quiet usually means busy

While it's been rather quiet here on my blog, I've been quite busy with my knitting needles. Two very exciting opportunities came my way about a month ago, and I said yes to both of them! This means I'm having loads of fun, working much harder than I'm used to, and making very cute things I can't share with you yet.

Over the past few weeks I've been too caught up to have much chance to write to you, but hopefully I will have a little more time next month. However, since I can't share my current knitting, maybe you'd like to hear about some of the other things I do? I sew as much as I can find time for, usually clothes for myself and other family members, sometimes little things to brighten up my home. I also adore gardening, and my gardens are coming along nicely this year. I also enjoy cooking, and I've shared some recipes in the past. Maybe I will post a few of the dishes my family likes best right now. I hope you'll enjoy reading about all of these things.

Sadly, I've had to put on hold the pattern I'd planned for early summer release, but there are some other things for you to look forward to. I plan to update one of my most-loved patterns for a September release, and that I can definitely share with you. I've also been thinking about reorganizing and expanding the clothing bundles I sell. Would many of you be interested in that?

Until then, I hope you continue to stop by, and I'll talk to you soon!

(P.S. The photos are from a recent trip to Vermont, for my birthday)

not quite there

It seems like Spring is starting almost everywhere, but in Montreal, we're not quite there. Today is blustery and below freezing. I contemplated taking the bus home from my yoga class, even though I walked all winter. A few warmer days make these colder ones hard to bear. The snow is mostly gone, but the ground is still frozen. All I have are a couple lonely snowdrops, which I planted last fall. The gardener inside me is bursting to be out, busy and dirty and tired at the end of the day. Thankfully, I have many things inside to keep me busy. For knitting, I am trying to finish up the last part of the mystery KAL, have a light cardigan about 1/2 done, and have started a new pair of socks (because even if spring comes soon, my feet will be cold for a couple months yet).

I hope everyone else is enjoying some Spring weather (or cooler days of Autumn, if you live in the south).

poppies

A few things have come and gone in my garden this month, but my favourite so far are the poppies. These are annuals that I planted in early April. There are few flowers so easy, so satisfying, so gorgeous, as these poppies. I want to take a photo of each one as it opens.

strawberry season

I've been sick, again (goodness, do kids ever bring a lot of germs home from school)! And I haven't felt much like knitting lately. However, I picked up a few balls of Sirdar Baby Bamboo in silver, and bought this lovely pattern, in the hope that I would be inspired to knit myself a summer cardigan. We'll see how that goes.

In other news, the strawberries are ready! This bowl won't last the day, but there will be more tomorrow. I must say, growing soft fruit is the most rewarding type of gardening. I love flowers, but you can't eat most of them :)

my garden

I just finished reading The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I loved this book as a child, and reading it as an adult, I've found a depth and understanding in some of her characters which really spoke to me. I've been through some dark times in the past 6 months, and I don't think I'm quite out of the woods yet, but this story gives me hope.

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that we had to redo the gardens in front of our house last Autumn. The weather has been cold, so things aren't too far along yet (and there's plenty of holes waiting for new plants). However, I thought I would show you a few photos of the lovely things growing and sharing their beauty with us.

view of the front garden

tulips and grape hyacinths

pulmonaria and periwinkle

lettuce seedlings

rhubarb

cranberry bushes

strawberry blossoms

summer plans

Spring has quickly become summer here, and my free time seems to have disappeared! (I suspect this happens to most parents)  I hope you don't mind if my writing here is more sparse, while we enjoy the warm weather.

Lev wants to spend most of his time outside, which is good because I have a garden to look after. I've finally discovered what will grow in the clay soil here. We've been eating salads from the garden for a couple of weeks now, and it's so satisfying! We eat a lot of salad in the summer, and I love running around back for 10 min, and coming in with a basket of fresh greens. Now my tomatoes and peas just need to get in on the action.

We've also been making weekly trips to the library, now that I know it's only a 20 minute walk away (can't believe it took me a year to figure that out). Lev is far more interested in the toys, but I enjoy all the free books! I might just have to steal a bit of my knitting time to make room for a bunch of summer reading. I've heard librarians and knitting go hand in hand, but I can't seem to find the craft section at our library. I will need to ask one day, since they could be hoarding all the good books.

Even with the warm, humid weather, I've managed to fit in a bit of knitting. I'm slowly working away on a new pattern for you! I have a huge list of ideas, but nothing was quite inspiring to me - I think because many had already been done by others. I wanted something I could really make my own. Finally, while chatting with a friend one day, the perfect idea struck! The toy is finished, and just as cute as can be. Now I'm working on a set of summery clothes to go with it. I will try to get some sneak peeks up here for you soon!

I'd hoped to finish it soon, but realized that I'll be away for nearly a month starting at the end of June. Releasing a new pattern and then not being available for sales and support would be terribly bad planning. However, the extra few weeks will give my test knitters some breathing space, and you'll get a much better pattern.

bit of this and that

That was a long and not really intentional blog break! Mr. Mitten had 2 weeks off from work to help out with a bunch of projects we needed to do around the house. I was so busy helping him, and running around after Lev, I didn't even get on the computer most days. Added to that was an injury to my wrist which kept me away from knitting for more than a week, so I didn't have much to share with you in that way. It's feeling a bit better now, but I'm taking it slow because I really, really don't want to get tendinitis. That would be a quick end to my career as a knitting designer!

In good news, my garden is growing well, I got some sewing projects done, and I've spent lots of time just playing with Lev. He loves the outside as much as I did as a kid, so it's going to be a fun summer!

These tulips are called "Apricot Beauty" and the colour has been stunning and so much more than I expected. They started out pale apricot (like in the photo), and have deepened to dark orange with dark pink mid-ribs. They are also giant tulips, so the flowers are waist high, and longer than my hands!

The jonquils I planted for a bit more colour, and their delicious scent. I'm glad I planted them just outside our living-room window.

One of the sewing projects I completed was a set of quilted cushion covers. The little tree squares are made from this tutorial (no mods), and I found them quite easy to put together, and very satisfying! I've only done a tiny bit of quilting before, even though I've been sewing garments since I was a kid. This was a great project to learn more about piecing something more complex than squares and rectangles.

And here's a couple pictures of my little cutie. Although, he's really getting quite big! He's into full-on toddlerhood now, running everywhere, climbing everything (or trying to), and getting into everything! He's slowly picking up more words and concepts, but I'm trying to enjoy this stage, as I know once the talking starts, it won't stop until he's a teen.

His personality is definitely developing as well, with a bit of Mama and Dada, and lots of himself. He's goofy and playful, friendly and easygoing, but also serious and thoughtful when he's trying to learn something.

in between

As the weather warms up here, and there are so many things to do outside, I will likely be writing here less and less. But I'm sure you're all busy too! I love this time of year, with the sunshine and rain, the fresh green leaves, and all the noisy birds. It's been exciting to introduce the outside world to Lev - last year he was really too young to do much more than pull up grass to put in his mouth. Plus, I have new flower and veggie gardens to watch and fuss over. Once things start to flower I'll have to get some photos to share.

In between the playing, gardening, visiting, and knitting I've done this past week, I did manage to fit in a bit of time to make some more kits for my Etsy shop. I've got 2 Mama and Baby bunny kits, 2 Owl and Baby kits, and a Pug kit all made up, just waiting for me to get photos. Plus, I have 6 zip pouches I sewed weeks ago. I had all this planned for a big Mother's Day shop update, and I'm glad my planning worked out for once! I'll be sure to post here when everything is in the shop and ready for you.

Anyway, with the sunshine peeping out between the showers, I think I need to dash outside for a bit of gardening. I hope you're all enjoying your Sunday in the ways you like best!

new house

We now own an adorable little stone house in a pretty neighbourhood of Montreal! Yay! I'll share pics as soon as we have some. However, the work is just beginning...

We've started packing already, and it's making the kitties antsy. I think Greta remembers the last move, and how there was another totally annoying kitty at the new place. We're not doing that to her this time, but she's making sure that she's more than enough cattiness for one family.

This weekend we paint because some of the rooms are really awful (who would think that toothpaste green is a good colour for a dining room? I suppose you would never forget to brush your teeth after meals) The basement is pine-yellow wood panelling, and since it will be my studio, I'm hoping for a prettier colour.

Also, the garden needs a lot of work. The whole lawn needs raking, and the grass is in rather poor shape in spots. This year I'm only planning to put in a veggie garden, but I still have to dig up bunches of sod from clay soil. The rhubarb needs to be moved, but the asparagus and peonies will have to stay where they are until autumn. I have zucchini and squash seedlings I started, plus some pansies and asters for colour. I'm hoping to find some tomato and herb seedlings somewhere! My mint survived the winter beautifully, so I have a large pot of chocolate-mint to pick from all summer (it makes delicious tea).

And then moving day...

Anyway, for something more entertaining, here is Lev doing his werewolf impression (volume needs be be up a bit to hear him).

getting there

The new Festive Knits book is taking it's time coming together, but with hard work and some luck, we will be ready to order a test print by the end of the week. We've been trying to find a few spare hours in the evenings and on weekends, but with so many other things happening this time of year, the book is taking longer than we planned. Oh well, it should still be ready for you by early November. We have photos of most of the patterns now too, and I'll be getting them up on Flickr in the next day or two. That way you'll have a better idea of what's coming!

I'm feeling a bit better today (hooray!), but I get tired so easily. Although, that could have as much to do with my pregnancy as the cold. Unfortunately, I've made my niece and my hubby sick, so I now have two sick people to look after. I better get well soon! The big bowl of home-made chicken noodle soup I ate for lunch should help. Having a sister who went to cooking school is great!

We've had frost here the last two nights, and the colourful leaves are starting to fall. As much as I enjoy the colour of the season, it just makes me think of all the gardening that must be done soon! I'm so happy that I'm not working as a gardener this year. It was fun and interesting, but I think fall is definitely the hardest part of the year for gardening. It's cold here, and often damp or raining, so you're always waiting for break time and your thermos of hot tea, hoping your gloves will dry on the air vent on the way to the next job. Last year we also had snow early, so many days I worked in that, trying to get the last of the plants out or tied up for the winter. I'll go back to gardening some day, perhaps, but for now I'm happy to settle down to being a mom, and designing toys for you to knit.

happy spring!

While the calendar might say today is the first day of spring, it looks decidedly like winter outside. This is nothing unusual in Canada, unless you happen to live on the west coast. I'm sure there are tulips in Victoria already.

This winter we've had a crazy amount of snow, quite a lot of it recently, so I don't expect to see any flowers by the end of this month (I believe my sister really did photograph those crocuses on March 30). When I was gardening last year, we were supposed to start on April 1. There was so much snow, we didn't really get going until the middle of the month, and even then many yards still had snow in shadowy corners.

I'm house-sitting for my sister and brother-in-law while they're in France for April (lucky ducks!) and I was planning to get her garden ready by the time they came home. At the rate the seasons are progressing, all I might get done is to clear up the dead stuff we missed in the fall, and see the green buds of crocuses peeping out of the soil. Planting the veggies will have to wait until later.

There isn't any garden at our place, although there is a tiny back yard. We're hoping to convince our landlord to let us plant some tomatoes, and set up a compost bin. I'll also have herbs on the balcony, and dahlias at the front door (if the bulbs made it through the winter). Thoughts of warmer days and green things will have to sustain me through these last days of snow, but it's getting more difficult to be content with that.

big whinger

I hurt my left shoulder at work a few days ago, and is it ever making me a cranky girl. I'm not used to being sick or hurt, and I don't deal with it well. Although, considering my job, I'm lucky I didn't do something worse like hurt my back. Much as I love gardening, it is certainly hard on your body. I'm not too thrilled with the idea of being old before my time, which is what happens when you're a professional gardener. It comes from all that time in the sun (hence the brown, wrinkled skin) and physical labour (which gives you chronic aches and pains). Hopefully an easy, relaxed weekend will make me feel all better when I go back to work next week.

In spite of the nagging pain, I am trying to knit anyway. I have just 2 more toys to finish up for a big order I've been working on for the past few months. It will be good to finally get them all done and sent off, so I can think about knitting some for my shop. It would be nice to have a few toys in there for the holiday season. I will probably also offer spots for custom toys, which I will advertise here, so keep an eye open if you're interested.

I have in mind a tutorial on making toy faces, to be posted in the blog whenever I can get the photos taken. In my experience, it's one of the hardest but most important parts of making these toys. Getting the face just right gives the toy so much character, which can then be complemented by the clothes, giving the toy it's overall personality. I plan to include a list of the types of eyes I prefer, and how to make different kinds of noses. Ears are important too, but I might include them in another tutorial.