The Wonders of Blocking

From this to this

  Blocking truly amazes me everytime I block a project. What looks blobbish and undefined is magically transformed into something quite nice or even quite spectacular. I often think to myself-wow I didn't know it was going to look this good, mind you I am also nervous some critical or really bad mistake is going to rear its ugly head. Having your knitting all bunched up on a needle can lead to a few oversights!
 I really really liked knitting this one. It blocked really nicely. I didn't use pins or wires as I realized it was pretty big-it is approx 63 inches in diameter. I just shaped and measured to see if it was a circle and not an ellipse. I definitely will knit another one. The pattern is just so very pretty.  Thank you Mr. Flood. My pictures do not do the dyeing justice. Thank you Madtosh

A small but mighty yarn shop

Attention all yarnistas in the Okanagan Valley or those of you travelling through this area, there is a great little yarn shop in Falkland, B.C. Falkland is a a small village located on Highway 97N between Vernon and Kamloops.It's about a 15-20 minute drive from Vernon-no biggie! Kelly and her husband Jamie own the Falkland General Store and in this store is a yarn shop-Nee Nee Girl's Yarn Shop.Now this shop has lots of really nice yarns and fibres, great books and some really nice knitting stuff...Lantern Moon needles and bags, sheep mugs from Ireland,Noro, Fleece Artist, Regia sock yarns Amy Butler organic cotton...etc as well as other  assorted crafting materials.Kelly is a super knitter (of course) and the stock she has chosen is lovely. As most the staff are knitters, everyone is really helpful, friendly and quite enthusiastic. It is such a pretty drive up through the valley.Throw in a picnic lunch or have lunch out, it's a nice mini road trip!

I  forgot to take any pictures in Falkland, but here is a shot of an old barn enroute. I love old barns, the windows in this one are great and are still intact.
 I have calculated there are 213 pattern repeats for the knitted- on edging of the Girasole. Sometimes it is better not to know all these things!Despite my counting and sighing it is progressing well.The end is in sight!

Knit knit knit

I started knitting Girasole-a Jared Flood pattern sometime ago. It is a beautiful pattern. Head on over to Ravelry and check out some of the  lovely throws, shawls, blankets...etc  knitters have made with this pattern. They are amazing! It also knits up so well in lots of different fibres-from silk to wool to cottons.So I have had this puppy on my hit list for a few years, I even bought some yarn for it a couple of years ago (gee what a surprise).Anyways, a few weeks ago I walked into my LYS and saw this yarn. It's Madelinetosh DK in the colour Earl Grey. Of course the rest is history. This is such nice yarn to knit with and has a great sproingy texture and the colours are wonderful.And its not in the blue pink purple family! I do tend to gravitate to certain colours!

My pictures do not do the colours justice.However I am on the part of the pattern that has 640 stitches for 44 rounds,that's a lot of knitting! It is a fairly easy pattern to knit so it's going okay. It is great to knit while watching the Stanley Cup-go Canucks

  Gardens everywhere are bursting out in colour. What a great time of year! 

TFA Contest

Hey knitsters head on over to Tanis's website  and leave a comment in her blog as she is running a great contest with some super prizes. She is a dyer and designer extrordinaire from Montreal. And yes I have some of her lovely yarns. They are beautiful and lovely to knit with.  Go Canucks!!  Chris

Looking a lot more like Spring

These are painted daises from the boulevard garden. A few years ago Mr. B. decided to dig up some of the boulevard, not too sure why. I think there was a lot of weeds and no grass-well I know that there was a lot of weeds and no grass and it looked pretty yucky.Anyways I planted it and  many plants survived. I love this one but it only blooms this time of year. I think I have a colourway in a sock yarn bearing this name. I am a marketer's dream.

The Hansa roses are out now too. They are not a one of the designer or glam roses, but they are a very pretty colour and they smell divine.



















There are a lot of irises out in gardens all over K-town. They are pretty nice too. So where is the knitting? Good question. I have started a new project -Girasole (italian for sunflower)  with a great yarn-so I guess there is a bit of a theme going here.But I haven't taken any pictures of it yet.That kinda sums it up.

Have a great week    Chris

Modern Quilting

When I first started the Mitered Squares Blanket I read on the pattern notes that this project was inspired by a particular quilt. The quilt being Modern Crosses Quilt found in the book Modern Log Cabin Quilting by Susan Beal.It is a great book full of great projects and a fresh take on an older craft.

I used to do some quilting sometime ago and really enjoyed it. Its like knitting, it's fun (most of the time!!), beautiful patterns and wonderful materials to work with. It is really no wonder that some of us end up accummulating a lot of "working materials". It is really interesting how quilting has taken a new direction. The quilts are more modern looking with great fabrics and clean lines. I love it!! A lot of them look pretty easy and relatively quick to do-very appealing.Just as the hand dyes in kniting do a lot of the work in knitting so do the new fresh fabrics in quilting IMHO!!
                                                                             Chris

Mitered Crosses Blanket

Ok well now carrying on.....my DD set up this blog for me for Mother's Day in 2009. The other day she asked me how was I enjoying doing all the bloggy stuff-absolutely great I said-it's all good! I feel like I have been caught out on my homework!
I have done a fair bit of knitting in the past two years-socks, lace, felted bags...etc. I have just finished the Mitred Crosses Blanket . It was an interesting knit and working with anything Noro is always great. This pattern was published by the ladies of Mason Dixon as a fundraiser for Mercy Corps for Japan.It has raised thousands of dollars , I do believe over $14,000.00. Power of the knit-I love it.Little things can truly lead to greater bigger things!