Category Archives: Family

It was Product Testing! – Really!

Product Testing - wouldn't you?!

Yesterday and today – whirlwinds of activity!  And the missing piece from the Baklava was truly a necessary part of the process!  What if it hadn’t worked, after all, it has been a few years since I made it!  LOL!!

Beth just called – she is leaving Victoria and should be here around 5:00pm.  Everything is ready, tzatziki is made and mixing, the greek meatballs are ready for the oven as is the spanakopita and the greek salad just needs dressed.  Lamb and new potato’s are ready to roast and now I can sit for a few minutes, just like the baklava, sitting on the counter, smelling so fabulous!

Amanda modelling all three pieces from Leaf and Point Trio!

I haven’t done much knitting this weekend, it has been a little too hot – finally.  But I was very good yesterday, I finished the pattern for the Leaf and Point Trio and now the pattern has been released onto Ravelry and Infiknit.

I finished getting the supplies for the painting class on Thursday and in between we went for a walk through Lost Lake Park, a little gem off of Lost Lake Rd.  This is a great little walk, and was one of the coolest places in Nanaimo yesterday!  The walking path meanders around the little lake, approaching and retreating and is about 1 kilometer long.  There are boardwalks over the swampy bits – no swamp right now – and the path goes up and down hills.  I took pictures of some interesting bugs, birds and berries.  The lily pads on the lake were spectacular!  They reminded me Monet’s Lilies!  It was a gorgeous walk.

After supper we went for a swim at Brannen Lake, it was just the second swim of the year, and summer is pretty close to over!  But if it stays like this I can see some more swims – maybe even one of our spectacular late summers.

The kettle is about to boil, time for some tea before I get busy organizing the table for tonight!  I am so excited!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

Time and Relativity!

As you know time is relative – as you get older it goes faster and you have less of it.  I read somewhere an explanation of this phenomenon.  It goes something like this;

When you are young a year is an amazing length of time, it feels like it last forever!  As you get older that same year starts to represent a smaller and smaller percentage of your life until now, when a year is only a moment, a small part of a life lived.  All of your experiences fill the spaces that were empty and the year now just flies by.

These words now make a lot more sense to me – a year now only represents about 2 percent of my life now lived.  That is not very much.  When you consider how much we fit into our years, we live a lot of life!

I am working on another piece for painting – it should be finished in a week or so.  It now has a purpose – other than my entertainment at any rate!  Fleece Artist/Handmaiden are attending a show in New Brunswick at the end of September – KnitEast – The Atlantic Fibre Fest.  They would like to show my new piece!  I am knitting it out of the same yarns as I used for the Vogue Competition, Maidenhair and Montague!  Both are Mohair/Silk blends and both are Fleece Artist/Handmaiden yarns.  So when it is finished – off it will go.  My knitting does more travelling than I do!

End view!

“Tidal Pools”  is another outside in shawl with a lace edging knit with Maidenhair and the center body knit with Montague.  This piece will have some dimensional embellishing with beads and the Maidenhair.  Unblocked it looks to be about 23 inches by 66 inches.  It will finish bigger, about 26 inches by 72 inches.

Corner Details

The edging is a variation on the cockleshell pattern.  I can hardly wait to finish and paint!  This will most likely be the last painted piece this year.  I need to start knitting the samples for the retreat and next springs classes!

Can someone fix time and relativity so that there is more time in the day!  LOL!

Beth is coming home tomorrow – I haven’t seen her since Christmas!  She had requested a big Greek Feast.  So lots of friends and family for dinner tomorrow.  Guess what I’ll be doing all weekend!  I have a great cookbook – Greek with Gusto by Nickolas and Julie Roukes.  I have used this book for a number of years and always get good results!

Happy Knitting and Cooking!

Lynette

Purple is a Neutral……Really!

Zambesi by Fleece Artist. The colour is called Blomidon! Now that is purple!

You may have picked up on the fact that purple is one of my favorite colours.  It, like black, is a staple of my wardrobe and I consider it a neutral, really.  Depending on the tone purple goes with greens and browns, pinks and teals, and always goes with black.  So doesn’t that mean that it is a neutral – it goes with everything!  Well, everything I own.  What is your neutral?  Do you have a colour that you prefer, one that goes with everything in your wardrobe, your neutral colour!?

A purple project that I hope to get finished for this fall – I only started it a couple of years ago is knit with Rowan’s Kid Silk Haze in Dewberry!  Eerie is a delicate lace overblouse that I am adding purple beads to.  It will be gorgeous when finished – or so I think.  I am also designing a top-down purple sweater in Unisono, you can see a definite theme developing here!

My Eerie in Progress!

My love affair with purple started when I was a teenager.  We moved to Kelowna, into a new house, close to the beach and I got the room with the purple velvet drapes and purple carpet.

Check out those drapes - the flocked paper - mid seventies perfection!

This room was mine, I could decorate it any way I wished – as long as I kept the purple drapes and carpet!  I found some flocked velvet wallpaper – the stripes are the flocked velvet and some purple patterned fabric for the little couch my mother offered and the room was perfect.  It was my haven for three and half years and it began my love of the colour purple.

Cockle Shell Corner

I have picked up the Cockle Shell pattern wrap again.  Last night I finished the first repeat of the pattern all the way around and I really like the way it is turning out!  I am working with the Fleece Artist Maidenhair and Montague again, such gorgeous yarns to knit with and they take the dyes so well!

Detail

Like the Victorian Falls Wrap I am working this piece from the outside in.  One of the advantages of working the wrap from the outside in is the availability of curved edges that are knit that way.  With a traditional edging you get lots of points and diamonds, but curves are hard to come by.  I like curves and soft edges, organic shapes that move quietly and naturally from one to the other.  Points and straight lines are also organic, crystalline shapes are the most beautiful of examples, but they move very differently.  When I doodle I doodle curves that flow from one to the next!  My mind jumps from point to point and seldom moves in a straight line – just ask my husband!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

I've Lost a Tea-cozy

Wanted - One cozy with an open top!

A while ago I broke a tea-pot.  I had had it a long time (30 years) and it did not owe me anything.  It was one of those tea-pots with an overhead handle and I had made a cozy for it, designed to acccomodate the handle.  Now I cannot find the cozy!

Last weekend I found a very pretty pot for the cozy, but the cozy is nowhere to be found!  I will really have to give the obvious places a very serious tidy in the next week!  Or I will be looking at making a new cozy!

Bluebells and Daffodils all in a row!

Two of my other cozies are travelling right now.  They are on their way to Squamish to spend the next 3 months in an Art Gallery.  Squamish Arts Council is having a Showing – Into the Woods with Red Riding Hood and “Bluebells and Daffodils…” is going, as well as the “Harvest Cozy”.

The curator of the Exhibit, Krisztina Egyed was in the store on Tuesday and fell in love with the cozies.  We started to talk and I ended up loaning the cozies to the Gallery.  The showing opens with a Gala evening.  We will see if I can figure how to go!  It is on a Thursday night – I’ll be working and then going from work if I decide to go.  There is just so much happening right now!

Harvest Cozy!

I am not really working on anything new right now – just the two pieces for painting.  But I have finally decided on the Retreat!  Now to see if my ideas will work.  More later.

My husband retired this week, we have had company with more arriving.  Tomorrow is his retirement party – 40+ for dinner and games etc.  Oh, and it was his birthday this week and my son’s – it has been a busy week!

Hope that your summer is going along just as busy and happy!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

Everything Old is New Again!

That "70's Feeling

This week I unearthed a tea-cozy that I had knit a few years ago.  I put it away because I wasn’t happy with it.  I didn’t like the colours I think.

I’ve pulled it out of hiding and looked at it again.  It wasn’t as bad as I remembered.  In fact, it did exactly what I wanted it to do which was evoke a feeling of another time and place.  In this the case, the kitchen of my teenage years, a bright orange, yellow and green kitchen that was my mother’s pride.  This was the 1970’s and those colours reigned.  I couldn’t, wouldn’t do the orange, but the brown worked very well!  I don’t have many pictures from that time.  We were all too busy to remember to take pictures.  You needed film, flash and a camera at hand, then you needed to remember to take the pictures!!

My Brothers and I circa 1965!

The further we go back in time the less pictures we have.  Until the only pictures that can be found are the posed pictures of our ancestors, taken very formally, everyone at attention and looking somber.  No candids then!

Now we have little digital camera’s that we can pop in a bag or pocket, with a memory card to hold hundreds of photos.  Or phones that can take video or photos instantly.  Nothing is posed and nothing missed – just ask the rioters after the Canucks game!  But what if….

I was reading a very interesting article about digital photographs and how the images are stored.  The author was worried about this generation of pictures.  Most are stored in digital frames or on the internet.  What would happen to all of those photographs and memories with no hard copy to keep the images safe from digital corruption or loss.  Do you make hard copies of your photographs?  I make a few, but not many.  I may have to rethink that, I have many memories that I would like to keep for myself, my children and possible grandchildren.

Margaret Clark - my Great-Grandmother! My Mother had this painting commissioned from a photograph that is now lost. The painter used my Mothers' colouring as a base from the black and white photo. Only the eyes were wrong, they should have been blue. My Grandmother cried when she saw it, She remembered the pin at her neck very well.

I like pictures of family.  I have many on my walls and shelves.  Some of my great-grandparents, very posed and formal, and of myself and my family as we grew.  Pictures of my husbands family, and many pictures of our children and friends.  Pictures of special events in our lives and candids of times that we want to remember and share.

So maybe the old way of keeping pictures in albums should be new again.  We learn from our past and create family memories when old pictures are unearthed and shared.

It was a busy week.  I taught the first part of the painting class on Thursday and had to work on the pattern to make sure that the numbers and instructions were right for the class.  It doesn’t seem to matter how many times one checks, something is always missed – thank heavens for patient students – who just Love to help me find mistakes!

I’ve started another Leaf and Point Scarf for painting at the class in August – this time in Classic Elite’s Fresco, a gorgeous blend of Wool, Alpaca and Angora.  I am knitting it to paint and check out the pattern – no mistakes so far, but this is the easy version.  I am also going to reknit the Stole version – if I have the time!

Painted Butterflys - the body is almost done.

The Painted Butterfly shawl is coming along quite well.  The rows are much longer now and take more time, but I only have about 15 rows left before the edging is started.  I will need to break the yarn and add more beads.  I am about 550 beads short.  One of the hazards of designing on the needles, your ideas change as you knit!  But even so I should have the body knit by the end of this week.  Then the edging both the straight edge along the top and the curved bottom edge need to be finished.  The edging for the curved edge is already decided, but I still need to figure out how I want to finish the straight edge – beaded I-cord is first in the running, but not for sure yet!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

Family Pictures Adorn many Shelves!

A Vacation High!

A Whistler Sunset

The first part of this blog post is basically a travelogue, skip to the end if you just want to check up on my knitting!

I was on vacation this week.  My husband and I went to Whistler.  It is not very far away, but I had only ever driven through on my way to somewhere else and my husband had not been since the 1980’s.  It was a wonderful trip – from start to finish – I would have a hard time finding anything bad to say about the trip, the people, the city itself – we are already planning a return trip! There were so many things that we did not get to see or try!

The base of Shannon Falls!

We took the ferry over to the mainland and then started a leisurely drive up the Sea to Sky highway.  We planned on stopping at Britannia Museum, Shannon Falls, and Brandywine Falls on the way, with lunch sometime in there!

A Core tray with samples from the Mountain!

It was a spectacular day.  The Museum was incredible, the core room was my favorite, shelves and shelves of cores from deep within the mountain – only one shed remains – there used to be four.  From the museum we went on to Shannon Falls.  Truly awe-inspiring, a sparkling, foaming cascade of water falling down from the top of the mountain – these falls are the third highest in British Columbia!  They are right beside the highway and easy to get to.  Shannon Falls is also right beside the Chief– it is a favorite spot for rock climbers – I tried to see some climbers as we drove by, but no luck!

Brandywine Falls!

We stopped for lunch in Squamish and then drove on to Brandywine Falls.  None of these spots were any great distance from each other – I somehow thought that they should be farther apart!

Every Surface Green with Moss

Brandywine Falls is a short walk in from the Highway, along a very easy path.  The views are worth the walk!  You can see that the forest in this area is part of a very wet climate – the ground was covered in a thick moss.  Every rock, every fallen branch was green and spongy with the moss!  This was the only place where it rained on the whole trip.  It did rain the morning we left Whistler, but that seemed appropriate to the occasion!

Our View of the Stroll!

We arrived in Whistler around 4:00pm and checked into our hotel – The Crystal Lodge – and walked around the town.  It is a great walking town, everything is connected by wide walkways and paths.  We had dinner and then spent the evening watching people from our deck over-looking the “Stroll”.  I started the Damask Clouche, my mosaic project!  We had an eventful day planned for tomorrow.

We went zip-lining with ZipTrek Ecotours.

I had more than a few reservations about this activity.

Zip-line platforms high in the Hemlocks!

I also believe that you need to try new things and push your boundaries and not let fear rule your life.  As I stood at the top of the first line (which was a short line at the bottom of the hill) – a tester to see if you were OK with the concept – I wondered why I was so keen to push this boundary!  What was wrong with a little healthy caution?!  I don’t like heights and hate tall sets of stairs!

I loved it!

The zip-line was fast, very fast, but the views were incredible!  I never got to the point of letting go and hanging upside down like my husband, but I loved every minute on the line!  I wasn’t so wild about the stairs and walkways suspended up high, but I was fine as long as I didn’t look down!  I’ll be going again!

The top of "Big Doug" from the highest platform. Big Doug is the 700 year old Hemlock that supports the platform!

The rest of the day was somewhat anti-climatic.  (I think my husband was worried about what kind of shape I would be in after the zip-lining.)  We walked the town and discovered all sorts of activities that we didn’t know about!  Which is why we are already planning on returning!  We sat in the sun and people watched and I knit!

The next day was our last full day in Whistler and it was an incredible day from start to finish!  So many “new” activities and highs.

It was the day we went up Blackcomb mountain and then took the Peak to Peak to Whistler mountain.  There was still lots of snow on both mountains and it was the best day, weather wise, and experience wise, that we had.

The Bear below us!

We started at the base of Blackcomb mountain and took the open chair lifts up to the Peak to Peak gondola.  The views from the chair were gorgeous.  Early on we saw our first bear!  He was eating clover in an open meadow, right at our feet!  What a great way to start.

The Peak 2 Peak ride takes only about 11 minutes.  You are suspended above the valley between Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains.  You can see FitzSimmons Creek between the mountains and Whistler below at their base.  I took a lot of pictures on that trip!

A Whiskey Jack

I had hoped to be able to walk around the top of Whistler but because of the heavy snow pack this year there were no walks open.  We could have gone tubing, but we really weren’t dressed for that!  But I did get a wonderful picture of a Whiskey Jack out on the Whistler Deck!  He had so many feathers that he looked fuzzy!  He would need them to keep warm that high up.

Once you are up on the mountains you can take the Peak 2 Peak gondola as many times as you like.  So we headed back to Blackcomb mountain and took the short bus ride to the base of the 7th Heaven Chair Lift.  This lift would take us right up to the Glacier at the top Blackcomb.

Mountain ranges as far as you can see!

The lift seemed to go straight up the side of the mountain, pass the tree line and further still until you are right at the top of the world.  I felt like I was in 7th heaven.  You are 7500 feet up.  The tops of the mountain ranges are spread out in front of you as far as the eye can see.  Shadows of the clouds drift across the peaks and the sky is bluer than I have ever seen it before.  It was perfection.  It was cold, with crisp air and the clear skies that go on forever.  We stayed and ate lunch at the small Chalet.  We were both reluctant to leave, it was so breath takingly beautiful!

Meadows covered in snow and outlined with lines of far-away trees!

We eventually did retrace our steps.  As we headed back down Blackcomb it was almost surreal to see everything grow both taller and further away at the same time.  Perspective was constantly changing as we moved down the mountain on the lift.  The chairlift is mostly silent, the ride very calm and only the far-off sounds of the other people on the lift to left you know that you are not alone.

An already incredible day is about to get better!  We booked a tasting dinner tour of Whistler for our last evening – with the wine pairing add-on.  It was a great evening, we met a Dutch family and had wonderful conversations over each course, and through each walk as we moved from restaurant to restaurant.  Truly a memorable way to spend our last night in Whistler.

Part of one of the walls of wine in the BearFoot Bistro! The largest wine cellar in Western Canada!

I really recommend the wine pairing with the dinner.  It gave us the opportunity to try new wines and became a truly unique experience at our first stop!

The Bear Foot Bistro in Whistler is famous for its wine cellar.  It is the largest wine cellar on the West Coast.  It is in the basement and accessed by a wide staircase from the center of the restaurant.  As you descend the stairs the temperature drops dramatically to a cool 12 degrees celsius.  At the bottom of the stairs the space divides into two rooms.  All you can see  is Wine.  The walls of both rooms are covered by racks and racks of wine bottles.  There are boxes of wine everywhere, but your eyes are drawn continually back to the walls.  After the first few minutes you do notice other details about the space.  In the largest space there are two tables set up for appetizers, with Champagne flutes beside them, from the ceiling hangs a bobsled, painted in black with the Bearfoot Bistro’s logo on the hood!  There are pictures and many certificates hanging off the end of the wine racks – It is an incredible space.

The wine that was paired with our appetizer is a sparking wine from the Sumac Ridge Winery in the Okanagan.  It is called Tribute and was created for the Olympics.  Bearfoot Bistro liked this wine so much that they bought all of the remaining stock from the winery!

I got to keep the top of the bottle! It is said to bring good luck!

Marika, the Sommelier, told us a little of the history of Champagne, in particular the tradition of Sabreing – something that Napoleon and his army practiced before battle.  In essence you open your bottles of champagne (or any sparking wines) with a sabre.  If it was a clean opening – the battle would go well!  If it was not clean, well, you had better drink now because you may not have a later!  We were going to cut the cards to see which of our group would get to attempt the Sabreing!  I won the cut!  It took two tries but I did it!  I cut off the top of the bottle of Tribute!  After that the evening just flowed along.  It was a tremendous end to an incredible trip!

It was raining the next day, not hard, just a little and it seemed like a fitting end to our trip.  One the way out we turned down the road to see the Olympic bowl site.  On that road we saw three bears, each at the side of the road, each almost close enough to touch!

Basketweave Gauntlets - Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3-ply

As for my vacation knitting, I did get some knitting in, but not as much as expected, we had so many things to do.  Mostly I would knit in the evening, just before bed, but one afternoon I did sit out in the sun at a little pub and had a glass of wine and knit!

These are the class projects for next fall.  Once they are done then I can go back to the projects for myself, hence the push!  Besides I love to work with the hand-dyed yarns, the colours combine in such unique ways!

Mosaic detail - Handmaiden Cashmere 4-ply

I did finish the entrelac gauntlets, and almost finished the mosaic hat – I ran out of the contrast yarn – Sublime’s Cashmere, Merino, Silk DK!  I just need enough for the finishing details!  I’m gong to pick up some more yarn today to finish.

Beginnings of a Mitre's Cowl - SweetGeorgia Cashlux Fine

Yesterday I started the mitreing project.  It looks like it will work out, the colours are moving around and looking great!  The mitred diamonds and the cowl shaping look like they are going to combine well for an interesting project.

Hope that you had a great week as well!  Happy Knitting!

Lynette

Vacation Knitting!

My finished Helix Scarf

Yesterday was Mad About Ewe’s Knit out day and I actually finished my Helix Scarf at the Knit out!  I am quite pleased with the results.  The beaded edge did add a nice finish.  unfortunately the colours are not so great for me – they are a little more Fallish than I like or can wear close to my face.  I think that this will become a gift.

I am on vacation for the next week.  My husband and I are going to Whistler for a lovely little break.  My first problem was deciding what to bring as my Vacation knitting.  Isn’t that first thing you pack?  Just because I am on vacation does not mean that I will not be knitting!

I actually packed my camera and lens first – they were easy – once I got the sling bag for carrying everything in!  I have never been to Whistler and I hope to take lots of pictures.  It is such a beautiful area of B.C.

Basketweave Gauntlet in Fleece Artist Wooly Silk 3-ply

The knitting decisions were a little more difficult!  I eventually decided to work on the sample projects for the fall classes.  I have decided to feature hand-dyed yarns and the technique that showcase them best for quite a few of the fall classes.

I am going to use the Basketweave Gauntlet pattern by Isabeau Knits for an entrelac class.  It is a great pattern, no mistakes and a very clear read.  Entrelac or entrelace is a great technique for hand-dyed yarns as really focuses the eye on the colours!  It is also a great way of using up scrapes of hand-dyes and solids!  The gauntlets are so easy that I am almost done a pair already – they will not be traveling with us!

I have a couple of other ideas as well.  A mosaic(or slip-stitch) knit hat using a hand-dyed yarn and a solid.  I’ve picked out a gorgeous dk Cashmere by Handmaiden – Cashmere 4-ply, and for the solid contrast, Sublime’s Cashmere, Silk, Merino DK!  I think that it will be a slouchy style beret.  I’ll be packing a couple of Barbara Walker’s books for this and the next couple of projects!

Domino knitting and Hand-dyed yarn. The colours move very differently with the domino technique. I am going to try adding a lace pattern.

I’m going to fool around with domino or modular knitting for the last project.  I’m thinking some  lace work in a cowl type of shaping – this idea is not so well-formed.  I have a shape and an idea, we’ll see what happens.  It will need a little more thinking!  And in my spare time I’ll work on the painted butterfly shawl!  I hope that I have packed enough  projects!

Strawberry Sponge Cake

Today is Father’s Day,  I baked my father a Strawberry Sponge Cake, from scratch and he just called and said that he can’t make it!  His wife’s back has just gone out.  He’ll miss the prime rib and yorkshire pudding but the rest of the guests will enjoy it.  I’ll have to pop over later this evening and bring him some cake, because it turned out beautifully.  It has been ages since I made sponge cake from scratch – I still know how!

Hope that you have a great week.  I’ll post pictures of Whistler after I get back, next Friday or Saturday!  And pictures of knitting of course.

Happy Knitting

Lynette

Out of Luck!

The only knitting related activity!

The last weekend was a bit of a downer for me – knitting wise.  I had a couple of knitting crisis’ and went into a bit of a sulk.  I did manage to paint my Leaf and Point Stole, but after that, the weekend was a bit of bust – I read two books instead.

Crisis 1)  I am still waiting to the Vogue Knitting Early Fall Edition.  Between being on the Island and the West Coast and the postal strike – it is taking fore-ever to get here.  I swung between being high and excited and frustrated all at the same time.  This is now done.  I am only excited and waiting.  My normal optimistic self is reasserting itself!

Crisis 2)  The Modern Guernsey is on hold for the moment while I get over ripping back over half of what I had done.  I was well into the waist area when I realized that the back had 30 more stitches than the front!  I was not happy.  I obviously couldn’t count when I started the back!

Crisis 3)  I am out of undyed, knitted, lace for painting!

Tea-cozy under Construction

How did I cure my sulk?  A little retail therapy and a little project to knit for that feeling of success necessary to keep us going!  The project – the tea-cosy that my son has been waiting fore-ever for.  He was over for dinner on Sunday and approved the colours and design.  For some reason he wasn’t into the floral embellishments that I like.  The cozy is well underway and I am about to start the shaping for the crown.  It should be finished tonight.  It is a small cozy, only a 3-cupper and is not taking long to knit!

Honor - Lakeshore Drive Colourway!

The retail therapy – Lorna’s Laces Honor hand-dyed heaven.  I want to knit my Leaf and Point Lacy Scarf in a regular hand-dye and this looks like it will do the job well!

The next hand painted project is in the planning stages.  I have some yarn left over from my Shetland Christening Shawl, a sample from the Shetland lace Retreat.  It was knit with  Diamond Yarn Luxury Collection Cashmere/Silk.

Waiting for the right stitch!

This yarn is undyed and gorgeous to work with.  I have about 1.75 balls left over from my project.  Once I choose the stitch and shaping – the shaping will suggest itself from the stitch – I will be able to start!

Christening Lace Shawl

Happy Knitting

Lynette

A Little Whinging for Breakfast and a Minor Temper Tantrum!

Whinge – to whine or complain!  Not seriously, but a little maybe, jealousy, on my part.  My daughter has a copy of the Vogue Knitting with my pattern in it.  She called yesterday to tell me all about it!

Really I am thrilled – it is out there!  How exciting!  But I want to see it!  (Visualize a long wail here)!

It has been a great few days!  The magazine has been released and that is very exciting.  A friend, Lynette Domeney, sent me a book that I had been looking for – Cornish Guernseys and Knit-frocks.  It goes along with my Modern Guernsey project.

And last week I received another gift, a gift and a responsibility.   Most knitters around here know about my fascination with beads and bead knitting and one, Kim Cowlie-Adams, a local Saori weaver, decided to share with me.  She knew that I would be fascinated by and would look after the bag that had been in her family for many years.  She was right.

The Napier Hemy Beaded Bag

This is an absolutely incredible beaded bag.  It is circular with a brass hinge and chain.  The bag was constructed using short-row wedges and there about 24 beads per inch of knitting.  The beads still sparkle after all the years it has been around.  I think that it is well over 100 years old.  It will require some research, but I have some names to track down to see if I can fill it the story that goes with it!

The bag is showing its age.  The silk lining is mostly gone and there are beads missing and holes in the bag, but this makes it all the more incredible.  What has it seen?  What parties did it attend?  History is all around these small bits of knitting that survive time and use!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

Roots!

Dad (Maurice Cecil Le Tissier) and Flo. Dad is wearing his Guernsey, it is unfortunately to dark to show the details!

I was cruising around Facebook yesterday and saw a link to a Guernsey Island Blog.  They are promoting a competition to design a traditional style Guernsey sweater.  I already have a bag of the Guernsey 5-ply that I have been wanting to knit and now I have the excuse – like I needed one!  The Competition is to help keep traditional Island pattern alive.  I don’t know any of my families traditional patterns, perhaps I shall try to create some of my own.

I knit a Guernsey for my father quite a few years ago.  It was the only knitted sweater that he ever asked for.  I used Gladys Thompson’s book  – Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans – as the template for his pattern. He wanted a black sweater, but I wish that I had knitted it in a lighter colour as you can’t see the details.  I knit in his initials and used the Guernsey Island pattern from the book, with a few small changes.  It is hard to believe that I knit his sweater over 20 years ago.  That is how old the picture is!  It is past time that I knit one for me.  I am going to knit it in the natural Guernsey yarn and most likely dye it when I am done.

His father, my grandfather is from Guernsey.  His name was Cecil James LeTissier.  He died when I was very young and I have few memories of him, but I have heard many stories over the years and have always been fascinated about stories from the island itself.  One day I may even make it to Guernsey – just not soon!

Bag and Project!

Fiona has been busy creating new project bags.  She has made me one to match my fabulous knitting bag.  I am working on a adult size of the Victorian Lace Cap, it is going a little more slowly than the small ones.  I am working with the Nordique again and it makes for a very enjoyable knit!

Happy Knitting

Lynette