It is a snowy day here so the best thing to do is knit. 

The sweater I made (see January 14th post) for my friend Diana came out really nice I think.  It fits her perfect and she looks beautiful!  I adjusted the pattern sizes and it really worked. 

 

I needed a new challenge so I started - again - the Alice Starmore Boudicca's Braid, a Celtic knot pattern using 5 colours from her book Aran Knitting 1997.  I started this back in 2000 - I bought all of the wool, Alice Starmoure's Scottish Campion - but found it really hard to get it going.  I was working and didn't have the time and I don't think I had the skill then.  When our daughter came home from Africa and wanted to learn to knit and wanted to Knit Rowan's Sweet, book 26, 1999.   It called for a fine yarn and the only yarn I had that would work was the Scottish Campion for Boudicca's Braid.   So she made the sweater out of that and even a little purse using the contrasting colours.  He first sweater was just beautiful and it was selected to be in a juried craft exhibit and the Mary Black Gallery in Halifax, NS.  So my sacrifice was well worth it.  About 8 years ago I found the kit for this sweater on e-bay at a very reasonable price and I was the only bidder so I had the yarn again.  Now I have no excuses not to try again so .... here goes.  I am actually enjoying it now.

 

 

 

 

This is what it should look like when it is finished - and a detail of the knots.

 

 

 

 

 

Call me crazy but it seems to be working well this time - I think I now have the patience and more understanding of what I am doing.  I hope this does not become my life's work but finishing this sweater is on my bucket list.

Once we had grandchildren it seems that we are so busy and time goes so fast as we watch them grow.  I still find time to knit and hook rugs but we do have to travel more - to Austin and to Toronto. 

I have been knitting shawls of late.  I really love "Bermuda" by Ilga Leja  ilgaleja.com,  I have made 3 of these so far and on my fouth.  One I gave to my daughter-in-law, one I gave to raffle at the Yarmouth and Acadian Shores Craft Splash and one I kept for myself.  I make them from Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn.  The colours just go together so nicelly with the pattern. 

 

 

 

I did one little mat.  Our Rug hooking groups have a Christmas dinner and we do a coaster exchange.  I made this one from a picture I found in a colouring book and sort of mucked around with it.  Little Grandson loves, loves trains - as does his Granddaddy.

 

 

 

 

I also made a sweater for a friend on commission.  I love this.  It is a wrap sweater.  It is from designer James C. Brett, Monsoon.  It is made with Monsoon yarn, It is a wool/acrylic blend and worked very well.  Really kept the shape and gage.  Enjoyed knitting it.

 

 

I guess it has been a long time since I added anything to this blog.  I also made a cowle for my Daughter-in-law from the Rowan "free" pattern and yarn you get when you get a subscription to their magazine.  I got this some years ago and finaly picked up needles and got it done.  It is a pattern called Lace Scarf by Sarah Hatton.  It turned out really nice - soft and the lace pattern came out very well after blocking.

 





 

 

And the last thing I knitted was a little short scarf for our granddaughter.  She likes bling so I designed this with yarn that had a little gold fleck in it.  My own design and it turned our really cute.  This was a Christmas request from son, Clay.  He said Lana needed a scraf to go with her new coat.

 

 

Now 2013 is a whole new year of knitting and rug hooking.  What shall I do next??

Ann

 







Paula's Vegetables

Knitted Vegtables - my Christmas preent from Paula Smith. They are amazing! Go figure. Paula loves to knit little complicated things. You should see her itty bitty chickens. I can't wait for the itty bitty rooster!

Thanks Paula!

My New Year's Resolution

My Resolution is to post on this poor blog I have ignored for a year.... I also actually finished something instead of started something(s). I love to start things but finishing is another thing. This is my fast "get this out of my stash" project I started as a Christmas project. Lots of wonderful crazyness in October and November with family - son got married, we went to Toronto to take care of grandchild while sone and new daughter-in-law took a mini-moon. Got to see grandson and daughter and son-in-law and sisters and nieces and ..... at the wedding so we had a quiet Christmas. What a better time that that to actually finish something. So I did.

This was made with 3 balls of fine lace weight yarn held together (thus almost 3 balls out of my stash but now I have one smaller ball that I have absolutely no idea what to do with - so back to the stash. My father had a saying, "Take half and leave half and you will always have some." So true of my stash!) .

The pattern is called Mezquita Shawl by Zen Gardens. So - a question from friend Paula, "What Next?"

Such beautiful weather

Hi all,

What beautiful weather we are having in Yarmouth! Still waiting for grandchild #1.

To catch up - I finished the Jones Farm, 1878, Sedalia Missouri, Stan's family home. Really proud of it and Stan loves it - that is important! All the wool his hand dyed by Pam MacIsaac-Adams with some little help from me.

The Farm has now a US National Historic Site. We shipped the mat down to Missouri for the celebration.

This is a really nice sweater that I knitted for a client - for one of her good friends. It is from Rowan Classic Collection, #13, Alpaca. It came out perfect - very happy with it and it is so soft. It is in Rowan Baby Alpaca DK, colour Cheviot #207. I love the asymmetric pattern - it repeats on the back and one sleeve is the little motif and the other is the large. The collar really worked well - it has a lovely soft drape that alpaca gives.

It is so nice that it is Spring! Grandchildren coming, lovely weather, my health is good, sun is shining!

I am also working on a beautiful men's sweater from Kaffe Fassette's, Jack's Back. It was originally published in a his "Glorious Knits" for men and reprinted with a whole new set of yarns in "Kaffe Knits Again." I have combined these two patterns and new yarns. My client is a well known photographer so he has given the colours a little boost. Each row has at least 4 colours - two per colour, takes care but is so wonderful.

The wool is all Rowan Scottish Tweed 4 ply is 18 different colours.
Going to enjoy the rest of my day!

Ann

Been a long time!

It has been a long time since I added anything to this Blog but thought it was about time. A lot of projects, a lot of living, and time passes just too fast.

Here is the progress on my flower mat since I last posted. But I do have all the flowers done once!

Son Clay and fiance Laurie have a great new condo in Toronto are expecting their first child, our first grandchild, any minute! Literally!

Megan and Nathan have a new house in San Francisco and are having our second grandchild in July.

Life is great!

I am making baby things:

Fall into Winter

Hi Megs,
We are now moving into winter with our first very slight snowfall and the Santa Claus Parade of Lights is tonight in Yarmouth. So, guess Christmas is almost here. I have to catch up a little with the blog!

Time goes so fast - really Crazy. September was particularly busy. I went to the Rug Hooking Guild of NS Rug School in Cornwallis. I took Fine Shaded Flowers. It was a challenge but I did like it. My friend, Bette Wrathal was the teacher so that was a treat. I really like her and she is a great teacher. This is the result of my efforts so far. Bette designed the mat - it is called Julia Ruth after one of her granddaughters. She names all her rugs for her many granddaughters.
To add to it all, we also took our rug hooking shop from Hands on Crafts to Rug School and did very well. We were a popular shop because we had lots of wool thanks to my Rug Hooking partner Pam MacIsaac-Adams but we also had yarns, beads, buttons and all kinds of funny things that people liked. I think we will do it again next. Year. The picture is of Doris Cooke in our shop. Poor Doris and Pam had to staff the shop while I had fun at rug school. I relieved them when I had time.

We had a great class - Bette is in the middle with the beautiful white hair. She is waring a vest she made with rug hooked flowers on it. She really is great and I really had a good time. A whole week of hooking with really interesting women and a few brave me. Know it sounds crazy but it was so relaxing and refreshing!

After Rug School we had our 3rd Annual Yarmouth and Acadian Shores Craft Splash - it was very successful! We had over 1200 participants who took part directly and many more who were observers. We kicked things off with a Sheep to Shawl (modified because we couldn't really sheer the sheep in the winter - and our token sheep was a male!) But we cut the roving with the Town Crier in attendance - beautiful fall day at the Yarmouth Light. Romulus behaved nicely and we had lots of locals and tourists looking on.

We asked everyone to make a 6"X6" square from natural hand spun yarn - (all us spinners supplied the wool) and this was the result! We expected to make a shawl that was 3 squares by 15 squares - or 45, but we got 80 so the "shawl" is now a throw that is 5 X 16 squares. It is just wonderful and cosy. We auctioned it off at our "almost" closing event - a Mad Hatters Tea Party and Michael and Francis Morris won it. It is really nice.

During the Craft Splash there was an amazing quilt show at the church. When you walked in the colours, the images, the quilts just took your break away! I may try to design a rug of the quilt show.


In October I attended a symposium in Amherst Nova Scotia with Dianne Fitzpatrick. She is an extremely talented hooker who is very well known. She has published books and is a regular contributor to Rug Hooking Magazine. Her work is amazing. She is originally from Newfoundland and her work reflects this. Again, it was refreshing. I am trying to do more interesting things and this symposium gave a lot of inspiration. There were rug hookers, knitters, spinners, doll makers. We all got to sit and do our thing while we listened to and talked with very interesting speakers who were artisans and artists. Really neat and me a lot of interesting people. The picture is of Dianne with one of her rugs in the background.

Doris Eaton was also there. She is another amazing hooker, teacher and designer - the "grand dame" of hooking in Nova Scotia. Next year Dianna and Doris are combining to do a course on "blank burlap" hooking - hooking directly from your mind to burlap. I would love to go but - it is expensive! We will see. Below is a rug done by Doris.


Since I last blogged I have published two issues of The Loop since I last wrote, the September and November ones. I had a great cover for the September.

I am also now editing and publishing the Newsletter for the Nova Scotia Association of Garden Clubs called the Scotia Gardener. It is only 6 pages where the magazine - The Loop - is over 30 pages. I do like doing it and I get to "talk" (sometimes vie e-mail) to a lot of interesting people.

We had a great hook-in with the hookers from the valley.
They were doing very interesting things. We then did a two-week course with Germaine James. I am still working on the Jones house in Sedalia. It is coming along very well - but am learning as I go to do this - picture to rug thing. It is like painting with wool and it is a challenge. king on the Jones Farm. It is coming along.
My last travel for the fall was to Ottawa to the board meeting for the Forum for Young Canadians and also visited with old friends. Went shopping with Pat - got some new pants that I needed - and really enjoyed it. Always fun running around with Pat, and seeing my old buddies.






Now my "wings" have been clipped from all this running around because I broke my leg. It is a long story but to say that I have time to work of all the stuff that is accumulating as "projects" and not finished. I am making progress but find it very frustrating.

Really looking forward to everyone being home at Christmas but don't expect much. I don't get my walking cast until Dec 16th and can't drive and am currently hobbling around on crutches and a walker. Not very dignified and very slow. I don't like slow!

Take care, loved your pictures of Argentina. Reminded me of Brazil. South America is really beautiful.

Hope Rushka is being a good dog. Give her a hug for me.

Love ya,
Mom
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What a summer!

Hi Megs,
Wow - what a summer. It has been nuts - but fun. Lots of knitting and rug hooking and.....
I will start with the last things I have done since I last posted while we wait for post-tropical storm (whatever that means) Hanna to blow over us. It has already started to rain.

I am proud that I crossed the finish line of the Ravelympics. I cast on during the opening ceremonies (August 8) and finished my project at 11:59pm Saturday, August 16. I knitted a lace shawl with very fine lace weight Marino wool. The pattern is Luminaria by Elizabeth Freeman from Knitty, Spring 08. It really came out well but my fingers got very sore. Had to take aspirin (they guys at Rotary asked if I had to take a "doping" test!).



It has clear glass seed beads knitted in throughout - they shine in the light. Proud of it and also at how fast I did it. Stan was out of town - in France - so I could just knit!



We just had our Friends from Louisiana visit - they "evacuated" from the Southern part where Gustav was hitting. This was the return visit for the Rotary Friendship Exchange we went on in June. We had a very nice visit.

In August we had the Western Nova Scotia Exhibition. I did very well. Won Knitting Best-in-Show for my Hanami and (get this!) Best-in-Show for Crocheting for the crochet/felted ruck sack I made from Noro. AND I won Best-in-Show for my sugar cookies! I think that they were made in the shape of lobsters helped win the day.

Every piece of knitting I took won first - a little hat (pink one with buttons), the Noro strip scarf. My rug hooked frog purse won first in purses. So did very well. My rug hooking didn't do as well but was happy that we had LOTS of mats to compete. Pam, my business partner at Hands on Crafts won Best of Show with a beautiful flower mat she designed.



































A photograph I took of a Day Lily in the garden - by the big rock won 2nd place in the photography. I am proud of this because I was up against really great photographers here in Yarmouth.So - a very successful EX. Next year I am going to get ALL the members of our knitting guild to enter so there will be a LOT of competition. It is more fun that way.

I have been knitting rabbits - lots of rabbits. I have another Russel, a Dudley (my sister's will know why I named him Dudley) and a Veronica (a ballerina). Russel won best "doll" at the Ex.




















I have also been very busy at Hands on Crafts We are doing very well selling our Rug hooking Supplies, knitting, books, cutters, all kinds of things. Having fun with this.

So - the summer has gone, into fall. Happy 2nd Anniversary on Tuesday 9/9/08! Next year you will be 9/9/09! I am getting ready to go to RHGNS Rug School in Cornwallis Park on Sept. 15th. I am taking Fine Shaded Flowers with Bette Wrathall. We are taking our hooking supplies and Doris and Pam are going to staff the store - so another busy month.

Take care - OH! Your brother is now a home owner! He and Laurie bought a condo in downtown Toronto. Moving in in mid October. They are very excited - good on them! Hockey season (MJAHL) has also started - last night was an exhibition game. Fall/Winter has started!

Love ya,
Mom
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Home from Missouri

Hi Megs

I am now home from Missouri visiting mother, sisters, nieces, nephews, in-laws, great nieces and nephews - Joneses and Places - had a great time and it was wonderful being able to see so many family members.

Your grandmother is very well and LOVES the socks you made for her. She wears them "out" when she goes down to eat or if she has visitors - she has a lot of visitors! There was a 50 year Lee's Summit High School reunion (brother Jack's class) and she was the "bell of the ball" - so says the Lee's Summit paper! Not bad for an over 90.
I also took her the Place/Jones family mat, I called it "Mother's Mat" and she really likes it. I explained who everyone was - she put it on the floor (I really like mats on the floor where they belong) and everyone who comes she explains who everyone is - including Rushka and Carrie.


She particularly liked Jack on the "Silver Streak" - she had forgotten about that old bike we all used - but we never will!

I went to Evan's first birthday (that is the Murray "Evan") in Kansas City and it was a grand time. Got to see Sarah and Sean, Sally and Mike and other Jones cousins, friends and Sean's parents.

Evan was given his first birthday cake - had never eaten cake before.


His eyes bugged out the first time he tasted SUGAR! He is so cute and lively, was getting ready to walk but has now walked.

As a gift I made "Russell". Russell was welcomed into the Murray home. I made him from the NorNoro wool and angora blend I bought in Columbia when we went to Anne's wedding. The sweater is made from some hand spun I picked up in Amherst, NS, and Dianne Fitzpatrick's studio. Russel is so soft. The Pattern is "Small rabbit with sweater" (modified to fit the yarn) from Debbie Bliss, Toy Knits. I like Russell.

On Canada Day (July 1) we celebrated in Susan's backyard. All the Place sisters, in-laws, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, friends were there. It was a challenge for the teenage girl at the Price Chopper to come up with the Canadian Flag but she was so proud of herself - she found it! Meredith, Amelia, Evan (the Burns Evan), and Tate were great fun. They ran around. Amelia was weaving a long stand on her fingers from the tube things that we used to make pot holders from. It was really neat. Very nice Canada Day picnic!

I stayed with Ellen. We did a search for rug hooking and knitting shops. We did find a rug hooking section - a really good one for primitive hooking - in Greenwood - part of a "general" store.

We also went to the shop in Independence - and I did try to get tickets to hear Obama when he spoke in Independence earlier in the day but they were sold out - available from 1 to 4, I got there at 3:30 and they were gone! But we did get some nice yarn. Susan really liked the 3 button shawl I made so I gave her the pattern I worked out and she bought some yarn to make one for the two sisters. Susan showed me her latest projects -YIKES - a very big and really neat
American flag afghan.

You can't see it in the picture but every square has a "relief (k/p)" picture of one of the US states. There blue section has stars and there is also the Liberty Bell. She is going to put it in a school auction to raise money. It is something!



I flew home over the flooding. You could really see it as we went over the Mississippi and Missouri. It was wild. Got bounced in Chicago when United cancelled the flight to Halifax - got home a day late and my luggage arrived 4 days later. But did get home!

Since I have been home I have been busy with the shop. Lots of tourists in Yarmouth getting off the Cat. It has been lively on Main Street. Pam M-A and I set up our shop at the Spring Fling (a hook-in in Yarmouth put on by the Rugg Bees). We did very well and I think our shop was appreciated - from the comments we received. I think I am a budding entrepreneur.






Dad loved his book and his Cardinal BBQ cover! But the Nova Scotia wind has done some damage. It has been patched with duck tape. It is a feature on the deck and can be seen when you turn up Session Hill - over the lake - on the way home! We will never get lost.

Hope all is well with you'll. Don't work too hard - it is summer. I see that San Francisco is very dry and Dad checks your temperature every day on his new IPhone. Getting it was an adventure!

Love ya,

Mom
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