And so we move into spring...

I want to say thank  you to everyone who emailed or commented kind messages and words of comfort.  Blogger doesn't let me reply directly to all comments -- but please know that all of your thoughts and prayers all meant so much to me.

Here it is April 4th and London weather is warming up. That with the little bursts of sunshine we get convince us that summer is on its way.  

I stayed in Canada until early March and while sorting through pictures with my family I found two that I thought I'd share with you.  The first is one of my mom in the early stages of her Phentex Checkerboard Slipper jag.   

And the second is a very happy me clutching a 'how to crochet' kit early one Christmas morning-- look at that smile - I was always in love with yarn!!

As many of you suggested it would be knitting has been a comfort and while I was in Canada  I was seldom without needles and yarn in my hands.

My first project was a pair of mittens for the delightful Dylann -- another in the annual series with her high school's initials and the year knt into the palms.  Dyl was frightened by my sister telling her in September last year that she had given me a 'great idea'** for Christmas gifts -- according to my Mom Dyl's reaction was 'But I like my mitts!!'

Luckily for her - I liked knitting the mitts as well so there was no need for her to be concerned. This pair (a Drops pattern) will be the final high school pair as next year she starts university -- I wonder what those colours will be?

I really wanted to make my Dad a cardigan so on our trip to Bathurst we found 'The Spinning Wheel' yarn shop (no website that I could find - but if you are in the area you'll find it in the phone book!).  It is a lovely little shop with a really wide variety of yarns.   The owners were really friendly and it became a regular stop in our trips to town after that!

I wanted the cardigan to be easy care so I opted for some Sirdar Denim yarn in a brown colour (which doesn't appear on the website so perhaps it has been discontinued - too bad it was a nice colour.).  It's soft to touch and I really liked working with it.  Finding the right pattern was pretty straightforward - a bit of searching and I settled on Charcoal Ribbed Cardigan -- available for free from Knitting Daily.

The cardigan flew off my needles.  The body is knit flat in one piece to the sleeves, and the sleeves and shoulder caps are knit separately.  The knitting was done within days - and I had seamed the main pieces together but when my dad tried it on we all agreed that the body was too short and it needed a couple more inches

This meant I got to impress no one but myself by fixing this problem without the need to unravel days worth of knitting! 

What I did was snip the yarn in the row above the body ribbing and then very carefully pull the yarn through the stitches to separate the ribbing from the main body.  As I did this I carefully placed the stitches from the main body onto a needle.  Luckily, knitting doesn't unravel upward so this wasn't too stressful!

When I removed the cuff, and picked up all of the stitches I proceeded to knit the additional 2 inches of body downward, followed by the ribbing. 

This sort of fix isn't always possible for complicated patterns  (or maybe it is and requires more thinking power than I have!) but for simpling stocking or ribbing works quite well.


Now, only a quest for buttons kept it from 'finished' status.  Trips to Zellers and Walmart were fruitless but I struck gold (or brown button) at an old sewing shop where the owner kindly went through EVERY button in stock to help me get the right ones.

The finished cardigan was well received - and my Dad showed it to everyone who dropped by. Naturally, he hasn't worn it - but I know he loves it!

The rest of the time was spent making socks. 

Socks, socks and more socks. 

Not all were photographed as some were claimed pretty much as soon as they came off the needles.  I discovered that I could knit nothing but socks all year and STILL there would be feet in need!!!

Most of the socks were knit plain in self striping yarn.  The red pair were Diagonal Rib Socks (another freebie from Knitting Daily) a pattern I expect I'll use again. Straightforward to knit but just a little more interesting than plain socks.

I think in the end I knit about 10 pair!

I haven't knit a thing since I got back to London but I can feel the urge to start a project building.  I think a browse through my books and magazines for some inspiration is in order!


** My sister's 'great idea' will be revealed later...I don't have any photos of the finished objects  yet!

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!!!