icing sugar, the sleigh o' sweets and a bottle or two of champagne created our ski chalet themed house.





(I'm blogging this on an iPad by the way - so my formatting options are limited. Sorry about that.)

I loved our ski slope - sadly I was a bit rushed when I took the photos and these don't do I justice. Scrumptious Suzy made our skier.





She is a gifted artist with marzipan and also created this cello and trumpet which are part of the interior decor.








The owner of these instruments is a vain balding marzipan man - caught here admiring himself in the mirror. The bunk beds, fireplace and comfy chocolate wafer chair finish the inside room.








Little Louis** is now almost 9 and among his contributions this year are this slightly surreal looking snowman and this stack of sweets which was going to be an igloo until he ran out of them. While the rest of us tried up come up with alternatives Little Louis joined the ranks of DIY amateurs everywhere - he lost interest and moved on to something else.

** Little Louis has agreed that although he is no longer little I can call him that for as long as I like.




Suzy added the very cute Penguin to distract the viewer from the 'almost' igloo.

Caroline, Gorgeous Gen, and Marvellous Mads created these carollers.






And this mom and baby audience.




Pat was responsible for the ski slope structure - underneath the icing is an impressive scaffolding structure of wafers and marshmallows.




Of course we watched How the Grinch stole Christmas while the roof set munching on some pizza and feeling pretty festive. This year more than most I needed this ritual to kick start the season - I was letting work take over all my waking (and sleeping!) thoughts.




I hope you all enjoy the season whatever you are doing. I'll be back in January with some knitting - assuming I can remember how!!!

This isn't a Christmas Gift....It's a Scarf.

First - thanks for all the kind comments on the Great Canadian British American Aran Afghan.  It is every bit as cosy as I wanted it to be and it almost has me wishing for the cold weather!  (Almost.)

Speaking of cold weather I'm really into scarves at the moment.  I keep coming across interesting patterns and the yarn in my stash seems destined for scarf-dom.

But 'no!' I tell myself.  I really should start on my Christmas knitting so that I don't repeat last year's 'wrapping up sweater pieces/yarn' experience.  Nobody seemed to mind - but I'd like to be a wee bit more prepared this year. 

I found a cardigan pattern that I think my mom will like.  I've picked a yarn and colour.  We are ready to go. 

But instead I cast on for Semele (I stumbled across the pattern in the Posh Yarn group on Ravelry). 

I used 150 gm (600 yards) of  Posh Yarn 4 ply Eva  - which is a gorgeous cashmere and silk blend. The colour seemed perfect for this pattern.

I modified the pattern by removing a row of leaves that the designer had along the straight edge - mostly because I wanted a narrower scarf.

It was a pleasurable project and seemed to work up pretty quickly.

I blocked it very lightly and it's a generous 6 ft by 1 ft (at the widest point).

I finished this one on the weekend and knew that now it was time to get serious about this Christmas stuff.  My younger sister has made a request for herself (and a suggestion for my older sister and her daughter) so time to grab the needles and get going.

But somehow (and really I don't know how)  I seem to have grabbed the wrong needles and yarn and cast on a pink cashmere scarf.  It is buttery soft and the pattern uses short rows to make the whole thing a bit ruffley...and everyone needs a ruflley scarf.  Don't they?

I'm deteremined though that when the pink scarf is finished it's on to Christmas  knitting. 

(We won't mention that about an hour ago I was starting to cast on for a blue one.  I caught myself and put the needles down and walked away.

But I can feel it drawing me in.)