Family Visits

 My sister-in-law, Deanna came over from Victoria, B.C. on Friday and left Tuesday. Unfortunately she had to cut her visit short because she's a midwife and one of her babies decided to come early. It's a good thing the plane trip from Victoria to Abbotsford only took 21 minutes. Pretty amazing since normally it would have taken almost 4 hours with all the driving and ferry boat riding. Just before she boarded the plane to go home she got a text saying her gal was 8 cm. Yikes! Deanna's friend picked her up at the airport in Victoria and whizzed her straight to the hospital. She made it! Here's a shot with Deanna and my youngest daughter, Daphne. I love this picture. Saturday, Deanna and I sat by the fire in our pajamas knitting and blabbing til 4 in the afternoon! That was fun. While she was here we went to Michael's a couple of times, visited my older kids and grand kids, relaxed and just had a good time. All my family pics turned out blurry otherwise I would've included them. 

   She made all the girls some festive little earrings. These pretty blue ones are mine. We picked up some really fun yarn and I knitted a ruffle scarf. The directions on the wrapper weren't so hot but I found a great YouTube tutorial that explained it perfectly. Straight knitting on only 6 stitches and look at the wonderful, lacy scarf you get. I'm going to list mine in my Etsy shop and hopefully someone will want to buy it. Although I feel a little guilty about that, it's sinfully easy. 

Premier Starbella Ruffle Scarf

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn3UZrcX3ok

This scarf is made using one skein of net ribbon and you can see there's enough length to wrap it a few different ways. Deanna says there's 50 ways to wrap a scarf, but I only know 2, so here they are.

In this version you fold the scarf in half, drape it around your neck, then stuff the 2 tails through the folded loop. Goes all fluffy and pretty.

 Here I've placed it backwards on my dress form, then brought the 2 loose ends to the front. 

Looks very complicated up close but it's so easy. 

Update! It's 25 ways to wear a scarf and here's the link. Thanks Deanna! =:0) http://www.youtube.com/v/5LYAEz777AU?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0

 I was going to make a bunch of ruffle scarves until I saw a pattern for a beautiful chunky infinity scarf done on big circular needles and I just had to make one, plus the yarn was on sale at Michaels. 

Here's a link Deanna sent me when she got home. It's the Christmas story told by children from St. Paul's Church in New Zealand. So very cute! 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kWq60oyrHVQ?rel=0

Custom Cozy for Dear Deborah!

My monsterly talented friend, Deborah Velasques thrilled me to death by ordering my Scandia Style tea cozy. She's an amazing artist in love with bright, bold colours and beautiful words. 

 I was a little nervous when I saw her teapot. Price Bros/ England/ 1950's A gorgeous set she picked up in Wales.  

And not the same shape at all as my little Brown Betty. Yikes!  She chose her colours, black, cream, green and said she was very fond of orange. She told me she liked the Marimekko look. I had no idea what that look was til I Googled it. 

     Marimekko is a Finnish company based in Helsinki. They are particularly noted for brightly coloured printed fabrics and simple styles.

Here is the finished tea cozy bright and cheerful, just like Deborah. 

With ceramic owl bead tassels and added stitches at the bottom to accommodate her lovely teapot.

I remembered around a year ago a post she did about owls and how she really liked them. This is her design, carved and block printed into cards. Aren't they cute!

So wasn't  I surprised when hunting for just the right beads for her cozy I found; owls! And orange, cream and black ones, to boot. So thank you Deborah for putting a modern twist on my traditional cozy! 

Here's another fantabulous piece by Deborah Velasques. She really does love cream black orange and green!  I'm hoping she decides to become a fabulous fabric designer. If you want to see more of Deborah's incredible work, check out her Blog:

http://deborahvelasquez.blogspot.ca/

Or better yet, click on the World Art Group link below to purchase one of her beautiful word path posters!

World Art Group

Happy Christmas everyone!

Ho Ho Ho!

 

Santa's on his way! 

And so are the bunnies! 

I'm making some cute new cards! You can find this one and many more of my designs at
Little Cricket Gift Gallery in Ft. Langley, B.C. and Strung Out On Beads in Abbotsford, B.C.
Not in the area? Don't worry, you're always welcome to pop on by my shop,
Rare Rabbits Designs on Etsy.

Cozy Crazy!

Thank You, Lovely Prayer Ladies!

 The other day while standing in the yarn department at Michaels a lovely woman came up to me and asked if my name was, she named them, I said no it wasn't. She kept talking and told me about something her and her friends do. Sort of like a treasure hunt she said, where they pick someone somewhere and ask if there's anything they need or want and could they pray for them. She asked if she could pray for me and was there anything special she could pray for?

 I thought about it and said, a job. She thought that was a wonderful thing to pray about. So looking into my eyes, she prayed the sweetest prayer. Nearly brought me to tears. We talked some more and had a lovely exchange. I thanked her and she thanked me for being so open about it and that she'd tell the others. We said goodbye and she was gone.  

 The feeling and whole experience was so uplifting, it's stayed with me for days. The funny thing is, just that morning I was asking the universe for help, asking what to do next because I didn't know what it all meant. How I'd spent so much time and effort working on my little business with not a lot of sales, wondering if I'd made a wrong turn. But while I reveled in this new good feeling, I finished my 10 cup tea cozy and took it to the store where it would be put on consignment with the other 2 sizes already there. The owner loved it, loved the colours I'd chosen and bought all three, outright. Cash in my hot little hands, plus ordered more! 

So here is my latest cozy. The only trouble is, this cozy is for a 10 cupper but is being modeled on my six cup teapot. Unfortunately the 10 cuppers were still on back order so I couldn't try it on. I needed to find a 10 cupper somewhere. I went home and phoned a British shop in Chilliwack. She only had an 8 cupper but said to bring my cozy down for a fitting. Suddenly I had the nerve to ask if she sold tea cozies, she said she didn't. "Would you be interested?" I dared.  "I most certainly would," she said. 

All I can say is, somebody up there likes me. 

Thank you so much, lovely prayer ladies. 

Scandia Tea Cozy

 Here's my third tea cozy design. I come from Danish roots and really adore Scandinavian and Nordic knitting. So I tried to emulate a Scandia feel in my latest pattern.  

 I love the look and feel of the wooden beads. Sort of reminds me of rich, warm Scandinavian dining room furniture.  Also, sewing the openings in this way feels very traditional to me. 

  For one year, when I was ten I went to a private school. The elementary school section was housed in a huge mansion with a secret passage that led to the library, a grand staircase that led to the grade five classroom, and many other wonderful places to explore. My best friend's grandmother used to attend costume balls there when she was young, when it was a private home. Art class was held way up in the beautiful attic tucked within leaded glass windows and deep wood paneling. That year for Christmas we made padded coat hanger covers out of brightly coloured felt, then tacked them closed in blanket stitch. It was the first real sewing stitch I'd ever learned and one of my fondest memories. 

Today I took my little tea cozy to the shop where I'd bought my lovely Brown Betty teapot. They were so impressed they want to sell them! I was thrilled. 

Here's a Little Teapot, Short and Stout

While I waited for my computer to come home from the hospital, I designed my first tea cozy! 

She's been gone for a week getting a new hard drive and today I had the stressful task of reloading all my stuff back on. You might as well have asked me to perform an emergency tracheotomy with my pen, I was so stressed. But it turned out to be simple as pie. What was I so worried about? Whew! 

To keep myself busy for the last week I bought some lovely yarn and knitted while it rained. 

I designed this tea cozy to fit my beautiful new tea pot. It's called a Brown Betty. They're crazy about them in England. I had no idea. And now I have one of my very own. 

I was so pleased and surprised at how my cozy turned out. Must be the wool. It's fabulous, 50% wool and 50%  alpaca. 

I'm going to try and knit a few more to list in my Etsy shop for Christmas.

Then I think I'll sell the pattern as a PDF. 

The week wasn't all knitting though. I did manage to capture some of the fall colour before the rain and wind blew it all away. A pretty ceramic bird house hanging in my Japanese Maple tree. 

Some nice colours in my front yard. 

My most favourite tree in the yard. Ginkgo Biloba.

Part of the yard taken from the back porch.  

My most favourite dog, Clare, also taken from the back porch. Soaking wet and don't give a damn. She loves that deflated basketball! 

And when she comes in, she takes all her little toys out of her toy box and puts them in a nice neat pile at my husband's feet, so he can have first pick. What a smarty-pants.