May 8th, 2008 - Felt Food Fun

My good friend's little boy turned a year old at the end of March, so I wanted to make him something fun. (Have I mentioned that this year I am trying to do handmade for as many gifts as possible? I figure I have the skills and in many cases the supplies, so why would I buy something that will probably end up in the landfill in a couple of years?)

So, I did a little browsing around Craftster and found some felt food that people had made. Now I know a one year old is a little young for this gift, but I figured he couldn't hurt himself with any of it and he could grow into it a little.

Breakfast anyone?

The traditional bacon, eggs, and toast.

Or perhaps you would prefer pancakes?

With some Pop Tarts on the side and a couple oranges for garnish.

Done with breakfast, it's lunchtime!

We have all the fixin's for a great roast beef sandwich, including meat, cheese, pickles, tomatoes and lettuce all on fresh bread. Oh, and of course, watermelon for dessert.

Not sure what you want for dinner? Well you can have pasta,

with or without mushrooms of course. Or maybe pizza is more your thing?

You pick the toppings and it's yours.

And finally, what day of food would be complete without some Oreos and fruit for dessert

And to finish it off, it all comes in it's own environmentally friendly lunch bag.

Now while I am not sure that he totally understands the concept at this point, he did put the cookies in his mouth as soon as he opened the gift. I figure that is a good sign that we have a gourmand in the making!

As for project details - I just used sheets of felt from Michaels and cut them out into appropriate shapes. I used stuffing for the larger pieces and quilt batting for the thinner things. Everything is sewn together except for the cookies, which are just glued together with fabric glue.

Next we will continue the catch up with a quilt!

|

May 6th, 2008 - Re-entry from MDSW

Wow, what a great weekend. This was my first time to MDSW, and I will certainly be going back. I had a great time both at the festival and with the lovely ladies I traveled with. A little photo montage, if you will:

All 5 of us (Laura, Jen, Nikki, Pam and I) packed ourselves up and booted off in a GPS lead convoy,

armed with enthusiasm and tiny rolls of toilet paper. (Thanks Nikki!)

Friday night we narrowly avoided a total mayonnaise disaster, with the only casualty being Jen's purse.

We got there very early on Saturday morning and it was dead,

but it quickly filled up.

There were sheep,

sheep,

and more sheep.

Jen was kind enough to teach me lots about sheep and how they are raised and farmed. I am sadly a true suburb girl, but I am always eager to learn about farming and 'country living' for lack of a better phrase.

We saw beautiful pieces of art, such as this rug hooking (truly incredible, the picture does not come close to doing it justice),

and this needle felted bear (the picture also does not do this one justice).

There was also fairgrounds food, which I didn't think I was going to eat but got sucked into. How could you miss out on one of these?

Yum, funnel cake.

There was a sheep to shawl competition, which has inspired me to get back in front of my loom.

But I think the best part of the show itself for me was a couple of vendors that took the time to really make the trip memorable.

Ann and Eugene at the Philosopher's Wool booth spent some very quality time with myself, Nikki and particularly Jen, who up until now had not knit a sweater (gorgeous lace shawls, but no sweaters).

Jen got to try on the sweater she thought she would like, and had many questions answered by Ann.

Both Ann and Eugene even humoured me by listening to me ramble about how I am originally from Ontario and recently relocated to Virginia. We talked about traveling, customs (the post 9 11 kind) and how there is nothing that they would rather be doing. The were so inspiring that Nikki went back and bought a kit on Sunday!

And finally there was Sheila and Jonathan Bosworth. I knew on this trip that I really wanted to get a drop spindle. I did not want to buy any yarn (and didn't) but I wanted to see if I had a hand for spinning. Sheila gave both myself and Nikki a great lesson - even though Nikki is an expert! - and I got a chance to watch Jonathan use a Charkha.

Best of all though, is that I went home with my very own Bosworth Midi!

Isn't he pretty? I have been spinning away since Saturday!

I am planning to use my first yarn out of this purple roving for a small woven scarf. I am sure it will be rather slubby, but I think I am getting the hang of it. I still need to do a little research on plying methods though.

So that is the whirlwind that was MDSW. I can't wait until next year.

|

May 1st, 2008 - Tote Me Off to MDSW

I am so excited I could spit. Tomorrow I leave for Maryland Sheep and Wool! Yippee! A definite benefit of living down here is being so close to Maryland. I have always wanted to go but I could never justify the trip. Now though it is only about 4 1/2 hours by car, so totally worth it. And the best part is, when I introduced myself to the Roanoke Knitters and Spinners on Ravelry before I moved down, they offered to take me! So there are 5 of us in this group going, sharing two hotel rooms. I have met a couple of the people who are going, but the others never in person. I can't wait, this is just like Christmas!

I thought about what bag I wanted to carry around for the weekend, and decided this deserved a new bag. So $14 in fabric later, I have a new fancy bag.

Modeled for us by the lovely Charlie. I used this tutorial, which was very easy to follow. It is quite a simple bag. It is reversible, and the inside lining has a pocket

So if you see this bag when you are at MDSW, stop me and say hello! I will likely be wearing a pink t-shirt too, as Laura (the lovely lady who is organizing the group - thanks Laura!) is making us all shirts too. I love fibre people!

So will I see you in Maryland?

|

April 29th, 2008 - Send Some Lovin'

Today is a very important day for my Mom, as a business partnership that she has had for the last two years is coming to an end. It is the best possible thing that could happen in my her life right now, as it has caused much stress and hardship. So send along some congrats if you feel so inclined!

Also not so long ago it was my Mom's birthday. My Mom is one of my favourite people to knit for, as she is someone who appreciates the time and effort involved. Over the past few years she has also been catching the fibre bug and admiring the different yarns that are now available to knitters/weavers/crocheters.

So this year I thought I would make her something she has been coveting, the Dream In Color Shrug.

As you can see, my mom is really really tiny, so I was worried that it was not going to fit properly. All that worrying was for nothing though

This is the third of these shrugs I have knit, so obviously I enjoy the pattern. This colourway is Gothic Rose I believe. It is an easy knit and the yarn is so smooshy which feels great in your hands.

So Happy Belated Birthday Mom! I hope you have lots of time to enjoy wearing your shrug.

|

April 28th, 2008 - An Easter Visit

Gosh, posting two days in a row, what is happening here?

Being the sweetheart that she is, my bestest of friends missbedora decided that she would come down to visit not long after we moved. It was great to have some contact from home so soon after all the craziness of moving. And it worked out great that it was easter weekend as well. I thought I would tell you a little about Roanoke while I show some pictures from the visit.

I think the first thing missbedora (and I) noticed was how warm it is here. We had a brutal winter this year in Toronto, so it was a welcome change to come down here to warm sunny weather. missbedora arrived on March 22nd, and it was 22C that day

Notice the short sleeves. My understanding is Toronto got snow three days later on the 25th. *Grin*

As a start of the tour we thought we would check out Roanoke's downtown. (Actually the start of the tour was at Bath and Body works, but we won't talk about the HUGE bag of products missbedora walked out with. Let's just say I think she has a problem.)

Yes, that is the Easter Bunny. Roanoke has a very quaint feel to it's downtown, without being a small town at all. There is a little pocket of charm that the city has obviously worked hard to create/preserve.

There is an outdoor market in the main part of downtown that is open 7 days a week. This time of year there are a lot of plants, plus the usual artisans. Later in the year of course are all the fruits and veggies. I can't wait for these to start.

Part of downtown is the Hotel Roanoke, which is a beautiful old hotel that has been restored and is now also a conference centre.

Yup, even the train conductors have charm.

Of course one of the things that the south is well known for is the food. So how could we not have a full southern breakfast?

Complete with biscuits, sausage gravy, grits, fried apples, eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns and ham. That was ONE order. Yikes.

The rest of the tour on day two consisted of driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a little lacking in colour early in the spring, but still a great drive.

This is the mountain that we live on, Read Mountain. And of course we had to go see the Roanoke Star, up on the top of Mill Mountain.

It is the world's largest man-made star. They actually do specify man made:

They are pretty serious about the star here. TJ met the guy who is responsible for making sure that all the lights are working on it, and apparently within 5 minutes of a light being out he will get about 15 phone calls. It is very pretty at night, and it looks as though it is floating.

So that is a little about the lovely city of Roanoke. It was great to have missbedora down, and I can't wait for her and more of my family to come down to visit. In the meantime I am still refining the Roanoke tour.

Next, back to crafting. I promise.

|

April 27th, 2008 - Mountains of Changes

It wasn't long after we arrived in Roanoke that I started to see lots of differences between here and Aurora. Our new house is up a mountain, and because we are the last street in the subdivision we back onto a wooded area.

The first thing we discovered is that we are up really high. Really high. High enough that when there is a storm? We are basically at the cloud line.

For comparison, here is what it normally looks like

Thankfully now it is much greener out there

The other change we noticed with the storm was that siding houses make *strange* noises when it is windy. I am used to it now, but the first few nights we rough. We had one night of 50 mph hour winds and I was sure the house was coming apart at the seams.

The next thing we noticed was the wildlife. TJ was driving into the subdivision the third day we were in the house, and had to stop to let 12 deer cross the road. A couple of days later the pack of 12 was in the backyard.

This has dashed any hopes I had of a vegetable garden, since we don't have a fence. Actually, I think it has killed any hopes of growing anything out there. There is a small tree that has been completely picked clean. I don't mind though, I like watching them roam back there.

There have also been reports of a baby black bear, but the neighbour only saw it once in the early spring and it has never returned. Which is probably good because wherever there is a baby, there is mama.

Another new one early this morning was an opossum. My understanding is that there are sort of Roanoke's version of Toronto raccoons, in that they can be a bit of a pest. But he didn't seem to interested in us or garbage or anything, he just waddled along the tree line.

There is also ample evidence of voles or mice in the yard, as there are many small holes - just enough to twist an ankle in. Ask me how I know.

Last but not least are the birds. Coming from a new subdivision where the trees were too small to support anything other than the odd sparrow and grackle, it is great to see and hear some new songs and colours.

Other than wildlife changes, there are lots of other small things that we have noticed. Not being able to get certain brands of products that you are used to, no Mars bars (which is a good thing because I may have a small addiction) or Smarties, margarine is, sorry to say, awful, and changes in the prices of things. And of course there is the accent. We get asked all the time where we are from - it is very obvious that we are not from the south.

I thought that Southern Hospitality was just something from the movies, but we are discovering it certainly is not. I am finding that I need to slow myself down here, because any time you ask someone a question, they take the time to have a whole conversation with you. Strangers will ask you almost anything, and tell you just about every detail about themselves 10 minutes after you meet them. It is a great quality, but it is a little unnerving coming from Toronto where most of the time if someone talks to you, it leads you to wonder what is wrong with them. Here it is a way of life, and it is truly lovely.

Next, a bit more about Roanoke itself, and a visit from the darling missbedora! I promise to be back to crafting soon, so thanks if you are still reading.

|