Uli's Creative Corner

Presenting Ruby, a wonderful knitting pattern by Holli Yeoh, creator behind Bee's Knees Knits.  I love these patterns.  They are a bit of work at the fingering weight sock yarn gauge but for the little ones, not so bad.  This one has been a long time coming and it took me months to put the final finishing touches to it.  Our upcoming Vancouver Island beach vacation (leaving tomorrow) got me motivated.  I figured a hoodie of that kind would be perfect for our early morning ferry ride and long evenings out at the beach.  I was a bit worried about the size because technically Little Miss is already outgrown the size but what can I say.... my gauge was a bit loose and I just added a bit of length etc and it looks like it will fit her for quite some time to come.  She even modeled for me:

What do you think?  Worked out well, didn't it?  I'm very pleased with it.  Did you see the first missing baby tooth, too?

Yes, I'm excited................ vacation tomorrow.  I'm so looking forward to meeting up with Brenda and Shelley later on in the week and just generally getting some R&R.  As a family, we need it.

Here are my thoughts............ I've thought about this for a while. I've been trying so hard to not "step on my blog readers toes" - for a lack of a better phrase to use.  I started this as a knitting blog.  It soon turned into a knitting blog and then some - about me, my life and all that I'm about.  But for some reason, when I started getting interested in jewelry making and went forward with that full gusto and started my Etsy shop I felt that strong need to keep them separated so as to not make the friends I've made blogging feel like they were not coming to the knitting blog they used to come to but an advertising site for my business or whatever.  So I tried to keep up the Vox blog and the knitting blog here.  But this is all about me and my jewelry, just like my knitting and my family is an extension of me.  I'm passionate about this and I'm passionate about my shop.  I'm so busy these days with everything that's going on and my blogs have suffered but I don't want to quit.  I love blogging even if I'm doing it less now than I used to.  I must make a change though.  I must reel myself back in and not spread myself too think in blog country.  So when we come back from vacation, I think I'll re-vamp this blog a bit and it will be my one and only blog.  Knitting, me, family, life, jewlery, my shop etc.  I hope, with all my heart, that you will still come by and read and check in with me and all that I'm up to............. 

See you all in a week.  I doubt that I'll have much access to a computer but I'll try.  I'd love to hear comments about Ruby.  Feeling a bit lonely here at times.

catch you up on life!!!!

In that order............... stash from the Victoria Fibre Fest, Kindergarten grad, JR - the climber, and a few of my favourite recent additions to my store (not all).  Very little emphasis on any sort of progress knitting.  The mitered cardigan has halted since I don't have any additional yarn so I'm not sure I shall continue just to find out at the end that I won't have enough.  I did finish a sock the other day and started on the partner.

What did I buy?  Yummy things. :-)

Sweatermaker - Floral Spectrum - hand dyed sock yarn - the pic is blurry but believe me, it's loverly

Lorna's Laces Olympic Colours - A Fun Knits exclusive colourway.

Gedifra Fashion Trend Sportive - I knit some of this into socks before and it's awesome.  Stretchy, fit snugly, warm and comfy - not a summer sock yarn

Some Meilenweit solid cotton to match with some Regia Cotton Surf to make JR a Beesknees Knit with.  This may become my take-on-vacation summer project. :-)  Nice and light and easy.

I purchased all of the above (except for the Meilenweit Solid) from Shelley at Fun Knits.  Sock yarn is an allowable purchase for me........ although I have too much and all that fun jazz but it seems okay to pick up a ball of sock yarn here and there.  Don't you feel that same way?

My other treasure is this laceweight silk blend from Hummingbird Fibre Arts from Nanaimo.  The colours are awesome and it has such a lovely feel to it.

The colours look a bit washed out in this pic and the picture takes away from the lovely sheen this yarn has.  I would like to try some of the superwash fibre that Brenda bought from them at the same time as I bought the yarn.  She seemed to like spinning with it on her spindle so I feel like trying it, too.  Maybe my spindle should come on vacation with me?

Phew.......... lovely yarns.  I only just recently managed to put them all on my yarn wall of shame aka my big stash shelf. :-)

Kindergarten grad......... what a big deal to me.  I cried.  It was so cute.  The little kids with their handmade little hats and their little diplomas.  When I read what Little Miss' teacher wrote in her scrapbook, I cried some more..... Here are some select pics of the event:

She's come a long way.  At the beginning of the school year, she could barely hold onto the monkey bars, let alone propel herself along.  At the end of the year, she's monkey bar queen.  No doubt, the many hours of gymnastics and the endless practicing on the monkey bars are helping her get stronger.

Speaking of stronger, JR is now climbing............ my life of a Mom of two took andother turn for the worse aka I can't take my knitting along with me anymore anywhere when we visit because he gets into constant trouble that now includes climbing on this as well.  It's absolutely exhausting.

I didn't have a good face shot of him.  He got his hair cut on Saturday and looks so cute right now!!!

And just to leave you with a few new things from the shop.  These are just some of my favourites but there are lots of other new things hiding in there.

I just created this copper and autumn jasper necklace.  It will be so great in the fall:

And these little butterfly earrings are just so pretty and fun:

I'd love to hear what you think of those creations.  While I'm at it, I'll show you the gift I gave to Little Miss' teacher:

Earrings and a bracelet, wire wrapped in sterling silver using chalk turquoise and Mother of Pearl.

Little Miss also made her a necklace and I helped her by giving her proper beading wire and attached a proper lobster clasp to it.

And while I'm at it, I might as well show off a necklace I made just for myself:

I'm all caught up now!!!!  It's sizzling hot out this week so we'll be hanging out more outside than inside with those needles.

check out my Hodge Podge post over on Vox.  I'm just showing off some new jewelry.  I haven't updated here because I'm a lazy bum to get stash pictures from my Victoria trip.  I also want to show off kiddo's Kindergarten grad pictures...... I guess I'm just such a slow poke these days with my attention divided several different ways.