Summer is upon us :)

So finally Saint John is getting some beautiful weather! For 4 days in a row we have had warm sunny weather and for the past 2 days I've gotten to enjoy it :) Nothing better after a rough winter and cold spring than to soak up some rays and relax!

The last week of school is upon us and all the fun end of school year trips and outings are making fun for a lot of the kids. I am am just getting my emotions in check as my daughter is celebrating her middle school graduation this week! I cannot believe I will have a high school student next year living in my house! Guess I am just not ready for my baby girl to be grown up!

A lot of changes are happening and I'm not quite ready for all of them. But I sure am glad that the weather has changed and am looking forward to more days of sunshine to relax and knit outside!

I finally finished my spring tunic, just in time for summer! My timing is off and it took me longer than I expected but it is finally finished! It's a wonderful feeling finishing a big project like that and having it turn out the way you want it too! So now on to more smaller projects for the summer :)

Now I have moved on to mittens and socks. The perfect projects for summer! You can throw them in your purse and knit whenever you get the chance too :) I knit in the car, I knit at the coffee shop, I pretty much knit where ever I can! Small projects are easy and fast for this time of year as we all want to be outside, and that's where I plan on spending most of my free time this summer!!

Here is my spring tunic I plan on wearing on cooler days this summer :)

Thank you so much!

Today is a good day :) Today my heart is full from the outpouring of support I have received in knitting baby hats for our local hospital. I knew I had wonderful friends but this shows how wonderful they really are!

Not only have they shown support by knitting these tiny baby hats, they are going above and beyond by starting their own little knitting groups with a goal of making a certain amount of hats by a certain time, and even making baby blankets to donate!!

I am so touched by their support! Not only are they making baby hats to help these newborn babies keep their birth weight up they are giving them their very first item of clothing to wear! How special is that! I still have my daughters baby hat from he day she was born, and it means the world to me. It reminds me of holding her for the first time, snuggling with her, smelling her, kissing her tiny little cheeks, that very moment when I didn't think I could love her anymore than I did my heart grew even bigger! 

We are not only keeping these babies warm we are making memories that will last a life time! I want to take this opportunity to greatly thank the lady or gent who made my daughters very first hat, You made a great moment even greater! And I want to take the opportunity to also thank the lovely, wonderful and generous ladies and gents who are still making these baby hats, you are making a big difference in this world! Keep it up! I want to hug every one of you!!

Here is 2 crochet blankets donated by a wonderful lady with a couple baby hats knitted for the SJRH in Saint John, New Brunswick 

Knitting for charity

Everyone knows I love knitting, that's no secret. I love knitting for others. I love giving a gift of something knitted at Christmas time, Birthdays, and pretty much anytime of the year. But I never really thought about how I could help others with my knitting. 

I read about how a group of ladies from prison knit toys for abused kids, how a lady knits tiny blankets for neonatal intensive care units, but I have never really thought about doing it myself. I do volunteer some of my time to teach children how to knit, but I don't know why I never thought to actually knit items for a charity. 

So this Month I have started knitting baby hats for my local hospital who gives a baby hat to every newborn baby when they are first born to help them not lose any of there birth weigh. I cannot take credit for even the idea of making these hats as I was approached with the idea to maybe teach it as a class. But I was and am very excited to take on the opportunity to help teach others how to knit these baby hats and to start knitting them also. 

I have a great crew working away on these hats and am standing by if any of them need help :) Of course it is all volunteer, I do not charge to teach how to knit these hats. And it feels great to help! I am helping in a way that I can, even though I never thought of it myself! 

Sometimes we don't think of things we can do for others, and I am glad that it was brought to my attention! I am glad that now I can start using my knitting skills in different ways that will help others. And I hope you can think of ways to use your skills to help others also :) We all need to help, even by doing little things! 

Here is the beginning to one of these teeny tiny baby hats :) 

Today.....not so good

Sometimes you just have to deal with it. Feeling blue, being sad, feeling down. Some people when they feel like this will even say they are so depressed. But really, is after having a bad day really mean you are depressed? If you are sad because not everything in your day turn out like you hoped for does that mean you are depressed? Wikipedia describes Depression like this,

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. People with depressed mood can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, ashamed or restless. They may lose interest in activities that were once pleasurable, experience loss of appetite or overeating, have problems concentrating, remembering details or making decisions, and may contemplate, attempt or commit suicide. Insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, aches, pains, digestive problems or reduced energy may also be present. 

I have Depression. I was diagnosed with depression and have been dealing with depression for years. Dealing with it mostly alone. Trying to get through the hopeless feelings that comes with this mood disorder all by my lonesome. Dealing with the shame that comes with having a mood disorder by myself. Yes my best friends know I suffer with this, and they do what they can, but sometimes there's nothing anyone can do. I fight this battle alone

I have been married for 14 years and we have a beautiful 13 year old daughter. I hide my feelings from her. I want her to have a normal teenage life without having to worry about her mothers moods. My husband knows also but doesn't seem to understand, or maybe he just doesn't want to understand. Maybe he is ashamed that his wife has a mood disorder. 

Usually when spring rolls around I start to feel better. This year not so much. I have written in my blog how I usually celebrate Spring because its the time of year things start to look up for me. This year it hasn't happened yet. I find myself wondering what is really wrong with me and ask why I cannot snap out of it. But maybe this is a wake up call on how I am living my life. Maybe I need to make some difficult decisions and big changes.

So I reach out to you all who have suffered with depression and have won your battles. I know it couldn't have been easy for you to win, but I bet hearing about your fight will encourage me and motivate me on the changes I need to make in mine. Cause today I need a change, because today was not so good.

Celebrate its Spring!

The last few days of March are upon us! I am, for one, so very excited! I have already laid my scarf away till next winter and am wearing shoes outside instead of boots! Yes us New Brunswickers are still up over our heads in snow, but that doesn't stop me from celebrating Spring!

The winter really hit us hard here in New Brunswick. And with winter weather comes the winter blues for me. So this winter was a rough one. But now the snow is starting to melt, the streets are becoming wider, and the sun is shining longer into the day! This is reason to celebrate!

For me when a new season begins my mind starts to wander into what new masterpiece I should make with yarn! I get so many thoughts going through my head that I cannot keep up with myself! I tell myself I should make this and that and everything else too!

So this Spring I decided to take a break from knitting orders for everyone for a bit and focus on the art of knitting. True I love making hand made items for people, but after the winter we had I need to focus on things that matter most. And the things that matter most to me are my family, friends and of course my knitting. And when I say my knitting I am saying I need to focus on growing in skill, taking myself further into the art and accomplishing more than I thought I could.

So in saying all this I have started knitting things I never would have knit before! And that in itself is an accomplishment in my books! Straying away from what is comfortable and normal. And for me that is a hard thing to do! If there is something hard that you want to do I am challenging you to do it! You can accomplish your goals! Mistakes are going to happen, there will be things that you cannot do, but you only fail when you chose to not try! So try! Try it! I'm going too :)

So this spring I am knitting myself a Spring tunic, and once I am wearing my Spring tunic I am going to knit lots and lots of socks! Yes I have knit socks before and yes I can knit different kinds of socks, but my plan is to make lots and lots of different socks in different colors! Maybe even design my own pair! How cool would that be? Very cool I think ;)

Today I bought some sock yarn called  "Not Your 'Regular' Vanilla Socks" sock yarn made by a company formerly called Yummy Yarn Studio now called Devonshire Knots. This sock yarn was specially dyed for the store I teach out of and work for a few shifts a month (Cricket Cove). I was looking for a sock yarn that was unique, and this definitely is it! The colors reflect the change of season to Autumn with beautiful golds and greens. I am especially going to enjoy working with this "Yummy Yarn" and they will be ready way before Autumn hits us!

So I am definitely going to be a Happy Knitter this Spring!! :)

Knitting in frustration

Life can be so frustrating!! Things that are suppose to be great can be turned into something so hard that you are ready to pull your hair out. Today is that kind of day for me. To explain why today is such a frustrating day I want to start at the beginning. 

I went away to work in the best yarn store ever a few days ago, I mean, this place is Heaven for a knitter like me. Its a big store in a little place called Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick. I grew up in the neighborhood so a trip down home was a mini vacation even though I was working. I spent time with my girlfriend, seen some of my family, drank lots of coffee, did lots of knitting and did lots of odds and ends working in the shop. It was a great couple days! A couple of the best days a girl who's love for yarn and family outweighs any problems that may come my way.

As I worked in the shop I got to peruse some of the most beautiful fibers and textures of all different types of yarn. So many colors, so many different feels, that alone made the time fly by! So as I worked I picked out a few skeins of yarn as seeing them gave me great inspiration to make something beautiful. I had in my mind socks, fingerless mitts, and even some intimate items. 

One of the skeins of yarn I picked out was a mixture of Silk, Flax and Polyester. And I picked out a beautiful pink/red mix that was just calling my name! Anyone who knows me well knows my favorite color is pink, but I try not to buy myself a lot of pink as I would be knitting things in nothing but pink. But this yarn was speaking to me, teasing me with it's beautiful color and soft feel. So I did the right thing. I bought pretty pink (my name for her) and kept thinking of what amazing piece I should make with her.

So the time came when I was coming home. I bagged up all my new treasures and jumped in my husbands car excited to tell him all about the idea's that had been piling up in my head since the beginning of the 2 days of work. So as I was chatting away (probably driving him nuts with my knit talk) I decided that while we drove back to the city ( a 45 minute drive ) I would wind pretty pink and she would be ready when I was ready to use her. So I open the skein and place her around my knee's and begin to wind her. 

As the city became closer to us I realized that I was only half done winding this ball of yarn, that I wouldn't be finished by the time we drove into the driveway, but that didn't discourage me too much, I had a lot of the "Gilmore Girls" left to catch up on and that would finish off the evening nicely. Easy Peasy right?? Wrong! We made it home and I stopped winding, lifted the skein off my knee's carefully and carried it into the house to set on the dining room table till I could get to it again. 

Apparently cats like yarn. I know right crazy. As I brought in the rest of my things from the car our 6 month old kitten decided to take a look at pretty pink and test her out. So when I found them they were intertwined together and pretty pink didn't look so pretty at the moment. Sigh.....My fault right? I should have know better. So my Saturday night looked a little bit like this..... 

By then I was tired. I had worked 2 days away from home and my high was coming down. I was exhausted and sad at the mess my cat had made, but no big deal, I didn't have to fix it in 1 day.

So I worked on it for a few hours yesterday. And decided to work on it for a few more today as it was another snow day. 

So that is the beginning of my story. Now on to today.......

I woke up in a great mood, even despite the snow we had yesterday and last night, making it a snow day again today. A few family issues started to get in the way at first but nothing a good cup of coffee couldn't fix. Grabbed my cup and headed on to spend some quality time with pretty pink. I had made it more than half way through winding so I decided that I was gonna have to cut the ball I had already made and start a new one as it was easier in the untangling process. So I clicked on some music and sang away while I pulled and weaved through knots and yards of yarn. 

Then I had a great idea! I would post a picture on the Facebook knitting group page and ask for some tips on how to untangle a mess! So I posted the same picture I posted above. The comments came pouring in and I was getting some great encouragement and idea's from my fellow knitters. One of the comments was to make sure I was in my Zen mood before I did it as it is a very stressful long process. BUT in the middle of a comment the knitting group administrator removed my picture!! Oh no who did I offend with my messy yarn?

As it bothered me that they had removed it I personally messaged one of the administrators of the group. Her reply to me was in so many words "A picture of a messy ball of yarn is not knitting and does not follow the rules", So my reply to her was "Yarn is a part of knitting and knitting related and that It should have not been deleted". Her next reply to me was "There are 36,000 people on there and we need to keep it to knitting related pictures" And so my next reply was "It was knitting related but don't worry, now there is only 35,999 people on there". So much for looking for some tips and encouragement from my fellow knitters.

My Zen mood was gone, and then everything that was happening in my house at the time started to make my mood even worse. So Frustrating!! 

So I decided to put messy pretty pink away for the time being. Didn't need to take my frustration out on her, wasn't her fault! So I was walking over to one of my knitting bags to pick up my current project and had the thought, "I'm gonna knit with all nicely rolled up into a ball pretty pink and knit something racey!" Just for fun and to help me forget about the negative part of the day. So I jumped on my laptop and brought up a pattern for a thong! Yep, something I never thought I would knit! And with the pretty pink lace yarn I would have my favorite color AND a lace design (My Favorite!) in a pair of underwear!! And of course it's making me feel like a rebel ;)

So here is the beginning of my Fifty Shades Slate thong! Yep feeling like a rebel and getting out my frustrations through knitting!!

So you girls out there who are feeling frustrated and undeserving of being treated like a rule breaker, break those needles out and knit what you feel!! And keep posting those knitting issues, even if it's just a messy ball of yarn!

Here is the web address to the amazing yarn store in Blacks Harbour New Brunswick:

www.cricketcove.com  

What's on your needles this March?

Well Happy March everyone! March is the best month of the winter! You can start to smell Spring in the air and the temperatures begin to rise and the snow begins to melt! Not only is Spring in the air in March, my husbands Birthday is at the beginning of March and our Anniversary is at the end of March. Celebration is in the air!

With Spring on its way and the Winter blues starting to vanish I always wonder what knitters knit in the spring. Do they put there needles away and enjoy the warmer weather? Or does the change in seasons bring on a new excitement for knitting? I can't answer for anyone else but I know that the change in season brings on a new vitality for life and knitting for me :) I am always thinking of what my next project is going to be and with the warmer weather I always think of what I can make that is weather appropriate. 

Spring can still be damp and cold, so socks and leg warmers are a great project to work on in spring :) They are smaller projects that will keep you warm and stylish till flip flop weather is back :) This spring I am going to work on leg warmers that will keep my legs warm when I want to wear skirts and dresses. Nothing says Spring more than pretty dresses and skirts! 

Till the weather is warmer I hope you all are knitting to keep warm and cozy till the snow has all melted! Don't give up on knitting even when the weather seems too warm! Knitting will always be a great stress relief and a comfort to me in any weather!

Here is the start to a pair of baby flip flops to keep you smiling and to motivate you to continue to knit or crochet during every season :)