Some items I have created over the intermission in my Blog!

Here are a few photos of things I have created in the time while I both neglected my crafts and my blogging.

This is a knitted skirt with a crocheted somewhat lacey edge, with a matching lacey scarf that is crocheted.  It is made with chunky yarn, that is pretty soft, and the scarf is set off with a lovely penanular broach.

I have become a shawl person, and here is a blue cottonish yarn.. and fortunately I have become more adept at wearing it than in this photo.

This little neck shawl, of which is a DROPS design. They are knitted with a lovely crocheted edging.

This next shawl I made from a scrummy stretchy yarn.. so spring like.. and this photo was more to show the pattern than the wearing of it. 

I have been busy with commissions !!!

I seem to always be saying that I have been very lax in updating my Blog. 

I have however been busy with commissions, which has given me a huge boost as far as confidence in the quality of my work. 

Here are some pictures of recent projects that I have completed:

Followed by a request from my husband for a hat and scarf for the winter:

The sweater vest being worn at work by the new owner, set up the question, what else do you make, and showing them the above project got me a new commission:

I really really like the grey and black scarf and hat, but my husband's favourite colours are Red and Black, and who am I to argue.

Work is also going really well, I have been doing support work the last three weeks, and back taking calls the last few days. More training from next week, and then more time doing support work. While my husband is driving to work and back, I am knitting or crocheting my current project, and I feel that time is not wasted looking at the view, when it is mostly dark.

My current project is the following shrug I made for myself and which I am now making for a colleague in Purple:

And I wore this long sleeved shrug I made last winter to work, and have had interest in making this one as well:

This blue shrug is made in a very thick yarn,and knitted up very quickly, and works very well with a broach pin to hold the two sides together at the front.

So as much as I have neglected the blog, I have been busy. As always I hope to be more consistent in updating in the future.

Oh and before I forget, today is the 3rd anniversary since my cancerous right kidney was removed, and I feel great!!

The new Chicks are like having a new baby in the house!

I had forgotten what it was like to have baby chicks in the house, the lack of sleep.  The new chicks seem to be fine until the small hours, and then when the temperature drops they cheep incessantly. I check the thermometer on my bedside, and decide whether to get up or not.  Last night I got up no less than 5 times to adjust the height of the lamp, and the temperature persisted in being too low.  By this morning though it did start to rise, and they become calmer.

This morning the plan was to sleep in a little, but then my cat Freyja was insisting on breakfast, I desperately tried to ignore her, closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep: Freyja put her nose on one of my eye lids, as if to say 'I know you are not asleep'.  This is Freya:

And this is Loki:

They have survived a move to France, and then a move to Nova Scotia, via Toronto, as did Oliver.

So what did I do, I got up and fed Freyja and her sister Loki, and then I was up, with no hope of getting back to sleep even if I did go back to bed.

On the crafting side I have made more of the celtic knotwork necklaces, and several friendship bands. Oh and I found a pattern for wristlets, and have made a few pairs of them. On the latter, it may be the wrong time of year to be making such things, as who will purchase wrist warmers when Spring is here.

It is sunny here, and have for the first time in days left the pop hole of the Chicken house open for the grown up hens and rooster.  I think that is the hardest part with living in Nova Scotia, we can deal with the snow and the cold, but we can still go out, but for the chickens they were inside for so many months, with the snow outside two feet and more deep. I had dug a path down to the house which was more like a trench from the war, so the chickens had no chance of getting outside. I feel for them having been inside for so long, and almost forgetting what it is like to go outside again.

And look at what the right type of snow does to my dog Oliver, he is a snowball magnet :-)

I came across a photo of something I made in early February: A French Press Cozy -

I adore coffee from a Cafetière (which is what we call one of these - both in England and in France), but we found that by the time we finished the coffee, the last of it was not not enough, hence the making of the Cozy.   The Coffee remains hot to the very last.

I realise that it would be remiss of me not to include a photo of Branwen our Siberian Husky, who only travelled from Antigonish to get to us, and simply adores the snow, and would sleep outside in winter, but has now got used to sleeping inside on our bed if there is room for her.

And this is the usual winter view of Branwen:

So what is this blog about?

The idea of a blog came from watching the movie 'Julie & Julia'. Julie plans to cook all the recipies in Julia's book during the course of a year, and writes a blog of her progress while doing so.

It suddenly struck me that I could also write a blog about my progress with my projects, and tell you a something of what else is going on in my life too.  

I have been crocheting & knitting now for quite a few months.  After losing my job, I worked on my tarot skills, walking for exercise, and practicing my saxophone playing.  But with no money coming in, I had to consider what I could do to change that.

I started looking for patterns... and so it began first with a set of nesting bowls. I was always considering what might interest customers, rather than what I would like myself. Come back and see what other items I have made, and continue to make.

So the blog is to generate interest in my work, but also to give me a focus on my own progress. 

On a side note, the movie that was the inspiration, showed two women learning to cook, and during my time at home, I too have been learning to cook!