The spider didn't answer......

she was very busy spinning her web.


Many of you might recognize this line from Eric Carle's book, The Very Busy Spider. I think grew four additional appendages and have been the spider for the last four months.

I am thankful to have had the past four years of working part time so that I was able to be with my young family but last August I returned to work as a full time media specialist which may explain my absence. (Weird, "four" seems to be a theme here)

I have had little (precious) time to knit but still sneak it in when I can. Here is a fun little fall item to knit. It is the pattern by Marie Mayhew, Woolly Acorn and Oak Leaf.



Be back later :)

Matchmaker

It's been a while since I've taken a knitting class but when this showed up in my inbox I couldn't resist! Marrying my favorite hobbies: photography and knitting!! I find it really difficult to take great pictures of knitted items and have them so you want to reach out and touch or squeeze the image or try it on for size plus I wanted to meet this photographer who had this dream job of photographing fiber farms, people and yarn.



I drove to The Yarnery on Grand Avenue in St. Paul and met Gale Zucker whose photography is so spectacular and really touches your inner spirit. We saw a slideshow of her beautiful work while she was photographing the pictures in her book Shear Spirit and also in the Mason Dixon: Knitting Outside the Lines book. Plus we went outside and practiced on a few knitted items.






This is my unfinished Knit Chicken by Susan B. Anderson. She needs eyes, a beak and a tail. I didn't get it stuffed properly because I was working till the last minute at the Yarnery and didn't have any stuffing with me. I have to figure out if I can shove some in somehow :)

My brain is overloaded; Gale was a great teacher and had so much information to share. It was a great class and a perfect way to spend an evening. I would love to shadow someone like Gale. Too bad she lives on the East Coast.






One of the best things she taught me is the use of Flickr to edit photos using Picnik and post into Blogger. OMGosh! It makes it so much easier when editing for blogs or web. I had heard of Picnik but had never tried it. It's awesome! I messed around with these photos in this posting. Need to get the vignette down better but this saves so much time and you can do so much with it, even for free!

If you take a class at the Yarnery, you get a discount coupon towards a purchase. I swooped up this (hee hee) Aren't they cute?



PS. This puppy LOVES my yarn. She wouldn't let go for anything.

Puppy and Patterns or Patterns and Puppy

I'm not sure what has been taking up more of my time...the puppy or the pattern I just finished writing and publishing. I'll start with the puppy. Really, this is just a photo post.

This is just one of the signs that greeted us as we pulled up into the place where Lucy lived her first 8 weeks of life. The sign says "SLOW Golden Retrievers at play". Lucy comes from a great family.

A sweet little kiss for daddy.

Lucy helping herself with the leash.


Frog legs


A good game of tug


All tuckered out

Here's the other busy P...I've designed May Day baskets! Or baskets for whatever you find useful. I wish this holiday would have more of a presence in our world. It's kind of like a random act of kindness except the receiver isn't supposed to know who it's from. One would hope that it puts a smile on their face and a bounce in their step. There are four different sizes and styles and I had so much fun taking pictures of these. I love fresh flowers and I really should have some around the house because they make me happy when I see them. As some would put it "Food for the soul" Yep! And the candy was delish too. Anyways, I decided to put this pattern in the Etsy shop since I labored this project. But I learned a lot through the whole process. I think the hardest part will be giving these baskets away. I love them way too much.

Have a Happy Easter!
Annie

Cooper's Flock :: Would you like to help?

I learned of this heart breaking story here. I wanted to show my support so I requested the pattern from Lucinda. A few days later Susan had a drawing for some Blue Sky Cotton yarn and she selected my name to receive a skein. My little birdy is done and he's quite sweet. I just need to package him up and send him on his way which may eventually end up in a hospital pediatric intensive care unit bringing comfort to families who are overwhelmed. Lucinda is trying to get 100 birds knit up by May. I hope she receives more than that!

Would you like to help? I have plenty of the Blue Sky Cotton left over and I would love to pass it along to you if you would like to knit a bird. Go to Lucinda's site and request the pattern. She'll email it to you as well as the address of where to send the bird. If I have more than one taker, I'll have a drawing. Let me know by emailing me by the middle of next week. You can find my address over there to the right of the blog. I would love to "pay it forward".

Annie

Sweethearts

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Bear. These two chums brought lots of smiles to our home. I used Jelly Bum's bear pattern but changed it a little bit. I found some strong magnets and glued them to the inside of the embroidered nose so they can nuzzle noses. I put them in my Etsy store as a made-to-order. I still have lots of yarn leftover and wonder how far it will go.

Speaking of how far things will go, another sweetheart, my daughter, has an obsession with wheelchairs. Yes, you read correctly, wheelchairs. She has asked Santa for the last two years to bring one. He did not. One year he did bring her crutches (which weren't needed by the way) but they were on her list. She wanted them so badly. But a wheelchair? I usually have to steer her away from those Little Rascal carts in the stores. "No, Ella, you cannot sit in that chair!" Well, this last Monday and Tuesday she didn't have school and I found her in her room drawing this picture on her easel.

Nine different designs! Do you think she may be destined for a health related career? or rather some type of engineer? This child cracks me up. This is definitely one of those memories I need to document. That's why you are reading about it here.
You should see her notebook from today. She was home recovering from a case of the stomach bug. Her entire day was spent planning, drawing, and coloring her dream room while watching HGTV. I bet she's spent nine hours on this room. I'll share later. I have to sneak the notebook and snap some pictures of it. I guess it's fun dreaming.

May your dreams be sweet tonight!

Oh Pickles!

I had to. This was a gift for my coworker/friend who collects them.
I have to say that it was an interesting knit, the comments I received that is.
As I knitted this in the company of my relatives questions were asked. Quite funny.
"What is that going to be?"
"It looks like a cover for something"

The other entertaining part of knitting this was the "pickle" quotes that surfaced.

Do you know these?
"Oh pickles" (Higgly Town Heros)
"We might be in a little bit of a pickle, Dick" (Fun with Dick and Jane)
"Now that's the best tastin' pickle I've ever hoid" (Vlasic pickles)
"Pickle in the middle" (did you play this game?)
"I'm in a pickle" and "It's dillicious"



Here's the knitty gritty:
I used this pattern found here
Modifications were made. I used 10.5 needles and worsted weight yarn so I could felt it; I added an ornament cap by knitting a rib pattern, seamed it together, felted and sewed it in place. I also needle felted Felting Flash to the cap to make it shimmer (although the photo didn't capture the sparkle). I added a jump ring to the cap so it can be hung on the tree. Before felting the pickle I added french knots for the bumps. Its about 5.5 inches tall.

Maybe you crave them like I do. Whether you like them sweet or sour, sliced or whole, go knit one today because who doesn't love a pickle? Especially a dill dipped in sour cream....yum! (that was a pregnancy thing but I still on occasion do that).

Have you had your Honeycrisp today?

This past weekend we went to our favorite apple orchard in White Bear Lake. The weather was beautiful but it did seem a little strange wearing shorts. The kids had their pony rides, tractor rides, photo opps as well as their share of treats. Apple cinnamon donuts (served thumbs up style), carmel apples and a bag of Harrelson's is what I left with in my shopping bag.

Have you tried a Honeycrisp apple yet? They weren't ready at the orchard but a couple of grocery stores around us are now carrying them. It's my favorite eating apple. They are crisp, juicy and sweet-tart tasting. I guess they come at a premium price though. My MIL said last night that at the orchard they visited near Sioux Falls a bag of Honeycrisp was selling for $30!! Did they receive special sunshine or rain or something??



I paid $2.99 for a pound at my grocery which kind of hurt so I knit a special jacket to protect this piece of work. No, actually I am making these for my little guy's preschool teachers. It's Apple Day next week so they are each going to get one. The pattern is from here.

On another note I have received a couple of awards from some very sweet people that I haven't acknowledged here and I want to make sure that you know they are really appreciated. Life has just been a little overwhelming recently. So thank you, they made me smile and brightened my day.

From : Knitter Sue

From: Denise at The Knitting Den

And I'll get to that meme, Andrea :)

Woolly Cardinal & some cheap thrills

I really thought that my knitting production would increase over the summer while I was off from school but that doesn't seem to be the case here. I've made a list and have well over 15+ projects that I've either started or have purchased to begin and that doesn't even include my notebook that's filled with ideas in which I want to create. I think I have discovered my passion. Wish it was financially sustainable but unfortunately it drains my pocketbook instead :) I'm thinking about an Etsy shop in the near future. If not knitted items I can at least sell my surplus of vintage buttons and wool sweaters. It's been fun thrifting for these items but how much is too much?? Anyone looking for some felted/unfelted wool?

Even though back to school for me isn't until the end of August I volunteered to be part of a grant-funded training class of digital video production. It will take me away from my summer break and kids for seven days but the dangled carrot is perhaps a new sewing machine or a camera upgrade as the result of my attendance. Yahoo!!

Finished up one Woolly Bird. I added an applique to his side and tried the blanket stitch. It would have been much easier to do if I hadn't already stuffed and sewn him shut. (Note to self for next one)

CHEAP THRILLS.... (even for adults) I was blog reading and you know how it goes, you click on one link which leads you to another and another and another (lost in blogosphere) but this was meant to be...somehow I found myself here and ten minutes later we were at Home Depot buying supplies for the marshmallow shooters and having a blast (sorry, no pun intended) It was less than $5 for everything.

I think we have a budding engineer. She worked on redesigning her shooter for over an hour and came up with all sorts of prototypes.

To work the shooter: simply drop in a mini marshmallow and blow real hard. When I tried they actually flew about 20 feet!

Go have some cheap fun!

What's cookin?

A knitted FO ready to serve up something good to eat. This is the oven mitt by Noni Designs. This will be a great gift giving item. I made the medium size and though you can't tell by the picture it really fits a child's hand. But then I did forget about it when it was in the washer doing its felting magic, oops. I will try again but instead I'll create the large size and see what I get.

Speaking of something good to eat here is a very refreshing, cold treat to have on a hot summer day. I made this the other day using the fresh picked strawberries I had leftover from making jam. The recipe is from a friends' family cookbook. (Hi Laura :)

7Up Strawberry Frozen Fruitcups

6 oz. can orange juice concentrate
6 oz. can lemonade concentrate
3 bananas, diced
2 C strawberries, sliced
1 C sugar
13 1/2 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
16 oz. 7Up

Combine and pour into fruit cups or small paper cups. Freeze.

Enjoy!

Nature's Voices

I love hearing the birds sing in the morning. When I do I know it's going to be a productive day. Something about sunny mornings make me happy and when I can listen to nature's voices it's all the better. We have a hanging planter in the front of our house with hot pink geraniums in it. Little did I know when I picked out that plant at the farmer's market it would become the home for a Purple Finch family. They built their little nest tucked neatly inside the plant and are waiting with anticipation for their six little eggs to hatch. We've been watching closely and hoping the raptors will keep their distance. Last year the luck was not with the Finches :(

I love my feathered friends and it has put me in the mood to cast on for these. I adore this pattern! Once again, Marie has designed a fabulous woolly something. The cardinal is one of my favorites and has such a pretty song so he will be first. Pictures to follow!

(PS. Did you get a glimpse of the new gnome she created! Eeeee! I can't wait to make him too)

Peep peep peep!

Welcome to the roost! Meet the three chicks:



Here's Coco who is a bit shy but quite the risk taker.

Clementine who is loving and very easy going.

And then there's Chiquita who was born with a bit of 'tude and already has pigmented her backside with a tattoo.




We love our new brood. They are fun to be with and remind us that spring is almost here.
Pattern is by Marie Mayhew .
Yarn used was Frog Tree Alpaca, sport weight. On Coco, Trendsetter Aura in white was used (every other round) along with Frog Tree to give it a fluffy effect.

Welcome 2008

I really have been knitting during this momentary posting lapse. Unfortunately I didn't take the time to photograph the gifts I gave to family and friends...except for a couple.
One thing I have learned this past holiday season is that if you want to give knitted gifts, starting projects in December isn't a good idea. I really should start now to be ready for next Christmas :)

Here is a project that was intended for my almost 3-year old but ended up fitting my almost 8-year instead. She was willing to wear the hat for the picture but I don't think she will head to school with it adorning her head.

Pattern: Snowman- Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson
Size: Largest size (2 years and up)
Modifications: I used Berroco Comfort yarn instead of GGH Samoa; buttons for eyes instead of knitted eyes; changed the scarf color (Susan's was red)

My sister and I took an embellishment class by the very talented Marie Mayhew. We made felted tree ornaments and Marie taught us how to add beads and sequins and how to felt yarn and roving on them. It was a ton of fun but overwhelming. So many choices that I just stayed very simple. Polka dots were fun and easy and SIMPLE. I'll definitely make more of these and will try to jazz them up with a bit more effort. I loved meeting Marie and seeing all of her cute designs. I have discovered that I love that crafty kind of stuff mixed with knitting, whereas, my sister loves knitting garments and after taking this class she will avoid all projects that involve "embellishing". We had a good chuckle about it though.

The ornaments were a gift to my very special grandmother who is very crafty herself. It was fun to see her expression when she opened the gift.


A couple of projects in the works...felted heart baskets and a vest for moi!!! Are you the type that knits for everyone else but yourself? Other than the first few beginner scarves I've made everything else I have knitted was for someone else. (I don't mind..I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it) This vest has been on my needles for quite some time so this month is dedicated to finishing it! Picture to follow...

Yogurt's other use...

Any of you have two year olds at home? Yes? You will relate. Already been there done that? Maybe you’ll be smiling! Not quite there yet? Just wait!!! My seven year old...never got into much and I didn’t have to put stuff up high. She just stayed out of trouble (for the most part :-). Yes, she is a girl, not sure if that makes a difference but my two year old son *sigh* I’ve lost count the number of times he has made a major mess of some sort. I’ve decided I’m going to start documenting his “creativity” by photographing these many, many occurrences.

So I was upstairs checking email and he was downstairs innocently watching his Mickey Mouse video and he comes up and shows me his hands which were completely covered with yogurt. (He's been opening the refridgerator since he was one and has been helping himself since) So I ask him why he is such a mess thinking he was going to show me the 99th yogurt stain on the carpet in front of the TV but instead he runs downstairs to proudly show me his masterpiece.

That isn’t the only place he fingerpainted. He also decided to deface his TV and DVD player including the Mickey Mouse DVD. Anyone know how to get yogurt out of a DVD player?? *sigh* He didn't seem to have a clue that this was "naughty" even though I kept saying it over and over. He was really quite pleased at what he had done. He certainly keeps the detergent companies in business.

On the knitting front...

I've been busy with knitting Christmas gifts so I have not posted much lately but I will once the gift giving season comes to a close. This was a gift my daughter gave her Sunday school teacher.
The pattern was purchased here. A very quick and neat gift to give to families. I had seen this before but had never heard of the legend of the Christmas nest. A card is included and reads:
A German legend tells of the magic of all the world's birds bursting into song as if with one voice the night the Christ child was born. Your family may find a bird's nest hidden within their Christmas tree. The nest promises the gift of health, wealth, and happiness to all throughout the year!

So you hide the nest somewhere in the tree and the children (or adults) try to find it.

In a previous post I mentioned my friend Janet who is undergoing chemo and I knitted her a hat. I decided that her granddaughter needed a coordinating hat to wear when Grandma wears hers. I used Susan's Ribbon hat pattern in Itty Bitty Hats and just modified it a bit. I love how it turned out.

I have had an inquiry with respect to the frames I use for my pictures. (Hi Andrea!) In my other spare time (ha-ha) I digi scrap and have purchased and downloaded lots of digital elements. Some of my favorite places to shop are here ,here ,here and here. I use Photoshop Elements to create my pages and photos. I haven't done much with it lately. Too busy knitting so I have a little catch up to do.

More posting of projects to come!

Just keep knitting

I have two completed projects to share. (Did I mention earlier that I am a sloooow knitter?) Well, actually I have more to post but they still need finishing touches.

I picked up this book Knitting for Peace and found a hat to knit a teacher-friend of mine who recently had a brain tumor removed and will be undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. I hope it serves her well. The stitches are intertwined with many prayers for her.

I aslo wanted to share this project...Meet Mrs. S. We (my daughter and I) have not officially named her yet so Mrs. S will have to do for now. If she behaves she might be a little Christmas gift for my daughter's teacher. Sometimes I think she is making faces at me. Every now and then when I get a glance of her sometimes she looks mischievous. (The pattern is this)

Did I also happen to mention that neither of these projects were on my list? Just keep knitting...just keep knitting. (Love that Dori)