KNIT RECIPE 1- PLYMOUTH YARN ENCORE

Hey Everyone...... For those of you out there that knit, there are times when you would love to make an item but it is way out of your snack bracket.  What is a person to do?  Well......sometimes you save and save in order to buy that special yarn.  Or if you are like me you shop around and look for alternatives.
As you may know I love to knit...REALLY LOVE TO KNIT.  I have been knitting for 38 years now.  Goodness that makes me sound so old!  There are some amazing patterns out there both for sale and for free.  One site that I love to look at is Purl Bee.  I love the simplicity of their designs.  However, quite often they are out of my snack bracket.  I cannot afford to spend $400.00 on yarn for a wrap or $1000.00 for yarn for a blanket.  Don't get me wrong.... I love the yarn that they offer....I just can't afford it.  However, I do love their patterns.
As I posted a little while ago......I knit up the Purl Bee Hudson's Bay Blanket for a girlfriend for her wedding as a gift.  See that post here.
I came across this blanket a little while ago that they posted:

Purl Bee-Super Easy Lap Blanket

Isn't this blanket lovely.  It is so yummy!!  I love the simplicity of it.  And the yarn that it is made of looks so amazing.  The name of the yarn is Manos Del Uruguay Maxima.  It has such a lovely varigation to the colouring in the yarn. The yarn is 100% Extra Fine Merino Wool.  It is 219yds/100g ball. It is a worsted weight yarn at 4.5sts/inch.   It is hand spun and hand dyed-thus the price.... $14.95/ball....which for a hand made ball isn't too expensive really.  It certainly would make an amazing gift or  make something really special for oneself.  I know I would LOVE to knit this lovely little blanket for myself.  However, at the moment it is slightly out of my range.  So what is a girl to do?  Well..... come up with a different recipe as it were.  If one was to buy the yarn as stated the blanket would cost $104.65.
Again, a little out of my league at the moment.  So after looking online this is what I came up with;

Note: I have substituted a Navy Yarn for the Brown one originally specified.  Yarn.Com did not have a Chocolate in the Plymouth Yarn Encore yarn.  One could use as I have stated above and substitute Navy or you could sub in 0520 Charcoal if a dark gray was desired.
The yarn I chose is Plymouth Yarn Encore and now until the end of May it is on sale for $4.19/ball  That is quite a savings my friends.  The total cost would be $29.33.  It is quite a nice yarn, especially for a blanket.  It is 75%Acrylic/25%Wool.  The ball is 200yds/100g.  So if the yarn at Purl Bee is a little out of your price range then give this one a go.  It can be purchased at yarn.com.  I have bought from them in the past and they have been great to deal with.  I have had no issues myself.  They even ship to Canada for a very reasonable rate.

So if you are looking for some mindless knitting for when you are in front of the tv or are knitting down by the dock...then this project will be just for you.  I really do love a mindless project now and then.  And doing Garter Stitch-knitting every stitch fits that bill just fine.

Have a great day everyone.
Megan

NAVY AND MINT

Hey Everyone.... Hope all is well??  I was in the store the other day and came upon this months addition of Country Living Magazine:

PDF Magazines

It was one of those moments of...... ohhhhhhh...... I like that.  I love the colours on the front of the magazine. I suppose it is the same colours that I am looking at putting in my bedroom.  Could it be Kismet??  Seeing the blackboard as the backround made me want to paint behind my bed one of the colours I spoke of yesterday::Martha Stewart Wrought Iron MSL168.  Although I do not wish to have a chalkboard behind my bed I do like the dramatic colour.  Wrought Iron has the same feel as the colour shown above.  It is a very deep inky grayed out navy- quite the description I know.  But it really is a complex colour.  At first glance one may think that it is black, however, on further inspection it definitely has a navy undertone to it.

Wrought Iron MSL168

I just love that aqua/minty dresser in front of that dark backround.  It is such a great pop of colour.

So it got me thinking about Navy and Mint:

Pinterest

Pinterest

Pinterest

Pinterest

Pinterest

House of Turquoise

House of Turquoise

House of Turquoise

House of Turquoise

House of Turquoise

Mint

Trendir

Trendir

Isn't Navy and Mint such a great combo??

Have a great day everyone.
Megan

NAUTICAL AND IKAT BEDROOM

Hey Everyone....I know that I had this post up for about an hour before I pulled it.  As you can see by yesterdays posting....well I just wanted to send a little love Boston's way.
Today is just a little posting about my thoughts about our bedroom.......  far too long in the making!!
I picked up some pillows from Home Sense that I couldn't resist.  I knew that I still wanted some form of Navy in the bedroom and a Nautical feel as well.  I wanted to stray from the usual Red, White and Blue.  So.... when I found these lovely pillows I knew I had a winner.

You can see why I couldn't resist the pillows.  They are by Cynthia Rowley.  I paid $24.99 a piece and they have feather inserts..so I think they were quite the bargain.  Yes I probably could have made something similar but I really loved that pattern on these.
The paint chips in order of appearance is:
Terra Rosa MSL018, Hummingbird Blue MSL135, Wrought Iron MSL168 all Martha Stewart.
Aqua Frost WV35007- Waverly Classics.

I am pretty sure that the wall colour will be the Aqua Frost and I will have the other colours as accents.

So as usual I will keep you informed as to the progress.......
Have a great day everyone.
Megan

BOSTON

Hey Everyone.....I want to take a moment to express my sympathies to the great people of Boston.  My heart breaks for all of you.  No one, anywhere, should have to live through what you have.  Stay strong my friends!

Pinterest

From a friend from the Great White North.
Megan

SORRY GUYS!

Hey Everyone.... Sorry there was no posting on Fri or much of one today.  Dealing with sick kids last week and now my youngest is sick again!!  He was very lumpy this weekend.  You know your child is sick when they don't bug their older brother- it was very quite this weekend!!  And we celebrated our eldest becoming a teenager- 13!! How is that possible??  I am now the mother of a teenager!!

He is awesome.  He is the kind of kid that parents dream of.  He is smart, caring, kind, great sense of humour and of course devilishly handsome- and has dimples to boot!!  I know I am biased.  He totally rocks.  Unfortunately, my youngest was unable to participate as he was sick all weekend with the Flu- not the stomach kind thank goodness!  Life is never dull is it??

I will be posting regular posts soon....Hope all is well in your Universe and you are all well.

A FRIDGE AND STOVE MARRIAGE

Hey everyone... just a very quick posting today.  If any of you out there are looking to renovate but don't really have any sense of what one should or should not do.... let me point out this one little piece of info for you all.
When renovating a kitchen it so important that you think of how you actually use the space.  You should think about your work triangle.  I am sure that this concept is NOT new to most of you..however to some of you out there, when you work in your kitchen.... if you were to draw an imaginary line between your stove, fridge and sink it SHOULD create a triangle.  I do understand that in some instances that this may not be possible.  However, if you do have that triangle or something close to it, the magic number you should be reaching for is less than 26 feet.  Meaning that if you were to draw that magical line between all those stations, those lines would be less than 26 feet.  Why is this important.  Well let me tell you.... It all has to do with ones intelligent use of space.  If you go over this magic number you end up doing a whole lot of walking and that isn't good for anyone.  Case in point:

Source unknown-sorry!

This is a perfect example of a great kitchen triangle- tight and over simplified but you get the idea.


What I wanted to speak about most of all in this posting is safety and function.  When I saw the next pic I almost lost my nut!

Realtor.ca

Realtor.ca

Now as I have stated in the past I am NOT here to be mean or nasty.  However, when I see something that is so wrong in so many ways I want to bring it up so that others out there that may face problems in a space or are about to tackle a space.... well... I want to give a little food for thought.
NEVER, EVER have a stove without landing space. EVER!!  Have I made myself clear?? Landing space is just that.  When you take something out of the oven or off the stove you need somewhere to put it and you may need to put it fast.  This above kitchen  is an example of what not to do, to the nth degree..... For so many reasons, one being NO LANDING SPACE, the other being.....never, ever put a stove next to a fridge like this.  It is so wrong on so many levels I can't believe I am seeing this.  This space has SO much potential and I mean so much.... but this is NOT the way to do it.  I am in no way saying that this kitchen does not have potential.  However in the long run this is not how you would want to renovate.  I understand that we all have challenges when renovating but being smart about it is just the first step.  To the average person this may not seem all that bad- a fridge next to a stove.  And really in the scheme of things it may not be, however, since there is NO landing space I just had to bring it up.  It is Kitchen 101 my friends.  So if you are in the market to reno your kitchen- be smart about it- ask advice- take lots of questions to the experts or ask someone like ME.  If I don't know the answer I can certainly point you in the right direction.  KNOWLEDGE PEOPLE!!

Here is a better option for the space like the one above.

Yes... I know.. I know....it has an island-but get rid of the island and this is a way better lay out.
In the original kitchen I am ranting about...take away the "bar sink", place the fridge and a pantry there.  Put cabinets on either side of the stove and now you have storage on either side of the stove and now you have a pantry my friends-VOILA!!!  Just think about your space.  DO NOT Compromise.  Function is EVERYTHING!!


Enough of my rant for the day......
Have a great day everyone.
Megan

NATURALLY HAVEN-YUMMY YARN

Hey Everyone.... I was in a new yarn store we have here in Burlington... Knit n' Stitch.  It is a little yarn store that is just starting out.  It has a couple of my favourites in there:

Vintage Berrocco

Vintage Berrocco

and


Cascade 220

Cascade 220

These two are really amazing all around yarns.  They are made with a fabulous quality wool.  LOVE these yarns.

Whenever I go into a yarn store- I was in 3 of them between Paris (On), Ancaster and Burlington on Wed, what I am always looking for is a great yarn around the 26-28sts/4" mark.  I really love to make scarves that have detail in them.  However, trying to find a yarn in this gauge that isn't sock yarn can be a challenge.  Oh, I know, I could probably go onto yarn.com and find something but I have to be able to feel it if it is a yarn that I have not come into contact with before.  Since the patterns that I love to create are generally accessories I try to make them in a soft feeling yarn.  However, the difficulty can be trying to find a yarn in that given gauge with a soft  hand yet have great stitch definition.  I'm not asking for much am I??  I truly love creating scarf patterns in this gauge as is evidenced by my
Easy as Pie Scarf:

And the Winding Way Scarf:

Both of these scarves were created using Paton's Lace.  I love that this yarn has a fuzziness to it yet has great stitch definition.  The only issue and it isn't one for me is that it does have wool in it so it may be slightly itchy to some.
So I have wanted to find a new yarn to create with and I may just have.  While in Knit n' Stitch I got talking to the owner and she suggested that I order some yarn from her books.  So I had a look through and I did indeed find something.  Although I could only touch little samples in the book, I think that it may be just what I was looking for- keep fingers crossed.  I ordered 3 balls of this loveliness:

Naturally Haven

It is a 4 ply yarn from New Zealand.  It is 100% New Zealand Merino Wool. I ordered a soft gray.  I AM SO EXCITED!!!  It is being ordered and hopefully it will be in soon.  Keep fingers crossed that it has just the right amount of softness yet has great stitch definition.

There is just something so satisfying about designing these little scarves that I LOVE.  There is something sort of Vintagey about them.  Yes they take a little time to make.  No they are not Super easy to make, however, they aren't complicated either.... but they are so worth it.  I can't tell you how many compliments I have gotten on my Easy as Pie Scarf.  I can't wait to create more!!
Will keep you all posted.

Have a great day everyone.
Megan