Mending, sewing, crafting
Lately a lot of my crafting inspiration has come from my son, who is growing and needs things, and from my goal to live more gently on this earth and think twice before buying and using things.
My values of living frugally and buying ethically-produced clothing that is not damaging to the environment sometimes feel completely at odds with each other. For me, this is where mending, crafting, and buying second-hand come in. Can I mend something to extend its useful life? Can I knit or sew more of our everyday wardrobe basics? Is it something I can trade or buy second-hand rather than purchasing new?
Grazioso Mini-Collection + Make-Along
For this mini-collection we sent our Grazioso linen/silk blend lace-weight yarn to three designers from around the world, and they each did a beautiful job transforming their skeins into perfect projects to inspire your summer knitting. And in order to celebrate summertime crafting we're hosting a Grazioso Make-along starting July 1. Keep reading for more details!
Recent Accomplishments - June 12, 2019
It's been quite a while since either Elizabeth or I have had a moment to record our weekly accomplishments here on the blog. I think it's a fun way to share a bit more about ourselves and our projects so I've decided to revisit it this month. I'm not sure we'll try to make it a weekly thing again though, maybe we should change it to "Accomplishments of the Month" instead?
Recipe: Chickpea Cookies
Even though I've been trying to eat mostly healthy snacks recently, sometimes it's nice to have a bit of a treat. Since our Nousrire orders have included lots of dried chickpeas lately, as well as chocolate chips, peanut butter and dried fruit and nuts, we pretty much always have the ingredients for these cookies at hand. I like this recipe because it's relatively low in sugar, has the added protein from the chickpeas and nut butter, and is quick and easy to throw together (it's also gluten-free if that's important for you). I often make a double batch and freeze half - mostly to keep us from eating them all at once!
Teaching Kids to Weave
Over the past four months or so I've been teaching kids to weave at my local homeschooling centre. I'm by no means an expert weaver, but I do have some experience with a floor loom and various smaller looms. One of the best parts of teaching the kids is that it's motivated me to get back into weaving and I'm looking forward to returning to some of my own projects that I'd put on hold.
My First Pair of Saltwater Mittens
About six months ago, a knitting friend who had just returned to Montreal from a trip to St John's mentioned to me the work that Christine LeGrow and Shirley Scott are doing to document and preserve the Newfoundland tradition of knitting "trigger mitts". I was intrigued by what I heard, and became further interested last December when one of our aunts sent me and Elizabeth the link to a short documentary piece on CBC's the Sunday Edition about their new book. I still hadn't yet gotten my hands on a copy of the it when the lovely folks at Boulder Publications contacted us a month or so ago and asked if we would be interested in carrying Saltwater Mittens From the Island of Newfoundland. But by then we had heard such good things about it already that we happily said "yes"!
Crescendo mini-collection + giveaway
We are so pleased to present a mini-collection of patterns featuring our Crescendo gradient sets! We sent yarn to several indie designers and they have recently released their beautiful designs. This collection includes knitting and crochet, lace and texture, large projects and small. Enjoy perusing the patterns and then don't forget to enter our giveaway!
30 ways to brighten your month
After we finished up #OperationLoveNovember this past fall, I had a few people ask for our list of actions that we came up with, either to use now in January or February (which can also be hard months), or to refer to next year. So, in no particular order, here they are!
Gift-along 2018
This is the fifth year that Debbie and I have been involved in the Indie Design Gift-along on Ravelry as both designers and participants. It's a fun event and it’s a chance for us to take a little vacation from designing ourselves, support our fellow designers by working from their patterns, make connections with knitters and crocheters around the world, and maybe finish off a gift or two or three.
#OperationLoveNovember
November can be a challenging month for those of us dealing with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Several years ago my sister Margaret and I came up with a little activity to get us through the month of November and we decided to repeat the project this year. We each came up with 15 actions to make our day more fun.
