With the help of my incredible mother, we organized a hotel room for the night for us, as the concert was on the mainland and we live on Vancouver Island. No way of getting back the same day, so we would have to stay over. That meant leaving the children for the first time. I knew they would be in great hands and that they would love to have a sleepover with Grandma, but was more worried about me! However, I’m trying to relax and back off a bit and knew it would be good for all of us. We walked on the ferry, stayed at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and picked up our tickets at the Orpheum Theatre just before the show. We were quite worried that something wouldn’t work out, but it all did, beautifully! We had wonderful seats, the theatre was stunning and the performances were amazing. Totally, completely amazing. Brian took great delight in watching the excitement on my face. It was truly a dream come true.

Orpheum Theatre

Sarah McLachlan

What more can I say? She was fantastic!

Mum has been away in Saskatchewan for just over a week, visiting my brother and we miss her dearly. Hopefully, she will be home later today, so we are heading out to get some groceries for her, mow the lawn, open the windows etc. This is the third year in a row that she has driven the 1600 km. Quite a drive for anyone.

Last night I finished making a patchwork picnic blanket for the girls, using a bunch of 6.5″ squares I had cut out to use up some scrap fabric. I had pondered making some patchwork scarves, but never did. This is much more useful, especially now that I can knit scarves and it looks like there will be no shortage of them around here! There was no real plan for the blanket, but I did put the pieces in bands of colour. I used an old duvet that we had stashed away for the batting and some striped outdoor fabric for the back. I am not a quilter by any stretch of the imagination, so there is nothing fancy at all about this. Just a good use of fabric scraps and a bright and colourful thing to lay on while we are in the garden reading Famous Five Mysteries.

Patchwork Picnic Blanket

I have been doing a fair bit of knitting, but have so many projects on the go at the moment that there isn’t much to show. I am making lace scarves for my mother in law and sister in law, using 2 of the skeins I got from KnitPicks. Baby alpaca and silk seems a pretty luxurious combination for a yarn, don’t you think? I’m doing one with the seafoam pattern and the other is “stripe with twisted bar”, both from Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. Awesome book. Will buy it when I can justify spending yet more money on my new hobby! It would be so easy to totally lose control when faced with such a vast array of beautiful yarns, appealing patterns, great books and neat gadgets and tools. I try to restrain myself, just a little!

Anyway, here are a couple of the things I have finished recently:

"Asking for Roses" shawl by Amy Swenson

For this, I used Madeline Tosh Toshlight in Smokestack, a gorgeous blue merino. The pattern is really lovely, although I did have to rip out the lace panel and start again, as there was a small error in the pattern and I had also made a mistake. Easier to start from the beginning than to unpick rows of lace knitting. Should pay more attention next time, then I might have noticed my initial error. Still, it was a relatively quick knit and a useful learning experience. I will make it again, eventually! I would like to make something bigger next time.

Cloud Bolero for Pip

Cloud Bolero (back)

This is the Cloud Bolero by Ysolda Teague. Free download through Ravelry. Easy peasy to knit and super quick when using chunky yarn. So much faster that knitting with laceweight yarn, but I did feel rather ham-fisted using big needles again! She loves it, thank goodness, as she often asks for something, then won’t wear it. Don’t get me started on that one! I am making another for Milly, this time in DK weight and on slightly smaller needles in order to make it smaller, so it fits a 4 year old instead of a 7 year old. I’m using Berroco Vintage DK for Milly’s.

We have come to the conclusion that we are not inclined to camp in a tent. Realistically, it just isn’t something we fancy doing. Brian has never done it and my back is still precarious, so I’m really not enamoured with the idea of roughing it at all! After much pondering, we have decided to consider a fifth wheel, which means getting a bigger truck to tow it. The idea is that we can go away for the weekend, pretty much on a whim. We are not great adventurers, but it would be nice for us all to get away from time to time and not always be thinking of what needs to be done around the house and garden. The Island is fantastic for camping of any sort, so there will be no end of places to go. We know what we are like and know that if it is a question of paying for hotels, we just won’t go anywhere! So, we spent some of yesterday looking at and sitting in some very North American trucks. Not sure what they’ll be like to drive, as we haven’t done that yet. The fifth wheel will wait until next year and we’ll spend the next few months saving up and deciding what features we really want. Of course both the truck and the fifth wheel will be used, so it is a matter of figuring out what the options are and keeping an eye out for the right thing. We are all really, really excited about the idea of going away, camping, having campfires, roasting marshmallows and playing games together, as well as exploring our beautiful island.

Brian’s Mum and Dad arrive in a few weeks, so we’ll spend weekends getting ready for them. We might even manage to have a garage sale so that there is space in the spare room for them to sleep!

I hear stirring, so had better get on with making a pot of tea for the troops!

Yarn order from KnitPicks

Now I just have to decide what to do with it all, stop doing housework completely and show the children how to make their own dinner!

Despite the busy sound of all that, I am planning to do a lot of knitting! My back issue means I can’t do the stuff I would normally do – gardening – so enforced leisure translates into knitting for me! I am so excited about what I have been making. I was determined to make myself a cardigan and I have done it! It was a real challenge, although perhaps more of a confidence issue than anything else. I finished the cardigan yesterday and just have to go find some buttons to add to it. It is a shortish cardigan, with lace details and negative ease (meaning it doesn’t meet in the middle across my torso, though it will button at the top. I was a bit concerned yesterday that I had underestimated the size of my bust, but I can live with that.

Mt first cardigan

Moch cardi - back

Lace detail on Moch cardi

I have also been working on a lace scarf, using some beautiful lace yarn from Malabrigo. I fell in love with the colours of this yarn and the soft feel. I really wasn’t sure I had chosen the right project for it, but in the end it turned out beautifully, especially with the addition of the beads. Lynette, from Mad About Ewe suggested the addition to highlight the curves of the Feather and Fan pattern and she was right. They really did add a lovely touch.

Feather and fan scarf, Malabrigo lace

Feather and fan lace scarf with bead detailing

I still have to work on the Abrazo shawl, but don’t have the focus for the tiny little beads at the moment. It definitely requires my full attention and am too tired to do it right now. I am trying to decided that to cast on next. I have some lovely silk/flax/polyester called Pollyanna from Infiknit, in a soft cream colour and have a long list of potentials to consider. I have some other beautiful yarns to work with, but need to make something light, now that summer seems to have finally arrived!

As for the party, I have a lot of ideas and I revel in the details, but I am also thrifty, resourceful and aware of my limitations! In cake-making especially, my execution falls far short of the vision in my head! Still, we’ll get to that in a minute. The invitations were created by Brian, using a great background image of Hogwarts, a Harry Potter-style font and the Gryffindor colours. We included a password on the invitation – Sherbet Lemons. As the guests arrived, they saw this:

Platform 9 3/4

We had to recreate the platform the day after the party, as I forgot to take a picture. The two panels of brick-patterned wallpaper should meet up in the middle and the children walked through to get onto platform 9 3/4, just like in the book. Well, as much like the book as I could manage! Once past this, they reached the garden gate to be greeted by the Portrait of the Fat Lady, or in our case, the two Portraits, as both girls wanted to make one! Grandma, Pip and Milly stood at the other side of the gate and took turns to ask the password to allow entrance to the grounds.

Portrait of the Fat Lady

The Quidditch Pitch was probably the first thing they saw, but once everyone had arrived, we sorted them into houses in the Great Hall. We chose Gryffindor, naturally, and Ravenclaw, so the banners on the Hall and on the Quidditch goals are in the colours for those houses. Made by me, surprise, surprise. Brian constructed the Quidditch goals using hula hoops, plastic pipes and black tape. We did have to add more tape as the sun heated up and softened it, but it all worked brilliantly. We decided brooms were just too dangerous, and we had 5 players per side, a soft red Quaffle and no Bludgers.

Quidditch pitch

The Great Hall, Hogwarts

Milly and the sorting hat

In the morning, Philippa had received her Hogwarts letter, which she thought was pretty cool. She was also given a hand knit Gryffindor scarf and a cape in Gryffindor colours, so she was all set!

As for refreshments, we made pumpkin pasties, cheesy biscuits in the shape of a flying car, licorice wands, pumpkin juice (actually assorted orange-coloured fruit juices), munchies in a cauldron and for the cake I did Tom Riddle’s diary, complete with a basilisk fang! The idea was great, but, as I said, my execution didn’t quite live up to the image in my head! Still, Pip understood and was happy with it.

The game a Quidditch was a blast, even though most of the children knew little about HP. I was dressed up as Professor McGonagall, as I am apparently too old to be Hermione. Mum was Madam Hooch and together we refereed, kept score and did the announcing for the match. Using a Golden Snitch which I knit using gold and silver yarn (pattern available at Knitted Toy Box), two of the Dads ran around the garden and had to be caught. I shouted myself hoarse, Gryffindor won the coveted (Dollarama) Cup and everyone had a great time.

Golden Snitch

The little goodie bags contained a vial of bubbles, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Sherbet Lemons and a Golden Snitch, lovingly and very patiently knit for each child by my utterly fantastic mother.

Snitches

All in all, the party was a hit. I’ll be keeping all the decorations I made and I’m pretty sure we’ll be having another one in the future.

The excitement and anticipation of our first child was immense, of course. All the grandparents were around and eagerly awaiting her arrival. The day began much like today – sun shining, blue skies and a deer pacing the fence line, trying to find a way in so it could feast on our garden. I was 5 days past my expected due date, but if anyone suspected that I might be in labour, they never mentioned it to me! 12.15 was the time I realized something might be happening. Philippa was delivered by emergency C-section at 2.42. I’ll spare you all the details, suffice to say nothing went as planned or imagined or hoped and the poor thing was very sick indeed.

Philippa in the special care unit

She had dislocated hips, low Apgar score, meconium aspiration, seizures. They gave us a worst case scenario that she might not survive the week or that she might be brain damaged, but she is definitely a fighter and has gone from those scary early days, to this:

Philippa, opening gifts on her 7th birthday

Philippa's 7th birthday party

She is an amazing, spirited, passionate and very clever girl with a wise head on her shoulders. She delights us every day with her humour, creative talents and affection.

I love my girl.

I have just completed my first lace project, a fairly straightforward Shetland Lace scarf. I used Pima Lino Lace in a vibrant pink colour. This cotton/linen blend knits up very well and is soft enough not to irritate my neck, unlike the alpaca I used for the Ruffle Scarf.

Shetland Lace Scarf

I did start work, several times, on the Abrazo shawl pattern I bought from Twist Collective, but have since frogged it and started afresh on another project. (Did you see that? I used the word ‘frogged’ like I knew what it meant! I’m figuring out the lingo! PS I basically means unravelling something you have knit. Perhaps you actually have to finish it to be able to frog it, but I’m sticking with it!) I have used the 100g Confetti Sock Yarn in shades of grey for another lace scarf project, this time a free download from SweetGeorgia Yarns, the CashSilk Fern, though I am clearly not using CashSilk until I feel safer in justifying the cost of the yarn for a project for myself! This is how far I am on that project:

SweetGeorgia Fern scarf

I really like the shades of grey and the pattern. I could see me doing this again using a different yarn, but I am so eager to try new patterns that it might be awhile before I do this again.

I have a glove project on the back burner, but the sort-of arrival of spring has me thinking more about light weight scarves than angora gloves, so that might not progress too quickly! That said, I have just started my first pair of socks and am loving them so far. The stitches are so small and neat and the patterning of the Nova Sock Yarn is vibrant and appealing, although perhaps not my usual colour choice!

First sock

There are a few other things happening around here, apart from knitting! Yesterday was Mother’s Day and Bri took the girls to Mad About Ewe to get a gift for me. Damn, did I say something was happening other than knitting?! I was wrong! My lovely, lovely husband and children bought me a skein of Centolavaggi laceweight Italian Merino, as well as a set of sock tubes. On top of that, the most beautiful “I Love You” plaque and several fabulous paintings, lunch at A&W with my Mum and an afternoon of gardening. A wonderful day, all in all. Brian spent the afternoon constructing the new playhouse for the girls, as part of the Secret Garden project. We are such a lucky family, to have one another and to have this wonderful space to play, grow and explore.

Peek-a-boo view of the girls' playhouse at the bottom of the garden

I highly doubt anyone in the vicinity of Melbourne is likely to read this, but it might serve to highlight how personally devastating it is for a designer and maker of things to have their work stolen, physically or otherwise. It has also reminded me, with a show coming up, that vigilance is essential and I must not be naive to the possibility of products going missing.

Anyway, this is supposed to be about the hat, so here it is:

Milly's beaded hat

No, that is not Milly, but she was in bed and I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow! The hat is knit in the round on 3.5mm circulars, then finished with DPNs, obviously. I used a variegated purple yarn, a favourite with all three of us girls. It is the Fabel yarn by Drops and is a 75% wool superwash, 25% polyamid. It is the first time I have used it and I like it very much. The colours are great and the yarn felt nice to work with. I will definitely be using it again and think it would work well for socks, gloves and more hats. As for the beads, I have to admit they are nothing special (read: Dollar Store craft section), but the colours are pretty and the effect is subtle. I will be using beads again in future projects.

I am still working on the Helix Scarf KAL, but will no doubt start something else before long. I purchased a pattern for a shawl/wrap from Twist Collective and would love to get started on that. We are going to a wedding in May and I would love to have something special to wear that I have made. No outfit yet, but I’ll think of something!