Holli Yeoh Knits

Thanks to illustrator, Clement Hurd, this little children’s book has a knitting reference in the illustrations. Goodnight Moon is a classic baby/children’s bedtime story and one I read many times to Devan in his early years.

This book doesn’t mention any knitting directly, but the ”quiet old lady who was whispering hush” does have knitting in her lap. Devan and I enjoyed saying goodnight to the knitting along with all the other objects in the child’s room.  Unfortunately it does perpetuate the myth that only grannies knit, but we chose to overlook that point!

I’m clearing out books and toys that Devan has outgrown and selling them at the Family Toy and Clothes Sale this Sunday (Nov. 9, 10-1 pm) at Kitsilano Community Centre. If you’re in the market and in the neighbourhood, I have lots of great books (none with knitting references though - I’m keeping them), clothes and toys.

… I mark stitches! What do you do in a pinch when you need stitch markers and you don’t have them with you? 

I used my wedding and engagement rings! They worked like a charm. I also had added incentive to finish knitting so I could retrieve my rings and get them back on my finger. Now if only that worked with the second sock syndrome.

I love my new business cards. My designer, Denise Tade did a great job and I’ve been having fun handing them to people. Their eyes kind of pop when they see the fun, colourful back.

There has been so much discussion about business names, logos, websites and so forth around here and Devan is soaking it all up like a sponge. He has started designing his own logo for a business he’ll have in the future. We’re not sure yet what his business will entail, but he’s well on his way to establishing a brand!  

This coming weekend I’m teaching four knitting workshops at BC’s Creative Expo at Canada Place in Vancouver. It’s being billed as a consumer education trade show and in addition to classes, seminars and stage shows, there will be a vendor’s mall with 45 exhibitors. Many of the crafts are represented such as scrap booking, quilting, rubber stamping and of course knitting.

On Friday, I’ll be teaching …

… how to knit a lacey beaded scarf with prestrung beads and my favourite, Strategies for Knitting with Self-Patterning Sock Yarns. This class explores stitch patterns that work and those that don’t work with self-patterning yarns as well as the pros and cons of working with them.

On Saturday, I’ll be teaching …

… a cabling class in the morning which is for advanced beginners who would like to know how to cross their stitches. Later in the day I’m teaching the t4echniques for knitting a glove and how to get it to fit. Both thumb gusset and fingers will be addressed and by the end of the class you’ll have the skills you’ll need to make your own glove that fits. The basics for this class are based on my Guess Who? glove pattern. 

For more information on my classes and how to register go to this link.

I blocked my Mum’s sweater for her. She’s in town for Devan’s birthday and finished knitting the pieces to an Avery sample. I have a piece of gingham fabric on which I drew out all the pattern pieces and sizes of my designs with fabric markers. This speeds along the blocking considerably since I don’t ever need to measure.

I just love the colours in this Avery. The self-patterning yarn is from the Kaffe Fassett collection by Regia. I don’t know what solid she used. If you’re dying to know, send me a message in the comments and I’ll follow it up.

This morning I had the perfectly blocked pieces ready to go so I can hand them to my Mum when I took her to the airport. This sample will end up in a LYS shop  somewhere. Let me know if you see it in your LYS!

Devan’s seven! It’s my little boy’s birthday today. He is my star, my light, my everything. The years are going by so quickly!

We’ve been celebrating in grand style. Last weekend we had two birthday parties—a bowling party with his friends and a family party. Two parties means two cakes. And that doesn’t include the goodies I sent with him to school today to help celebrate with his classmates.

Devan outgrew my patterns long ago. I have had intentions all along to start designing sweaters for older children. I’m going to make it a resolution to do it during Devan’s eighth year. Soon he’ll be at an age where he won’t want to wear his Mama’s hand knits and then I’ll regret that I didn’t knit more for him when he was younger.

Audrey sent me pictures of the Jack that she completed for a friend’s granddaughter. Charlee is so adorable in this sweater! Thank you, Audrey, for sharing.

$49 (plus shipping)

This pattern is only available as a kit. It is basically the Candace cardigan with a Jack ‘o Lantern on the back. As you can see, I found the perfect yarn for this pattern.

We’re in the thick of Hallowe’en preparations around here. We went to the pumpkin patch last week and came home with five pumpkins.

Devan’s school also celebrates Hallowe’en in a big way and we attended the Hallowe’en Howl on Friday night. There were games, spooky decorations, haunted house, jello-eating contests and prizes. All in all, a fun evening. Our little king might dress up as something else on Hallowe’en night. He hasn’t decided yet.

I love children’s literature and while I was pregnant, I so looked forward to reading to Devan. I wanted to share all my childhood favourites and discover new ones together. We just finished reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods. I wanted him to see that being a kid wasn’t always all about going to school, playing video games and getting dessert after supper. Those children in the 1800’s had a very different sort of life than he has now.

A bonus when reading to Devan is finding references to knitting. I’ve always wanted to compile a list of kid’s books that are either about knitting or have a knitting reference. The Little House book did not disappoint.

In the chapter entitled, Christmas, handknit presents were plentiful:

In each stocking there was a pair of bright red mittens, and there was a long, flat stick of red-and-white-striped peppermint candy, all beautifully notched along each side.

[…] Pa and Uncle Peter had each a pair of new, warm mittens, knit in little squares of red and white. Ma and Aunt Eliza had made them.

Laura received a very special present too:

… Laura was the happiest of all. Laura had a rag doll.

She was a beautiful doll. She had a face of white cloth with black button eyes. A black pencil had made her eyebrows, and her cheeks and her mouth were red with the ink made from pokeberries. Her hair was black yarn that had been knit and raveled, so that it was curly.

Something else that’s quite different now-a-days. This is from the chapter entitled, Sundays.

On Sundays Mary and Laura must not run or shout or be noisy in their play. Mary could not sew on her nine-patch quilt, and Laura could not knit on the tiny mittens she was making for Baby Carrie.

I’m glad we can knit on Sundays now!

I’m still working on the second sock of Cat Bordhi’s pattern, Bartholomew’s Tantalizing Socks. The first sock was completed along with several other single socks for my workshop last weekend where I taught the sky sock architecture from Cat’s book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

I really enjoy teaching because it gives me an opportunity to meet other knitters and discover how they knit, how they read instructions, what they find challenging, what comes easy. It’s always eye opening and I learn so much.

Back to the sock–I was working on it today at the skating arena while Devan had his lesson and I was being very careful not to drop one of my dpns. I didn’t want it to fall underneath the bleachers. I was concentrating so hard on the needles, that instead, I dropped the ball of yarn. It was gone. Needless to say, there was no more knitting for the rest of the lesson. When all the parents got up to get their children, I was able to drop my knitting under the bleachers too (since it was attached to the yarn) and then go under to retreave the whole lot. All sorts of things were stuck to my project including dust, lint, dried grass, dog hair and a whole bunch of grey hair. Yuck.

Don’t you just love the effect of the linen stitch with the hand-painted yarn? The striping is very narrow with this yarn–just one round of black alternating with one round of pink–and the linen stitch is outstanding. The top part of the sample was knit back and forth and then the round is joined and the bottom half of the linen stitch section is knit in the round. Note the difference in the look of the linen stitch. It appears to be much more even when knit back and forth. I may have to experiment to see of that’s the case, or if it’s simply a matter of the striping in the yarn affecting the look.

Yesterday we went to the Apple Festival and sampled close to 100 varieties of apples. It’s amazing just how different they taste from one another. While waiting in line for the tasting I spotted my friend Carmen. We haven’t seen one another for ages because of her market and craft show schedule. I’ve been keeping up to date by reading Carmen’s blog, but I must admit, I was beginning to wonder if she was a figment of my imagination. Or perhaps a ghost. It has been months. Perhaps she is a ghost, because I didn’t manage to get a picture of her!

It was a beautiful sunny, yet crisp day. A perfect day for handknits. Devan’s sporting his skull and cross bones hat that Nigel knit for him. He’s also wearing my cashmere scarf, knit by my Mum and under his jean jacket, a sweater knit by me.