The Period of PURPLE Crying and the BC Children’s Hospital are raising awareness about Shaken Baby Syndrome by making hats for newborns.

We invite you to join our mission: make a PURPLE newborn baby cap so we can give select babies born in British Columbia the week of November 15th a gift to coincide with Canada’s National Child Day. Please share your knitting or crocheting skills to help Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC.

By making and sending PURPLE newborn baby caps to be given to babies across the province, you will make a difference by:

• Raising awareness for this life-saving project that promotes crucial parenting skills, infant/parent bonding, and understanding of a typical early infancy stage that every baby goes through which is frequently misunderstood.
• Participating in a growing, province-wide grassroots effort to educate new parents about the normalcy of early infant crying and how to cope with the frustration that can accompany it.
• Assist in promoting the Period of PURPLE Crying – Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC so that parents (and all others) learn to understand normal increased early infant crying and that crying is a key trigger to shaking.

I’m off to dig up a pattern and some yarn to make a hat. If you have a chance, you should too! I grew up in the same neighbourhood as the BC Children’s Hospital and often went late at night for rogue ear infections. The staff are friendly, the facilities are nice, so whatever I can do to help, I will!

Visit The Period of PURPLE Crying — Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC: Facebook event | www.purpecrying.info | Twitter

On Sunday I went to a different fabric store to look at the selection of blue-patterned fabric. Last time I went to Dressew because it’s right by my work, and I liked the fabric I selected but I didn’t love it. So I went to Fabricland on Sunday morning and found a gorgeous blue fabric with flowerpots and swirls. I did want a more ‘damask‘ look… the first fabric was more paisley-ish… and this is more floral. The damask prints I did find would be too big for a 16″ square pillow. I liked both patterns I chose, but this second fabric is darker and richer, which I like more.

Tonight I spent some time measuring, cutting, ironing, pinning, and sewing. Take a look at the finished product!

The pillow cases are an “envelope” style so no zippers (which I totally fail at)! The pattern/instructions are from Sew Subversive: Down & Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista by The Stitch Lounge (Melissa Rannels, Melissa Alvarado, and Hope Meng).

I’ve been in an online sewing class and I picked up some of the recommended tools. My favourite so far is the corner-pokey tool to make sharp, pointy corners.

This weekend I glumly showed my tangled yarn ball to Craig (since I’d explained the situation to him). And guess what! He offered to untangle it! Yaay! It’s all happily balled up now and ready to ponder what pattern it should be knit into. I’m definitely thinking shawl… maybe Simple Things or Bakersfield. Wishful thinking is the Traveling Woman Shawl. I think it’s beyond my skill level at this point.

Also, I plunged back into my shawl at Knitting Night yesterday. I’d guestimate I’m about one third done the pattern (Argante).

I think I’ve gotten over the apparent ‘loss’ of my crafty mojo. In fact, it may never have been lost in the first place… I think I just felt discouraged by the yarn tangle and the fabric miscalculation. Anyway, I’ve even started to look at sewing projects and tutorials online as well as sewing books from the library… so I’m feeling very inspired.

I’ve made substantial progress on my shawl! I am quite impressed with Argante and may even knit Gaenor. It would look quite gorgeous with my new Unwind Yarns. Unfortunately, today I have totally lost my crafty mojo. It’s not the inspiration, it’s the actual talent. So now I am avoiding my shawl for fear of killing it. I tried to wind two skeins of yarn today and look what happened to the second:

That’s my poor Unwind Yarns skein of lovelyness. *sigh* I may have to bring it to knitting night on Monday to get some assistance. I really need to figure out how to use my swift properly. It just keeps flying off the ends and getting tangled.

So instead, I decided to sew my new pillow cases… and I realized I hadn’t pre-washed my fabric. So first of all I had to do a load of laundry to pre-shrink my fabric. Look at this lovely fabric I bought:

Unfortunately, as I was trying to figure the second step (and thinking that the fabric looked too square and not rectangular)… I realized that I miscalculated my yardage and didn’t buy enough at Dressew. *sigh*

Now my apartment is a disaster, covered in fabric scraps, yarn bits, and chunks of chewed paper (from the bunny). I quit the living room and went to the kitchen to make pasta salad. Fortunately that turned out well and it was quite tasty.

This weekend was the 11th Annual Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival from August 19-21. I don’t think I’d ever been to Gibsons before. The town is technically on the main mass of British Columbia, but is considered the Sunshine Coast. The quickest way to get to Gibsons is by ferry, and the crossing is only 40 minutes.

Chelle and I planned to get the noon ferry, but missed it by about 10-15 minutes. But that was okay, it gave us time to park the car, grab some coffee, get our tickets, and wander around a bit. We got the 1:35pm ferry and got into Langdale Ferry Terminal in good time and caught the bus to the high school where the merchant mall was.

Sunshine Coast — photo taken upon arrival at Langdale Ferry Terminal

The Gibsons Fibre Fest offered classes on Thursday and Friday, the merchant mall and juried exhibit was open all three days, and on the Saturday there were festivities in the Landing. Also, the term ‘fibre arts’ is very inclusive: knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, dying, sewing, quilting… the festival has it all. We were going mainly for the merchant mall, and Chelle had quite the score. She got some Bombax Silk from Hummingbird Fibre Arts. I nearly fell down over all the Malabrigo at Unwind Knit & Fibre Lounge (Gibsons’ new local yarn store).

Hummingbird Fibre Arts

One of the Festival Directors taking a photo at Unwind Yarns' booth

Had there been other festivities on the Friday, I think we would have gone earlier to wander around… but you always forget travel time. I’m a bit young to remember The Beachcombers (TV show) but it’s what Gibsons Landing is famous for — Molly’s Reach and the Persephone are both in the Landing. We ended up catching the 5:30pm ferry home with a few of the other knitters and fibre artists we knew.

On the ferry home from Gibsons (from left to right: Shannon of Unwind Yarns, Siobhan, Petra, Viki, and Chelle. Faye is visible on the floor at Chelle's feet.)

So what did I buy you ask? I bought a lovely skein of 100% merino wool at Shannon’s booth, Unwind Yarns — Throwing Sheep Into Rainbows. I’m thinking it will become a shawl (similar to the one being photographed above). The second photo is very true to colour; the colourway is called Splotch. I also picked up some beads for earrings.

Unfortunately, the board of directors has announced that the 2011 Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival is cancelled. Many assume it’s due to the arts funding cuts in the province, but there are several reasons which the board outlined in a press release. Hopefully some Gibsons residents will step up and resurrect the festival in a couple years. Even though this was my first year attending, I am hoping it will just be a small hiatus.

In the past couple weeks I’ve had the pleasure of visiting many of my favourite (and soon to be fave) local shops. I thought I’d share the goodies with you all as there are some fibre-related products(!!!)

Read the rest of this entry »

Things have been pretty busy here the past couple weeks at chez Monnibo. This post is going to be a mish-mash of many things.

We went to Spanish Banks on Saturday and met some Camp friends for dinner. When the tide was out, we went for a wander in the ocean. Gorgeous photos resulted (and I made a new Flickr set called Vancouver Beaches).

Spanish Banks at low tide

We went to Bard on the Beach on the weekend and saw Anthony & Cleopatra. I really enjoyed it and I have to say that Bard on the Beach is one of my favourite festivals. And of course there is a Bard Flickr set too, with various years’ photos.

Intermission at Bard on the Beach

Speaking of festivals, I sent The Word On The Street Vancouver program guide to the printer today (!!!). We’ve been working on this all summer. I’ve also got some other initiatives for the festival going: if you’re on Twitter, follow WOTSvancouver — if you’re on Facebook, “like” The Word On The Street Vancouver — if you’re on Flickr, share your photos on the WOTS Vancouver Group Pool — or add the WOTS Vancouver blog to your feed reader!

At BookCrossing Meetup the other night, we were talking about books (of course!) and then blogs and publishers and authors, etc. I mentioned I signed up for newsletters and followed publisher/publishing blogs. Dale and Marina instantly wanted me to write a blog post full of links… and this is just to say that yes, I intend to do that, but I don’t have time right now.

Philippa Gregory’s new book comes out this Thursday, August 19. The Red Queen is book two in her next series about the Houses of Lancaster and York. I enjoyed The White Queen (review) but wasn’t crazy about it. So, I don’t know how I feel about The Red Queen, but I’d like to give it a shot.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins — book three of the Hunger Games Triology — comes out in one week (Tuesday, August 24)!! I’ve read (and reviewed) both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and I’m really looking forward to the final installment.

Julie Forrest tweeted a link earlier today to an upcoming knitting book from Random House — Vampire Knits: Projects to Keep You Knitting from Twilight to Dawn by Genevieve Miller. There are many Twilight-inspired patterns on Ravelry already (including a leaked pattern from Vampire Knits), but it will be neat to see what other vampire-inspired knits are devised.

Okay, now one weird question… why are my house plants plagued by fruit flies?

That’s right, I’m knitting a lace shawl! The pattern I decided on was Argante by Corrina Ferguson (Rav link) and I’m using 1 skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in colourway “Garden Daze” (Rav link).

I was a little worried that it was too busy. Because at the beginning (tip) when I cast on, the colours pooled together a little more. But as the rows are getting longer, the colours are getting more sporadic. When I asked Craig what he thought, he said it looked like yarn barf. I said, “But they’re pretty colours right?” and he agreed that they were pretty. Then I explained how blocking would enhance the lace pattern more, which reassured me too.

This has been my “stupid knitting” project for some time. Why is it “stupid knitting”? #1: It’s simple pattern is perfect to take to Knitting Meetup where I am constantly distracted and just plain chatty. #2: I’m stupid and forget to mark down where in the pattern I am and then just randomly pick it up the next week (or 2 or 3 weeks later) and keep knitting. So the resulting FO (finished object) may not be my best work, but it would be an excellent pattern had I paid attention.

Pattern: Herringbone Cowl by Lauren Osbourne [Ravelry link]
Yarn: Nashua Ivy (held double) in “Soft Violet”
Needles: 5mm circulars
View my Ravelry Project Page.

This second photo represents the true colour of the yarn. I think that this is a good pattern, and if I knit it again I’m going to mark what row I finished on so when I pick it up again, I’m not just guessing. Also, I don’t think holding the yarn double did the pattern justice. I wanted it to be nice and squishy but I think it would have been better with more breathing room.

A couple months ago my dad helped me make a yarn swift to go with the ball winder I got at FibresWest in March. We used this DIY Yarn Swift tutorial and I decided to video the yarn winding.

The music is Walking on Sunshine by Carley Simon, and the yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock. I’m getting ready to cast on my first shawl ever. I’m planning to knit Argante or Gaenor by Corrina Ferguson. I was inspired by a local knitterfriend: take a look at Darcy’s gorgeous Gaenor!

I’ve mentioned several times that Henry is a yarn snob, so I knit him a new snakey out of 100% wool scraps (Cascade 220).

Once I finished his snakey, I moved on to the three snakes I’ve committed to knit for the Vancouver Fibre League’s charity challenge. They’re due on Thursday, May 27 but Sara (aka wenchlette) is already winning with 15 blankets for the SPCA. I’ve already committed to donating a prize (a pair of earrings designed by Monnibo Designs) and so I checked with Sara what colour she wanted.