Bento Box Quilt For A Special Boy

My sister gave birth to her very first little one on May 1st making me a Tante (aunty) for the very first time! Yay, so exciting and to celebrate I want to make him his very first quilt.

I've been looking for the perfect pattern or idea for a boy's quilt for quite a while and when I saw these photos for a Modified Bento Box I sort of fell in love with it *grin*. So much in fact that when I started digging through my fabric stash I had my ipod in hand so that I could consult with her photo to match up similar colors LOL.

So far I've cut all of the center blocks out but since I don't have a pattern to give me exact amounts of fabric to cut I'm sort of just winging it when it comes to how many strips of fabric I will need. I didn't want to cut too many just in case I don't use them all so I may have to stop and do some more cutting before I get to the end but I'd rather do that then end up with a bunch of three inch strips I don't need later.

I had planned to spend the entire morning sewing away but my daughter seemed to have other plans and ended up pulling me into a little sewing project of her own so this is about all I got finished today :) I think I have about a month and a half to finish though so that should give me plenty of time to finish it... should being the operative word as I have been known to be a bit of a procrastinator. I just may end up at the baby shower with bright red blood shot eyes from pulling an extreme all nighter to get it finished in time. Let's hope not though! *grin*.

Hugs,

Rosina 

Yarn Along ~ Socking it Out

A post of my current read and what is cast on my needles ~ Inspired by Ginny over at {Small Things}

My little stash of socks is growing!
I decided not to stop with one finished pair since I have tons of yarn still to knit with so three down and at least one more to go to make a matched pair *grin*.

They are so stinking adorable that I may just have to make another pair when this one is finished to :) You can find the pattern here. For my book this week I just got a copy of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent by Andrew Nikiforuk.

I've been all riled up lately over the Northern Gateway pipeline that Enbridge wants to ram through our province and I shared some videos here last week and I've got another one to share with you today below.

The tar sands are sort of 'out of sight, out of mind' for most Canadians. Even for myself I hadn't given them a heck of a lot of thought in the past but with the pipeline possibly being built through the Great Bear Rainforest, our coastal temperate rainforest, in ecologically sensitive land I wanted to get a bigger picture of what the tar sands and their sticky bitumen means to the rest of our great country!



What does environmental devastation actually look like? In this video above at TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project -- and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat. Please, please take the 17 minutes it takes to watch it and learn a little more about the tar sands. Those pretty commercials they show on television of the environmentally friendly mines with gorgeous forest in the background won't be there for long and is not a true representation of what it truly is.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox... for now *grin*.

Can't wait to see what you all have been knitting this week!!

Hugs,
Rosina

Yarn Along ~ Baby Socks

A post of my current read and what is cast on my needles ~ Inspired by Ginny over at {Small Things}

It seems like ages since I've joined in with Ginny's yarn along but then I haven't been doing to much knitting lately *grin*.

My sister is pregnant though and due to have a little boy around the end of April so I thought that I better get my knitting needles out again and get cracking on a few special baby gifts for her. I couldn't resist making another pair of the little Bambino socks that I made last year. In fact the adorable little pink and purple pair that I made the first time around were meant for her but now that we know it's going to be a boy I guess they just aren't going to do! So I picked up this lovely multi colored cotton sock yarn by Super Soxx and I'm halfway to having one pair finished :)

I know I raved about these socks the last time around but I've got to say it again that this pattern rocks. The toe and heel are worked in super easy 'short rows' and they just form the toe and heel cup so that there are no bulky seams when you finish off or anything.

For my book I'm reading The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua and it is HILARIOUS! I'm only a few chapters in so far but the mother is Chinese, born in America, but wants to raise her two daughters the Chinese way vs. the western way and the stories of music lesson practice and the battle of wills with her youngest daughter Lulu have me in fits of giggles as I read it because in some ways I see myself when my first son was born as I was very determined to raise the brightest, smartest and most achieving little boy possible. Over the years my parenting goals have changed tremendously but I can't help but find humor in the things that used to drive myself bonkers LOL. I'm really looking forwards to reading more of it :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Yarn Along ~ Bambino

A post of my current read and what is cast on my needles ~ Inspired by Ginny over at {Small Things}

I am so in love with this little baby sock pattern :)

I had to temporarily put down the baby sweater I was knitting as I'm missing the necessary circular needle for the next step so in the meantime I decided to use up the leftover yarn from the shawl I finished last week and make a pair of these adorable socks.

There's just something about sock knitting that is so darn addictive! For me it's when I get to the heel, working the rows and watching as the cup of the heel emerges. From that point on I just can't put down my needles as I can't wait to see how it all comes together *grin*. This particular sock had something new to me. The heel and toe were both constructed from the same identical 'short row' stitch pattern and then as the toe flipped up it was finished off with the coolest zig zag stitch of slipped knits and purls to create the finished seam across the toes in the above photo. There is absolutely no bulk inside the sock to bother delicate little baby tootsies *grin*.

The only tricky part I found was getting used to the little size 0 DPN's. Those suckers are tiny!! They flexed quite a bit as I knit and I was a little worried that I would snap them but it all worked out great and I've just about finished up the second sock so that I can go back to my little baby sweater for next week :) I'm still reading Deeply Rooted to. I just haven't had enough time to read this week and I'm dying to find out how it ends!

Can't wait to see what you all are knitting up this week :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Could this be a sign?

I was rooting around in the cupboard that I store all of our bills and miscellaneous paperwork in when I ran across a mysterious little brown envelope. To my surprise inside were two little ultrasound x-rays of my youngest son taken in 2005 when he was around 19 weeks :)

I had completely forgotten that I had tucked them up there for safe keeping and how funny to come across them just days after we finished celebrating his 4th birthday! Could it be a sign? Perhaps it's a hint that we should have another baby. Three is an odd number and we really should even it up right? *grin*. Come on, I"m going to need some backing if I'm going to convince hubby that we should have another one! LOL

I'm going to have to tuck these away in a more appropriate place, like with the rest of the baby stuff, but I think I'm going to swoon over them just a little bit longer :)

~ Rosina