Bonjour la Bonjour!

Good bloggers would have posted that they would be gone for a while and so on and so forth but hey! I guess its just not me. I wanted to update with pictures of the finish Soleil and a baby sweater I just started but turns out taking pictures is the last thing on your mind (or at least mine) when packing for a 3 weeks trip back home.

I had packed thinking I would have all the time in the world to knit and even brought some cut pieces to seem for a apron, pot holder set/gift for my sister. So far not so much... I need something more portable like a sock and maybe will cast on something tomorrow to keep me sane.

Pictures of me knitting at and north of the border are to come! Same bat time same bat blog.

Killer Color Combo

I have had the book Institches by Amy Butler for a while now and one of my favorite projects has always been the robe. Unfortunately like a lot of the patterns, it was not made with the busty fat girl in mind. I kept playing with the idea of making it for different people when last weekend I was stuck once again without a gift at the last minute and thought of making it.


The instructions were great, if anything they were a little too detailed but as a newbie I can't really complain about that. The main fabric was a mid-weight cotton and the contrast a light weight cotton. Both from my stash and both were purchased during that store closing day a few years ago. Mariah is a pretty small girl so I did in a size small and really did not modify anything if some decorative stitching on the sleeves and the bottom of the robe.


Now that same day on Ravelry I was reading some forum post on how pink and orange are one of the worst color combo known to man. It is a little loud perhaps but it is very girly and happy which reflect Mariah's personality well. What did not go so well is maybe the sleeves which I had trouble attaching correctly and the back of the neck as a gather that was not supposed to be there and the belt loops may be slightly too low. Overall though I am pretty happy with the result. The main fabric has a nice feel to it, the contrast orange stitching brings everything together and it was a nice learning experience.

Follow the white Bunny

A friend had the cutest little baby boy recently and the baby kimono from Mason-Dixon book was sure to be too small by the time I saw her. The way I knitted it made it for newborns right out of the womb and not one day more. I suppose it depends on the newborn but in any case it would be too small for little Christian. I should have taken a picture but I used some of the time driving from Hardin to frog it all. Muhahahaaa

I was not sure what to give the happy little guy so I feel back in old baby classics. Socks/Hat and Baby toy. All this with not quite 2 balls in natural/white of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere, 180 Yaard to be exact.

I love the little bunny buddy pattern that you can find right here and had done it in cotton before so I thought I could easily do it again. It calls for some chenille yarn but I think it looks sort of mutant bunny from my great aunts garage sale but cute and clean when done in a smaller weight. It was super quick and I had so much left over that I decided to knit a little hat and found the perfect little socks pattern right here on Ariel's blog. I am not the fastest sock knitter but the instruction were very clear and the yarn was so soft that they took me about one Battlestar Galactica episode each. Nerdy fun!

Red Red wiiiinnnneeee

Since Bastien the ogre has this fixation with the color red I thought I would go over the frustration of trying to get him to wear a hat by making a red one. So far we have skipped over a few frustration like having him put socks or jammies by making
him things in red. I know I am probably missing the opportunity to teach him some amazing life lesson on the fact that you don't always get what you want or in the color you want but I like to make things and he needed a hat so it was simple solution.

Or so I thought tum tum tuuummmmm

I tried to find a bucket hat pattern without much luck and finally settled on Butterick 5056 which seemed to focus mainly with toddlers but I was hopeful. I am sure that there is plenty of patterns hiding somewhere for kids bucket hats that I just missed. My google-fu seemed to be broken and all pattern that were turning up were for knitting. I have to say that from the start I was pretty sure it would probably too small but I kept on sewing and well it is just perfect for some crazy reason it is THE day my ogre decided that red is out. Out out out, its so winter 2008. He loves his old tan hat and any other is bad.


The main color was done in red linen and the lining was a fat quarter impulse purchase from some time ago. I really love that ABC fabric. It compliments the main volor of the hat pretty well. Looking back, I don't mind that much that he wont wear it. The most important thing is that he wears a hat and its fabric out of my stash. Plus I think it may already have found another head to protect from the sun. I did ask him for at least one picture for posterity so there you go.

Amidst the sound of Battle

Ok not quite... more like a broken screeching PA system and my son whining that he is hot and hungry. I just came back from a small camping trip to Hardin Montana home of the Custer Battle Reenactment. It was fun and the battle was interesting if short. I I wish I would have been able to take more pictures unfortunately true to self I forgot to charge my camera battery before leaving.

Here the only picture I took just before I realized my mistake; the field where the native version of the reenactment was about to take place.

I got the chance to advance on my two new projects; Soleil from Knitty and a pair of socks. I will need to talk more about the socks in the future but for now lets just say they are part of somewhat big project.
I love the color of the socks and cherry tree hill is nice and soft to work with. The person those are for as tiny feet and I am happy that I will have some left over of that delicious teal green superwash merino. Since it is for a non knitter I love the fact that is superwash. I will include a note to say they will last longer hand washed but if they are forgotten in a pair of jeans at least they will survive.

Soleil is for my mother who is turning 55 this year. I have not been in Quebec in years for her birthday so I want to give her something special. So far the only modification is that I am doing it slightly longer than the pattern calls for. I am almost kicking myself for not doing a fourth repeat of the lace instead of adding length in boring stockinette but maybe if I knit it again for someone else or who knows maybe for myself. I am using something which had been in my stash for aged; some Elsebeth Lavold Pattine in a dusty pink/purple color. Its a pretty cotton, splits a little but nothing too difficult to work with and its pretty soft.

Bonne St-Jean!!!

In a few hours it will be St-Jean Baptiste, the national day of Quebec. A day of celebration of songs, dancing around the bonfires and watching parades in all small towns of the province. I come from one of those small towns where my biggest wish was to have curly hair so I could play the role of St-John the Baptist. Unfortunately I had straight hair, was a girl so I was never chosen to be the half naked kid dressed in a sheep skin waiving at the end the parade. You can imagine the trauma.

Its a difficult time for me since I moved to the US. It used to be a day where I refused to talk in English, spent the day singing old French songs and talked about a day where we would be a country but here its just any other day.

To cheer up the hearts of Quebecers everywhere I give you Bastien in 2004. Painting on babies is a craft right?

Be the change you wish to see in the world

This year the UU church I belong to decided to participate in a wonderful project called the Global Art Project for Peace. Its a great art exchange with individuals and groups all over the world to promote world peace through sharing, understanding and art. The social justice committee brainstormed for a while and then came up with the idea of a wall hanging made with squares made from all the members and friends. Surrounding a text written by Edward Everett Hale in many languages that I felt reflected perfectly at least my vision of peace and social justice.

I am only one.

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

It was exhibited for a little over two weeks at a restaurant here in town with art projects from other participants. I also helped with a project from Head Start and one from the Mom's Club which I should also post about but this particular one, the quilt, really moved me in how it brought everyone together. Even the children drawing their vision of peace. Even if their vision involves more trucks, cars and of course the peaceful touch, flowers. I personally did not do a square, my contribution being piecing everything together. I had never done a quilt or a project this size and joining all the pieces, sewing the binding on, trying to quilt it with buttons was a challenge. Its now on its way to a church in Germany and I hope they will enjoy our little message of peace.