thankful this thanksgiving...

as is always the way,

thanksgiving rolls around

and i cannot help but ponder

all the things i am thankful for

in this here life of mine.

i do try to do this all year round

and not just one day of the year

however this year,

as per usual

i find many things to be thankful for

however i am especially thankful for

a yarn store of the utmost kind

which opened up a few short weeks ago

in a small town not far from me

i am thankful they invited me to join their yarny team.

i am thankful the yarny team turned out to be full of wonderful dearies.

i am thankful for the creativity it has sparked in my little knitty cogs.

i am thankful my rusty dusty cogs are proving they are not too old to be learning again.

i am thankful i get to share time with so many creative souls who walk through the door, each and every day

and most of  all

i am thankful it has filled an aching void in my life, created when my two girls moved so very far far away...

the happiest of happy thanksgivings, to one and all :)

hacking a hat ...

i am muchly chuffed with the fact i have knitted a hat.

it is the pattern 'felicity' which can be found on Ravelry.

except i added a moss/seed stitch band at the beginning

and now it appears i will be doing more than just that.

having worn my hat for a day and half

i have concluded it is not quite the shape i wished it to be.

it is a perfectly perfect shape i must add,

however not quite right for me and my noggin.

thus i have decided to take matters into my own knitty newbie hands

and hack a hat pattern

there is no telling if i will come out the other side

with the hat shape upon my bonce, of my wishing,

but i do have high hopes

for in my head it makes sense,

on the little bit of paper i have scribbled my hacks upon

it reads darn dandy,

and after talking to Our #2 for yarny support

i am ready to bravely tread where my little knitty cogs

have never trod before...

an ordinarily extraordinary miracle at thanksgiving...

yesterday i awoke to an ordinary day,

by the time i went to bed it had become an ordinarily extraordinary day.

days like that are quite rare and ones that must be treasured

and looked back upon for many many moons to come.

quite truthfully, 

just the very fact my cast on knitted hat

was actually starting to resemble a hat

and not a flea bite in sight,

was something to take an ordinary day

to an extraordinary day.

but then an happening to out do any happenings

that have happened to me of late,

only went and happened.

i awoke on an ordinary friday morn

to learn that by the very same day

Our #2 would be home for thanksgiving!

our first to share in several years...

a most extraordinary thing

which truly is nothing sort of a small miracle.

yes a small miracle that has left me this morn,

 as i tippity tap this ramble

knowing she is under our roof again

for a whole live long week,

so very thankful for small miracles

of the most ordinarily extraordinary kind.

the best kind of miracles of all...

what a difference a day makes...

alas

alack,

darn

double darn

triple drat

and

quadruple pants

my 'knitty picking a purl like a pro' knee socks

are all baggy and saggy

Mr Doubter is creeping in

and my high hopes are seeping away

i have noted on close inspection

my seed stitching ways are lacking.

if one did not know better

one could easily be mistaken

for thinking a moth or two

had stopped by for a party

i am left pondering...

are the crochet gods talking to me

showing me i have faltered too far 

from the path of hooky righteousness and goodness

or are the knitting gods testing me

seeing if i am worthy of their knitty blessing.

am i strong enough to prevail

when the knitting times are rough

or will i weaken, will i falter

will i turn away

when the going gets tough

the knitty gods tell me

does not matter, 

they love me 

and my free form flea holed blanket 

in the making

and 

encourage me to continue upon my way

the crochet gods ask me

have i thought about a nice slouchy beanie hat?

something simple perhaps,

wasn't i just thinking i would like one

only the other day...

most suited to traveling during the holiday season.

they are tempting me, 

i am wise, 

i can see Mr Temptation has been giving them lessons.

i am thinking where would the harm be

in just taking a look,

just a ganders

no commitment

something to take my mind off 

my blanket of dubious seed stitching ways

and down the slippery slope i go

knitty knee socks and knitty soul

well and truly let down

a most marvelous book...

Lena Corwin's Made By Hand book is a marvelous one indeedy! 

i know this to be true as i have had a jolly good ganders at the pages and thus, deduced "that made by hand book is marvelous indeedy!"

how did i get to my marvelous thinking ways you may well ask, as there appears to be an abundance of crafty books out there and sometimes things can all blur together. well let me see...

1: marvelous projects in all different marvelous materials

2: marvelous pictures making one wish to learn the marvelous projects

3: marvelously written in a lesson format from quite a few marvelous crafty souls

and

4: a marvelous knitted blanket which stopped my marvelous yarn loving ways in their tracks

left unable to think of anything else but said marvelous knitted blanket, led me to know now was the time if ever there was a time i would have to conquer picking a purl stitch, for seed stitch was never an option for me where once i was a thrower. and so i did, with the help of terribly nice dearie on youtube. i must confess her way of picking is no longer my way as i prefer to use my right needle like a hook and keep my left needle, yarn and finger firmly planted and stationary. but no matter what, i care not, for where there is a will, there is always a way and now i like to think i can pick a purl like a pro and therefore i launched into my 'free form blanket' from the marvelous Made By Hand book with great gusto

now here is the thing, it does not exactly show you the step by step recipe for the blanket, it is truly up to you to go upon your merry way freeforming little squares and rectangles of seed stitched goodness. however i have already learnt how to extend a rectangle when changing colour and this has made me muchly happy and declare out loud to those that care to listen "how marvelous is that!"

so only time will tell, just how marvelous it truly is, for i have in my time crocheted an abundance of blankets but never ever never a knitted one... oh, that tis a lie! i did once, a long long time ago and quite a few moons, a patchwork affair but i am not going to count that because the tale doesn't sound so grand. i have however attempted many more knitted blankets that i never saw through to the end due to my attention span and their inability to grow quickly.

this time though, i have high hopes for i am a picker and not a thrower, and yes, despite several times having to rip back several rows due to glazing over and changing the order of my knit 1 purl 1, i am determined, like never before to have a blanket so marvelous in its knitty goodness, that not even a little critter will i share it with.

thus i deduce, Lena Corwin's Made By Hand is full of marvelous things to learn to make and does stand out from the crafty crowded book shelves in a most marvelous way! 

a hive of industry... (well not mister muchly, nope, quite the opposite it would appear)

Miss Ethel has moved downstairs,

we are a hive of industry, me and my trusty machine.

any given moment of opportunity

we are beavering away together

on little strings of happy

for the makers market in december

ummm... Mister Muchly!!!

you are just too muchly

with your 'non hive of industry' ways of late...

dabbling with skeins...

on sunday i took my 4 lovely Erika Knight vintage wool skeins to the yarn store to dabble with a bit of yarn skein winding. thinking it muchly a cunning plan to practice the fine art of skein winding upon my own little yarny skeins before i am let loose on customers of the utmost kind and their yarny skeins.

i must confess, in days gone past when skeins were more common place in mossy shed i would find a small being to help but small beings are rare these days, almost as rare as skeins of yarn. thus it is quite the thrill to dabble with a skein or two again. 

the yarn which is having all my attention lavished upon it this week is vintage wool by Erika Knight. upon perusal of her most loveliest of books Simple Crocheting, my crafty heart and my crafty head settled upon the Edging Stitch Scarf which is a garland of jolly popcorn crocheted flowers, looking mighty peachy in the picture and i thought to myself... well that would look mighty peachy wrapped around the outside collar of my granny peachy pink coat found a few weeks back on a thrift store pottle. i say the outside because i am fearful if it were on the inside and being wool it may be a tad itchy. 

i am muchly enjoying making the little crocheted popcorn flowers and doing a jolly good job of not getting all itchy and bothered by the yarn so far. 

a quarter of the way through i cannot help but admire how well my little balls of wound skeins are doing at staying all wound up, just as they should be and not collapsing from the middle out. this gives me high hopes, the same will be said for the skeins i wind for customers in the store :)

knitty news flash...

knitty news flash number one:

two sundays ago, riding high from knitting a little heart specimen i announced to myself and all critters and my lads of three. "i am going to knit a flower" and so i did...

i took one thrift store frock and plotted its cross stitched beauty on 4 pieces of taped together graph paper i found lurking in the drawer. i then rummaged around forever and a day to find colouring pencils that a) had any lead in them and b) were of close enough colour to my yarns not to get me all in a muddle

after my plotting i rested for it took way more out of me then i thought it would to plot and plan a little knitty flower on graph paper

on monday, i bravely went where my knitty soul has never gone before

on tuesday, i noted several things, thing one: i could read a graph pattern and translate it into knitting. thing two: i could do this if a) no one, not even a critter spoke to me and b) if i kept my tongue slightly poked out to aid maximum concentration

a few days later, it required my knitty specimen to be handled with great care. pacing myself and the tangled threads i left behind required deep breathing and many many breaks

one week later i saw improvement in my stitching, picking the knit, throwing the purl. i no longer got my yarns in a twist and when changing colours i carried and looped so no gaps appeared. i grew impatient, i wished for my yarny flower to be complete, already other yarny makes were whispering in my ear

one and a half weeks later, staying strong, ignoring those whisperings i came out victorious. my six coloured knitty flower was complete. was it perfectly perfect? not a chance. was it squiffy and wonky? by the bucket load. would it win a rosette if a rosette were up for grabs? i very muchly doubt it.

but that does not matter in the itty bitty least. 

for what it did do, is precisely what i so hoped it would do, what so often when you try something new with your crafty soul appears to happen. you step back and you cannot help but marvel at how much sense of inner pride and satisfaction comes with pushing your crafty cogs beyond their comfort zone 

did i think less than 2 months back i would even be picking up the old rusty dusty knitting needles again, no sirree! and even more so, did i ever think i would dabble with more than one colour thread on my needles, not a chance, i would have said you were barking mad to think ever a day would come. but come it did and with it whole new little section in my crafty soul has opened up and embraced a love of knitting again which i thought was lost forever

knitty new flash number two:

hurrah hooray! tomorrow is the grand old big old day! as a reminder Tolt Yarn and Wool is opening its doors and welcomes one and all to come on by and say hello and see what is what and who is who. i will be there with my shop assistant cap on and my very own name badge! from 2 till 6, and if you do happen to come for a visit, be sure to say hello

a dottie angel 'collection of sorts'... where, what & when

where: dottie angel's store

what: lucky happy handmade goodness

when: monday 11th november, 2pm pacific time

whirring cogs, makers fair and no breakdowns allowed ...

my head is a little jumbly bumbly these days. too many things happening all at once and thus, my cogs are whirring away, but i am being most careful each and everyday to stop still and breathe, for no matter how full the day is of 'must-dos' for other folks, i 'must-do' for myself if a balance is to be maintained.

tomorrow i will be announcing my holiday shop update for next week but for today, well today my cogs are in holiday market fair mode, for yes indeedy! i am most happy to be taking part in a holiday market this year, and muchly happy it will be at Tolt Yarn and Wool store. when i have the nitty gritty info of all the other peachy vendors i will be sure to share, in the meantime though i do know it will be on saturday december 7th, 10 till 6 and that alone tells my little whirring cogs time is of the essence.

having spent a fair old chunk of my crafty making soul working on my 'collection of sorts' in recent weeks i decided a cunning plan was required to pull more hand made goodness out of my granny chic bag. and thus i said to myself, what would i, if i were perusing a dottie angel stall with purse in hand wish to see and the answer was loud and clear.

little strings of happy

some fabric

some paper

an itty bitty 'little string of happy' birthday banner

and 

some crocheted... 

and then my cogs went one further and produced an epiphany of 'a little string of happy' utmost kind. one which i cannot share just yet ("boo Tif, party pooper") but will share in december in anticipation of the new shiny year... ("oh hurrah hooray Tif, all is forgiven")

so today finds me painting insides of drawers in preparation of displaying little strings of happy alongside of other 'this and thats' like 'little framed yarny specimens'. 

all conjured from my granny chic bag over the next few weeks... 

i have checked the contents of my bag, tis filled to the brim with crafty notions and trimmings. i noted a note to self "no room for breakdowns inside of this bag" less i forget and placed it safely inside :)

a frock for the holiday season...

on friday some peachy perfect barkcloth arrived on my doormat. i do believe it is tres tricky these days to find tippity top barkcloth in yardage and unused and in a colour or pattern one likes. every now and then i will trawl the aisles of Ebay or Etsy and more often than not, i come away empty handed. but not this time, this time i struck barkcloth gold, 3 yds of floral fabulous-ness

when it arrived, i took a good old ganders and truth be told, the pattern was way larger than i had anticipated. i pondered and thought to myself, what lovely curtains it would make but no, no that could not be, for a barkcloth floral frock must be. so i pinned and snippity snipped the frock out, after having done a turn in Miss W Machine. thus no turning back to curtains...

on saturday i took more than a few hours out of the usual round of saturday chores and dabbled with Miss Ethel. at one point it became obvious having plotted and planned a front and a back, i had now made the back the front and the front the back. i told myself this did not matter and indeed upon finishing up the frock with 2 rather lucky horseshoe shaped pockets and standing back to peruse, i noted the back that was now the front turned out perfectly perfect with the pattern and its position.

on saturday eve, i donned my newly made vintage barkcloth frock and left for a party at the yarn store, alas and alack, 40 minutes later i returned in my frock having made it only a third of the way. the storm had bought trees down willy nilly and not knowing my way around in the dark, i was unable to find a 3rd alternative route to the first 2 i had tried

on sunday it was a day for dottie angel to come out to play, a 'collection of sorts' photos were a mustly must. i asked Our #3 if he would be so kind as to take a pic of my newly made and donned frock and so he did. upon close inspection i am most delighted with my first attempt at using large florals on a frock and thinking the colours perfeclty suited to the up and coming holiday season. 

this frock without a doubt, will be packed in my little suitcase come december when for the first time in 13 years, we will be going 'home for the holidays' hurrah hooray! 

a perfectly peachy poncho for a pottle or two...

early weds morn on the way to yoga i had a woolly epiphany. such was my giddiness from said epiphany it was all i could do not to turn back home and carry out the deed. instead i stayed strong and went on my yoga calling way and did my utmost to keep all thoughts of the woolly epiphany out of my cogs and thus not interfere with polishing my little light.

upon my return to mossy shed, light glowing a tad brighter than before, i rustled around in the cupboard on our landing and located my 'high hopes wrap for a chilly day' and after just 10 minutes, i had myself a 'high hopes poncho for a chilly day'.

i placed one end of the wrap up against one side of the wrap, (when i say wrap, i use the term loosely! 'tis a glorified rectangle of crocheted goodness, recipe of which, may be found here) and stitched in place. i then proceeded with a bit of yarn to slightly gather the edging along the back neckline to make for a peachy fit on the shoulders.

i wore my poncho for a pottle to the drug store to collect Used Dog's prescriptions. i noted how warm and cozy my poncho was having layered it a-top several layers including a thermal undervest. i told myself as i stood in line waiting for the pharmacist to finish assisting others, i was not having a hot flush and to not panic but to instead, focus on how marvelous my little poncho and all its woolly goodness was at keeping me warm as toast and how jolly useful he will be in the chilly winter days to follow

i wore my poncho to the grocery store and discovered i should have practiced at home how one carries one bag whilst poncho wearing. on top of my shoulder over my poncho creates quite the bulk and the straps of my bag struggle to cling on. thus a tussle resulted between moi, my bag, my poncho and every time i leant over to place an item in my grocery cart. half way through i changed to having my bag on my shoulder but under my poncho. with a bit of rearranging this appeared to be most satisfactory until my phone rang and i had to dive under my poncho to locate the inners of my bag, resulting in yet more tussling this time in the bakery department. i did not let this put me off my woolly poncho and its warming hug. no sirree! i was not quite ready to forsake my newly found again woolly friend, i merely made up my mind to be more wise about what sort of bag i must don with my poncho. for surely my poncho is deserving of such considerate thought. thus i am thinking a basket is the trick, yes indeedy, no need for shoulder straps, a basket is the answer and a basket is the only thing good enough from now on for my perfectly peachy poncho and me...