the deer are doing WHAT?!?

I love love love this chart, it's too funny. It's a ravelry downloadable pattern, which has the fornicating deer alone or with the forest charted for a hat. I adjusted the pattern slightly, because it also had a star in the pattern above the sheep, but it would've made the hat too tall.


Knit with my favourite yarn - Patons Classic Wool. I think it turned out rather well, if I do say so myself, and can't wait for the opportunity for me to wear it out in public!

sunflower granny square

Granny squares are so fantastic to make, I adore them. They're pretty much the only thing I'm willing to crochet.

This sunflowery one is from the book 99 Granny Squares To Crochet, and it's #97, made from acrylic yarn.

That book has some classic granny squares in it... I think it's a hard book to come across, but if you can find it, get it. There are some great recommendations in it! It's one of my favourite pattern books, when it comes to yarn crafts.

tools, toys, and FO's

For xmas, my wonderful DH gifted me a swift and ball winder... I finally had an opportunity, a couple days ago, to use it. I balled a skein of Fleece Artist Ottawa, which is being knit up into a shawl for my mom. Don't you just adore the colour?!?! Perfect for her, I think.

Also, I've finished a pair of fingerless gloves I made for my husband, to gift to him for Valentine's Day on Sunday. I used this pattern and some dark blue Sweaterknits Merino Alpaca - uber soft and ideal colour for him! Here they are:

my house is shaking!

For the past year or so, my immediate neighborhood has been going through some repairs - the water and sewage pipes are being replaced. My street is the last on the list to get these repairs and updates.

For the last week, there has been tractors and trucks and costruction guys up and down my street, digging things up, filling things in, digging things up again. Every time there's digging, shovelling, drilling, and refilling, my house (as well as other homes, I'm sure) shakes! It's unnerving.

Granted, it's not like it feels like I'm in an earthquake or anything, but my glasses and mugs rattle, I can just hear the house shudder at each move of the machines outside. A part of me sometimes expects my roof to cave in! Ugh.

Today's Friday. I hope that they finish doing the major work today.

pinwheel baby blanket

I whipped up another pinwheel baby blanket - again making it in 12 sections instead of 10. I think this is the reason why the center 'pops out' a bit... I've blocked it quite a bit and the center of the blanket before the first purled row kind of comes out like a big boob. Meh. But I think there's hope yet in flattening it out, somehow.

The last pinwheel blanket I made, was donated to afghans for afghans, and this one will be donated to project linus canada.

again, all felted up

I've included pics of some sheep I just finished making... more info about them can be found on my sheepy blog in this post I just put up today... here are the pictures, nevertheless:

help for Haiti

Just an fyi... I've decided to donate $6 from each purchase of my Lebowski sweater pattern to different charities and organizations that are currently helping out in Haiti, from now until Valentine's Day.

If you want to find the pattern via Ravelry, click here - and if you're not on Ravelry, then you can go directly to the pattern on etsy here.

Donations will be divided between Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, among others.

free pattern from patons

I love this felted tote pattern - I saw something similar to it in a book, and didn't buy it at the time, but I loved it regardless. The pattern's only free until about mid April, and it's only 1 page to print out. So print it and knit it and felt it already. I have.

Speaking of felting - I'm in the midst of making a bunch of knitted felted sheep! I'm hoping to get these done by the end of the week. Pictures and info to follow soon.

another sweater finished

I just finished knitting this sweater, which is too adorable. Intarsia is a pain in the butt to do, not my favourite, but love how it turns out.

More info about this sweater can be found here in my other (sheep themed) blog. :) Check it out!

another sweater for charity

I knit this sweater for afghans for afghans youth campaign using a little over 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted yarn, in old sage. Pattern is from a book called Paton's Back to Basics 2. I used an aran weight yarn for a pattern that called for worsted, and followed the sizing for an 8 year old. Buttons were 5/8”.

As it turns out, instead of having a ‘standard’ 25.5-26.5” chest, I think what I wound up with is a 33” chest. So, the 8 year old who winds up with this will be swimming in it. Oh well, lesson learned for the next time I make this pattern. (Or, to look at this more “glass half full” - this was purposely made to be loose fitting, lol!)

The pattern in the book says that a size 8 would fit a 25.5” chest, and according to the craft yarn council's site for sizing for an 8 year old, a 26.5” chest. Anything 4-6” bigger is considrered loose fitting, and 6” or more is ‘oversized’… hm… well, hopefully it’s a garment that will nonetheless be put to good use, it should be warm enough.