Apparently May slipped by without me noticing, at least as far as my blog is concerned. Which means there is lots of catching up I need to do. Knitting seems like a good place to start...
:: There's always sock knitting on the go around here. On the left are the Apple Blossom socks by Curious Handmade. And on the right are some of my plain vanilla socks, made special by the fact they were knit with some lovely self-striping yarn from the Knitting Goddess out of the UK.
:: In the better late than never category, this is Oliver's birthday sweater. I did manage to cast on the day of his birthday, but didn't actually manage to get the sweater to him until last week. I really enjoyed knitting this pattern, which is the Alaskan Pullover. What I didn't enjoy was making the twisted cord. I went through a third of a skein of yarn before I got something that was passable. It was a rather low moment in my crafting life.
:: If you had told me a couple years ago that I would become a shawl knitter I would have laughed at you. I'm hopeless at doing lace, and am lace chart challenged. But then along came Helen Stewart from Curious Handmade, and her brilliant row by row percentage method of writing up patterns. This is the Fairyhill Shawl, the first shawl in her Shawl Society, Season Two. It was a joy to knit.
:: This past month was Me Made May, and it was my first time participating. I was surprised to find I have enough handmade items now that I could post on Instagram on a regular basis. What I hadn't taken into account was how awkward it was going to feel to keep putting up pictures of myself. Above is just a sampling from the month. This is the Cleo Dungaree dress by Tilly and the Buttons. I was especially pleased with the back pockets, not that I'll ever see them when I'm wearing the jumper.
:: My latest crafting endeavour has been to make Peg People. My plan is that these will be here for Lucy, Ella, and Oliver (once he's old enough to not eat them) to play with when they come to visit. This is the Gnome Family, and there are a couple moss covered tree stumps behind our cottage than should provide the perfect home for them.
:: The twisted cord for Oliver's sweater wasn't my only recent fail. I tried my hand at fermenting, and the first attempt yielded a jar of moldy carrots. Not quite what I was hoping for to say the least. This is my second attempt. It's early days, so I have no idea if these are going to turn out. I'm trying to remain optimistic. If you have any fermenting wisdom to share I would be very grateful.
:: On the ferry ride home from Victoria last week I was knitting away on the striped socks in the picture above. I decided to get up and walk around a bit to get some steps on my Fitbit. I couldn't believe it when I glanced in the mirror in the bathroom and saw my spare sock needle sticking out of my hair. I wonder what people thought as I kept walking in a circular route through the seating area with a needle sticking out of my head.
:: Similar things happen here at home too. When I was painting the peg people out on my back deck a few days ago Fergus needed to be walked. It wasn't until I got him on his leash and was heading down our street that I realized I was still wearing the apron I had put on to keep from getting paint on my clothes.
:: This next bit I am very excited about. This is the very beginnings of a trail that will eventually go along all of Cultus Lake. The first section has been put in, and is just down the road from our cottage.
:: I'll sign off with my favourite view. I see this multiple times a week when I walk to the lake, and it never grows old. Mt. Cheam is in the distance, with its snow-capped peak a glorious white against the backdrop of the blue sky. And in the foreground is Frosst Creek flowing into Cultus Lake. In the fall the salmon make their way up this stream. I hope your June is off to a great start!