A Fire, A Book, An Afghan, A Cup of Tea

It's a great day to stay inside!

Snow, rain, freezing rain - we are expecting this mix all through the day.

Although it is dismal outside, this is the kind of day that just cries for us to stay in our pj's, curl up with a cup of Earl Grey tea, picking up a great book or a stack of lovely magazines to read, wrapping up in a quilt or afghan and just staying put.

Sebrina is reading "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. She is tearing through this book at record speed and is recommending that I too should read it. It certainly sounds like a book that I will enjoy and plan on signing up for the online course Oprah Winfrey along with the author is offering on her website.

She and I have been discussing different parts of the book - her words were, "this book was written for me". I have a feeling that I will say the same thing when I get it. This book is a self help book to awaken your inner self to your true life potential.

Do you hate your body?
Are you plagued with thoughts that you're not "enough"?
Do you fear that if you lose something precious (money, spouse, youth, vigor, job, etc.) that your life will be "over"?
Is your attachment to "stuff" and striving to live up to the expectations of others wearing you out?
Do you want to heal from painful emotions and negative states of being?

These are questions and thoughts that I struggle with daily, so this book along with one of his others, "The Power of Now" are books that I will definately add to my library.

For now however, I am watching the rain run down my windows in rivulets and thinking about all that is lying dorment under the snow.

In the blink of an eye new life will soon be coursing through the brown and white landscape. New beautiful buds of green will soon be appearing on the very naked trees & bushes as they rejoice in the new garments they will display for us for the next five to six months.

Crocuses, tulips, daffodils, narcissis, johhny-jump-ups, lily of the valley pushing their heads up through the remaining snow .... songbirds and butterflies back from their sojourn abroad, the sounds of children playing outside.

If you are still long enough you might even hear the sounds of insects waking up from their long winter naps.

Ahhhhh ..... spring, I can hardly wait!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all who love, who are loved, who have ever been loved.

Here's a picture of the sweet dessert I made for my Valentine.

It is a devil's food chocolate two layer cake. In between the two layers is whipped cream with mashed raspberries. Then drizzled over the whole cake is a chocolate ganache. I added some fresh raspberries on top just to make it look pretty.

Sebrina is the marvelous baker in our family, but this is actually quite easy. Although it is a scratch cake, the recipe is very simple. It always turns out perfectly and is delicious. This cake always gets rave reviews when I make it for company.

It is very rich, very decadent, very moist.

This dessert will follow a special dinner of Tuscan Smashed Potatoes and Oven Baked Barbeque Ribs. (This is special because I would usually cook a meal like this on the weekend).

I know that my Valentine will enjoy it ....

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints .... I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! .... and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The ABC's Of Winter

I love winter!!!

And here is what I love about winter starting with A.

A - Alpaca wool, Afghan

B - Blowing winds & snowflakes

C - Carafe of hot chocolate, Christmas, Chili, Cashmere, Cuddle, Coffee

D - Down comfortors & pillows, Drifts

E - Eggnog, Earmuffs

F - Fireplace & Fires

G - Gloves

H - Home, Hat, Hot Tub, Hot muffins

I - Inside looking out, Icicles

J - Jam on toast with tea

K - Kiss

L - Love

M - Mittens, Mohair

N - Nose - red & cold

O - Oatmeal

P - Pinecones to make the fire crackle

Q - Quilt

R- Rum Toddy, Red River Cereal

S - Skates, Snow, Snow Blower, Scarf, Stew

T - Tea, Tobaggan

U - Under a warm blanket, Uggs with sheepskin lining

V - Velvet, Vase of fresh flowers, Vacation (someplace warm),

W - Warm, Wood Pile

X - X-Country Skiing

Y - Yorkshire Pudding, Yikes - it's cold

Z - Zipper - on my coat & my boots

How Old Do You Think You Are?

Check out this site. It is quite interesting.

I took this questionnaire and according to my results, my virtual age is 39.1 and my life expectancy is 91.9 years.

By the way my real age is 54, so I guess I'm healthier than I thought I was.

These estimates are based on my lifestyle, my stress levels, my blood pressure, my cholesterol, drinking & smoking habits, use of pharmaceuticals, OTC, etc....

Here's the site ... http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/RealAge.php

Happy Anniversary

One year ago, these three people became a family. Sebrina and I met Sherrie and Ivan in Ethiopia when we went to pick up Gabriella.

This was a trip and experience I think of often and find myself longing for the time when I can go back to this beautiful land that wrapped itself around my heart.

On that very special day, Ivan & Sherrie drove down a dusty old road in Addis Ababa, went through a very tall steel gate into the orphanage compound and saw their sweet little Bethelyn for the first time.

At the moment she was placed in their arms, two became three.

Happy Anniversary to you all!

Almost There

Here is the almost completed quilt top.

After completing 5 rows, I was not feeling happy with the results - too much patchwork, to0 much bright colours, too quilty ......

Don't get me wrong, I love quilts and appreciate the amount of love & labour that goes into each and every one, I'm just very particular about the style. I usually find quilts fit more into a Country, Americana or Shabby Chic style of decorating. So in my home, my quilting really needs to be a little more restrained, definately not the old fashioned style of crazy quilting for this girl.

So what I ended up doing to calm down how busy the quilt looked is this. I followed the example of my daughter Sebrina's quilt (see at left), where she used the blocks to border a feature fabric.

I didn't have enough of the feature fabric to do a large centre square with a single border, so I came up with this idea of two rows on either end with a centre strip equal to two rows plus two white edges. Then I put a 5" border around the whole thing. You can see from the top picture that I draped it across a double bed and it is still not quite as large as I want it, so may do a little more piecework around the edge, or I may put another border with one of my other printed fabrics before the final assembly.

The only problem I have right now is ...

1. I've run out of white quilting thread &
2. I've run out of white fabric for the border.

So far, I am much more content with the look of this quilt top which will definately not end up in the rag bag, which incidently is where the first one was headed for.

I have decided to mitre my corners for a cleaner finish. Here is a closeup of the first mitre. This picture is taken on our hardwood floors, so the seams are quite obvious, they won't be so obvious when the white quilting batt and the backing is on.

Time for a breather, I'll pick up my missing bits tomorrow and get back to quilting on Tuesday.

T.T.F.N.

One, Two, Three, Four .. only 135 More!!

An update on the quilt-in-progress.

I have completed four rows and am very pleased with how this is coming along.

Quilting is not at all hard as I had once upon a time imagined. It just requires patience, patience and more patience.

Snow Falling on .... "Everywhere"

Some pictures of just how beautiful it was during our blast of winter on Wednesday February 6

The flakes were big, wet and stuck to everything.

How pretty is this ... like a picture postcard.

Trees bent down low under their burden of snow, my small garden ornaments went under cover and my cast iron furniture looked like a white frosted cake.

How's Your Ticker?

With Valentines Day rapidly bearing down upon us, this entry about heart health - (mine in particular) - seems rather appropriate.

For the past 6-8 months, I have been experiencing extremely annoying bouts of palpitations, flutters, racing heart, etc....

I have had bouts of minor palpitations since entering menopause approximately 10 years ago but always attributed it to fluctuating hormone levels. But when they increased to a point that left me breathless as well as increasing the feeling of pressure on my chest, I thought I should mention it to my doctor.

He immediately sent me for an EKG and then for a test called "Holter Halter". The Holter Halter is simply a portable EKG which you wear for a day. It constantly monitors heart activity while you are wearing it.

After that test, I went to see him for a follow up. Apparently, I do not have a racing heart but extra beats coming from my ventricle. He felt it would be best if I saw a cardiologist.

I'm a pretty down-to-earth natural supplements kind of girl, but when this problem arose with my heart, I didn't want to try supplements or homeopathy to help this. My feeling ... since my heart is pretty much my life support system, I should investigate this through regular medical channels first.

When he told me he wanted me to see a cardiologist, I felt a little concerned. Of course the fact that my heart was acting up every hour or so didn't help matters.

Well, I saw the cardiologist yesterday and here's his report.

He does not know why I am getting extra beats. My sinus rhythm is perfect so he does not feel there is any cause for further investigation or concern on his or my part with regard to the extra beats.

Here's a little heart education for you ... The sinus rhythm is what a normal EKG shows. EKG paper is graph paper and when the peaks of rate and rhythm are regular then you have regular Sinus Rhythm. Sinus refers to the sinoatrial or S-A node ... the origin of the electrical impulse that starts each beat.

As well, he said that some people who are highly sensitive to outside stimuli are also very sensitive to heart movement and he would classify me as someone who falls into that category.

As a side note ... Sebrina has told me for many years that she thinks I suffer from Sensory Integration Dysfunction.

Sensory Integration Disorders vary between individuals in their characteristics and intensity. Some people are so mildly afflicted, the disorder is barely noticeable, while others are so impaired they have trouble with daily functioning.

In this disorder children can be born hypersensitive or hyposensitive to varying degrees and may have trouble in one sensory modality, a few, or all of them. Hypersensitivity is also known as sensory defensiveness. Examples of hypersensitivity include feeling pain from clothing rubbing against skin, an inability to tolerate normal lighting in a room, a dislike of being touched (especially light touch) and discomfort when one looks directly into the eyes of another person.

I definately struggle with clothing issues - tags on sweaters, certain types of fabrics, problems with bright light and extreme discomfort with direct eye contact. If the seam on my sock gets under my foot, it can drive me to distraction. So maybe this heart issue is just another symptom of SID.

So back to my heart issues.....

There are medications the doctor could prescribe for this, but because the side effects are many and severe, he would rather if I could learn to live with it.

The one caveat to this is if I should start to experience light headedness or fainting, that would require medication or possibly a pacemaker.

So hopefully as time goes by I will become more accustomed to this hard beating heart of mine and like a mildly annoying pain I will start to not notice it any more.

I am very thankful it turned out to be not a large concern since I certainly have felt concern about a heart attack with the wild beating I have been experiencing.

So it is great to have my fears eased and concentrate on other much more important things .........

Like my knitting and quilting (LOL)!

Watercolour Quilting

When I first decided to make a quilt, I had in mind a quilt with undulating waves of graduated colours.

I have since found out that this is called Watercolour quilting. When I finish my quilt, this style will be my next quilting attempt. I imagine this will take a lot of fabric patterns, so may look to buy coordinated jelly rolls (this is rolls of pre-cut strips of fabrics). It is a good thing that I started on the pattern I am working on now, there are not too many pieces (315 in total) so I can get some practic on piecing. I believe a watercolour quilt may have many hundreds of pieces depending upon the size of piece I choose.

From the research I have done, I can see that the more & smaller the pieces are, the better the shading will appear.

The quilt in the picture demonstrates the beautiful way watercolour quilting blends colours one into the other.

This picture was borrowed to illustrate watercolour quilting from a quilter displaying her beautiful quilts on Flickr.

Now that I've discovered this style, I'm excited to get my first quilt done and get started on this one.

Maybe I'll just start choosing, purchasing and saving fabrics for this next quilt.

Oh no, I think I have caught the quilting bug ... is there any cure???

Tag - I'm It

I've been tagged by my daughter Sebrina.

I have to list 6 random things about myself.

1. I LOVE my family ... so much sometimes that I experience real physical heart pain.
2. When I have a drink it MUST contain 4 ice cubes.
3. Sebrina said she was a little bit afraid of the dark ... guess she got that from me ... I am very afraid of the dark. Don flew to Montreal last night for a family funeral and I was alone. I left many lights on in the house so I felt safer.
4. I LOVE breakfast for dinner.
5. I am very SCARED of water.
6. I LOVE reading ... my day is incomplete without reading at least 1-2 hours in morning.

My chiropracter follows Sebrina and my blog faithfullly and always says how much Sebrina is like me. Interesting most of her random thoughts about herself are very similar to me.

I can't really tag anyone because I only follow a very few blogs, my daughers blog being one of them, and the other two blogs I would have tagged have been already.

New Toy for My Boy

We finally cracked and bought a snow blower this winter.

Since moving to this house we both found the driveway was just too much. It is a double and can hold nearly six cars, not to mention how much snow the city ploughs dump in the bottom of the driveway when they go by not once, not twice, not three times, but so far today four times. As well we park in the garage, unlike most of our neighbours so we have an entire driveway to clean not just around the vehicles.

We bought a snow blower on Boxing Day - an 8.5HP / 24" cut, however we had trouble getting a vehicle to pick it up (comes in a really large wooden crate), so what did Sears do - they sold it to another customer on us. And to top it off they took our money on December 26th, so we were out the $600.00 and they were fresh out of snowblowers. Don now refers to Sears as "The Store with No Name".

After 2 1/2 weeks of very frustrating phone calls with sales clerks and customer service, I finally called the manager of the store and within three days and for the same price he substituted an 11.5HP / 27" cut and had it delivered free of charge. Guess that shows you've got to talk to the right people!

As of posting, Don is out there cleaning our driveway and the neighbours and having I think a lot of fun. Doesn't look like he'll be in for quite a while.

Hey Don, did you forget we've got a snow blower - what are you doing with that shovel?

Guess old habits die hard .......

It's a Good Day to Stay In & Quilt

What a great day to stay inside!
Here's a couple of shots outside our home. We are in the middle of a rather nasty snowstorm in Toronto. There is about 10 cm fallen so far and we are in for another 15 cm.

Since Don decided to work from home today, I decided to cancel my therapy and errands to stay inside and work on my quilt.

I've completed three rows now. As Sebrina told me it is really hard to line up the squares.

This third row was really out of alignment, so I put an extra row of my feature fabric between the two white borders.

I quite like it and find that it draws the eye away from the fact that the squares are not perfectly aligned.

I also had my very first bath since having my knee replaced. It was simply delicious!!!

Lavender essential oils and dead sea salts. I made a cup of tea, lit some candles and brought in my book to read.

What a heavenly way to spend an hour on a blustery winter afternoon........... Ahhhhhhhhhh

Two Hundred & Twenty Five to Go

As promised here is an update of my quilt. I have cut, matched and sewn two rows together.

Here at left is my quilt so far.

Sebrina called me this morning and told me how she was struggling with this same template to get the squares lined up in a perfect grid pattern. Wow, was she ever right ... this took me four tries to get the squares lined up and if you look really, really closely they are off by a few millimetres.

I'm sure there is a trick to getting squares and corners to line up perfectly.

I look at quilts by Kaffe Fasset (see the cover of his book left) and the squares and corners are perfect. Sebrina (lucky girl) got this book last week and I had a chance to peruse it ... it is stunning. If you want a visual feast, check out this book. Absolutely anything Kaffe Fassett designs and creates is simply gorgeous ... his knitting, his quilts, his fabrics .....

Exactly what is the secret to this perfection and precise matching?

Since this is my very first quilt, I am pleased so far and think it is turning out quite well. I'm trying very hard to turn off my perfectionist attitude towards everything I do and not be too anal about perfect corner matching.

After all quilting is a handmade project and the little idiosyncrasies are what give a quilt it's charm. If it was entirely perfect it might as well be mass produced.

Hope I make my quilting instructor proud!!!!

Love This Yarn

Here is what the Moda Dea Tweedle Dee is knitting up like.

This is a blowup of the left front, which has the cable running down the outside and the rest of the sweater is done in moss stitch.

I have to say I don't much like doing the moss stitch ... there is a lot of time spent taking the yarn around the needle either forward or back before you make the stitch, I find it doubles my knitting time. Oh well, the effect is worth it.

Back to knit one, purl one, CB10, CF10, etc.....

Forty Five Little Pieces

Well, as promised here is the update on the quilt I am making. There were forty-five pieces to be cut and sewn together for just this one row, so that means that there will be 315 pieces to complete the inner portion of the quilt and then the border which will go around the entire quilt. Of course then my work will only just be beginning ... for then I will start the hand quilting. I had thought I would machine quilt, but have decided (may change my mind once I start) that I will quilt this piece by hand. I just love the look of hand quilting.

As each piece went on, I got more excited. The white border, really makes the colours in these fabrics pop - don't you think?

I will require six to seven more rows like this before I can start the actual quilting.

As I have said in earlier entries, this isn't exactly what I had planned in my mind, but I am thrilled with the results. The combination of fabrics are beautiful (thanks to my daughter Sebrina for her donation of 3 gorgeous fabrics).

This quilt will be entirely 100% cotton, including the quilt batting. I purchased a 100% cotton batting which is needle punched with hundreds of needles into a strong, thin base material to prevent tearing, shifting or migration. The needling process holds the fibers together without glue or resins.

I wanted to use all cotton and once the quilt is completed will wash it to achieve an approximately 3% shrinkage which will cause puckering and give my quilt an older look.

Well, off to piecing ...............

Just One Earth Hour

I'm in - are you?

On March 29th, 2008, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in an effort to raise awareness about the devastating effects of global warming is asking cities ... both residential and commercial around the world to turn off their lights starting at 8:00pm for one hour

On March 31, 2007 in Sydney, Australia, this entire city came together and turned off their lights for one hour.

Now WWF wants cities worldwide to unite in turning off their lights for one hour.

Go to their website www.wwf.ca/earthhour to see a video, read about the difference you can make and to sign up for this one earth hour.

We get so much from Mother Earth, let's give something back to her!!!

Let The Fun Begin

This morning I went to Sebrina's for coffee, homemade blueberry muffins and a lesson in quilting.

What fun we had, first the exciting greetings at the door from Ryan & Gabriella - hugs and kisses which hopefully will last me a few days until my next visit.

Then fresh brewed coffee and a muffin ... well actually two muffins, one for each hip!

Then Sebrina and I got down to business and she showed me how to use the rotary cutter, cutting ruler & cutting matt, what size to make the pieces for the template I chose, how to stitch the pieces together, which way to press the seams, how to stitch corners nice & neat, etc...

As Robert Burns once said - "the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry".

Well as you can see from my picture, I didn't quite follow the idea I had in mind for the undulating waves of graduated blues, but I am very pleased with the way this looks so far. The white border down the centre will surround each square and look (I hope) like a matt around a picture.

Sebrina was a great teacher - patient, explained everything well and was very pleased with my work. After examing my work, she pronounced my grade to be an "A".

Well, as my quilt grows I'll post pictures.

Having never done a pieced quilt, I must say this was quite exciting as each piece was attached and the picture grew. I can see why Sebrina is hooked - this was fun!

Stay tuned ...........

The Miniature Earth

"If the World Were a Village" by David Smith is what this video is based upon. A very powerful video indeed.

Pennies for Orphans

This is a story about a young lady named Leah who at just 13 years old has decided to reach out to help orphans in Ethiopia. She undertook this project for her bat mitzvah.

This idea occurred to her as her family was in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. When they went to Ethiopia to bring home their new daughter, Leah brought her money over and donated $2,084.00 to an orphanage. Here is Leah giving the cheque to Ms Geday, who is the orphanage director.

Imagine my surprise as I continued reading down through her story and discovered that the orphanage she donated her money to was "The Hope For The Abandoned Children and Orphan Care Association (HFTA)". This is the orphanage where Sebrina and I picked up our very special Gabriella.

Here are the pictures of Sebrina and me with Ms Geday and Gabriella.

We spent many enjoyable hours with this lady over the two days we spent at the orphanage.

I just love Leah's idea with pennies and think I may start the same thing. It will be interesting how many pennies I will accumulate in say ... one year.

How often do we see a penny on the ground and walk away from it?
How often do we just throw a penny in a drawer or the bottom of our purse and just forget about it?

If we all started saving our pennies - just how much could we accumulate for charity? The one great thing about pennies ... a penny is always worth a penny whether it is in Canadian or US dollars, so this is a win / win savings plan.

Leah's website addres is http://www.change4orphans.com/. She has quite a lot of interesting information and will continue to post what her pennies are buying in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Feeling Rather Bloggy Today

I love "Winnie The Pooh" and my husband bought this Swarovski Pooh for me for Christmas to add to my Swarovski collection.

It doesn't seem to matter what mood you are in ... there is always an appropriate Pooh quote. He can lift you up, level you out or just make you stop and think.

If you regularly follow my blog you will see that the quotes change frequently and if you are a "Winnie The Pooh" lover like me you'll recognize the quotes.

He has such an uncomplicated and innocent way of looking at life. These were some of my favourite books as a child and today I still love Pooh & Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Piglet & Tigger.

Well, I think even though it's nearly 4:00 o'clock ... I'm feeling a little eleven o'clockish.

"When late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish."

One Step Closer To My Quilt

These are some of the fabrics I found this morning in our local fabric store. They weren't quite the idea I went out looking for, but the turquoise and brown & white together just seemed so luscious that I dove right in and grabbed one yard of each.

As well I purchased a rotary cutter. Sebrina gave me a small cutting board which I will try to use for now, since I will be cutting fairly small pieces.

I am not sure whether I will follow my original idea for a layout or choose a different template. I still would like to have a turquoise solid and maybe one or two more patterns before I start the quilt.

But I have to say, that I'm really pleased with these fabrics and hope that when they are cut and stitched together into my quilt that they look as pretty as they do just sitting piled up on my craft table.

Inspiration

My daughter who has developed an interest in quilting, has inspired me to try one myself. When my grandsons were born, I made each of them a baby quilt from a piece of pre-printed fabric and then hand quilted the entire thing. However, I have never tried my hand at piecing and quilting, so here goes nothing!

I put together this PowerPoint presentation (shown above) to develop my idea for how I want the quilt to look, the colours are not exact and I most likely will use print fabrics, but it demonstrates my idea. I would like to graduate the colours in a wave pattern starting with dark blues moving towards light blues and then into white.

I'm rather excited to get at this and think I may take a trip down to my local fabric store to get some ideas and as well to pick up a rotary cutter, cutting board and all the other bits and pieces I will need to make this quilt. I will check out their fabrics while I am there, but Sebrina has turned me on to fabulous designer fabrics she has discovered for her quilts ... but we'll see what I can discover there.

Thank goodness Sebrina has done this, so I can borrow her experience and knowledge of quilt making to ensure that my quilt turns out as beautifully as have.

Here are some pictures of her work along with my beautiful grandchildren and me cuddling under Mommy's nice warm quilts.

My Knee ....

Well I have finally achieved what the physio therapists expect from their knee replacement patients at 3 months.

0 degrees on my extension. (With my leg straight out and pushing the back of my knee down onto the table). Have to say this is still a big ouch but I can do it.

120 degrees on my bend.

I am also on good days able to climb the stairs leg over leg ... sometimes even without holding onto the railing for support.

I have put away all of my after surgery aids ... canes, walkers, raised toilet seat etc.. No more acting disabled for this girl.

Time to break out the bubbly!!!

Shall We Dance?

Don't you just love the the "talk when you walk" sound that taffeta makes when you wear it?

Taffeta reminds me of a time when glamour reined supreme and girls loved to dress up and not be afraid to be "girly girls". I still love to dress up and in fact designed the sapphire blue taffeta dress that I recently wore to my brother-in-laws wedding.

It only made sense when I redecorated my dining room that I should make taffeta draperies to get that glamous look that I love.

I have made most of the draperies in our home and taught myself how to do triple pinch pleats, but recently saw inverted box pleats in a decorating magazine and just loved them.

So using the picture as my guide I decided to take a stab at them.

To cover my window I required 3 times the width of the window so I had nearly 12 metres of fabric to work with ... wow are my shoulders and back ever sore after this project. I decided I wanted them to puddle on the floor so made them 8 inches longer than the floor to ceiling measurement. As well, I lined them, so each drape was really heavy and kept sliding off my table when I was trying to sew them. Consequently I ended up doing most of the work by hand stitching ... it was easier than fighting to keep the fabric on the table.

I am thrilled with the results. They are just what I wanted in the dining room, the milk chocolate colour blends very nicely with the Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue that I painted the dining room and the inverted box pleat really hangs beautifully.

They look like ballgowns hanging in my window.

From now on only inverted box pleats ... no more pinch pleats for this girly girl.

Want To Take a Peek

Well, here is a peek at the baby blanket which I just completed in time for the baby shower this afternoon.

I have made well over one dozen of these blankets, and know that they wash beautifully and stay lovely and soft for baby.

The cardigan which I am knitting is about halfway complete. Here is how the yarn blends together. I just the subtle variations in colour and how slowly it blends from one colour to the next one. This is a pretty simple pattern and when completed will have a ruffle crocheted around the neck, down either side of the two fronts and the bottom of the sleeves.

A friend of my daughter and I are sharing a pattern to make from a new yarn called Berroco Peruvia. It is 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. A terrific South American import, "Peruvia" is truly an outstanding yarn coming in 29 heather and 3 solid colour choices.

As well when I was looking at the available yarn colours, I found this coat pattern which I also may order and take a stab at.

Well, wish me luck.

Knit One .... Purl Two

I love crafting, especially knitting, crocheting. I love the feel of beautiful yarns ... wool, cashmere, mohair, cottons and only bamboo needles. I grew up with a mom who knit only using metal or plastic needles. There is a great deal of static with these needles, but never a problem with bamboo. Not to mention how beautiful and organic they feel in your hands as they weave the yarn into a new creation. Knitting is a way to lose myself and de-stress. Even a complicated pattern is relaxing for me. I don't mind counting stitches, rows, etc...

A skein of yarn with a pair of needles through it at the side of a chair looks beautiful and adds such a homey and lived in look to a room.

Recently I discovered a lovely yarn by Moda Dea. It is called Tweedle Dee Shaded Effect. My daughter was given a shawl made of this yarn for Christmas and I fell in love.

I have never liked variegated yarns and remember many sweaters made in this style when I was a child. Variegated yarn knits up into a rather harsh look. The colour changes are very drastic and sudden. This shaded effect yarn blends from one colour to another with no obvious change, it just quietly moves from each colour and is absolutely beautiful.

I purchased enough to made a ruffled edge cardigan. I've just completed the back, but have to work this in between a baby blanket which I started on Sunday and must finish by this coming Sunday for a baby shower.

Stay tuned, when I'm done I'll post pictures of both.

Soooooooo Cold

It is sooooo cold today ... -12 Celsius but with the wind child -24 Celsius ... a very good day to stay inside.

I filled the bird feeder a week ago, but so far no birds. Where are our feathered friends in this weather? Are they in their nests trying to stay warm?

I know the little creatures do venture out occasionally ... we had a bunny in our garden last week. She got in and then could not find her way out. I watched her for at least an hour, as she ran back and forth making small deposits every few inches, but she could not find the spot in the fence to get out. I was concerned, as she sat looking through the chain link to the ravine, that she would freeze to death if she could not get back to her nest. So finally I opened the door to try to guide her towards the spot in the fence where she could escape, but she was so frightened by my presence that she wiggled her way between our fence and the neighbours. I have thought about her since ... did she get home, did she get stuck somewhere else and freeze? I like to think that she made it back to her warm nest.

Her visit to our garden certainly made it very interesting for our dog Chelsea ever since. She goes out to do her business and then spends the next little while "bunny sniffing". We cleaned up the deposits she left, but Chelsea can still smell her along the back fence in the bushes and loves to spend time back there "bunny sniffing". It's really quite funny to see her looking for what made this delicious scent.

These are what I can see, but what about what I can't. Under the snow, under the ice ... is there living things.?

Come and take an imaginary walk through the ravine with me.

I stop by the creek and peer in ... are the fish sleeping, or are they swimming deep down where the water still flows under the ice. As I continue walking deeper into the forest, I see a break in the snow and look down. Who lives down there? Maybe a raccoon and her family, or a red fox with her family? If I stand still long enough, will you come out to visit?

Let's keep walking. The evergreen tree boughs are hanging so low & dripping with great puffs of snow ..... I hear them groaning under their burden ... how long can you hold on to this snow before you break from the strain? The small branches of the Swamp Willow have had the wintry breath of Jack Frost blow over them and are coated with a cacophony of frosty fingers all over each branch. Amidst all this frosty splendour I can see the odd bunch of red Dogwood which shimmers from within its icy prison. Such beauty takes my breath away.

Although all the plants have lost their foliage, the starkness of each twig, wild grass & tree against the purity of the white snow is breathtaking. The Queen Ann's Lace looks stately as it stands tall and shivers with the breeze, it beautiful gold colour stands out against the white snow.

A little further along, I see some disturbance in the snow .... I walk a little closer, it is deer prints and more than one deer has been here. Could they still be close .... maybe I am not the one who is visiting but am under close scrutiny by all the unseen creatures. They are ensuring I do not disturb their home. I hear a rustling above me and look up to see a red tailed hawk gracefully landing in the upper branches of a large chestnut tree.

Well, my toes and fingers are getting chilly, I think my imaginary journey this morning is over. Let's have a lovely fresh brewed cup of coffee with a dash of cream. Can you smell it brewing? I can. My taste buds are tantalized as I wait for the last drop to fall before I pour my cup.

Delicious!!!