On Wreaths and Things....

A few weeks ago, I made this awesome wreath in art class.  When DH heard what the class was, he said, just make it colourful.  So I went with the rainbow.

The fabrics are all from A Verb for Keeping Warm's fabric club, collected over the past year, and the buttons were raided from the teacher's vintage button box.  I was spoilt for choice.

My favourite is the little wooden button in the middle of the red mushroom fabric.  It's set inside a lovely textured blue button.

---------------------------------------------------

Update on the BeeKeeper's Quilt.  I've made 49 flowers, that's 343 hexes.  Phew!  And this is how it's covering my bed so far.  Quite a way to go before I even hit the halfway mark.  The summer is coming up though, so plenty of time for knitting small things :0)

I'm still playing with the layout and here's the latest variation taking into account all the suggestions I've had.  Diagonal strips of alternating yellow and grey.  The Grey and yellow strips in the centre are arranged with 3 different alternating yarns (can you tell?).

Each full skein of yarn is making 5 'flowers'.  I'm toying with ordering more of some of these yarns, so that I can do full strips with only one colour.  Each of these longest strips takes 15 flowers, possibly 16 once they're sewn together.  I'll need about 5 of the longest strips.  What do you think of colour blocking the flowers like that?

 ----------------------------

Lastly, I wanted to show you my favourite piece of art from the Grand Rapids Art Museum.  Each of the squares is a white tile with a grid penciled on it.  Inside each of the grid squares is a dot of paint.  Some of the tiles have large dots, some small.

I love the simplicity of this piece and yet, when you take the time to look closer, it is actually very complex.

Happy weekend y'all.

Disco xoxo

Exciting happenings :0)

1. I got my hair dyed! I am beyond giddy about it.2. Matt is now officially a British citizen. Although he says he's mostly American. I rejoice anyway.
3. Less than 5 weeks til our trip home.

4. Last night I finished procrastinating on my Wood Hollow Vest, ripped back 8 rows and carried on knitting.

5. A whole 5 lbs lost to the tonsil recovery.

Just SO many things to be excited about :0)

Happy Tuesday peeps.

Disco xo

Michigan Knitting

My DH has been working a lot in Grand Rapids, Michigan the past 6 months or so. Travelling and spending almost every weekday there. So, we decided that's where we'd take our Spring Break. Why not, right?! We've had enough Florida sunshine to last us a lifetime!

He and I drove his car up there a couple weeks before, so I had an idea of what the weather could be like - somewhere between cold and hot. I think maybe this year is not a typical Michigan spring. So, the boys and I packed for every eventuality - shorts and long-sleeved pants (as they call them), t-shirts and winter coats.

Just a week or so before that, Marcy sent me her new pattern, Waterville Hat. I had just taken a class on stranded knitting with Candace Eisner Strick, so was super keen to practice. I used the yarn leftover from last year's Monkey Bones Hat and got straight to work. I was able to finish in time to wear the hat when we arrived in MI, where it was pretty cold and a bit rainy too. Here she is.....

And a close-up of my stitches. A bit uneven, but they've since smoothed out with blocking.
The top of the hat decreases rapidly and cinches to close. This gives a pretty good fit for my big ole head.

I am absolutely in love with this hat. It fits me so well and is warm as toast. Thanks Marcy for another great design. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this, especially with the neutral colours I chose.

This wasn't the only knitting I got to wear in MI. I finished a Honey Cowl for myself. I swear this is the best pattern ever and will likely get the most wear next season. It is just the right size for wrapping twice and the yarn is comfy like nothing else - Madelintosh Tosh DK in Thunderstorm, which is a grey/blue combo.

While in MI, I ran out of the yarn I'd brought to make "hexi-puffs", so sought out a LYS. The boys and I spent a very pleasant time in A Grand Skein, petting yarn and their English Angora bunny. Matthew was particularly smitten and picked the poor thing up til his heart was racing (I saved him, don't worry).

They had some of the precious Madelinetosh, so I snagged two more skeins in this very rich red called "Tart". It'll become another Christmas Honey Cowl and I will love every minute of knitting it :0)
Happy weekend, peeps.

disco xo

Tonsil Socks

These poor things shall forever be known as "the tonsil socks". Or maybe "the lack of tonsils socks" would be more appropriate. I've been laid up the past week after having my tonsils removed. Every bit as painful and challenging as everyone says it is. Thank goodness we live in an age of pain meds, right?!

So before the surgery, I decided I wanted something super easy to knit. What better than a pair of toe up, plain socks, knit til you run out of yarn. I've never made a plain pair, can you believe that?

Can you guess the yarn?
It was the lack in consistency of each colour that gave it away wasn't it? Should've known better. I knit the first sock (on my right foot, left side of photo) til I reached what I thought would be the halfway mark, you know, where the colour I started with appeared again. All was acceptable (a bit more of a green toe is within my tolerance) until there was a knot in the yarn. It looked like they chopped out a big section of the grey.

Oh well, a pair of Noro socks wouldn't be Noro without the mis-match, right? I can deal, no-one will ever see.....

So here's the neat bit about these socks. I used Candace Eisner-Strick's technique, detailed in her book Strickly Socks, for constructing the toes and heels. It is so easy as to be memorable after doing it once (just what I needed!). Can you believe these toes.......

are constructed in exactly the same way as these heels?

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with these. They're warm and cosy and will be good under jeans in my Birks next fall/winter. Or even this summer in England ;0)

Now excuse me while I go take some more Tylenol!

Happy Monday

Disco xoxo