When knitters get together

As you know, I am a mom. A mom of 2, whose son is quite the sporty type. We have soccer, swimming, hockey, power-skating lessons... it busy, very busy. And as my daughter grows, it's only going to get worse. So finding a day when my schedule is clear is no easy feat. But it worked, for myself and my knitterly friends. We all cleared a Saturday, and gathered at Lilian's place for an afternoon of ....yarn-dyeing.

Lily and I took a workshop together a few years ago, and since then we've been hooked. And sadly enough it's taken us this long to get organized and meet to do it again. This time around however we wanted to try something a little different. Instead of acid dyes we used natural, plant-based ones. 

We had tea, onion peel, pomegranate, turmeric and cabbage. These were not our snacks, but our dyes. It was fascinating to see everyone's imagination take flight and experiments turn out. 

My inspiration came from a few evenings before, when I was having snack and tried to sneak in a few paragraphs from one of my favourite books. The colour I was hoping for is  a pastel yellow-pink-orange colour, and as you can see, it turned out pretty well. I used a combination of pomegranate dye, and onion peel.

It was so much fun! I came home with my mind buzzing with ideas, and thoughts and questions... I looked up articles and plants, and I am going to try this again. For sure! As soon as I can clear my schedule again! Hopefully it will be sooner then a couple of years from now.

As a side note, red cabbage is not a good choice... I guess there is a reason it does not come up as an example when researching natural yarn dyeing. It smells...

Summer Vacation!

This is it, school is officially out. My (not so) little boy is about to experience his first summer vacation. How terribly exciting for him and at the same time terribly terrifying for me.

As much as I enjoy hanging out with my little man, I have not spent this much time with him since maternity leave! He is the kind of child that absolutely needs a routine, spur of the moment things do not go over very well.

I still remember that feeling of freedom on the last day of school, the idea of endless sunny days stretching in front of me. Every day a new adventure, full of possibilities. I was used to playing on my own, it never bothered me, but my son is different, he craves company, and needs help to get his imagination going.

So I have been thinking of how to fill our days. We have playdates and outings lined up, swimming and tennis lessons. But I also want fun activities to do at home. After all, we will be spending a lot of time around the house! Since Aidan is not great at playing on his own, I have to find creative ways to encourage him to be a more independent player.

I, of course, started a Pinterest board of ideas, and as often happens, this sparked my imagination. My son loves "Hunt and Seek" games, so I thought....why not create one myself?

I scoured the house for little toys and items to use, arranged them on a tray, and photographed it. This is accompanied by a list of items that he has to find in the photograph. 

This is what I have on the list:

a firetruck
the letter S
the letter A
an angel
scissors
a whistle
a bicycle
a medal
a  milk carton
a ball
a lollipop
a walnut
a rock
a dinosaur
a gift-tag
a basketball net
2 postcards
an antler
a brush
a ribbon
an elephant
a stamp
a slinky
a cellphone
a golfball
a flower
a key
an eraser
a house
a garbage can
a seashell
a harmonica
a cup

I mean the possibilities are endless, right?

If you are desperate for some time fillers with your kids, you can always download my pictures from my flickr account here, and the list here.

We're playing this afternoon....

Snow day

Happy 2013! I may be a little late to the New Year bandwagon, but my family and I really tried to take advantage of every free minute we had during this break, and really disconnect.

As of tomorrow morning, we are back to our regular routine, daddy traveling, Aidan is back with his little daycare group, and I am off to my 9 to 5 job, and starting on a new KAL. I have once again joined in one of Shannon's KAL's. This one, being inspired by Downton Abbey. Anyone else a fan? I absolutely love it. My yarn has not yet arrived, and even though we are set to start tonight, I am hoping I will be able to catch up quickly. I have chosen to knit Imogen Cowl, by the talented Carrie Bostick Hoge using Quince & Co Tern yarn in seagrass. I cannot wait to get started.

In the meantime I have some pictures taken during our snowstorm last week. We were stuck in the house for a day and a half, and had to be creative to pass the time. Here's what we did.

Once the snow finally stopped, we bundled up, took the sled and camera, and headed out for some real fun. Here's what our neighborhood looks like now.

I have not forgotten about posting pictures of my Christmas gifts, I will get around too that soon. Until then, a Happy Healthy New year to everyone!