New Addition

A few weeks ago, Grant and I added a new member to our animal family. We are the proud parents of another hedgehog. I wracked my brain for weeks trying to think of a name but was vetoed by Grant every time. Then the day she was to arrive, Grant casually states (after I ask of course) that he thinks he's got a great name: Mina. I agree because I don't really think that Gertrude is all that great for a hedgehog and Bertha was just not cutting it either. This occurs quite often just when I feel like I can't think anymore, Grant pulls a great idea out of thin air and I'm crazy about it. He's a trickster like that and I love it! So now we have Mischa and Mina. It's been great funny getting to know Mina and seeing the differences between the two is interesting. Can you tell which is which?

                              

Mischa is on the left and Mina is on the right....                    

A Mina close-up.....

The Yarn Harlot- Revisited

Stephanie posted pics from her trip to Minneapolis and Ann Arbor. The babies are the cutest part- as I'm sure you can imagine. At any rate, I found the one that shows the Borealis gals and added a special note....

Yarnover

I attended Yarnover this year for the first time when I found out that Kate, one of my college professors, would be teaching Naalbinding. This is an ancient netting technique that creates a sturdy cloth that cannot be unraveled despite wear or even cutting the fabric in two. The workshop was an all day event and even then the technique has so many variations that we could have used more time. Kate is a great instructor and this was a very helpful review of my previous instruction from my college days. 

A single needle is used with a strand of yarn that is wrapped and twisted in such a way that it creates a type of herringbone single chain. These chains can then be put together to create a variety of items including hats, mittens, slippers, tea cozies, and shoe covers to help reduce slippage on ice.  Traditionally in Scandinavia, naalbinding was used to create everything from a sieve for beer and milk to mittens in a dowry. Naalbinding is found throughout the ancient world and is often confused with knitting or crotched items. Kate stated that naalbinding was replaced by knitting when the technique moved north from Africa. In knitting, a standard gauge could be created based on the needle size whereas naalbinding depends greatly on the thumb size of the creator. Because of this, patterns cannot be written with specific instructions as in knitting. She also stated that naalbinding is much more intuitive than knitting...  You trace your hand and then begin. When the "pattern" gets larger, you increase. Add a thumb? Just leave a hole and come back later to pick it up. Come to the end? Stop picking up new and old stitches and slowly decrease until you simply weave in the end. Full a little and viola! You have created a netted piece. Sounds simple, right? Check out the basic steps....

Need more details? Check out my Flickr pages for step by step pictures. 

The Yarn Harlot

The Borealis gals and I had gotten our tickets, finished our scarves, and created our plan. It was a very fun evening. The event was very well planned. A group from the Y*&^%#$ sang a few songs, the audience all welcomed Stephanie with the Canadian National Anthem, and then the laughter began. We listened intently to her speech relating knitting to the repetitive drumming motion that Buddhist monks do. She raised a lot of interesting points about the brain's response to this repetitive movement. It's been proven to increase brain activity from 10% to 20%, reduce the risk of Alzheimer's,  and protect the mind from experiencing traumatic affects from devastating events. In short, the repetitive motion makes the brain happy. Drumming could be knitting, right? If so, I'm going to knit forever!

Stephanie had us laughing when she told the story about her beer/toilet paper expedition in 3*C late afternoon weather, her ever increasing stash size, and her desire to prove to her mom that she really can support herself by her knitting habit. The evening was topped off by some great door prizes and the book signing. Maya and I got our books signed and Stephanie held Meg's sock. A fun end to a great evening. 

Great Reds

A year ago, Pat, my yoga instructor, commented on my hand knit socks. As I took my shoes off, she walked across the classroom where other teachers were stretching trying a few downward dogs and getting ready to relax by talking about the latest antics of our junior high kids. She spotted those socks through all this and came right over and picked my foot up off the ground and started petting it. (She really must like hand knit socks! I had worn those things all day long for goodness sake!) When she was diagnosed with cancer last fall, I decided to make her a pair- after all everyone deserves a pair of their own. I chose the yarn, (Happy Feet, this would definitely send good karma), asked if other yoga'ers wanted to chip in a bit, and then spent the next few months creating an amazing pair of socks. I wanted an interesting stitch pattern but also something that would be comfortable on her feet during all those chemo treatments. The final results: Sensational Knitted Socks- Baby Cable Rib

Part 3- Ahhhhh...

Ok, where were we? I've told you now about our St. Peter trip, about the proposal hat, the discovery of my future engagement ring, and a few other knitted goodies along the way... I guess I'm up to...

Easter:

Easter this year was a knitting extravaganza! I've been knitting a bunch of little projects for Noah and Alice for the several weeks leading up to Easter. I was so inspired to knit eggs and a basket after visiting the Y(the rest of the store name shall remain nameless) to pick up my Yarnharlot tickets. There was a series of very sweet patterns (albeit very expensive patterns) that were a must have- like a pre-Easter gift to me. I get to knit the little darlings and also have the joy of seeing my niece and nephew squeal with joy and they get to actually do the squealing. Win-win for all parties involved. So, check out the impressive (if I do say so myself) results...

Alice walked around all day with eggs in her hands.

Noah had a blast counting them, taking them out of their basket, throwing them high in the air, and letting them hit him in the head... 

The Whole Ensemble. Birds, Nest and of course the.....

Special dozen- 6 eggs for each of my chicks.

Frog Prince for Noah.

Pattern from The Crafty Hedgehog: etsy shop

Raspberry hat for Alice. Berry Cute hat pattern from Fiber Trends.

Jester Slippers for Noah. Old World Booties Pattern from Interweave Press.

Noah-o and Jen-je-o dancing on the slippery floor. Mom and Dad added fabric paint to the soles so this was a one shot dance around the kitchen.

Alice wanted her turn to try them on too.

So, all in all, I'd say Easter was a success. Many laughs, lots of food, and of course, the necessary knitted gifts for my two favorite peeps.

One Busy Month- Part 2

Feb 29:

Let me backtrack one day here, after all it was leap year and that day is definitely worth mentioning. My friend Michelle told me that she heard about a leap year tradition for women who have been waiting for their man to "get on the stick," "get 'er done," "take the plunge"... freaking propose already!!!! Well, the tradition states that on February 29th it is officially allowed for a female to ask for her man's hand in marriage. Now you all know that I'm not THAT traditional and really I can ask Grant to marry me any day of the year but I thought this would make for a funny story for our grandkids (if we ever get there!). So, following tradition, I asked Grant to be my partner for life but instead of presenting him with a ring, I gifted him the Boyfriend hat from Son of a Stitch 'n Bitch. He, of course, gave me his standard response of, "Not yet, dear," but it was a fun weekend....

Isn't he adorable?

March 7:

I had been waiting all year for this weekend. I was scheduled to go to El Lago del Bosque, one of the Concordia Language Villages. The Spanish teacher at school takes a group of students every year to the camp for a weekend filled with language immersion. The language villages are close to my heart as I was a villager at Skogfjorden, the Norwegian Language Village, for many years. I was registered, I got all my shots, and I was nearly packed..... until I realized that I had double booked myself and would be attending a grad class at Hamlin. OOPS!!! I felt VERY bad. I spent several days trying to find a replacement, calling in all the favors that any teacher owed me, and finally, out of the goodness of her heart, an English teacher said she would take my place. I thanked her profusely and informed the Spanish teacher about the switch. We were both relieved but I still felt terrible. As a consolation for my faux pas, I made mittens for both teachers... one in green Cascade with multicolored cool toned Mohair and the other in black Cascade with black and grey Mohair....

Greens for Kari...

Blacks for Bridget....

I felt a bit better after giving the mittens to my dear teacher friends. After attending the first evening of the grad class however, I knew it was meant to be.... I arrived late to class because of terrible traffic and there was only one spot left. I did my best to sneak in but when there's only 15 students, it is a bit difficult. I have taken some other classes from the professor so we discussed what I could do to make up the time. It wasn't a huge deal but once again my nerves were in high gear. I sat down and got to work immediately on the book they were creating. I introduced myself to the two women I was sitting next to and noticed the beautiful wedding rings they were wearing (did I mention that I would like to be married??). As my eyes darted back and forth between the two, I realized the vast differences among rings. Grant and I shopped a bit the previous weekend in St. Peter at a local artist's gallery but he and I hadn't been totally sold on any particular design. After meeting Alicia, my ring decision was over (for now)... Check out the ring designer that she used: Xen Jewelry. So, we shall see... time will tell. Oh, and the book arts class was fun too.....

My finished books from "Making books with Children- Hamlin."

Stay tuned for Part 3....