After 20 years of school.....

What do you do, when you have just finished 20 straight years of school and find yourself with a bunch of time off in the summer, for the first time in about 10 years??? In my daughter Adelaide's case, she and four friends planned a dream vacation - 5 weeks backpacking in south east Asia. 

Canada Day on the beach in Ko Lanta, Thailand.

Addie (my daughter) and her buddy Wassama in Thailand.

Addie asked I let you know Wassama was a perfect companion on her travels through the jungle. All the other elephants kept wandering off the path to grab tree branches for snacks or to indulge in vigorous butt scratching. They were riding the elephants bareback with nothing to really hold on to, so the butt scratching in particular was a little unnerving. Wassama on the other hand was a perfect lady, staying to the path and providing Addie with what she describes as one of the most incredible experiences of her life.

Beth

Grand Lake 2012

I am freshly back from a wonderful 11 days in New Brunswick. As I was packing, I was careful to leave my camera out on the coffee table so I wouldn't forget it. I wanted to take lots of pictures. And there it was waiting for me when I got back, right where I left it!!! So I have stolen some face book pictures from relatives.
Grand Lake is one of my most favourite places in the world. Our Grand Lake cottage was given to my parents as a wedding gift from my Mom's parents. I have been going there all my life. My grandfather purchased a small cove and built several cottages there which he rented or leased . Over the years he gradually gave them away to relatives or sold them to frequent renters. In the 61 years I have been going there, not one cottage has changed families. The youngest members of the McElman clan seem to enjoy Grand Lake as much as their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did.

My youngest nephews, enjoying a swim or a kayak ride.

A long standing Saturday morning tradition - up to Fredericton to attend the local farmers' market. Boyce Farmers' Market has been open since 1951. It has steadily grown over the years and is now quite a bustling adventure: crafts, jewellery, meat and seafood, fresh produce, herbs and bedding plants, fresh baking and preserves, the selection and variety is awesome. A more recent but very popular addition to the market are all the food stands; ethnic , BBQ, seafood.

Handicrafts, and food products inside. Market is open all year round.

Many vendors specialize in organic products

 

A more recent tradition has been to check out a new shop in town, the Geek Chic Boutique.A wonderful collection of t-shirts, memorabilia, toys related to movies, TV shows (especially Big Bang), video games.

Soft kitty for my daughter, a recycled bottle lamp for my son.

They have a crazy selection of wonderfully quirky things. As they advertise - " A place where geeks can shop for gadgets, office toys, DIY projects, apparel, accessories, award winning board games (you know ..... for when the server is down)"

 They offer on-line shopping, check them out, here is their website link;

http://www.thegeekchic.ca/shop/about_us.html

I have to check out the local yarn shop. The world is indeed very small. When I was a kid, my dad owned a tobacco, candy and magazine shop. Yarns on York is in the exact location my dads shop occupied many years ago. I lived in Fredericton for 21 years and return home almost every summer. I find now I hardly ever see any one I know except family.  My older brother has been quick to point out that I may be seeing people I know, we just don't recognize each other. Any way, this trip in to Yarns on York, who do I find meeting with the shop owner Trish but Dennis from Wool & Wicker in BC. Dennis is a sales rep for Skacel who had just been in our shop a couple of weeks ago.

And what is a yarn shop with out a dog, meet Aubrey, from Yarns on York.

An experiment which I am quite confident will become a new cottage tradition, a big batch of mojitos to go with Mexican night. I understand mojitos area actually Cuban but close enough.  These are good.

Bacardi has a great little video demonstrating the technique



http://www.bacardimojito.com/home/default.aspx

This is the recipe we tried and found to definitely be more than satisfactory.

MOJITO

Ingredients

10 fresh mint leaves

1/2 lime, cut into 4 wedges

2 tablespoons white sugar, or to taste

1 cup ice cubes

1 1/2 fluid ounces white rum

1/2 cup club soda

Directions

Place mint leaves and 1 lime wedge into a sturdy glass. Use a muddler to crush the mint and lime to release the mint oils and lime juice. Add 2 more lime wedges and the sugar, and muddle again to release the lime juice. Do not strain the mixture. Fill the glass almost to the top with ice. Pour the rum over the ice, and fill the glass with carbonated water. Stir, taste, and add more sugar if desired. Garnish with the remaining lime wedge.

 

And one more family tradition. No trip to the cottage is complete without a fire and marshmallows. My 4 youngest great nephews and their dads.

Another great summer at Grand Lake.

Beth

July 2012

Introducing............

 No, that is not Bundas looking in a mirror, Gabriela has adopted Bundas' younger brother Flow.

We thought you might enjoy meeting the newest member of the extended Serenity Knits Family. With the addition of Flow, Gabriela is now up to 6 dogs. Gabriela and her father couldn't resist when they heard the younger brother of their dog Bundas was looking for a new home. There had been some lifestyle changes with his original owners and they needed a new home for Flow. Flow has no idea how lucky he is.
Here are a few pictures of Flow having fun in the pond (he'll soon be just as stinky as his big brother).

Flow is about 30 lbs smaller than Bundas and very timid and shy. His first day he spent all day at the waterfall with the fish (I guess they weren't as noisy as the other dogs). He seemed a little lost, and keeps going to the gate, waiting for his people. Gabriela's other "kids" are behaving themselves (kind of,mostly). Flow sounds the "intruder alert" whenever he sees one of the cats; he's never met a cat before. That could be interesting! (Watch out for your nose, Flow!)

Flow and Bundas are Kuvasz, an ancient breed of livestock guardian dogs form Hungary

Pretty cute as puppies

  

Just as adorable full grown

On day two, Flow seems to be settling in nicely , relaxing at least.

racing with Sputz and Baxter.

World Wide Knit in Public Day

World Wide Knit in Public Day was first celebrated in 2005 in Europe. The goal was to have knitters come together in a public location to knit and enjoy each others company. WWKiP Day now takes place from the second Saturday to the third Sunday of June each year; making it a week long, world wide celebration of knitting and other fiber arts. In 2005 there were about 25 WWKiP events. Now the local events number in the thousands all over the world; Canada, Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, United States....  

Saturday, June 16th, Serenity Knits will be hosting its first WWKiP Day.

Time: 11am through 3pm

Location: under the trees in Art Ferguson Park (directly across the street from Serenity Knits)

Please bring a lawn chair or blanket, whichever you prefer. We will be outdoors under the trees. If it rains, we will move to the store so the event is on no matter the weather.    

We have a few fun things planned.

*Yarn races; any one who manages to beat Gabriela will receive a $25 gift certificate towards Summer Classes, second and third place will receive $10 gift certificates. We plan to have 3 races, 12 noon, 1pm  and 2pm. If you want to participate, bring a skein of DK weight yarn and  4mm needles.

*The yarn shop version of Jelly Bean count;  how many sheep in the jar. The  closest guess will win a $25 gift certificate towards a summer class.

* Bring your own project or participate in the Southlake Preemie Hats KAL. Volunteers from Southlake have requested our help knitting little hats for babies born at Southlake. We have found a couple of preemie hat patterns which the average knitter could complete in a couple of hours. If you want to participate in the Southlake KAL, bring your favourite needles for circluar knitting for DK yarn. If you have any pink or blue DK baby yarn you wish to donate, we would gratefully accept any donations. We will have some Free yarn & patterns available for the KAL.

*We will have a few snacks and cold drinks available. If you plan to come and stay for a while, you may need something more substantial so we suggest you bring a lunch.
*And of course, a few sales!! For one day only, all pattern leaflets discounted 50%, all yarns discounted 25% or more and 20% off all books. Discounts limited to stock on hand and can not be applied to yarns on hold.
Hope to see you there.
Beth
Serenity Knits

 

World Wide Knit in Public Day was first celebrated in 2005 in Europe. The goal was to have knitters come together in a public location to knit and enjoy each others company. WWKiP Day now takes place from the second Saturday to the third Sunday of June each year; making it a week long, world wide celebration of knitting and other fiber arts. In 2005 there were about 25 WWKiP events. Now the local events number in the thousands all over the world; Canada, Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, United States....  

        

World Wide Knit in Public Day was started in 2005 by Danielle Landes. It began as a way for knitters to come together and enjoy each others company.   This a specific day to get out of your house and go to a local event (with your knitting in tow) just for you and people like you. 

WWKiP Day is unique, in that it's the largest knitter run event in the world. Each local event is put together by a volunteer or a group of volunteers. 

In the past some people have used this event as a means to show the general public that not only grannies knit! and while thats great and all, keep in mind that without those grannies we wouldnt have the wealth of knitting knowledge that we do. 

2005 there were about 25 local events around the world. In 2006 there were about 70 local events. 2007 there were almost 200. In 2008 there were 800 events, and in 2009 there were 751.

Over the years there have been local events in Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, United States and so many more countries.

WWKiP Day takes now takes place from the second Saturday to the third Sunday of June each year; making it a week long celebration of knitting and other fiber arts.

Stash busters

I spend too much time on Ravelry. It is truly addictive. I was recently looking for some stash busters and was amazed at the variety of projects and ideas.I thought I would share a few of my finds with you.

The first 2 are not Ravelry. I found this while Goggling (another addiction of mine) when looking for some craft ideas to do with my young nephews at the cottage this summer.

Dream catchers

Many children will be familiar with Dream catchers from their studies in First Nations Cultures which (if I remember correctly) is about grade 3 in York Region. The Ojibwa believe that a dream catcher changes a person's dreams. Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through… Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day.Good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper.

For more information on Dream catchers, use the following wikeipedia link which also contains other helpful information links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher

Dream Catchers are great cottage projects for kids.  The base can be made from a variety of easily accessible items - coat hangers, paper plates, margarine lids. Cover them with yarn, web the center and then decorate with found objects from the beach - feathers, shells, pine cones. The following link is a very kid appropriate set of directions for Dream catchers.

http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2009/07/how-to-make-dreamcatcher.html

God's eye

A God's eye is a yarn weaving and a Huichol spiritual object. The Huichol or Wixáritari are a Native American ethnic group of western central Mexico, living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range.

http://www.katcoyle.com/blog/2007/11/gods-eyes/   provides the following instructions

Treasure Pouch

A little fun something you can knit for kids with just a few meters of sock or DK yarn - a Treasure Pouch. If you are spending time at a beach, it is a perfect little pouch for special stones or shells.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/treasure-pouch

Little Ditty Bag

A nice little pouch you might enjoy for yourself is a Little Ditty Bag.

Pattern at     http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dots-little-ditty-bag

A 50gm ball of cotton makes a bag the perfect size to be a project bag for socks

You could use small left overs to create stripes.

Knit with variegated cotton , you can get some funky colour pooling.

Deep Sea Flower Dice Bag

Knit with just a few meters of Kureyon or Silk garden

Pattern at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/deep-sea-flower-dice-bag---anemone-de-mer

Minnow Hat

We took this little hat knit with left over sock yarn to the Frolic. It got more attention than anything else in our booth. It is a scaled down version of the Dead Fish Hat from Knitty (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fish-hat-dead-or-alive 

and uses just a few meters of sock yarn. And what sock knitter doesn't have tons of left over bits of sock yarn. The pattern only offers one size,  newborn. I am playing around with resizing to fit slightly older children.The one I knit used a mere 10 gms for the red sections and 20 gms for the body.

A free pattern on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/minnow-hat

Baby Surprise Jacket

There are over 17,000 Baby Surprise Sweaters posted on Ravelry. It is the third most posted project. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-surprise-jacket

Mitered Sock Yarn Blanket

Free Pattern at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sock-yarn-blanket
If you are unfamiliar with miters, don't fear this project. All those little squares/diamonds are joined as you go, not seamed together at the end. Gabriela is doing a class on the technique used to make this project  this summer.

Christine's Stay On Baby Booties

These adorable booties use just a few meters of sock yarn. I recognize this yarn as one of my favourite colourways of Trekking, now unfortunately discontinued.

FREE Pattern on ravelry at

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/christines-stay-on-baby-booties

Saartjes Bootees & Easy Peasy Newborn hat

Saatjes bootees & Easy Peasy Newborn hat in Regia Kaffe Fassett Design Line colour Snappy 02900

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/saartjes-bootees

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/easy-peasy-newborn-sock-hat

Easy Peasy in Zauberball Crazy1701

A diagonal knit scarf/shawl using random bits of left overs.

 http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/FEATspr08FK.html

Mini Mania Linen Stitch Scarf

One of my favourite stitch patterns is linen stitch. I have used it dozens of times in various projects. One of its most popular uses is as a scarf with hand painted yarns. . The young lady below has knit a huge version using up a ton of different colours of sock yarn. I love it. It is on my list of must do projects.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mini-mania-scarf

Squishy Love Shawl

The shawl/wrap below appeals to me also. I love all Noro Yarns. I can't bear to throw away even the smallest scrap of Noro. The shawl below uses a unifying skein of solid yarn knit in random garter stitch and eyelet stripes with a selection of small amounts of various Noro left overs. I have all the left overs, just have to select a solid unifying colour.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/squishylove-shawl

 Knitter's Journey Afghan - This

 Becomes this

 Using Stephanie Pearl McPhee's pattern for the Knitters Journey Afghan



Pattern Description from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: “This is one of my favorite projects and one that can reflect a knitter’s journey as well as any scrapbook or postcard collection. It was inspired by a quilt I had as a little girl made of the leftover scraps of fabric from the clothes my grandmother sewed. There was a square that was a piece of my mother’s favorite nightie, a square of an uncle’s flannel shirt, bits of a summer sundress and a soft bedsheet. Our lives and stories about what people did and where they went in the clothes made from those fabrics were laid out in bits and pieces and backed with pink cotton, and I loved it. This knitting project serves the same purpose: It uses the leftovers of projects gone by (or as they go by, my personal choice) to work a traveler’s afghan.”
This pattern may be found on pages 206-209 of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off.

This

 

Becomes this

Or this

I hope you have found some inspiration to help use up your stash. If not I have one more option. At Serenity Knits we are happy to accept donations for 2 local schools with knitting clubs and a local church which knits charity afghans. If you have any yarn or knitting needles you would love to get rid of, drop them off and we will get them to the schools or church. 

Happy knitting

Beth