Winner

Sorry for the delay- we do have a winner for the ISLAND book giveaway.  Our good friend, the Random Number Generator, chose our second to last comment to make the cutoff time.  The comment came from:

  1. who said:
    After reading your review I purchased the book on Amazon. It arrived on Friday. What a beautiful book. I enjoyed her tribute to the folks who helped her with the book...her good friend and family. I love the book-so would my daughter in law, who would be the winner if my comment is picked. Thanks!!!!

Looks like your daughter in law will have a book coming after all! Thanks to everyone who commented with lovely words for Jan and Shannon.  And remember,  print copies of ISLAND are now available through Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.co.uk.  You can also snag individual patterns (or all of them) through Ravelry. 


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Island Blog Tour and Giveaway

Look what I have in my possession: 




That's right.  Not one, but two copies of "ISLAND" a new knitting book from Jane Richmond.  One for me, and one for a lucky reader!

I first "discovered" Jane's work soon after I became involved in the online knitting community.  I rmember following a link to her blog and loving everything I saw.  Everything she knit, everything she designed- her aesthetic was perfect- clean, classic, timeless.  As I scrolled through her blog post, I then came to a post where she had knit my French Press Felted Slippers- I loved her even more :-)

I first saw a glimpse of ISLAND on Shannon Cook's blog, luvinthemommyhood, a few months ago.  ISLAND is a collaborative work between Shannon and Jane, and from what I've seen, these two girls know how to create a gorgeous knitting book. 

When I first saw this new collection pop into my blog stream a few months ago, I was intrigued by the cover photo. 

 "Binoculars!", I thought, "this is intriguing- I have not seen this done before."

And then with each photo I loved the collection a little more.




    Renfrew


     Rathtrevor

The photos are one thing, the designs are another, but I can honestly tell you that you will not have the true "ISLAND" experience until you are holding the book in your hands.  Although I was thrilled when Shannon contacted me about hosting a spot on this blog tour, I didn't realize just how great this book would be.   Upon receiving my package I emailed Jane to tell her how impressed I was. 


She explained that she really wanted the book to read as a coffee table book- all the photos in the front and technical stuff in the back.  The photos are inspired from life on Vancouver Island, and a story is woven in to the photo stream.

  Print copies of ISLAND are now available through Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.co.uk.  You can also snag individual patterns (or all of them) through Ravelry. 

 As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I do have an extra copy of the book to giveaway.  Interested?  Just leave a comment in comments section below (only one per person, please).  Say hello, let Jane know what you like about her book, let us know what your favorite pattern is- whatever!  Giveaway will be open until Sunday, February 10th, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST.  Winner to be announced on Monday.



PS- Like these photos?  Go check out Nicholas Kupiak.  His work is ah-maz-ing!
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Can Boys Wear Legwarmers?

I'm not talking about all boys... but baby boys.  That's acceptable, isn't it?


The other night I was editing these photos to get them ready for a blog post when Joe looked over and asked, "Is that her?" (referring to Elise, of course).

I thought he was just confused because they look so similar and replied, "Nope- they're all Sam".

"In legwarmers?  Kinda girly."

I then explained that babies wear leg warmers- they're easy to just throw on with onesies.  Am I wrong on this?

Joe just looked at Sam and said, "Well, we'll have to trust your mother on this one."

Agree to disagree, I suppose.


In other news, I started taking these pictures and Sam decided to roll over.  First roll over- documented through photos.  How exciting is that?





Ta-da!


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Christmas Hats

The name of this post was supposed to be "Christmas Sweaters Hats" but I can't seem to get the strike through going in my title.  You see, I had the best of intentions when I set out to make Sam and Elise some fabulous Christmas sweaters (just like in years past), and I even got off to a great start.


But somehow, with family coming in, and Christmas fast approaching, I quickly lost steam.  



Coming fresh off of Sam's Christmas Stocking- I was feeling a little inspired (or maybe just thrifty).  I took my stocking leftovers and made a little hat.  And for his sister?  Her own hat inspired by her Christmas stocking as well.


The hets have been getting tons of wear, well worth the couple hours spent knitting them.





But the best part about Christmas Hats?  More stress-free time for Mommy- doesn't get any better than that!



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New (Free!) Pattern: Leg Slouchers



When I first met Allegra and Brandy of Petite Purls back at TNNA in 2010, I fell in love with their project, Petite Purls.  As I was newly pregnant with Elise, I knew an online knitting magazine of kids patterns would be quite valuable for our growing family.  And so it has, as I have already knit a few things from past publications.

And, in an effort to "give back", I told the PP girls that I would love to contribute.  And here, 2.5 years later, I've finally got around to it (how's that for efficiency- yikes!).

If you are a reader of my blog, you probably know that I have a certain weakness for colorwork.  When I'm knitting colorwork, I'm knitting happy.  To watch a pattern devolop before your eyes, stitch by stitch, row by row is magical.  When working on colorwork, no matter how simple, I get lost in my work.  I get the worst case of "just one more row" and can't stop.


This is probably the reason I knew I had to get something ready for the Petite Purls Color Work Issue.

I originally knit these little leg slouchers for Elise when she was a wee babe- before mobility came in to her life (wow- how things have changed for us!).

These beauties were knit from Anzula Haiku, which I was introduced to at TNNA just this past year.  It was a dream to work with, perfect for this simple colorwork design.


Now I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again:  If you haven't tried your hand at colorwork- do it.  Like, now!  It looks intimidating to many knitters, but I assure you, it's easier than it looks.  You may have the common knitter's 'all my fingers feel like left thumbs' syndrome when you begin, but just keep going- you'll work it out in no time.

And it just so happens that these little slouchers are the perfect practice piece.  The design is simple, but still fun to watch as it stitches up.


You can find the pattern in Petite Purls, here. 
Ready to queue them up?  They're on Ravelry, too!

ps- did you see who was featured in the Rennaissance Mom Article?
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