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 ~ Lichen Kerchief

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

I've been pretty busy at my sewing machine the last couple of weeks so I'm so happy I finally have some more knitting to show you all after missing last week's yarn along :)

This pretty mauve cotton/linen blend yarn by Linsey has been in my stash but I hadn't used yet because it's more coarse and stiff than what I would usually knit with but I just love the color and while I was having a peak at what all my ravelry friends had hearted in the last little while I came across the Lichen Kerchief pattern that is perfect for my little girl :) You've got to LOVE ravelry!

I apologize for the dark photo of my knitting but I've been spending the last couple evenings knitting by the fire keeping nice and warm :) I just love to listen to it snap and crackle and its warmth is so welcome now that we have been freezing off and on outside at night. The kerchief has a neat little pattern of v-shapes interspersed throughout it using a simple twisted stitch and I think I'll probably get it finished up tonight and get the buttons on it sometime in the next couple of days so she can start using it. I'm in between books this week so no photo to share but I have a couple good ones, The China Study & Hunger Games, requested through the library so I hope they arrive soon :)

I can't wait to see how this kerchief fits and what you all have been knitting this week!

Hugs,
Rosina

Painting & Knitting

Underneath the tablecloth on my kitchen table is a permanent patch of butcher's paper securely taped down. Why you might ask? So that when the painting bug strikes my children which is quite often this mama can just whip off the cloth and and let them go wild without worrying about how I'm going to fix water marks and paint stains *grin*.

I seriously love this stuff! And it's pretty much indestructible :) If you have never used it there is one side made of brown craft paper which makes great wrapping paper that you can stamp and draw on and on the other side it has a water proof waxy coating that you can spill on, paint on, get marker all over and wash it all up with soap and water when you're finished :)

Today they were painting the backgrounds for a fun fall tree picture that will have them blowing paint through a straw tomorrow to make free form tree trunks and then we'll add colorful leaves using our pencil eraser ends. I just hope we can keep the paint from blowing out of the straws and onto the walls! Maybe we should to some practice breathing through the straws before I actually hand over the paint LOL.

While they happily painted away I pulled out my yarn swift and a couple of skeins of a pretty mauve colored cotton/linen blend of yarn that I've had put away for a rainy day :)

I think I've found the perfect project for it but you'll have to wait until tomorrow's yarn along post to learn more about it *grin*. Gotta love ravelry and free patterns!

Hugs,
Rosina

Sewing... Sort of

Hubby came home last night just in time for another day of being without power *grin*. I think he was seriously thinking he should have stayed on the boat where he had lights, tv, and a fully functional kitchen LOL. Hopefully this isn't going to be the winter norm of storms and darkness!

I had hoped to get more done on my holiday table runner this morning while Daddy and the kids played but I only made it half way through the blocks before everything shut down. I was chuckling to myself as I was sewing because I'm sure a serious quilter might cringe at how I was sewing my corner blocks on :) This time instead of marking a line down the center of each one I just pinched them making a crease to follow and I actually haven't pinned anything together since starting... I just love to break the rules *grin*.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to actually finish them.
For now I'm just enjoying being able to check my email and fill some pots full of water for tomorrow morning just in case we wake up in the perma dark again *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Piecing Pinwheels

I'm getting closer to finishing my holiday table runner and I'm loving all of the red :) The pinwheel blocks have gone together quite well although I did have to put my seam ripper to good use and pull a couple of them apart to adjust the centers so that the points aligned better :)

I decided to modify my pattern just a little though after running across this really cute peppermint twist table runner :) So I just finished cutting 48 little squares in a tan linen to place on the corners of my pinwheel blocks to round them up. I know what I'll be working on tomorrow *grin*.

Happy sunday!

Hugs,
Rosina

Undie Update

Well I still haven't got any of the cotton/lycra fabric that I need to finish the leg and waist bands of my undies (hopefully tomorrow) but that's definitely not stopping me from sewing more :)

Who wouldn't want to make more! Have you seen how stinking cute these little boy ones are?! They are adorable with their little boy fly flaps in the front *grin*.

My 4 year old is completely crazy about the little owls on them and I've got him and his sister so excited about them that they are begging to try them on :) I am seriously thinking about making these for Christmas presents for everyone I know LOL.

I just need to figure out how to make them in my size now!

~ Rosina

Undies

I have been sitting on this stash of super fun knit fabric by Patty Young waiting for the perfect project because you know I didn't just want to make any old thing with it *grin*.

So when I spotted the cutest little pairs of childrens underwear on flickr the other day I just had to make some for my little girl to :)

The pattern is by That *Darn* Cat and is available in a PDF format delivered right to your email inbox pretty much instantly. You've got to love that! No waiting for the snail mail :)

So far it's super easy. Just two pieces for the girls undies and there are TONS of photos to go along with the instructions so you really can't mess it up *grin*. I haven't done much sewing with knits so simple is good :)

Unfortunately though I didn't realize that I needed a cotton/lycra blend for the leg and waist band so I'm going to have to hit the fabric shop for a bit of matching fabric to finish them up. On the plus side there is absolutely no elastic involved!

So much for working non stop on my quilt as you go quilt though! All I've got is undies on my brain now *grin*. Now if only they came in a larger size than a child size 8. Apparently Hubby is in need of some new underwear to because when we went shopping together last time he somehow bought himself a package of size 'small' underwear! Here I thought he had it all under control down the undie isle and he came home with speedos! Not that I'm complaining LOL.

~ Rosina

Tutorial ~ Make A Felt & Fabric Birthday Banner

I'm so pleased with how the Happy Birthday banner I made for my son's birthday last weekend turned out that I just had to share it with all of you :)

You will need:

Printed ABC's
an assortment of colored felt
coordinating cotton fabrics and thread
cookie cutter, mug or something else round to trace around

I started by tracing 3 inch circles on my felt using one of my water glasses as a tracing pattern :) Then I found a 4 inch scalloped cookie cutter that was just perfect for the white accent underneath the colored circles and traced around it, then cutting both styles of circles out. Don't worry if you don't have items that are the exact measurements that I used, check out your cookie cutters & glass cupboard and match up sizes that you have :)

Next using my word processor program on my computer I typed in 'happy birthday' and adjusted the size until the letters printed out at a suitable size to fit on the top circle comfortably without being to close to the edges. I used the 'Arial' font at 200 points for the size :)

With all of your circles and letters cut out, stack them together the way that you want them to look and start by sewing just your letters on through all 3 layers of felt. This is much quicker than hand sewing and I was in a bit of a time crunch *grin*.

With all of your letters attached it's time to get your flags cut. You'll have to excuse my hodge podge assortment of measuring tools! LOL. I only had one ruler that was long enough so I had to resort to fabric scraps for the other side *grin*. Not a big deal at this point though, all you want to do right now is visualize how big you want your flags to be so that your felt circles are going to fit nicely and jot down your measurements for when you are ready to actually start cutting!



Now that I knew exactly what size my flags we're going to have to be to look good, I started to cut. I used a 10 inch wide strip of cotton cut parallel to the selvage along the width of my fabric leaving me with a nice rectangular chunk.

With my flags planning to be 7 inches wide at the top, I lined one end of my ruler up at one of the corners on the narrow end of rectangle sized fabric and moved the other end of the ruler diagonally across the fabric so that it stopped 3.5 inches further up the fabric on the opposite side. This first cut was going to create one side of one flag. Once that was cut I repositioned my ruler so that it stayed on the 3.5 inch mark on the one side and slid the opposite end of the ruler up the fabric 7 inches and made my second cut which then created my 7 inch wide triangle like in the above photo.

To continue cutting your triangles out of your rectangular piece of fabric you just alternate what sides you count up your 7 & 3.5 inches. Hopefully my photo is worth a 1000 words and helps clarify my instructions *grin*.

With my assortment of colored flags all cut, I laid the entire banner out so that I could alternate flags & felt alphabet circles around until I had it looking just like I wanted :)

As soon as I had my line up decided I took them to the sewing machine, positioned each circle 3/4 of an inch below the top of each flag and then edge stitched inside the colored felt circles to attach them permanently to the flags.

Since I never turned under any of the raw edges on my cotton I was a bit concerned that with all of the handling it was going to start to fray. So I took my pinking sheers and quickly cut down each of the edges tidying up any stray threads and giving them a fun finish :)

The last and final step was to attach some pre-made bias tape along the top, connecting all of the flags together :) Now if you're really industrious you can actually make your own bias and the thought did actually crossed my mind but I opted for the easy way out and used the pre-made stuff *grin*.

That's it! One fun and super colorful birthday banner :) These could be used for anything to, not necessarily just birthdays. They'll gussy up any festivities and you could personalize it with your child's name to! The only thing that I would have changed was to put on the number 4 with velcro so that I would have been able to remove it every year and update how old he is. Alas, hindsight is 20/20 *grin*.

Have fun making one of your own and let me know when you've finished it. I'd love to see what you do to make yours special :)

~ Rosina

First Blocks Done

I started cutting my first blocks today for the paintbox quilt :)
I had to do a little improv with the instructions as they call for 2 1/2 inch strips of the solid colors but I only had yardage in the solids and the patterned fabrics were supposed to be 10 inch squares but of course mine happen to be in strips so I'm working all the blocks in reverse *grin* It's all working out though :)

I decided to go with the classic blocks since they are the easiest to assemble and sew together in just a couple of minutes.

So here are the very first two in contrasting colors. I can't wait to get some more sewn up! I just love the bright color combination :)

~ Rosina

A Paintbox Quilt

I've had this great jelly roll of quilting fabrics stashed away in my craft cupboard for a couple of months now just waiting for some inspiration to hit me with an 'aha' moment and I've finally had it!

As I was doing some craft blog surfing the other day I came across a quilt called a 'Paintbox' quilt and I love it. It actually looks like the the scrappy version of it is put together very similar to a log cabin quilt but I have to delve into the instructions a little closer to see if I'm right or not :)

So I hit the fabric store this afternoon and picked up some quilting cotton solids in fun bright colors because you know it's all about fun! *grin* I'm not sure if it'll be enough to finish but I definitely have enough to get started.

Set 1, originally uploaded by Little Bluebell.

Above is a sample of what the classic squares look like with 2 of each block created to contrast each other. This is going to be fun :)

~ Rosina

Sneak Peak ~ New Organic Sandwich Bags

They're here!! The first batch of certified organic fabric has arrived and I just finished sewing up one snack and one sandwich bag out of each of the four fabrics. I just love the fun polka dots, mushrooms & flower prints!

I shared in a previous post some of the requirements that need to be met in order to be certified organic and am super excited about getting these and being able to share them with you to. I'm working on getting all of the photos together for them and will start to list them in the shop in a couple of days, so make sure you check back for them!

~ Rosina

New Certified Organic Fabrics

I can't contain my excitement anymore and I've just got to spill the beans *grin*.

I just finished splurging and purchased some fabulous *certified* organic cotton fabrics. Did you know that cotton is one of the most chemically treated crops grown and uses approximately11% of all pesticides and 25% of the insecticides used worldwide each year? Yikes!

Thankfully certified organic cotton increases soil fertility and biodiversity, reduces water pollution, and has a low impact on the environment making it good for the Earth.



I am really looking forward to their arrival and making my cloth snack and sandwich bags with them :)

All of the fabrics I purchased meet either the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) for farming methods benefiting farmers, processors, the earth and consumers by using natural, non toxic means to control crops from seed to harvesting, milling to finishing

OR

SKAL certification which tests and verifies international organic farming standards and consists of visits to farms, processing and importing units, but also examination of soil, crop or tissue samples and administrative assessments. When the production process fully meets the requirements, certification can take place.

So exciting! Soon everyone will have the choice as to which materials they want their bags made with :)

~ Rosina

Cloth Shopping Bags

The cloth shopping bags that I whipped up as a Christmas present for my mom were a big hit! She loved them :) I was actually surprised that my sister seemed to be really interested in them as well. She's not usually into anything that I make but she asked if I could make a couple for her to. Good thing the local fabric shop is having a super new year's blowout sale! I can't wait to dig through the bolts of material to load up on great fabric. Gotta love sales!

~ Rosina